Essay: E-Government Initiatives

E-Government Initiatives
The initiative done by Seychelles government involves the identification of key business processes in government MDA’s soma to deliver best service to the general public, with the aim of automating these processes and for possible online delivery through the one-stop government portal. This will enhance the level of productivity as well as efficiency in government processes.
In the mid-nineties, the Government of Seychelles began to envision an electronic government where all the facets of government Information Technologies such as email, collaboration and application between agencies. The government then embarked on the e-Government Project (E.G.P) aiming to implement automated Information System and transforming the way government operates. The Technology department has the mandate to design and implement the e-Government strategies. The current focus of the government is improving the efficiency of the services it delivers to its citizens and for government to be ‘smarter’.
Key dimensions of the project:

• Expansion of the Electronic Government Network (E.G.N)
• Computerization of all core government services
• Online government servicesAccording to the UN report on the survey, a 160-page document (which can be viewed at http://unpan3.un.org) in 2012, Seychelles undertook further consolidation of infrastructure and its e-government development. Major improvements in government information systems, infrastructure, and integration of thematic services in finance, health, and many other sectors allowed it to improve its world ranking.
  It also notes that the government of Seychelles took the initiative to enhance its e-government service offerings in line with an integrated and interdependent strategic approach, which focuses on ICT infrastructure, government information systems, legal framework, and human resource development, to improve the efficiency in delivery of government services.
  In Seychelles, the government organization responsible for the implementation of e-Government initiatives is the Department of ICT (DICT) which is a portfolio under the Vice-President’s Office. The principal secretary (PS) responsible for this department, Benjamin Choppy, commented that the ranking serves as an encouragement to the work being undertaken by his staff and also serves as an indicator that strategy being followed in this area is in the right strategic direction.
  Vision
  To aid advancement of e-Government the Government of Seychelles had to come up with the vision that will guide them to transfer from the manual Government to Electronic Government.
  According to Seychelles President Office Department of Information Communications Technology website (which can be viewed at www.ict.gov.sc/hpmecnt/vision.aspx) in 2016, Seychelles Vision is to have a government which fully makes use of ICT in supporting the delivery of its services and which creates the necessary framework (policies, legislations & regulations) that allows the full potential of ICT to be harnessed nationally for the benefit of the country.
  Strategic Plans
  The Seychelles Government had to create strategic plans to implement e-government. According to the case study initiative was launched following a presentation at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK, on November 19, 2012 by the government of Seychelles on its e-Government strategies to improve connectivity, transform government processes for efficiency gains, and deliver e-services. The Director General of the Information Technology of Department of ICT (DICT), Mrs. Lanka Dorby, made the presentation at the conference on “e-Governance in Small States.”.
  The government of Seychelles created the e-Government Project (E.G.P) with aim of implementing the automated Information System and following by the transformation of the way their government operates. The Seychelles government gave mandate to Technology Department so as it can design and implement the e-Government strategies.
  The Department of Information Communication Technology came up with the plans and strategies will act as a road map of the department’s operations which are:
• Modernize and update the national ICT policy and strategic plan.The strategy aims at Creating the necessary policy framework that will accommodate the convergence of information technology and communications sector, to create the necessary consultations forums with all key national stakeholders on the ICT matters and to collaborate with the local and international partners in order to formulate a new National ICT policy and detailed strategic plan.
• Work closely with stakeholders to make ICT hardware and software more affordable.Collaborate with the Department of Finance (DOF) and Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) and possibly other stakeholders to ensure that the retail price of ICT hardware is comparable to what is provided abroad. Engage in possible agreements with international software vendors so that they are discounted for students and teachers. Engage into discussion with DOF, CBS, banks and other stakeholders to provide loans to students, teachers, Government employees for the purchase of ICT hardware and software.
• Increase the residential penetration of computers and Internet access.Collaborate with stakeholders to provide discounted and more attractive Internet packages. Bundle Internet access with the procurement of a computer via a loan scheme. Encourage the uptake of computers.
• Collaborate with ICT service providers to continue investing in their infrastructure and introducing affordable and innovative services.Conduct a short study on investment in the ICT industry for the past couple of years. Evaluate if the investment in the ICT industry is adequate or requires more players. Work with stakeholders to established a conducive environment to stimulate further competition and introduce new services.
• Promote improved universal access to basic ICT service and ensure that tariffs are competitively priced.The government aims to work with stakeholders so that the coverage of services like cable TV, hot spots, public payphones, wireless and ADSL Internet access, should be extended to Praslin and La Digue. Review the USO Policy and see its implementation.
• Promote and facilitate the deployment of e-commerce in Seychelles.Seychelles government will sork closely with SIB to enable launching more than one e-commerce service provider Collaborate with DOF to ensure the financial legislative framework is in order to accommodate e-commerce for even SME. Deploy the ITU donated hardware as an e-commerce assistance program me for parastatals and small businesses. Work with stakeholders to create awareness and educational campaigns on e-commerce.
   
• To connect all government departments to the Electronic Government Network (EGN) in order to allow for secure integration of the various information systems of government:This network will connect not only all the Government Department headquarters but also all the extensions of Government at the community level (e.g. District Administration Offices). In order to accelerate the deployment of this network, a combination of out-sourcing and in sourcing of works and services will be used. Part of this strategic is also to implement a government-wide intranet on EGN where Government officers can access to find relevant information and services internal to Government itself.
• To computerize the core processes of Government Departments with appropriate information systems:This involves working in close collaboration with the different government Departments and agencies on order to implement information systems that are relevant to their needs and supports the delivery of their core services. These systems will also focus on the capture of information, their processing and presentation in a manner to support the decision-making processes of Government. In order to accelerate the deployment of these systems a balance of in sourcing of parts of the system development cycle will be used. It is targeted that at least 75% of the Government Departments will have been computerized in the above manner by 2010.
• To make available Government Services (E-Services) available online on the Internet, where appropriate, for access by businesses and the public:As the computerization process of Government Departments is undertaken, in each case, opportunities for delivery of online E-Services will be identified and these implemented. As a central part this strategy, is the development of a central Government E-Service Portal, accessible on the internet, whereby on E-Services offered by Government are available.
• Modernize the ICT legislative framework to bring it in line with established and developed ICT markets:This include the review the Broadcasting and Telecommunication Act and the development of the regulations pertaining to:
• License Fees
• Interconnection
• Competition
• Interception of communications
• Infrastructure sharingConsultations will also be undertaken with all stakeholders on the drafts of these legal devices.
• Work to Increase the residential penetration of computers and internet access:Collaborate with stakeholders to provide discounted and more attractive Internet packages and explore the possibility of promoting the bundling of Internet access with the procurement of a computer via a loan scheme. The target by 2010 is to achieve at least a household penetration of computers of 25% and to have more than 6,000 internet subscribers nationally.
• Explore the possibility of connecting Seychelles to the main Internet fibre optic communication backbone via a submarine cable:The government work with all service providers in order ato establish the minimum requirement for the optic fibre submarine link to Seychelles. In collaboration with stakeholders, DOF, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and other agencies, establish a model for financing the establishment of this link and its maintenance. A framework for the utilization of services on the cable by local service providers also needs to be established.
• Promote the expansion of a nationwide, all pervasive wireless network for Internet access:This was aimed to review the wireless network policy, because it was for the international best practices that the Government allow all ISPs to have open access to frequencies (sharing frequency) which is required for wireless networks setups (frequencies where for the Wi-Fi). This was aimed to make all ISPs contribute to the nationwide wireless access deployment
  Challenges faced by Seychelles in implementing, access and use
  Seychelles E-Government challenges
  Organization aspects
  This was the among of the big challenge that faced by the government in process of implementing the e-Government before the government come first in Africa for e-Government in 2012. The most important theme under organization aspects were leadership and change management (ejeg-volume 11). Others aspects were top management support, recruitment of ICT personnel, change management, human capital development, organizational motivation, information management, ability and commitment. In order to overcomes these aspects, the Seychelles’ government organize skills and improve the effective communication in order to maintain the values, visions and mission to their stakes holders in implementing e-Government (Garnett, 1992; Sharma and Gupta,2003).
  On other hands Organization aspects still among of the challenge which leads to Seychelles overtaken in e-government by other African countries. Seychelles, which came first in Africa for e-Government in 2012, has now fallen into 4th place behind Tunisia, Mauritius and Egypt in the 2014 (UN e-Government survey-2014). Seychelles did however improve its overall global ranking, climbing up three places from 84th to 81st.
  Socio-economic aspects
  These includes the followings factors: awareness, human resources, knowledgeable personnel, gender inequality communication, unemployment rate, Illiteracy, corruption, poverty, unemployment rate
  Social-economic aspects have become a great importance in development of information and communication technology and other aspects related to it in developing countries like Seychelles.
  According to the transparency international, six of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world are located in sub-Sahara regions (Hans, 2008). coupled with corruption, the poverty level of the region causes the serious development challenges. Due to the increase of the above Socio-economic aspects in Seychelles cause the dropping from African leading in e-Government in 2012 up to 4th position in 2014
  Infrastructural aspects
  Under infrastructural aspects the most important themes found in this study based on “ICT Infrastructure”, “Internet access and connectivity”, “power supply” (cited from 2001 to 2012). According to Ndou, 2004; Ebrahim and Irani, 2005, Infrastructural aspects remain the main challenge for e-government. Unreliable IT infrastructure will further influence to degrade the e-government performance of the respective governments. Unfortunately, the digital divide in developing makes it difficult to effect the deployment of ICT infrastructures which are appropriate for implementation of e-government countries. This together with computer security, privacy and confidentiality of personal data poses a challenge to the implementation of e-government initiatives. (Bonham et al. (2001); Gefen et al. (2002)). As most of developing countries (SSA countries inclusive) lack the laws which protect citizen privacy (Ndou, 2004).
  Recently in Seychelles ICT infrastructure is a huge challenge as due to shortage of appropriate international telecommunications bandwidth capacity. The country depends on satellite technology, which is costly and has limited bandwidth for communicating with the outside the world. In order to address this critical challenge, the government has based on feasibility study supported by the Banks MIC Grant. (Seychelles country strategy paper, 2011-2015: pg 16).
  Power supply in Seychelles is a critical challenge as ICT infrastructure, as Seychelles uses electrical voltage from 220-240 volts AC 50 Hz. Seychelles uses the British standard square 3 pin, 13 amp sharp electric plugs. Visitors from outside the country other than the UK are advised to bring their own adaptors to assist them in e government. The country has adopted the use of solar power integration and currently the project in advancing quickly. (Solar power integrations on the Seychelles Islands)
  Financial aspects
  The most important themes found under this group are Funding and cost for e-government services. According to Ebrahim and Irani (2005: 606), the main source of finance in public sector organizations come from the central government, “making it hard to control, and sometimes comes and goes in cycles of ‘east and famine’ that make it difficult to plan sustainable IT initiative such as e-government” (Heeks, 1999). This is no different in the case of SSA where the Internet cost, cost of e-government services amongst other financial constrains pose a challenge to the successful implementation of e-government initiatives. This point is further strengthened by Norris et al. (2001) who assert that the results of an e-government survey that was conducted in 2000 in the USA showed the main barrier to the adoption/implementation of an e-government initiative for a public sector organization to be the lack of financial resources (Ebrahim and Irani, 2005). This shows the importance of finance and need for money to ease the provision of e-government services and the needed infrastructure.
  Recently in Seychelles under this challenge the country has got many different private sectors who in one way or another, brings competition in e government growth. Although the investment climate regulatory frame work has been improved. But still number of challenges still need to address for the sector to play the predominant role in the economy as Seychelles emblaze on its second generations reforms, it will need to focus on moving the infrastructure constraints to create a more business friendly environment and expansion of e government. (Seychelles country strategy paper, 2011-2015: pg 17).

  References:

  DICT | Information Technology Section | Projects | Electronic Government Project. 2016. DICT | Information Technology Section | Projects | Electronic Government Project. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ict.gov.sc/projects/egp.aspx. [Accessed 08 December 2016].
  DICT | Vision and Mission. 2016. DICT | Vision and Mission. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ict.gov.sc/homecnt/vision.aspx. [Accessed 08 December 2016].
  DICT | Strategic Plan. 2016. DICT | Strategic Plan. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ict.gov.sc/homecnt/strategic.aspx. [Accessed 08 December 2016].
  ResearchGate. 2016. Strategic Framework for Designing E-Government in Developing Countries (PDF Download Available). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263701005_Strategic_Framework_for_Designing_E-Government_in_Developing_Countries. [Accessed 08 December 2016].