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Gap = 5; The weak and unreliable Internet connection provided by
the Ethiopian Telecommunications and also the shortage of
scanners weakens the Land Management Information System
(LMIS) system ability to function in its full capacity.
4.3 Processes
A business process re-design project has preceded the Land
Management Information System (LMIS) project. Therefore the
business process for the Land Management Information System
(LMIS) was already defined and in place in the manual system.
The major top-level processes that the system is involved in
include the following among others: Land information registration
sub-process – aimed at registering and documenting all required
information regarding the land management; Land ownership
licensing sub-process – aimed at providing and approving
ownership license to owners of plot of land for a given purpose
(business; residence; public service; or other); and Information
provision service – aimed at providing any information regarding
a plot occupied for an owner or any other concerned body within
and outside the city administration such as the court and others.
The new system design followed the business process already
implemented; hence the reality was the same as the design, except
in few cases the workers are required to follow the old process in
those cases where there is no scanned copies of any document
about a land owner.
Gap = 2; the design was intended to incorporate scanned
documents. Although a small portion of the process it still poses
minimal gap.
4.4 Objectives and Values
Two primary objectives and values of the design were efficient
and transparent system. As to efficiency, the manual system took
3-4 months to process land administration inquiries, reducing this
long processing time was one of the design objectives. Regarding
transparency also the manual system has introduced many
loopholes that are prone to corruption; hence the design calls for a
transparent system. The design in terms of transparency assumes
that this objective is also shared by all the public servants.
In relation to efficiency, the current reality shows a significant
improvement in land administration processing both in time,
effort, and resource consumption. The current system takes less
than a day to complete land administration queries, a significant
improvement that reduced the time from months to hours. The
intended transparency, however, is compromised because decision
makers find loopholes to revert to the manual system. Although
the design requires buy-in to the goals of efficiency and
transparency, and that this buy-in – while absent among some
(corrupt) staff in the middle and lower levels of the decision
making ladder – was present for few senior decision makers and
the volunteers.
Gap = 7; Lack of scanned document is used as a primary reason
for reverting to the manual system, but also decision makers resist
using the new system and find excuses to revert to the manual
system. The intent to overcome corruption is minimized but not
eliminated.
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4.5 Staffing and Skills
The design calls for personnel including one system administrator,
one network administrator, one database administrator, four data
encoders, and two computer maintenance crew. The design called
for all personnel to have experience and the administrators to have
at least a bachelor degree.
In reality only five people were hired (the system administrator
and the four data encoders), none had experience; they were all
fresh graduates from ICT diploma program. Of course, they have
stayed in the job for about a year on average and they have built
up skills by learning on the job.
Gap = 7; Five of the staffing positions were filled, skill level fall
short of the design.
4.6 Management Systems and Structures
The design called for a new structure with an ICT department that
manages the Land Management Information System (LMIS). The
design also called for salary structure with clearly defined
promotion levels. In reality the intended department was not
created and the reporting structure falls under the existing land
administration department. No permanent employees were hired;
all ICT hires have temporary status.
Gap = 8 failed to create the intended department and management
structure.
4.7 Other Resources
In other resources we looked at cost and time overrun. The design
was loosely defined to take a year. The city administration
allocated the required one-time budget for the project. The project
was completed in the projected time period. However there is
acute shortage of budget to cover the running cost required just
following the system implementation.
Gap = 3; project time was as expected. Although money was spent
to complete the project the city administration did not consider the
running costs of the new system.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Summary of the Design-Reality gap is shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Summary of Design-Reality gap
SN Dimension Gap
1 Information 3
2 Technology 5
3 Process 2
4 Objectives and values 7
5 Staffing and Skills 7