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Tanzania Must Embrace ICT to Reform Its Public Sector [opinion](AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) PUBLIC sector management reforms are a central feature in economic policy reform programmes, not only in Tanzania but in many countries worldwide. For the last two decades, most African countries have been involved in transforming the public sector using comprehensive public sector reform programmes. Resistance and limited resources are challenges in the implementation of reforms despite enormous support from development partners. Today it is almost impossible to talk about public sector reform without mentioning the use of information communication technology (ICT) and its related innovation. ICT can facilitate the development and implementation of public sector by modernising, increasing the efficiency and quality of the public service, empowering the public, and putting the government at the service of the people. The use of ICT can support democratisation, make governments more accountable, increase transparency and social equity. It can even change how people think and perceive the world by fostering innovation towards contributing to their economic and social well-being. It can provide a way for the public sector to become more service-oriented and augments its ability to meet those expectations. Tanzania is striving through the use of ICT in many public institutions with each one trying to build its own infrastructure and applications without considering the process flow and interrelationship across institutions. Such isolated ICT systems are yet to adequately address the public's needs and the chaos that arises when citizens access public services. Many public processes flow through and cross over various institutions and therefore require some organisations to collaborate so as to innovate better services. For example business registration may start with BRELA then cross over to Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) for the Tax Identification Number (TIN) and assessment. The requirement is to register a business but same business person is required to physically travel from upcountry to Dar es Salaam to access BRELA's office and again move back physically to his or her tax region for tax estimates and administration. Another scenario is the verification of one's personal identity with banks, telecommunication companies, government agencies or even the police. One is required to show various documents to prove one's identity while the same institutions already have volumes of data on you. Lack of the system and process integration causes TRA, BRELA and banks to fail to obtain data verification and validation from a single central repository which could be NIDA, RITA or Immigration. Therefore despite processes dependability amongst institutions they operate independently, building systems and processes which do not fully satisfy users causing a lot of inconveniences. Agencies like TRA conduct public transactions electronically. Services such as VAT returns, income tax returns, road licensing and so forth make it possible to eliminate queuing, paper work and unnecessary movement for a single service. The trend set by TRA needs to be adopted by other agencies by extending their services over the internet and other electronic devices to make easy access in distributed locations. This approach creates a one-stop centre for accessing services, reducing time spent on completing transactions and expenses resulting from multiple layers of paperwork. But how can government solve the problem of every institution being different? In some developed countries e-government has proven it is possible to combine ICT in the public sector for efficiency and effectiveness. One clear outcome of e-government is that it contributes immensely to citizens' access to public services by offering services online and through public kiosks -- round the clock seven days a week in some countries worldwide. Tanzania established an e-government Agency (EGA) in 2010 and was effectively operational in April 2012 but we still have a long way to go. We are yet to see Government- to-Citizen services (G2C) improved and other services such as electronic voting (e-voting) and electronic democracy (e-democracy) system working. A Government-to-Business (G2B) is an Improved interactions between government with the private sector on procurement of goods and services and to coordinate transactions from private companies using electronic procurement (e-procurement). Overall information access made easy and online simplify information search and retrieves are among fast results which we need to see. It is high time government pushed for improved services using ICT. This cannot be achieved unless government departments, agencies, ministries and other stakeholders decide to team up in defining their processes with the aid of information technology as priority in this case. This can be done by focusing on service delivery to citizens without differentiating and creating boundaries among individual institutions resulting into streamlined processes geared to providing high quality services. Better public reforms will improve both the national economy and standard of living in society. Let's make ICT a priority and embrace e-government to speed up the reform process. Sebastian Marondo +255 754 999 198 Dar es Salaam. Copyright Tanzania Daily News. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |