[kictanet] [Fwd: [AfrICANN-discuss] Ten Guiding Principles for E-civil Service]

[alice]

Very interesting read in view of what is currently going on........

best
alice


    http://egov-india.blogspot.com/


    Monday, December 01, 2008


      Ten Guiding Principles for E-civil Service
      <http://egov-india.blogspot.com/2008/12/ten-guiding-principles-for-e-civil.html>


/*Ten Guiding Principles for E-civil Service
by
D.C.Misra**/
_____________________________________________________________________________________

/*I Introduction*/
Is there anything called e-civil service or electronic civil service? If 
so, what is it? How does it differ from the traditional civil service? 
How can it keep pace with technological developments? What role does it 
have in Government 2.0? Is there any conflict between old conduct rules 
for the civil servants and the new environment? What role does e-civil 
service play in the development of e-government? Does it require 
separate recognition as an entity and support so that it can accelerate 
the pace of development of e-government worldwide? Questions like these 
must be asked and replies attempted as they have direct bearing on the 
future course of development of e-government.

/*II E-civil Service*/
There are two primary drivers of e-government: technology vendors and 
civil service. Technology vendors have succeeded in promoting 
e-government but to a limited extent. Their limitation is that their 
promotion of e-government is limited to their own technology. Civil 
service has also promoted e-government but to a much lesser extent. Its 
limitations are that it works under a rule-bound environment, is always 
caught napping in technology developments, and above all, has no 
motivation to promote e-government. Among the two, however, civil 
service has greater stakes in e-government as it is required to serve 
the government in power as well as citizens.

Government implements its decisions through civil service. The civil 
service also provides policy inputs. Civil service is appropriately 
described as the backbone of government as government policies and 
programme can fail in implementation by the civil service or wrong 
policies can be formulated with its help. What, however, is not 
recognized is the quiet emergence of e-civil service or electronic civil 
service in tandem with the emergence of e-government since mid-1990s. If 
e-government is to succeed, not only the emergence of e-civil service 
has to be recognized but strengthened as well so as to enable it face 
the new challenge of e-government competently.

/E-civil service /or /electronic civil service /may be defined in two 
important and markedly different senses:

/E-civil service /or /electronic civil service/: As the civil service 
using information and communication technology (ICT) in conducting its 
internal work and external public service delivery. It differs from the 
traditional civil service on a number of important parameters. We will 
refer to it as e-civil service or electronic civil service.

/Ai-civil service /or /artificial intelligence (AI) civil service/: As 
artificial intelligence (AI) agents performing the civil service jobs, 
say, determining amount of fine in traffic violations. Chun (2007) 
describes application of artificial intelligence (AI) in immigration 
control in Hong Kong special administrative region (SAR) by using 
assessment rule engine, schema-based reasoning engine, workflow rule 
engine, case-based reasoning (CBR) engine, and self-learning engine. 
E-civil service and AI- civil service can be distinguished.

The emergence of e-government has increased the responsibility of civil 
service by incorporating the requirements of e-civil service and 
ai-civil service. In the initial stages of development of e-government, 
the traditional civil service, e-civil service and ai-civil service will 
all co-exist. E-civil service and ai-civil service are thus add-on to 
the existing civil service and not its replacement. It is only in the 
final stage that one can think of e-civil service and ai-civil service 
replacing the traditional civil service, and that too only in part, 
notwithstanding the projections of futurologists. However, e-civil 
service and ai-civil service both will gain increasingly more ground 
with the passage of time. In the new environment of e-governance, 
therefore, the task of civil service has become quite enormous, 
unprecedented and, yes, very challenging.

/*III An E-democracy Model Highlighting the Key Role of E-civil Service*/
An e-democracy model highlighting the key role of e-civil service can 
now be proposed. The model proposes that (i) e-civil service is the 
backbone of government and e-government, (ii) e-civil service is 
required to serve democracy and e-democracy on the one hand and citizen 
and e-citizen on the other, (iii) Democracy is characterized by rule by 
majority, and adult suffrage, (iv) E-democracy is characterized by the 
Internet and e-engagement, (v) Democracy-performance mismatch has 
resulted in widespread embracing of e-government, and (vi) e-engagement 
is an integral part of e-government.

/*IV Guiding Principles for Development of E-civil Service*/The 
e-democracy model proposed above (Section III) highlights the key role 
of e-civil service in promoting e-democracy. The coming into being of 
e-civil service is raising a number of important issues, many of which 
are unprecedented, which require to be addressed. Fountain (2007:6-7) 
observes "In one sense, digital tools merely enhanced the power of a set 
of reforms already underway and accepted as legitimate and appropriate 
by civil servants. Yet the extraordinary power of the internet to allow 
citizens to access government "anytime, anywhere," greatly increased 
accessibility and made abstruse government documents and procedures, now 
online, more glaringly unresponsive to citizens." The following ten 
guiding principles are suggested for the development of e-civil service.

/*Principle 1. Recognise the Emergence of E-Civil Service*/
E-civil service is quietly entering the governments worldwide. However, 
it has so far not been formally recognized. This has twofold 
consequences. First, the non-recognition deprives e-civil service of any 
systematic development as a result of which the quality of e-government 
is adversely affected. Secondly, the non-recognition is leading to 
piling up of issues which, with passage of time, are only getting more 
complicated making their subsequent solution elusive, time-consuming and 
costly. Thirdly, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to 
civil service tasks has given rise to, what this author has called, 
artificial intelligence (AI) civil service, has also not being 
recognized. New technologies create policy vacuums (Moor 1985). However, 
the policy vacuum created by the emergence of e-civil service has so far 
not been filled. It has thus become essential to formally recognize the 
emergence of e-civil service.

/*Principle 2. Encourage Civil Service to Work Online*/
One of the main conclusions of case studies of e-government projects in 
five countries-Argentina, Mexico, India, United Arab Emirates, and 
Tunisia- analyzed to see how personnel issues slowed implementation of 
e-government projects is that "High-level support does not ensure staff 
buy-in." (WB 2005). There is so far no incentive for civil servants to 
work online. As a result, adoption of e-government practices is slow in 
civil service. The typical incentives are an entry of work done online 
in annual performance appraisal, grant of an increment in salary for 
doing good work, and formal recognition by grant of award for exemplary 
work in e-government. These are, however, mundane incentives which have 
only limited impact, if any. A mandatory policy may prove to be 
counter-productive as it may invite hostility from civil servants. 
Likewise an absence of policy will only maintain status quo. A middle 
path may be a practical strategy. For example, a mandatory policy may be 
adopted for routine tasks in the civil service like sanction of casual 
leave, approval of tour programme and filing of property returns. For 
rest of the tasks, civil service has to be encouraged to work online by 
providing appropriate incentives.

/*Principle 3. Encourage E-civil Service to Use Web 2.0 
Technologies*/The essence of Web 2.0 or Social Web is interactivity. And 
Web 2.0 is a reality. Many civil servants lurk in discussion groups but 
do not actively participate in discussion for fear of violating conduct 
rules and inviting the wrath of their superiors. On their part, the 
governments too have so far also not issued any guidelines on this 
issue. In a pioneering attempt, Cabinet Office in United Kingdom has 
issued the following guidelines: 1. Be credible, 2. Be consistent, 3. Be 
responsive, 4. Be integrated, and 5. Be a civil servant (CO 2008). Clift 
(2008) notes: "Every country needs a similar policy guide or 
alternatively as a whole, their government will become irrelevant to 
most people. Countries with civil servants disconnected online, have 
disconnected democracies." Our civil services are still steeped in 19th 
century ethos. They must now become civil services of 21st century. One 
way to achieve this objective is to encourage e-civil service to use Web 
2.0 technologies.

/*Principle 4. Recognise New Demands of Citizens on Civil Service*/
Civil service is known for not changing its way of working. History 
proves this statement. Change when introduced is easily absorbed into 
the system and the civil service quickly reverts to its old ways of 
working. All this, however, appears to be changing in the age of 
e-government. The emergence of e-government since mid-1990s has started 
placing new demands on civil service. Not only is e-government changing 
the way e-government works (for example, making it more 
technology-oriented) and the work it does (for example, adding the 
online work) but also citizen expectation from civil service. Citizens 
now want value-added, tailor-made public service delivery online and, 
what is more important from civil service point of view, hold the civil 
service, and not its political masters, directly responsible for it. So 
far civil service has worked protected under the cloak of anonymity. 
This is no longer possible in the age of e-government which espouses the 
cause of open and transparent government. These new demands of citizens 
on civil service, therefore, need to be recognized.

/*Principle 5. Treat E-civil Service as an Instrument of Administrative 
Reforms*/
Administrative reform is an uninspiring term. Its poor reputation comes 
from its poor record of achievements so far. Kraemer and King (2005:2) 
are of the view that "information technology has never been an 
instrument of administrative reform; rather it has been used to 
reinforce existing administrative and political arrangements." It is 
difficult to subscribe to this view. If improving internal processes of 
government is part of administrative reforms, then application of 
information technology (IT) to government is very much a move for 
administrative reforms. However, and it is important, application of 
information technology (IT) to government, by itself, is not 
e-government. What makes it e-government is the involvement of citizens 
in decision-making processes of government, a dimension altogether 
missing in earlier phases of application of information technology (IT) 
to government. Since e-civil service, an altogether new development, is 
the backbone of e-government, it has to be treated as an instrument of 
administrative reforms.

/*Principle 6. Set Up an Exclusive Portal for E-civil Service*/E-civil 
service now requires an exclusive portal for itself, catering to the 
needs of civil servants in the era of e-government. Such a portal will 
keep the civil servants fully updated about the latest rules and 
regulations, up to date civil list, sanction of leave, physical fitness 
exercise programmes and guidance, settlement of traveling allowance 
(T.A.), medical and miscellaneous claims, career advancement 
opportunities like mid-service training programmes, availability of 
online inter-active training programmes and online technical support for 
computer maintenance and use, annual performance appraisal, job 
opportunities and career counseling. It should provide RSS feed so that 
civil servants can keep themselves up to date with any development. 
Likewise it should have a discussion group or blog and a wiki so that 
civil servants could participate in them. This will be a closed portal 
accessible only to serving civil servants and managed by an officer of 
sufficient seniority. It will thus be a comprehensive one-stop service 
to civil servants. Some governments have set up such sub-portals but 
they do not provide comprehensive services.

/*Principle 7. Introduce E-recruitment to Civil Service*/
A Government Guide to Best Practice defines e-recruitment, also known as 
online recruitment, as "the use of Internet and intranet technology to 
recruit including candidate attraction, employer branding, candidate 
tracking, candidate selection, and hiring." (CO 2007:65).The components 
of e-recruitment are: (i) attracting candidates online to your website 
or your organization, (ii) communicating your employer brand and 
recruitment proposition online, (iii) tracking, communicating with and 
selecting candidates online, (iv) testing candidates online, and (v) 
on-boarding (otherwise known as welcoming and induction) candidates 
online (ibid.:7). Many developed countries have set up recruitment 
gatways. In United Kingdom, for example, the Cabinet Office has set up a 
Civil Service Recruitment Gateway at 
http://www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk/Index.asp?txtNavID=322&635132= 
<http://www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk/Index.asp?txtNavID=322&635132=>. 
Likewise Singapore Government has set up a recruitment portal at 
https://app.vog.gov.sg/Presentation/index.aspx which it calls VOG 
(lateral image of GOV). Other countries should follow suit.

/*Principle 8. Deal with Disciplinary Cases Online*/One of the sore 
points with civil servants is the inordinate delay which the 
disciplinary proceedings against them take in completion. Such 
disciplinary proceedings call for penalties ranging from mere warning to 
dismissal or removal from service and are typically launched while the 
civil servant is in employment. These come in the way in his promotion 
as and when such an opportunity occurs. The procedure involved in 
dealing with disciplinary cases against the civil servants is quite 
complicated and time-consuming. It is a case of e-government that such 
cases can be expedited if dealt with online. In such a case the cause 
list can be posted online, so also the documents upon which the 
department proposes to rely to prove its case. The documents are 
required to be supplied to the concerned civil servant under rules. The 
final order too can be posted online. In case the facility of 
video-conferencing is available, hearings in the case as well as 
recording of evidence can be done online.

/*Principle 9. Sort Out Ethical Issues of E-civil Service*/
A number of ethical issues have started emerging as a result of civil 
servants surfing the Internet while in office and otherwise also. First 
is the maintenance of blog. Can a civil servant have a blog of his own 
covering a subject dealt with by him? Second, can a civil servant 
actively participate in discussion groups, communities of practice 
(COPs) and social networking sites and defend or clarify his 
department's position? Among these concerns, use of email at workplace 
has gained attention as it is most widely used tool in e-government. 
Oregon State Archives and Oregon Association of Municipal Recorders have 
issued a very comprehensive E-mail Policy Manual for Local Government 
(OSA n.d.) which has a template also. In India, the Department of 
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has issued 
comprehensive guidelines on use of email with due emphasis on e-mail as 
an official record (DARPG n.d.). But not many civil servants are either 
aware of these instructions or have only vague idea about them. The 
emerging ethical concerns need to be sorted out.

/*Principle 10. Train E-civil Service in Government 2.0*/
Training is time-tested method for upgrading knowledge and skills of 
civil servants. It is generally quite a challenging task when the 
trainees are in-service civil servants but it is more challenging in 
case of e-government as it involves concurrent training in technology 
also. Schelin (2004, Table 5:272) suggests a training curriculum based 
on six modules in which Digital Civic Engagement is the sixth model. 
Whichever training module is selected, it is necessary that the civil 
servants are systematically trained in Government 2.0, whose essence is 
inter-activity which has been possible only by e-government tools, as 
against out-of-date Government 1.0, which is based on one-way 
communication from government to citizens. Training in Government 2.0 
will include understanding the new role of civil servants, appreciation 
of emergence of e-citizen and e-citizenship, understanding of e-concepts 
associated with e-democracy, knowledge of e-engagement and 
e-participation tools and, finally, involvement of e-citizens in public 
policy formulation actively supported by e-civil service.

/*V Concluding Remarks*/
Weberian bureaucracy characterized by objectivity, administration by 
rules, and anonymity is a remarkable improvement over earlier form of 
civil service characterized by subjectivity and administration by whims 
and fancies. The practice of Weberian bureaucracy, however, revealed a 
number of weaknesses as a result of which a number of measures of 
administrative reforms were undertaken in many countries prominent among 
which is the re-inventing government movement or new public management 
which requires running of government as a private sector corporation. 
This too had a very limited success as the two- government and private 
sector corporation- are based on fundamentally different premises, 
namely, the former is based on service-orientation and the latter on 
profit-orientation. E-government is the latest measure in administrative 
reforms which makes a powerful assault on the weaknesses of existing 
governments, particularly in their relation with their citizens. 
However, the realization of full potential of e-government is still 
eluding us. This can be achieved only if the emergence of e-civil 
service is formally recognized and it is supported to enable it 
discharge its new role. Ten guiding principles for e-civil service 
developed here can help us in this regard.

References
Chun, Andy Hon Wai (2007): Using AI for e-Government Automatic Assessment of
Immigration Application Forms, 
http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/~hwchun/research/PDF/iaai_2007.pdf 
<http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/%7Ehwchun/research/PDF/iaai_2007.pdf> 
(accessed : November 25, 2008).

Clift, Steven (2008): UK Government Advises Civil Servants How to 
Participate Online, DoWire.org, June 21, 
http://www.dowire.org/notes/?p=417 (accessed: November 25, 2008).

CO (Cabinet Office) (2007): E-recruitment projects in the public sector: 
A Government Guide to Best Practice, Second Edition,Written By WCN Plc 
on behalf of HM Government, 
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(accessed: November 29, 2008)

CO (Cabinet Office) (2008): Principles for participation online, London, 
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(accessed: November 25, 2008).

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November 29, 2008)

Fountain, Jane E. (2007): Bureaucratic Reform and E-Government in the 
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Kraemer, Kenneth and L. John Leslie King (2005): Information technology 
and administrative reform:
will e-government be different? August, 
http://www.si.umich.edu/~jlking/IJEGR-Final.pdf 
<http://www.si.umich.edu/%7Ejlking/IJEGR-Final.pdf> (accessed: November 
28, 2008)

Moor, James H. (1985): What is Computer Ethics? in Bynum, Terrell Ward 
(ed.) (1985), Computers & Ethics, Blackwell, pp.266 – 75, 
http://www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/resources/teaching/teaching_mono/moor/moor_definition.html 
(accessed: November 24, 2008).

OSA (Oregon State Archives) and Oregon Association of Municipal 
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(accessed: November 29, 2008)

Schelin, Shannon Howle (2004): Training for Digital Government, in 
Pavlichev, Alexei and G.David Garson (eds.) (2004): Digital Government: 
Principles and Best Practices, Hershey, PA, Idea Publishing, Chapter 
XVII, pp 263-275.

WB (World Bank) (2005): Staff incentives and project implementation: 
lessons from e-government, PREM notes: Public Sector, October, Number 
101, http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/PREMNotes/premnote101.pdf (accessed: 
November 26, 2008).
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