Impact of e- governance on service delivery in bangladesh

         One of the most important developments in governmental system is the introduction of information and communication technology applications, which through their control, surveillance, communication and knowledge management potential are revolutionizing the internal workings and external relationships of governmental sector. Thus information technology has become one of the core elements of managerial reform and electronic government may figure prominently in future governance. Consequently over the past few years, e- government has received an increasing amount of both popular and scholarly attention. Defined as the electronic provision are the information and services of government 24 hours per day and 7 days per week. e- Government is said that to expand and extend the ability of government organization to serve their constituencies and to promote a host of other mainly positive benefits to both government and its citizens.

The growth of internet usage and rapid development of electronic commerce in the private sector have put growing pressure on the public sector to serve citizens electronically. The initiative is to provide public services and to empower citizens and communities through IT, especially through internet. In recent times, local and central government have started using electronic mail, luster and the World Wide Web to deliver information and services to their respective service users.

Concepts of e- government and e- governance

e- Government was introduced in the field of public administration in the late 1990s; through it has not been clearly defined and understood by scholars and parishioners of public administration. Like many managerial concepts and practices in public administration (TQM, strategic management, participatory management), the idea of e- government followed the private sector adoption of e- business and e- commerce.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are often seen as a set of tools, which can help to reinvent government in such a way that existing institutional arrangements, in which the transactions and other interaction between government and its stakeholders are embedded, can be restructured and new arrangement can occur.

e- Government denotes the strategic, coordinated use of ICT in public administration and policy making. In a similar vein, according to west, e-government refers to the delivery of government information and services online through the internet or other digital means. Unlike traditional structure, which are hierarchical, linear and one way, internet delivery systems are non heierchical, nonlinear, two way and available round the clock.

e- Governance

E-Governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective.

'E-Governance' is a network of organizations to include government, nonprofit, and private-sector entities; in e-governance there are no distinct boundaries.  Garson, D.G. (2006).

          e-Government (short for electronic government, also known as e-governance, digital government, online government, connected government or transformational government) is creating a comfortable, transparent, and cheap interaction between government and citizens (G2C) , government and business enterprises (G2B) and relationship between governments (G2G). (Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett publishers)

Objectives of e-governance

The strategic objective of e- governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties’ government, citizens and businesses. the use of ICTs can connect all the parties and support processes and activities. In other words, e- governance uses electronic means to support and stimulate good governance. Therefore the objectives of good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic. Political and administrative manage authority to better affairs of a country at all levels, national and local. 

    The use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees”

     Focus of these definitions range from those focusing on ICTs to those focusing on ICT enabled government and governance transformation. Some examples of such definitions include:

    The use of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government.

    The use of information and communication technologies in all facets of the operations of a government organization.

     The continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency participation and governance by transforming internal and external relationships through technology, the Internet and new media.

^{Stages of e- governance}

Information

Interaction

Transaction

Transformation

• Pushing information over the Internet, e.g: regulatory services, general holidays, public hearing schedules, issue briefs, notifications, etc.
• Two-way communications between the agency and the citizen, a business, or another government agency. In this model, users can engage in dialogue with agencies and post problems, comments, or requests to the agency.
• Conducting transactions, e.g: lodging tax returns, applying for services and grants.
• Governance, e.g: online polling, voting, and campaigning.

Service delivery

The term Service Delivery Platform (SDP) usually refers to a set of components that provide services delivery architecture such as service creation, session control & protocols for a type of service. There is no standard definition of SDP in the industry although the TM Forum (TMF) is working on defining specifications in this area. Different players will define its components and its breadth and depth in a slightly different way.

As SDPs evolve, they will often require integration of telecom and IT capabilities and the creation of services beyond technology and network boundaries. SDPs available today are optimized for the delivery of a service in a given technological or network domain. They will typically provide a service control environment, a service creation environment, a service orchestration and execution environment, and abstractions for media control, presence, integration, and other low-level communications capabilities. SDPs are applied to both consumer and business applications.

E-governance and Bangladesh

With the advent of Internet technology, in the early part of the last decade, the developed countries coined the concept of e-governance. Policy makers of the developed countries utilized the new developments in ICT and especially the TCP/IP protocol, in achieving the objectives of good governance. So, the term e-Governance can be defined as efficient and effective use of modern ICT technology for good governance in any country. E-governance can also be defined as Electronic State Management System based on information and communication technologies (ICT), including the Internet technology. The ultimate objective of e-Governance is to establish good governance. The attributes of good governance can be identified as follows: honesty, efficiency, effectiveness (in terms of time, space and money), airplay, reliability, participatory democracy, accountability, accessibility, transparency, equity and vision in decision making. All these can be achieved through proper implementation of e-governance using the state of the art technologies. Corruption in the public sector has dramatically fallen in the countries, which adopted e-Governance. A survey in India shows that the states, where e-governance has been established even partially, the corruption rate has dramatically come down. The survey found that in Kolkata and Mumbai, due to adoption of e-Governance, the corruption rate declined, in some of the public sector organizations, to 19 per cent and 18 per cent compared to 51 per cent and 38 per cent respectively in 2000. In Bangladesh, computerization of Railway Reservation System, black-marketing of tickets has significantly gone down.

Elimination of the middle men in citizen-government interaction can eradicate corruption. If people interact with the government offices through web-page, colonial red tapes practices can be with the advent of Internet technology, in the early part of the last decade, the developed countries coined the concept of e-governance. Policy makers of the developed countries utilized the new developments in ICT and especially the TCP/IP protocol, in achieving the objectives of good governance. So, the term e-Governance can be defined as efficient and effective use of modern ICT technology for good governance in any country. E-governance can also be defined as Electronic State Management System based on information and communication technologies (ICT), including the Internet technology.

The ultimate objective of e-Governance is to establish good governance. The attributes of good governance can be identified as follows: honesty, efficiency, effectiveness (in terms of time, space and money), fairplay, reliability, participatory democracy, accountability, accessibility, transparency, equity and vision in decision making. All these can be achieved through proper implementation of e-governance using the state of the art technologies. Corruption in the public sector has dramatically fallen in the countries, which adopted e-Governance. A survey in India shows that the states, where e-governance has been established even partially, the corruption rate has dramatically come down. The survey found that in Kolkata and Mumbai, due to adoption of e-Governance, the corruption rate declined, in some of the public sector organizations, to 19 per cent and 18 per cent compared to 51 per cent and 38 per cent respectively in 2000. In Bangladesh, computerization of Railway Reservation System, black-marketing of tickets has significantly gone down. Elimination of the middle men in citizen-government interaction can eradicate corruption. If people interact with the government offices through web-page, colonial red tapes practices can bait is no good to do little and talk much. But, that is what is done. When e-Commerce was getting popular, many of the ICT companies in Bangladesh hosted seminars, and workshops. They persuaded the government policymakers to be proactive. The government, in 2001, formed an ICT Task Force headed by the then prime minister for introducing e-Governance in Bangladesh. Everyone expected the government to adopt e-Governance overnight. But in five years, no significant progress could be achieved. Other than Planning Commission and the ministry of finance, no other ministry could, so far, make much headway in adopting the system even for their internal use. Some ministries like the Ministry of Science and Technology have created static Websites with no scope for active participation of the interested citizens. Moreover, as these Websites are not updated regularly, they mislead the public with backdated information.

In e-Governance, all governmental organizations can be interconnected through the wide area network. This connectivity facilitates exchange of information among different government departments, without any manual intervention. This requires IOS (Inter Organizational Systems) or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) software. Unfortunately, so far, government departments are using the software that does not support inter-departmental or inter-organizational data sharing.

Some ministries or government sectors are using computers as word processors. It is not e-Governance. Bangladesh has to go a long way in adopting e-Governance. It is true that available resources are inadequate for e-Governance. The low fixed telephone density is a major barrier to digital communication, which paves way for Internet communication. However, rapid growth of mobile telephone network can overcome this barrier. Besides, Bangladesh can utilize its underutilized optic fiber network of the railway department for the purpose. Used properly, the submarine cable connection can play a significant role in global connectivity from Bangladesh.

For establishing e-Governance in Bangladesh, ICT infrastructure needs to be developed step by step up to the village level, following a road map or master plan. The limited resources in that case would not be a barrier.

Decentralization of database is an essential feature of e-Governance. Decentralized or localized database ensures autonomy and reduces over loading of the communication network. Keeping this in mind, Bangladesh needs to design its e-Governance road-map. There is a need to priorities the sectors of the government to be addressed first. For good governance, local government is vital and crucial. So, e-Governance in Bangladesh should connect the upazilas first. Perhaps, a bottom-up approach or starting from the upazila, should be the appropriate strategy in a country like Bangladesh, where the majority of the population lives in the countryside.

Money should not be a problem if the government is really keen on utilizing the available resources in a planned way. In that case, funding for e-Governance should not be a big problem. For instance, the software procurement cost could be reduced by using free software for developing the modules for e-Governance. Besides, funding from the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who support ICT projects of the government, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), European Union (EU) or other sources should not be a difficult proposition. The government could approach Microsoft as well for the purpose. Bill Gates has already dedicated much of his wealth to supporting philanthropic works. He is well aware that e-Governance will bring equity and social justice by reducing the digital gap between different social segments in any country. If the government requests Bill Gates he will not hesitate to assist technologically backward countries.

Besides, Bangladesh can utilise its manpower resources, especially the new generation, for its e-Governance project. But, the government needs to be honest and transparent, to have a stable policy for the future.

The developed countries coined the concept of e-governance. Policy makers in those countries envisioned that new developments in information communication technology (ICT) and especially the TCP/IP protocol could be utilized for good governance. Efficient and effective use of modern ICT for transparency and good governance is what is known as e-governance. This can also be defined as Electronic State Management System based on ICT, including Internet from technological and management perspectives.

The prime objective of e-governance is to establish good governance, in the ultimate analysis. Honesty, efficiency, effective utilisation of time, space and resources, justice, fairplay, participatory democracy, accountability, accessibility, transparency, equity and vision in decision making are the hallmarks of good governance. Corruption levels have been found to have dramatically fallen in the countries that opted for e-governance. Also in Bangladesh, computerization has significantly reduced middlemen and black marketing of railway tickets, to cite here an example only.

The colonial red tape practices can be done away through online interaction between the citizens and the government organisations. Pervasive bribery in government offices can, then, be reduced.

Through computerisation comes accelerated performance. Time is saved. Reliability, efficiency and effectiveness are raised. E-Governance also facilitates active participation of the citizens in the process of democratic governance of a country. The government can then seek public opinion on various issues using the website. Website discussion groups can be formed on various issues by the government for transparent decision making. Thus, citizens' active participation can ensure pro-people decisions on the country's resources, environment and other socio-political issues involving public interests. For all these computer literacy and related infrastructural support facilities assume a great deal of importance. E-Governance leads to e-Democracy, too.

Access to information -- a fundamental right in the present-day world -- can be ensured for each citizen. Lack of access to information creates digital gap among different social segments. This breeds lack of equity and social injustice. A non-discriminatory access to information can go a long way towards minimising class distance between different groups in the society.

Local information communication technology (ICT) companies do need to pay attention to hold seminars, workshops etc., to popularise e-governance. More ministries should adopt the system of e-Governance even for their internal use. Interactive websites can disseminate information to public. The scope for people's active interest to interact will then be widened. Such websites should alsobe updated regularly. Otherwise, the public will be misled with backdated information.

All government organisations should be interconnected under e-governance network. Exchange of information between different departments without any manual intervention will then become easier. Bangladesh needs to install IOS (Inter Organisational Systems) or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) software for this purpose. Discrete nature of software, if used in various government departments, will not support inter-departmental or inter-organisational data sharing

Impact of e-governance

A..Subhash Bhatnagar and Radha S Chauhan analyze the impact of e-governance projects on land records, property registration and transportation across Indian states

In recent years, a large number of countries have launched ‘e-Government’ programs, and several development agencies and governments have identified e-Government implementation as a key policy priority. Therefore, a systematic and clear independent third party assessment to better understand the impact of ICT applications introduced by the public sector is needed to guide policies regarding future efforts and investments in this area. This paper reports the findings from a study commissioned by the Department of IT, Government of India, which ascertained the directly measurable and perceived impact on citizens of ICT applications in the public service delivery. A common measurement framework was used in this study. Table I lists key dimensions of outcomes for users (citizens and businesses) of an e-government application.

For the purpose of this study impact of electronically enabled-(e enabled) service delivery in the following three departments was studied across 12 states:

• Issue of an RTC (among other uses, this document is required for availing crop loans from banks and as surety for bail) and filing of a request for mutation for affecting changes in land record.
• Three key services delivered by Sub Registrar’s Offices—online registration of property sale/purchase deeds; issue of non-encumbrance certificate; and issue of copies of previously registered deeds.
• Issue of driver’s license on plastic cards with data and photograph captured on magnetic strip/chip and photo captured digitally. On-line registration of vehicles with a plastic card registration book.

Eleven market research agencies were assigned to all the three projects in a given state. They surveyed nearly 800 citizens being serviced by 16 service delivery points for each project capturing the experience of using the manual and computerized modes of delivery for each service through a structured instrument. Impact was calculated as the differences between the experience–under the old and the new system.

Impact on key dimensions in the three projects across states is given in Table 2. Results indicate an abysmal state of delivery of services in the existing manual system in all the three types of projects. Users need to make three-four trips to government offices on an average (up to eight trips in some cases), wait of two hours or more (up to six hours in some cases) in each trip and pay frequent bribes (in 20-50% of all transactions) to get services. Even in a simple service such as issue of a copy of land record, the elapsed time (submission of application to receipt of document) averaged five days. For property registration and drivers license, the average time (over 12 states) was 32 and 23 days respectively. In some states the elapsed time was as high as two-three months.

Citizens indicated an overwhelming preference for computerized service delivery. Their preference was supported by specific areas where concrete benefits have accrued to them. Overall, in all three types of services, the number of trips to offices reduced significantly (by one or two trips) after computerization. Waiting time has been reduced by 20-40% by computerization. Impact on bribes is uneven. In land record computerization, reduction in proportion paying bribes is significant. In property registration and transport, there is hardly any impact on bribery and a large number of users continue to go through agents to get the service. Although the outcome in reducing corruption is mixed, e-government seems to have the potential for significant reduction in corruption, as indicated by the fact that need for bribes in the issue of Record of Rights (RORs) has either been eliminated or significantly reduced in five states after computerization.

Amongst the three projects, land record computerization seems to have resulted in the most positive impact on citizens. Computerization reduced the number trips in almost all states by one. Average number of trips over all users in all the ten states was 3.2 in the manual mode, which was reduced to 2 in the computerized mode. Waiting time has been reduced by 30% from an average of 130 minutes in the manual mode. Bribes had to be paid in 9 out of the 10 states in the manual system. Bribes were either eliminated or significantly reduced in five states. However, in most states users reported an increase in travel costs (in spite of a reduction in number of trips) because the delivery of RORs has been centralized to taluk-level from the village level in the manual

E-government for good governance

I am trying to seek convincing answers for the questions I put forward in my last post by asking another set of questions? What will be the suitable e-Governance framework for our country? Do we have a National Citizen database, in real sense, which will be essential for all e-governance applications, vertical or horizontal? Do we have acceptable standards for exchanging information securely with non-repudiation, through out the network, between citizen to government and among government departments seamlessly? Are we planning to establish a secure delivery framework connecting ministries and departments of our government? Can we establish data centers in center and regions to handle the administrative workflow automation, collaboration, interaction, authenticated exchange of information? We should have our administrative processes rightly empowered and reengineered which can accelerate the decision making? When will the entire administrative agencies be able to contribute more for the national development rather than being entangled in the piles of files? I have just visualized the scenario. Let us try to find an answer to each of the above questions towards providing good and smart governance to our citizens.

I have been advocating the use of technology and especially Information Technology for the betterment of our society. E-Governance implementation is one such opportunity, which I see can uplift the chaos administrative system in our country to the well organized and accessible service-system to everyone. Definitely one should not forget that the technology should be used with wisdom. If we don't have an implementation plan upfront from concept to delivery, in less than TWO to FIVE years, even shorter period of time, the technology will become expensive in many ways and we will not be able to get the real benefits out of it. So e-governance implementation process should be fast enough to stay on top of the technology. Along with the e-Governance implementation process, independent monitoring and study should be carried out so that the impact of e-governance implementation to the live of citizens can be measured.

e-Government at the Policy Level

e-Government in Bangladesh has only begun to be discussed at the policy level. The National ICT Policy of 2002 gives due importance to the issue of e-Government, declaring that “the Government shall use ICT systems within the public administration to improve efficiency, reduce Wastage of resources, enhance planning and raise the quality of services.” The policy further provides that “the Government shall implement ICT systems to provide nation-wide coverage and access by any citizen to the government databases and administrative systems which can be used to extend public services to the remotest corner.” To realize the goals set forth by the ICT Policy, an ICT Task Force has been formed, with the Prime Minister as Chairperson and the Secretary of Ministry of Planning as Member-Secretary. In 2003, the Ministry of Planning launched a “Support to ICT Task Force (SICT)” program, with the mandate of providing administrative and secretarial support to the ICT Task Force in realizing various ICT projects, particularly e-Government. The primary objective of the SICT program is “to ensure access to information by every citizen to facilitate empowerment of people and enhanced democratic values and norms for sustainable economic development by using the infrastructure for human resources development, e-governance, public utility services and all sorts of on-line ICT enabled services.” The objectives of the SICT program include: l Video-conferencing: Establish an alternate communication network, which will provide optimal reliability and security of communication and enhance the speed and efficiency of decision-making and follow-up actions. l Police: Facilitate improved communication between citizens and police and empower police departments to better monitor and supervise police functions. l Digital Divisional Town: Provide electronic delivery of major citizen services, empower local officials, introduce electronic services, and build cyber-kiosks to enhance citizen access to government services. l Web Portals: Help citizens to improve their employment and income-generating potential.

E-Governance in Public Service Delivery

BRTA

BRTA at a glance:  

Road Transport Authority (BRTA) was established under section 2A of Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983, (Amendment-1987) Vide SRO No-303/Law/87/MVRT/1E-7/84(part), and dated 20/12/87 and has been functioning since January 1988.

BRTA is regulatory bodies to control manages and ensure discipline in the road transport sector and road safety related areas in Bangladesh. It is an authority under the Ministry of Communication for carrying out the purposes mentioned in the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983. The Chairman is the chief executive of the authority. He exercises such power and performs such function as prescribed by rules and assigned by the government from time to time.

As per revised organ gram total number of circle is 62 (57 District circle+ 5 Metro Circle). At present 31 circles are working where 32 AD (Engg.) is posted as head of the office. Rest of the sanctioned circles are administered from near by circles (31 circles)

According to revised organ gram the number of sanctioned office staff is 573 out of which 282 are working presently. The remaining post are in the of recruitment. Circle offices of BRTA are headed by Assistant Director (Engg.) and the divisional offices by Deputy Director (Engg.).

Activities:

·        Controlling and regulating road transport by executing motor vehicle acts, issuing route permits and fixing rates and fares of buses and trucks

·        Conducting regular activities like: Issuing driving license, fitness certificates, registration certificates and Driving Instructor's license

·        Registering schools for motoring

·        Organizing and conducting workshop Seminars for delivering information regarding safe driving and traffic regulations

·        Making research and development for developing ideas and  methodologies for safe road transport and traffic

Fitness Certificate:

          (1) Subject to the provisions of section 48, no motor vehicle other than the motor vehicles as may be prescribed shall be demand to be  validly registered for the purposes of section 32, unless it carries a certificate of fitness in Form J as set forth in the First Schedule,  issued by the Inspector of Motor Vehicles or any other prescribed authority, to the effect that the vehicle complies for the time being with  all the requirements of Chapter VI and the rules made the render; where the Inspector of Motor Vehicles or any other prescribed authority refuses to issue such certificate, it shall supply the owner of the vehicle with its reasons in writing for such refusal.

             (2) The Authority may take regulations subject to which the certificate of fitness of motor vehicles may be renewed by the registered motor workshops specially authorized in this behalf by the Authority by in Gazette.

Driving license:

To drive a motor vehicle in a public place every one must have driving license [as per section 03 of MV Ordinance 1983]. To obtain a driving license one should hold a learner driving license before appearing the driving test. Application for the learner's license to be submitted to the licensing authority in the prescribed form [Form LR.A- Forms & Fees] along with related papers and fees. An applicant not being a foreign national must be able to read and write either Bengali or English. Successful candidate of the driving test have to submit application in the prescribed form [Forms & Fees] to the licensing authority along with the related papers &fees

Required age limit:

Minimum 18 years for non-professional and 20 years for professional driving license [Section 04 of MV Ordinance 1983].

Route permit:

1. RTC (Regional Transport Committee) issues route permit for-

a. Stage carriage: Within two districts.

b. Contract carriage: Within administrative eareao fRTC.

c. Goods vehicle: Whole of Bangladesh.

2. Divisional Commissioner issues route permit for stage carriage within the districts of ad vision.

3. BRTA Head Quarter issues route permit for stage carriage & contract carriage for more than two districts covering more than one division.

{N:B:- Sub-Section (4) of section 47 of MV ordinance 1983 may be seen}

Necessity of Route Permit:

No owner of transport vehicle shall use or permit the use of the vehicle in any public place, save in accordance with the conditions of a permit granted or countersigned by a Transport Committee authorizing the vehicle in that place in the manner in which the vehicle is being used.

Shall not apply-:

1)     To any transport vehicle owned by or on behalf of the Government other than the vehicles used for Government purposes connected with any commercial enterprises;

2)     To any transport vehicle owned by a local authority or by a person acting under contract with a local authority and used solely for road cleansing, road watering or conservancy purposes;

3)      To any transport vehicle used solely for police, fire brigade or ambulance purposes

4)     (d) To any transport vehicle used solely for the conveyance of corpses;

5)      To any transport vehicle used for towing a disabled vehicle or for removing goods from a disabled vehicle to a place of safety;
(f) To any transport vehicle used for any other public purpose prescribed in this behalf;

6)     To any transport vehicle used by person who manufactures or deals in motor vehicles or builds bodies for attachment to chassis, solely, for such purposes and in accordance with such conditions as the Authority may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify in this behalf;

7)     To any transport vehicle owned by , and used solely for the purposes of, any educational institution which is recognized by the Government or whose managing committee is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 (XXI of 1860);

8)     To any goods vehicle which is a light motor vehicle and does not ply for hire or reward, or not used for any commercial purposes or to any two wheeled trailer with a registered laden weight not exceeding 2,240 pounds avoirdupois drawn by a motor car;

9)     To any transport vehicle which has been temporarily registered under section 36, while proceeding empty to any place for the purpose of registration of the vehicle under section 34;

10)To any transport vehicle which owing to any natural calamity, is required to the diverted through any other route, whether within or outside a region with a view to enabling to reach its destination; or

To any transport vehicle used for such purposes other than plying for hire or reward or used for any commercial purposes as the Authority may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify.

Shall apply-:

To any motor vehicle adopted to carry more than eight persons excluding the driver.

Road safety:

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is the apex Government Organization in the road transport sector under the Ministry of Communication mandated for providing services namely Registration of Motor Vehicles, Issuance of fitness certificate of motor vehicles, Issuance of Route permit for Transport Vehicles, Issuance of Motor Driving Licenses, Issuance of Motor Driving Instructor’s License, Registration of Motor Driving Training Schools, Inspection of Motor Vehicles involved in road accidents, Inspection of Government Vehicles for Repair etc. Besides, BRTA takes different measures in order to promote road safety and coordinates road safety prevention activities undertaken by different agencies/organizations. BRTA prepares the Annual Report of Road Traffic Accidents on the basis of reported data on road traffic accidents from Bangladesh Police. Using the data received from the Police BRTA has already published 7 consecutive annual reports since 2001. BRTA believes that the Report will help find gap in the activities aiming at reducing accidents by the road safety practitioners.

The Road Traffic Accident database is being maintained and updated by BRTA on the basis of police MAAP (Micro-Computer Accident Analysis Package) information. BRTA and the Bangladesh Police have been working together to maintain the integrity of the database and promoting its statistical accuracy. The shortcoming of the database is that it is prepared on the basis of reported accidents only. It’s a fact that there exist some accidents in the country side which are not reported to the police, making the database virtually incomplete. However, it will invariably serve the purpose as it covers most and major parts of the accidents of the country.

BRTA believe that despite of shortcoming, this report will be helpful to the researchers, planners, administrators and other stakeholders for making future plan aiming at reducing road traffic accidents in Bangladesh. Any suggestions in relation to this report will be accepted cordially.

Rajshahi City Corporation: Electronic Birth Registration System

Bangladesh is one of the few countries in Asia that does not have a standardized national system of identification for every citizen, or an effective system for birth registration. As a result, crucial statistics needed for policy-making cannot be easily determined or maintained. The Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) has taken a landmark step in developing an Electronic Birth Registration System (EBRS) that provides citizens with a unique identity card that can be used for various services, including education and health care. Since the card helps in securing certain social services and benefits, citizens are now encouraged to register births, which was previously regarded by many people as a pointless inconvenience. EBRS has been initiated byte Rajshahi City Corporation and the Local Division of the Ministry of Local Government, and implemented with technical and financial support from UNICEF.

Rajshahi City Corporation has played a pioneering role in the introduction of e-Government applications in the context of local governance. For a country in which economic activities are heavily concentrated in a handful of major cities, the EBRS is a major achievement. Some of the factors considered in characterizing the project as a major success story include:

Improved citizen services:

          Previously, people would take have to wait in a long queue and then complete several lengthy procedures to register the birth of a child. Through the EBRS, it takes a few minutes to complete the registration process. Citizens register birth information at the local ward office, and the certificate is generated from the Heath Department of the City Corporation. The system also generates an immunization schedule for every child. The electronic ID is used for immunization purposes and also for securing admission to government primary schools in Rajshahi.

Internal efficiency of RCC:

 Under the previous system of birth registration, RCC preserved large volumes of registration data on a manual basis. As a result, it took a lot of time to complete simple inquiries such as the number of female births in the past five years. In addition, the manual system could not fully guarantee that duplication of entries would not occur.

The EBRS allows easy entry and retrieval of data in seconds. Moreover, since data is now stored in databases and CD-ROMs it is not prone to damage of the kind to which paper-based data storage is vulnerable.

Helps keep track of each child:

The EBRS helps to keep track of each child registered under the system, starting from immunization requirements to school enrollment status. It helps the RCC to monitor the needs of a community and empowers the Corporation to better perform its duties.

Reduces scope for corruption:

EBRS provides a unique identity for every citizen, which’s crucial for the security of records of this kind. At present, even the Passport Office has no way of uniquely identifying identity. As a result, anyone can theoretically apply for and receives many passports as they wish. Systems such as EBRS can provide a foundation for a secure national-level identification system.

Helps in national-level decision-making:

Since data related to birth were previously maintained in haphazard manual systems, the statistics gathered were often erroneous and unreliable. The EBRS system has largely eliminated human errors and is able to provide the reliable data needed for national-level decision-making and monitoring of progress.

Transparency:

The EBRS system increased the transparency of RCC. Users can easily determine the status of all registered children with respect to immunization, schooling, and other social service that the government is responsible to provide for every child. The system can generate reports on the number of children who have not received necessary immunizations.

Lessons Learned

l Relatively quick demand creation: Following the implementation of EBRS, public demand for such a computerized system was immediately apparent. This is crucial for the government in justifying that a program should be continued and refined.

Minimal internal resistance:

There was minimal internal resistance at RCC during the implementation of the EBRS. Timely training and awareness programs were crucial in preventing any resistance. In addition, championship from top-level officials helped to ensure a smooth transition to the new electronic system. As a result, RCC officials and staff take pride in the new system.

Sustainability:

UNICEF will not continue to fund this program on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, the government will have to assume responsibility for maintenance costs through the revenue budget. With most of the necessary training complete, the system is likely to continue on a sustainable basis since there is clear public demand for it and RCC officials are very much in favor of the new electronic system. In addition, it is not an expensive program to continue, given the benefits that it provides to citizens and the efficiency that it has brought torch.

Decentralization of governance:

An electronic system that operates in a networked environment can facilitate the decentralization of governance to the level of ward commissioners. Since electronic data can be easily exchanges among local offices, the ward commissioners can share the workload and provide various information-based services that were traditionally available only from the City Corporation.

Linkage and integration:

 Electronic data also facilitates easy integration and linkage among different offices. For instance, when the Health Department immunizes a child and enters the information into EBRS, all connected offices have instant access to the immunization record. This has made integration of related activities much more efficient than before.

Involvement of civil society:

Civil society was involved from the very inception of the project through meetings with public representatives and members of academia. This helped in popularizing the new system among local citizens.

Recommendations for Further Enhancement

Future refinements for the EBRS system may be guided by the following considerations Self-financed sustainability: RCC may consider charging a nominal fee to citizens to cover the future maintenance costs of the electronic system. This would create a self-sustaining model independent of central government’s budget allocation and other approval procedures.

Create website to disseminate information: RCC should create a website to deliver information-based services through the Internet. With the EBRS, RCC is able to better coordinate its efforts with the Department of Health and primary schools. Different information—such as rules and regulations regarding the use of ID generated with EBRS—on immunization and admission to schools should be posted on the website. Citizens will be able to access this information from cyber cafes around the city.

 Extend EBRS to ward-commission level:

EBRS should be extended to the ward commissioner level so that ward commissioner’s offices are empowered to assume additional responsibilities that currently fall to the City Corporation. E-Government can help to facilitate decentralization of governance functions to increasingly local levels. RCC can achieve a further milestone by decentralizing operations to the ward commissioner-level through EBRS.

ICT sector and e-government in Bangladesh

The ICT Policy 2002 aimed at ‘building an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge based society by the year 2006’ (MOSICT, 2002). However, Bangladesh has failed to achieve its ICT target as enunciated in the ICT Policy. In the area of e-government, the achievements fell significantly short of the expectations. Using ‘Gartner’s Four Phases E-Government Model,’ it is possible, to a certain extent, to determine the progression of e-government in Bangladesh. In 2000, the Gartner Group Inc formulated a schema identifying four phases of e-government in order to measure the progression of e-government and identified strategy and other factors contributing to a country’s success in each phase. The model suggested the four critical phases of e-government evolution, viz., the web presence, interactions, transactions and transformation

Problems of e-Government

Awareness of government officials about ICT: More than anything else, it is the mindset of government officials that poses the biggest bottleneck to e-Government. There are a number of reasons why they resist the use of computers beyond usual typing of letters and documents. Some of the primary reasons are mentioned: (1) they are resistant to any kind of change in their familiar working environment; (2) they fear that computerization of different government activities may make some people redundant; (3) they think that computers are meant for low-level typist kind of work.

Lack of adequate training programs: Many e-Government or computerization projects suffer gravely from lack of adequate training programs. Training is of vital necessity in familiarizing users with computers and breaking their fears. Some officials go through unplanned ‘IT Training’, often in another country, and then come back not getting any scope for utilizing his/her newly gathered knowledge of IT and forgetting it all in due time. The training programs are mostly not need-based and arranged at arbitrary periods, not during the implementation phase of an e-Government project.

Frequent, unpredictable transfer of government officials: Another major problem to popularizing e-Government in an office is that government officials get frequently and unpredictably transferred. It is seen that IT systems are often dependent on one or two IT champions. As soon as they are transferred, no one remains to take their position.

          Non-acceptability of IT systems: It is often seen that even after an IT system is implemented in a government office, it becomes hard for government officials to convince them to use it. Besides the general lack of awareness about ICTs and the fears discussed earlier, some other factors also play a part in their non-acceptability of IT systems. They fear important data getting lost or they are doubtful about the security features of computers.

Lack of sustainability of IT Systems: Almost all e-Government projects are funded through external sources, primarily foreign funds. This brings about a very vulnerable situation with regards to the sustainability of these projects. As soon as the external fund dries up, it is often seen that there is no fund left even to buy printer paper. As a result of this, there is a lot of hardware sitting in government offices unused as memories of a bygone project.

ICT infrastructure across the nation: Bangladesh’s ICT infrastructure is still quite underdeveloped. The international submarine cable installation has significantly been delayed, despite the keen necessity of an optical fiber link with global network.  This delay has caused a difficulty of setting up Internet Exchange (IX) in Bangladesh, as establishment of IX is a must from the viewpoints of the efficient Internet connection and the national security.

 However, there is a good progress of digitalization of network for narrowband service. Construction of DDN (Digital Data Network) is smoothly on-going throughout the country, including digitalization by using optical fiber cables for backbone network and junction network in the city areas.

Lack of necessary regulatory/legal framework: The regulatory/legal framework in Bangladesh has not yet been modernized to accommodate the growing needs of the electronic world. Still, in government offices, an e-mail has no official value and cannot be legally considered an acceptable mode of communication. There are no laws to protect against cyber-crime, neither are there any laws for electronic authentication. 

Supply of electricity across the nation: With about 30% of the population of Bangladesh having access to electricity, the question of providing access to computers to a large section of the population seems like a two-step problem. Even the fortunate 30% has to suffer daily power cuts. Since there are yet no low-cost methods of running computers without electricity, the issue of electricity has to be solved before a widespread dissemination of ICTs is possible. 

Recommendations

Make plans for reliable maintenance: There should be a process to have 24 hr., and immediate maintenance, without which critical e-Government projects should not be undertaken. It is also vital to maintain confidence of users. The maintenance work should be ideally outsourced since the current government structure does not allow internal IT maintenance team.

          Updating of database: There should also be a process for regular updating of data since almost all e-Government projects involve the storage and retrieval of huge amounts of data. An outdated database is worse or potentially more dangerous than no database at all.

          Build sustainable models for e-Government: To build sustainable models for e-Government, three processes have to be outsourced: those involving personnel training, hardware and software maintenance and updating of databases. Also, steps have to be taken so e-Government projects that get started through external funds are internalized within the budget of the government so that these projects do not meet sad deaths after external funding stops.

          Transfer issue: Transfer of government officials is an inherent part of the government process. While taking decisions about such transfer, the level of IT training of the candidate for transfer should be taken into account.

          Appoint CIO: To create ownership and accountability structure for e-Government projects, an interested mid-to-high level government official in a particular office should be appointed as CIO (Chief Information Officer) of that office. It will be the responsibility of the CIO to make plans for integration of ICT into the activities of that office and promote e-Government. 

Create and retain adequate IT human resource: There needs to be a well-planned program to create a greater number of IT human resource in the country. The number of seats in the computer science and engineering departments of universities needs to be increased. Steps need to be taken to monitor the quality of training institutes. Government certification programs to test individuals need to be arranged for maintaining quality of IT-related diplomas. Efforts should also be taken to retain the massive number of IT-trained personnel Bangladesh is losing each year.

          Invest in public IT literacy: IT literacy programs should start early in schools because it is at that tender age that students are most open to new ideas and technologies. The government should also arrange, encourage and subsidize IT vocational training to create an IT-literate society.

          Encourage local software companies to prepare themselves: The local software companies should take steps to become more prepared for handling government IT projects, especially in areas of project management. The software companies may also need to cooperate among themselves to jointly handle large-scale e-Government projects. Individual software companies in Bangladesh mostly do not have the human resource capacity to handle government projects. The government should take steps to give public projects to software companies so that they gain needed experience for larger projects.

Conclusion

Access to information -- a fundamental right in the present-day world -- can be ensured for each citizen. Lack of access to information creates digital gap among different social segments. This breeds lack of equity and social injustice. A non-discriminatory access to information can go a long way towards minimising class distance between different groups in the society.

Local information communication technology (ICT) companies do need to pay attention to hold seminars, workshops etc., to popularise e-governance. More ministries should adopt the system of e-Governance even for their internal use. Interactive websites can disseminate information to public. The scope for people's active interest to interact will then be widened. Such websites should also be updated regularly. Otherwise, the public will be misled with backdated information.

All government organisations should be interconnected under e-governance network. Exchange of information between different departments without any manual intervention will then become easier. Bangladesh needs to install IOS (Inter Organisational Systems) or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) software for this purpose. Discrete nature of software, if used in various government departments, will not support inter-departmental or inter-organisational data sharing.