Background of the study

One of the most important emerging applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
is e- Government. E-Government is global phenomenon occurring in developed and developing
countries (Napitupulu, 2014). The concept of e-Government has begun to spread among countries while
the implementation of e-Government has become main goals of many countries around the worlds
nowadays. Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a worldwide revolution in ICTs that has
influenced all spheres of life. One of the most prominent effects of this revolution has been to encourage
change in the way governments deal with their ministries, government departments, the business sector,
and other partners in the general public, citizens and employees through the services provided for them,
and changes that have become clearly evident in the form of e-government (Mahajan, 2015)

Traditionally, the interactions between citizens or businesses and government agencies take place in
government offices. With emerging information and communication technologies it is now possible to
locate public service centres closer to the clients. Such locations may consist of an unattended kiosk
situated in the most attracted public or social centres, or simply and ideally accessed via a personal
computer at home or office (Abdullah, Mansor, & Hamzah, 2013). E-Government refers to the use of
internet technology as a platform for exchanging information, providing services and transacting with
citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. E-Government may be applied by the legislature,
judiciary, or administration, in order to improve internal efficiency, the delivery of public services, or
processes of democratic governance (Kumari & Singh, 2016).

According to The United Nations e-Government Surveys, many countries have put in place e-
Government initiatives and information and communication technologies applications for the people to
further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable
development(Singh, 2015)

Nowadays, governments around the world are racing to implement the e-Government concept in their
countries, but some of them have suffered failure in adopting e-Government concept (Ebbers, Jansen,
& van Deursen, 2017). The provision of these services has not been a smooth road, while others are
struggling and trying their best; others take the opportunity to exploit, misuse and take advantage of the
people and businesses in the name of e-Government.

Thus, this paper discusses and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of e-
Government. It further shows how e-Government has been exercised well and has been very beneficial
to both the citizens and the governments.

Literature Review
Advantages

a) Improved efficiency, cost reduction and savings.

E-Government helps to improve the efficiency of the paper work system. This can reduces the need for
man power of dealing with bulk of paper based work. Thus, lesser employees will handle the process
and therefore leading to reduced operations cost (MSG, 2008; Mundy & Musa, 2010).

The idea of decision making and purchasing to reduce costs will eliminate inefficient and costly
redundancies (Evans & Yen, 2006). In addition, there are cost savings in operating a virtual agency
instead of renting an office and paying for all of its utilities in terms of business (Vassos, 2013). In
addition, the cost of offering services online and in an electronic format saves costs more than buying
bulk and bulk of paper.

b) Time saving

The services provided through websites give beneficial for both of the government and citizens, the
users of the websites. Both parties are able to save time. Sharma, Bao and Qian, (2012) points out that
e-Government services help to improve the competitiveness of business environment to create
intelligent customers, helping businesses save time, money and energy to be invested elsewhere.
According to Mundy and Musa (2010) by providing the services the government appears to have a more
human face by providing links to government officers and offices, attending to citizen complaints and
responding to their suggestions.

c) Better communication facilitation between businesses, citizens with governments

E-Government helps better communications between governments with citizens and businesses (MSG,
2008). An example of that is E-Procurement, which facilitates G2G and B2B communication; this will
permit businesses to compete for government contracts. Thus, creates an open market and stronger
economy, hence improving the interaction between government and business (Heeks, 2002). E-
government applications allow people, businesses, and government sectors to access to available
government information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which improves the quality of these services.

d) Online access of services

According to Ndou (2004), traditionally, the procedures to get information are long, time consuming
and lack transparency. Citizens and business often spend a lot of time for simple service by travelling
to get the services and even queuing and waiting for the services which leading even to higher costs and
dissatisfaction. E-Government give an ease to access government information programmes and services
easier for public sector agencies and citizens (Evans & Yen, 2006). Thereby, reduces the bureaucracy,
offers rounding clock accessibility, fast and convenient transactions and obviously enhances the quality
of services in terms of time, content and accessibility. Citizens are able to interact with government
when they want to and from anywhere they choose without the necessity for physical travel to
government offices and agents (Nkomo, 2012; Layne & Lee, 2001; Hiller & Belanger, 2001; Ndou,
2004; Mundy & Musa, 2010).

Disadvantages of e-Government
 a) Lack of equality in public access to the internet

The ability to use computers and the Internet has become a crucial success factor in e-
government implementation, and the lack of such skills may lead to social exclusion. This refer
to the gap in opportunity between those who have access to the Internet and those who do
not. Those who do not have access to the Internet will be unable to benefit from online
services. Those who lack of knowledge and do not know how to read and write would need assistance
to use e-government. Generally, senior citizens do not have much education and they would have to
approach a customer service officer for assistance. This could be like excluding citizens and business
that do no have access to technology as they do not get full benefits.

Government should train its employees and citizens in basic skills of dealing with the computer
and Internet in order to let them participate in e-government development applications. UN
(2008) survey found that an increasing in digital divide in developing countries increases the
cost of technical barriers in launching and sustaining e-government services.

b) Security

Security is one of the most significant challenges for implementing e-government initiatives. Security
means protection of all information and systems against any disclosure to unauthorized access, or
unauthorized modifications or devastation. It is a vital component in the trust relationship between
citizens and government. Even though the level of confidence in the security offered by government
web sites are high, the public are still concerned over security, fear of spam from providing email
addresses, and government retention of transaction or interaction history (Ngulube, 2007). Despite the
efforts of government agencies to ensure the safety of citizens' personal data, e-governance websites
are still liable to attack from hackers. Personal data can be exposed and there is less trust to how the
information is kept secure and whose hands it lands on. Thus, can lead to lack of engagement due to the
anticipated low levels of trust by citizens of the e- government platforms.

c) Costly Infrastructure

Moon [36] declared that the lack of financial support is considered as significant obstacle to the
implementation of e-government in many countries. It requires all citizens or at least majority to have
access of Internet in order to get efficiency of e-government system (Varros (2013) Therefore, Internet-
enabled devices, hardware such as routers, and a connection infrastructure are essential to connect to
government websites which is a costly investment.

Carvin et al., [37] stated that because of the high cost of implementation and maintenance the
computer systems, many countries become in dilemma of funding e-government programs, even
when a government entity has a plan for effective and accessible e-government. Feng [24] stated that
a major obstacle to e-government is the lack of finance for capital investment in new technology. West
[32] noted that the abilities of government offices to place services online and to use technology for
democratic outreach are hampered by budget considerations. Finally, the total cost, including the high
cost of systems hardware and maintenance, softwares, training and education, are always seen as
major barriers inhibiting agencies and governments from using the technologies.

Conclusion

In summary, the literature highlighted and shown that e-Government can helps governments offer
services online hence saving a lot of costs and resources. However, the literature has also highlighted
different stages of e-government advantages and challenges to successful implementation of e-
government system. It is clear that e-government involves multiple stages or phases of development
and it has many advantages to all sectors of government, citizens and business. However, the
implementation of e-government is not an easy job it faces many challenges and barriers which have
to be treated very carefully. All the challenges mentioned in this paper gathered from various literatures
should be paid attention to. Governments officials as well as the privates sector should find ways in
which e-government cannot be exploited since its intension is to serve a good purpose hence they should
put in place strong measures which will protect eGovernment.

In many of the western nations that started researching and implementing e-government in the early
2000s, solutions to the issues are currently still in different stages of advancement. Many more
developing nations, particularly around the Middle East, are seeking to create effective online
government services. This review of extant literature serves as summary of the findings relating to the
first wave and as a brief reference for the next wave of e-government development.