Factors Affecting Public Value of E-Government in Sri Lanka: An Empirical Study Based on the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs

Abstract

The concept of Public Value is a popular mean for evaluating the performance of public services. Public organizations create value by efficiently operating the organizations for meeting citizens desire (Moore, 1995). Many governments have been introduced websites to deliver public services in efficient and effective manner. E- Government is considered as the use of Information Communication Technology for the delivery of public services. According to the annual report of the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) (in 2011) in Sri Lanka, the investment for E-government in 2011 was 2045 million Sri Lanka Rupees which is incurred from the taxes. The take up rate of the E-government services by citizens in Sri Lanka is 22.3% (Karunasena and Deng, 2009). A recent study of the UN (2012) highlighted that 77.7% citizens are not aware of E-government in Sri Lanka. In order to improve the E-government adoption rate, governments have to improve the Public Value of E-government. Thus this study examines Public Value of e- government in Sri Lanka. The Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs in Sri Lanka serves both general public and public employees. The Ministry is responsible for human resource management of Ministries, Departments, and District and Divisional secretariats. It is the focal point of human resource management in the National level public services in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this Ministry was selected to examine the public value of e-government. Thus, the main objective of this study is to find out the determinants of Public Value of e-government and suggest policy recommendations to increase the Public Value of e-government of the Ministry. The data was collected during the first quarter of 2014 using a structured questionnaire. Population of this study was the Sri Lanka administrative Service officers (2204 officers) and the sample is 10% from the population. Both postal mail and email survey was conducted and analyzed using SPSS 16.0 version. The validity and reliability of the data were ensured by using the factor analysis and reliability analysis. The frequency analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. According to the study results, the most significant determinant of the Public Value is the Service Delivery. The Efficiency, User friendliness, Quality and Content are the four main dimensions of the Service Delivery. The factors Equity, Responsiveness, Openness and Environment Sustainability are not statistically significant with the Public Value. Updating the website regularly, publishing all the contents in three languages following international web standards when publishing information, developing facilities to conduct online transactions and increase the transactional speed and the service delivery are essential to enhance the Public Value of the e-government of the selected Ministry.