EGovernment: Key Entry Points

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E-Government Key Entry Points

• Subhash Bhatnagar
• Advisor eGovernment, ISGIF, World Bank,
  Washington DC
• sbhatnagar_at_worldbank.org
• (Adjunct Professor Indian Institute of
  Management, Ahmedabad)
• Subhash_at_iimahd.ernet.in

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Can ICTs Make Governments Effective

• As a manager of Public Resources
• As a provider of services
• As a catalyst for development
• As a beacon of hope for a better future for all
  sections of the society
• Create TRUST in Citizens that expected out comes
  will happen. Positive experience reinforces TRUST

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E-Government as an Entry Point for Key
Development Goals

• Improved management of public finances Treasury
  and IFMS and Publishing financial data
• Greater transparency and less corruption
  Publishing information, publishing decision
  outcome, making data accessible, allowing on line
  tracking of applications, process reform and
  automation to minimize discretion
• Private Sector Development Improve interface
  with business-registration, licenses, land,
  customs and tax agencies
• Convenient and affordable services to all
  citizens one stop service centers for on-line
  delivery, Rural tele-centers land title, On-line
  municipal services.

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Why E-Government as an Entry Point?

• Potential impact on reform goals has been
  demonstrated in some developing country. Benefits
  realized and constraints overcome.
• There is low hanging fruit (projects) and
  programs with high pay off and risks. Not all
  countries are equally ready but there is an
  appropriate intervention for every country
• Consensus amongst politicians to support
  e-government.
• Use of ICT requires a study of PROCESSES.
  Provides an opportunity for redesign.
• Improving delivery of services has multiple
  benefits in the short and long run. Builds TRUST
  in Government.
• Countries have initiated plans but there are many
  constraints to be overcome where Banks help is
  being sought.

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Approach to Identifying Entry Points

• Given the variability in terms of size,
  experience with ICT usage, infrastructure, human
  capacity and development priorities-- Banks
  interventions would have to be rooted in country
  specific contexts
• Countries could be profiled as
• Early movers/late starters
• Poor e-government readiness/ partial readiness
• Leadership enthusiastic towards ICT/lukewarm
• Choose an entry point that is
• Aligned with Bank priorities for the country as
  reflected in CAS and other assessments
• Catalytic, scalable and provides the best balance
  between benefits and costs at acceptable levels
  of risks.

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Successful Initiativesin Tackling Corruption

• Issue of land titles in Karnataka
• 18 million titles issued earning a fee of 270
  million (51 loans 14 verify mutation16courts)
  
• Small sample study quote reduction in corruption
  Rs 700 million in bribes and Rs 66 million in
  wages
• E-procurement in Chile, Korea
• Railway Reservation in India-5 billion passengers
  per yr
• 0.55 million bookings/day, 8520 trains, less than
  10K on Internet
• Property Registration in Maharashtra
• 2.2 million documents and annual collection of
  Rs. 29 billion
• Only 8 said they paid bribes, only 40 relied on
  touts compared to 94 in Karnataka.
• On-line Counseling for Teacher Transfer in
  Karnataka
• OPEN-on line tracking in Seoul Municipality

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Successful Initiativesin Delivery of Services

• Property Registration in Andhra Pradesh also in
  Maharashtra and Karnataka
• Covers 3-400 offices all over the states
• 5.7 million documents, 3.6 million encumbrance
  certificates, 2 million market valuation slips in
  AP
• Citizen Service Center (mobile), Bahia, Brazil
• 27 agencies, 550 services and 8 million
  transactions/year in 2002
• Mobile unit for 417 townships and 250,000
  transactions/year
• eSeva center in Andhra Pradesh
• Used by 1.5 million citizens in one city and 1.5
  million in smaller towns
• Collection of Rs 3 billion per month
• On-line services at Motor Vehicles Departments
• On-line services at Municipal Corporations

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Potential Opportunities for Private Sector
Development

• New Business Registration Jamaica, Jordan, China
• E-procurementMexico,Philippines,Bulgaria,Chile,
  Korea, Rumania
• Customs on-line India, Philippines, Jamaica
• Issue of municipal licenses -OPEN, South Korea
• Trade Facilitation in Tunisia
• Land title and Registration
• Example-Yemen Port City Development Project

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Potential Opportunities for Effective Management
of Public Finances

• Treasury and Integrated Financial Management
  Systems in 50 countries
• On-line customs in 70 countries
• Income Tax in Mexico, Singapore, India, Chile
• E-procurement in Mexico, Chile, Brazil,
  Philippines, Korea, Rumania

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Possible Entry Points forEarly Movers and
Strongly Committed

• Integrated Web Portals
• One Stop Urban Service Centers
• Multi Function Rural Access Points
• Single agency multiple service delivery centers
  eg Municipalities, DMVs

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Importance of Improving Service
Delivery Improving delivery of public services
(where Government is the sole provider) is very
important for the ordinary citizen in many
countries. Citizens have lost trust in Government
institutions because of repeated negative
experience of extortion of bribes, inefficiency
and callousness. Poor are the worst sufferers.
 
Corruption has spread far beyond the limits of
general administration to the police and even the
judiciary. Rampant corruption in all walks of
life has been adequately proved by the various
Commissions of inquiry set up from time to time
(1966).  Corruption is the largest single
element to be found most in .. All roads, from
the maternity hospital to the crematorium, smell
of corruption. No individual is free from it, no
area can be found where corruption is not a
ritual. (2000)  A PAC survey found that 33
of the urban poor in Bangalore, 26 in Madras,
20 in Ahmedabad, 12 in Calcutta and 6 in
Pune had to pay a bribe to get a service or solve
a problem with a public agency and concluded that
corruption is a pervasive phenomenon in Indias
public services.
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What is eSeva?

• Service Centers were established by AP Government
  in partnership with private sector to deliver
  on-line services
• Services payments, issue of certificates,
  application for documents from different agencies
  of state, local, central government and private
  sector
• Number of counters operated by private contract
  staff
• Software that can process multiple types of
  transactions
• Immediate connection to a Central Web Server
  which in turn communicates with departmental
  servers.
• eSeva started with one pilot center, expanded to
  43 centers in the city of Hyderabad, and later to
  213 municipal towns, and is now being taken to
  rural areas

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eSeva in AP-One Stop Shop

• eSeva is an economically sustainable service
  delivery model which is catalytic and scalable,
  delivers significant benefits to citizens and
  participating agencies (service providers).
• It has been catalytic in encouraging many
  different State agencies to offer services by
  preparing the back end.
• It has demonstrated that Government and Private
  sector can work together in delivering services.
• It has had some impact on petty corruption in
  electricity department.
• It has lead to greater transparency in a few
  agencies
• Expansion into rural areas will need external
  support

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Indicators of Success

• Growing transaction volume Currently 1.6
  million per month in Hyderabad and 1.5 million in
  other towns
• Expanding network of access points
• 44 eSeva centers, 20 eSeva counters in banks,
  ATMs in Hyderabad
• Website (http//www.esevaonline.com)
• AP Online eSeva kiosks.
• SMS-based services Billing information/payments
  (planned)
• 230 eSeva Centers in all 116 municipalities in
  the state
• Growing basket of services-136 currently
  (Federal/state /Local Governments and Private
  Sector). Plans for 1600 services.
• Evaluation Reports indicate that citizens prefer
  eSeva over departmental counters.

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Electronic Delivery Benefits to Citizens

• Expanded time window and efficient transaction
  processing
• Different ways of payment are possible
• e-Payments through credit cards on the Internet
• e-Payments through direct debit mechanism. Many
  participating banks.
• Credit card at eSeva counters
• One check for several bills
• Fewer visits many state, central and local govt.
  services under one roof
• Location convenience with expanding network of
  channels
• Improved service because of competition amongst
  channels
• Good ambience, courteous service by private
  contract operators, managed queues through
  electronic tokens

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Challenges in Providing Services to Rural and
Urban Poor

• Can e-delivery help the poor? Poor pay the
  highest cost of inefficiency.
• What kind of services are needed. Is there a
  demand?
• Creating viable access points is a key challenge.
  What can we learn from many pilots?
• Infrastructure challenges to be overcome high
  cost and poor quality of telecom access, poor
  quality of electricity supply. Research in needed
  in technology to reduce costs of power and
  connectivity.
• Need for centralizing data. Authentication of
  documents is a problem.

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Issue of Certificates and Licenses
Supply of inputs
Procurement of Produce
Supply of consumer produce services
Development info projects, programs, schemes
feedback
Rural Citizen
Access to Markets
Knowledge info useful for economic activities
Education, training to enhance employment
economic opportunity
Entertainment info for social needs
Delivery of health educational services
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Technology that makes rural access inexpensive
and robust
Applications that draw a large cliental that pays
for the service, ensuring economic viability of
the kiosk
NGOs and grass root organizations that catalyze
and mange the community building process
Creating Rural Access Points
Content that empowers rural citizens and enables
formation of communities
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Successful Scaling Up Requires

• Success is likely in organisations with financial
  resources, leadership, strong project management
  and ability to discover services that are valued.
  Three models have emerged
• Large private/public/cooperative sector companies
  operating in rural markets may be able to derive
  sufficient value by improving business processes.
  to make such centers viable and scalable.
• Government services that are valuable can charge
  a user fee for electronic delivery through
  privately owned telecenters.
• Intermediary organizations partner with
  providers of valued service and rural
  entrepreneurs who create access points to
  orchestrate the operations of a large network of
  kiosks.
• Successful experiments began with a few core
  services where value that is monetized. Over time
  other services are included to add value.

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Funding for Rural Access Points
Size of Villages
Big
Small
High
Economic potential
Low
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Critical Success Factors

• Strong and visible political support.
• Independent, flexible agency to coordinate
• Reasonable ICT infrastructure, back-end
  computerization and human capacity
• Use of a Public Private Partnership model and
  informal relationship with private partners
  better coordination
• Robust technical design

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Risk Factors for Sustainability

• Lack of political leadership, vision and strategy
• Not implemented in a context of wider change/
  administrative reform.
• Inadequate ICT infrastructure, enabling policies
• Poor costing or lack of resources-creeping
  commitments
• Inappropriate definition of project goals and
  scope.
• Automation without process reengineering.
• Short tenure of implementers hurried
  implementation
• Management of change-resistance from vested
  interests.
• Use of untested fancy technology.
• Inadequate attention to monitoring and evaluation

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Entry Points for Banks Intervention
Data Standards, architecture to promote
inter-operability and organization to coordinate
Replication on Wider Scale
Maturity Integrated ICT Applications
Projects with Scalable Models
Planning Phase-Task Forces
Working Pilots-Value of ICT
Sharing best practice Design of
Implementation Unit Project management Procurement
Training
Readiness Assessment Planning Frameworks Good
Practices
Sharing best practice Project Design Models of
Partnership Evaluation framework Procurement Train
ing
Quick wins-low hanging fruit Grants for
Pilots Evaluation Framework Pilot evaluation