E-Governance in Bangladesh, State Policy and Action

1. ASA UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH
Assignment on the Situation of E-Governance in
Bangladesh, State Policy and Action
Course Title: Governance and Planning
SOC 322
Submitted To
Rowshon Ara Romke
Senior Lecturer
Department of Applied Sociology
ASA University Bangladesh (ASAUB)
Submitted By
Uday Kumar Shil
12-3-20-0025
6th batch
Department of Applied Sociology
ASA University Bangladesh (ASAUB)
Date of submission April 3, 2016
2015

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Table of Contents
SL No Context Page No
01 Introduction 3-3
02 E-Government Definitions 4-5
03 Objectives of e-Governance 6-6
04 Challenges of e-Governance 7-7
05 Situation of e-Governance in Bangladesh 8-8
06 State Policy and Action 9-10
07 Advantages & Disadvantages of e-Governance 11-11
08 Types of e-governance 12-16
09 Recommendations for e-Governance 17-18
10 Conclusion 19-19
11 References 20-20

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01.Introduction
With the onset of information revolution, many developing countries have looked at IT as a
possible new tool to solve age-old problems of poverty, bad governance, and sluggish
economic growth. While the developed countries have been able to benefit greatly from the
wide use of IT, many developing countries are still grasping to make sense of how IT fits into
their problems. The trend is true in the case of e-Governance also. In Bangladesh, e-
Governance has been talked about a lot, some government offices have even taken innovative
steps towards certain e-Government projects. Since this is a new concept for government
officials who are used to familiar methods of work, the growth of e-Governance is met with
resistance and fear, among other infrastructural problems. But the good news is that the
government is taking e-Governance very seriously. The national ICT Task Force headed by
the Honorable Prime Minister herself has put great emphasis on identifying challenges in the
implementation of nation-wide e-Governance and on initiating pilot projects in various
sectors of the government through a project called the Support to ICT Task Force (SICT). It
is being implemented under the Ministry of Planning. Also, the Government of Bangladesh is
also getting substantial foreign cooperation in terms of financial assistance and technical
collaboration for realization of e-Governance at a national scale.

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02. E-Government Definitions
E-government is a generic term for web-based services from agencies of local, state
and federal governments. In e-government, the government uses information technology and
particularly the Internet to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide
government services. The interaction may be in the form of obtaining information, filings,
or making payments and a host of other activities via the World Wide Web (Sharma &
Gupta, 2003, Sharma, 2004, Sharma 2006). E-government is defined by other sources as
follows:
World Bank definition (AOEMA report): “E-Government refers to the use by
government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the
Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with
citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a
variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved
interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information,
or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption,
increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.”
United Nations definition (AOEMA report): “E-government is defined as utilizing the
Internet and the world-wide-web for delivering government information and services to
citizens.”
E-governance is defined as the, “application of electronic means in (1) the interaction
between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as (2) in internal
government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government and business
aspects of Governance.” (Backus, 2001). According to Kettl (2002), "Governance" is a
way of describing the links between government and its broader environment -
political, social, and administrative." The application of electronic links means the
interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well
as in internal government operations to simplify and improve democratic, government
and business aspects of Governance (Kettl, 2002).
Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce - GBDe definition (AOEMA report):
“Electronic government (hereafter e-Government) refers to a situation in which
administrative, legislative and judicial agencies (including both central and local

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governments) digitize their internal and external operations and utilize networked systems
efficiently to realize better quality in the provision of public services.”
Gartner Group’s definition: “the continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency
participation, and governance by transforming internal and external relationships through
technology, the Internet and new media.”
Definition of the Working Group on E-government in the Developing World: E-
government is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote
more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services,
allow greater public access to information, and make government more accountable to
citizens. E-government might involve delivering services via the Internet, telephone,
community centers (self-service or facilitated by others), wireless devices or other
communications systems.”
While definitions of e-government by various sources may vary widely, there is a
common theme. E-government involves using information technology, and especially the
Internet, to improve the delivery of government services to citizens, businesses, and other
government agencies. E-government enables citizens to interact and receive services from
the federal, state or local governments twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
E-government is in the early stages of development. Most governments have already taken
or are taking initiatives offering government services online. However, for the true
potential of e-government to be realized, government needs to restructure and transform its
long entrenched business processes. According to Gartner, e-government involves the use
of ICTs to support government operations and provide government services (Fraga,
2002). However, e-government goes even further and aims to fundamentally transform the
production processes in which public services are generated and delivered, thereby
transforming the entire range of relationships of public bodies with citizens,
businesses and other governments (Leitner, 2003).
In the last few years, there has been much talk of mobile government or m-government.
M-government refers to the use of wireless technologies like cellular/mobile phones, laptops
and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for offering and delivering government services.
M-government is not a substitute for e-government, rather it complements it.

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03.Objectives of E-Governance
The strategic objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties
government, citizens and businesses. E-governance uses electronic means to support and
stimulate good governance. Therefore the objectives of e-governance are similar to the
objectives of good governance. Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic,
political, and administrative authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels,
national and local. Governance The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and support
processes and activities. It provides a common framework and direction in the
implementation of Government Policies for the following: Across the public sector
organizations and institutions (G2G) Between Government and the Business Community
(G2B) Between Government and Citizens (G2C)

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04.Challenges of E-Governance
 Limited time to plan
 Lengthy process for Legal Framework to support
 E-Governance Insufficient telecom infrastructure to support
 E-Governance Unaffordable Internet services for private sector &
 Citizens Limited ICT human capacity to support
Funding is a main challenge: E-Governance is very capital intensive and no donor or
consortium of donors can fully fund E-Governance Program Private sector is a major
beneficiary of E-Governance through increased access procurements and e-services. Can play
a major funding role to subsidize E-Governance products.

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05.Situation of E-Governance in Bangladesh
E-Governance in Bangladesh Honorable Prime Minister herself has put great emphasis on
identifying challenges in the implementation of nation-wide E-Governance and on initiating
pilot projects in various sectors of the government through a project called the Support to ITC
Task Force (SICT). Ministry of Finance has customized software for budget planning,
sensitivity analysis, impact analysis, financial projections and various reports. E-Governance
in Bangladesh National Board of Revenue is computerizing the revenue budget procedure.
Both Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchange are highly computerized and networked,
allowing citizens to trade with much more ease than before. Ministry of Science and ICT
creating web-sites containing information about various ministries. Ministry of
Communication provides online searchable database of contractor’s tenders and created a
Project Monitoring System for tracking progress of the projects.

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06.State Policy and Action
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:
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.
Police: Facilitate improved communication between citizens and police and empower police
departments to better monitor and supervise police functions.
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.
Web Portals: Help citizens to improve their employment and income-generating potential.
Access to information -- a fundamental right in the present-day world -- can be ensured for

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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.

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07.Advantages & Disadvantages of E-Governance
E-governance refers to the use of information and communication technologies on behalf of
the public sector to provide services to citizens, according to UNESCO. With the spread of
computers and the Internet, it is possible for governments to provide online information and
offer services, such as electronic tax returns and visa applications, through secure Web pages.
However, despite its immense potential, e-governance also faces serious challenges.
 Convenience: It is more convenient to pay your bills or apply for disability benefits when
sitting in front of your computer instead of going to the closest relevant office and waiting
in line until someone can deal with your case. This is especially crucial for people living
in remote or densely populated areas.
 Transparency and Less Bureaucracy: When official policies and legislation are
uploaded on the Internet, it is easier for analysts and the general public around the country
to evaluate and debate government decisions. This guarantees a level of transparency and
freedom of information, effectively preventing corruption. E-governance might also mean
less bureaucracy, as digital information may move instantly from one office to another,
without the need to wait for paper documents.
 Cyber Crime: Despite the efforts of government agencies to ensure the safety of
citizens' personal data, e-governance websites are still liable to attack from hackers.
Personal data such as home addresses and bank account information can be vulnerable
without proper security measures.
 Costly Infrastructure: An efficient e-governance system requires all citizens or at least
the vast majority to have access to the Internet. Internet-enabled devices, hardware such
as routers, and a connection infrastructure are essential to connect to government
websites. Public sector agencies need advanced servers and security systems to cope with
vast amounts of information and complex cyber threats. All these requirements constitute
a costly investment, far beyond the reach of less developed economies.

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08.Types of e-governance
G2E
G2C
G2G
G2B
G2E (Government 2 employee): G2E is transaction between government and Employee. It
Includes, Online conference for employee. Online training. Employee information Example:
The example of Government to Employee is that Ex. e-Training for Employees
G2C (Government to Citizen): deals with interaction between individual citizens with the
government. Examples of G2C are payment of utility bills or applying for passports through
relevant website of the e-Governance system. Good governance always stresses on
participatory and democracy concepts. Citizen should not be isolated from the government.
Using appropriate website of the system citizen can also be interactive in different
development processes of the government.
G2B (Government-to-Business): involves interaction of the business establishments with
the government. These business establishments may be corporate, NGOs or other
professional bodies. The example of G2B is submission of tax assessment by any business
establishment to the department of Taxation of the government through the Internet.
G2G (Government-to-Government): involves interaction among government officials,
whether within a government office or within different organs of the government. The
example pf G2G may be a request of allocation of budget by any department of the
government
Ultimate objective of e-Governance is to establish a good governance. The attributes of the
good governance can be identified as follows: a. Honesty b. Efficiency and Effectiveness (in
terms of time space and money) c. Justice d. Reliability e. Participatory and Democracy f.
Accountability g. Accessibility and Transparency h. equity i. visionary in decision making.
All of these attributes can be achieved through proper implementation of e-governance using
the state of the art technologies.
It has been proved that the corruption levels in the public sector have dramatically fallen in
the countries where e-Governance has been initiated. A survey in India has revealed that the

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states where e-governance has been established even partially, the corruption rate has
dramatically reduced. The survey has found that in Kolkata and Mumbai, due to
implementation of e-Governance in some public sectors, the corruption rates have declined to
19% and 18% compared to 51% and 38% respectively in 2000. Even in Bangladesh we may
observe that due to computerization of Railway Reservation System, the number of black-
marketers (middle men who used to involve in illegal ticket selling) has reduced significantly.
Elimination of the middle men in citizen-government interaction, in fact, is the major factor
that acts in eradicating corruption levels. Again in the government offices, if the people
interact with the government organs through web-page then colonial red tapes practices will
be totally removed. This in turn will reduce the pervasive bribery practices in government
offices.
The computerization of the system speeds up the performance in terms of time, reliability,
efficiency and effectiveness. For instance, had a proper e-Governance system implemented
then a person would have easily applied for a new passport using his digital signature and
citizenship identifier and got the passport ready within 24 hours without paying any
urgent/very urgent fee or taking any other hassle. It would be possible if we consider a
complete integrated e-Government system. Issuance of a new passport requires many
processes (e.g. police verification, validation of Birth certificate). In an e-Governance
environment, as all the departments of the government are virtually integrated, when the
person applies for a passport through Website of the passport and immigration department,
the specific data stated by the applicant will be sent to the relevant departments instantly for
cross checking and validation. As for example, for getting police clearance, data provided by
the applicant will be cross checked with police department’s data and a report (either positive
or negative) will be generated automatically and sent to the server of the Passport and
Immigration department office. Subsequently in the server of the Passport and Immigration
department receiving the person’s application and report as required from various
departments system will decide automatically whether the person is eligible to receive the
new passport or not. Even the printing process of the passport can be automated. So, because
of the minimum involvement of the middleman in this case, the corruption and hassles in
receiving passport will be approximately at zero level compared with the present scenario in
Bangladesh.

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E-Governance confirms the active participation of the people in the process of establishing
democracy norms in the country. Unfortunate incidence that occurred in Phulbari, centering
the coal mine contract with the Asia Energy could be avoided if e-Governance environment
prevailed here. Prior to contract with Asia Energy, the government could take opinion from
the local people through Website on this issue. On the same issue a Website discussion group
could have been formed which would make the government transparent in decision making.
By the people’s active participation, some pro-people positive decision would come out
considering the country’s resource constraints, local environment, and other socio-political
issues.
E-Governance leads to e-Democracy too. For instance, in an e-Governance environment, any
political party can be able to select the possible candidate for the election democratically if it
has its own Website (this is also a component of e-Governance) by seeking opinion through
website. This selection will reflect the opinion of the common people and thus will reduce the
impact of black money in the selection of the candidature.
Right now we are observing enormous wastage of public money in preparing politically
biased error-prone voter list. However, in e-Governance environment, as the citizens’ basic
record database is one of the vital components, it is easily possible to generate a flawless
unbiased voter list with the latest status of the citizen (e.g. age, present address) in any time
without spending any additional money.
Accessibility to information for all is the prime concern of the e-governance. The citizen
must have access to e-Governance. In reality, availability and non-availability of information
creates the digital gap among different segments of the people in a society which is the one of
the major causes of non-equity and social injustice. If everybody gets the same extent of
accessibility to e-Governance then the class distance among the different groups in the
society will be minimized abruptly.
E-Governance reality in Bangladesh: As a nation we are like empty vessel—we talk too
much but do little in practice. When the buzz word e-Commerce started to get its popularity,
many of our ICT giant paid much attention to it by organizing seminars, workshops etc.
Accordingly, they persuaded the policy makers of the government and in 2001 they formed a
ICT Task force headed by the incumbent Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia for introducing
e-Governance in Bangladesh. Apparently, assessing their propaganda it was assumed that the
government would implement e-Governance overnight. However, over the five years,

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insignificant progress has been marked so far. Other than Planning Commission and ministry
of finance, no other ministry could implement any significant software systems even for their
internal use. Some ministries (e.g. ministry of Science and Technology) have created some
static Websites with a view to disseminating information to public. As this Websites are not
interactive, there is no scope for active participation of the concerned people. Moreover, as
these Websites have not been updated regularly, they mislead public with backdated
information.
In e-Governance environment all governmental organizations should have networked and
interconnected. This connectivity facilitates to exchange information among different organs
of the government without any manual intervention. Ideally, for this, we need to build up IOS
(Inter Organizational Systems) or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) software. Unfortunately,
till to date all software systems that developed in our governments’ various organizations are
discrete in nature and so they do not support inter-departmental or inter-organizational data
sharing technique.
Computerization and e-Governance are not synonymous. In fact, over the five years,
computerization processes in some ministries or government sectors have been initiated. But
truly speaking it is not e-Governance. We have to go a long way to implement e-Governance
in our country.
Road Map to e-Governance: This is true that available resources for e-Governance in
Bangladesh are inadequate. The low fixed telephone density is one of the major barriers to
digital communications (which paves way to Internet communication). However, rapid
growth of mobile telephonic network presumably overcomes this barrier. Besides, we can
also use the underused optic fiber network of the railway department for this purpose. For
global connectivity for e-Governance, submarine cable connection will play a significant role
if we use it appropriately.
VISION
STRATEGY STRATEGY
BLUEPRINT BLUEPRINT
eGov PROGRAM eGov PROGRAM
eGov ECOSYSTEM eGov ECOSYSTEM
December 2004
eGov Roadmap Components
By 2010, the State
will be . . .
eProc
Workflow
ü Leverage
PPP
Agri
Land
eChaupalPPP
GPR
LR
Training
Municip
al
eproc
Police
eSeva
Pancha
yat
Land
DC,
WAN
Other Projects &
Initiatives
Mission Projects &
Initiatives
Core Projects &
Initiatives
eGov Blueprint
Access to Legal
Information
Land
Information
System
Network
Data
Center
Workflow
Capacity
Building
eProc
eSevaePanchayat
GPR
HRMS
Financial
Information
System
Kiosks
VISION
STRATEGY
BLUEPRIENT
PROGRAM
ECOSYSTEM

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For establishing e-Governance in Bangladesh, ICT infrastructure can be built step by step
even at village level, if we have a Road Map or master plan for e-Governance using our
limited resources.
Decentralization of distributed database is one of the essential features of the e-Governance.
Decentralized or localized database ensures autonomy as well as reduces traffic loads in
network communication. Keeping this in mind, we need to design e-Governance for
Bangladesh. Strategically, we have to prioritize the sectors of the government which is to be
addressed first. For any good governance Local government is the vital and crucial and in
Bangladesh this is our Upazilla administrative unit. So, e-Governance in Bangladesh should
be initiated at Upazilla level first. Perhaps, this bottom up approach (i.e. starting from
upazilla) strategy for e-governance is the most appropriate in country like ours, where the
majority of the population live in villages under upazilla administrations.
Financial constraints can be viewed as the major problem in this context. But if the
government is really sincere enough to use resources in economic way then the funding for e-
Governance will not be a big issue. For instance, we can reduce the software procurement
cost if we use open source software or free software for developing various modules for e-
Governance. Besides, funding can also be possible from World Bank, DFID, EU or other
sources for initiating such project. Even the government may approach to Microsoft in this
context. It may be noted that Bill Gate has already decided to dedicate his substantial amount
of his wealth to philanthropic works. He must be aware that ultimate e-Governance will bring
equity, social justice by reducing the digital gap among different segments of the society. If
the government can persuade Bill Gate for implementing e-Governance in Bangladesh,
presumably he will come forward to assist a technologically backward country like ours.
Finally, it can be stated that we have resources in terms of manpower. Among the new
generation, many are getting technologically solvent. We can use them in our e-Governance
project. But preconditions for initiating such a huge project, the government needs to be
honest, transparent, and stable with a clear vision for future.

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09.Recommendations for e-Governance
Push for a comprehensive regulatory framework for e-Governance : There is an
urgent need for a comprehensive regulatory/legal framework for
realization of e-Governance. Some of the issues to be included in the framework are IPR
laws to protect intellectual property, laws for acceptance of documents in electronic
format (such as downloaded documents), laws against cyber-terrorism to protect
against unauthorized h a c k i n g , l a w s t o e n a b l e e l e c t r o n i c
a u t h e n t i c a t i o n . A l s o n e e d e d i s a n E l e c t r o n i c Certification Authority
designated by the government which should have the authority to provide electronic
certification to organization and individuals.
Create and retain adequate IT human resource : T h e r e n e e d s t o b e a
w e l l - 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. G o v e r n m e n t c e r t i f i c a t i o n p r o g r a m s t o t e s t
i n d i v i d u a l s n e e d t o b e a r r a n g e d f o r 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.

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Invest in reliable supply of electricity: S t e p s n e e d t o b e t a k e n t o
e x p l o r e alternative sources of power or alternative means of power
generation. Different developing countries are experimenting with solar power,
bicycle-generated power etc. Bangladesh should also take similar steps.
Deregulation of ISP and telephony service providers: The ISP and telephone
service provision must be deregulated to allow for greater competition and lower
price. Also, VoIP is a popular means of communicating with the outside world, but
it is still illegal under current regulations. VoIP should be made legal as soon as possible to
allow greater use of computers for everyday activities of people and generate people’s
interest in ICTs.

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10.Conclusion
“It’s always easier to set up a vision than its completion”. The current government has
resurrected that vision and made it ready for the 21st
century highly globalize world
and names it Digital Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh has its own limitations in
resources, capacity and knowledge, the country’s potential in human resources can be tapped
through appropriate use of ICT tools. With lack of Power supply and Corruption in public
sector, in my study 63% of respondents are quite pessimistic about their digital Bangladesh
by 2021; but the taken projects say Government is committed towards reaching the goal
of a knowledge based and middle income country by 2021. With an actionable ICT
Policy 2009, Right to Information Act and ICT Act that provide the enabling environment for
citizens’ information access and e-commerce, a network of proactive and ready change
agents in the Ministries, districts and upazilas, a number of initiatives that
demonstrate the true concept and benefits of Digital Bangladesh, a technology-
savvy young workforce ready to be guided and led, the country is staring at a
tremendous opportunity to leapfrog. Guidance and assistance from development partners
can greatly accelerate this journey

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11.References
i. www.unesco.org
ii. www.ehow.com
iii. www.slideshare.com
iv. www.publicadministrationbd.blogspot.com
v. www.gbde.org
vi. www.pacificcouncil.org
vii. www.unpan.org