Bandar Seri Begawan – Brunei ranked 104 out of 198 in the 2006 global e-government study conducted by US Brown University.
“Brunei’s ranking is very good,” said Karl Verhulst, CA (formerly known as Computer Associates) Director-Marketing for Asia South.
Someone please tell me how 104th out of 198 nations is “very good”? Maybe I’m seeing this the wrong way? Perhaps there’s some other metric these guys are using to gauge success? Either way, I think we can all agree that we have a pretty loooong way to go 🙂
Then I scratched my head when I read this here:
He [Mr Verhulst] suggested that the next step would be for government departments to take inventory of their paper forms and produce downloadable versions for the convenience of the public.
Hmmm… downloadable forms so people can print them out, fill them in manually in the comfort of their own homes/offices, drive to the government office to submit the filled forms so that the data entry clerks can re-enter the data from the manually filled in forms. Yes, very efficient and paperless if you ask me…
I’m glad you said it, cos I felt the same way about the “very good” comments. Not very helpful just giving nice responses about the situation. Better to call a spade a spade. Sure, many initiatives have started, but much more work still needs to be done to bring Brunei up to where it could be in the eGov rankings … but first step has to be a reality check.
Actually, the last bit about Down-loadable forms is about as efficient as e-Government gets.
You need actual certs and stuff, or at least certified copies for official matters. Actual signatures photos and such.
Unless members of the public are given their own Electronic ID in some way, e-Government can go no further than down-loadable Forms, which have to be manually filled and signed.
down-loadable forms would also solve the problem of,
" OH sorry, no more Forms. Please wait, or come another day! " =.=
Well, I think we should take a closer look at the rationale behind the requirements for all these supporting documents. Is it as proof of identity? or proof of entitlement? Whatever it may be, a pretty good start would be to use online forms which are processed accordingly and the original supporting documents to be presented by applicant during a specified date and time to the processing officer. Better still, in the case of passports and IC's for instance, the supporting docs to be presented when applicant comes to collect their new passport or IC.