Published: 07 November 2013

The Information Technology Services Division seeks to provide professional ICT services that will enable public officers to carry out their duties more efficiently.

Published: 23 October 2013

In 1968, the government of St. Vincent started a Data Processing unit as part of the Treasury Department in the Ministry of Finance. In those early years the focus was on automating the manual calculations for Government Accounting and Payroll.The demands of the unit grew and the Data Processing Department was created independent of the Treasury but still under the umbrella of the Ministry of Finance as it was considered to be an indispensable arm of the Accountant General.

The Data Processing Department focused on Software development, and a number of impressive/important applications were developed in-house. Applications were developed for Social Welfare, Land and House Tax, Government Payroll, Human Resource Management, Government Accounts, the Electoral System, Common Entrance for the Ministry of Education, Passport System for Immigration, Tourism Statistics, Trade, etc. A number of statutory bodies were also served such as the Central Water and Sewage Authority and the Banana Growers Association.

Applications were developed in a mainframe Environment. With the proliferation of PCs in the 1990s and beyond, departments begun to acquire systems on PCs and it was felt by some that the focus of the department should be placed instead on hardware maintenance and so training initiatives were heavily weighted towards meeting this objective. The name of the Department has since been changed to The Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) and has added Intranet, email and Web services. The focus of this division at present and in the immediate future will be centered on the delivery of e-services, Application Development, Repairs and Maintenance, and Data Storage and Recovery Services.