He defines e-government as the transformation of internal and external public sector relationships using technology to optimise government service delivery, constituency participation, and governance. "The key goals of e-government include modernising public administration and eliminating islands of information, reducing paperwork, and delivering solutions that can be reused, thereby reducing the investment required to provide technological answers," Mtoba notes.
The first of the lessons that have been learned is that governments must harness information to deliver services to all. "Providing specialised services to the fortunate few is not a success. All the people of a constituency should have equal access to services, which essentially means the careful application of technology to deliver an overall improvement," he says.
Design of systems is critical in providing technology services at government level: because people are reliant on government services for their very survival, disruption is unacceptable. However, robust e-government has to be achieved in a situation where funding is scarce. Hence reliable and secure - yet inexpensive - open source solutions are often preferable.
The concept of solutions as opposed to technology has dominated purchasing in the corporate world for some time. It should apply equally to e-government, continues Mtoba.
He adds that e-government is a process. "Don't try to do too much at once: the litmus test is always the question 'does the citizen really need it?'."
Making e-government work as a reality requires that governments develop cooperative IT architectures among the various agencies. E-enablement to a large extent depends on the unfettered exchange of information that comes with integration of previously siloed data. "Also important is the establishment of an extra-agency view of governance, which includes constituents, partners and advocacy groups, who together can provide an objective exterior view of the progress being made and provide suggestions on the way forward," he notes.
Above all, e-government initiatives must be executed with a laser-like focus on the 'customer' - the citizen. "That requires understanding the wants and needs of the citizens of the country, empowering them to be able to interact with government agencies faster and with ease, while minimising resistance to change. Just as the private sector has discovered, initiatives must be people driven with technology as an enabler; ease of use will bring in the masses, so complexity has to be hidden," Mtoba concludes.
Quelle: AllAfrica, 20.04.2004
