E-government, or electronic government, uses modern technologies such as the Internet and the mobile phone to give improved services to business and the people.
Currently it is possible to apply for a government job or clear imported goods through the Public Service Commission and the Kenya Revenue Authority websites.
It is the trend the world over. Everyone wants less paper in the office and shorter queues at service points, and the answer is in alternative channels of service.
The private sector adopted the idea of computerising services early in order to win clients with fast and efficient services. This is why banks introduced the automated teller machines and airlines allowed passengers to buy tickets on-line from the comfort of their homes. Everything has started going the e-way.
The private sector did not have to think much whether or not to use technology. Automation brought down costs, increased profits and, more importantly, made the customer happy. Clearly, there was always a business case for deploying technology.
But despite the apparent benefits, the motivation to use technology in government is not as strong. The Government provides services such as education, health and law and order not-for-profit, but as part of its obligation and social responsibility.
But public servants, bureaucrats and politicians have not been quick to get into the “enterprise mode”.
However, in recent years, the people started complaining that government services were not as good as those given by the private sector. The Government, on its part, wanted to cut down on operational costs and win the people’s confidence, so it embarked on a number of computerisation projects, succeeding in some and failing in others.
A special report on technology and government in The Economist ( February 16), reveals the challenges and opportunities in diffusing innovations in the public sector. “Believers in technology’s potential in public administration often speak of e-government, or of transformation,” it says.
“The practicalities are sometimes vague, but the picture is clear: government not only puts its services on-line, but in doing so changes the way it works”.
Although e-government is the way to go, making it happen is a huge task. Firstly, focus must shift from machines and software to the most crucial success factor — people.
The Economist adds: “Technology is only half the battle”. Quite often technology as well as hard and software, will work if we get the configurations right.
What may not always work is the “peopleware” or the “wetware”.
Then there is the inherent tendency for people to resist change, more so technological. They find it disruptive and are therefore more comfortable with old habits and old technology. For example, a few years ago, the vice-chancellor at a reputable local university had to go picking up typewriters from secretaries so as to force them to use computers they had been provided with.
I had a similar encounter. I was involved in automating a small media outfit. One day I got to the office, only to discover that my colleagues, who were not so savvy, had kept aside the state-of-the-art computers and were instead tapping on the old typewriters which had been kept at the store.
Reason? “These computers lose people’s work,” they said.
The truth is they would not recall the folders where they had saved their work. We had to arrange more training to help them to build confidence and use new technology with ease.
There are fewer such cases now in both the public and the private sectors, but the fear of losing jobs to computers and the fear that the machines will ruffle some comfort zones by exposing malpractices, still keep people away from computers.
It is a common rule of the digital world that processes must first be re-engineered before they are made available in digital and networked platforms.
The services must be organised in a way that makes sense and gives the greatest benefit to the end-users before they are automated and networked.
For example, the people logging onto the government website would want to find everything to do with documentation grouped together — identity cards, passports, visa application forms, birth and death certificates and so on.
They also want everything to do with taxes logically placed together.
If you automate a bad process, the computer’s efficiency only makes it worse.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Andrew Limo
Quelle/Source: Nationmedia, 23.02.2008
