Young: Corruption major reason for pushback on technology

MINISTER in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young has identified "corruption in the status quo" as a major reason for resistance to technological change in the workplace.

He made this point when he spoke on the opening day of the virtual UN-TT Big Data Forum on Tuesday.

Big data is defined as extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions. Young said, "In the Government's attempts to digitise, we are going to have resistance and internal resistance."

One form of resistance was people afraid of losing their jobs because processes are digitised, he said, noting, 'That's not the intention."

Young said another reason why people resisted technological change in the workplace was because it changed the status quo and "there is corruption in the status quo."

He said, "Fortunately, it is in the minority. That is one of the reasons why we want to push hard in certain areas to move towards digitisation because that reduces the ability for successful corruption." As someone who entered public life after spending most of his career in the private sector, Young said he was surprised by some of the things he learnt about operations in some government departments.

In some departments, he said, there was resistance to the replacement of a pure cash system with either an online payment system or an interim system where people pay with credit or debit cards.

"The Government wants to drive past that resistance because ultimately, it will lead to better productivity and efficiency and the reduction of corruption."

Young said the covid19 pandemic has significantly changed the way the world works, and digitisation will be important in a post-pandemic era.

There will be no ministry devoted to big data. but the Digital Transformation Ministry will assist other government ministries with digitising their operations. He identified the health, education, energy and agriculture ministries among those that can benefit significantly from digitisation. Young is also the Energy Minister.

While big data plays an important role in improving the operations of governments and businesses, he said, "There must be a balance between the sharing of data and individuals’ and organisations’ legitimate concerns with respect to privacy, security and intellectual property rights." The pandemic has also caused the Government to increase initiatives, such as ICT access centres and free broadband access, to allow as many people as possible to access the internet.

Regionally, Young said Caricom will conduct an ICT sector gap analysis in 2022. "This gap analysis will support the efforts of regional governments, including TT in the identification and quantification of critical parts of our digital infrastructure, and to help to fast-track digital transformation."