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@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Rad!
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:37 AM
To:
harry@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@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@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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