“E-Government” is the term used to explain about the use of information technologies by the government departments to make their interaction with their target audience much better in terms of quality, speed and effectiveness. The commonly used technologies are the Internet, mobile communication; WAN (Wide Area Networks) etc. The introduction of e-Government system has drastically enhanced the quality of Public Administration and the communication between business entities, corporate as well as citizens. (Dhindsa, Narang, & Chaudhary, 2013)
The modern technologies can offer a range of distinct services that are revolutionary in the government sector. This includes better deliverance of services from the government to people and institutions, better communication with corporate and business houses, empowering people by offering right to information. This also helps with the implementation of more effective functioning of the government. The most rewarding advantages are that there will be fewer corruption, improved precision, better convenience, revenue escalation, and all these achieved with a much reduced running expense. (worldbank.org)
Conventionally, the communication between an individual and business and the government facility used to take place in the concerned government office. With the advent of the improved communication and information technology, it is now possible to locate places of service delivery at the close proximity of the clients. Such facilities may include the use of an automatic, user operated kiosk placed in the government offices, a utility kiosk placed near to the business establishment of the client, or letting the clients to access the services using their own personal computer, which can be operated at their comfort. (Lallana, 2008)
E-government initiatives can be compared to that of e-commerce, which permits organizations to carry out business deals with their customers (B2B) other more efficiently and in a faster manner. This also helps to develop a long term affiliation between the business firm and its customer (B2C).All the e-governance initiatives propose to build the communication between government and its people (G2C), government establishments and their respective company enterprises (G2B), and cross-institutional associations (G2G) much more effective, handy, clear, and much cheaper. (worldbank.org)
Impact of e-government on effective Public Administration
E-government efforts are always intended to improve the quality of the public sector services. The improvements and cost effectiveness are achieved due to the following reasons:
Reducing procedure costs: Proactively adjusting the input to output ratio by reducing economic expenses and by saving time.
Administering procedure performance: preparation, overseeing and managing the flow of active process elements like the human resource and finance flow.
Developing strategic associations within government establishment: synergizing different agencies of the government to empower the governmental capability to expand and employ the methods and strategy that helps government machinery to perform at its best.
Empowering the system: reallocating power, influence and funds for various activities from its present system to new areas. (mass.gov)
Bridging Citizens: The concept of e-Citizens and e-Services
E-services are an area that helps to transform the public administration using e-government system. Such efforts transact specially with the association between a government and its citizens. The customer might be a voter or stakeholders who are availing public services.
Communicating with citizens. E-government services offer citizens with information on public sector initiatives. These are mostly related to some kind of answerability that: makes government employees more responsible for their decision making as well as their actions.
Hearing what people think: e-government system helps government authorities to receive creative inputs from the citizens about a newly proposed system. This will ultimately help in making the system much more useful and productive. (Deveci, 2010)
Who all will gain from E-Government and what are its merits in enhancing Public Administration?
E-government system is sure to enhance the productivity of the government machinery. The system helps citizens to stay much closer to government reforms and to avail facilities offer in a much easier way. E-government system offers an easy platform for e- filing important information, for applying to various government projects. The system helps to reduce unwanted cluttering of files at government offices as well.
Physical transportation and mailing of documents and important files was a major hurdle in the earlier system in government offices. E-government system reduces the usage of physical documents; instead information is stored and accessed from a common server. This helps to reduce processing time and also saves money. A much more important advantage is that, government offices have now become more environmentally friendly with reduced use of paper for printing documents. (Zouridis 2013)
Upon reviewing all the above aspects, it can be concluded that e-government initiatives are drastically transforming Public Administration due to the simplicity of operations, lower operational cost, and reduced processing time and above all, better service delivery.
References
Lallana, E. (2008, October 19). EGovernment for Development. Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://www.egov4dev.org/success/definitions.shtml
Section 2: The Benefits of E-Government. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://www.mass.gov/anf/research-and-tech/it-planning-and-collab/strat-planning/prev-plans/e-gov-strat-plan/section-2-the-benefits-of-e-government.html
Site Tools. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/EXTEGOVERNMENT/0,,contentMDK:20507153~menuPK:702592~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:702586,00.html
Deveci, O. (2010). Http://www.jceionline.org/upload/sayi/3/JCEI-00631.pdf. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Investigations JCEI, 1(3), 182-186. Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://aei.pitt.edu/14694/1/20100519110452_Eipascope_2010_1eGovernment.pdf
Zouridis, S., & Thaens, M. (2003). E-Government : Toward s a Publi c Administratio n Approac h. ASIA N JOURNA L O F PUBLI C ADMINISTRATIO N, 25(2). Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan045350.pdf
Dhindsa, B., Narang, M., & Chaudhary, K. (2013). Benefits And Challenges of E - Governance Portal. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE), 3(5). Retrieved March 11, 2016, from http://www.ijsce.org/attachments/File/v3i5/E1923113513.pdf
