Abstract:
Pourashavas are the local government of small and medium sized towns in Bangladesh. By
law, these are self-run institutions to provide civic facilities to its citizens. Studies on
pourashavas found that there is lack of transparency, absence of accountability, unskilled
manpower and poor operational and monitoring system in the pourashavas of Bangladesh.
Studies in developed and developing countries show that these problems could be overcome
greatly through e-governance. E-Governance is the use of information and communication
technologies to support good governance.
Adopting e-governance is one of the top agenda of Government of Bangladesh. National ICT
Policy, Local Government (Pourashava) Act, 2009 – both underscored the use of advanced
information technology to ensure good governance. However, to implement the agenda it is
needed to have the infrastructure ready at pourashava level. Present research made an attempt
to assess the level of readiness of pourashavas to accept e-governance. The research has been
conducted over 28 A class pourashavas of Bangladesh. In order to fulfil the research
objective, primary data have been collected through questionnaire survey and KII (Key
Informant Interview); and secondary data have been collected from different relevant sources.
It has been found that, in spite of a visible progress in formulation of Act, Policy at national
level, development of ICT infrastructure at national and local government level is still lacking
behind. Electricity is available for 80% of the working hour in only nine (32%) pourashavas.
Among the study pourashavas, only two have minimum number of required computers for
day-to-day work and ten pourashavas have 50% of the required number of computer. No
study pourashava has LAN facilities; only Tongi pourashava has necessary maintenance
facility of computer systems. All 28 pourashavas use utility software supplied by LGED.
More than 50% PCs have no internet connection in these pourashavas except Tongi
pourashava. Nine pourashavas have official website - only six of which are upgradable. Non-
Infrastructural readiness status shows that, no pourashava has budget allocation for ICT.
Among 28 officials under questionnaire survey, only two officials have been found to have
formal ICT education; others have only ICT training. These officials and councilors are less
aware about e-governance as the survey revealed that only 15 officials and five councilors
have minimum idea about e-governance. In light of the study findings, some
recommendations have been set forth finally. Further, a generalized e-governance framework
is proposed that can be used as a guideline for e-governance system for pourashava
administration. It is expected that, the findings and recommendations of this research will
help decision makers and urban managers to take effective steps in implementing egovernance
system at pourashavas which ultimately will ensure good governance local
government level in Bangladesh.
