E GOVERNANCE CASE STUDY(BSCCSIT/BCA/MASTERS)
Brazil has been taking steps towards digital government to ensure that public policies and services are more inclusive, convenient and designed to meet citizens’ needs.
The use of information technology by the Brazilian Government dates back to the 1980s, but the use of the word e Government dates from 1996, with electronic services provided by the Brazilian federal Government (Ferrer, Santos, 2004). Services such as the sending of the Statement of Income Tax, information about social security and Government procurement are possible on the Internet since 1998, and in the year 2000 the Policy of e Government was defined and instituted and the Information Society Program was launched, thus consolidating and disseminating egovernment strategies, the social importance of digital inclusion as well as actions related to information technology in the country, being the eGov implemented through legal guidelines and structures in the country (Scartezini, 2004).
Scholars of the subject eGov in Brazil proved the success of the eGovernment program up to 2003, time of transition of the federal Government, when the program ceases to be a priority driven by four factors pointed out by Pinto and Fernandes (2005):
1. Change in political leadership, with diverse involvement of new employees;
2. Lack of intra bureaucratic coordination, ceasing the existence of persons responsible for the program in the different Ministries;
3. Problems in the articulation with the society, causing discontinuities in partnerships and companies that provide technological services;
4. Lack of resources for the eGov program, subsisting projects of specific sectors, however isolated from an aligned development policy.
Such factors may have interfered so that Brazil, which in 2005 ranked in the 33rd position, would end in the 45th place in the UN world classification of eGov. In the research conducted in 2010, Brazil was in the 65rd position, meaning that in the last 5 years the Brazilian eGov accumulated a loss of 32 positions in the world ranking of eGov, and in 2014 Brazil was in the 57rs position (United Nations, 2014). Despite this noticeable decline, Brazil stands out in specific initiatives, such as the Open Government Partnership, or Open Data, mentioned in the UN report as an example of good practices, by having as its objective a single point of access to public data.
The lack of online services and inadequate telecommunication infrastructure are indicated in the already mentioned report as main causes of the fall of the Brazilian classification. Currently, the Brazilian Government offers several eGov systems to the citizens.
Among the main ones the highlighted are:
1. Federal Revenue: services of collection of income tax, the taxpayer's tax situation, CPF and CNPJ registration, statements, among others.
2. Federal Police: services such as passport application, statements of criminal records, support for international adoptions, among others.
3. Integrated System of Financial Administration of the Federal Government (SIAFI): interests linked to the national treasure, such as provision of public expenditure.
4. Poupa Tempo (State of São Paulo): access to information of public services, such as document requests and starting and closing of businesses.
5. OntoJuris Project: provision of information on legislation in the area of intellectual property rights, consumer rights and electronic law.
6. Public System of Digital Bookkeeping (SPED) – presents the promotion of tax information submission, rationalization and standardization of accessory obligations for taxpayers.
To understand the role of IT in the eGov initiatives in Brazil, we chose the Nota Fiscal Paulista (NFP) program, which is a pioneering initiative developed in the State of São Paulo and which is slowly being replicated in the rest of the country. Thus, we sought an in depth understanding of the NFP also showing similar programs that were implemented in other states and cities. The e-Government program in the State of São Paulo started in 1995, when the then elected State Government took over the administration with the goal of stimulating and implementing the modernization of the Public Administration.
The program involved all the Secretaries of State, brought together the governmental structure and heads of various levels in a collective effort (Filho, Agune, 2004).
The NFP program offers the following benefits (Sao Paulo State, 2010):
1. To consumers, reduced tax burden, and up to 30% of the ICMS (State Value Added Tax) collected monthly by the establishment is distributed in proportion to the purchase price to all citizens who inform their CPF or CNPJ in the act of purchase;
2. To the tax administration, it enables the expansion of the bank of taxpayers and the improvement of fiscal controls;
3. To the seller, it makes it possible the reduction of costs of paper, printing and storage of tax documents, in addition to encouraging the electronic relationship with the consumer.
We highlight as advantages of the NFP program:
1. Pioneering work: innovative project, predicting credit deposit on the bank account of the consumer, as well as conducting electronic drawings and donations;
2. Encouragement of the exercise of citizenship: participating in the program, citizens collaborate with the combat to tax evasion, exercising their citizenship;
3. Digital inclusion: the initiative stimulates the interest of the population in the use of the Internet, also offering an agreement with the "Acessa São Paulo" and the "ePoupatempo";
4. Integration with the Government: encourages the interaction of citizens, businesses and Government;
5. Ease of access: the website of the NFP program offers easily accessible interface, various manuals, consultation to claims and customer service center.
The Brazilian government can praise itself for the good use of IT technology to improve its administration and enhance interaction with citizens. In this article, you will get more information about the electronic government and its services in the country.The electronic government in Brazil had a shy beginning in 2000, with the launch of official websites of a few governmental agencies and institutions, containing only their basic information, static links and very little interaction with the users. After more than a decade of existence, the Brazilian electronic government evolved to the point of becoming an example on how the governments can better interact with citizens and [companies](, improve the efficiency of internal management, cut costs and provide information and public services in a much more organized platform.
According to the last research made by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), there are currently 11.856 websites registered under the gov.br domain, what gives the size and scope achieved by the e-gov in Brazil.
If you think of the wide dimensions of the Brazilian territory and its enormous population, it gets easy to know why the electronic government contributed to the management of the public institutions, especially when it comes to the provision of public services and broadcast of information.
Overall the governmental websites obey a simple logic. If the entity belongs to the federal government, its address will end with gov.br. If it is a state institution, its address will be registered with the domain of the state it belongs. For example, the Central Bank of Brazil is a federal institution. Therefore, its address will be bcb.gov.br.
The Board of Trade of São Paulo, which is an entity under the management of that state, will have its electronic address like this: jucesp.fazenda.sp.gov.br.
The Brazilian electronic government is managed by the Administration of Information Technology Resources (SISP), organ attached the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management.
Accountability and transparency
Provision of public expenditure data and documents, financial transactions, disclosure of budgets, bids, closures and cancellations and signing of contracts. This allows citizens and businesses to be aware of the government's activities as well as supervising the use of public money.
Requests
Tools that allows the citizens to make requests for public services, complain about poor and incomplete services and check schedules for public works. Because it provides the direct contact between the citizen and the public entities, this tool eliminates the need for an intermediary person, like a politician for example, who can subject the information to his interests, as a representative in the legislature.
Space for discussion
Forums in which citizens can publish their feedback about public services and campaigns, discuss or propose ideas and projects for the executive and legislative, or use of public funds. It is a way to open discussions that were restricted to the public sphere to those most interested, and also permits to achieve democratic and economic farther from public discussions of public affairs and once again, eliminating the need for intermediaries.
Ombudsman
Free spaces in which citizens can complain, request information or express their assessment of public agencies, and government services. These spaces should be free speech and should not be restricted to its users.
Registration and online services
Use of software programs and online registration for data services or perform mandatory or optional. This tool reduces cost for the public shift, manpower and time. At the same time, when only shows the alternative on-line can be exclusive.
Examples of services:
A website for each state and municipality
The gov.br domain is extended to each Brazilian state creating a new domain with the acronym that they are designated. That domain will be used by the municipalities in their URL afterwords. For example, the São Paulo state domain is sp.gov.br. Bauru, a city that belongs to the São Paulo state will have its website address like this: bauru.sp.gov.br.
It is the same for the state institutions. Normally, the website of the state already has the links for the entities registered with its domain.
E-Governance in Brazil
Evolution of e-Governance concept in Sri Lanka can be traced back to 1983 because the Government of Sri Lanka for the first time recognized its obligation for ICT development by creating the National Computer Policy of 1983. The Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003 came into existence in 2003 and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka was established. In 2004, "e-Sri Lanka Development Project" was initiated. It included information infrastructure building, improvement of human resources in ICT, citizen-specific service delivery, creating a modern government using ICT for social and economic development, and endorsing Sri Lanka as a destination for ICT. The e-Sri Lanka initiative expects to use ICT to develop the economy of Sri Lanka by reducing poverty and thus improving the quality of life of its citizens.
As indicated in e-Government Policy, a publication released by the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) in 2010, the objectives of e-Government are the following.
∙ Provide more convenient and better services to citizens
∙ Improve participation of clients
∙ Use of social media to ensure better service provision
∙ Develop better relationships with clients
∙ Enhance good governance
Main features of Sri Lanka’s e-Government policy E-Government policy has been designed to achieve the vision of adopting ICT to make government more efficient and effective and to create a citizen centric government. Driven by this vision the policy has addressed the following important aspects that influence the level of success in transforming traditional systems of public service delivery to e-Government.
∙ Enabling legal environment
∙ ICT management
∙ Information lifecycle management
∙ Standards applicable
∙ Ownership and responsibility
∙ Compliance requirements
∙ Accessibility and service delivery
∙ Contracts and information asset management
∙ ICT project continuity
∙ Procurement and contractual issues
∙ Intellectual property rights
∙ Communication interface
∙ Networking and Connectivity
∙ Human resource development
Some of the successful e-Government projects in Sri Lanka can be listed as follows.
∙ The e-Motor Revenue License project introduced in the Western Provincial Department of Motor Traffic (WPDMT) has enabled vehicle owners to renew the annual revenue license in a few minutes or obtain the license by making payments online. In formulating and implementing the e-Motor Revenue License project the WPDMT has collaborated with the Department of Motor Traffic and private sector service providers.
∙ The project on Digitization of Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates implemented by the Registrar General’s Department has enabled residents to obtain a copy of any of the three certificates in a few minutes.
∙ The e-Human Resource Management project implemented by the Combined Services Division in the Ministry of Public Administration has led to a high degree of efficiency improvement, saving time and resources spent on administering annual transfers of public servants.
∙ The Department of Immigration and Emigration has adopted ICT successfully to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the Department. In the issue of passports to citizens and in border control activities at the international airport in Colombo the Department has been able to achieve efficiency improvements through ICT integration and training and motivation of staff
Kothamale Community Radio Internet Project
The Kothamale Radio/Internet project in Sri Lanka is an experiment in attempting to bridge the digital divide. The purpose of the Kothamale Radio/Internet project was to test and demonstrate an access model that reduce the digital divide/barriers and empower the marginalized communities in rural areas, by enabling them to enjoy benefits from ICT, to expand their knowledge base and thereby support their efforts to tackle the developmental problems themselves.
The project uses community radio as an interface between the rural community and internet through a pioneering "Radio Browsing" model. thereby introducing an indirect mass access to cyber space through a daily one-ho9ur radio program on an interaction mode.
Example of radio/Internet Browsing
Following are some examples which describe the utility of Internet access at Kothamale community radio.
1. The village baker found various recipes from the internet to improve the quality of his products.
2. The village blacksmith browsed web sites to know more about modern implements for his trade.
3. An elderly woman visited a web site of Buddhist sacred laces of India, and was very pleased as it was beyond her financial resources to visit the sacred place in persons.
4. Farmer accessed the internet to find information of improved techniques of tomato growing and storage.
5. A group of local products used the Internet and found export possibilities for "Jaggery," a local product of palm.
6. An English teacher of the local school often visited with his class and downloaded lessons and games for learning English.
7. Many community members opened e-mail accounts at the radio station and used the facility to exchange e-mail with their relatives working aborad.
8. A listener visited the site to find information on bamboo craft and organized an exhibition of improved bamboo products, which he produced with the new knowledge acquired from the Internet sources.
9. A group of you people used Internet sources and networked with an organization aborad to form an environment NGO. They then mobilized resources to launch a reforestation program in their community.
10. Radio provide location-specific weather report (for the coming four days) by reading real-time satellite picture and weather forecast data from Internet sites.
Benefits
Following are the noted benefits of this project:
REF: E GOVERNANCE BY CSR PRABHU