The Political and Legal Challenges
Limiting E-government Implementation
in Developing Contexts:
The Case of Lebanon
Post-Graduate Research Conference
University of Bradford
31st of October 2014
Bradford, England
Hassan Baz Chamas
PhD in Business Management & Innovation
Bradford School of Management
Presentation Outline
Evolution of E-government
 Definition of E-government
 E-government Categories
 E-government Models
 E-government in Developing Countries
 E-government In Lebanon
 Legal Status and Impact
 Political Status and Impact

Evolution of E-government

EG has emerged from the notion or ideology
concerning the digitization of society and has
materialised into a major economic force for over
recent decades(Chee-Wee, Pan et al. 2007).

E-commerce implementation in business transactions
and its attraction for an extensive number of customers
encouraged the exploitation of the same concept in
public administration to enhance the provision of
services.
Evolution of E-government
What is E-government ?

E-government is defined as the use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs), and in particular
the Internet, to attain better government or in other
words conducting different government transactions
through the electronic network (OCDE 2003,
Alzahrani.M.E 2012).

objective of e-government is to construct a rapid,
accountable, transparent, efficient and effective practice
for performing government actions in the back-office
side (Ionescu 2013).
Categories of E-government
Categories of E-government
Government to Business (G2B): ICT has considerably
accelerated the bureaucratic managerial process in public
administrations.
 Government to Citizens (G2C): With the purpose of
simplifying and improving the interaction between public
administrations and citizens for providing better public
services
 Government to Employees (G2E): Internal efficiency and
effectiveness or G2E stand for the simulated connection
between public administration’s institutions and their
workforces(Lee, Tan et al. 2005)
 Government to Government (G2G): Governments have
established electronic connection in different administrative
and legislative data centres to enable data processing and
interaction among various state departments within the
same government and its offices abroad.

E-government Models
“New Economy” or “Knowledge-based
economy”
The UK, France, and USA
 “E-community”
Scandinavian countries or Netherland
 “Planned Economy”
Asian tigers such as Hong Kong, Singapore,
South Korea, and Taiwan

E-government in Developing
Countries

35 percent of e-government programs
were total fail and 50 percent of the
projects partially failed, while only 15
percent of projects implemented have
been successful (Heeks 2010).

The fruitful enactment of technology is
substance to a diversity of powers acting
toward its adoption (Pons 2004)
E-government in Developing
Countries

Different nations experience different
levels of e-Government scope and density.
Vassilakis, Lepouras, Fraser, Haston, and
Georgiadis (2005) identify five potential
barriers for offering governments' eService including legislative, administrative,
technological, cultural, and social barriers.
E-government In Lebanon
Office of the Minister of State for
Administrative Reform( OMSAR)
 UNDP
 World Bank

Legislations

The legislative barriers are related to the
existence of appropriate laws, regulations,
and directives that facilitate the
deployment of e-Government service. The
existence of an enabling legal framework
is indispensable to successful eGovernment because it impacts IT
adoption across government
organizations (Gasco, 2005). BoyerWright and Kottemann (2009)
Legislations



lack of regulation and legislation
lack of trust
Laws are required to establish trust between citizens and the
government and organize the use of electronic services
Laws
Unique ID Number Law – No. 241 – October 22, 2012
Standardization of Government Forms – No. 16 – Date 18/08/2011
Delegation of OMSAR for the E-Government – No. 12 – Date 19/09/2011
Websites Standards for Lebanese Administration No. 55 – Date 02/05/2012
99 – ‫مكتب وزير الدولة لشؤون التنمية ادارية‬www.omsar.gov.lb

– Websites Standards for Lebanese Administration No. 55 – Date 02/05/2012

– Public participation of legal texts – No. 22 – Date 25/07/2012
Draft laws

– Active Participation in the committee for the Electronic Transactions Law

(sent to the parliament under Decree 9341 – 08/10/2012)
Political
E-government needs continuous approval
and commitment from high authority to
sustain and to continue without any
unanticipated delays or project failures
(Reeks, 2003).
 The involvement and support of the
government's top authorities would
enable e-government officials to
implement and diffuse the project with
more confidence.

Political
High levels of corruption and political
instability have vital impacts on reform
approaches such as E-government.
 Lack of political accountability and
ineffectiveness of legal mechanism are
positively correlated with corruption level
in a society (Ionescu, 2013).

Political

The turbulence taking place in Syria has
been affecting the political stability in
Lebanon and causing unrest.
Conclusion





E-government is not merely a computerized
process.
The percentage of failure in developing
countries is high.
Considerable efforts are required for successful
adoption.
Legislations and Politics are crucial in Egovernment adoption.
More research and investigation are
recommended in the field.
Any Questions ?
Thank You