This Paper is meant for Administrators doing some IT project, or thinking of one. This is NOT an official circular or GO/GR (Government Order/Resolution). It summarises my talks to various groups in last few months, and could help you with conceptualising, executing and evaluating IT efforts in your districts, departments, State etc. I urge you to treat this paper as my personal view of things, with which you may freely differ.
Let us start with the fundamentals, with some basic, brutal questions.
DO YOU REALLY NEED TO COMPUTERISE (on GIGO and BPR and GPR)
Before we start "computerising" any activity, the first question we must ask ourselves is - should the Government be doing this activity at all (like Octroi)? If we can rise above our narrow department view and take a macro view, or think from taxpayer’s point of view, the answer in many cases would be NO. Do some dispassionate analysis whether your department or office should exist at all. Does it exist in developed countries? Is it a legacy organ like appendix which has now lost its relevance, is painful to the taxpayer, and needs removal? In that case, rather than think about “computerisation”, think about “closure”.
Also, will IT lead to better internal efficiencies (save money? save time of staff? improve quality?), will it benefit ALL the bonafide stakeholders (many IT initiatives hurt some vested interests, that is acceptable and desirable), does it result in time/effort/cost savings for the citizens, and does it have good ROR (Rate of Return - good bang for the taxpayers’ buck)? If answer to any question is no, please do NOT go ahead with the project.
Did the idea of this project come from some consultant or vendor? Be aware of vendor driven projects (some estimate that more than two third IT projects are vendor driven, and do not really benefit the citizens). A large number of such projects go nowhere after initial hardware purchases, and the recent drive by AG to audit the IT projects across the country may throw up a huge list of eGraveyard of IT projects. (UK decided to junk its health IT project after spending 10 years and billions of pounds.) We have many IT projects which should be abandoned midway, otherwise only more money will be sunk. NISG (National Institute of Smart Governance) says that 35% eGov projects fail, 50% succeed partially, and only 15% succeed fully.
Ok, now you have some activity which if computerised will be beneficial to bonafide stakeholders, will cut out vested interests, will increase efficiency, quality and transparency, and is not vendor driven. Should you start now? No, please STOP and THINK. There is a GIGO principle (Garbage In, Garbage Out) in the Computer World. Unless your input and the process is clean, you will not get butter after churning, you will only get garbage (using a mild word here, for fear of censorship).
Be RUTHLESS. Take out Scissors and CHOP CHOP CHOP your activity. Do what is called BPR (Business Process Re-engineering) or GPR (Government Process Re-engineering). Study what other states have done for this activity, how they have simplified the processes. You may ask your teams to visit areas with well-known success stories, and/or engage some consultant. Again, be careful with consulting firms- they show you Almonds during slick presentations, and then hand out Peanuts (freshers from colleges) who do such great Cut and Paste job (CTRL+C followed by CTRL+V day in and day out), that a tender for Ambulances in Punjab may show “distances from Hyderabad”, or a presentation for Maharashtra may have some city names like Chennai or Kolkata. Our Acts and Rules frequently need drastic changes - many Acts during British Times were made to harass, control, subdue the citizens or to deprive them of legitimate rights - many Acts need to change due to development of new Technologies (e.g. introducing options of online payments, digital signatures; transport has moved beyond horses, communication has moved beyond telegraph) - many Acts need to change with the change in attitudes and behaviour over time (e.g. censorship standards, Right to Information, Privacy issues, need to decentralise and de-regulate, trust more and inspect less and so on). Are you asking citizens to submit some document in Triplicate? Do you ask them to get the zerox copy verified from a Gazetted Officer or a Notary? Do you ask them for a big sheaf of Annexures (accompanying documents)? Does your Application Form have 100 pieces of information asked, when 10 would be sufficient? Do you give a receipt to the citizen, or can the babudom happily lose papers? Is the payment process simple and convenient, or does the citizen waste one full day and more money in transport than the government fee itself? (Can the citizen pay online or at a shop/CSC near his home, or is he required to waste a day and money going to Treasury Bank for a challan?) Do you give a commitment regarding the Time Frame in which citizen’s work would be done? (This is the thing called Citizen Charter). Does the File get approved with just two-three steps, or does it go round and round with twenty Human Touch Points (and a few Monkey touch points if your file is in offices on Raisina Hills)? Can you intimate the citizen of status of his Application by a SMS, email or a phone call? Can you deliver the end result to the citizen in a painless way, at his home or near his home? (Getting a courier at Home is better than going multiple times to a government office to get your document – ration card, passport etc.). Can you DRASTICALLY REDUCE and rationalise the existing procedures and make the citizen feel the dignity of living in a democratic country?
I hope your answer is YES, YES, YES. You realize and commit that you will keep the citizen at the focus, and then conceptualise the IT Project. Great! Now I will try to help you tackle the following four issues.....See More
