Management and development of IT systems in the Ministry of the Environment Read full summary in English
The purpose of this audit was to assess whether the information systems in the area of government of the Ministry of the Environment (and their development) support the reliable, economical and sustainable collection and use of environmental information. On a broader scale the National Audit Office looked at all of the 42 environmental information systems created in the area of government of the Ministry of Environment, but focused in greater detail on four of them: the Environmental Register, the Estonian Nature Information System, the Environmental Permits Information System and the Land Cadastre. The audit revealed that the correctness and reliability of the environmental data was guaranteed to a considerable extent. The exception here is the Environmental Register, which contains considerably more errors than the others. Although this is the main register in the Ministry of the Environment and should be the most reliable, it has not been funded or developed accordingly. The Ministry has still not made a decision about the future of this register.
- for data insertion process there are too little automatic controls
- by specific data sets (e.g. environmental monitoring) there are many different data providers
- therefore different ways of collecting and inserting information
- high difference in data accuracy
- many mistakes and errors
- high costs for data verification by staff
- state institutions and information systems have a weak correspondence with public interoperability policy
- all necessary data is not accessible in information systems and therefore a parallel data sources are essential.