It is quite frustrating dealing with government organizations especially when one does not know anybody personally there. And of course, everybody seems to know that there are "ways and means" to get things done anyway. Its very surprising that almost all the work processes in government agencies are well specified with almost no room for subjective arguments. Every decision are taken referring to some well specified policy. Even if the rules or policies do not address a particular situation at hand, an elaborate system ("TIPPANI UTHAUNE") has been developed so that a broad consensus is attained by collecting bunch of signatures before a decision is taken. The whole system seems to be well designed and operated to eradicate corruption.
If you go to government departments, you will find that the employees are very much cautious with every single activity they do. They are cautious using specific words when they write, and they always make commitments referring to the "policy and regulations books" and "business as usual". More often than not, they seem to choose non-action or personally safe actions rather than committing to or doing anything that can hold them accountable. There are so many problems in the present bureaucratic system which can all be easily evaluated and traced back to one single root, 'lack of standard, reliable, intelligent and automated support system to facilitating the existing governance system". In the existing system, citizens don’t see the complete picture of the any process (they don't know where to look at for such 'complete picture' of the service workflow), because of this, citizens spend a lot of time visiting one department to another and one table to another; there is not effective and efficient way to cross-reference the work progress, performance Standards are not followed and there is no incentives for best performers in bureaucracy and no real-time performance, process and accounting audits.
Only Technology can be the answer for this!
Nepal is moving ahead for transformation, at least I really look forward to seeing the transparent society. It is quite essential that government services which have direct face to face contact or interactions with citizens especially where the government agencies have to serve or support the citizens, such services have to be using the tools of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). For this to happen, software have to be designed and written to standardize and encode the process rules, procedures and similarly other related government services and access to those public services should be through IT, especially through Internet based online services. Then the government services can provide equal and unbiased access to all citizens based on pre-coded common process rules and even with rules to handle the exceptions in a transparent manner. As myself being myself in IT industry for the last 15 years, I am confident that Nepal has got its own sufficient IT talents in Information and communication Technology (ICT) to develop any complex software applications required for e-governance. Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Each components of e-Governance including 'transparency' have to be initiated as a mission and such initiations should be complemented by the appropriate legal infrastructure. We should not forget that simply implementing the software applications don't bring in the transparent system, it requires whole lot of training and exercises for the government employees to change the mindset from "knowledge hiding" attitude to "knowledge sharing" attitude. On another side of the coin, citizens should be aware enough to demand its right to Information.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
E-Governance Framework for implementation and impact measurement
I am trying to seek convincing answers for the questions I put forward in my last post by asking another set of questions? What will be the suitable e-Governance framework for our country? Do we have a National Citizen database, in real sense, which will be essential for all e-governance applications, vertical or horizontal? Do we have acceptable standards for exchanging information securely with non-repudiation, through out the network, between citizen to government and among government departments seamlessly? Are we planning to establish a secure delivery framework connecting ministries and departments of our government? Can we establish data centers in center and regions to handle the administrative workflow automation, collaboration, interaction, authenticated exchange of information? We should have our administrative processes rightly empowered and reengineered which can accelerate the decision making? When will the entire administrative agencies be able to contribute more for the national development rather than being entangled in the piles of files? I have just visualized the scenario. Let us try to find an answer to each of the above questions towards providing good and smart governance to our citizens.
I have been advocating the use of technology and especially Information Technology for the betterment of our society. E-Governance implementation is one such opportunity, which I see can uplift the chaos administrative system in our country to the well organized and accessible service-system to everyone. Definitely one should not forget that the technology should be used with wisdom. If we don't have an implementation plan upfront from concept to delivery, in less than TWO to FIVE years, even shorter period of time, the technology will become expensive in many ways and we will not be able to get the real benefits out of it. So e-governance implementation process should be fast enough to stay on top of the technology. Along with the e-Governance implementation process, independent monitoring and study should be carried out so that the impact of e-governance implementation to the live of citizens can be measured.
What government services may impact the citizens life? What are the major government services you think should the first be prioritized as e-Governance project?
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
I have been advocating the use of technology and especially Information Technology for the betterment of our society. E-Governance implementation is one such opportunity, which I see can uplift the chaos administrative system in our country to the well organized and accessible service-system to everyone. Definitely one should not forget that the technology should be used with wisdom. If we don't have an implementation plan upfront from concept to delivery, in less than TWO to FIVE years, even shorter period of time, the technology will become expensive in many ways and we will not be able to get the real benefits out of it. So e-governance implementation process should be fast enough to stay on top of the technology. Along with the e-Governance implementation process, independent monitoring and study should be carried out so that the impact of e-governance implementation to the live of citizens can be measured.
What government services may impact the citizens life? What are the major government services you think should the first be prioritized as e-Governance project?
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
e-Governance scenarios
I had an opportunity to attend and present my paper in the 8th UNeGov.net Network-Building Workshop on Electronic Governance and the 4th School on Foundations of Electronic Governance organized by United Nations University, International Institute for Software Technology (UN IIST) and National Information Technology Center (NITC), Kathmandu from Feb 12 to 15, 2007. I am happy to see enthusiastic participation from many government agencies, private business and development organizations. I greet all the national and international delegates and participants, who are contributing substantially to bring the change and innovation in the form of governance electronically. I was thinking what topic I can share with you. Today I will further continue to discuss about Citizen Centric e-Governance: Technology and its management.
Good governance is being recognized as an important goal by many countries across the world. They have taken up specific initiatives for open and participatory government. Freedom of information is being redefined and the Internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the Internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time anywhere. Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as the center of focus of the governance. Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients. E-governance has to be citizen friendly and based on the demand of citizens. Delivery of services to citizens is considered as a primary function of the government. Particularly the country like Nepal, where the citizens are out of reach to the government services because of diversity in many ways, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the country and government in any type of political state setup (system).
Many countries in Asia, Europe, Australia and America have implemented the e-governance and with great success. It is definitely a big challenge before us.
Relevant scenario today:
I visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files his nomination from his/her constituency. Immediately the election officer verifies his/her authenticity from the National Identification (NID) database through multi-factor authentication, through a multipurpose National Identification card (NID Card). All the required identity details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within few seconds automatically by the act of e-governance software online service and presents the facts in real-time without any bias. Election officer sitting at the remote area of the country decides on the spot and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home through virtual polling booths.
Similarly, lets assume we will have a central data center for all the national data and replicated across the regional level data centers. His/her civic consciousness and citizenship behavior comes from the police crime record database. His property record comes from the Land Registration Office database. His income and wealth resources come from the income-tax department database, and other sources. His education credentials come from the university records database. His track record of employment comes from Civil Personnel Records (Nijamati Kitabkhana). His credit history comes from banks database. His legal track records come from the judicial record system database.
Is it just a dream? Is it really possible? If possible, when shall we have it? Can we provide good governance to our all citizens? Can the e-governance speed up the delivery system? Can the e-governance differentiate between genuine transactions and fraudulent transaction? Can the e-governance ensure immediate action for the genuine cases which satisfies the check list for a particular service and pend the action on transactions to be investigated? Can this be done by e-governance at a cost affordable by our country? If not, how much investment we may need to attain this? Will that be justifiable? If we have this system implemented then we call this as a true e-Governance system for the citizen?
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Good governance is being recognized as an important goal by many countries across the world. They have taken up specific initiatives for open and participatory government. Freedom of information is being redefined and the Internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the Internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time anywhere. Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as the center of focus of the governance. Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients. E-governance has to be citizen friendly and based on the demand of citizens. Delivery of services to citizens is considered as a primary function of the government. Particularly the country like Nepal, where the citizens are out of reach to the government services because of diversity in many ways, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the country and government in any type of political state setup (system).
Many countries in Asia, Europe, Australia and America have implemented the e-governance and with great success. It is definitely a big challenge before us.
Relevant scenario today:
I visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files his nomination from his/her constituency. Immediately the election officer verifies his/her authenticity from the National Identification (NID) database through multi-factor authentication, through a multipurpose National Identification card (NID Card). All the required identity details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within few seconds automatically by the act of e-governance software online service and presents the facts in real-time without any bias. Election officer sitting at the remote area of the country decides on the spot and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home through virtual polling booths.
Similarly, lets assume we will have a central data center for all the national data and replicated across the regional level data centers. His/her civic consciousness and citizenship behavior comes from the police crime record database. His property record comes from the Land Registration Office database. His income and wealth resources come from the income-tax department database, and other sources. His education credentials come from the university records database. His track record of employment comes from Civil Personnel Records (Nijamati Kitabkhana). His credit history comes from banks database. His legal track records come from the judicial record system database.
Is it just a dream? Is it really possible? If possible, when shall we have it? Can we provide good governance to our all citizens? Can the e-governance speed up the delivery system? Can the e-governance differentiate between genuine transactions and fraudulent transaction? Can the e-governance ensure immediate action for the genuine cases which satisfies the check list for a particular service and pend the action on transactions to be investigated? Can this be done by e-governance at a cost affordable by our country? If not, how much investment we may need to attain this? Will that be justifiable? If we have this system implemented then we call this as a true e-Governance system for the citizen?
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Government Administrative Process Reengineering
How e-Government should be started is a question of debate. There are different best practices from different countries. There is absolutely not a single answer. The draft e-Government Master Plan (eGMP) has been prepared by the government of Nepal with the technical assistance from the Korean Government. It has identified spectrum of prospective government applications ranging from government internal process automation to online citizen services and Government procurement portals. Project for investment plan preparation is under going under the technical assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Planning should be the holistic manner but the implementation of each project should be taken case to case basis. Important thing is the Common e-Government Application Framework and standard common e-government architecture that all applications should base upon facilitating interoperability.
Government should decide what is the strategy for prioritizing the applications for implementation. And needs an extensive exercise to find out how much reengineering we want in the government process based on the application identified. Reengineering can not be done for the whole organization itself. It should be targeted to the processes only for specific administrative or public service functions (applications).
Starting small is a success factor for e-Governance in its all branches: Administration, Civil Services, Parliament and Judiciary functions. The manner of reengineering implementation and sequencing of the reengineering are key issues. Reengineering should be aimed at adapting administration to the further increasing flow of information: simplifying the work process, accelerating the process of decision making by optimizing resources, and making the mechanism for decision making self-regulating. e-Government is justified if it enhances the capacity of public administration to increase the supply of public value - the outcome of a high quality of life. It is essential that the government process reengineering should be done before any computerization. It should not be a mere automation, but the transformation through process reengineering.
While setting the priority for the e-Government applications implementation, government should be clear in its strategy of priority, whether it should give priority to "Economic Benefits" or priority to "Social Benefits" or priority to "Benefits of Government" or the proportionately from all. Going through any government Process reengineering effort is difficult given the various contending forces, which push and pull all the public sector. It is indeed important for the countries like us undergoing reforms to learn from the successes and failures of others and study their best practices. The literature on reforms undertaken in other countries provides lessons to those who are still in the process of formulating a reform agenda. But one should always keep in mind the importance of contextual perspective, the diversity of country problems, evaluation of the cultural values, strength of the country managing resources for reform, commitment of the top level bureaucratic, political and social leaders and taking up the reform as national priority agenda and the responsibility of the countries themselves, which are best placed to do so, to decide where to place their emphasis.
The major objective of this governance should be to support and simplify governance for all parties - government, citizens, and businesses.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Planning should be the holistic manner but the implementation of each project should be taken case to case basis. Important thing is the Common e-Government Application Framework and standard common e-government architecture that all applications should base upon facilitating interoperability.
Government should decide what is the strategy for prioritizing the applications for implementation. And needs an extensive exercise to find out how much reengineering we want in the government process based on the application identified. Reengineering can not be done for the whole organization itself. It should be targeted to the processes only for specific administrative or public service functions (applications).
Starting small is a success factor for e-Governance in its all branches: Administration, Civil Services, Parliament and Judiciary functions. The manner of reengineering implementation and sequencing of the reengineering are key issues. Reengineering should be aimed at adapting administration to the further increasing flow of information: simplifying the work process, accelerating the process of decision making by optimizing resources, and making the mechanism for decision making self-regulating. e-Government is justified if it enhances the capacity of public administration to increase the supply of public value - the outcome of a high quality of life. It is essential that the government process reengineering should be done before any computerization. It should not be a mere automation, but the transformation through process reengineering.
While setting the priority for the e-Government applications implementation, government should be clear in its strategy of priority, whether it should give priority to "Economic Benefits" or priority to "Social Benefits" or priority to "Benefits of Government" or the proportionately from all. Going through any government Process reengineering effort is difficult given the various contending forces, which push and pull all the public sector. It is indeed important for the countries like us undergoing reforms to learn from the successes and failures of others and study their best practices. The literature on reforms undertaken in other countries provides lessons to those who are still in the process of formulating a reform agenda. But one should always keep in mind the importance of contextual perspective, the diversity of country problems, evaluation of the cultural values, strength of the country managing resources for reform, commitment of the top level bureaucratic, political and social leaders and taking up the reform as national priority agenda and the responsibility of the countries themselves, which are best placed to do so, to decide where to place their emphasis.
The major objective of this governance should be to support and simplify governance for all parties - government, citizens, and businesses.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Citizen Centric e-Governance in Nepal
e-Government has been one of the most striking developments of the Internet. As the Internet supported online communities evolve, and assuming that they do indeed grow to incorporate individuals around the country and the world, they present the governments with a number of challenges and opportunities.
Governments in "democratic countries" are primarily a representative mechanism whereby the selected few debate and enact the legislation for and on behalf of their citizens. There are several aspects to this that might prove of importance in the context of e-governance, where citizens can participate in the debates and expresses their opinions and their aspirations heard and addressed properly.
Firstly, those elected representatives need access to information and communication resources. It is necessary for them to inform, interact and listen to their constituents. It is necessary for them to communicate with one another. It is necessary for them to discover and represent the wishes of those who have elected them as their representatives.
At the simplest level, the implementation of e-governance can then support information and communication requirement. E-mail among parties, politicians, parliament members and among ministers, parliament members, politicians and government departments can be easily established. It would have been great if the Prime Minister of the Country sends out monthly bulletins on projects, plans with proper instructions and motivations to the government workers down beneath to local level. Many ministries and government departments have got their web sites on Internet. It will be a good idea that our people's representatives publish their home pages on Internet, to act as constituency interaction center. This then touches on the next aspect, that of communicating with the constituents. In addition to the standard channels and mechanisms, the people's representatives can receive the email messages from those wishing to express their views. There are similarly endless ways to utilize Information and communication technologies (only limited by the imagination of the implementing agency) to provide efficient and transparent solutions to citizens. This will be the most successful participatory governance if we can make it happen.
I will discuss on more other citizen centric government services in my future posts. Write your thoughts and also give suggestions, what e-governance should cover and its scope as well.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Governments in "democratic countries" are primarily a representative mechanism whereby the selected few debate and enact the legislation for and on behalf of their citizens. There are several aspects to this that might prove of importance in the context of e-governance, where citizens can participate in the debates and expresses their opinions and their aspirations heard and addressed properly.
Firstly, those elected representatives need access to information and communication resources. It is necessary for them to inform, interact and listen to their constituents. It is necessary for them to communicate with one another. It is necessary for them to discover and represent the wishes of those who have elected them as their representatives.
At the simplest level, the implementation of e-governance can then support information and communication requirement. E-mail among parties, politicians, parliament members and among ministers, parliament members, politicians and government departments can be easily established. It would have been great if the Prime Minister of the Country sends out monthly bulletins on projects, plans with proper instructions and motivations to the government workers down beneath to local level. Many ministries and government departments have got their web sites on Internet. It will be a good idea that our people's representatives publish their home pages on Internet, to act as constituency interaction center. This then touches on the next aspect, that of communicating with the constituents. In addition to the standard channels and mechanisms, the people's representatives can receive the email messages from those wishing to express their views. There are similarly endless ways to utilize Information and communication technologies (only limited by the imagination of the implementing agency) to provide efficient and transparent solutions to citizens. This will be the most successful participatory governance if we can make it happen.
I will discuss on more other citizen centric government services in my future posts. Write your thoughts and also give suggestions, what e-governance should cover and its scope as well.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
Monday, February 19, 2007
e-Government and e-Governance
[It is very encouraging to me that some of you have started taking interest in my posts and thanks for sending questions even through emails. One of the readers of my blog asked me to write about some of the fundamental concepts on e-Government, e-governance and other "buzz words" used. Sorry, I did not started with those. I will keep posting the elaborations on such new terminologies as we progress. Today I will give you two definitions, I feel best describes the concepts. If some of you encounter better definitions, please post in comments section.]
What is e-Government?
e-Government refers to the use of ICT, particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government. [UNeGov.Net-School-Concepts-7]
What is e-Governance?
E-governance is the seamless integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) and Internet technology in the government workflow to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of informational and transactional exchanges within government, between governments and government agencies of National, Municipal and Local levels, citizen and businesses, and to empower citizens through rightly and timely access and use of information and government services. [Rajesh Shakya, 2007]
The following definitions are quoted by world influencers in e-gov process:
World Bank (www.worldbank.org)
E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient
government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption,increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.
United Nations (www.unpan.org)
E-government is defined as utilizing the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to citizens.Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe) (www.DataBasede.org) Electronic government (hereafter e-Government) refers to a situation in which administrative, legislative and judicial agencies (including both central and local governments) digitize their internal and external operations and utilize networked systems efficiently to realize better quality in the provision of public services.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (www.oecd.org)
E-government:
is more about government than about “e”
• improves efficiency
• improves services
• helps achieve specific outcomes
• can contribute to broad policy objectives
• can be a major contributor to reform
• can help build trust between governments and citizens
• can open up the policy process
• challenges existing ways of working
• seamless government services will drive agencies closer together
What is e-Government?
e-Government refers to the use of ICT, particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government. [UNeGov.Net-School-Concepts-7]
What is e-Governance?
E-governance is the seamless integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) and Internet technology in the government workflow to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of informational and transactional exchanges within government, between governments and government agencies of National, Municipal and Local levels, citizen and businesses, and to empower citizens through rightly and timely access and use of information and government services. [Rajesh Shakya, 2007]
The following definitions are quoted by world influencers in e-gov process:
World Bank (www.worldbank.org)
E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient
government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption,increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.
United Nations (www.unpan.org)
E-government is defined as utilizing the Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to citizens.Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe) (www.DataBasede.org) Electronic government (hereafter e-Government) refers to a situation in which administrative, legislative and judicial agencies (including both central and local governments) digitize their internal and external operations and utilize networked systems efficiently to realize better quality in the provision of public services.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (www.oecd.org)
E-government:
is more about government than about “e”
• improves efficiency
• improves services
• helps achieve specific outcomes
• can contribute to broad policy objectives
• can be a major contributor to reform
• can help build trust between governments and citizens
• can open up the policy process
• challenges existing ways of working
• seamless government services will drive agencies closer together
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Why e-Government?
With the advent of the Information age, the ways we work, study and live have been experiencing dramatic changes. Due to the influence of economic and information globalization and the rise of digital economy, governments are "reinventing" themselves to meet new expectations and the priorities of citizens, business and its employees to create a new organizational structure to fulfill its mandate.
The following are few of the driving reasons for the e-Government implementation in Nepal:
The following are few of the driving reasons for the e-Government implementation in Nepal:
- e-Government is suitable for the country like Nepal, where its citizens are not able to enjoy the government services because of geographical diversity.
- ICT, Internet and wireless technology can become the efficient and viable medium to support economic growth and reduce poverty in remote rural areas of Nepal. Because of the possibility of timely access to information, it can open up a lot of opportunities for the people living in any geographical location.
- e-Government can fulfil the mandate of government formulating a new vision of how government views its citizens, employees and businesses, and building a citizen-centered, service-oriented, public-participative government with efficient, accountable, transparent and performance government system.
- Expectations of citizens from government is very high. They expect business-like service from government. No more "Come-tomorrow" culture.
- Its important to empower and motivate government employees. e-Governmenance should transform the government workers into empowered knowledge workers.
- Nepal should not miss the benefits of global economy and specially the benefits offered by Internet.
Friday, February 16, 2007
"New Nepal" through e-Governance
We are in the process of building "New Nepal". "New Nepal" should not become only a popular slogan but really the "New Nepal" with all the positive values and aspirations of its citizens geared towards the peace and progress. There are many dimensions streamlined and drivers identifed to make our "New Nepal" dreams come true. One of such dimensions is the reformation of the government. Governance and its service process should be well reengineered to fulfill the aspirations of its citizens. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its tools can help its effective and efficient transformation.
I have started this blog to create awareness in community, government bureaucracy and all concerned about ICT, e-Governance and contribute empowering society into knowledge based society. We will discuss in many issues pertaining to ICT use for development, governance reformation, e-governance for good governance and initiations for poverty alleviation and transform our society into Knowledge based society.
I would appreciate all the citizens to participate in the discussions and come up with thoughts, discussion topics, solutions and with all other whatever capacity any citizen in the country can contribute to build "New Nepal" using ICT as supporting tool.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
I have started this blog to create awareness in community, government bureaucracy and all concerned about ICT, e-Governance and contribute empowering society into knowledge based society. We will discuss in many issues pertaining to ICT use for development, governance reformation, e-governance for good governance and initiations for poverty alleviation and transform our society into Knowledge based society.
I would appreciate all the citizens to participate in the discussions and come up with thoughts, discussion topics, solutions and with all other whatever capacity any citizen in the country can contribute to build "New Nepal" using ICT as supporting tool.
Visit www.rajeshshakya.com for other details.
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