E-Government Services Framework

Abstract

E-government generally refers to the delivery of national or local government information and services via the Internet or other digital means (Relyea, 2002). E-government refers to the ability of government to interact electronically with citizens, businesses, and other governmental entities. The interaction may be in the form of obtaining information, filings, or making payments, and a host of other activities via the World Wide Web (Abramson & Means, 2001; Bertucci, 2003; Sharma, 2004; Sharma & Gupta, 2002). The benefits of e-government usually include improved: quality of citizen services, internal efficiencies, law enforcement, education and information, promotion and outreach activities, safety and security, health care services and management, and involvement of citizens in the democratic process. Many believe that e-government can provide seamless services to draw agencies together, leading to more citizen-centric services (Grönlund, 2002; Gurstein, 2000; Venkatachalam, Shore, & Sharma, 2003). Many countries have decided to employ information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance delivery of government services to their citizens, and are thus at various stages of e-government implementation (Ho, 2002; Holliday, 2002; Layne & Lee, 2001; Netchaeva, 2002; United Nations & American Society for Public Administration, 2002; Sharma, 2004; Sharma & Gupta, 2002, 2003; Taylor, 2002). After examining studies conducted by various researchers on e-government models and frameworks, this article presents a holistic approach to create an e-government framework.