Governor Adil launches e-government system
The governor of Central Equatoria State has launched an e-government system meant to promote efficiency, transparency and accountability in revenue collection, land registration and purchase, waste disposal, among others.
During the launch ceremony, the governor stated that the e-government system would allow citizens to monitor government functions and facilitate communication between the government, private sector, and general public.
Adil said their target for e-government was to monitor revenue collection systems, registration of land and purchase, medical waste disposal and installation facilities, among others, adding that they had a proposal to establish a bank to be named “Equator Bank”.
“For your information our guests who are in this function, it is important to know that the importance of establishing electronic e-government in Central Equatoria is to increase efficiency, transparency and accountability and citizen’s participation in monitoring and scrutinising the function and the performance of the government, among other things,” Adil stated
“E-government uses ICT as a support tool in development to allow high levels of effectiveness and efficiency in government functions and performance improvement in terms of process and procedures. And it also increases the quality of public service and improves the use of information in decision-making processes to ease communication among different agents.”
He said the e-government would bolster relationships among government institutions and citizens as they mutually work towards sustainable development.
Adil reiterated that his government chose this system to join his peers across the world that are using e-government to run government systems.
“The e-government has many advantages that I would like to highlight. It offers an enhanced portfolio of public service in an efficient and cost-effective way to citizens. It also provides more transparent governance because it enables the public to be informed about what happens in their respective governments. It replaces and optimises the paperwork by saving a lot of time, money. It provides clear communication between the government, and private sector and the general public,” he explained.
The Central Equatoria State governor said it was a challenge to the government since citizens would always monitor them and it was expensive to maintain, but, through cost-effectiveness, it was made more important.
He cited another disadvantage as being a lack of accessibility by the citizens living in remote areas.
The plan
The government of Central Equatoria State had been receiving reports of high taxation imposed on traders, especially by the City Council, as well as fraudulent officers on the streets of Juba.
In November 2021, the government of Central Equatoria State announced their plan to launch of e-government system by December 2021 which would connect all the ministries and other public institutions.
The state minister of information, Andruga Severino Mabe, stated that the government inked a memorandum of understanding with Modern Approach Company (MAC), for the operationalisation of the e-government system in the state.
“We are planning to launch an e-government system and the e-government system so that it can be operationalised. It is electronic government to ease service delivery. E-government is necessary. The whole world is moving towards that and we see that Central Equatoria State should not be [left] behind,” Mabe said.
“It is a modern approach company that has signed the MoU with us and we are to review the MoU and give them the contract to sign with the state government.’’
He revealed that the e-taxation system had already been launched by Juba City Council and the state revenue authority.
“What is in the e-government is what we call the e-government portfolio. That means you connect all the ministries, all the institutions in this government. All should be digitalised with you in carrying out operations and functions,” he explained.
“We had approved an amount of money to refurbish and improve EBC radio and television so that they will move together as an institution of Central Equatoria State within the digitalised system of e-government and they will be the ears and eyes of our government.”
