ICT officers not doing enough - Official

EASTERN PROVINCE RWAMAGANA — The District Development Programmes Coordinator for Eastern Province, Jean-Marie Vianney Makombe has criticised district and provincial Information and Communication Technology (ICT) officers for not doing enough to promote the use of ICT within the districts. In an interview with The New Times, in Rwamagana district on Wednesday, Makombe said that it was realised that the ICT officers are not pushing for a wider use of ICT. “We use them to do things like Microsoft Excel, Power Point, Microsoft Word yet they would do better things like establishing new programmes which facilitate development outcomes,” Makombe asserted. ICT personnel have to train Sector officials within the districts on how to use computers, he said. “Maintenance of machines should not only be their (ICT officers) work. They would instead teach people how to carefully use computers and avoid problems attributed to poor use,” he said. He appealed to district and the Provincial ICT officers to meet regularly and exchange views on how they can promote the use of ICT in the Province. They also need to find a better way of tallying data coming in and out of institutions; it would help in monitoring things like population growth, he added. “Being busy with work which everyone can do if taught, limits them from planning according to what they ought to do. Planning and meeting would help them share experiences and be innovative, leading to better work outputs,” he noted. Ends