To enhance transparency and accountability in transaction of official business, the State Government kicked off an updated version-2.0 of the Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS) on Thursday.

Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, while kick-starting the version at a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat, directed the technical partner TCS to make the system more robust from the viewpoints of security and user-friendliness.

He also directed it to make the system more smooth and easy for use of Odia language. He said the system helps in enhancement of transparency and efficiency in the transaction of Government business.

Padhi also placed on record the contributions of former Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra and ex-Principal Secretary of Information & Public Relations and Rural Development SN Tripathy who led the path to the OSWAS.   

Principal Secretary of IT and General Administration & Public Grievance Ashok Meena said, “The current version of OSWAS is used by all 42 departments of the Government and three Directorates. More than 3.2 lakh files and 31 lakh daks have been created in the application till date. On an average, 3,000 daks and 4,600 files are being processed in OSWAS every day. The application is universally adopted in all departments, including that of the Chief Minister. The expected outcomes of the Version-2.0 “are  better performance, enhanced security features and better end user experience”, he added.

Detailing about technical aspects of the system, Vice-President and Global Head, Government Projects of Tata Consultancy Services Tanmoy Chakrabarty said, “The Goverment of Odisha pioneered the OSWAS to improve the accountability and transparency across the departments of the Secretariat. Odisha is the only State where in more than 70% of workflow is managed through the OSWAS. The application has not only ensured digital processing of files and correspondences but also outlined the procedures for efficient and effective management of secretariat practices.”

IT Special Secretary Rudra Narayan Palai told media, “The OSWAS has been developed and applied with technical assistance from the TCS. Its first version has been quite successful. The version-2.0 has been developed for making the system more efficient for multifaceted and multidimensional use.

It will be piloted infive departments like IT, Finance, Home, Revenue and Rural Development and will be extended to  other departments on the basis if user inputs.”