CAG picks holes in functioning of Mee Seva centres

The security of digital signature for processing of services by the departmental officials is vulnerable to fraud. The CAG said that anti-virus was not being used or was outdated in some centres.

Claims of Andhra Pradesh Government on providing e-services to its citizens notwithstanding, 624 Mee Seva centres across the State did not record any transaction between June 2014 and August 2015, thereby depriving the citizens of the service.

Out of the 4,881 centres, 3,459 centres recorded more than 1,000 transactions while the number was less than 1,000 in 798 centres.

No insurance taken

The UPS/Inverter, though being the key component in the seamless working of the system, was not in working condition in many urban centres. These are the observations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The CAG pointed out that though the service centre agency should maintain insurance policies against likely loss due to fire, floods, earthquake, etc., no insurance was taken, thereby, exposing the village-level entrepreneurs to financial risk.

The CAG said that anti-virus was not being used or was outdated in some centres exposing the application to unauthorised access to confidential data and virus/malware attacks.

Another interesting observation on the Portal_User table, the CAG made was that out of the 6,987 records, distinct password was used only in the respect of 1,979 cases and same password was used in the remaining 5,008 cases against the password policy.

Disaster recovery

“It shows that same password was being used in departments which may affect the security of digital signature for processing of services by the departmental officials, thereby, exposing the system to misuse or vulnerability of fraud,” the CAG report on general and social sector said.

The CAG expressed concern over the failure of the administration to set up disaster recovery centre for storing and maintaining databases remotely.

As per norms, the DR site should be geographically located in different seismic zone, at least 250 km away from the main data centre.

The AP Technology Services entered into an agreement for setting up of the DR Centre in 2013 and the site was configured and tested. It could not, however, be implemented due to the bifurcation of the State.

“The non setting up of the DR site even after a year of bifurcation exposes the system to disruptions in the event of calamities,” the report said.

Category B services

The CAG which studied the implementation of the category B services like issuance of caste, income and other services, said that the delay in providing those services defeated the purpose, while non-operationalisation of disaster recovery centre exposed the system to risk of hampering business continuity.

Grievance monitoring and capacity building activities were inadequate and need to be strengthened for effective functioning, he observed.