eGovernment for Development

Success/Failure Case Study No.23

Problems in Computerising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Case Study Author

Kenhago Tazo Olivier (okenhago@yahoo.fr)

Application

This was an ambitious programme of information and communication technology (ICT) application in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in a West African state. The programme included: computerising all of MoFA's internal services, creating an intranet, and creating Web-enabled citizen services. The hardware involved was a set of PC workstations and servers, all of which were to be interconnected via the Internet; the main server was held at Ministry headquarters in the national capital. Various Microsoft and Oracle products were used to form that software base of the programme. Training was to be provided to Ministry staff.

Application Description

The new system was intended - mainly via the intranet, but also via an external Web site and via email - to allow sharing of information between the Ministry and its diplomatic missions abroad. The external Web site was intended as a tool for citizens, businesspeople and researchers, explaining which international agreements the country subscribed to, providing details of invitations to tender, and recording official speeches and diplomatic records. The intention was also to help diplomats and other Ministry staff make use of the Web for research purposes, and to become involved in videoconferences, thus reducing the need for, and cost of, travel.

Application Purpose

The application was introduced because MoFA was carried along by the imperatives of ICTs, and wanted to make itself into a more dynamic, modern organisation. It saw that many UN documents and data were being made available electronically. It therefore perceived that ICTs could change the way that diplomatic missions worked: reducing the need for collecting and sending so much paper, and reducing use of the diplomatic bag; and enabling discussions and decisions by participants who were located in different parts of the world. There was a specific objective attached to the last aim of reducing travel costs by half. MoFA also intended to deliver benefits to local people of faster, cheaper working; better access to information; and rapid online application for official documents such as passports. These specific purposes also fitted with a broader aim in the national government to reduce digital illiteracy among public officials.

Stakeholders

The programme was firstly intended to affect the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Investors and researchers overseas were seen as likely to benefit from greater provision of information. Likewise, local citizens and businesses were seen as potential stakeholders, given the intended benefits that would come to them.

Impact: Costs and Benefits

The computerisation process began only slowly in the 1990s, often relying on donated hardware and software. By the late 1990s, however, the Ministry was making its own internal budget allocations for computerisation. In the three financial years from 1999 to 2002, it budgeted US$75,000 for Y2K compliance; US$360,000 for computerisation of central services; US$45,000 for office automation; US$110,000 for overseas mission computerisation; and US$70,000 for videoconferencing and Web site creation. In total, this amounted to 2% of the overall budget of the Ministry for those years. Intangible and staff costs were not included in these sums.

In comparison to clear costs, few benefits have been delivered:

• The diplomatic bag is still the main way to send and receive information between the Ministry and its overseas missions, so exchange of information is still slow and paper-based.
• No teleconference has been organised, and Internet relay chat has not been used for any discussion or decision-making. Diplomats still fly abroad to attend conferences, and the travel budget remains unaffected.
• A Ministry intranet was created but - at the time of writing - it had been out of operation for more than one year following a lightning strike on part of the system. The idea of creating an extranet - allowing external access to the Ministry intranet - has been abandoned.
• Ministry data is still stored on paper because the hardware for writing to CD-ROMs is unavailable, and the capacity of diskettes is too small for the Ministry's requirements.
• The Ministry Web site is not interactive and not regularly updated: it merely displays old, static information. All transactions with businesses and citizens are still conducted on paper.
• Attempts to raise awareness and use levels among Ministry staff have had limited results. A 2002 study showed that, while 70% of diplomatic staff were aware that the Ministry had a Web site, only 15% had ever visited that site. 30% had an email account, and only 20% used the Web at all. 90% used face-to-face meetings as their means of communicating with colleagues, and less than 1% had ever used any form of teleconferencing.

Evaluation: Failure or Success?

The project has been largely unsuccessful. Eight years after its inception, and three years after significant expansion into Web-based applications, none of the main objectives of the project comes even close to having been achieved.

Enablers/Critical Success Factors

1. Staff awareness . Staff were aware of the intended changes, and some supported those changes.
2. Financial allocations . Significant budgetary allocations were made for the computerisation project.
3. National strategy . There was a national plan for computerisation of public agencies that helped to facilitate the overall project.

Constraints/Critical Failure Factors

1. Politicisation/personalisation of tendering . Those private sector ICT firms that took charge of the project were not among the best in the sector. Newspapers pointed out that tenders were being awarded on the basis of personal relations between officials in MoFA and the businesses, instead of on the basis of competence.
2. Clashes with personal interest . Some aspects of the application threatened the privileges of diplomats: promoting videoconferences meant reducing overseas travel. Yet such travel is a principal source of revenue for diplomats based at headquarters. Their salary is very low, and they are able to make money from overseas travel through their allowances and from trading. So they really boycotted that part of the project.
3. Limited computing infrastructure . Staff in the Ministry were often interested in learning more about ICTs, following initial training. However, their access to the technology was constrained: there were a maximum of two PCs per department at headquarters - a total of 35 PCs in a building with more than 300 officials.

Recommendations

1. Customise your goals to current realities . Understanding the motivations and interests of key stakeholders will help designers of e-government systems fit with what is possible, rather than trying to design something that will not happen.
2. Customise your timescales to current realities . Ministers should not expect automatic and overnight transition to electronic networking. They must recognise that time and groundwork are needed.
3. Customise your training to user needs . Training conducted was rather basic and general. Instead, it would be better to customise training content to the specific job needs of staff. This may well mean some initial study of work content to understand the role of information and communication (and, hence, the potential role of ICTs) in the work of government staff. In this case, for instance, diplomats should not have been given general Web training, but specific guidance on access to Web sources and databases of relevance to diplomacy and international relations.

Further Information

n/a

Case Details

Author Data Sources/Role : Interviews, Observation and Documents; No Direct Role.
Outcome : Largely Unsuccessful. Reform : eAdministration & eCitizens. Sector : General Services (Foreign Affairs).
Region : West Africa. Start Date : 1994. Submission Date : November 2002