The Ghana International Development Consortium (GIDC), is ready to provide a technological solution for the ongoing e- government problems in the country.

It has therefore, proposed an integrated “All in One System“ solution, which includes a modern voting technology that can address the voter verification problem in Ghana and the challenges facing the nation in the area of census data collection and analysis for effective implementation of policies and programmes.

The Consortium is made up of some of the nation’s professionals in the Diaspora with the sole aim and objective of identifying and addressing Ghana’s developmental challenges.

In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, it said” a comprehensive integrated e-government technology solution is needed to address the nation’s residential, voting and data gathering for effective and meaningful policy-making on a long-term basis.

“The Consortium has notified the Electoral Commission (EC) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in separate letters in December, 2011 that after following the 2010 National Census of Ghana and the challenges encountered in that exercise, and after monitoring the ongoing debate over the Biometric Voter Registration in Ghana, the GIDC and its German partners are prepared to offer secured short-term and long-term comprehensive integrated information system solutions to help address the nation’s problems.”

The GIDC informed the EC and GSS that the secured integrated system solution its members were offering would have some features and benefits, including technological architecture that would serves as a government-wide integrated information system with the capability for inter-departmental and inter-ministerial data sharing for effective and efficient management of governmental operations in the country.

A nation-wide implementation of the system would help maintain the requisite records and other pertinent information needed to formulate national policies, and to conduct fraudulent-free elections.

“The GIDC acknowledges that such a comprehensive system cannot be rolled out in the entire nation overnight and as such, in order to gain the confidence of the political parties, government stakeholders and the good people of Ghana, they are ready to implement it in modules by focusing initially on the Census and Statistical data collection problems,” the statement said.

It said the e-government-wide integrated information system could not be found in any developing country, and Ghana would be the first country in Africa to be blessed with this system.

The Consortium pointed out that with such a system in place, not only would the needs of the EC and GSS be met, but also the government would have at its disposal on a timely basis, the relevant information needed to make informed policy decisions that would help advance Ghana.

The statement said: “It is assumed that, under the auspices of the GSS, all the 78 government stakeholders submitted, including the 10 none governmental organisations, are supposed to have the universal adherence and the responsibility to build their capacities to produce timely, credible and relevant information’s to meet the growing statistical demand of the country.”

It said since this system was already in place, the consortium was in the position to utilise the vast experience and full capabilities of their experts, partners and consultants to modify the existing modules to meet the requirements of the GSS, EC and other governmental agencies.

“The Ghanaian professionals informed the EC and GSS that their experts and partners have developed demonstrations for the Census and Statistical Service” and they are ready, to come to Ghana, to take the relevant government institutions through the demonstrations and answer all technical and nontechnical questions they may have.

“We want to assure EC and GSS, and Ghanaians that we have the capacity to assist the country to come out with a comprehensive, integrated and lasting technological solutions that the country will be pleased with.

“For the country to save a lot of money, we are prepared to render services at a very reasonable cost because such technology is coming from Ghanaian international experts and their partners.

“Based on our experience and the track record of our partners in Germany, we are confident that the nation’s needs can be met to help the current and future governments address the developmental challenges of Ghana. GIDC is therefore, ready now to assist the EC and GSS in their search for solutions if they are given the opportunity to do so.”**