Chartered accountants (CAs) are viewed as the eternal watchdogs of finances in a society. Their role in ensuring greater transparency in the e-governance era can be significant. As also their role in assessing the cost-benefit dimensions of e-governance.

They are best qualified to evaluate whether e-governance has saved taxpayers' money while securing the promised benefits in terms of improved delivery efficiencies and greater transparency in dealings with the government.

E-government is not e-governance

E-government and e-governance are different phases in a continuum.

Public organisations and agencies begin by publishing static information on the Internet, establishing an on-line presence, in the hope that they will experience improvement in efficiency, effectiveness, and organisational performance.

As they progress, they are able to provide transactional services of improving effectiveness, efficiency and performance. Ultimately, the continuum leads to organisational transformation, improved transparency, increased citizen participation in government, and facilitation of democratic processes.

E-government and e-governance initiatives will enable citizens to access information and government documents, order publications, file tax and other returns, order vital records and certificates, and renew licences and permits from any location with an Internet connection.

In addition, it should, at least in the future, enable citizens to communicate more freely with government agencies, make suggestions, influence decisions and participate in democratic processes.

As a government progresses on the continuum, both the cost and complexity of e-governance is bound to increase.

In the e-government phase of this continuum, CAs will compete with several other groups of professionals (for example, IT professionals) in providing technical services in the establishment and running of e-government. But the profession's greater contribution will be in the later phases of the e-governance continuum, where the CA's better understanding of citizens' needs and expectations from the government will come to the fore.

Prerequisites for e-governance

Before e-governance can be implemented as a national-level initiative, some key systems and processes will need to be put in place. These, in fact, are important prerequisites for e-governance and could include the following:

Large-scale computerisation: The introduction of computers in every department/ministry of the Central and State governments and their subordinate organisations is the starting point of e-government.

This would involve huge investments for the acquisition of hardware and software. One possible way of reducing and distributing costs is that the governments enter into arrangements for leasing of computers and gradually acquire them over a period of time.

Capability of use of local languages in the IT systems: The access of information would have to be made available in the language most comfortable to the public user, generally the local language. There are existing technologies available in the country such as GIST and language software by which transliteration from English into other languages can be made. Other tools for local language can also be developed as progress is made of their use in the systems of government.

Awareness: Perhaps the most important aspect of e-governance, computerisation and spreading of IT is the bringing of a change in the mindset of the government functionaries who have been accustomed to work only in the manual mode. It will be necessary to train them in basic computer usage.

Infrastructure: Adequate and appropriate infrastructure for information technology has to exist across the country with sufficient bandwidth.

Standardisation: E-governance demands standards in all areas. Some of the key areas are: data encoding (ISCII or UNICODE), application logic for common horizontal applications, user interfaces, data dictionaries, and so on.

These standards will need to be put in place before e-governance can effectively be implemented.

Certification authorities: Public Key Infrastructure and Certification Authorities to provide digital certificates that help create an online identification and security system for the Internet — allowing individuals, corporations and government organisations to conduct transactions and communications — is a key requirement for e-governance and e-business.

Knowledge networking for better governance: Good governance rests on the pillars of knowledge and recognition of this knowledge by the decision makers.

Digitisation of the entire set of knowledge within a network which links every individual, including the decision makers, and gives democratic freedom to everyone to access and make use of this knowledge paves the way for digital governance.

(Edited extracts from IT Harmony: e-Governance, an ICAI publication.)

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