An important component is government-to-citizen (G2C) services as this is where the public deals with the Government and could subsequently assess how successful this initiative has been. Yet, the availability of G2C services is not known to many Malaysians, so efforts to improve the services should first include more emphasis on creating greater awareness as to what G2C services are available.
More importantly, the awareness drive must educate on how G2C services can improve the Government's delivery to the people, said Mesiniaga Berhad's director, enterprise solutions division Yeow Daw Swee.
Next comes improvement in providing effective G2C services, where all elements involved in the delivery - including product, processes and people - must be adequately addressed.
"This comprehensiveness is essential to ensure service acceptance", said Yeow.
Also, the systems used must be pervasive entities, not prohibitive, thus enabling ease-of-use for the services and their supporting services, he said.
For example, a user who has a smartcard as part of the G2C service must be able to use his card anywhere at no additional costs and perform transactions such as top-up conveniently without being restricted to certain hours or locations.
The introduction of more services on the G2C platform can also offer more convenience to the public, according to Yeow.
For example, the Government's recent idea of introducing yearly renewal of driving licences has received mixed response from the public, particularly on whether such term of renewal would be convenient. Yet, allowing driving licence renewal through G2C could address some of the public's concerns.
"We suggest that a good way to approach this idea would be to first define the purpose and the desired results from defined specific actions. Then the solution can be formulated", said Yeow.
"Hypothetically speaking, maybe licence renewal kiosks, similar to the passport version, is a feasible solution. Why not leverage the same technology and idea to bring double the benefit to the public? It could be an idea worth considering."
The Government can also look into introducing other transactional services such as submission and processing of applications for an end-to-end G2C service.
IBM Business Consulting Services' partner Mohd Rashdi Ghazalli said for a start, the Government can look at basic services such as renewals for selected licences, which are specific agency-based and do not require much added documentation.
In the future, such services can even move towards more complex services that require cross-agency collaboration, particularly among key agencies involved in interacting with citizens such as the Immigration Department, National Registration Department, Road Transport Department, Income Tax Department and local councils.
At the moment, available G2C services mainly involve the provision of relevant information via the various Government Web sites. These include allowing citizens to enrol or participate in such matters as checking on the status of enrolment into a university or payment for summonses, and enabling payment for selected services or taxes through Web sites of authorised organisations such as banks.
The aim of improvement on G2C services should be transformation and doing things in new ways to achieve faster execution of services, enhanced value of output and accountability, said Mohd Rashdi.
"Like certain private sector companies, it is about real transformation at the Governmental level. That way, the promise of information and communications technology will be realised as the next big thing in technology is not technology itself but a better way to make technology work for the betterment of the people."
Autor: Sharifah Kasim
Quelle: e-media, 02.12.2004
