icegov2012 proceedings

5. PART THREE: E GOVERNMENT
APPLICATIONS
Looking at specific interests, the government will focus on
establishing a group of particular e-government applications. It
plans to establish enterprise architecture and develop e-
Government operation policy and guidelines. It will also design
and implement web-based system for the public service
commission, land record management, and vehicle registration
and driving licensing systems.
More importantly, the government plans to establish a national
identification system. Every citizen will get a unique identity
number, and there will be a database to keep the record of each
citizen and share among stakeholders. This will be achieved by
generation of a unique ID number, registration in the national
database, verification with biometric features, printing biometric
smart National ID card and issuance of the card to the people.
6. PART FOUR: HUMAN RESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT FOR E GOVERNANCE
In this section, the government aims to build awareness and skills
of the key stakeholders in e-Governance, establish computer
laboratories for training, and develop a better curriculum for the
same purpose. The latter will be done with research and
collaboration with universities.
7. IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE
According to the project implementation schedule prepared by
ADB on September 2008, finalizing the bidding documents of all
the above mentioned projects should start on 29 September 2009
and finish on 11 February 2009. Likewise the procurement of all
projects should start on 14 th December and finish on 16 June
2009. The design, supply, installations, testing and commissioning
of the projects under part two and three should start on 01 January
2009 and should finish on 14 th October 2010. It means
commissioning of the most of the projects should finish by the
October 2010.
8. DEVELOPMENT REVIEW AND
CURRENT STATUS OF PROJECTS
According to the Asian Development Bank, as of 30 November
2010, the project’s physical progress is estimated at about 30%,
cumulative contract awards and disbursements were $.2.4 million
and 0.3 million respectively out of the total 25 million budget.
Not even a single project has been completed on time and not one
project has commissioned according to the scheduled plan.
According to the revised action plan, the remaining projects
should have been completed by 31 st January 2011. As of March
2012, the status of the project is still the same as on December
2010, when the new action plan was formed. Significant progress
has been achieved in only one field: Price Waterhouse Coopers
(PWC) has won the contract to design, develop and facilitate
Government Enterprise Architecture.
9. REASONS FOR THE POOR STATUS OF
E-GOVERNANCE PROJECTS
In spite of the strong need for the nation, priority of the
government and good support from the donor agency, the progress
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of all the projects under ICTD program are very slow. The
responsible reasons for the slowness are found to be as follows.
The analysis is on the basis of the experience as a senior officer
actively involving in e-governance programs since long and the
review of the concerning literature. The problems have been listed
on the basis of priority.
i) Political Instability
ii) Reluctance of conservative government officials to adapt to the
new system
iii) Lack of ICT Education among government officers and people
iv) Poor Infrastructure and Connectivity
v) Lack of sufficient electrical power supply in the nation.
10. CONCLUSION
Nepal, a politically unstable South Asian country, has initiated an
ICT development program under the e-governance master plan of
Nepal. And for this project, it has signed an agreement with the
Asian Development Bank which contributed US$ 25 million, and
formulated an action plan to complete eight projects focused on
government efficiency, modernization of rural areas, and
mobilization of the country’s existing human resources.
However, the progress of the projects has been very slow and the
deadline for commission, which was 14 th October 2010, was
passed. Another action plan shifted the deadline to 31 st January
2011 but again, no significant progress has been made till date.
The main factors widely attributed for this are the factors that
affect most third world nations: lack of political stability, lack of
basic infrastructure like electrical facilities and connectivity, lack
of education, and the reluctance of government officials and the
people to adapt to a new system. Therefore, even though the
bureaucracy has given a lot of priority to this project, based on
current projections, its future looks grim.
11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My sincere and respectful thanks go to my friends and officers
involving in the national e governance campaign. I am grateful to
the officers and team of Asian Development Bank (ADB)
involved with ICTD project.
12. REFERENCES
[1] Brush up Online, HLCIT Dissolve : A regressive step,
December 2011
[2] Government of Nepal, E-Government Master Plan
Consulting report, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2006
[3] Government of Nepal, Information and Communication
Development project (ICTD), September 2008
[4] Ganesh Prasad Adhikari, National ID project of Nepal:
future challenges, ACM Press, 2011
[5] Nepal Telecom Authority, MIS report., December 2011
[6] Ramro.org, Panel directs ministry not to dissolve HLCIT,
nepali-news-ekantipur-en&news=344753, December 2011