[kictanet] E-Government is it a myth or a reality?

Mon Mar 29 12:10:01 EAT 2010

Hey Rad,

Understood. Perhaps E-Govt, might just be the wrong horse, to tie this cart
called "Broadband" onto, inasmuch
as they may cross paths along the way nonetheless..

Broadband, has alot much more to ride on, and uplift the living standards of
much of the populace within this
country, - whether policy makers will tie it to what they would like to
achieve in E-Govt service dissemination 
is adifferent matter altogether.. But apparently the same policy making
process has alot of say on the direction
of Broadband. As matters stand right now, we need to see more impact on
this.

Infact, we can delink the two, and pursue each on it's own aggressively -
the better..

Harry

  _____  

From: Rad! [mailto:conradakunga at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 11:33 AM
To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] E-Government is it a myth or a reality?

You misunderstand me. I am not saying we don't need broadband. Far from it.
What I am saying is that broadband in itself is not a panacea. There need to
be systems and appropriate processes in addition to broadband for service
delivery to work. 

My concern is that there is too much emphasis is on broadband, less on
systems and even less on procedures and processes. This to me is putting the
cart before the horse.

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Harry Delano <harry at comtelsys.co.ke>
wrote:

Rad,

Agreed, broadband on it's own will never be an answer - But you see,  the "
6 lane highway" is the one that leads to the "Big City", 
already being built block by block, as Harry correctly put's it.

Lest we wait until we have built a big city - such as Nrb right now, and
then realize quite late the roads leading to it are logjammed/
congested and it's also very expensive to access services, and have to start
building by-passes to decongest, etc etc, when this
could have been done much earlier on.

What we are looking it, is ways and means of delivery of the E-Govt.
services, to the real customers - with ease of convenience
and through affordable mediums. There is no gainsaying, that this has to be
addressed, urgently. The customers, of these services
- such as Returns filing, do not sit at the Gov't Headquarters. They are far
and wide, we need to ensure that as we work on platforms,
these services should reach customers where they are.

Therefore we like it or not, broadband becomes of absolute essence.

Harry 
  _____  

From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry <mailto:kictanet-bounces%2Bharry>
=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Rad!
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:37 AM 

To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke

Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] E-Government is it a myth or a reality?

Well said Harry. 

I keep hearing the term 'broadband' bandied about in this context. Broadband
in itself is not the answer. There is no point of a 6 lane highway if there
is nowhere the road is going.

Just to add on what you said above an important consideration is to review
some of the current existing processes and see if they make sense, both in
themselves and in a connected context.

For example if e-Government is implemented from a context of National and
International Immigration it would be useful to re-look at many of the
existing processes: for example the need of that exit/entry declaration form
that is filled at the airport. Is there a need to fill in your name,
address, occupation etc -- information that is already on your passport and
is already being scanned?

Many such parallels exist. E-government should not purely be looked at from
the perspective of ICT

On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 10:26 AM, Harry Hare <harry at africanedevelopment.org>
wrote:

Hello Barrack,

I see and hear your concerns, however, this animal called e-Government can
be very complex and allow me to share some little knowledge I have after
more than 10 years of e-Gov consulting. Warning: This will be a bit long.

First and fore most we have to understand that e-Gov is delivery of public
services through the use of ICT infrastructure. This means e-Gov is *not*
ICT infrastructure but part of the delivery and facilitation mechanism. If
we agree on this, then the networks that you refer to (I think this is the
Government Core Network (GCN)) has set the stage for e-Gov service delivery
but it is not a service as-is.

This means there is a another level that needs to be worked on, and that is
the services portfolio. This has already started albeit in a very
uncoordinated manner. KRA seems to be leading the fray - PIN, VAT
application, Online tax returns etc. Due to poor or lack of coordination,
each Ministry seems to be working on their own programmes and projects (I
have talked about this before) and I can tell you this does not bring the
benefits of e-Gov - efficiency, accuracy and cost savings.

A case in point is the myriad of databases across government agencies.
Almost each ministry *owns* its own database with a lot of redundant
information that each ministry keeps on collecting from you. Under the
shared services model, application and data re-use can be made possible.
Where Govt can shared core applications and databases. You will be surprised
the amount of errors that are introduced to records every time an new form
is filled. So just reducing the number of times you fill a form at each
ministry greatly improves the accuracy of Govt records. So, shared services
model is best practice in e-Gov.

Now, about strategies and strategy meetings. E-Gov is a change process. Its
about change, changing the way people work, changing the processes and
re-engineering these process to be supported by an ICT infrastructure.
Change at any level is not easy and at government level is unthinkable!

Let me illustrate. All e-Gov services have to be backed by law and there are
legal requirements for every government service you receive. Some laws have
come into effect that support the roll out of e-Gov services but many are
yet to be enacted. Consider the issue of contracts. When is a contract
valid? In most cases there are specific requirements of form designed to
protect interests or persons. So you see that contracts may in some cases be
considered valid only when executed in their physical form. That's why you
have to make a physical application and sign it when applying for your
passport. So, for you to apply for the same passport online, some laws have
to be amended to allow for such provisions.

The UN or InfoDev, not sure which one, identified 5 e-Gov maturity levels
from basic online presence to what they refer to a Connected Government. All
these stages are incremental and have increased benefits to the citizens as
you move up the ladder. Connected Government is ideal level and very few
countries globally are there yet. One of them is Canada. We are possibly at
the second level where we have basic transactional capabilities - can
download a form, can file tax returns online, can query a database to check
the status of your passport application etc.

Now, to move to the next level, we need to plan and put strategies in place.
Evaluate what we have done, where we are at, revisit our priorities and set
new goals. This is a that you will see over and over again. So e-Gov is not
something you switch on, its a process that builds on existing blocks
incrementally.

Whether we use these strategies we develop and review is a totally different
thing. But its critical to plan and strategise. As they say, failure to plan
is planning to fail.

My apologies for such a long post, but I felt obliged because e-Gov is a
subject that is very close to my heart and I hope this helps. Corrections
and additions are all welcome

I suspect this is worth a bob, ama walu?

Kindest regards
Harry

On 3/27/10 7:43 PM, "Barrack Otieno" <otieno.barrack at gmail.com> wrote:

> Listers,
>
> I have been following discussions on this list that seem to be
> touching on the above mentioned subject. We seem to be spending large
> sums on meetings  strategizing and restrategizing however are we
> really making any headway?  at this point in time we are still
> required to "fill in some forms" whenever we seek government services
> is this e-government? we are now talking about shared services i
> thought e-government implemented a project that networked most
> government offices, however you have to travel physically to offices
> to get services, at times we confuse the public with ICT jargon what
> the public needs is efficiency and effectiveness in service provision.
> ICT4D on the other hand has been infiltrated by commercial interests,
> i wonder what should prevail when "commercial" and "public" interests
> meet, probably we should spend more money on change management,
> capacity building and awareness campaigns as opposed to this "strategy
> meetings" which will only lead to analysis paralysis
>
> My thoughts

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