In order to keep government Ministries, Departments and Agencies open and running during the global medical emergency caused by the coronavirus, the Ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and National guidance working together with the National Information Technology Authority –Uganda (NITA-U) and the Office of the Prime Minister, have secured 10,000 zoom video-conferencing application licenses to be used by public servants while working at home.
The new equipment shall be utilized by government critical staff to keep key government offices running. “All accounting officers should ensure that the identified government officers have the necessary equipment and connectivity to facilitate the zoom application, “ an advisory issued by the Ministry of ICT/NG and signed by the Permanent Secretary Bagire Vincent Waiswa , stated.
The new communication equipment has been procured with the financial support from UNDP after President Yoweri Museveni directed that most government workforce should stay and work from home during the 14 days lockdown .
The Ministry of ICT/NG called upon government employees working online to ensure confidentiality and data security when working from home as guided by the National Information security Framework (NISF) and cybersecurity advisory issued by the National and Sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).
In order to ease collaboration between government to government, the ministry advised against the physical delivery of documents and instead encouraged public servants to follow the good example set by the Ministry of Finance by scanning and sending documents through emails.
“ Working from home is legally supported by the Electronic Transaction Act 2011 among others and all government websites and social media accounts are part of government communications assets in the fight against Covid-19,” according to the statement.
