E-Government in Bangladesh

In many countries, disbelief, suspicion and distance may be created between Government and people from country to country. The origin of this is the communication gap between the two parties.

When this happens, it becomes difficult for people to reach various Government departments for rules, regulation, security and other purposes. So issues about accountability and transparency of Government arise. In recent years Governments have embraced the idea of using information technology (IT) to improve services, a trend known as e-Government.E-governance is more than just a Government website on the Internet.

It can be defined as the application of electronic means in the interaction between Government and citizens and Government and businesses, as well as in internal Government operations. The purpose of e-Government is to simplify and improve democratic, Government and business aspects of Governance (Backus, 2001).Drucker (2001) defined e-Government as ‘the use of emerging ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) to facilitate the processes of Government and public administration. In reality, though, e-Government is about choice. It is about providing citizens with the ability to choose the manner in which they wish to interact with the Government; and it is about the choices Governments make about how ICT’s are be deployed to support citizen’s choices.

’Similar views about the meaning of e-Government comes from West ( 2000) : ‘e-Government is the delivery of Government information and services online via the Internet or through any other digital device on a continueous basis’. Heeks (2004) argues that e-Government can be considered as an augmented outcome of ICT usage in public sector in the terms of improving Government process (e-administration), connecting citizens with Government (e-service) and building external interactions (e-society).Though some researchers used the two terms ‘e-Governance’ and ‘e- Government’ interchangeably; recent views draw distinctive line between these two. According to Sheridan and Riley (2006), e-Governance as a broader topic covers the whole spectrum of the relationship and networks within Government regarding the usage and application of ICT ; e-Government as a narrower discipline deals with the development of online services to the citizen, - such as e-tax, e-transportation or e-health. They said e-Governance encompasses a series of necessary steps for Government agencies to develop and administer to ensure successful implementation of e-Government services to the public at large.

It has been observed that e-Government is improving the condition of people in many developing countries of the world by improving access to information useful to their daily lives, providing Government services, and offering new opportunities to participate in the political process (InfoDev and The Center for Democracy & Technology, 2002). E-Government enables people to get necessary information provided by Government as well as responses from Government officials in cases of complaints and assistance through the Internet, mobile phones and other IT tools. It is expected to reduce the bureaucratic problems of Government as well as to increase its efficiency in terms of lower costs, less employees and higher efficiency.It is also expected that e-Government will add to transparency and accountability of Government activities and decision making. Government initiatives in Bangladesh to adapt e-Government have incited increasing expectation of people about positive outcomes from it.

Though not most people have access to IT tools like the Internet or mobile phones to experience e-Government, the number of such people is increasing day by day. The all-pervasive use of IT in all aspects of life has made it imperative for Government to prioritize the application of e-Government to meet the expectations of people.There is currently a shortage of empirical data about what people expect about the outcome of e-Government to be. Both the ruling and opposition parties in Bangladesh, i.e.

Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emphasized ICT development as a core issue. AL had a landslide victory in the recent general election of December 29, 2008 and it had one influential election manifesto to build a 'Digital Bangladesh' where people will get a developed life, free from crime, corruption, misrule and face the challenges of the 21st century. So the ruling party of Bangladesh has a strong political commitment towards implementing an effective e-Government in the country. Currently a huge amount of public expenditure is used to create a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ within 2021. As this is a recent phenomenon, many aspects are still unfolding, especially areas where people require e-Government most, namely, areas where Government actions can be refined with IT applications. This study focuses on these aspects of e-Government in Bangladesh will provide useful information particularly to Government policy makers.

Literature reviewThe recent drive towards e-Governance throughout the world can be considered a part of the wider developmental goal as it can help reform of Government administration through providing improved services to citizens (Madon, 2004). By facilitating a two-way interaction, e-Government can hail a way towards better responsiveness to citizens which eventually would generate greater public confidence in Government (Gore 1993: Markoff 2000; Raney 2000). By encouraging bureaucrats to work together and develop cross-agency-“portals”-websites that integrate information and service offerings; e-Government offers the prospect of considerable change in how the public sector functions.Indeed Fountain (1999, 142) cites estimates demonstrating “cost - performance ratios to be declining at a rate of 20%-30% a year”. If implemented strategically e-Government can not only improve efficiency, accountability and transparency of Government processes, but it can also be a tool to empower citizens by enabling them to participate in the decision making processes of Government (Bestle, 2005). He continues that e-Government could be a way for Governments in developing countries to reach the poor in rural and remote areas enabling better implement poverty reduction programs as well as increase political participation and empowerment of those people.

In Asia today, there is growing evidence that e-Government can lead to an improved business environment, greater citizen access to Government services and information, and reduced levels of corruption (Parks, 2005).Studies relevant to success of e-Governance initiatives identify ‘e-readiness’ as a major success factor which can be measured in terms of development of ICT infrastructure as well as socio- economic and institutional support in access to and usage of ICT ( Kirkman, 2002). Some researchers went one step further to include values, beliefs and motivation of people (citizens) which would improve their ability to avail themselves of e-Government (Harris et al., 2002).

Additionally during the past four decades, there has been a decline in public trust in Government. In particular, the information gap between the public and Government appears to be one of the elements that have led to the decline of public trust in Government (Weltch et al., 2004). Appropriate application of e-Government has the potential to increase citizen satisfaction and trust with Government through more convenient services, more accessible and complete information, and interactive channels of communication (Sobhan et al.

, 2004). These above findings can be seen as ajustification for this research because the more we know about citizen perspectives and expectations of e-Government in Bangladesh, the more likely we will be able to provide effective e-Government services.Unlike traditional hierarchical structures; nonlinear, two-way, 24/7 hours available service and the interactive aspects of e-Government allow both citizens and bureaucrats to send and receive information (Raney 2000). Michael Backus (2001) presented an e-Governance model identifying the three main target groups that can be distinguished in e-Governance concepts; these are Government, citizens and businesses. The Gartner Group Inc (2000) formulated a schema identifying four phases of e-Government in order to measure the progression of e-Government (see Figure 1). [pic]Figure 1 : Gartner Model for Phases of e-GovernanceThe model suggested the four critical phases of e-Government evolution.

The stages are: information (being present on the web, providing citizens and businesses with relevant information), interactions (stimulated interaction between Government and the through various applications; for example: downloading forms), transactions (value-added complete transactions between Government and citizens and between Government and businesses; for example: filing income tax) and transformation (integrated information systems to provide services at one virtual counter).E-Government in Bangladesh has only begun to be discussed at the policy level. The National ICT Policy of 2002 gives due importance to the issue of e-Government, declaring that “the Government shall use ICT systems within the public administration to improve efficiency, reduce wastage of resources, enhance planning and raise the quality of services.” The Policy is aimed at ‘building an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge based society by the year 2006’ (MOSICT, 2002).

In 2003, the Ministry of Planning launched a “Support to ICT Task Force (SICT)” program, with the mandate of providing administrative and secretarial support to the ICT Task Force in realizing various ICT projects, particularly e-Government. The primary objective of the SICT program is “to ensure access to information by every citizen to facilitate empowerment of people and enhanced democratic values and norms for sustainable economic development by using the infrastructure for human resources development, e-governance, public utility services and all sorts of on-line ICT-enabled services.”However implementation of the ICT policy was not as satisfactory as it was observed that “ministerial departments felt unable to take full advantage of ICT to increase efficiency or improve citizen access to Government” (Imran and Gregor, 2007). As-saber (2006) found Bangladesh has failed to achieve its ICT target as enunciated in the ICT Policy. In the area of e-Government, the achievements fell significantly short of the expectations.

He tried to determine the progression of e-Government in Bangladesh using ‘Gartner’s Four Phases e-Government Model. According his findings now, Bangladesh appears to be at the second phase of e-Government. However, the public response to the e-Government is lukewarm and without much enthusiasm.There are hardly any electronic service deliveries by Government and joined-up Government is still a far-reaching goal in Bangladesh. In the absence of a comprehensive IT Act, many issues including the privacy and security remain unresolved making it difficult for Bangladesh to reach the third phase of e-governance. Although most of the Government organizations in Bangladesh have developed their web presence with information about their respective organizations and their activities, the level of e-service delivery remains limited.

While discussing the e-Government in Bangladesh, Taifur and Chowdhury (2003) observed that the Government system in Bangladesh is resistant to the use of IT in public services as it is assumed that the use of IT would diminish the power of the public officials. The absence of a legally binding IT Act has made the situation worse and further complicated. Despite enshrining ICT as an important sector in the ICT Policy documents of Bangladesh, the ICT as a governance tool is yet to be used extensively. In this regard, legislation of an IT Act is way overdue.

A speedy legislation of an IT Act was recommended in the ICT Policy (MOSICT, 2002), which is yet to be achieved. Without its enactment, it is not possible for Bangladesh to enter the ‘transaction’ phase, the third phase of e-Government progression, which specifically emphasizes on the security and privacy issues.ObjectivesThe study was guided by the following objectives:1. To find the awareness level of urban people about e-Government. 2. To explore the expectation level of the respondents regarding outputs of e-Government in categories of teamwork and efficiency, security, accountability and transparency, communication and responsiveness.

3. To identify the Government authorities who should prioritize application of e-Government. 4. To identify the factors critical to the expectation of urban people about e-Government in Bangladesh.

5. To find the variability in expectation level among people on the basis of demographic factors and on the basis of their access to e-Government. 6. To gather in depth knowledge of the perspective of urban community and thus to recommend some measures for policy makers on e- Government initiatives that offer greatest potentials to achieve the goals.MethodologyThe research was designed to explore the expectations of urban people about e-Government in Bangladesh.

The selection for the study site was the capital city ‘Dhaka’. The selection was made purposively on the assumption that most of the literate people, who are used to use the Internet, have appropriate perspectives and expectations about the outcomes of e-Government. The field work has been organized at roughly six months interval. In total 700 interviews were conducted among university students, Government officials, entrepreneurs, private sector employees, local politicians and various other citizens of various professions. Because of budget constraints a convenient sampling approach was followed.

Although the data collection was done mainly through structured questionnaires additional data were obtained through participants’ observation, study of press reports and websites and some other secondary sources.The questionnaire provides data about respondents’ demographic characteristics as well as their access to e-Government in terms of their usage of the internet. Part of the questionnaire comprises of respondents’ level of expectations about e-Government services. A 7-point Likert scale with statements ranging from strongly agree (7) to strongly disagree (1) was used to assess respondents’ views. Respondents’ expectations about e-Government services were assessed based on has four major criteria: (a) Teamwork and Efficiency, (b) Security, (c) Accountability and Transparency, and (d) Communication and Responsiveness.

To accomplish the objectives of the study, descriptive analyses along with correlation and multivariate analysis have been used. The authors used the 21 Likert scale statements (responses about expectation) as dependent variables for correlation analyses, where the independent variables were demographic characteristics of respondents (age, education, gender and occupation) and pattern of internet usage and ownership of internet connection.