However, as a practical issue, it is something which may take years to be operational unless our government becomes an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) savvy. Most African governments, except South Africa, are yet to tap the potentials that ICT can provide in effecting good governance and efficient administration.
Look at the 2003/4 budget and see what has been allocated towards promoting the growth of ICT in Tanzania. It is paltry.
This shows how Tanzania and many other African countries are lagging behind in employing one of the most important weapons in globalisation.
The first benefit of e-government is that of having a notice board for all citizens who are able to access ICT to have information published by the government.
The government can do this by having websites for ministries and departments that need to inform the public about various matters such as agriculture, foreign affairs, immigration, police, health or sports and culture.
E-mail also forms an important part of the communication and information packaging and dissemination benefit.
All media, be they newspapers, radio, TV or internet-based news system, can be provided with regular news and features about various departments and ministries of government.
Having established the information platform, e-government can then proceed to serve the people.
A government is not supposed to be there to make life tough to its people. Rather it should promote living standards and working conditions.
Services that are in most cases a torture to the public like payment of taxes, getting paid by the government for services rendered or products sold need no longer cause sufferings to the people if ICT is employed to make such services efficient, effective and people-friendly.
This applies to licensing, tenders and social services in general.
As a communication and information tool, e-government ensures that problems are dealt with immediately since all parties need to solve them can be networked, and decisions reached within a short time.
For instance, if there is an outbreak of a strange disease in a remote district and the district is networked with the Ministry of Health headquarters, information about the disease from medical practitioners on ground can be sifted through and inquiries made from the World Health Organisation and other national health bodies. Thus, efforts can be made to identify the disease in case it is not totally new.
The outbreak of SARS in South East Asia is a case in point: the use of e-governance and ICT applications made it possible to save thousands of lives in the world.
Similarly, opportunities are seized without waste of time for the good of the people and the country.
Investment, trade or tourism opportunities can also be tapped by e-government that also promotes ICT applications in other sectors such as transport and hotel.
For instance, if tourists can make direct queries from the Ministry of Tourism website about travelling and accommodation arrangement, and there is someone in the ministry full- time employed to respond to those queries, tourism in Tanzania will grow faster than is the case now.
Another major benefit of e-government is that of reducing operational costs to the government.
Telephone, cellphones and facsimiles are still the most expensive means of communication while ordinary or airmail are slower form of communication.
But the internet-based communication is faster and comparatively inexpensive compared to traditional means of communication and information.
Governments, however, have been slow in using e-mail instead of telephone and faxes partly because unlike the private sector there are no serious cost analysis and attempts to manage costs for similar or even better performance results.
If governments become cost-conscious they will undoubtedly opt for the computer and e-mail.
In the case of application of video-conferencing as part of e-government, the government can reduce considerably the costs of assembling district commissioners and regional commissioners, MPs and ministers for discussing something which could be done by video-conferencing connecting all the essential parties concerned.
If need arises, the whole session can be recorded and kept for references and future uses.
Since the Web is also used for educational and informational purposes, it is open also for the government to produce publications that inform the people about various issues.
With the e-government, it will be also possible for a nation to create various data bases on social, economic, cultural, technological and political matters that can benefit Tanzanians and also be available for sale to outside parties by linking with yahoo.com and splitting revenue generated from selling pieces of information to various users like researchers and consultants.
E-government can also enable the government to train its servants online and provide policies and guidelines for making various decisions- online too.
Good governance and efficient administration is basically an issue of having good and able managers.
E-government makes it possible, especially, when working with experienced and established ICT problem solvers to have regular ongoing management training for all officials.
E-government reduces inconveniences to the public, promotes good use of taxpayers' money and enables the people to devote their time and energy to matters that are important in production and provision of services.
Quelle: all Africa
