E-Government is the term used to describe the movement of government based services to an online service. It can be described as:
“the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government”.
The importance of e-Governance lies in creating a global society, which has capacity to absorb divergent value patterns to eventually form universal normative axis having thrust on human element. The importance of e-Governance lies in creating a global society, which has capacity to absorb divergent value patterns to eventually form universal normative axis having thrust on human element .E-Government is seen as providing a major economic boost by providing new and better services for all citizens and companies With the help e- governance the output multiplies at same cost manifold. If the government is digitized it makes it more economized, functions faster, better and creatively. With the help of e-governance the facts can be completely obtained from archives to help bureaucrats to recycle them in such a way that this feed- back can be utilized for making more prudent policies.
E-governance is important to enhance the performance in almost all the aspects of governance, from the technological point of view it can be used to educate people who are in the bureaucratic structure or outside its periphery regarding use of electronic means to develop better connectivity within and with the system. It requires use of computers in developing the data-base, in networking to facilitate the communication, in creating e- knowledge workers so as to increase their potentiality.
It is also important socially because citizens of every country should have the knowledge about their rights and duties and on the other hand they should be aware of all the governmental duties, hence a vigilant society can be evolved where they can raise their voices by questioning the Governmental decisions .E-governance can be used to spread awareness culturally, politically and psychologically. An e-government service also creates social benefits for the citizens of a country. For countries that have a widely dispersed population an e-government service allows the citizens situated in remote areas to have access to the same services that citizens within the major cities would enjoy. Canada is an example of a country with a largely disperse population. Canada has ranked first in the Accenture’s global e-government survey for the past five years. The Canadian government has been focusing heavily on e-government being the way forward, GOL (Canadian Government On-line) revealed that online services accounted for 30% of government transactions in Canada. This meant that the Canadian customs and revenue agency could close one of the tax data centers and redeploy 1,350 staff that had previously processed the paper tax returns.
If e-governance is applied in any systems it can be used to establish an insight in understanding the ecology of the government between the various components that constitute it.
Another importance of this is to improve the financial system of the current system in a country. For example in Australia the government department of finance and administration carried out a survey on its online service. Twenty-four out of thirty-eight of the programs currently available were found to be “achieving cost reductions through a combination of direct savings, lower cost of delivery, and improved internal or business processes”. The report also suggested that “Participating agencies were expecting reductions in costs of about $100 million from 24 e-government programs”. By moving from a heavily paper based system to an electronic system reduces the need for man power; thus allowing the process to be handled by less employees and therefore to reduce operations cost.
The ability of an e-government service to be accessible to citizens irrespective of location throughout the country brings the next and potentially biggest benefit of an e-government service. In several countries there is a high level of voter apathy, either due to grievances with government policy or to voters not bothering to leave their homes to vote .The UK 2005 general election saw a voter turnout of 61%, it has been suggested that allowing citizens to vote by means of an e-government service (e-Voting) would increase the number of votes. Developing a secure portal online that allowed citizens to register their vote would not only give citizens in remote areas the chance to vote from their own home with the click of a mouse but would, in addition, allow the general population with busy working lives the chance to vote very quickly on their lunch break at their desk.
Another benefit of implementing an e-government service is the greater transparency of the service provided. Gujarat, a state within India, adopted an e-government service for controlling border checks and it was discovered that it lead to a “reduction of corruption and significant increase in the state's tax revenue”. The new system gave a three-fold increase in tax revenue in two years; increasing from $12m to $35m and subsequently repaying the cost of the project, $4m, in just six months.
Before implementing an e-government service a government must first address the question ‘What do our citizens want?’ There are many actual and theoretical advantages of moving to an e-government system; I personally believe that the adoption of an e-government service is vital to the progression within a country to an information society. I feel that there must be a balance; yes introduce an e-government system that is based on feedback from the citizens within a country, but also keep - if not at a reduced level - the current working system for the citizens who will never adapt to technological advances. I do not think that an e-government service will ever completely replace the current systems in use by governments, but that they will become a valuable tool for improving communication with citizens and for strengthening the economy of a country.
References:
[http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan019250.pdf]
[http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/documents/eGIF%20v6_1(1).pdf]
[http://www.igi-pub.com/reference/details.asp?ID=5066]
[http://www.worldbank.org/egov]
[http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/4083/5800]
[http://www.egovonline.net/articles/article-details.asp?articleid=507&typ=In%20Practice]
[http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8]
[http://www.agimo.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0012/16032/benefits.pdf]
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