Among the many promises of the digital revolution, it has the potential to strengthen democracy and make governments more responsive to the needs of their citizens. c-Government can be thought of as "electronic management of the state", namely the utilisation of information and communication technologies (ICT), including Internet technologies, in the work, of country or state bodies to get closer to the citizen and to build a partnership with diverse communities of interest, practice, expertise, conviction, and inter-dependence and to transform government by making it more accessible, effective and accountable.
E-government includes:
- Providing greater access to government information;
- Promoting civic engagement by enabling the public to interact with government officials;
- Making government more accountable by making its operations more transparent and thus reducing the opportunities for corruption; and
- Providing development opportunities, especially benefiting rural and traditionally underserved communities.
Hence, e-government will be a powerful tool to help all types of economies (developed, developing and in transition) to bring the benefits of the emerging global information society to the largest possible part of their respective populations. These are the reasons why e-government spreading through developed market economies, has now become a priority in an increasing number of developing countries. Around the world, significant resources are being mobilised, as well as additional human resources and energies to develop, implement and promote the use of e-government. However, since such resources remain scarce in regard to the immense tasks of socio-economic development and poverty alleviation, it is essential that they be used wisely and with a maximum chance of success. Benefiting from other countries' experiences, understanding their successes and failures, and adapting that knowledge to the characteristics of one's socio-economic environment will be vital to the future of e-government in Bangladesh.
Objective of e-Government: The objective of e-Government is not just to computerise government offices, it is to gradually transform the way the government operates. According to the World Bank, e-government refers to the "use by government agencies of information technologies that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government." But the process will take time and significant amount of re- engineering of processes. Hence, e-Government is not just another way of doing existing activities; it is a transformation on a scale that will fundamentally alter the way public services are delivered. It does not have a time-line; rather it is evolutionary. The relationship is no longer just a one-way, Government versus them citizens proposition; rather it is about building a partnership between governments and their citizens.
Through transformation/ re-engineering of processes, Government should achieve the following:
- Better delivery of government services to citizens,
- Improved interactions with businesses and industry,
- Empowering citizen through access to information or more efficient government management,
- Increased transparency and greater convenience,
- Reduce corruptions, and costs.
A European e-Government expert summarised this transformation in the following way:
| From | To |
| Isolated | Integrated |
| Task-based | Outcome-based |
| Regulator | Facilitator |
| Agency focused | Customer focused |
| Protective | Collaborative |
| Administrator | Value provider |
| Rule-based | Knowledge-based |
However, e-Government may have following key objectives:
- Achieve greater efficiency and a return on investment. Investing in the development of effective e-government is vital. There are strong efficiency grounds for government improving policy development, programme operations, service delivery and access to services. That will involve restructuring traditional processes, matching technology investments to these changes and managing projects to ensure an overall return on investment.
- Ensure convenient access to government services and information. From the user's perspective, e-government should enable citizens and business to deal with government on a vast range of matters, any time of the day or night, without having to understand which part of government is providing the service they require.
- Deliver services that are responsive to client needs. In this era of e-government, outcomes for citizens, business and government itself are the drivers. Technology will not determine the service - rather, better information management and improved business processes will be the means used to tailor the delivery of government services to meet the needs and demands of citizens.
- Integrate related services. It is not uncommon for individuals or businesses to have to carry out several separate-government transactions to achieve a single outcome. E-government will develop new, common infrastructures across agencies so that related services can be 'bundled' and presented as a single service at the point of delivery, even though several agencies are involved in the background.
- Build user trust and confidence. Increasingly more government services are available and being used online. The convenience of online transactions is driving demand for more of these types of services. Trust and confidence in undertaking transactions online must underpin the continued uptake of these services.
- Enhance closer citizen engagement. Government agencies can use the Internet to improve the transparency of government deliberative processes and to provide the opportunity for wider engagement with the public including through online policy information, feedback and consultation.
Why e-Government for Bangladesh?
e-Government is not a matter of choice and debate for Bangladesh or for any other country. And it is more important to realise that it is not a debate over adoption of technologies. e-Government has brought about important transformations in ways in which the government operates internally and provides services to citizens and businesses. A time will come in the not-so-distant future when the "e" in e-Government will lose its significance since the only way of government will be e-Government. Whether e-Government or not, is not the appropriate question to ask, but how e-Government, is the more relevant topic for discussion.
Some tangible benefits of e-Government can be briefly discussed as follows:
- Increases transparency: e-government allows increased transparency of government activities and makes the government more accountable to citizens.
- Reduces scope for corruption: Reduced scope for corruption is be another important impact of e-Government. Combating corruption is a top priority and e-Government can provide an effective tool for that purpose.
- Helps increase investor confidence: Improvements in the transparency of government also raises investor confidence, which in turn contributes to increased foreign direct investment in the long run.
- More efficient governance: e-Government facilitates in making the government's internal processes more efficient, thus saving time and resources in the long run.
- More efficient services to citizens: e-Government enables the government to respond more efficiently and quickly to citizen demands and requests.
- Helps boost the private sector: e-Government helps provide boost to the private sector, particularly SMEs, by reducing the time and expense required for businesses to interact with the government. Furthermore, through simplification of government processes and services such as online procurement, the government can reduce barrier to entry for new businesses and also increase competition.
- Allows for decentralisation of governance: e-Government makes decentralisation of government easier since data stored in digital format can be updated and accessed from virtually any office within a networked environment.
- Allows greater scope for integration: Digital storage of data and software applications allow greater scope of integration of activities of different government offices as data can be shared easily and efficiently.
- Allows learning from the past: Since e-Government allows data to be stored and retrieved easily, experiences and statistics from past projects can be easily used for new similar projects.
- Stimulates the local ICT industry: e-Government projects also provide valuable experience to the local information communication technology (ICT) industry for becoming competitive in an international market.
- Makes ICT relevant to the masses: e-Government makes ICT relevant to the masses as its benefits can gradually be shared by all from every comer of the country.
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By courtesy:
Support to ICT Task Force (SICT's) Steps Towards Good Governance Through ICTs: e-Governance Strategies, a document of the Ministry of Planning, the Government of Bangladesh
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express, 17.08.2006
