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TopBackground Of The Study
Digital technologies have revolutionised the way organisations operate, as they allow physical or remote speedy processing of data and production of quality information that can be used for effective and efficient decision making.
Digital technologies include e-governance, e-participation, and e-service delivery. E-governance, which started around 2003, was conceived as a universal transformation of government operations and government services using technology (Siceloff, 2012). According to Dhaoui (2019), E-governance provides five interconnected benefits as follows: provision of higher quality and economical government operations; improved public services, citizen participation; up-to-date information policy structure and enable reforms within the administration and institutional matrix. This view is shared by Bwalya (2018) who asserts that e-governance includes government service provision (e-government); government information platforms; and e-participation platforms through which public decision-making takes place.
Davies (2015) defines e-participation as the use of ICT as a channel for political involvement by allowing communication between citizens, civil society, their elected representatives, and their government. Citizens as a result are actively involved through consultations whereby they can raise issues, modify agendas, and change government initiatives (Davis, 2015).
E-participation can also help public institutions such as parliaments to get legitimacy and support, argues Carpenter and Krause (2012). This could be achieved through public engagement of citizens and promotion of participation through the use of ICTs for improving the efficiency, acceptance, lawfulness (Sæbø et al., 2008), confidence (Leston-Bandeira, 2014), and participatory consensus (Griffith & Leston-Bandeira, 2012).
The internet is a key driver in e-participation as it provides a platform through which parliamentarians can effectively engage citizens on public policy issues, thus entrenching democracy (Coleman, 2009). Loukis (2011) argues that advanced ICTs provide a means of seeking the views of constituents on public policy, leading parliaments as democratic representative institutions to engage citizens effectively in the political process. Additionally, Loukis (2011) also notes that parliaments can make use of advanced ICTs such as computer supported augments visualization and structured e-forums that increase the quality and quantity of public participation, thus widening the participation on legislation under formation.
A United Nations’ (UN) e-government survey on “Progress in online service delivery” revealed that if e-participation was to contribute to sustainable progress and the socio-economic elevation of the people, government’s role had to shift from that of a controller of information and services to that of a positive enabler (United Nations, 2012).
Lindgren and Jansson (2013) refer to e-service as solutions that enable the delivery of services electronically. E-government service gaps in developing countries have not yet been bridged (Sterrenberg & Keating, 2016).
The use of e-government services in some countries over the past two decades is still limited, observes Pérez-Morote et al. (2020), with citizens still being required to physically visit particular government departments and agencies to get basic information, complete and submit forms (Madariaga et al., 2019). Similarly, Singh and Travica (2018) and Yang (2017) are quite categorical that public service delivery in developing states is still characterised by incompetent, inflexible, and physical systems.