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SCIENCE COMPUTER
TITLE :
HOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES GOVERNMENT?
NAME:
1. JEREMY JED JOACHIM
2. MOHD NAWI BIN ABDUL HAISIRIN
3. FAMELIA PAYONG AK MENJAYA
4. HASPALELA BT CHE
5. SITI NURFARAHIN HAEROM
6. STEVEANNIE LORIN
NO.MATRIKS
 MS1315519335
 MS1215602149
 MS1315518941
 MS1315519193
 MS1315519720
 MS1315519427

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INTRODUCTION
Governments in all OECD countries increasingly face the challenge of responding to public
demand for more responsive, efficient, effective and participatory government. E-
Government – ―the use of information and communication technologies, and particularly the
Internet, as a tool to achieve better government‖ (OECD, 2003) – provides a major tool to
help meet this challenge. In the 1960s and 1970s, Information Technology (IT) was used to
automate the processing of information. In the 1990s, early e-government initiatives enabled
by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) focused on the production and
dissemination of information over the Internet resulting in a huge number of government
Web sites with static information. With a decade of experience in developing more advanced
applications of ICT to the business of government, it has become evident that the tools of e-
government can significantly assist in developing good and responsive government that
provides better value and lower cost. Governments face many challenges in using e-
government tools:
● To create a government that is responsive to the needs of its citizens.
● To develop processes and electronic services (e-services) that bridge the silo environment
of government agencies.
● To use the Internet to promote citizen feedback on government services and policies, and
ultimately to promote trust in the public sector.
The OECD report The E-Government Imperative (OECD, 2003) presented the case for
implementing e-government in terms of its potential impact on efficiency, service quality,
good governance and policy effectiveness (see Table 0.1). This second e-government report
focuses on user-focused services and arrangements to front- and back-office operations
needed to maximize value for citizens and businesses and to reduce costs. The report does not
address transparency, accountability, consultation and public participation. These important
areas of governance – and the enabling role of ICT – have been addressed in earlier reports,
including Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy
Making (OECD, 2001) and Promise and Problems of e-Democracy: Challenges of Online
Citizen Engagement (OECD, 2003). Together these reports present the overall OECD
approach to its countryreviews of e-government (OECD e-Government Studies: Finland
(2003); Norway (2005);Mexico (2005)). The transparency and accountability aspect of e-

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government isalso being addressed through ongoing work of the OECD E-Government
Projecton e-procurement and the cost-benefit analysis of e-government.
 WEBSITE: E-Government
From meetings and discussions with OECD countries in 2003 and 2004, itis clear that the
implementation of ICT techniques and particularly using theInternet as a delivery channel for
services should become an important meansfor changing what government does and how it
does it. OECD countries haveidentified five areas for achieving better government with the
help of thesenew tools:
● User-focused e-government: making electronic services more responsive tothe needs of
citizens and businesses.
● Multi-channel service delivery: improving links between traditional andelectronic services
in order to promote service innovation and ensure accessfor all users.
● Approaches to common business processes: identifying common processeswithin
government in order to achieve economies of scale, reduceduplication and provide seamless
services.
● The business case for e-government: measuring and demonstrating thecosts and benefits of
ICT investments in order to prioritize and bettermanage e-government projects.
● E-government co-ordination: bringing a whole-of-government perspective to e-government
initiatives and their management, while taking into account existing structures and cultures of
government institutions.
Traditionally public administrations have been organized into bureaucracies charged with
handling a regulatory or sectorial area, producing and processing forms, and providing
specific services and products. The leading principle for a government that is responsive to
citizens and businesses is that it be focused on user needs and assist in solving user problems
regardless of its own structures. ICT offers a way to break out of the silo environment of
public administrations, but must do so in a way that reduces cost for government even as it
increases value for users.
While there seems to be consensus among OECD governments as to the importance of a
focus on users, finding out what this means and how to achieve it is a major challenge. This

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report discusses what countries need to do to achieve user-focused government. Bringing
services to users in a seamless, integrated manner will require a more comprehensive view of
user needs and demands that transcends the partial views that government agencies tend to
have of their users.
This report discusses how a multi-channel service delivery approach can improve service to
the user by integrating service delivery across different delivery systems including Internet,
call centres, over the counter service, e-mail and ordinary mail. Making it easier for users to
find and use government services can also result in savings to government. However,
achieving better services with a fixed or limited amount of overall investment depends, in
part, on moving large numbers of users from traditional channels to electronic channels for
high-volume services. Improved networking of organizations and aligned standards and
policies will aid in this transition.
The increased networking and interconnectivity within government made possible by ICT is
likely to highlight current redundancy or incompatibility of systems and processes across
government. This report looks at how governments can identify common business processes
such as payroll, human resources management, accounting and archiving systems and
consider how toimprove and share the use of these systems.
For example, an inventory of basic public-sector processes can helpgovernments think about
how administration might be better arranged (i.e. organized around enterprise architecture).
In this way, some common processes could be consolidated and provided by fewer
organizations, thereby achieving economies of scale. Reference models for typical processes
can also be used to facilitate the duplication and transfer of processes acrossgovernment,
thereby eliminating the need to ―reinvent the wheel‖. The virtual integration of processes
across organizations, based on common standards, can allow them to work together
seamlessly. This type of approach can also be applied to services that are shared or that have
common populations in order to provide more seamless service delivery.
Achieving better government will require both a better understanding ofwhat governments
hope to achieve and indicators to see if they are on the right path. This report looks at the use
of business cases for e-government to demonstrate the risks and expected returns on ICT
investment, in terms both of savings to government and benefits to citizens and businesses.
Analysis of e-government costs and benefits allows governments to support investment

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decisions and evaluate results. Without a business case, governments risk developing
technology-enabled services that may not correspond to the needs of citizens and businesses.
In OECD countries, governments increasingly require each ICT project tohave a business
case before proceeding. Only when that case has been persuasively made should major
investments be undertaken. Do the analyses demonstrate clear indicators, quality data, risk
management techniques and a clear understanding of both the intended and unintended
benefits of ICT investment? How are organizations accounting for benefits that accrue to
other agencies? Do governments want to make decisions based only on financial benefits to
governments or to both users and governments?
Finally, governance structures are central to realizing e-government benefits and achieving
greater user focus through more integrated information and services. Adopting a user focus
has consequences for the structures and processes of government. This report also looks at
how governments organize the co-ordination of e-government. Governments‘ ability to co-
ordinate their own internal structures is, in many ways, a test for how they might manage
their relations with stakeholders in general as public-private boundaries become more fluid.
Until recently, e-government initiatives in many OECD countries were driven by individual
agencies and ministries seeking ways to help meet their individual mandates.
Decentralized development of e-government raises new challenges, such as ensuring that i)
individual computer systems can communicate with each other (i.e. systems interoperability),
that ii) common standards are in place as new services are developed, and that iii) in the
context of ever-tighter budgets, services support and complement, rather than duplicate, each
other.
More rational structures can support collaboration and internal efficiencies within public
administrations, yet ICT also makes it possible to improve co-ordination across government
without changing structures or accountability portfolios. The cross-cutting nature of e-
government requires governments to strike a balance between decentralized initiatives that
may be more innovative and flexible, and a coherent approach traditionally associated with
more centralized arrangements. Some of the most successfule-government initiatives have
been in decentralized systems and, in fact, the technology is too complex and fast-moving to
be fully centralized. Yet centralizing some, in particular technical, aspects of e-government
can better enable decentralized service delivery.

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How have countries balanced their history and existing administrativesystem, their current
needs and their policy priorities when setting administrative and political responsibilities for
e-government? Among countries‘ experiences with multi-channel service delivery and
identifying common business processes, which ones can be generalized to other countries and
to which countries? There is no single solution, but understanding the context in which
decisions have been made in other countries can help countries determine which experiences
they can best learn from, and which solutions are appropriate for their own situation.
E-Government embodies the vision of a whole-of-government logicthat transcends sectorial
interests in favor of more fluid and seamless relations within government. While it can be
implemented in stovepipe fashion, e-government can also act as a catalyst to transform
administrations by replacing traditional ways of working with new more efficient and
effective processes, structures, and lines of communication. A new, networked administration
may seem a utopia, but discussions among OECD countries have demonstrated that elements
of a new way of working are starting to appear.
In the pursuit of e-government, countries‘ understanding of what needs to be done – and
how to do it – is constantly changing. There is no one clear path to better government, nor
how to implement e-government, but global imperatives are leading to convergence in terms
of the challenges to be faced. To do so, government organizations need to look at how to
transform themselves into more adaptive organizations capable of responding to their
environment and discovering new and better ways to fulfill their mission. E-Government has
become a critical part of this path to better government.
Challenges
Countries‘ experience with e-government shows that adapting the traditional producer-led
processes typically found in government organizations will not allow the full potential of
electronic service delivery and e-government to be realized. It is crucial to focus on what
needs be done in order to move citizens away from using traditional service delivery channels
to using new channels, and on the business processes and governance mechanisms that
underpin this transition. However, governments moving services to the Internet face a
number of challenges.
Governments are large and compartmentalizedorganizations. The problem now is who pays
for e-government? Like any government infrastructure project, e-government can be done in

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phases and the costs of implementation will depend on current infrastructure availability,
supplier and user capabilities, and mode of service delivery (whether through the Internet or
through telephone hotlines and one-stop shops). The more complicated and sophisticated the
kind of services the government wants to offer, the more expensive it is.
Governments should focus on small, self-financing or outsourced projects. Because e-
government projects must be financially sustainable, there must be a revenue or cost-
reduction model in place from the beginning. Smaller projects with a clear revenue-
generation strategy and minimal initial investment are the most likely to be sustainable over
the long term. For instance, Web sites are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to achieve
high impact e-government with a minimum of investment.
E-Government projects are, more often than not, long-term endeavors, requiring large
capital infusion in software, hardware, infrastructure and training. A viable financing plan
should not only pay for the immediate needs to jumpstart e-government; it must also consider
its long-term financing options for the sustainability of the project.
There are various business models for funding e-government projects, and the private sector
plays a critical role in these. Under partnership arrangements, the private sector builds,
finances and operates public infrastructure such as roads and airports, recovering costs
through user charges. Various financing schemes exist—from soft and development
assistance loans from donor/multilateral aid agencies to partnerships and outsourcing deals
with private third party vendors under special financing schemes (e.g., the Build-Operate-
Transfer or BOT scheme) that can minimize the initial cost to government.
BOT and its variants are usually the favored financing models or arrangements for
government projects that require large and immediate financing from the private sector.
Under BOT, the private sector designs, finances, builds, and operates the facility over the life
of the contract. At the end of this period, ownership reverts to the government. A variation of
this is the Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) model, under which title transfers to the
government when construction is completed. Finally, with Build-Own-Operate (BOO)
arrangements, the private sector retains permanent ownership and operates the facility on
contract.
Cooperation, rather than competition, with the private sector can facilitate effective e-
government. Government can encourage private sector investment by complementing and
supporting private sector efforts rather than duplicating them. The key to e-government is to

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improve citizen access to service delivery, not further expand the role of government.
Government should not attempt to create products and services where public-private
partnerships or private service providers can adequately provide these products and services
more efficiently and effectively.
To get the wider public to actually use e-government services, any sound e-government
policy must consider a citizen-centered approach. This means that e-government should be an
end-user or demand-driven service. However, many citizens do not use e-government for
several reasons, among these unfamiliarity with ICT, lack of access, lack of training, and
concerns about privacy and security of information. While e-government may provide ease
and convenience in the delivery of public services, and offer innovative government services,
none of these will prompt citizen use unless the concerns mentioned above are first
addressed.
As an example, Singapore‘s Citizen-Centered E-Government, in which had known as
eCitizen Help Centers. Singapore‘s eCitizen portal averages 3.1 million hits a month, a
marked improvement from 200,000 hits a month when it was first launched in 1999. How did
a developed country of 4 million citizens exponentially expand online public usage in less
than three years‘ time?To ensure ubiquitous access to government e-services, Singapore
established a network of eCitizen Help Centers since November 2001. These centers are
equipped with Internet kiosks that give free access to the Internet to citizens. There are
helpers to assist those who are not proficient with the Internet. To date, there are 24 eCitizen
Help Centers strategically located near Community Development Councils (which function
as a specific district‘s local administration handling community programs and social
assistance services delegated from the ministries) and Community Centers (community clubs
that organize cultural, educational and social/recreational activities to promote racial
harmony and social cohesion).
Moreover, security and protection of privacy are very important because security generally
refers to the protection of information system assets and control of access to information.
Security policies and strategies are context-specific and information-specific. Privacy refers
to the right for information attributed to an individual (also called ―nominal information‖) to
be treated with an appropriate level of protection. Information privacy protection laws are
often put in place to regulate this. Protecting the privacy of citizens and assuring them that
their personal information will not be compromised is critical in e-government because this is

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the key to user trust. Without this assurance, no one will be prompted to use e-government
services.
For example, Japan had invested a new system known as Japan‘s National ID System. Local
governments across Japan began feeding basic information on their citizens into a central
database as part of a new resident registration network, despite complaints about the system
from privacy advocates and refusal to participate by some municipalities.
Under the new system, everybody who lives in Japan will be issued an 11-digit
identification number that can be used in many dealings with local government. It replaces a
system under which people had to produce resident certificates to prove where they lived
each time they dealt with local government and which required people to go through time-
consuming procedures each time they moved.
Information such as the person‘s name, date of birth, sex and address will be included in
each person‘s file and all data will be stored in a centrally-run government server. The system
aims to make life easier for both citizens and local municipalities and goes under the name
JuminKihonDaicho Network, or Juki-Net for short. City halls all over Japan will have access
to the database, making dealing with the government as simple as turning up with your ID
number. However, this ease of access is ringing alarm bells across Japan.
When the Juki-Net idea was first floated in 1999, the government promised that new data
privacy and protection legislation would be in place by the time the system went into
operation. However, some of the bills associated with this are still in the Diet, Japan‘s
parliament. Many argue that until these laws are in place, the system should not be launched.
Others contend that the problem with this system is the numbering of each individual.
Fearing that the privacy of their citizens may be at risk, some local municipalities are
refusing to connect to the system. The reaction from privacy advocates is perhaps expected
but the refusal of some cities to join Juki-Net has come as an embarrassment to the
government, which sees the system as a key part of its E-Japan scheme. E-Japan is an
ambitious program that aims to make Japan the world‘s most advanced IT nation by 2005.
One of its key goals is online delivery of many government services, a service for which a
centralized database of people living in Japan would be essential.
The proposed law forbids the use of the identification numbers by anyone apart from the
bureaucracy and imposes duties on civil servants to keep information confidential and
prevent information leakage to outside sources.

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As a conclusion, E-government has been responsible for the progression in technology of
developing countries. The goal of E-government is the ability to access and interact with the
world on an even plain. No country should be left behind when it comes to being able to
communicate with one another. Without E-government, developing countries will be left
behind when it comes to technology because almost every day, ICT technologies are
advancing and changing. Developing countries now have the opportunity to better themselves
through electronics and make their society be more advanced and more efficient than ever
before.
Bibliography
Van Duivenboden, H, (2005), Citizen Participation in Public Administration: The Impact of
Citizen Oriented Public Services on Government and Citizen, pp. 415-445. In Practicing E-
Government; A Global Perspective (IDEA Group Publishing, Hershey, PA)
 LAW : E-Syariah
Malaysia legal system rooted from both English and Islamic Law. In both Civil and Syariah
court system, the speed with which complete, authentic, credible information is available to
jurists as well as the measures taken to maintain quality, integrity and security of court
records is as important as the application of relevant laws and the precedents to decide the
case. In Syariah Courts, information and communication technologies not only enable the
workflow of the courts and facilitate information management, but also used to integrate
Syariah courts with their stake holders. The integration of State Syariah Courts in various
jurisdictions of Malaysia provides for the standardization of practice and technology and at
the same time allows jurists a one-stop solution for consultations regarding interpretations of
Syariah Law and derivation of precedents in the light of decisions taken before. Here, the role
of technology extends from mere record management technology to business intelligent
oriented decision support tools. This will presents a case study of E-Syariah initiative in
Malaysian Syariah Courts and highlights the issues and challenges faced during
implementation of this initiative and provide appreciation of how effectively technology has
been used dispense speedy justice in Syariah cases.
Introduction

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Records in court system have various dimensions including court proceedings, evidence,
and affidavits. In addition, court records also contain precedents from old cases and even
references to the sources of law. This makes information management in general, and record
retrieval in particular an intricate task. The pervasiveness of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) provides new opportunities for court automation and information
management in judiciary. At the same time there is increased pressure on the courts of law to
embrace technology because with the increased level of IT literacy/awareness among the
general public, there are increased demands on government to provide information to citizen
around the clock. Responding to these opportunities and pressures, courts around the globe
are embracing information and communication technologies at various levels to provide
faster, reliable and consistent service to the society.
E-Syariah – A Malaysian Case Study
E-Syariah was put in place to replace the manual system of all Syariah courts operation.
Before E-Syariah come into operation, all business processes from case registration to case
disposal were performed manually. It is not surprising that the system was replete in
inefficiency and ineptitude. With the increased number of Syariah cases being registered, the
delay in case management became more critical. A single case takes years to be settled,
resulting in hardship for the parties involved. The major reason for this delay has been the
unavailability of complete information as and when required. In certain cases not only the
information is incomplete but had been tempered with as well. With the introduction of e-
Syariah, the government aim to reduce the time taken to settle a case and to manage each case
and related information more efficiently and systematically (Hamid 2010). E-Syariah
initiative was adopted as one of the Electronic Government flagship applications in Malaysia
in March 2002, with a strong support of government, especially by the Malaysian
Administration and Modernization Planning Unit (MAMPU). Although Syariah courts are
constitutionally state courts, created and regulated by state laws and under the responsibility
of the state authorities, an effort was made by Federal government to standardize the work
processes and procedures in these courts. Hence, the Syariah Judiciary Department of
Malaysia/ JabatanKehakiman Syariah Malaysia (JKSM) were established as a
coordinating body of Syariah courts in Malaysia. The technologies in place in Syariah courts
under the E-Syariah project consists of five modules as Syariah Court Case Management

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System, Office Automation Systems (MAMPU 2009), E-Syariah Portal, Syariah Lawyers
Registration Systems and Library Management Systems, where ;
1. Syariah Case Management Systems
-The web-based application provides an integrated case management system for various
tasks such as Registration of Cases, Scheduling of Hearings, and Producing Receipts for
Payments, Case Tracking, Recording of Judgments, Reports & Statistics, Enquiries, and
System Maintenance. The database containing records of all cases filed with the courts
are maintained for the purpose of references and double-checking to avoid duplication of
cases in other states.
2. Office Automation System
-The Office Automation System provides facilities such as Word Processing, Spread
sheets and Graphic Presentations to improve productivity in the office operations of the
Syariah Courts. Judges, Registrars, and staff are provided with email facility. Case
hearing schedule is sent to all Syarie judges through email.
3. E-Syariah Portal
-The Portal serves as an information gateway to provide the public and staff of the
Syariah Courts with the latest news on court procedures and regulations. The public can
post enquiries online to the courts via the Portal and the Faraid calculator will be
available online for the public to assess.
4. Syarie Lawyer Registration System
-This system provides facilities for the registration of new applications or renewal of
practicing certificates for Syarie lawyers. A database containing details of registered
practicing Syarie lawyer are maintained to facilitate monitoring and coordination by the
authorities.
5. Library Management System
-A web-based library management system allows users to conduct electronic searches,
borrowing, returning of books and other library materials through the ZiauddinSardar
Islamic Cataloguing System. The catalogue of library materials available at the JKSM
Library and the State Syariah Libraries is accessible for bookings and loans to Judges and
Registrars.
E-Syariah applications have been designed to provide for transformation and
standardization of work environment in Syariah courts to link all the business processes
on a single channel. The idea is to disseminate information on Syariah judicial law and

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institutions, court procedures and processes can be disseminated to the public through E-
Syariah portal. In doing so the government is aiming to provide a simple, fast, accurate
and extensive medium to public at large, whereby the digital divide between end users in
different part of the nation could also be reduced. Therefore, JKSM as coordinating body
to the Syariah court be able to create a new paradigm of work culture that is more
efficient in the management of the judicial institutions of Islam in Malaysia.
Traditionally, even though the general dealings in Syariah courts are similar, yet each
Syariah court in Malaysia has unique business processes and works differently from its
other counterparts. The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that Syariah courts are
managed by each state and have their own management. Consequently it is the
management of each court that decides how the court is to be administered. Due to this
disparity, Syariah Courts in various Malaysian states manage similar tasks in different
ways. This is not just limited to the workflow, but this lack of standardization extends to
different sets of technologies being used as well as different sets of forms, formats, and
write ups. States do not use standardized record books and case classification numbers.
There are many instances of case overlapping (where same cases have been registered in
more than one jurisdiction) especially in cases of child custody, divorce and inheritance
where they were filed and registered in different state courts on purpose. This is due to
the fact that people have interpreted Islamic jurisprudence in different ways. The main
sources of Islamic law are the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet. In reaching the
verdict, jurists interpret the Quran and the tradition of Prophet according to their sect
knowledge and conscience, taking into consideration other factors such as culture, point
in time and welfare of parties involved. As a result, for many centuries, similar cases had
been decided differently across the globe, and they are recorded in different places.
Consequently different verdicts have been passed in similar cases in different parts of the
world. In these circumstances, availability of information on interpretations of the Quran
and the tradition of the Prophet, previous judgments passed, and Ijtihad (reinterpretation
of Islamic law according to prevailing circumstances) is of paramount important.
However, due to the disparities in the way states Syariah courts are being administered,
the overall paradigm faces issues relating to data quality, lack of interoperability and
information integration. Thus the major challenge for E-Syariah project is to introduce
standardization of process, practice, technology and strategy. E-Syariah initiative has
made attempts to streamline work processes in Syariah courts. It has categorized cases for

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example divorce, child custody, and inheritance and crime offences. Consequently each
case is treated uniquely and there is no overlap. At the same time, court record templates
had been standardized and brought down from 104 to 40 gazette forms only. Attempts are
being made to standardize these procedures throughout Malaysia, however due to the lack
of legislations at the Federal as well as State level; this is proving to be extremely
difficult. In terms of court records management, at the records creation stage, case files
are created in the Syariah Court Case Management System (SPKMS) and given the
unique case classification number according to the Practice Direction No 1 Year 2000.
However in this transitionary period, apart from managing cases using the Syariah Court
Case Management System, hard copies with paper documents are also being used. The
reason for managing both hard copy and soft copy records is purely legal. It is the legal
requirement that hard copy records being maintained for legal reasons, since official seal
need to appear on all papers. For example, for family law cases, the Islamic Family Law
(Civil Procedure) Act requires documents to be officially sealed on paper and manually
signed. At the moment, the relevant laws are being reviewed so as to implement
electronic seals. In addition, the laws relating to risk of manipulation of electronic records
are also being examined by States and Federal government committees. Pending the
amendment the courts would be able to use one line of records management i.e. electronic
records. It should be pointed out that although technology relating to records management
is improving at rapid pace, court processes and laws are not keeping up with the pace of
technology advancement. Malaysian Syariah courts are subjected to Federal, state and
Syariah law as well as conform to the guidelines provided by the ministry of Justice and
ISO regulations. Due to the nature and focus of legislations and guidelines, conflict in
practice can easily be understood. In these circumstances, it is left to each court to decide
what process or procedure they want to follow. For example an interviewee when asked
about the legality and validity of electronic and paper-based records, replied ―according
to our ISO audit report, the paper version is the most valid one‖. In the routine case
management, records are updated by the judges and their assistants until the case is
closed. Some of the documents relating to a case, such as ‗submission notes‘ are only
kept on physical files, not in the electronic system. According to researchers‘ observation,
only important information and documents are updated and stored in the system, thus it
only serves as quick retrieval point, not a complete case file. In the system itself, some of
the documents are saved in pdf. format, while others are saved as Microsoft Word

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documents, which exposes court records to manipulation risk. In their current form,
electronic records can only be regarded as back up or reference point, not as valid official
record. However, there are some evident advantages of electronic records, even though
their legal value has not been established yet. These benefits are the ability to trace the
particular record, the ability to find materials relating to a particular record, and the ability
to retrieve information relating to a particular case (for example affidavit, statutory
declaration etc.). All active physical files are stored in cabinets near to the courtrooms.
Upon closure, the files are moved to records centre and being taken cared for by the
Records Officers. In the records centre, after they reach certain maturity period as
stipulated in the Syariah Court Records Retention Schedule, case files have to be disposed
of. According to Practice Direction No 3 2006, criminal and civil case files must be kept
in the records centre for 3 and 7 years respectively (it was 10 years previously). As the
population is increasing, so is the case load and with it upcoming pressures on physical
storage of court records. An important aspect of court records management would be to
alleviate these pressures. People related to court records management are aware with
these issues as quite a few of interviewees in this case study commented that ―court
records are increasing, but storage space remains the same‖. And with each new record, it
is becoming more and more difficult to manage physical records. JKSM & Syariah courts
are the first public organization in Malaysia employing records manager & officers, and
having records department in the organization. It is evident that records management is
considered extremely important in Syariah Courts; however this initiative has not been
backed up by relevant legislations.
E-Syariah has opened up new avenue for court workflow as well as records management in
Malaysian Syariah courts. Although there are a number of challenges hinge upon a few
administrative issues, yet there are significant benefits that the use of technology has brought
to Syariah courts. The following table summarizes the pre and post E-Syariah
implementation:
Dimensions Pre-implementation Post-implementation
1. Case settlement Case management is less
efficient. It took years to
settle a case
Case management is
much more efficient. 65%
of cases are settled less
than a year

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2. Coordination
time
No coordination
mechanism. Finding the
status of the case,
retrieving of case records,
and who to contact was
extremely difficult and
time consuming. There
was lots of rework
involved at the time of
registration, when the file
was moving from one
person to the other.
Wastage of time, effort
and resources.
Registration of a new case
takes approximately 2
minutes, thus case
management is efficient.
No rework involved as
once data is stored
electronically; it can be
reused for any other
purpose desired.
3. Case overlap Case overlapping could
not be easily traced
Case overlapping is
automatically traced
4. Case delay/
postponement
No automatic reminder
about case
postponement and delay
Automatic reminder of
case postponement
5. Work
process
Work processes were
not consistent between
courts in different states
E-Syariah, in theory,
permits the uniformity
of court procedures,
work processes and
forms. However there is
a long way to go
achieve this.
6. Case
backlog
Difficulty in managing,
verifying and checking
the case status manually.
No more backlog of
cases because all cases
are assigned /
reassigned according to
the workload of jurists.
7. Process
interoperability
Different work process
among states caused
E-Syariah is attempting
to standardize court

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difficulty and bias
towards customers.
procedures and work
processes to ensure
fairness to customers.
8. Information
security
Information security
was compromised
Information security is
guaranteed
9. Integration
with
government
agencies
No integration with
other agencies
System is integrated
with 6 other
government agencies,
ensuring court decision
enforcement and follow
up, accurate data
available timely
10. One stop
solution
Customer had to contact
different department
dealing with a court case
One stop solution for
paying fee, case
registration,
administration, follows
up.
11. Old records
retrieval
In manual process,
records were in store
room. Customers had to
contact the registrar,
store keeper to retrieve
records
Records are available at
the click of the mouse
to authorize users.
12. Similar cases,
dissimilar
verdicts
Previously there were
similar cases, different
verdict because of the
fact that people have
interpreted Islamic
jurisprudence in
different ways
Now with this one
portal they can access
any number of records
of similar cases, and
then figure out whose
interpretation are they
applying & what were
they should be given,
they can consult
different records

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13. Trust in the
system
Previously there was
lack of public trust in
the system because it
was causing delay,
people were not getting
quality service, and
people were blaming the
legal system.
Use of ICTs has
brought transparency to
the overall court system
Table 1: Dimensions of Pre and Post E-Syariah Implementation
As a conclusion, the management of court records through electronic means bestow great
impact to the government and citizen as a whole. It preserves the memory of a nation‘s
civilization in judicial matters. The increase of case disposal rate after the electronic system
implementation in Syariah courts provides improvement in judicial service delivery in
Malaysia. Malaysian experience has been referred to and is being modeled by many countries
around the world. Since E-Syariah initiative is not mature as yet, there are a number of issues
that need to be resolved. The paramount issue is disconnecting between what technology
offers and the state of legislation regulating technologies in the court. It is equally important
to enforce standardization of practice and processes throughout the state Syariah courts in
Malaysia. In the absence of a uniform policy governing Syariah courts in Malaysia, the
objective of E-Syariah to provide fair, speedy, transparent justice will not be realized. In
terms of technology adoption, the biggest challenge for courts to move forward is in retention
of people. For a court registry, the lack of expertise who knows both registry office and
information management standards becomes the first hurdle in implementing change. There
are a number of issues pertaining to court records management, which have a single
denominator i.e. retention of trained staff. This is important because of the need for consistent
and authoritative instructions on the preservation or destruction of court case records (both
paper and electronic), the importance of having a high level ‗champion‘ within the courts to
promote good practice in records and information management , the need for professionally
trained records managers within judiciaries, the need for formal training and training
materials in judicial records and information management , and the importance of having
expert advice and guidance available to those with responsibility for records and information
management in the courts. In summary, E-Syariah initiative has significantly improved court
workflow as well as records management in Malaysia. However it needs to be acknowledged

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that the major challenges of E-Syariah are to introduce standardization, practice, technology
and strategy. This means that the Federal government in Malaysia has to take the lead and
provide guidelines and legislative framework for the state courts to administer themselves in
their own jurisdiction. This self-administration, although independent of Federal intervention,
should follow the same technological and process based. This would allow for the much
needed overall standardization that would enable E-Syariah initiative to realize its goals and
objectives.
Reference Site:
1. Sarawak Information Systems SDN BHD, Tel: (60) 82-426733 Fax: (60) 82-423533,
Email: service@sains.com.my
2. E-Syariah Implementation Synopsis (2005), Malaysian Syariah Judiciary Department,
Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad, Kuala Lumpur.
3. Johare, R. (2007) ‗A global search for universal models of education and training in
electronic records management‘, Malaysian Journal of Library & Information
Science, 12(1):1-22.
4. Laldin, M.A. (2009) Introduction to Syariah and Islamic Jurisprudence, CERT
Publication, Kuala Lumpur.
5. Motsaathebe, L. and Mnjama, N. (2009) The management of High Court records in
Botswana, Records Management Journal, 19(3): 173 - 189
6. Saman, W. (2011) ‗E-Syariah; interview session with Puan Rosimah‘ In the Pursuit of
Legal Information Management, blog posting, retrieved June 1, 2011,
http://wansatirahlegalinfo. blogspot.com/2011/05/E-Shariah-interview-session-with-
puan.html
7. Saman, W. and Haider, A. (2011) ‗The Implementation of Electronic Records
Management System: A Case Study in Malaysian Judiciary" American Conference on
Information System 2011 Proceedings, Detroit 4-7 August 2011.
8. Sheriff, S. (2010) the contempt power: a sword or a shield? A Study of the law and
practice of contempt of court in Malaysia. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/536/

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 IDENTITY CARD : MyKad
Government facilities face a challenging and ever changing risk profile. Security systems are
paramount to increase safety and security for employees, area citizens and elected officials.
But many government facilities, especially those in small city and towns are not staffed with
a full-time security staff. So, technology becomes an even more important piece of the
security puzzle. A long time ago, traditional analog-based system used but in this modern life
it‘s not effective enough to recure these critical facilities but the promise of Information
Technology (IT) can help facilities manage and control risks. Government need advance
networked tools that leverage the power of the IT backbone to correlate information from
traditionally separate subsystems like video surveillance, analytic, access control, alarm
management and VoIP for example into one platform to increase situational awareness and
help security staffs identify violence or threats before an event occurs. Other than that, the
using of identity card in our country which is known as MyKad. MyKad is the compulsory
identity document for Malaysian citizens aged 12 and above. MyKad was introduce by the
National Registration Department of Malaysia on 5 September 2001 as one of four MSC
Malaysia flagship application and a replacement for the High Quality Identity Card. Malaysia
became the first country in the word to use an identification card that incorporates both photo
identification and fingerprint biometric data on an in-built computer chip embedded in a
piece of plastic. Besides, the main purpose of the card as a validation tool and proof of
citizenship. Other than the birth certificate, MyKad also serve as a valid driver‘s license, an
ATM card, an electronic purse and a public key, among other applications as part of the
Malaysian Government Multipurpose Card (GMPC) initiative, if the bearer chooses activate
the functions.
The technical specifications of MyKad are the initial MyKad was a contact card solution
developed and manufactured by IRIS Corporation. Made of PC with the dimensions in the
ISO/IEC 7816 ID-1 format (standard credit card format). The initial card had a 32kb
EEPROM (electronically erasable programmable read-only memory) embedded chip running
on M-COS (MyKad chip operating system). In November 2002, the capacity was increase to
64KB. The upgraded and current version of the MyKad is a hybrid card containing two chips
for both contactless interfaces. Currently, this hybrid type MyKad is only issued in Malaysian
States which employ the ‗Touch n Go‘ application. The data retention up to 20 years while

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the card itself has a life span of 10 years and has been tested according to the ISO 10373 test
standard.
All Malaysian citizens and permanent residents 12 years old or above are eligible for a
MyKad. From 2001, it gradually replaced an older Malaysian Identity Card system that had
been in use since 1949 under British colonial rule, with the intention of becoming ubiquitous
by 2007. Children are issued with a MyKid after birth. This card is "upgraded" to a MyKad
on the 12th birthday. The MyKad must be replaced when a person reaches 18 years old, as it
is a requirement that the photograph be 'current'.
Adoption was optional but was spurred by the waiving of the application fee of
between RM20 and RM50 until 31 December 2005. As of 27 December 2005, 1,180,208
Malaysians still held an old identity card. After the waiving period ended on 31 December
2005, each new application (first time application) comes with a fee of RM10.
MyKad project was developed was originally intended to have eight functions.
1) As identity card
2) Driving license information
3) Travel document
4) Storage for health information
5) e- cash
6) ‗Touch n Go‘ Malaysia‘s toll road tolling system and also public transport payment
system.
7) Digital certificate commonly known as Public Key Infrastructure
Identity Card
MyKad as identity card that including fingerprints and photo must be carried all times.
Failure to do so may incur a fine of between RM3000 and RM 20 000 or jail term of up to
three years. No unauthorized persons including security guards are allowed to retain the
MyKad of other people. Only those authorized by the National Registration Department, like
the police and immigration officers can do so. For Muslim-citizens, ‗ISLAM‘ is printed on
the card below the picture of the holder. This is to help enforcement of syariah law which is
applicable only to Muslims. As the states of Sabah and Sarawak maintain separate
immigration controls, citizens who has permanent residency in the states of Sabah and

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Sarawak are donated by the letter ‗H‘ and ‗K‘ respectively on the bottom right corner of their
card.
Driving License Information
Next, driving license is official document which state that a person may operate a motorized
vehicle such as a motorcycle, car, truck or a bus on a public roadway.
Travel Document
Besides that, MyKad also use as travel document in Malaysia and several neighboring
countries. However, a conventional passport is still required for international travel. For
example, when the people from Sabah went to peninsular of Malaysia they have to register
their MyKad at immigration officer before fly to peninsular of Malaysia. The card is aimed at
reducing congestion at the border by enabling the use of unmanned gates using biometric
(fingerprint) identification.
Health Information
The health information contained in the MyKad is of two types. The first type consists of the
health status of the individuals, including his or her chronic illness, if any the supportive
medications, the blood group and allergies and immunization history. The second type of
health information in the MyKad consists of two out patients visit summaries and one
impatient discharge summary.
E-cash
E-cash is an electronic wallet system intended for low but high volume transaction.
‘Touch n Go’
‗Touch n Go‘ Malaysia‘s toll road tolling system and also public transport payment system. It
is like the credit card sized smart card made of plastic with Philips‘ MI fare microchip
technology embedded in it. The Touch n Go systems are designed to process up to 800
vehicles per hour to ease the queue congestion at toll plazas and if used together with smart
tag (a non-stop electronic toll collection system) will be able to process up to 1200 vehicles
per hour.
The card can be categorized into four types:

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1) Prepaid card
Standard card
- A standard Touch 'n Go cards fare structure currently available for adult fare for
CTS and standard class vehicles with 2 axles and 3 or 4 wheels (Class 1) excluding
taxis for toll fare. It is like a top up card.
2) Postpaid cards
Fleet X‘s card
- It mainly purposed for toll fare payment. The details of company name, vehicle
registration number and vehicle class were printed on the card. Credit term of 15
days given for post payment and fleet operators are able to monitor toll
record/vehicle movement at highways via e-statement (itemized statement) after 24
to 48 hours from the time of transaction.
Biz X‘s card
- It is the same as standard card mainly purposed for corporate users.
3) Auto reload card
Zing Card
- The Touch 'n Go Zing is a companion card that works as standard card which is
linked to Visa, MasterCard or American Express issued by participating banks
in Malaysia. Each time the card balance falls below RM50, it will trigger the auto-
reload mechanism to reload RM100 into the card. The amount will be charged to the
credit card plus RM2 as auto-reload fee for each time reload.
4) Multipurpose card
MyKad
- A value added application for Malaysian identity card as e-purse.
Digital certificate commonly known as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).MyKad PKI
application allows for two digital certificates to be inserted into MyKad. MyKad holder
can apply and purchase the digital certificates from two of Malaysia‘s certification

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authority, MSCTrusgate.com.Sdn.Bhd and DigiCert Sdn. Bhd. PKI allows for easy
securing of private data over public telecommunications network thus allowing, secure
electronic transactions over the internet which includes:
- Online submission of tax returns
- Internet banking
- Secure e mail.
Besides that, there were other cards that have similar features with MyKad
1) MyKid
- MyKid is a chip-based children identity card or personal identification issued to
children under the age of 12. Introduced on 1 January 2005, MyKid contains features
similar to MyKad except that it does not include a photograph and thumbprint
biometric data.
The term Kid refers to:
- the slang for child in the English language
- the acronym for Kad Identiti Diri or Personal Identification Card.
MyKid is issued in pink instead of blue (color of MyKad). Visible data for MyKid include:
The heading Kad PengenalanKanak-kanak Malaysia
NRIC Number
Full name in block letters
Permanent address
Gender
Citizenship status
The MyKid chip currently stores only 3 types of data:
Birth data e.g. Information on birth parents
Health information e.g. Immunization records
Education information e.g. Enrolment in schools
2) MyPR

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MyPR is an identity card or personal identification issued to residents of Malaysia with
permanent resident status. All residents of Malaysia with permanent resident status are
required to change their identity card to MyPR with effect from 1 June 2006. The MyPR is
red in color visible data include:
1) The heading: Kad Pengenalan Malaysia permastautintetap
2) Full name
3) NRIC number
4) Permanent address
5) Gender
6) Permanent
2)MyTentera
-The MyTentera will replace BAT C 10 document.
-The MyTentera will be silvered- colored and feature the Malaysian Armed Forces
logo at the back top right corner of the card. It will also contain a 12- digit military
identification number similar to the NRIC number.
The conclusion, as a Malaysian citizen we should be proud because we have our own
identification card which is known as MyKad. The key technology behind this smart card
system is the chip and biometrics technology. There are lots of benefit of MyKad that is one
for all, easy payment, quick exit and re-entry, emergency medical assistance, reliable
identification of data, public key infrastructure, facilitate transportation need an easy and
convenient banking transaction. I would to encourage all of us to register to Government
Service Center (GSC) to apply some special service and benefits. We must take a reasonable
care of our MyKad and improve our responsibilities towards its. Make sure we don‘t use
MyKad for some default advantaged for ourselves without thinking the causes to our country.
So, that how IT helps improves system in government.
Reference Site:
1. "MSC Malaysia Flagship Applications". Retrieved 28 December 2010.
2. "One for All". Retrieved 28 December 2010.
3. "MyKid". Retrieved 28 December 2010.

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4. "MyPR". Retrieved 28 December 2010.
5. "MyTentera card for soldiers". Retrieved 28 December 2010.
6. "MyKad: The Government Multipurpose Card". Retrieved 28 December 2010.
7. Malaysia and Brunei to allow frequent travellers to use ICs
Knight, Will. "Malaysia pioneers smart cards with fingerprint data", New Scientist, 21
September 2001
"MyKid for all newborn babies soon", The Star, 26 February 2003
Thomas, M. Is Malaysia's MyKad the 'One Card to Rule Them All'? The Urgent Need
to Develop a Proper Legal Framework for the Protection of Personal Information in
Malaysia", Melbourne University Law Review, 2004
Krishnamoorthy, M. "Easy step to amend religion in MyKad", The Star, 23 December
2005
Sujata, V.P. "Applicants to be charged a fee from next year", The Star, 29 December
2005
"Mad rush to beat the deadline", The Star, 30 December 2005
"Abusive bunch forces Kepong branch to call in cops", The Star, 30 December 2005
Anis, M.N. "Singapore 'no' to MyKad", The Star, 6 April 2005.
Fadzil, M.M. "The Malaysian Experience: Implementing A National Multi-
applications Citizen's Card" – see here for further details of the exact information
stored on the card
Raja Petra KamarudinGive them a uniform and it goes to their heads, Malaysia
Today, 13 October 2005.
National Registration Act 1959 (Act 78) and Regulations, International Law Book
Services, 15 January 2007.
 SECURITY : Police Effectiveness and the Organization of Policing
Crime fighting is essentially an information processing task – police agents must use the
information available at the local and aggregate levels to prevent and solve crimes. Thus, we
should expect large changes in the cost of processing information to have an important
impact on the organization of police work. In this paper we study the impact of IT on the
organization and effectiveness of policing using a newly constructed panel data set of police

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agencies covering the period 1987-2003, which we have merged with FBI local-level crime
data.
Their paper contributes to a large literature on the impact of IT on the organization of work.
Despite the growing size of this literature, their knowledge of IT‘s impact is still spotty, in
part due to the lack of availability of firm-level data on organizational change and
information technology adoption over time. Some previous studies of the impact of IT cannot
examine organizational changes because they use the industry as the unit of analysis [e.g.
Stiroh (2002), Autor, Katz, and Krueger (1998), and Berman, Bound, and Griliches (1994)],
or because they rely on a cross-section of firms [e.g. Acemoglu, Aghion, Lelarge, Reenan,
and Zilibotti (2006) and Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, and Hitt (2002)2]. Others do follow
individual firms over time, but either have no data on information technology adoption [e.g.
Rajan and Wulf (2006), Berman, Bound, and Griliches (1994)], or no information on
organizational change [e.g. Brynjolfsson and Hitt (2003)]. Only a very small number of
previous papers provide firm-level evidence on the evolution of information technology, skill
usage, and organizational change; notably Caroli and Reenen (2001), which reports data for
the 1980s in the UK, and from the early 1990s for France, and Doms, Dunne, and Troske
(1997), who study a panel of manufacturing firms between 1987 and 1992. Like these papers,
our paper utilizesfirm-level data on the evolution of skills, organization, and information
technologyadoption. However, it is the first to systematically examine non-manufacturing
firms– in our case, public organizations – and the first to study the majority of the
firmswithin the observed industry. Moreover, it is the only paper to include a long panel(16
years) covering most of the period of the recent IT revolution. Finally, by merging in agency-
level data on crime rates and arrest levels, we are able to incorporate richproductivity
measures into our analysis.
We start by studying the impact of computerization on productivity and organization using a
panel of police departments. Our main identification strategy compares, controlling for city
size and other characteristics, the organization and productivity of departments that adopted
more computing technology to that of departments that adopted less. Consistent with
previous research, we find that IT adoption and skill are complementary: departments that
adopt IT increase police training and introduce college requirements for new recruits. The
evidence suggests that this increase in training is primarily related to the need to learn to use
new devices, rather than IT-induced enhancement in the training process. Moreover, adopting

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departments become larger, increasingly employ special units, and include a larger fraction of
support personnel.
In sum, departments become more highly skilled and their organization in many ways more
complex. Despite these changes, we find little evidence that general IT adoption resulted by
itself in an increase in the effectiveness of police work, as manifested both in clearance rates
and in crime rates. We carefully analyze the generality of these results, and find them robust
to alternative samples (by size, by period, early adopters,growing versus non-growing cities,
etc.) and specifications of the IT measure.
Correctly interpreting the underlying causal mechanisms at work is an important
consideration here–our findings indicating that IT promotes organizational change could
reflect reverse causality or omitted variable bias. Given the nature of organizational change,
which often involves simultaneous adjustments on a number of dimensions and which may
be driven by factors unobserved to researchers, sorting out causal pathways can be
challenging. Using the available data, we attempt to address several alternative explanations
for the strong relationship between IT use and our organizational measures. By including
both year and agency fixed effects in our specifications, we first remove variation that may be
due to systematic differences across departments (such as geography) and well as
macroeconomic trends. We also find our results robust to inclusion of time trends by state or
initial level of computerization.
If, as agencies increase in size, their optimal structure involves increasing use of IT and
changes in organizational form, failure to adequately account for agency size could suggest a
spurious effect of IT on organization. In each of our baseline regressions we flexibly control
for the relevant aspect of agency size or workload. As additional checks, we rerun our
regressions first limiting the sample to the largest and smallest agencies and then including a
full set of agency-size decline and year interactions as controls.
The strong positive relationships between IT, worker training, and worker skill persist in
these specifications. Poorly managed departments may undergo overhauls that affect both IT
use and organizational variables. Using civil litigation cases filed against an agency in 1987
as a measure of initial department quality, we uncover little evidence suggesting differential
IT adoption by poorly functioning agencies. Alternatively, younger, dynamic cities, such as
Houston or Seattle, may have unobserved characteristics that promote both IT use and
different bureaucratic evolution. Limiting the sample to shrinking cities or cities with little
population change does not alter our conclusions, however.

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We also estimate specifications including leads of IT intensity as additional explanatory
variables to assess whether exogenous organizational reform could prompt IT adoption
(reverse causality), but obtain little indication of such effects. Another possibility is that
agencies with larger budgets are able to implement both information technology and superior
organizational practices such as increased training. However, the strong relationship between
IT and organization persists when we directly control for equipment expenditure in our
regressions, suggesting that this relationship is notdriven primarily by resource availability.
As a final check, we employ two different instrumental variables (PC availability in the
broader area and body armor use) that attempt to capture variation in the supply of and
demand for IT exogenous to our organization and effectiveness measures. Although limited,
our instrumental variables analysis supports the hypothesis that IT adoption leads to
organizational change. Taken as a whole, our evidence is most consistent with a causal effect
of information technology on organizational structure, with the large technological changes
driving IT adoption in the broader economy contributing to both computerization and
organizational change in the police sector but having little apparent effect on productivity.
These findings are puzzling: while computers matter organizationally, their effects do not
show up in the productivity numbers.We propose two possible explanations for this puzzle,
and test them: improvements in crime measurement and complementarities. First, although
some information technologies, such as those that identify crime ‗hot-spots‘, should improve
deterrence, others could actually worsen crime statistics. For example, if crime reporting is
improved, reported crime rates will increase while clearance rates will drop. Our data contain
detailed questions on computer functions, such as record-keeping, police dispatch, fleet
management, etc. We test for heterogeneous effects of different technologies by
simultaneously entering record-keeping and deployment measures in our panel regressions.
Offense reports increase by 10% when computers are used for record keeping. Consistent
with this hypothesis, such increases take place for crimes that are more likely to suffer from
under-reporting, e.g. larceny, rather than those which are severe and thus always reported
such as homicide. Deployment technologies, in contrast, are negatively (albeit weakly)
associated with offense rates.
Second, we consider the complementarities hypothesis, first advanced formally by Milgrom
and Roberts (1990). Although IT by itself may have little impact, its impact may be
substantial when introduced within the context of an organizational and human resource
system designed to take advantage of it. In the specific context of police work, the

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complementarity hypothesis takes one very salient form: Compstat. The system of practices
summarized by this name was initially introduced in the New York Police Department by
Police Commissioner William Bratton under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani‘s leadership and then
spread throughout the country. The program aimed to combine real-time geographic
information on crime with strong accountability by middle managers in the form of daily
group meetings, geographic resource allocation, and data intensive police techniques. The
program was widely credited in the press and by policymakers with playing a substantial role
in the recent precipitous drop incrime experienced by some cities.
To test the complementarity hypothesis, we study the impact of information technology when
it is adopted together with skilled officers, new problem-solving techniques, extensive use of
‗output‘ information in evaluation and deployment of officers, and a geographic-based
structure. Although the data available for testing this hypothesis are much shorter and more
limited (questions on these type of practices were only introduced in the survey in 1997), they
clearly endorse this hypothesis. We find crime clearance rates were an average of 2.2
percentage points higher in agencies implementing this integrated set of practices. Similarly,
crime rates are negatively associated with Compstat use. Moreover, the individual practices
composing Compstat have no independent ameliorative impact on crime levels or clearance
rates.
We conclude that IT can increase police effectiveness, but that its impact is obscured by large
increases in recorded crime, and the increase in effectiveness only takes place when IT is
introduced in conjunction with certain organizational practices oriented to take advantage of
new data availability.
Bibliography:
Authors: Luis Garicano, Paul Scott Heaton; the book of Computing Crime: Information
Technology, Police Effectiveness, and the Organization of Policing; CEPR Discussion Paper
5837, September 2006.
 TAX : Tax System
Tax systems in developing countries face both new challenges and new possibilities as a
result of technological change. In developing countries, taxpayers and tax administrations
must cope with more difficult environments with fewer resources. Some issues (such as

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privacy, the benefits and costs of public/private partnerships and corruption) are common to
both developing and developed countries, but difference in relative importance in particular
countries. This may be more important in developing countries.
Technology has influenced the way we work, play, and interact with others. It is not
surprising that technology has also affected how tax systems are designed and administered
in developing countries. These changes have not always been for the better. These helpful
contributions make clear that much more work can and should be done.
This first principle of computer processing has been too frequently ignored by those who
advocated the use of computers and tried to sell them to poor countries. Technological
change continues. Most countries have now moved from rooms full of clerks posting entries
by hand in large ledger books or as we observed in one country as late as the early 1990s,
writing in pencil on little pieces of paper to widespread use of computers to administer their
tax systems. The transition from hand to mouse has been incomplete and uneven. Major
differences exist among and within developing countries, both with respect to how their tax
systems are designed and administered and more generally, with respect to how technological
advances have changed the manner in which their economies operate. In this article, we
present some initial observations on how changes in technology may influence tax
administration and tax design in developing countries. Roller and Waverman (2001)
demonstrate that the introduction of mobile telephones has enabled developing countries to
bypass the heavy infrastructure development of land–based telephone systems, and has
facilitated market integration and more rapid economic development. We cannot undertake
this major task here instead, we present an overview and selective survey of many of the
issues raised by how technology influences tax administration and design. Technology is
definitely not a ―magic bullet‖ to solve the manifold problems of development taxation.
For example, focuses on how tax administrators can use technology. Both the size of the tax
collection agency (Slemrod and Yitzhaki,1987) and how the tax agency allocates its budget
among its different functions of enforcement, return and data processing, and taxpayer
service (Plumley and Steurele, 2004) may be affected. Focuses on the larger question of tax
system design.Slemrod (1990) notes that then design of optimal tax systems requires
consideration not only of changes in the technology of collecting taxes but also of how
technology may alter the economic environment in which governments seek. In contrast to
the 1960s, this second generation of computerization relies on personal computers and a
network-based information system, rather than stand–alone mainframe computers. For a

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recent overview of those problems, noted in an early review of technology and taxation in
developing countries that if we want to avoid the cycle of unfulfilled expectations, we need to
have a clear strategy for administrative reform, which is much broader and more
sophisticated than one which simply implements information technology.
Similarly, in words echoing Radian‘s work a quarter century earlier, Dhillon and Bouwer
(2005) noted that imposing new information technology (IT) systems without altering the
underlying business processes of the tax administration, or without establishing sufficient
links to information providers within and outside the public sector, as well as providing
adequate staffing infrastructure, was a recipe for failure. Given the extensive experience with
the adoption of new technology in tax administrations around the world, one might expect
that those closely involved in this process would have developed a systematic taxonomy of
the way in which country characteristics (such as income level, educational level, economic
structure) interact with the characteristics of different technologies. This would provide a
useful starting point for countries contemplating climbing the technology ladder to improve
tax administration and design. In our knowledge, no such guide exists and we do not attempt
to make up for this deficiency in the present paper.
We begin by examining how information technology may be used to improve government tax
administration. We then turn to a broader and less explored question: the potential for
technology to change the design of tax systems in developing countries. Following a brief
review of some issues common to both developed and developing countries that result from
the increased use of technology in tax design and administration, it conclude by offering a
few tentative observations about the future relationship of tax and technology in developing
countries. Tax advisors frequently note that ―tax administration is tax policy‖ in developing
countries (Casanegra de Jantscher, 1990, 178). Limitations in tax administration constrain tax
policy choices. In this section, the first consider several challenges facing tax administrations
in developing countries. We then examine how information technology may improve the
ability of tax authorities in developing countries to perform different administrative functions.
A large literature has developed examiningthe difficulties facing developingcountries in
administering tax systems(Bird, 2004). Some of the key challengesare reviewed here. The
challenges we revieworganizational change and political will relate to the ability of tax
administrators toimprove their efficiency whether through information technological or other
changes.

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Technology may influence the institutional and political context in many ways. For instance,
technology may change the tax environment by altering distribution methods or reducing
cash transactions. Information Technology may improve the quantity and quality of
information available to taxing authorities and their ability to use that information effectively.
Information Technology may make tax administrations more effective by improving
information flow, facilitating coordination, and improving their allocation of resources.
Information Technological changes may reduce taxpayer compliance costs by improving
information and services to taxpayers (for example, software for maintaining books and
records, and for calculating tax liabilities, or electronic or return–free filing alternatives).
Information Technology may reduce opportunities for corruption by reducing the face–to–
face interaction between taxpayers and taxing authorities. On the other hand, since silver
linings seldom arrive without clouds, information technology may equally well increase
corruption by increasing the opportunities for more sophisticated collaboration between
taxpayers and corrupt officials.
One important cost of operating informally is the probability of detection by tax or other
government authorities, and resulting penalties. Here again, countries differ greatly. By
providing additional tools to observe and monitor transactions and taxpayers, technology may
significantly enhance the ability of tax authorities to detect economic activity in the informal
sector. For example, information technological improvements may provide tax authorities
with greater capabilities to track use of physical inputs, electricity, and labour and, hence, to
estimate revenue and profits.
Over the last 40 years, reform efforts in tax administration in developing countries have
generally centered on information technology (IT). From adopting new technology, it have
often failed to reach expectations. Successful reform efforts did not simply computerize
antiquated processes, but re–engineered the whole system. Radical improvement in tax
administration requires changes in organization and methods, and modern IT greatly
facilitates the needed transformation. To take an example from a few years ago, a 1992 study
of the enforcement efficiency of the income tax department in Indian identified the following
problems; poor use of information collected by the central intelligence branch;
ineffectiveness of surveys of business premises; absence of an adequate system of taxpayer
identification numbers; absence of an adequate system of third–party information collection;
and deficiencies in the record keeping system.

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Although many of these problems can be solved by adopting appropriate and available
technology, as India has increasingly done (for example, with the introduction of an online
tax accounting system in 2004), successful use of IT requires restructuring and retraining the
tax administration. As with most new technologies, IT is a double–edged sword. In the hands
of taxpayers, it may make tax administration more difficult (especially in an open economy).
In the hands of tax authorities, it may enable a more robust response to such challenges.
Experience suggests a number of lessons with respect to the successful application of IT in
tax administration.
An appropriate strategy must consider the obstacles and constraints arising from such
organizational rigidities as civil service salary structure and procedural hurdles in acquiring
the necessary expertise, hardware, and software. 13 A relatively centralized innovation
strategy is required since equipment and software should be standardized to facilitate
training, operation, networking, and maintenance. Whenever possible, software should be
bought off the shelf rather than developed internally, both for cost reasons and to
accommodate subsequent technological developments. Ultimately, the pace of change and the
success of any modernization program depend on human resources on the training and skills
of the people who are expected to use and operate the technology. Considerable
organizational re-engineering is usually needed to gear the tax administration to a
computerized environment.
Experience in Kenya and elsewhere demonstrates that the successful introduction of new
technologies requires consideration of the susceptibilities of existing staff and their resistance
to change (Peterson, 1996). Indeed all those in a position to affect how well any new IT
system can function must work together. As a complex system is more likely to engender
resistance and problems, the design, structure, and operations of the system should be as
simple as possible. In some situations it may even be advantageous to entrust part of the
responsibility for setting up an information system to organizations outside the tax
administration, or even outside the government.16 We return to the question of privatization
later in this paper. Administrative Capacity Many who examine tax administration in
developing countries conclude that there is simply insufficient ―administrative capacity,‖
usually defined in terms of skilled human capital, for the tax administration to function
properly. Countries differ greatly in administrative capacity. In countries with very low levels
of administrative capacity, technological innovation may to some extent be able to substitute
for inadequate human capacity. For example, while a few highly skilled people would still be

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required to implement and operate any modern data processing system, it might be easier in
many countries to find, say, three capable university graduates rather than the many literate
and numerate high school graduates who might otherwise be needed to do the same work.
More generally, at any given level of administrative capacity, more can be done better with
appropriate advanced technology, often by complementing and increasing the productivity of
skilled staff instead of replacing it. In some cases, technology can and has substantially
extended the capacity of tax administration officials by permitting them to assemble and
evaluate the mass of information already currently available but not effectively used.
Technology alone cannot do the job of good tax administration, and good tax administration
can be carried out without technology. Information Technology increases the opportunities
with respect to what can be done in any tax administration and often makes it possible to
perform administrative functions both differently and better than without technology.
Undoubtedly, introducing creative technology in many developing countries will yield
significant gains, as shown by the use of financial networks operated through mobile
telephone networks to bypass infrastructure efficiencies. For the most part, what really needs
to be done to improve tax administration in developing countries is well known and can
sometimes be implemented within a surprisingly short time span, as has been demonstrated in
Brazil Technology may enable countries to leap over infrastructure gaps and even to
overcome (to some extent) human capital deficiencies.But it cannot circumvent the critical
political obstacles that plague tax administration in many developing countries.
InformationTechnology to Improve Tax administrators in developing countries play many
roles. They are expected to collect revenue, process returns and information, limit tax
evasion, provide services to taxpayers, and, in many countries, implement social programs
through the tax systems. The objectives and policies of tax administrators differ among
countries and over time. Like any other government agency or private sector enterprise, tax
administrators need to make difficult choices on allocating scarce resources among different
types of taxes, different administrative functions, and different types of information
technology. To make informed decisions on alternative feasible technology investments, tax
administrators need estimates of the current costs of administering the tax system, the costs of
administering particular taxes, and the expected costs and benefits from the additional
investment. Here, we focus primarily on the question of how information technology has the
potential to change how taxing authorities perform all the interconnected tasks of locating
and identifying taxpayers, Information technology reporting and withholding, processing

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returns, auditing, collecting, educating taxpayers, and providing taxpayer services. The
availability, cost, and accessibility of computers make them ideal for the large–scale
information–processing and coordination problems facing tax administrations in even the
poorest countries. Among the areas that may be computerized are; taxpayer records and tax
collection (taxpayer compliance),internal management and control over resources, legal
structure and procedures, and systems to lower taxpayer compliance costs.
In every country that has successfully adopted improved technology for tax administration,
allotting a unique identification number has been a necessary requirement. Without such a
number, information can neither be stored properly nor used effectively. Countries may use a
number unique to the tax system or one linked to other government activities. Several
countries have begun issuing ―smart‖ ID cards to citizens that contain TINs as well as other
information. Information technology allow governments to coordinate the numbers assigned
with respect to various government services and financial services to TINs issued by taxing
authorities. This conclusion is, of course, based on our own limited knowledge and
experience, and we would be delighted to learn of careful empirical studies in any country
that have guided allocative decisions in tax administration. Tax administrations need more
expertise in information technology in part because many of their largest taxpayers,
multinational companies and large domestic firms, employ sophisticated computer systems.
An important task of tax administration is to bring together information from different
sources, both within the administration and from other relevant government and private
sources, in order to verify the information supplied by taxpayers themselves. Most countries
already require various private and public agencies to furnish information regarding various
transactions and activities to the tax authorities. In some but not all cases, those agencies are
also supposed to withhold a part of the payment made by the agent to the potential taxpayer.
Withholding, thus, serves the two–fold purpose of helping to identify potential taxpayers and
ensuring that at least a part of the tax is realized at source, thereby minimizing risk as well as
delay in payment. Neither internal nor external sources of information are of any use in the
absence of an efficient system of monitoring, nor of adequate IT infrastructure to collate and
store data with easy access for retrieval and cross–checking. A reliable single, centrally
maintained register of taxpayers, each with a unique TIN, is, therefore, essential. Withholding
in developing countries could cover not only traditional items, such as wages, interest, and
dividends, but also professional fees, payments to independent contractors, rents, and (in
some instances) a wide range of business transactions. In some developing countries,

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experience in computerizing the information flowing through and to such LTUs has proven to
be a useful testing ground for developing systems that can be later extended to the whole
taxpaying population Depending on computer assisted techniques, the European Union (EU)
has implemented a test program that allows businesses and individuals to participate
voluntarily in a new fully digital VAT system, which could eventually be linked to smart ID
cards. Processing Returns and Payments One of the first uses of IT was to process tax returns
and payments. Partly because banks had more adequate data processing systems than tax
administrations, several Latin American countries initially outsourced the receipt and
processing of tax returns and payments to the banking systems. Such systems have obvious
attractions for both taxpayers and the tax administration. However, questions may be raised
about the long–term desirability of freeing citizens from the painful obligation of explicitly
facing up to the fiscal needs of the state at least once a year. Whether or not returns are filed
with tax offices, there are advantages in requiring payments to be made to financial
institutions if only because keeping cash out of the tax office reduces opportunities for
corruption.
However, such countries can still make good use of simplified information technology to
improve outcomes. For example, returns might initially be scanned to determine whether
their mark–up ratios (or other parameters such as wage bills) fall within normal ranges for
comparable firms. Those that fall outside these parameters should then be subjected to
additional desk investigation (for example, cross–checking information with customs and
income tax for the period in question).Given the rapidly spreading use of mobile telephones
as a way of making financial transactions even in very–low–income countries, more use of
electronic fi ling and payment of taxes seems likely in the near future.
Auditing is a necessary element of good tax administration. If information matching or cross–
checking fails to identify underpayment of tax, then auditing is the only way to uncover
intentional noncompliance. Typically, auditing means the examination of fi led returns by tax
authorities to determine the correctness of self–assessed taxes. The authorities may also use
audits as the basis for statistical studies of taxpayer characteristics to be used in developing
presumptive indicators—a prominent feature of taxation in many developing countries The
success of auditing and the feasibility of various auditing strategies depend on the quality of
the information available to the auditor, which in turn depends on three factors: the
information gathered from the taxpayer and third parties, the information processing capacity

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of auditors, and the strategy pursued. As more advanced IT systems improve the first two
factors, the authorities have a greater range of auditing strategies.
Developing countries have made significant progress in using information technology to
improve services to taxpayers. For example, Chile reduced the burden on taxpayers by
eliminating payment by cash or check, and replacing it with payment by electronic funds
transfer. Singapore has gone even further, often saving taxpayers the trouble of making a
payment by dipping directly into their bank accounts (although one may perhaps doubt
whether taxpayers appreciate this degree of service). Other developing countries have also
taken steps to make the lives of taxpayers easier—and, not incidentally, to improve the
reliability of their revenue streams. A few decades ago it was not uncommon to see long lines
of taxpayers in the street in front of the local tax office when the time came to make the
monthly, quarterly, or annual tax payments. Even when computers were first introduced,
taxpayers frequently had to line up to get the forms that they had to submit. Such sights are
now largely history in most parts of the world. Now the painful act of paying taxes can often
be done from one‘s home computer—at least in countries in which the electricity supply is
reliable and in which most taxpayers have access to computers. Neither condition holds in
many developing countries, notably those in sub–Saharan Africa, but they do hold,
increasingly, even in countries like India that have huge poor populations but also
increasingly large middle classes. Even taxpayers without a computer can usually pay their
taxes at any local bank branch in many countries, and (as mentioned above) payment through
mobile telephones may also become more common in some developing countries.
Countries such as Singapore, Chile, and South Africa, already have excellent web pages that
provide taxpayers with information about their obligations, answer many taxpayer questions,
and provide return–free filing. Brazil has managed to extend electronic fi ling coverage to 90
percent of its taxpayers. Even when governments do not provide such facilities, tax
preparation software is often readily available to taxpayers and is usually acceptable for
official purposes.
Our discussion of information technology and tax administration does not lead to any radical
new conclusions, but then for the most part we were covering well–trodden ground. In
contrast, how technology may influence the design of tax systems or the design of specific
tax instruments in developing countries is a much less discussed question.
We first consider some general questions about tax system design in developing countries,
and then look briefly at some proposals with respect to specific tax instruments that may be

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more feasible as a result of improvements in technology. Information Technological advances
will alter the economic environment in which governments seek to collect tax revenue. These
advances will make some persons or transactions easier to tax. Particularly in developing
countries, use of various methods of electronic payments will move more transactions from
the informal to the formal economy. As discussed earlier, technology will also provide tax
administrators with more tools to track the movements of goods and individuals. It should
also increase opportunities and reduce costs of cooperating with tax administrators in other
countries to improve tax compliance of persons with investments and activities outside the
country. But information technology will also make some persons or transactions harder to
tax. For example, it is currently much harder for tax authorities to track goods in digitized
form than those that are physically transported across or between countries. Foreign lawyers,
accountants, and management consultants can provide services with little or no physical
presence in a country. Advances in the financial service industry allow domestic investors
access to foreign banks and securities with simple Internet access. The globalization of
financial markets has made it harder for any one country to tax income from mobile capital.
Information Technology may also influence incentives of governmental officials in the
design and administration of tax systems. Information Technology may change both the size
and structure of this tax base.
Bibliography:
Authors: Richard M. Bird; National Tax Journal Vol. LXI, No.4, Part2: Technology and
Taxation in Developing Countries: From Hand to Mouse, December 2008.