After getting caught in the web of an inefficient bureaucracy at various agencies of the government, I have realised that our political and bureaucratic leadership lack the intelligence necessary to emulate what other countries have achieved seemingly easily. Till date, successive administrations have not been able to propel the country towards economic stability and prosperity. As a result, Nepali citizens will continue to bear the burden of substandard government services until bureaucratic inefficiency is amended through technology-driven reforms.

To cite one example, a few weeks back, I started my passport renewal application process at the Chief District Officer’s Office in Babar Mahal at 10 am and finished at the Department of Passport around 4pm. Since noon, a Singaporean friend of mine had been patiently waiting to have lunch. While I did tell him that it could take a bit longer than expected, I never imagined renewing a passport through the fast-track service to be a six-hour-long labourious process. So the first thing my friend told me upon completing the process was, “Nepal’s bureaucracy is incompetent to its core.” He could not believe that it took me almost a day to simply apply for passport renewal, as it takes less than 10 minutes to do the same in his country. He informed me that all service seekers need to do is fill out an online form and upload a passport-size picture on a government website. Furthermore, it is possible to receive almost all Singaporean government services on the internet.

At first, it seemed like he was merely boasting about his technologically advanced country and demeaning Nepal. But I quickly realised that he was not. In retrospective, I had miserably burned daylight going through red tape in the most disorganised way possible at Passport Deparment.  

Look north, south

Excluding Nepal, and possibly a few other developing countries, governments across the planet are following Singapore’s path and toiling to re-invent their public sector and adapt its modus operandi to a world that is rapidly transitioning from the industrial to the information age. In neigbouring India, Narendra Modi’s government has issued a directive declaring his government’s top priorities for the near future in the framework of a 10-point vision where strengthening good governance (with e-governance and e-auction) was one of the key points. Even China, infamous for censoring information on the internet through the ‘great firewall of China’, has taken some sensible steps. Since 2005, the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee has continuously highlighted ‘informatisation’ of rural China through its annual policy directive.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala also proclaimed his government’s foremost priorities in the first few days of his prime-ministership. However, unlike his counterparts in India and China, his government failed to bring forward a progressive digital agenda, particularly on e-governance, appropriate for the information age.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “E-governance is a powerful tool that can make public administration more efficient and effective using ICT forcing governments to rethink organisations, responsibilities, and business processes.” For example, the ‘E-Jamin’ project initiated by the Revenue Department in Gujarat, India has successfully digitised land records data for almost half of Gujarati landowners, significantly reducing fraudulent episodes related to land ownership. Such revolutionary initiatives could wean citizens from Nepal’s corrupt land registration system. According to Transparency International’s recently released survey results, 40 percent of respondents rated land revenue offices as the most corrupt.

Not just developed

The Government of Nepal seems to be clueless about the ongoing digital revolution. Recently, I had an opportunity to ask a senior lawmaker why e-governance was not a priority in Nepal when countries like the US, the UK, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, China, and India have clearly ranked it high on their economic agenda. He confidently replied, “E-governance is only for developed countries with functioning democracies. Besides, being a post-conflict state, Nepal is still figuring out a sustainable solution for state-structuring and inclusive democracy by writing a timely constitution suited for the 21st century.”

On the contrary, e-governance transformation is not limited to first world countries. Post-conflict countries like Rwanda and Vietnam and even a conflict-ridden country like Colombia have made significant strides in e-governance. According to the UN E-government Readiness Index 2014, produced every two years by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Colombia, Vietnam, and Rwanda ranked 50th, 65th, and 125th respectively among 193 countries. On the other hand, Nepal’s ranking dropped from 130th in 2003 to 165th in 2014. During the same time, the Republic of Korea’s ranking rose from fifth to first. Simply put, Nepal is not doing enough.

Much to do

Still, there are reasons to be optimistic in Nepal for mainly two reasons. First, on the part of citizens, youths have started to demand (at least on Facebook) government services to be delivered through their preferred medium—the internet. Furthermore, they have even started to vent their discontent towards the government on various social media platforms. Second, on the political side, cultivated and committed youth leaders from all political parties are ready to grab opportunities to lead the country towards prosperity. More importantly, they identify with the digital generation and understand the internet’s positive impact on society. For example, during his directorship at the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, current Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Govinda Pokharel successfully established a data warehouse consisting of all renewable energy technologies in Nepal to implement his vision of harnessing the power of data.   

Today, it is far from clear if the Nepali government will ever prioritise e-governance and go about developing holistic e-governance strategies. Therefore, logging into online government services portal looks to remain a farfetched dream for quite some time, even though we comfortably log in to Facebook zillions of times a day or tweet on an hourly basis from our mobile devices. In addition, the dominant ethos will still prevail, unless youth with both the capacity and determination to make political, economic, and legal reforms necessary to propel the country towards a digital economy are in positions of intellectual and executive authority. Until then, we will be left with nothing but the torment of standing in queues for hours, waiting to receive substandard government services.

Shah was an e-governance consultant at the National Information Technology Centre from 2003 to 2007