Assessment of readiness to E-governance of pourashavas under UGIIP

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.