Saudi Egov E-Government and Accountability

Saudi Egov

E-Government and Accountability in Saudi Arabia

Area of Research:

With the relatively uniform cost of high-quality, dependable and fast internet provision in both public facilities such as libraries, cafes and print shops, and in private setting such as places of business and households large and small, the web is presenting itself as an intuitive means to providing the government and its public with more reliable access to one another. Current government initiatives and the statistical outcome of such initiatives are together suggesting that statewide utilization of the internet is at this early juncture serving as an increasingly effective way for the Saudi government to reach out to its publics. By using a strategy of electronic (e)-government, Saudi Arabia is beginning now to improve its dexterity at administering services designed to aid the public in gaining access to medical assistance, receiving financial support, understanding housing opportunities, obtaining information regarding local community initiatives, gaining access to food and resource distribution programs and coming into contact with organizations designed to improve employment potential. All told, these services present an easily accessible and ever-more widely recognized branch of government service, removing political connotations and other such distorting contexts from the primary role of public officials, to provide meaningful support to the public itself.

Research Topic:

This implicates the central argument of the research proposal, which is that improvement of e-government services will produce greater government accountability and improved user satisfaction when compared to traditional government services. So denotes the research by Alsheha (2007), which reports that the Saudi e-government initiative is called "YESSER." Alsheha tells that "the vision statement of the program is: 'by the end of 2010, everyone in the kingdom will be able to enjoy -- from anywhere and at anytime -- world class government services offered in a seamless, user friendly and secure way by utilizing a variety of electronic means.'" (Alsheha, 2) The Alsheha source figures to be prominently used in the research process and helps to underscore the basic imperative to use web technology as a way to improve the access that Saudis have to their services without geographical or time-bound limitations.

According to Manibo (2007), the claim of improved accountability is supported by the fact that users will now have unfettered access to many government services which have previously had no electronic portal. According to Manibo, of the Saudi government as of 2007, "only 23% is offering electronic facilities at the present and that three billion Saudi Riyals ($800 million) is granted by the Saudi government to meet the completion of the electronic government and ending the era of bureaucracy." (Manibo, 1) It seems reasonable to deduce that the improved access to services resulting from more permeating penetration of e-portals will result in greater connectivity between the government and its publics.

With respect to the claim that this will also result in improved user statisfaction, Al-Fakhri et al. (2008) point out that at present, "Many of the Saudi government agencies have their own web sites; however, most are ineffective." (p. 59) The Yesser (Yussr) program is aimed at improving the standards of effectiveness and usability reflected in such companion websites.

E-governing and accountability

Research Methods:

The preferred method of research is a user-survey. The Likert Scale model of survey will be distributed through the email listserv of participating e-government websites requesting respondents to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 to what extent they agree or disagree with statements provided in the survey. These statements will primarily concern the nature of the experience of e-government portal usage, including consideration of user satisfaction; convenience; responsiveness; and comparative improvement over in-person government agency experiences. The survey will also be used to determine whether respondents feel that e-government services help to supplement existing government agencies.

This would be considered a semi-experimental quantitative study, where participating respondents would be interviewed as part of the exit process for any e-gov agency uses and would be given mail-in surveys when leaving physical government agencies or receiving mailed documents through government service agencies. The latter of these groups would be considered the control group and would be given statements based on historical experiences using traditional government services. The former of these groups would be considered an experimental group and would be given statements based on current experiences with the evolving e-government framework.