KATHMANDU, Aug 30: The government has banned development of software in government agencies unnecessarily.

A meeting of the government secretaries held on Tuesday decided not to allow the development of software haphazardly, concluding that unnecessary expenses are being incurred while developing the software under various pretexts.

The meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Baikuntha Aryal has also decided to remove unused software.

Likewise, the meeting also decided to conduct a security audit of the software being used in government offices. For this, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the Electronic Governance Commission have decided to provide necessary technical support and facilitation, according to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

This comes after the National Payment Gateway system, acquired by the government without proper preparation or discussion, is currently inactive despite spending Rs 250 million from the state coffers. The software procurement process by the National Information Technology Center is under investigation by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).

Furthermore, the situation has exacerbated as the contracting company, IDEMIA, has now withheld the source code of the National Identity Card Management System software, which holds crucial personal information of citizens. Despite the significance of this software for the government, IDEMIA is asserting its ownership over the software as intellectual property. This clearly shows that essential government software is currently under the grip of foreign entities.

 
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