An African proverb admonishes us that: ""Whenever the rhythm of the drum beats changes, you must amend the dance occupation accordingly.""

It is no longer lucky knowledge that School management system Singapore assistance and Communication Technology has launched the entire globe into what is now known as the e-world-meaning electronic world. Today Governments the world greater than are somersaulting to reinvent and re-engineer governance correspondingly as to be more effective, efficient and transparent in the provision of information, goods and services to their citizens electronically.

Fortunately Ghana has already started dancing to the tune of the technological music because government has laid the initiation for e-government by establishing the meting out of Ghana website popularly referred to as Ghana Portal which is monster managed by the instruction facilities Department of the Ministry of information in Accra. running has afterward normal the Ghana-India Kofi Anan IT middle of Excellence and above all, Ghana has formulated an instruction Communication Technology framework for accelerated development, visceral spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications.

Nevertheless, next it comes to the practicability, accessibility and usability of e-government services by citizens, Ghana yet has some mountains to climb and some rivers and lagoons to wade through. It is adjoining this backdrop that this writer deems it relevant to allowance the Singapore e-government experience gone fellow Ghanaians. But, even since shedding some lighthearted on e-government strategies and implementations in Singapore, it may be indispensable to explain what e-government is in the first place.

On Saturday July 31 this year, at the Johannesburg landing field in South Africa, this writer came across a work of Ghanaians on their artifice to Zimbabwe to consent ration in a sticker album fair in that country. after that in a chart later than one of them, where it was revealed that I was upon my mannerism from Singapore where I underwent a gruff training course in e-government, my interlocutor exclaimed:

'Eeeee-Government!' ""What is that animal, too?"" he more or less shouted unconsciously.

As a issue of fact, my friend confessed that, he was hearing for the first grow old the term e-government. highly developed subsequent to we parted company and he went to Zimbabwe and I was airborne to Ghana, I started debating like my inner self: ""If this man, well-educated, bustling in the capital city of Accra, participating in an international business such as a compilation fair, has not still heard of the term e-government until then, then what happens to the majority of uneducated and less lucky brothers and sisters house in deprived rural communities of the country?

Because we are vivacious in a world of Knowledge dealing out (KM) and Experience Sharing, I cannot claim to be an clever in this field, but the tiny I know not quite e-government must be shared afterward others for the help of all who care to know; for the advancement of mankind and to the glory of the Divine shrewdness or the First Giver of knowledge itself.

The ask is: What is E-government? The united Nations defines e-Government as ""Permanent duty by supervision to improve the relationship amid the private citizen and the public sector through enhanced, cost-effective and efficient delivery of services, assistance and knowledge."" It went extra to accustom that there are five categories of measuring a country's ""e-gov"" progress in terms of Web Presence. This includes: Emerging - Enhanced - Interactive - Transactional and abundantly Integrated. all UN devotee states have been called upon and encouraged to embark upon this e-government project and programme.

Accordingly the world body has a pretension of assessing the expansion of each country in this regard. Significantly in the UN tally for this year on e-government globally, Singapore, a small Island City give leave to enter of Land- area of 697.1sq km like a population of 4.185 million souls is sharing the 2nd outlook past the strong united States of America in the same way as Canada richly sitting upon top of all.

How did Singapore make it to the top of e-government league table of the world? What strategies and policies were put in place; behind and how did that country accomplish such a technological feat more than and above the super powers of this planet of economic inequalities?

Computerisation

Singapore set off upon its e-government journey as in the distance assist as about 25 years ago. In 1981, Singapore embarked upon a computerization programme of the paperwork machinery. It first time-honored a National Computer Board and National Computerisation Plan. The plan was to ensure a reasoned accrual of local IT industry; increase of IT manpower pool; Civil bolster Computerisation plot and the production of 850 IT Professionals.

National IT Plan

After the Computerisation programme, the Singapore government embarked on what was referred to as the National IT Plan. The National IT plot initiated what was known as the Beginnings of Computing Communications Convergence. It afterward constituted what was dubbed Electronic Data exchange (EDI), which was basically aimed at bridging management and industry. This plot took place in 1986 that is five years or fittingly after the Computerisation Programme.

IT 2000 Blueprint for shrewdness Island

This Blueprint strategy that as well as started higher than five years after the
National IT scheme in 1992 was to effect what was called Flagship Projects on the Singapore Island. It had the objectives to create an electronic network linking all libraries in that country; safe infrastructure for e-commerce; skillful system for checking every building plans in the country and above every to acknowledge Singapore ONE, that is, to make one network for everyone in Singapore. It was this strategy that shot Singapore taking place to the direction of the world's first nationwide broadband infrastructure nation in the e-world.

Infocomm 2001

The next-door step Singapore took, after attaining a nationwide broadband infrastructure, was to commencement what was dubbed Infocomm 2001. This project was launched in year 2000 and aimed at developing Singapore into a flourishing and committed global opinion communication capital, considering a well-to-do and prosperous e-Economy, and a pervasive and ""Infocomm-savvy"" e-Society and full telecom liberalisation in that country.

Connected Singapore

In 2003, Singapore direction launched the unquestionable onslaughts on its e-government programme by establishing what was helpfully known as connected Singapore. This strategy was to unleash the potential for the sum realisation of all e-government possibilities through the Info comm project of the country.

Briefly, the preceding steps known in Singapore as the five (5) National Strategic ICT Plans offer us an overview of the method Singapore adopted to become the 2nd e-Nation in the e-World today astern Canada. The Singapore meting out has a philosophy that: ""Whatever services that can be delivered electronically must be delivered electronically"" Period.

Another African wise saying reminds us that, ""If your tormentor who is admin after you does not stop, you, too, must not end running."" As long as Ghana remains a developing country, Ghanaians must not stop charge to manufacture and progress.

In the first allocation of this article the definition of e-Government according to the allied Nations was provided. Singapore executive used the UN definition of e-Government as a guide, but simplified it for easy concord by nameless person in the street.

According to Singapore, e-Government is the use of technology to
enhance the admission to and delivery of handing out services to improvement citizens and School management system Singapore  businesses. It prickly out that the beneficiaries of e- handing out enlarge the presidency itself, businesses and the citizens of the country concerned.

How did the Singapore executive use technology to swell permission to and delivery of running information and facilities to the people? E-Government doing plan II (2003-2006) In order to achieve its avowed goals the Singapore paperwork formulated an operate scheme known as e-Government discharge duty plan II for the year 2003 to 2006.The vision of the management was to be a leading e- direction to improved abet the nation in the digital economy.

The direct of this scheme was to ensure ""a Networked Government
that delivers accessible, integrated, value-added e-services to our customers; and helps bring citizens closer together"". A slogan was developed thus: e-Government- Delighting Customers, Connecting Citizens.

What are some of the services that the Singapore admin provides for its customers who are the citizens of the country? Even since we touch on some of the facilities provided online, shall we locate out why Singapore meting out came to the carrying out that the beneficiaries of e-Government tote up Government, businesses and citizens?

It is important to note that within the scope of e-Government, there are several categories that fit into the expansive definition of e-Government. For example, e-Government constitutes: A Government- to-Citizens (G2C); B- Government-to-Business (G2B); C- Government-to-Employees (G2E); and eventually D-Government to- admin (G2G).

G2C: Government-to-Citizens, according to experts, includes all the interactions between a giving out and its citizens that can undertake area electronically. The want of G2C is to find the money for citizens faster, more responsive, more convenient and less complicated means to public services.

G2B: In the charge of Government-to-Business, it refers to e-commerce in which dealing out sells to businesses or provides them in the same way as services, as well as businesses selling products and facilities to government. over the want of G2B is to enable businesses to interact, transact and communicate past organization online, later than greater rapidity and convenience.

G2E: Government-to-Employees includes comings and goings and services amongst paperwork units and their employees. As the term implies, the point toward of G2E is to fabricate and cultivate IT capabilities in the middle of direction employees to speak to efficient and cost-effective services.

G2G: Interestingly, Government-to-Government seems to have dual significance. One, G2G is said to consist of happenings amid meting out and supplementary Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the same government.

The supplementary meaning of G2G is a matter in which Governments have to treaty bearing in mind their additional counterpart governments of exchange countries. This second G2G in the assistance of experts is anchored on trust and interdependence, which allows for guidance sharing in the middle of governments on regional, sub-regional and international issues.

For example, the direct of terrorism; the direction of furious be close to diseases next SARS, which occurred in Asia some period ago or even HIV/AIDS. This G2G also has to complete next common economic challenges as skillfully as ethnic wars and conflicts problems facing West African States for instance. For Singapore dealing out to accomplish the enviable e-Government status through involved online facilities delivery to its citizens, distinct strategies were again adopted:

I) E-Government Infrastructure

The organization put in area a National instruction Infrastructure as backbone for e-government facilities delivery. This strategy was christened Public give support to Infrastructure (PSI) in Singapore.

Physical Infrastructure

Government itself provided Internet entry points in convenient places such as public libraries, shopping malls, giving out offices, hospitals, subway stations and clubs and relevant public places for the citizens to use pardon of charge.

Technology Infrastructure

Here, the organization provided computers, servers, networks (broadband and wireless), mobile devices, smart cards as capably as technology standards that are retrieve and scalable such as Java, XML, Web services.

Authentication Infrastructure

Under this the organization provided E-Government ID and Password for School management system Singapore  every its citizens. It made it easier for utterly citizen to know how to log online and permission government suggestion and services.

II) E-Government Legislation &Policy

Having put in place the essential infrastructure for the e-government facilities to the citizens, the next-door strategy the Singapore processing adopted was the affect of relevant rules and regulations and policies that govern the implementation of the programme.

Some of the major regulations were meant to safeguard privacy and suggestion security; data protection, data privacy, computer misuse, legal salutation of electronic transactions, official direct of cryptography, security audits and capably as standards and certification of security practices. Singapore's legislation and code of practice swell Computer shout insults Act; Electronic Transaction Act, which was enacted in 1998, tried to define the rights and obligations of transaction parties, and furthermore provided real status on the use of electronic history and signature. The supervision also provided data auspices Code.

III) E-Government Services

After putting in place ICT infrastructure and legislation and policy the giving out then developed a website called E-Citizen Portal. This website was to enable citizens to question questions and get answers. Specific electronic facilities deliveries are provided on this site.

Some of the services upon this website tally payment of taxes and fines; Issuance and renewal of driver's licenses; Helping citizens locate employment; National campaigns and attentiveness commencement on social facilities such health and education; inauguration of Internet and IT training courses; e-learning and smart card in schools. so computer literacy started right from the primary moot in Singapore etc.

In the needy and rural communities, the handing out provided forgive computers and Internet access points and posted officers who know how to feat the equipment to help the illiterates to lead from the online services.

In fact, in School management system Singapore today some services with the issuing of Passports and Birth Certificates, you have to sit in the comfort of your home and fill the critical forms and e-mail them to the take possession of authorities. dispensation will recompense you for obtaining the services upon line. Interestingly if you go personally to those offices for the services, you will pay penalty for going there personally. And after paying the penalty you will be directed to go and use a computer in a corner
there in the office yet to apply for the documents you wanted.

In the feat of Businesses, E-Tender was introduced in that any company that wanted to bid for giving out contracts can unaided attain that through the Internet. Corporate taxes could forlorn be filed electronically. Annual Reports and periodic concern reports are every presented online. As in the accomplishment of E-Citizens Portal, there is with one-stop Portal for every dispensation procurement opportunities with
over 8,000 trading partners. It is upon this Portal that every corporate bodies reach thing past the running in Singapore. This is known as integrated e- Services.

This is the level of E-Government facilities in Singapore. Is it any incredulity that they are the 2nd e-nation after Canada in the e-world? Ghana, too, can complete the similar no issue how long it takes. What is important is for the Ghanaian IT experts to present the perfect technological advice to the organization of Ghana."