E-Government Benefits - Research Paper Example

?E-government benefits to citizens First, e-government has made citizens to access government information more conveniently. According to Huang et al. (2006) and Alston (2003), citizens are able to interact with government agencies (officials) anytime and anywhere (home, hotel rooms or office) as long as there is internet connectivity. Neither do citizens have to wait in queues nor spend many minutes at the counter as they seek government services. Therefore, citizens can do their work and seek government services after government office hours. This ensures that citizen’s pay and productivity is not adversely reduced and the citizens can save time for other productive activities. Convenience is also characterized by availability of many channels brought about by e-government that enables the citizens to choose where and when to receive government services. In addition, citizens with disabilities do not have the trouble of moving from one geographical area to the other seeking government services. Secondly, e-government has simplified application processes. Yigitcanlar & Baum (2006) asserts that citizens can easily apply for government services easily. Through the government websites, a citizen can get answers to his or her question without wading through hundreds of irrelevant information. With e-government, records can be signed digitally, certified legally and delivered electronically to the appropriate locations via the internet. Information can easily be accessed using a standardized feel and look using MassCares suite applications. A MassCares suite application has enabled citizens to serve themselves because routine work of government officials has been automated. In addition, citizens can visit many government agencies with a click of the mouse. With e-government, application process has also been made simpler through single-windows and single-sign –on. Third, e-government has increased citizen’s effectiveness and efficiencies. E-government improves customer services because it can allow for quick customized services. Citizens’ effectiveness has been improved because they can access better services thus improve their quality of life as information becomes readily available and easily accessible. Citizens can always search for information they need from the internet and easily establishes the most appropriate official contact online (Sinrod, 2004). Citizens have found out e-government reduces the amount of time, money as well as materials spend on seeking government services. This is because correspondence between the government officials and citizens can be done via email, shot messaging services or chat rooms. Furthermore, e-government has reduced the chances of citizens making errors in application because automation informs the user in real-time when the error occurs and allow him or her to rectify it on the spot. Effectiveness and efficiency brought about by e-government has enabled some citizens to plan better their personal and professional work. Fourth, e-government has increased democratization. Citizens can easily express their opinions on government policies and activities via online surveys or blogs. In fact, it has been established that citizens especially those who are younger participate on online discussions of political issues and are appealed by e-voting procedures. The citizens can easily exert direct and prominent influence to legislative processes by increasing their political participation on issues affecting them. According to Roy (2004), e-government allows citizens to interact with government officials as well as politicians on major issues affecting their lives. Instant-messaging, online interactive survey, audio/video presentations and blogging will allow government officials and politicians see and understand people’s views (Alston, 2003). Fifth, e-government has increased transparency and accountability in government agencies. With e-government, citizens (voter) are allowed to get insight on how government decisions and policies are made in real time basis. According to Andersen (2004), e-government promotes public contact as it act as a one stop shop for interactive e-services. This enables citizens to hold government officials answerable to their actions. Corruption perpetuated by government officials will be significantly reduced because e-government reduces the chances of government officials from meeting with the citizens. Therefore, it is difficult for government officials to solicit bribes or engage in fraudulent behaviours because they do not come face to face with the citizens. Furthermore, the chances of citizens being verbally abused or sexually harassed will significantly be reduced. With e-governance, government records, reports and statistics will be widely available and will enable many people to scrutinize government actions as well as distribution of government resources Sixth, e-government increase access to wide range of information (OECD 2010). Citizens can access wide spectrum of government information ranging from economic, political and demographic trends which is available on governments’ website. This enables citizens make informed decision on what and how to do at a given period of time to enhance their success or mitigate various risks facing them. For example, citizens may use meteorological information obtained from the government website to assess the likely impact of adverse whether conditions and take necessary steps such as evacuation before it is too late. E-government benefits to public sectors First, e-government is convenient to government officials. They can provide services and responses to citizens at anytime and place. E-government relieves government employees from a lot of paper work. Song (2004) claimed that government employees will not have to request records to be brought up from storage because they will be able to access records from their desks. It is an innovative way of reducing paper work and sharing information. Government employees are saved the trouble of travelling with huge files as they visit citizens to provide certain services. E-government guarantees mobility and portability of public information (Wang 2004) and enables government officials to access information and respond to citizen’s concerns in real time basis. In addition, it builds a mobile office and synergises government services through technological integration and convergence of information communication technology. Secondly, according to Blackstone et al (2005), e-government promotes service effectiveness. Computerization reduces chances of making clerical errors. This is because computers can detect errors real-time and enables government officials to rectify them on the spot. Thus it provides accurate and reliable services. E-government promotes increases in productivity of government officials because it speeds up processes. Furthermore, it enables the government officials’ easy access to citizen’s information or files because computerization allows linked information that can be stored in a database in various locations. In addition, it ensures that services provided reach the intended beneficiaries. This is because use of electronic identical cards and name based systems enhanced accurate identification of most deserving beneficiaries. It also enhances effectiveness of welfare programmes by speeding processes as well as preventing frauds and leakages. Thirdly, e-government promotes efficiency in government agencies. Electronic self-service allow government officials to spend more time on challenging issues of customer service. Routine and simple tasks can be done by computers while complicated tasks such as explaining complicated legislations, interpretation to other languages or providing specialized assistance are left to government officials (Blackstone et al., 2005). E-government helps government agencies reduce on administrative costs because it is possible to reduce the number of government officers as well as writing materials without compromising on the quality of service provided to citizens. Government agencies that have implemented e-government have experienced constant or reduction of administrative costs associated with provision of services to the public. This is because computerised systems use less manpower to compile, report and review citizens’ information. Fourth, government agencies are able to restore confidence of clients in the public sector. Satyanarayana (2004) asserts that government agencies are redeeming their image slowly as they become more effective, efficient and transparent when providing services to the public. Government agencies through e-government get an opportunity to correct their wrongs when they re-engage the citizen to find out what really matters to them. When government officials and politicians communicate with the citizens electronically, it suggests that they are willing to listen to the people and attend to their most urgent needs. This reassures the public that their sentiments and opinions are being considered and this reduces friction between government urgencies and the citizens. Fifth, through e-government, government agencies are able to control corruption and fraud (Bhatnagar, 2004). E-government increases speed of processing transactions, transparency and accountability. It has also made provision of public services simple and rational and, created conducive environment for good service and discourages corruption. E-government makes fraud and corruption easy to detect and isolate corrupt culprits. Through e-government, high ranking government officials can easily monitor their juniors to ensure that public funds are used appropriately. Sixth, Wimmer (2004) asserts that e-government increases information exchange between government departments. It is possible for different government agencies to exchange complementary information to make provision of services to the public more effective. Using computer networks and internet, government agencies can cross check citizens’ information to ascertain that they are providing much needed services to deserving citizens. Consequently, government officials can save time and money because they could get information without physically travelling to other government department. Thus it speeds up decision making and program implementation. E-government is a cost effective way of improving communication between the government officials and citizens. It was estimated that United States of America and Europe could save $100 billion and ?114 billion respectively for embracing e-government. References Al-Hakim, L 2007, Global e-government: theory, applications and benchmarking, Idea Group Inc (IGI), London. Alston, R. (Ed) 2003, E-Government Benefits Study, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Andersen, VK 2004, E-government and public sector process rebuilding: dilettantes, wheel barrows, and diamonds, Springer, Germany. Bhatnagar, CS 2004, E-government: from vision to implementation : a practical guide with case studies, Sage, London. Blackstone, AE., Bognanno, M & Hakim, S 2005, Innovations in E-government: the thoughts of governors and mayors, Rowman & Littlefield, New York. Huang, WY & Wang, KL 2006, ‘E-Government Development and Implementation’, in Khosrow-Pour (Ed) Encyclopedia of E-Commerce, E-Government, and Mobile Commerce, Idea Group, London, pp. 359-363. OECD 2010, Rethinking e-government services: user-centred approaches, OECD Publishing, France. Roy, J 2006, E-Government in Canada: Transformation for the Digital Age, University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa, 2006. Satyanarayana, J 2004, E-government: the science of the possible, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India Sinrod, EJ 6 March 2004, ‘A look at the pros and cons of e-government’, USA Today, New York. Song, JE 2004, Building e-government through reform, Ewha Womans University Press, Seoul, Korea. Wang, S 2004, Conceptual modeling for advanced application domains: ER 2004 Workshops, CoMoGIS, CoMWIM, ECDM, CoMoA, DGOV, and eCOMO, Shanghai, China, November 8-12, 2004: proceedings, Springer, Germany. Wimmer, AM 2004, Knowledge management in electronic government: 5th IFIP International Working Conference, KMGov 2004, Krems, Austria, May 17-19, 2004: proceedings, Springer, Germany. Yigitcanlar, T & Baum, S 2006, ‘E-Government and the Digital Divide’ in Khosrow-Pour (Ed) Encyclopedia of E-Commerce, E-Government, and Mobile Commerce, Idea Group, London, pp. 353-358. Read More