A digital mandate for the new government

BitDepth#1511

Mark Lyndersay

DOMINIC SMITH is the new Minister of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence, a ministry that reintegrates public administration with the established in 2021.

That bold but ultimately underwhelming effort to create a purpose-built ministry to drive technology adoption in government did not have the impact that anyone might have hoped for.

Some of that is because the ministry was, to put it bluntly, terrible at communicating what it was actually doing, choosing to parade its achievements as a series of completely forgettable openings and reopenings of community centres with technology components.

Its most visible project was D'Hub, which is still online, but about which little is known. That's certainly not the fault of the new minister.

The digital transformation ministry last issued a comprehensive press release about the competition announcing its proof of concept awards in September 2023. Winners in the categories were announced, sotto voce, in April 2024.

The ministry's Facebook page mentions that a pilot project for the Noise Tracker app was launched last month for residents of Woodbrook.

What's happened to those projects since? Where is the code? Is there a plan to make use of the solutions commissioned to enable digital government?

And this is only one complication that the new minister faces.

Dominic Smith spoke for the first time publicly about his plans for the digital arm of the ministry on May 13 (link.technewstt.com/smith).

While that speech leaned in heavily on the subject matter of the conference, spectrum management, Smith made it clear that current buzzwords are receiving his attention, promising to "embrace emerging technologies such as fifth generation or 5G networks, AI, and the Internet of Things (IOT), ensuring Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the region become leaders in economic growth through digital adoption."

He further promised to improve TT's ranking on the ICT Development Index.

Ministerial speeches aren't generally designed to deliver clarity about the governance mission and Smith has barely had a chance to warm his new chair.

We can glean some insight based on who he's been meeting in his first two weeks on the job.

That roster includes the CEO of iGovTT and TATT, who will probably fall under the AI ministry.

But what of the TTIFC, which has largely abandoned any presence of being any kind of financial institution in favour of enabling digital technology in governance and for financial institutions? Will it remain in Finance with a fuzzy mission or find direction as a technology enabler in the AI ministry?

The emphasis on AI feels like a more decorative than performative mandate, given the need for core infrastructure and interoperability to create a functional backbone for digital governance. How will the new ministry integrate its operations with other ministries seeking digital governance?

How will the AI-PA ministry drive a mandate for digital governance in public administration itself, which won't happen without public service reform (https://link.technewstt.com/reform).

Gordon Draper was the first minister with responsibility for the public service and his attempt at reform between 1991 and 1995 didn't find traction. That particular top remains firmly mired in the mud, notably unspun to this day.

The new AI minister will face a rat's nest of unfinished, partially planned and executed projects that represent all the thinking of some bright local minds over the last half-decade.

Some of these projects are, honestly, unexciting. They are the buried plinth on which ambitious digital architecture can be built, but without serious attention to completing these infrastructure initiatives, nothing lasting and valuable to serve the public can be properly built.

It never made sense, for instance, for the digital transformation ministry to commit so much of its time and resources to planning a dedicated government cloud. Why not finally end the farce of TSTT, acknowledging that nobody is ever going to buy 49 per cent of it, by buying out the shareholder (Liberty Global) and starting an effective cloud on TSTT's existing infrastructure, co-locating hardware for optimal security?

An electronic ID system, in development for years, can't be realistically implemented without a commitment to a secure backend, but there's no need to get into the cloud business to achieve that.

Smith must forge an effective partnership with the legal ministries to advance laws that target technology development, cybersecurity legal co-operation, and that lubricate fintech. Coming to grips with the sprawl of this will be Smith's first responsibility. Untangling and executing effectively must follow.

Mark Lyndersay is the editor of technewstt.com. An expanded version of this column can be found there