David Abberton, chief executive officer of BAG Networks and secretary of the Infocom Federation Brunei, commented that quite few parts of the e-government infrastructure was in place, such as the networks, network, websites and ready availability of information online, as well as some transactional services.
But while departments may be struggling to at least maintain their regular standard of service as their counterparts mature at differing paces, they should not rest at working towards their bigger visions.
Jon W Brakebill, the Global Programme Director for Accenture's Government Customer Relationship Management Practice, explained that the adoption of a "a citizens first point of view" was necessary for the e-government concept to reach its full potential.
"It's a shared mindset of citizens as customers that needs to be throughout governmental agencies," said Brakebill.
But to establish a citizen-centric culture however, would require more than just leadership, he added. "Individual govt depts should be moving in unison to coordinate the most effective govt services," he explained, in order for the government to successfully nurture public trust in them.
"Today's citizen doesn't really care how many agencies had to be involved (in their affairs), they want to see results.
"We need to get the agencies and systems working together transparently to meet the needs of the citizen," whereby Brakebill explains a suitable level of transparency may be one that satisfies the citizen, and which "the government is comfortable with."
He also stressed that government services should be seriously marketed to the public, with the level of care and attention normally associated with consumer products and the tourism industry.
Informing and educating citizens about what is available, said Brakebill, was part of the customer service obligation.
"Citizens are not just customers; they have to be treated better than customers,” said Brakebill, explaining that governments should consider the customer service benchmark as set by the private sector. He also said that governments aiming to beef up their efficiency should look into anticipating citizen needs instead of relying on situational dilemmas to provide the impetus for change.
"It's not enough to make sure to answer all the calls which are coming in; it's about meeting their intentions."
To gain a more comprehensive customer insight, basic demographic categories should be narrowed down, and citizens should be placed in more nuanced groups.
During the recent Civil Service Day, His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam called for a stock-taking of current human resources and capacity in government agencies to be carried out as part of a government-wide audit of the existing infrastructure.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Fei Phoon
Quelle/Source: Brunei Direct, 23.11.2007
