IT Governance in a Public Organization in a Developing Country: A Case Study of a Governmental Organization

Abstract

Abstract The application of Information Technology Governance (ITG) was motivated by the private sector in the 90s, as a way to achieve excellence, provide new services, and increase profitability of IT investments. Therefore the organizations from the public sector has shortly followed those from the private sector realizing the benefits of having an effective ITG implementation that could better serve the implementation of IT plans, projects and programs in their organizations. Reviewing the research literature in this field, we have found a shortage of studies regarding ITG implementation into the public sector organizations in developing countries. Research has been conducted mainly in organizations from the private sector and specifically in the developed countries and very few in the public sector organizations in developing countries. Therefore this research has focused on the application of ITG in a public organization particularly in a governmental organization in a developing country by analysing ITG practices in place. The research method used in this study was interpretive case study and the data collection was done through interviews as primary data together including secondary data collected from progress reports, policies and procedure reports of the governmental organization. The results of this research concluded, that there was an unintentional implementation of ITG in the studied governmental organization and that there is a need to improve the ITG structures, processes and relational mechanisms that will promote accountability of the IT projects and contribute to an effective ITG implementation in this organization.