E-Government - it's an idea that's been given a lot of lip service over the years, but the grand concept has enjoyed very little real world application. And so, anyone who wants to get anything done - has to surrender to the tyranny of the bureaucracy, endless forms and mountains paperwork.
But a consultant from Singapore is in-country is here to talk about re-engineering that whole process and dismantling the tyranny.
He is hosting a workshop on Communications Technology for Public Sector Reform, at the Belize Biltmore Plaza - and he told us about the idea to radically redesign the bureaucracy:..
Ooh Koon Tian, Independent Consultant for E-Government
"So this will be a five week workshop where I will teach the participants some techniques on how to do some process reform and process computerization. In a nut shell it is to analyzed the current way of doing things, find out what is inefficient and find out what is no longer necessary, and we try to eliminate some of the unnecessary steps and see whether we can used the technology to computerized some of the process to make them more efficient, for example, I don't think the government right now accept payment via online method - E-payment using credit card, so to pay for any government services, you still got to go down to ministry or any government counter, and that is not so efficient for the citizen's point of view."
"In the private sector many companies have already accept payment by credit card even payment online, some even allow for payment using their mobile phone. But I believe the government still doesn't have that yet. Things like signature by the minister, so in this BPI workshop this is what I would challenge the participant, whether there is a need for this kind of activity. This is a control activity - is what we call it. Does the minister signature any value to the process? So in many process we will examine the officer has done all the checks, when it reaches the ministers' desk the minister does not check anything at all. So is there still any value in the demand for the minister to do the final signature? That is the question; if it is not needed then we can eliminate this step."
Reporter
"Is there a link between what you are proposing and corruption control?"
Ooh Koon Tian, Independent Consultant for E-Government
"Yes actually, many countries that have computerized process, when you standardized the process and you computerized it, you can eliminate a lot of corrupt practice, because the process will be transparent now on the IT system and there are no computers that will ask for corrupt money right, any human interventions would."
Twenty eight participants from across the various Ministries and Departments are attending the workshop.
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