ICT wish list: Improving Government efficiency

Nart Liuchareon, chief executive of the CDG Group

If you have a chance to walk into a procurement or finance office of a government department, you will find people working, rows of filing cabinets, photo copying machines, stacks of binders, papers, forms on the floor, and some PCs. Walking space between the desks is sufficient for an eight-year-old child.

With this picture in mind, "fast rewind" back to the same office, 10 years earlier. It will look just about the same, but the desks will be newer.

The computers in many of today's government departments are simply replacing typewriters. You might think I'm exaggerating, but that's how information technology is used. We are now in the era of social networking with e-mail, Google, u-tube and others. I am sure that most civil servants know that there are many ways that IT could help to improve their work, but the obstacles they face are rules, regulations, conditions, defined processes, ladders of approval and others.

I accept that it's much simpler to change internal work processes in the corporate world than in government. But in many countries, the government has gone through these changes years ago. In some highly competitive countries, the internal processes and public services offered by government agencies are better than those of private companies.

Changing the rules and regulations that our government departments have been using for 10 or 20 years is not an impossible task. Any changes for the better must begin with a top-down approach; executive-level officials must set the example and become role models. 

All the back-office systems, such as finance, human resources, procurement and all administrative process and transactions are the core of government organisations. Regardless of the nature of public services, the outcome would be much more effective if the internal systems were improved.

The gains to be made by applying IT in government work processes would be tremendous. Cost savings, speed of work, accuracy, and especially a reduction in people-time, would automatically become apparent.

If you're talking about "green" issues, using IT in government back-office day-to-day work processes would be a big stepping-stone towards slowing global warming. It would not only conserve energy and save paper and supplies, but would also reduce travelling, which would save fuel.

There are many IT applications that could be used, including work flow, electronic filing systems, collaboration, a basic human resources request and approval process, budgeting, reporting and tracking systems, and others.

A few successful government agencies at departmental level have applied IT in their workplace. This has been mostly due to the initiative of few people who have dared to break through normal practices with the support of top executives. But we are not talking here about three or four department levels involving thousands of civil servants. In some ministries there are more than 20 departments and hundreds of levels involving hundreds of thousands of people. There are not enough daring IT heroes to help. So how can we make this happen? How can we apply information technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our entire government? It's a really challenging issue, and time is running out because we are already well behind other countries. Please give this issue serious consideration.