and securely store equipment. Digital Liberia procured and installed the equipment at 46 MACs and coordinated training for the MAC IT staff in the use of UPS and extended batteries. Libtelco and Digital Liberia also provided training in the installation and use of the firewall. Libtelco hesitated to issue orders to CSquared to connect MACs to the MFR due to a reduction in budgetary funding for internet and concerns around the MFDP’s ability to pay for the services. Digital Liberia facilitated dialogue between Libtelco, CSquared, and the government; the latter indicated that it would budget for internet and other ICT-related expenditures in the FY 2019/2020 budget. In FY 2019, Libtelco honored its order to CSquared for the connection of 51 MACs. This provisioning made faster, more reliable internet available to the government. To date, Digital Liberia has facilitated the connection of 49 MACs to the CSquared MFR. Unfortunately, the MFDP failed to pay Libtelco for internet connectivity through the MFR. To avoid incurring bandwidth charges from CSquared that it cannot pay, Libtelco shut down the government’s connection to the MFR. Negotiations are currently ongoing to resolve this situation. Expected Result 2: Prioritized MACs provisioned with improved connectivity Digital Liberia’s Project Advisory Council advised the project to consider interagency connectivity a priority for Government. In order to improve MACs’ ability to communicate and exchange data with each other, Digital Liberia supported the GOL in the rollout of GovNet, a concept that was included in the GOL’s eGov strategy but not operationalized prior to Digital Liberia. GovNet is a virtual managed Wide Area Network that connects MACs and can carry data, voice and video. GovNet facilitates secure and reliable communication between GOL MACs and enables the sharing of existing and future GOL software applications. GovNet will enable the MACs e-initiatives / IT shared services that flow through the GovNet pipe to reach the IFMIS Data Center without utilizing their purchased bandwidth. GovNet provides the GOL with a connectivity speed that is twenty times faster than the previous wireless radios, improving efficiencies in IFMIS and other e-services. The ability of GovNet to operate on top of fiber reduces GOL financial burden and liability by making Monrovia more environmentally friendly with reduction in radiation levels, reduced concern for towers falling in residential neighborhoods, work related risks for maintenance technicians climbing towers and downtime related to weather and other environmental conditions. Digital Liberia designed a GovNet pilot to establish proof of concept and build acceptance of decision makers. The Minister of Finance and Development Planning agreed to a selection of four IFMIS MACs to be moved from radio link to fiber transmission, for the pilot. Libtelco agreed and their network engineers made the necessary reconfiguration to the network for GovNet to be operational through their Lynch Street termination point. IFMIS data from the MoPT, General Audit Commission, Ministry of Public Works (MoPW), and Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoCI) began transmission over GovNet, instead of radio wave, in August 2017. The results revealed that all four MACs observed an improvement in transmission after migrating from the radio link to GovNet fiber link. The successful pilot demonstrated the potential benefits to the GOL. Due to the success of the pilot, Digital Liberia facilitated the rollout of GovNet to additional MACs. To enhance sustainability, Digital Liberia developed a GovNet manual that provides a guideline for connecting a MAC to GovNet and provides a uniform security framework to secure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information and information systems, at the Wide Area Network (WAN) level. Once Libtelco staff received the manual, they jointly migrated about 50% of the MACs with Digital Liberia, and then were able to complete the migration of the balance of MACs without assistance. The CPE provided to MACs under Expected Result 1 included a firewall to protect information transmitted over GovNet. In total, Ninety-one (91) MACs that utilize the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) for financial reporting migrated to GovNet. GovNet provided demonstrated time savings of more than one minute per IFMIS transaction and cost savings of DIGITAL LIBERIA FINAL REPORT | 16