THE Government of Guyana is moving towards e-governance. The process, as expected, is gradually being implemented, but when it is fully operational the country as a whole will benefit.

E-governance is now possible because of the quadrupling of the broadband capacity in the country. Both government and the private sector have been investing significant sums in this aspect of infrastructural development. In addition to investments in infrastructure, the Government of Guyana has also committed to delivering 90,000 laptops to families throughout the country. This laptop-to-families project is also a major component in the delivery of e-governance.

Specific benefits will emerge from the new way of doing business.

Firstly, e-governance will help to develop e-literacy, and by so doing, Guyanese will acquire the skills needed to be more competitive in the new world economy anchored in ideas-based values.

Many high schools in the country are doing IT as a core subject, and further, computer labs are springing up through private initiatives and government policy. In a few years most Guyanese should be able to use a computer and should also be able to navigate the internet. These developments are integral to long term productivity gains.

Secondly, greater efficiencies will emerge as Guyanese go to the internet to access government information. No longer will contractors have to go to Georgetown to uplift forms in order to submit bids. No longer would citizens have to travel to the city to file applications for birth certificates, licences, and other basic services.

The time saved in doing routine business would reduce transaction costs to end users. Government staff would be able to reduce processing time and this should result in both efficiency and productivity in administration.

Thirdly, e-governance will also go a far way in strengthening transparency. Transparency is essentially about open communication. The sociological structure regarding communication in societies such as Guyana might be best understood through the concept of gemeinschaft. The German sociologist Fernand Tonnies used this concept to describe cultures that are based on face-to-face relations. While this form of engagement has its benefits, it also has a downside. The biggest drawback in face-to-face relations is that rules can be subverted because the parties to a transaction may know each other directly or through a third party.

By comparison, Tonnies theorized that gesellschaft cultures are based on impersonal relations. Max Weber, another German sociologist, picked up on Tonnies’ formulations and theorized that impersonal relations breed efficiency because it is the transaction that matters, not ‘who you know’. Few things in modernity can move a society closer to bureaucratic efficiency than e-governance. Through e-governance, Guyana will make a step-level move in the direction of administrative modernization.

Fourthly, e-governance will allow the Government of Guyana to instantaneously place information on the internet, rather than go through the laborious process of placing the information in newspapers and other forms of hard print.

When the information is placed on the web it will be immediately accessible and will stay there for as long as needed. One added benefit here is that the information will also be immediately accessible to the Guyanese population and other interested parties who do not have immediate access to the newspapers in Guyana. Search time would be significantly reduced.

Finally, change in any system of administration calls for adjustments by the end users, but people do adjust. The traditional outlets used to place government information will also have to adjust, but this is not something peculiar to Guyana.

Newspapers in the country will miss the revenues from government ads, but on the positive side, tax-payers dollars will be saved and invested in other areas of national development.

The monies saved can and probably will be used to hire more staff to speed up the processing time in all areas. In this regard, the statement about e-governance and press freedom by AFC leader Raphael Trotman is misplaced.
In time, even Mr. Trotman will adjust to these new developments. His party is urged to begin that process now.