New Technologies (ICT - Information & Communication Technologies) Employed In Public Systems Management For Better Results In Governance

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The 21st Century that we live in is described quite aptly as the "Information Era".  It is an era of Connectivity, Information sharing and Participation between the Public and the respective State/Governments the world over. This leads to a thriving and vibrant Democracy.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) aims at bringing the above mentioned objectives to life along with transparency, accountability, responsiveness in Public Governance and sustainable growth for the people.

The fruitful presence and boons of ICT in Public Systems Management (inter governmental/Intra Governmental, Govt. to business/Govt. to Citizens) is well evident and obvious to each one in the society. It is also regulated from time to time via the laws laid down in the IT Act (2000) to stop nefarious activities routed through the ICT medium.


Let's look at a basic definition of ICT :
Stands for "Information and Communication Technologies." ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT) (which focuses mainly on information access), but ICT primarily focuses on communication technologies which includes use of the Internet ( E-mail, Instant Messaging, etc.), wireless networks, cell phones(SMS services), and other communication mediums between two parties.



INDIAN CASE STUDIES ON ICT INITIATIVES IN STATE GOVERNMENTS:
1) Sachivalaya Vahini: It is the ICT Package made by the National Informatics Centre, Bangalore and employed by the State Secretariat in Karnataka in all its 40 departments connecting 1000 computers and answering the needs of the 6000 employees viz. E-Governance by facilitating policy and decision making process.
Since the State Secretariat is the apex decision making body in the state government therefore it needs to maintain utmost efficiency and accuracy as there is too much at stake ( Public Welfare & limited resources). And to maintain the same, the state Secretariat needs to hold enormous amount of communication, maintaining and processing large volumes of data files or other formats,etc. All this was being done manually in the Karnataka state Secretariat prior to Sachivalaya Vahini stepping in and that is why the work there was very slow and inefficient.

Sachivalaya Vahini's various components are:

a) Patra - Letter Monitoring System - Receives and scans letters received by the Secretariat and transfers to relevant departments of the state Secretariat for its review and action and final disposal.

b) Kadatha - File Monitoring System - maintaining and speedy disposal of files.

c) Mokaddame - Court Case Monitoring System

d) Aayayaya - Budget Monitoring System - Helps estimate Budgets and funds allocation to departments and its monitoring.

e) Sibbandi - Personnel Information System - Maintains all information pertaining to each Personnel working in the Secretariat.

f) Customer Support System - Helps in resolving technical issues of the employees regarding the software and network.





CASE STUDY OF ICT IMPLEMENTATION - INDIAN JUDICIARY (E-JUDICIARY) :
1) COURTIS (Court Information System)- Launched in 1990 for the benefit of the entire legal community and commissioned for streamlining registries of various courts in the country. All High Courts and the Supreme Court of the country have been successfully armed with the following applications through NICNET:

a) Case Status - Helps provide tracking of all pending and disposed cases statuses that can be accessed by advocates as well as litigants and legal scholars.

b) Judgement Information System ( JUDIS) - It is a CD-ROM encompassing complete texts of all reported judgements of the Supreme Court of India from 1950 to 2000. Judgements from 2001 onwards are available on the Internet. NIC markets these CD-ROMs on a membership basis. The Internet display judgements are available within 24 hours of passing of judgement.

c) Cause Lists on the Internet - Displays schedules of cases to be heard b the respective Court the following day.

d) Daily Orders on the Internet - Displays the daily orders of the SC and HC as soon as the orders are signed by the respective Judges.




CASE STUDY OF ICT IMPLEMENTATION - E - PANCHAYAT IN INDIA :
The Govt. of Andhra Pradesh has introduced the E-Panchayat software in Ramachandrapuram Gram Panchaat, Medak District as part of its E- Governance initiatives that is user friendly and citizen centric. This pilot e-panchayat project comprises nearly 20 main modules and nearly 150 sub modules in line with the 30 sectoral functions of the Gram Panchayats. It has been rolled out in several pilot villages and is to be expanded majorly to all of Andhra Pradesh's Panchayats and a National roll out plan for its implementations is also being taken up . It aims to cover all information requirements of the village Panchayat administration.





INTERNATIONAL ICT IMPLEMENTATION CASE STUDY - MALAYSIAN E-GOVT PROJECT:
The Multimedia Support Corridor's advent in Malaysia has helped the Public Service there leverage the potential revolutionising service delivery through seamless and integrated govt. via its e-govt. flagship applications. Smart partnerships between local and international consortia working together with the govt. in developing leading edge e-govt. solutions has produced the first set of e-govt. pilot projects that have been implemented successfully which include: e-services, e-procurement, electronic labour exchange, generic office environment, human resources management information system and project monitoring system.

We will focus on the E-Services Project here in this case study.

E-services is the capability that enables citizens and businesses to conduct transactions through a one-stop service window and provides easier access to govt. agencies such as the Road Transport Dept.,Ministry of Health and utility companies.
It provides the citizens with a multiple delivery channels with 24 hour access that is available anywhere at their convenience;citizens are no longer limited to conducting these transactions at agency branches and utility offices. It also caters to the various languages spoken in Malaysia and is extremely user friendly even to the elderly and physically and visually challenged.
All this has helped in making services more efficient, corruption free and people becoming more participative and responsive as well as sincere in terms of paying bills on time,etc.
A large part of this success comes from the Malaysian government's aggressive encouragement of wider ownership of personal computers,tax deductions and providing IT facilities in rural areas such as the Internet.



PROBLEMS IN ICT APPLICATION:
1) Minimal Internet Penetration n rural areas
2) Computer illiteracy in urban areas
3) Untrained or improper training given to employees working on these softwares in govt. systems and organisations.
4) Govt. not implementing schemes to help the rural areas develop affinity with ICT via services like tele-medicines, tele-marketing and e-commerce.
5) Lack of will to share and disclose information with citizens/beneficiaries of schemes for them.
6) Inadequate infrastructure, language barriers, lack of capacity building initiatives, absence of grievance mechanisms, non-availability of information and variations in utilisation of information.


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Public Systems Management : Socio - Economic Context

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PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT IN INDIA- SOCIETAL CONTEXT:
A country's political life, Constitutional laws, and Administrative rules and regulations and relations are greatly influenced by its societal traditions, culture and values. In Indian society, many Public systems/ Public Organisations are created especially to manage and relate to it with special reference to :

1) RELIGION

2) CASTE

3) LANGUAGE

4) JOINT FAMILY SYSTEM

5) WOMEN

6) GROWING VIOLENCE

7) RURAL - URBAN INTERFACE




PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT - ECONOMIC CONTEXT IN INDIA:

1) AGRICULTURE - BASED ECONOMY

2) POVERTY

3) UNEMPLOYMENT

4) INDUSTRIAL POLICY RESOLUTION AND MONITORING

5) MIXED ECONOMY

6) WEEDING OUT CORRUPTION



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Public Systems Management : Constitutional Context

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Fred Riggs so forcefully advocated that Public Administration should be sensitive to the environment it functions in and should develop methods of administration that would alleviate the latter of its issues, as only that would be a successful administrative setup that would lead the country on the road to development.

Therefore Constitution or the law of the land is of utmost importance which is to be studied and its directives and principles followed to the tee by the Public Administrative setup of that country in order to fulfill its true objectives of public welfare and development since the constitution is framed by the political class who are basically the representative of the people of that land and thus know their needs intrinsically.

The following parts of the Indian Constitution determine and direct the functioning of Governance and Public Systems in India:

1) PREAMBLE - The Preamble is the key to the minds of our freedom fighters and Constitutional founders and thus introduces the reader to the overarching philosophy of Constitutional governance specifying the source of authority , the system of government , the objectives to be attained by the political and administrative systems. It has been declared as a valuable part of the Indian Constitution and if one wants to understand the spirit of the Indian Constitution then this has to be read.

2) PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY - In this form of Government, the executive is an integral part of Parliament and is responsible to it.

3) FEDERATION WITH STRONG CENTRE - India is a Union Of States which is unique federalism and may be aptly described as a new experiment in this area for ensuring national unity and growth on one end and regional autonomy at the other.

4) FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES - It is very necessary for any Public Administrator to understand these Fundamental citizen rights and duties before embarking on its course of work else it would end up in litigation perpetually.
Refer in detail:
Fundamental Rights And Fundamental Duties - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Rights,_Directive_Principles_and_Fundamental_Duties_of_India

5) DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY - It indicates the Responsibilities of the State/ Government in promoting the rights and benefits of the individuals while formulating policies and also in translating the basic values of the Constitution in real life.
DPSP in detail, refer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_Principles_in_India


6) INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY - The terms and conditions of the judges are regulated by the Constitution and not at the whims and fancies of the Politicians, hence it remains out of their clutches and autonomous, non biased and just.

7) JUDICIAL REVIEW - It implies the powers possessed by the courts to pronounce Constitutional validity of the acts of Public Authorities, both executive and legislative.

CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITIES - To carry out the objectives enlisted in the Constitution which have independent power given by the latter in order to perform impartially and uninfluenced executive:

1) Comptroller And Auditor General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller_and_Auditor_General_of_India

2) Finance Commission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finance_Commission

3) Election Commission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Commission_of_India

4) UPSC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Public_Service_Commission

5) Attorney General: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_of_India

6) National Commission for Scheduled Castes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_for_Scheduled_Castes

7) National Commission for Scheduled Tribes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_for_Scheduled_Tribes

8) Official Languages Commission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Languages_Commission

9) Special Officer for linguistic minorities: http://www.advocatekhoj.com/library/bareacts/constitutionofindia/350b.php?Title=Constitution%20of%20India,%201949&STitle=Special%20Officer%20for%20linguistic%20minorities



10) Administrative Tribunals: Refer to a post on this blog :  http://publicadministrationtheone.blogspot.in/2012/08/administrative-law-meaning-scope-and.html


OTHER IMPORTANT COMMISSIONS:
These are not Constitutional but created by an Act Of Parliament but of great importance and power:

1) National Commission For Women: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_for_Women

2) National Commission For Backward Classes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_for_Backward_Classes

3) National Human Rights Commission & State Human Rights Commission of India: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Human_Rights_Commission_of_India


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Difference Between Traditional Public Administration And Public Systems Management

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Differentiation Points of Traditional Public Administration And Public Systems Management -

TRADITIONAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 1. Public Service is considered an exclusive task performed by the government. 2. Citizen avoiding and secrecy in governmental business. 3. Public – Private Distinction. 4. Rigid, rule – bound and hierarchic model. 5. Process accountability. 6. Anonymous bureaucracy. 7. Structure – oriented. 8. Emphasis on rationality in decision making process. 9. Adoption of centralised strategy. 10. Authoritative approach. 11. Politics – Administration Dichotomy. 12. Focus on Structures and Processes.

PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 1. Public Service is considered as a collaborative exercise involving Government, NGOs and Private firms, etc. 2. Citizen friendly, transparent and accountable. 3. Public – Private partnership. 4. Flexible Organisational Design and Practices Model. 5. Result Accountability. 6. Accountable Bureaucracy. 7. People – Oriented. 8. Emphasis on bounded rationality in decision making process. 9. Adoption of decentralised strategy.  10. Participatory approach. 11. Politics – Administrative confluence. 12. Focus on performance and results.

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Public Systems Management : Concept , Nature , Scope And Characteristics.

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The Contemporary Global Developments in the world's socio - economic arena is undergoing a huge change courtesy Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation and Public Administration inevitably has to reflect this change along with the State's role change.

Public Administrators are expected to be more entrepreneurial, risk taking and managerial in their approach. Therefore, Public (read - Govt.) Systems (read - Organisations) Management is a new emerging concept in this field of study and work. There is a mood of changing the Traditional Public Administration to a newer and trendier as well as effective process termed aptly as Public Systems Management.

PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT - CONCEPT , NATURE AND SCOPE:
Before embarking in detail on the concept of Public Systems Management one should make clear in his/her mind that there is no attempt at making the conservative mistake of assuming Public and Private Management as one and the same. Private Systems Management is a way of working where Profit motive drives each and every aspect of it, whereas, public Systems Management is only concerned with the designing and operation of Public Services and the effective functioning of the above and the executive Government. It makes them "business - like" but not "business" as the goal and missions of the Public systems would be implementation of the Govt policies and Public welfare always however it looks to do the same through better and more effective practices as practiced by the Private systems/organisations.

CONCEPT:
As one would note that there is now a paradigm shift in Public Administration's nature and character that is more managerial, efficient and in keeping with the times throughout the world since the New Economic Policy was espoused by the UN and its allies International Monetary Fund as well as World Bank via the Brettonwoods Conference. These are:
1) Privatisation and Deregulation
2) Establishing Market like Mechanisms.
3) Decentralisation
4) Debureaucratisation


The theoretical foundations of the abovementioned change are listed below:
A) New Right Philosophy: Beginning in the 1970's, this school of thought propagated the idea of non-interference by the Govt. in economic activity as it created distortions in the market producing adverse outcomes. According to this philosophy, the Govt. should play the role of a regulator and producer. Thus it can be deduced that it advocated deregulation and privatisation, reduction of inflation,lower taxation, increasing role of the market in providing public services and institutional and constitutional reforms that would lead to reduction in lobbying and interest groups and impose a Constitutional upper limit on public expenditure as a proportion of the GDP.

B) Public Choice Approach: This has already been covered in a previous post on this blog. Refer to post titled " WILSON'S VIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION" http://publicadministrationtheone.blogspot.in/2012/07/wilsons-view-of-public.html.


C) Property Rights Theory:  It is a way of understanding the incentives for performance that exist in private sector and examining whether they can be introduced in the public sector. However, since Public officials cannot claim ownership over Public Organisations via shareholding/property rights therefore Privatisation which entails changes in property rights in favour of private ownership, is thus considered beneficial for the promotion of efficiency.

D) Principal - Agent Theory: The public are the Principal or the owner and the private sector as well as the public sector which are providing the public with services are the Agents who work for the Principal since the former possess the needed skill and expertise to do the job efficiently.

E) Organisation and Management Literature: This takes into account all the Literature that critique the Weberian Model of Administration and promotes the culture of adoption of private sector practices in the public sector particularly in a fast changing and hostile environment.
The effects of these literature are seen almost everywhere nowadays viz. downsizing of bureaucracy, devolution of authority, cost reduction, contracting out to private sector organisations by the Govt. , developing and designing result oriented appraisal system and commercialisation as well as market orientation.

NATURE OF PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT:
1) Greater flexibility in tailoring the organisation to circumstances, instead of necessarily following a rigid Weberian model.
2) Focus on results.
3) Greater attention on strategic planning.
4) Private sector personnel practices to be adopted like incentivisation,etc.
5) Steering role of the Govt. instead of direct involvement.
6) Orientation to needs of the customers and provision of the same timely and efficiently.
7) Use of market mechanisms in those activities of the public sector which cannot be privatised.

SCOPE OF PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT:
As mentioned above and to further explain it's scope one can see that it affects almost every aspect of functioning of the Public Sector today like increasing Productivity, Service orientation, Decentralisation, Policy efficiency, Accountability on results.


CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT:
1) Concerned with delivery of high quality services valued by citizens.
2) Considers citizens as active consumers and serious attempts are made to find out their expectations and needs.
3) Provides greater flexibility in working conditions and permits more expertise and employee creativity.
4) Creates conditions for more positive and productive managerial leadership by simplifying organisational structures and flattened hierarchies.
5) Develops rigorous performance measurement of individuals and organisations.
6) Receptive to competition and adopts an open minded attitude towards management of public organisations.
7) Adopts collaborative and networking approach to work with public, private and voluntary sectors in solving community problems and providing public services.
8) Advocates decentralisation of authority embracing participatory management model.
9) Prefers market mechanisms to bureaucratic mechanisms.
10) Takes steps to prevent administrative problems rather than tackle them after they arise.
11) high levels of transparency and accountability instead of mere adherence to rules and regulations,etc.
12) Extensive use of IT for all operations.
13) Decentralisation.
14) New role for civil servants - exercising technical competence, managerial skills with policy making capacities.
15) Fosters a new work culture in public system/ govt. organisations with incentive systems, performance evaluation, pay differentials, etc.

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