E-governance

 

Electronic governance or e-governance is the application of IT for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems between government to citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G), Government-to-employees (G2E) as well as back-office processes and interactions within the entire government framework. Through e-governance, government services are made available to citizens in a convenient, efficient, and transparent manner. The three main target groups that can be distinguished in governance concepts are government, citizens, and businesses/interest groups. In e-governance, there are no distinct boundaries, finance and support.

 Four types of e-governance

·  Government-to-Citizen (G2C):

·  Government-to-business (G2B): ...

·  Government-to-Government (G2G): ...

·  Government-to-Employee (G2E)

Government by citizen

The goal of government-to-citizen (G2C) e-governance is to offer a variety of ICT services to citizens in an efficient and economical manner and to strengthen the relationship between government and citizens using technology.

Two-way communication allows citizens to instant message directly with public administrators. These are examples of e-Participation. Other examples included the payment of taxes and services that can be completed online or over the phone. Mundane services such as name or address changes, applying for services or grants, or transferring existing services are more convenient and no longer have to be completed face to face

By country

G2C  United States, European Union, and Asia are ranked the top three in development.

The Federal Government of the United States has a broad framework of G2C technology to enhance citizen access to Government information and services. benefits.gov is an official US government website that informs citizens of benefits they are eligible for and provides information on how to apply for assistance. US State Governments also engage in G2C interaction through the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety, United States Department of Health and Human Services, United States Department of Education, and others.

European countries were ranked second among all geographic regions. The Single Point of Access for Citizens of Europe supports travel within Europe. Main focuses are to provide public information, allow customers to have access to basic public services, simplify online procedures, and promote electronic signatures. Estonia is the first and the only country in the world with e-residency which enables anyone in the world outside Estonia to access Estonian online services. The benefit to e-residents is the opportunity to develop business in the digital European Union market.

Asia is ranked third in comparison, and there are diverse G2C programs between countries. Singapore's eCitizen Portal is an organized single access point to government information and services. South Korea's Home Tax Service (HTS) provides citizens with 24/7 online services such as tax declaration. Taiwan has top ranking G2C technology including an online motor vehicle services system, which provides 21 applications and payment services to citizens.

Concerns/ Disadvantages

A full switch to government-to-citizen e-governance will cost a large amount of money in development and implementation. Not everyone has Internet access, especially in rural or low-income areas, G2C technology can be problematic for citizens who lack computing skills. G2C sites have technology requirements (such as browser requirements and plug-ins) that won't allow access to certain services, language barriers, the necessity for an e-mail address to access certain services, and a lack of privacy.

Government to employees

E-governance to Employee partnership (G2E) is one of the main primary interactions in the delivery model of E-governance. It is the relationship between online tools, sources, and articles that help employees to maintain the communication with the government and their own companies. E-governance relationship with Employees allows new learning technology in one simple place as the computer. Documents can now be stored and shared with other colleagues online.^[10]

E-governance makes it possible for employees to become paperless and makes it easy for employees to send important documents back and forth to colleagues all over the world instead of having to print out these records or fax. G2E services also include software for maintaining personal information and records of employees. Some of the benefits of G2E expansion include:

• E-payroll – maintaining the online sources to view paychecks, pay stubs, pay bills, and keep records for tax information.
• E-benefits – be able to look up what benefits an employee is receiving and what benefits they have a right to.
• E-training – allows for new and current employees to regularly maintain the training they have through the development of new technology and to allow new employees to train and learn over new materials in one convenient location. E-learning is another way to keep employees informed on the important materials they need to know through the use of visuals, animation, videos, etc.
• Maintaining records of personal information – Allows the system to keep all records in one easy location to update with every single bit of information that is relevant to a personal file. Examples being social security numbers, tax information, current address, and other informatioन^]

G2E is an effective way to provide e-learning to the employees, bring them together and to promote knowledge sharing among them. It also gives employees the possibility of accessing information in regard to compensation and benefits policies, training and learning opportunities and civil rights laws. G2E services also include software for maintaining personal information and records of employees.

Government to government

E-government

Many governments around the world have gradually turned to Information technologies (IT) in an effort to keep up with today's demands. There has been a more proactive approach in developing comparable services such things as e-commerce and e-business

The framework of such an organization is now expected to increase more than ever by becoming efficient and reducing the time it takes to complete an objective. Some examples include paying utilities, tickets, and applying for permits. So far, the biggest concern is accessibility to Internet technologies for the average citizen. In an effort to help, administrations are now trying to aid those who do not have the skills to fully participate in this new medium of governance, especially now as e-government progressing to more e-governance though.

Many governments such as Canada's have begun to invest in developing new mediums of communication of issues and information through virtual communication and participation. In practice, this has led to several responses and adaptations by interest groups, activist, and lobbying groups. This new medium has changed the way the polis interacts with government.

Editorial

The purpose to include e-governance to government is to means more efficient in various aspects. Whether it means to reduce cost by reducing paper clutter, staffing cost, or communicating with private citizens or public government. E-government brings many advantages to play such as facilitating information delivery, application process/renewal between both business and private citizen, and participation with the constituency. There are both internal and external advantages to the emergence of IT in government, though not all municipalities are alike in size and participation.

In theory, there are currently 4 major levels of E-government in municipal governments:^[20]

• The establishment of a secure and cooperative interaction among governmental agencies
• Web-based service delivery
• The application of e-commerce for more efficient government transactions activities
• Digital democracy

Overview

Government-to-Government (abbreviated G2G) is the online non-commercial interaction between Government organizations, departments, and authorities and other Government organizations, departments, and authorities. Its use is common in the UK, along with G2C, the online non-commercial interaction of local and central Government and private individuals, and G2B the online non-commercial interaction of local and central Government and the commercial business sector.

G2G systems generally come in one of two types: Internal-facing - joining up a single Governments departments, agencies, organizations, and authorities - examples include the integration aspect of the Government Gateway, and the UK NHS Connecting for Health Data SPINE. External facing - joining up multiple Governments IS systems - an example would include the integration aspect of the Schengen Information System (SIS), developed to meet the requirements of the Schengen Agreement.

Objective

Government-to-government model

Government to business

Government-to-Business (G2B) is the online non-commercial interaction between local and central government and the commercial business sector with the purpose of providing businesses information and advice on e-business best practices. G2B conduction through the Internet between government agencies and trading companies.

Objective

The objective of G2B is to reduce difficulties for business, provide immediate information and enable digital communication by e-business (XML). In addition, the government should re-use the data in the report proper, and take advantage of commercial electronic transaction protocol.^[25] Government services are concentrated on the following groups: human services; community services; judicial services; transport services; land resources; business services; financial services and other.^[26] Each of the components listed above for each cluster of related services to the enterprise.

Benefits for business

E-government reduces costs and lowers the barrier of allowing companies to interact with the government. The interaction between the government and businesses reduces the time required for businesses to conduct a transaction. For instance, there is no need to commute to a government agency's office, and transactions may be conducted online instantly with the click of a mouse. This significantly reduces transaction time for the government and businesses alike.

E-Government provides a greater amount of information that the business needed, also it makes that information more clear. A key factor in business success is the ability to plan and forecast through data-driven future. The government collected a lot of economic, demographic and other trends in the data. This makes the data more accessible to companies which may increase the chance of economic prosperity.

Disadvantages

The government should concern that not all people are able to access the internet to gain online government services. The network reliability, as well as information on government bodies, can influence public opinion and prejudice hidden agenda. There are many considerations and implementation, designing e-government, including the potential impact of government and citizens of disintermediation, the impact on economic, social and political factors, vulnerable to cyber attacks, and disturbances to the status quo in these areas.^[29]

G2B rises the connection between government and businesses. Once the e-government began to develop, become more sophisticated, people will be forced to interact with e-government in the larger area. This may result in a lack of privacy for businesses as their government gets their more and more information. In the worst case, there is so much information in the electron transfer between the government and business, a system which is like totalitarian could be developed. As the government can access more information, the loss of privacy could be a cost.

The government site does not consider about "potential to reach many users including those who live in remote areas, are homebound, have low literacy levels, exist on poverty line incomes."

Examples

• e-Tender Box (ETB) system – ETB system was developed by Government Logistics Department (GLD) to replace Electronic Tendering System. Users can use the ETB system to download the resources and gain the service from the GLD.
• e-Procurement Programme^[ – e-Procurement Programme provides a simple, convenient online ways for suppliers of the participating bureaux/departments (B/Ds) and suppliers of Government Logistics Department and agree to provide the low-valued goods and service.^[35] One of the last innovative examples is a public e-procurement system Prozorro.
• Finance and support for your business – UK Government provide the online financial help for business, including grants, loans, business guide; what's more, it also offers the funding for the sunrise businesses (just start) or small-scale firms.

Overview

The main goal of government to business is to increase productivity by giving business more access to information in a more organize manner while lowering the cost of doing business as well as the ability to cut "red tape", save time, reduce operational cost and to create a more transparent business environment when dealing with government.

• Lowering cost of doing business – electronic transaction save time compared to conducting business in person.
• Cutting red tape – rules and regulation placed upon business normally take time and are most likely to cause a delay- in (G2B) will allow a much faster process with fewer delays and decreasing the number of rules and regulations
• Transparency – More information will be available, making G2B easier to communicate.

 Latest ICT Information

The 21st century is the age of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). With the advancement of ICTs, the world has made great strides in the fields of social transformation and economic development. E-commerce, online news sites, ride-sharing apps and GPS system are some of the prominent disruptive technologies in use today. There has been an increasing trend worldwide to use ICT and it has brought about sweeping changes in the operation of the state system, management of development, public services, flow of information and social interactions.

The country has set a target of graduating to the status of a developing nation by 2026 despite the unprecedented economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nepal has been heading towards transformation in different sectors with the enforcement of 'Digital Nepal Framework-2019'. The policy is being implemented by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. Under this policy, the government services are planned to be made paperless and faceless with the best use of information technology. The Framework makes the public agencies to provide services to the common people at a low cost and without hassles.

At 4th National ICT Day  former  Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the foundation of a prosperous Nepal would be possible through the expansion and better use of ICTs. The Beta version of Nagarik App that was launched on January 15 this year was officially inaugurated Sunday coinciding with the National ICT Day. With the use of this handy App, users are entitled to receive numerous services like getting PAN number, opening bank account, paying vehicle tax, updating KYC, receiving police clearance report, filling up health insurance policy, and opportunity to watch and request for editing personal details and records of Citizens Investment Trust, Employees Provident Fund and academic mark sheets of the school level.

Digital Nepal Framework includes eight different programmes which are related to education, health, agriculture, energy, tourism, urban development, finance and digital foundation. The government has begun carrying out works to ensure that all local levels, ward offices, community schools, health centres have access to information technology infrastructure including Internet services. 'Information Technology Bill' in parliament and has accorded high priority to the construction and expansion of the 'Information Highway' considering its significance for national development.