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The Central Information Technology Office

The Central Information Technology Office, or CITO as it is commonly referred to, is an office under the Ministry of Finance in the country of Belize. The office is located in the capital city of Belmopan and currently manages all the financial applications for the government. Over the years, however, the responsibility of the office has evolved. Some of the office’s new roles involve the eGovernment policy; networking of the various government offices; centralized phone communications for the government offices; and the hosting of the government’s primary gov.bz email servers.

The office was originally called the Belmopan Computer Centre, or BCC as it was commonly referred to, and was established in the early 1980s. The office's main purpose was to produce electronic financial reports and trade statistics for the government. The source of the data were from paper copies of financial and customs entry transactions, that were already completed, and then sent to the office for data entry. This of course, made the process a batch process. For the office to do the work, it was provided with an IBM System 34 mini computer. The computer allowed the data to be entered and verified, and then the final reports to be produced, which would then be utilized by the various governmental ministries.

In the mid to late 1990s, microcomputers were becoming increasingly more popular. Most, if not all, of the government service were using these devices to perform an array of government related work. There were also a few offices that had established networks with allowed the sharing of information and equipment.