Providing improved services to citizens, a critical review of E-government facilities

Information Technology has now become an important pillar of the Mauritian economy. Every citizen in the society of different ages or social positions are benefiting from it. Inhabitants of Mauritius now have faster and more reliable internet, better mobile services and an increasing use of smart phones with applications dealing in our everyday life. Government has put a major focus on using E-services for easing processes in most, if not all of their Ministries. Governments have quickly realised the benefits to be reaped from early adoption of technology. With the advent of globalisation, better awareness and communication has paved the way for developing strategies to enable a citizen centric approach in the provision of ubiquitous on-line services to the population. This country wide approach to empower citizens by the rolling out of on-line services in the areas such as education, health, civil service, transport, judiciary, business, finance and security, to name a few, has been more than beneficial. This paper outlines the benefits that can be derived from e-Services and describes potential barriers for its proper adoption. Some implementations of E-government services are discussed whilst highlighting the strengths, weaknesses and lessons that can be learnt from each of these implementations.