LEKHANATH PANDEY

In an effort to implement e-governance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started online internal correspondence.Officiating Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi launched the paperless system for internal correspondence in all MoFA departments and sections.MoFA, however, is yet to adopt the system in its correspondences with diplomatic outposts and other ministries and government offices.“From this week, we have not used any paper for circulars; notes and other important documents and decisions,” said Tara Pokharel, spokesperson at MoFA.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has been applying the same method in its internal correspondence with the exception of classified documents since January 2014. However, other ministers have not adopted this technology for either their internal or inter-ministerial correspondence despite frequent instruction from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Pokharel said all MoFA staff correspond online via either Internet-based medium or the central server of the ministry.

“You will not see any paper on our tables,” said a joint secretary at the ministry. If any paper document is forwarded by other ministries or the public, the IT Section scans it and forwards it to the concerned department or officers via the Office of the Secretary. Pokharel said the practice was one step towards making MoFA paperless. He pointed out the possible risks of leakage of diplomatically sensitive matters while applying the system to its entire communication with Nepali embassies and missions abroad. Sensitive documents are sent through Deep Mail and diplomatic baggage. MoFA is considering applying this method for correspondence with other ministries, with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, said an officer.

An officer can now monitor who is doing what under his/her section,during office time. “We hope it will discourage work-shy staff and create a sense of possible action against them if they fail to do their assigned work on time.”

Published on: 15 February 2015 | The Himalayan Times