icegov2012 proceedings

Trust Issues in the E-Government Implementation in Nepal
Garima Dhakal
Kathmandu University
Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal
dhakal.gareema@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses trust as one of the primary challenges in the
implementation of e-government in Nepal. We bring into focus
the trust issues through field visits and experimentation of dummy
portal among ICT literate youths. The user level trust concerns are
identified and trust parameters are categorized accordingly. We
introduce a trust framework that shows the relationship between
three domains: i) Service Provider, ii) Service Recipient and iii)
ICT; and explains the role of Law in the framework. The trust
framework aims to mitigate citizens’ mistrust in e-government
and to increase user participation in the system. Hence, we
recommend phase-wise implementation of e-government so that
entire trust framework could be addressed in each phase.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
J.4 [Computer Applications]: Social and Behavioral Sciences –
sociology, psychology.
General Terms
Management, Experimentation, Human Factors
Keywords
Trust parameters, E-government, Nepal
1. INTRODUCTION
The current focus of the Government of Nepal mostly lies in the
development of necessary infrastructure for the e-government
implementation. In this context, we argue that for a sustainable
and effective use of e-government services for information
exchange, interaction and transaction, it is necessary to address
different trust issues prevailing among the citizens. We explore
trust issues from socio-technical approach, keeping into focus the
acceptance and adoption of e-government services. Hence, we
believe that increased trust corresponds to increased user
participation in the e-government system.
Trust issues on e-government implementations have received
significant interest from researchers and implementers; some
examples include [3-5]. Trust issues related to technological [3] as
well as social [4] and user perspectives [5] have been explored.
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ICEGOV '12, October 22 - 25 2012, Albany, NY, USA
Copyright 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1200-4/12/10...$15.00
Prajwal Amatya
Kathmandu University
Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal
prajwalamatya@gmail.com
524
Bal Krishna Bal
Kathmandu University
Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal
bal@ku.edu.np
Even though research like [1] has been done to understand the
challenges of e-government implementation in Nepal, the research
on trust still remains an important and largely unexplored issue. In
[6] authors assess level of trust on government and on internet and
explain the use of social media to increase trust and adoption of egovernment
in Nepal. While, we introduce trust parameters and
trust framework to address citizens’ mistrust in e-government. In
this work, we seek an insight to the following research questions.
o What are the trust issues prevalent in the e-government
implementation in Nepal?
o How can we address the trust issues in the context of Nepal?
To find out the answers, we look into the global trust issues in egovernment
implementations and then examine the relevance of
these issues in the context of Nepal thus developing our own
cases. We have formed the trust parameters put forward by
Belanger and Carter [2] as the guidelines for understanding
citizens’ trust in e-government. Belanger and Carter [2] categorize
trust into four parameters: “Trust of the Government”- citizen’s
attitude and perception towards government’s capabilities in
providing the electronic services, “Trust of the Internet”-
concerns of privacy and security over exchanging personal data
and information through the internet, “Disposition to Trust” –
general acceptance and adoption of technology especially when
people start to learn and use new system, and “Perceived Risk” –
uncertainties that is beyond the control of users.
2. METHODOLOGY
The e-government implementation in Nepal of late has been
focusing in making the Government to Government (G2G)
electronic network better equipped. Very few government
websites are actually providing electronic service to the citizens
and these too are limited to downloading the application forms.
Hence, we have developed our own dummy e-government portal.
The portal consists of frequently sought government services like
issuance of national identity card, passport and driving license,
and one relatively new concept of e-polling. We have also created
two types of roles in the system- user as general citizen and user
as government official.
We have conducted field visits and carried out experiments in four
different sites of Nepal, namely, Hetauda, Narayanghat,
Bhairahawa, and Pokhara. In addition to the observations of user
behavior, we have gathered feedbacks from the participants in the
form of interview and focus group discussion in order to
understand different trust concerns they have come up while using
the dummy portal. The number of participants is altogether 339,
out of which 202 are males and 137 females. The participants
have fairly good knowledge on Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) and they come from different socio-cultural