OGCIO launches multipronged measures to assist departments in strengthening IT project governance

All bureaux and departments (B/Ds) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government are committed to promoting the digital transformation of government services and actively making use of information technology (IT) to provide more convenient e-government services for people and business.

To instil public confidence in the Government's pursuit of digital government initiatives and ensure the smooth rollout and operation of government IT systems, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) today (February 7) promulgated a series of new measures to B/Ds, covering project initiation, procurement, system development, pre-launch cybersecurity and stress testing, etc, in order to take a multipronged approach in assisting B/Ds to comprehensively strengthen their management of large-scale and high-risk IT projects at different key stages of the project development cycle.

During the project initiation stage, B/Ds should assess whether their IT projects are by nature large-scale and/or high-risk. When procuring the relevant system development services for relevant IT projects, the weighting of technical assessments in tender-marking schemes should be raised to 70 per cent.

During the system development stage, the OGCIO will work with B/Ds on engaging an independent consultant with relevant expertise and experience to conduct a regular third-party review and an assessment on the system design and development progress. Furthermore, the respective B/Ds are required to subject the relevant systems to additional tests to be arranged by the OGCIO before the system rollout for B/Ds to assess the system's resilience to abnormal or extreme loading as well as cyberattacks.

A spokesman for the OGCIO highlighted that an IT system is an integral part of the core business of B/Ds to meet their operational and services needs, and B/Ds' responsibility for the quality and operation of the system and related services is crucial. The OGCIO reminds B/D management to strengthen the management and supervision of their IT systems.

The OGCIO will continue to collaborate closely with all B/Ds by providing technical support and advice on system enhancement in order to ensure that B/Ds have made adequate preparation for the rollout of their large-scale digital services to meet the service needs of the general public.

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