IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The report that people applying for passport have to pay a staggering amount of Tk 21 crore in bribe to the police, middlemen and corrupt employees and officials is indeed a shocking example of how the citizens' legitimate right to have a passport is being exploited ruthlessly. The harassment and financial loss that the passport seekers face can be attributed to a syndication of police, middlemen and the employees at the passport offices.

Promptitude and exactness in decision-making and correspondence are the primary purposes of e-governance. But exactness in decision-making is antithetical to manipulation -- the basic element that fosters corruption. Frequent policy changes geared to serving calculated notorious designs are also a manifest sign of the same vice. How then can e-governance become the management feature of this society, identified as the most corrupt one by a foreign research body of repute in five successive years in a row? Unless this moot point is addressed seriously, all efforts for making e-governance effective will be like multiplying the figure one by itself any number of times. It is basically the honesty of purpose that matters most. After all, man-made computers having installed intelligence of a limited nature are no better than the intentions of their users. Hackers -- who are intelligent but corrupt, have proved the inability of this machine to guard against manipulation. But if the intentions of users are pious, computers are undeniably superb in performance -- those serve their masters faithfully.

Introduction: In 1999, during my way back to Bangladesh from the UK, the immigration officer at Heathrow while checking my passport looked at his computer screen and suddenly asked me “Did you lost your passport?... anyway, you got it afterward.” Instantly, I could not remember the event. However, in one or two minutes I could recall that once I put my passport in a bag inside the boot of my uncle’s car and later I forgot to collect it duly.

After a few days, when I needed the passport, my memory completely betrayed me to locate the passport. In despair, I phoned the Home Office (immigration department) that I lost my passport. Luckily, within few days, my passport was discovered from the boot while the car was being cleaned. Accordingly, I informed the Home Office immigration department that my passport was found. The very objective of sharing my personal experience is just to shed light on how effective and efficient Information storing and retrieval systems could be implemented and operated by the government organ to deal with its client.

Even a poor and developing country like Bangladesh can start making good use of the computers to achieve efficacy and transparency in its governmental functions. There are many areas in Bangladesh where the use of the computer can revolutionise the government administration.

How computerisation can speed up administration is evident from only the working of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). Even in the eighties, the BRTA did its work manually.