The Question

This question is posted on behalf of Gocool Boodoo, member of the EMB of Guyana.

Should the Information Technology unit of an EMB function as:

• a highly specialist/technical unit (focusing on electoral technology for voter registration, results processing, etc.)?
or
• be a general service provider to the entire EMB (in charge of basic IT and communications systems)?
or
• a combination of both?

Examples, experiences and best practices are greatly appreciated.

Summary of responses
The views are mixed regarding the composition of an EMB’s IT unit. In the experience of one expert, EMBs normally settle for a mixture of providing some IT in-house while out-sourcing other aspects. The exact skill-set required by an EMB depends, therefore, on where this balance lies. Moreover, outsourcing requires its own set of skills from an EMB: Procurement of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) goods and services, for example, is itself a highly specialised area. Other replies emphasise that the right balance between in-house and procurement depends on the particular needs of the EMB; some EMBs having greater IT requirements than others. Due to the budget implications of maintaining a large, permanent IT team, the reality is that many EMBs have to procure some more specialised services from outside. In addition, some funds may be tied to projects and therefore lend themselves more to outside procurement.

One caveat given, however, is that there should be at least one individual within an EMB with a high level of technical expertise who understands the services that are outsourced, in order to ensure that ownership of the technical processes remains with the EMB.

In Bangladesh, the EMB recently established a separate ICT wing, consisting of 37 staff and responsible for all aspects of ICT, including the more technical and specialised areas such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Another expert, however, is of the opinion that GIS should be an exception and not fall within the purview of an EMB’s IT unit - at least not until it is well established and enough qualified staff are in place to manage it.

Attention is also brought to a perceived lack of IT expertise at the highest level of EMB decision-making. It is argued that as IT provision can influence major decisions within an EMB, that someone with specialist IT knowledge (e.g. the head of the IT division) should be present when such decisions are made.

Examples of related ACE Articles and Resources
Encyclopaedia:
• Elections and Technology: Staffing, Training and Support 

External Resources
• IFES buyer’s guide to election suppliers 

Names of contributors
1. Ronan McDermott
2. Michael Boda
3. Sujit Shrestha
4. Reuben Chemitei
5. Abdul Alim
6. Manogran Paramasivam
7. John Maphephe
8. Mohamed Abdelrahim Mohamed Ahmed
9. Herschell Sax
10. David Arabambi
11. John Arran

Hi there,

Depending on where the EMB sits on the spectrum of "build or buy", the required skills in the institution will vary. The basic IT needs - desktops and laptops for EMB staff, LAN, internet connectivity, printing, applications support etc - will always be best served by in-house capacity. Thereafter, the picture is different. Whether the EMB builds or buys it's mission critical electoral applications, IT skills are needed - they just differ depending on the approach.

Where the EMB develops its own electoral applications, then the skillsets needed will include business/system analysts (with electoral domain knowledge), application architects, software developers/testers, database experts, technical writers/trainers, Helpdesk and user support.

Where the EMB outsources its electoral applications, different, but no less demanding, IT skillsets are needed. Procurement of ICT goods and services is a highly specialised area within ICT - writing of comprenensive Requests for Proposals/Quotations, including the proper evaluation of received bids - ICT contract negotiations, vendor management, SLA (Service Level Agreement) - these become the focus.

Most times, EMBs do a mixture - some applications are developed in-house, while others will be procured. The EMB must have or acquire all the necessary ICT skillsets in order to be effective in harnessing the potential of ICT to make electoral processes more efficient, accurate, transparent thereby building public and stakeholder confidence.

Looking forward to the discussion!

Ronan

Hello!

I'm currently addressing this issue in the context of an EMB in Western Canada, where we're re-evaluating the institution's IT needs.  I look forward to reviewing the  comments of others as the discussion unfolds.  Ronan offers some good insights (above) with respect to the "division of labour" involved.  The question to ask is: What is the right 'mix' for your EMB’s IT needs?

On the one hand, there are the basic day-to-day IT needs of an EMB--supporting staff PCs, internet access, and other in-house machines that help EMB staff do their job.  On the other hand, there are needs related to developing key 'infrastructure' tools (technology that supports voter registration, voting operations and other electoral components).  The former requires more of a generalist (an individual who could support almost any office environment and doesn’t necessarily need to understand election management ), while the latter requires a person capable not only of understanding the inner-workings of technology but how it is that an election system is implemented according to electoral ‘best practice’ and international standards.  The latter also requires an individual with more technical skill in areas such as database and software development, as examples.

While the size of your in-house IT team will vary depending on the size of your EMB, I have learned (the hard way) the importance of having at least some on-site support for day-today IT support of EMB staff.  Throughout the electoral cycle, but particularly during the intense pre-election, election and post-election periods, election staff cannot find themselves unable to work due to a problem with their PC. 

The extent to which on-site technical expertise related to the ‘infrastructure’ tools I mention above will vary, however.  Without a healthy budget allows for the maintenance of a large, permanent technical staff, it is almost expected that an EMB will have to strike an ongoing relationship with an outside firm.  By accessing a known and trusted vendor, EMBs will be able to gain access to cutting-edge technology that allows better support of the various components of an election (the IFES Buyer’s Guide can point election managers to respected vendors in this field).  At the same time, I have grown increasingly concerned about EMBs that simply “outsource” their technical expertise, leading to circumstances in which election managers no longer ‘own’ (that is, fully understand) the technical processes for which they are responsible.  With this in mind, I am of the view that even with small EMBs, the IT staff should include at least one individual with genuine technical IT expertise that also understanding election management, an individual capable of interacting with vendors who are perhaps doing the technical development on behalf of the EMB while maintaining the EMBs capability to do things in-house.  Stability in election administration is extremely important, and vendors tend to come and go and change the parameters of a contract, leading to an arrangement that EMBs may not be able to sustain.

Michael Boda

[email protected]

No matter the size of the organization, whenever Information Technology (IT) is involved there are certain roles and responsibilities which must be fulfilled.

First of all let's talk about IT unit role and responsibility in the organizations. The IT unit should be strictly involved in the assistance of the operational unit’s functionality for the automation and the governance for the use of the IT resources.

The basic functionality of the IT unit should be

•         IT Governance: Developing IT guidelines and policies for individuals' and operating unit's on the use of the IT systems, networks, architecture, etc. including IT security and data assurance.

•         IT Operation: Providing assistance to the end users and their computers in accordance with an established operating standard. The main function of IT Operation is to maintain the status quo. When a computer breaks or software becomes corrupt, the task of IT operation is to put it right.

•         IT Development: Providing the capacity for operating applications development, storing and securing the electronic information the organization owns, and providing direct operating assistance in software use and data management to all functional areas in the organization.

So, after considering the above facts, in my opinion EMB should establish the IT unit with a combination of both where highly specialist/technical unit for the role of the IT governance and general service provider in the role of IT operation to assist daily IT job and the role of IT development job can be outsource or hire specialist for the temporary period/contract basis. This approach will provide the EMB better accountability, cost-effectiveness, sustainability and ensure the implementation of the latest state-of-the-art technology.

Sujit Gopal Shrestha

National IT Specialist

Electoral Support Project/UNDP-Nepal

[email protected]

Start

The IT division is a very important division of an EMB. The vision of any EMB, whether in developed or developing nations is to offer efficient delivery of electoral services, which enhances democratic ideals. This is now evidently possible with the embrace of technology. Basically the IT division of the EMB has the responsibility of dealing with IT related issues within the EMB. This would not been convenient if the expertise is outsourced.

With regard to the scope and functions of IT division, I am of the opinion that the IT division should have relevant departments within itself that addresses the various needs of the EMB. However, this is dependent on the extend of establishment of the EMB. Some EMBs are fully established and may need highly skilled technical team in charge of software development, Database administration and so on. Some EMB’s may need as lowly skilled IT staff as support technicians to address ‘minor’ IT problems like a paper jammed printer. 

Most EMB’s would prefer to outsourcing highly specialist services e.g. system analysis rather than engaging their own IT fellows for two reasons; First, outsourced products are relatively of quality since the best is selected from a list of competitive vendors. Secondly, the products developed are free of any bias designs of the employees.

The best practice is to have IT personnel who are specialized in all aspects of IT. Whereas these IT personnel should have some specialty, an understanding of all the aspects of IT and the spirit of team work amongst them should be a platform for effective IT services.

Otherwise the personnel, scope and functions of IT division of an EMB should include:
 

• IT Technicians to install and maintain IT equipment and troubleshoot software
• Network administrators to install and maintain networks
• System analysts to identify user requirements
• Programmers to spearhead software design and development
• Database administration to manage databases and organize stored data
• Web designers/Masters to create web pages and hyperlinks

Therefore, an EMB should consider IT services required in the midst of if its budgetary allocation for initial and operation costs. 

     End.

Hi Gocool Boodoo,

The Bangladesh Experience may helpful for you. Election Commission for Bangladesh (ECB) has a separate wing which is known as ICT Wing headed by a System Manager equivalent to the position of Joint Secretary. The wing has established recently after doing an organisational assessment with support from UNDP. The total HR capacity of the ICT wing is 37 which includes System Analyst, Senior Maintenance Engineer, Programmer, Asstt. Programmer and helping hands. The wing is fully responsible to manage all ICT issues of ECB including GIS application, managing voter registration database, online asset declaration, managing HR management system, and many other ICT issues.  ECB has a separate wing for voter registration which is known as National Identity Registration Wing.

All the best

Alim  

It should be both.  The IT Division should be the expert providing all the necessary requirements (equipment, software, db management etc) to design and maintain the electoral roll as well as other systems involved in the conduct of elections and in delimitation of boundaries as well as provide the normal support services (the acquisition and maintenance of computers and related hardware and software) for the users' day to day requirements.

P. Manogran, Malaysia 

The ICT Department within the EMBs provides an internal ICT support services through-out the entire electoral cycle (pre-elections phase, during- elections and post elections. Overall view of the use of ICT systems in electoral processes. Preparations for the elections are underpinned by a commitment to ensure that all voters and citizens received the same level of services from the Electoral Commission, Therefore the use of innovative use of ICT information communication technology support the business processes to enable the EMB to deliver proficient services at all levels. Just mention few; Three major exploitation and use of ICT in Elections.

1.       Establishment of Infrastructure ( LAN,WAN, Metro-Network, Internet and emails), connections of data centres, sufficient network and background server capacity and network monitoring for incoming and out going traffic and Entire management of ICT risk which is a disaster recovery and business continuity to ensure that EMBS will take advantage of and full utilisation all available and relevant technologies in information and communications market.

2.       ICT Projects, Business systems and daily running applications, Elections modernisations products, E- V Register, Supply chain management, E-flow solutions, Procument, Ballot paper productions systems, stationary supplier, entire logistics information systems warehouse management products integrated with financial systems, some of on shelf products, IFMIS, ACCPAC, SAP, Oracle  etc, Electoral staff recruitment, HR systems candidates nominations systems, GIS systems, Constituency profiles systems and  Results report & tally systems  and more one web enabled databases.

3.       Data management facilities- Non IT functions but need support by IT experts to assist and help the running to produces reports to support various EMBS departments to run the elections, liaising with the Director of elections, Director of ICT, policies and procedures are established and well manage here.

4.       The electoral cycle and stakeholders being the driver engine for the abovementioned functions will always leads the way by providing the legal frame work, political decision on which information to be collected and distributed across the country, the administrative policies and procedures for commission to have adequate budgets approvals and kind of mandate they have within set of each elections to be conduct will prove the use of ICT whether it should be a permanent unit or keep depending on outsourcing the services.

Hello

I think it depends on many factors. First the age of EMB and democracy. If it is new and the electoral system is still under construction (new democracies) it is better to have highly technical unit. although this option is costly but it is more convienet before maturity phase. In more mature democracies, it is better for an EMb to consult expert firm if any developments is needed. For  mature electoral system, Electoral ITC system became like any general accounting system.It needs just day to day operation support. So no need for higly technical ICT Department.

The second factor is the financial resourecs availlabe to the EMB. Hiring highly technical experts need continuous govermental fund. Also the method of availablity of fund affects the chioce. In some cases fund provided to the EMB for projects only. In this case it is more convienet to depend upon out source System contrcator and lower skills  operational staff.

While I think that the IT unit can provide services throughout an EMB, I think an exception should be made for support of initial GIS services. Geographic Information Systems require specialized IT knowledge and dedicated personnel to maximize their effectiveness.  While GIS services could be integrated into an IT unit, their scheduling, if it included general IT activities could make them unavailable at times for GIS service and support. 

At Elections Canada, GIS services have been, at various times, part of the Electoral Geography division, and at other times part of the IT unit (where it currently resides).

If an EMB is starting to introduce GIS services, then GIS IT services and support should be attached to the unit (Geography) which would be charged with providing GIS information to the EMB.  Once this is established and running smoothly, it could then be integrated into the EMB’s IT unit.  This benefits the overall planning for IT resources and equipment throughout the EMB and also allows GIS IT staff to broaden their IT experience throughout the organization.

  A balanced EMB should have both specialised and generalised IT departments and units.

From my everyday experience,it is very difficult for the departments of administration,operations,technical services and accounts as well as their sub units to function effectively and efficiently without the generalised inputs of IT unit.

Printing, scanning, typing, e-mailing, clearing of virus attack and the whole gamut of generalised activities of IT are the daily encounters in the running of all the departments and units of EMB.

Apart from these daily activities,there are specialised activities like the use of GIS for voters registration,polling station identification,dilimitation of electoral constituencies,web site development and security of computer hard and soft wares including barracuda security device.

Also, I believe that the design and printing of voters cards and ballot papers should be parts of the specialised duties of IT department.

Apart from the above,research and development by IT are very important to tackle the emerging problems of rigging. For example, IT department should be in a position to devise what to do to render the discovered rigging methods ineffective in the future elections.

Therefore, if there is no financial constraint, it is better to have specialised and generalised departments and units within an EMB.

Many good points above but I believe an additional factor is that specialised IT advice is needed at the very highest level of political decision-making within the organisation. Most day-to-day IT services can be run to the benefit of all departments in much the same way as do HR, procurement, etc. and very much need to be adaptive to the decisions an EMB or Secretariat takes in terms of supporting internal operations. However, increasingly IT provision can also help shape the major decisions that are made, for example in choosing to develop voter registration software in-house, maintaining detailed GIS registration data, offering online options for registration or voting, etc. For this reason specialist IT knowledge should be an integral part of high-level EMB management, preferably by affording the IT division sufficient relative status that its head is routinely present at high level discussions. It is often not enough to call for IT advice when it is thought to be required, since in my experience there are many times when Commissioners or Secretariat managers do not have enough knowledge to be able to identify whether or not specialist IT knowledge would be advantageous.