Oman Observer caught up with a number of experts to find out how often and effectively one can use the e-services of this portal. When asked have you or your friends used the portal for any e-services, Sameer Gupta, Executive Vice-President, Infoline LLC, said he used it to” pay various bills, make payments electronically, and to check and pay traffic fines”. Samia Naqvi, Senior Lecturer, Middle East College, echoed similar sentiments when she said “I use it only to check my driving fines status”.
Salim Amer Salim Al-Rashdi, Head of Business Department, Ibra College of Technology, says the authorities “have to work more in making people aware of the availability of eGovernment services. In addition, Government should encourage people to use e-services. Most importantly, ITA needs to collect users’ feedback and make a review of www.oman.om for improvements”. George Thomas, CEO, Middle East Management Consultancy, said “Oman’s e-government portal is still in its initial stage and the public is not fully aware about its benefits”.
Badar Khalid al Shabeebi, Asst. Dean Admin and Finance, Ibra College of Technology, says, “As we are working in an educational institute, more e-services on the portal will make our deals flexible and fast since we need to contact many suppliers every day to provide goods and services to the college. In addition, the quality of the work will improve and time will be saved when all electronic services of the portal a up and running.
The E-government portal has the potential no doubt to shift the Sultanate of Oman to a new horizon which will facilitate a lot of day-to-day works of the public. Syed Aulia, Asst Professor, Waljat College of Applied Sciences, said, “I have used this portal to know about the different types of visa issued by Oman to foreigners, to know about the procedure of getting new driving license copy in case it is lost and that’s all”.
Rehan Raina, Marketing Manager, Salalah Macaroni Co, said, “We at Salalah Macaroni have experienced shortcomings of the e-government portal and believe that if fully operational it can facilitate the timely completion of export documentations for our target customers and business associates who are located in different time zones”.
Most surprisingly, the www.oman.om does not accept the e-Purse, imbedded on national ID and residence cards for online payment. For online transactions, one has to keep a credit card. “Currently the e-purse works offline”, says the Information Technology Authority (ITA), which is responsible for the execution of all national eGovernment projects. In short, as first entry point to the government online presence and service delivery on the Internet, the e-government services portal has largely failed to take off the ground. Of the 52 ministries, so far hardly any ministry provides all its services online.
According to an online ITA survey on “Do the eServices provided satisfy your needs”, 63 per cent of the respondents said “No”. The reason for the low satisfaction, says ITA, is that the “Public wants more e-services and more integrated services across the ministries”. For years, people in Oman are looking forward a fully operational e-government portal. Rumman Ahmad, Chief Librarian, Middle East College, says “Oman’s E-Governance initiative is a wonderful opportunity for the citizens of Oman as it would ultimately remove the geographical boundaries of various offices.
“All the information and applications, payments etc. can be done through the terminals of a computer, thereby saving a lot of time of the citizens”. Iyad Alchammat, General Manager of Cisco Oman, said “From a corporate user perspective, a more efficient e-government means a more efficient business. Businesses can access government procurement processes quickly and fairly. They can more readily access and relate to regulators and other licensing authorities.
“In addition, paperwork can be filed electronically, reducing the total cost of interaction with government. These cost reductions are passed to consumers and customers and increase business efficiency overall. Government itself is also the “business” impacted. Governments should view the Internet as a way to streamline their own internal systems and become more efficient and productive — much like business does”.
Sameer says “In delivering e-government for the people, public services are designed to be responsive, citizen centric and socially inclusive. Governments also engage citizens through participatory service delivery processes. The evidence base for the latter is strengthened by recent progress in e-government in a growing number of countries where citizens are both users and co-producers of public services. “E-government initiatives have made governments participants in e-commerce.
Through e-government activities, governments function as consumers and suppliers of e-commerce services, thus transforming their role from one of pure policy or regulatory oversight to one of participation. In so doing, governments have the potential to make a positive contribution to e-commerce development. Governments that recognise this opportunity may gain a competitive advantage by using e-government operations to assist in driving e-commerce growth”. Gupta adds that e-Government is often referred to as ‘the E-Business of the State’.
“The government has a great demand for products and services and is responsible for a large proportion of the gross national product. It is imperative for the government to use electronic media in order to save cost and make various procurement processes run smoothly and more transparent for business”. George says an efficient e-government can reduce the bureaucracy in the business especially in the case of start-up ventures. The amount of paper works that delays the process of starting new business ventures could be reduced to a minimum through e-government”.
Samia Naqvi says speed, efficiency, convenience and environment friendliness are the hallmarks of e-government. “At present, Oman is promoting its citizens, especially young entrepreneurs to start up new business ventures. Omani youth is very e-friendly and hence can make use of e-government portal when it is fully operational”. According to ITA, the eGovernment Transformation Strategy was approved by the Ministerial Cabinet on June 12, 2012.
Clear instructions and targets were given to all government agencies, including ITA, to improve the quality of the eServices provided to the public. Subsequently, the eGovernment Transformation Plan was formally launched in October 2012. The goal of the eGovernment Transformation Plan is to increase delivery, integration and quality of eServices and also drive their adoption by citizens, residents and businesses.
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Quelle/Source: Oman Daily Observer, 13.02.2013
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