E-Government as a Tool to Improve Quality of Government Services for Common Man
Author:
M. Sajid Khattak, M.Sc Engineering Management
Email: m_s_khattak@yahoo.com
Mailing Address: CASE - Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, 19-Attaturk Avenue,
G-5/1, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Co-Author:
Dr. Ali Sajid, Ph.D, (TI)
Director Strategic Affairs,
CASE (Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering), University of Engineering and
Technology Texila,
Islamabad, Pakistan,
Email: ali@case.edu.pk
Abstract
E-Government has been employed by
developed as well as developing countries
to be an enabler toward accelerating
quality processes, delivering a higher level
of quality services to citizens/businesses
and increasing
transparency/accountability while
lowering costs. Additionally, in developing
countries it has been recognized as an
enabler toward catapulting governments
in to the 21st century while leapfrogging
multiple generations of technology. It is in
this contact that the Government of
Pakistan has established the e-
Government Directorate (EGD) under the
administrative control of Ministry of
Information Technology and
Telecommunication. In particular, the
networking potential offered by the
Internet and related technologies has the
potential to transform the structures and
operation of government. The World Bank
suggests that e-government refers to the
use by government agencies of
information technologies that have the
ability to transform relations with citizens,
businesses, and other arms of government.
These technologies can serve a variety of
different ends like 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. The paper
highlights and evaluates the role of e-
Government and its potential impacts on
common man in service delivery by
government functionaries. In a corruption
prone society like Pakistan, government
services are not provided in an honest,
efficient and reliable manner. It creates a
sense of discrimination among the masses.
Moreover, the quality of services being
provided by government functionaries is
not satisfactory and services are provided
on the cost of bribery. The paper analyzes
that how E-Government helps in
empowerment of common man by getting
more access to information, speedy and
transparent services and in
discriminatory/nepotism free services
which lead to social justice and
satisfaction in the society.
Rationale of study:
A common man in the third world
countries is quite frustrated while getting
public sector services. The motivation
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behind this research is to know up to what  Lack of relevant research work in the
extent e-Government of Pakistan helping said area
common man by providing transparent and  Non-cooperation by e-Government
quality services which lead to social project’s employees
justice in the society. To know how much  Lack of awareness about e-
e-Government has influenced and satisfied Government in society
the common man in Pakistan. To get result
that how much is the correlation between What is e-Government?
Pakistani society and e-Government E-Government is the use of Information
penetration. To create awareness about and Communication Technology (ICT) for
results produced by e-Services. delivering services by government entities,
exchange of information, communication
Research Objective: transactions, integration of various stand-
The main objective behind conducting this alone systems and services between
research work is: Government and Citizens (G2C),
 To assess independently, the impact of Government and Business (G2B) as well
e-Services on common man as back office processes and interactions
 Does e-Government help in getting within the entire framework of
quality of services? Government.
 To know how e-Government helps in
empowering a common man in
Pakistan?
 To know how e-Government helps to
bring social justice and lead to
satisfaction of common man in
Pakistan?

Scope of Research:
The research analyzes the processes within
Federal Government functionaries of
Pakistan which are being adopted the
concept of e- Government. The region of
research is twin cities of Pakistan i.e.
Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Fig. 1 : Triangle Relationship Model
Research Methodology
The following methods have been used to E-Government includes
get data:
 Providing greater access to
 By discussion with scholars/experts government information
and e-Government project’s
 Promoting civic engagement by
employees.
enabling the public to interact with
 By conducting interviews of people government officials;
from different fields of life
 Making government more accountable
 By studying different articles. by making its operations more
 By getting opinion of common man transparent and thus reducing the
through questionnaire opportunities for corruption; and
 Providing development opportunities,
Constraints/ Limitations especially benefiting rural and
traditionally underserved communities.

2

Effects of e-Government
 Better delivery of government services
to citizens
 Improved interactions with businesses
and industry
 Empowering citizens through access to
information or more efficient
government management,
 Increased transparency and greater
convenience
 Reduce corruptions, and costs. A
Triangle Relationship Model among
Government, Business and Citizens is
shown in figure.
Impacts of e-Government on common
man
E-Government introduces transparency in
data, decisions/actions, rules, procedures
and performance of Govt. agencies in
favor of common man. It Automates
processes to take away discretion. It helps
achieved across applications which
provides improved intelligence and
enables unbiased sampling for audit
purposes. Other direct benefits which
common man can get through E-
Government services are faster processing,
shorter wait, shorter queues, more accurate
and legible documents, easy recovery from
errors and better reception areas. All these
benefits finally leads to common man
satisfaction.
The Case of Pakistan
According to UN survey conducted in
2006, The Pakistan comes under Mid-
range scoring countries by utilization of e-
Government (Mid-range scoring countries
(percent utilization = 34 - 66%) All
government services are being made
accessible by public on the Pakistan’s
relatively new web portal
www.pakistan.gov.pk by using best
practices in the world.
400

to trace any decision taken at particular 350

300
circumstances. E-Government Builds
250
accountability as it provides greater access 200
to information through web publishing- 150
role of civil society and Provides 100
documentation to citizens for follow up. 50
Its practice Standardized documentation of 0
Emails Questionairs Telephone Personal
comments/ objections leads to effective calls Interviews
supervision. Through introduction of E-
Government Better Service Delivery to
Citizens and improved service for business Fig. 2 Distribution of participant’s contacts
is achieved. It brings transparency in
different transaction and combat Survey Formulation
corruption. It leads to Empowerment of Different community groups have been
common man through Information. E- contacted via Emails, questionnaire,
Government results to Efficient telephone calls and personal interviews
Government Purchasing (e-Procurement) within twin cities of Islamabad &
and improved access to offices (nearer Rawalpindi. Their distribution is as:
home, 24X7) and functionaries (no
intermediaries). It improves complaint Emails 400
handling. By getting access and service at Questionnaires 70
home leads to less number of trips to Telephone calls 50
government offices which saves transport Personal Interviews 35
cost and avoids wage loss. Through E-
government services integration of data is

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The distribution of contacted persons is
also shown graphically in fig.2 and
similarly their distribution according to Fig. 3 Age wise distribution of participants
age wise is shown graphically in fig. 3.
Number of e-Services suggested by each 120
group is given below:
100

Age Group No. of e-Services 80

21-25 80 60
26-30 112
40
31-35 96
36-40 74 20
41 above 22
0
21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41 and
Summary of Survey Findings above
Internet Usage: All the respondents have
experience for Internet usage. 93% of the
respondents use Internet daily. Remaining Fig. 4 Number of e-Services suggested by each
group
7% are using it alternatively. This indicates
the large number of citizens are using
E-Service Usage: Citizens are not able to
internet which will increase the online
find the needed e-Services either in the
usage of e-Services and their value in the
form of informative or interactive e-
social arena
Services so availability and awareness are
E-Services essence: Every respondent is
still important issues. Besides above
interested to have e-Services. They know
mentioned problems Government is still
about the potentials of e-Services by
providing some e- Services
saving time, money, resources ultimately
According to respondents result few of
getting more efficiency and satisfaction.
them are using the provided e-Services.
Barriers: Pakistan is a developing country
Intension: Every respondent has
having less resources and infrastructure
recommended that there should be e-
problems. The major issues are
Services from e- Government. 68%
i. Lack of education and awareness
respondent use available e-services and
ii. Insufficient Electricity
32% have not used any e-service.
iii. Political Issues
iv. High Internet Cost with Lower
Bandwidth Citizens choices in developed country
v. Reliability and Security and Pakistan E-Govt.
vi. Infrastructure problems According to (Richard D. Holowczak)
vii. Technology and trained staff Government services are constrained by
viii. Economic issues the citizens’ personnel choice which are
based on different tasks and made
applicable by the Government and to make
improvement in access of service to
citizens. e-Government has made lot of
7% 10%
investments in this regard. (Al-Kibsi et al.,
11%
21-25 2001; Sia and Neo, 1997; Chan and Pan,
26-30
2003).
31-35
36-40
This indicates that Government should
38%
34% 41 and above take more responsibility for making these
e-Services applicable by providing easy
access to the citizens. This is also

4
abstracted from survey results that
Government of Pakistan needs to identify
the importance of e-service to citizens and
these services should reflex the needs of
citizens. An emphasis is also given by
(Gronlund, 2005) and centric (Scott, et al,
2005).
Survey Conclusion
The survey result locates that
improvements are required for
implementing e-Government services in
Pakistan. Overall results depicts that every
body is looking for e-Government
facilities. Though a lot of informative
websites are in place but still their usage is
not so common. To make them publicly
accessible, Pakistan Government may need
to follow a developed country like USA or
New Zealand as both these countries are
already using same such e-Services.
In Pakistan, the interest and e-Services
expectations of citizens are increasing
towards e-Government. Following are the
expected e-Services groups from most
demanding order to least
Citizens are also expecting improvement
in the following areas: Education and
Awareness, Electricity, Political Issues,
Internet Cost and Bandwidth, Reliability
and Security, Infrastructure, Technology
and Trained Staff and Economic.
Recommendations for E-Government
 To accomplish public expectations,
transparent policies along with certain
step by step viable goals should be
maintained as per current
circumstance. Therefore, Government
should start thinking more strategically
about how e-Services can play role in
the enhancement of productivity and
use of information in the public sectors
at larger extent
 E-Services are acknowledged to be
exclusive concern of citizens and
citizens have a lot of expectation from
Government. The theory and analysis
of survey conclude, in order to meet
citizens expectations Government
should consider few more things
 A single portal can produce better
communication concurrencies among
the various departments and the
citizens.
 Awareness and Utilization should be
encouraged at all levels.
 Flexibility with respect to language,
culture, and common man’s ease
should also be considered.
 Common man's participation must be
improved in order to achieve
maximum utilization of their required
e-Services.
 Make all Government services
accessible to the common man
References:
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(2005), `Introduction to Citizen
Service Technologies and 3-1-1:
Hello - The First Word in
Reinvigorating the Relationship
between Citizens and their
Government - A Strategic Guide for
Local Government,'
[2]: Cook, M.E., (200), `What
Citizens Want from E-Government
Current Practice research , Center
for Technology in Government University
at Albany / SUNY
[3]: Dawes, S.S., (2002), `The
Future of E-Government,' Director,
Center for Technology in Government,
University at Albany/SUN, June
24
[4]: Gronlund, A. and Horan, T.,
(2005), `Introducing E-Gov:
History, Definitions, and Issues
Communications of AIS', Volume
15, Article, May, pp 12-14
[5]: Gore, Al., (1993),
`Reengineering Through
Information Technology.
5
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Washington: Office of the Vice President

[6]: Gronlund, A., ( 2005),

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