With the direction of the National Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy 2002 an ICT Task Force was formed with the objective to make use of ICT systems within the public administration, improve efficiency, ensure effective use of resources, enhance planning, raise the quality of services, promote civic engagement by enabling public interaction with government systems through entending public services to the remotest corner.
ICT infrastructure for e-Government: Hardware resources are hardly adequate in most government offices. Many of the existing resources are outdated and old. At the Ministry and Division level the personal computer (PC)-Employee ratios, are about 0.30 and 0.08 respectively meaning that for every 100 employees; there are 30 PCs available in the Ministries and only 8 PCs available in the Divisions. Also at the department and corporation level, it is about 0.07 while in the academia, it is about 0.47. The total number of printers in the government is about half of the total number of PCs. At the ministry level Printer-PC yatio is the highest, while in the academia, it is the lowest. Sharing printers through LANs can easily bring down the need for buying expensive printers for individual PCs.
The government has little resources to buy hardware from its core revenue budget. Usually, hardware resources are acquired through information technology (IT)-related projects. Since many of the departments and corporations do not have such projects, hardware resources are less available in those offices. The availability of hardware resources has been found to be improved comparing to the past due to the increasing awareness and readiness for adapting ICT which in fact could have been achieved for the considerable efforts particularly given by SICT.
Network connectivity within the Bangladeshi government has made considerable progress over the last two years. A recent nation-wide survey on e-Government found that all the 39 Ministries/ Divisions covered in this survey, are currently connected to the Internet and out of 236 departments and corporations covered in the survey, 180 are connected to the Internet, which is 76 per cent. Twenty two academic institutions are connected to the Internet out of 24 covered in the survey, which is 92 per cent.
On an average, at the Ministry/Division level, about 48 per cent of the available PCs are connected to the Internet. And, at the department/ corporation level, only 19 per cent of the available PCs are connected to the Internet. At academic institutions, the figure is higher with about 58 per cent PCs connected. At the ministry, and division level, for every 100 employees there are respectively 15 and 4 Internet-connected PCs available. At the department/ corporation level, on an average, only one Internet-connected PC is available for every 100 employees and at the academic institutions, 27 Internet-connected PCs are available for every 100 employees.
The majority of these offices are connected through dial-up only. At the Ministry/ Division level, 69 per cent of offices connect to the Internet connect through dial-up only. At the department and corporation level, 80 per cent of offices connect to the Internet connect through dial-up only. In academic institutions, 77 per cent connect through dial-up only.
Some government offices, however, are well-connected. At the division level, about 53 per cent of the offices have broadband and about 27 per cent have radio-link connectivity. At the department and corporation level, about 32.5 per cent of the offices have broadband and 6.5 per cent have radio-Link connectivity. At academic institutions, 23 per cent have broadband, 9 per cent have radio-link connectivity and 18 per cent have VSAT.
One reason for such low level of internet connectivity is that most of these rely on dial up connection only, which is quite expensive given in additional cost of telephone call. There is generally little or no fund allocated for Internet connectivity -- so number of connectivity is often kept to a minimum of one or two. Also dial-up connections hold up telephone lines and many government offices do not have adequate number of telephone lines to spare one for Internet connectivity. With the arrival of the submarine cable SEA-ME-WE4 there will be a high increase of internet connectivity within a very short time.
The efforts for inter-connecting government office have been started. The Planning Division, under the Ministry of Planning, has taken a pioneering step towards setting up inter-connectivity among key government offices, including the Planning Commission, Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and key ministries at the Secretariat, namely the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Establishment, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD). The connectivity is done through radio-link towers placed at the Planning Commission, PMO and the Secretariat. The network has enabled crucial databases to be accessed and information to be shared from anywhere in this huge network of important government offices.
e-Government software, applications and use of IT: Different government offices have developed their own e-Government services, primarily through customised software and databases. A survey found that 24 per cent of the ministries, 60 per cent of the divisions, 25 per cent of the departments and 41 per cent of the corporations across the country use customised software. However, customised software is used at varying degrees in different government offices. Accounting and payroll software are the most popular customised software. In many cases, soft-ware has been developed under different government projects and after completion of those projects, they are largely left unused. Moreover, similar kind of software, specially those in accounting and human resources, are used in various government offices but they were developed under different programmes. As a result, due to lack of integrated efforts, resources may have been wasted in re-creating software that were already built for some other government offices.
At the ministry and division level, a little more than 24 per cent of the officers use email directly and about 5.0 per cent of the officers use email through computer operators. And at the department and corporation level, on an average 5.l3 per cent officers use email directly while about 3.10 per cent officers use email through the help of computer operators. In academic institution, 38.11 per cent officers use email directly and about 19.26 per cent of the officers use email through computer operators.
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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 published in July, 2006
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express, 28.08.2006
