The Ministry of Digital Development wants to recalculate the resources of digital transformation of public administration

The Ministry of Digital Development plans to increase the efficiency of digital transformation of public administration through more complete accounting and control of information and communication technology objects used by organizations, such as information systems and software and hardware systems. In addition to them, it is proposed to include data on the financing of projects using IT assets, on regulatory regulation and on the competencies of employees in the special register of the FSIS for the coordination of informatization. Centralization of information will help link digital transformation processes, the department believes.

The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to introduce accounting of IT assets for the digital transformation of state and municipal government. We are talking about components of information technology (information systems, software and hardware systems), regulatory and financial support, and the required competencies of workers in this area. As follows from the draft government resolution posted on the regulation.gov.ru portal, the Ministry of Digital Development believes that all these resources necessary for the development of ICT facilities should be interconnected and aimed at achieving specific goals.

Currently, only information systems and ICT components created at the expense of federal and regional budgets, as well as extra-budgetary funds, are taken into account. It is now impossible to identify duplication of accounting objects, to check their actual availability, reliability and completeness of information, the Ministry of Digital Development complains. It is also difficult to identify areas of activity that are not covered by digital transformation, to assess its effectiveness and the degree to which goals are achieved. Accounting is carried out only for the purposes and at the time of formation of activities provided for by departmental digital transformation programs, says the explanatory note to the document.

Therefore, as the Ministry of Digital Development told Kommersant, it is proposed to optimize the process of accounting for IT assets of government agencies and government organizations, as well as monitoring compliance with the requirements for them. This is also necessary for planning the results of digital transformation and budgetary expenses for it, as well as for assessing the level of import substitution of IT assets.

The draft resolution provides that government agencies will place information about their IT assets in the federal state information system for the coordination of informatization – in the appropriate register. The process will be monitored by the Competence Center for Accounting and Control of IT Assets, a government agency subordinate to the Ministry of Digital Development. Currently, regulatory regulation of control and accounting is carried out separately, which leads, among other things, to duplication of data and varying degrees of relevance, so the agency proposes to combine them in one document.

The head of the Russian Center for Competence and Analysis of OECD Standards at RANEPA, Antonina Levashenko, believes that, on the one hand, the creation of a centralized system for monitoring digitalization processes should make it possible to increase the efficiency of digital transformation activities. For example, the purchase of any ICT infrastructure is advisable only in conjunction with providing the government agency with the personnel necessary to work with it. On the other hand, the creation of any accounting system creates additional administrative costs, the expert notes.

Venera Petrova