Analyzing the impact of ethical issues in e-government implementation: a case of Zambia

Abstract

E-government is intended to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees while reducing corruption and costs but increasing transparency and revenue growth on the other hand. Despite the foregoing, the use of ICTs in both public and private sector, at individual and institutional levels, has brought about a spectrum of ethical challenges in our societies thereby undermining efforts made to encourage citizens adopt the use of electronic services deployed for public service. The objectives of this research were to establish what ethical issues arise in egovernment implementation especially in developing countries, in this case Zambia and the impact these ethical issues have on e-government implementation. In addition, to understand how IT systems can be designed to address the identified ethical issues that arise in egovernment. From the research, it was established that the prominent ethical issues that arise in e-government implementation are security and privacy. 44% of the respondents agree, in addition to 28% who strongly agree, that the inclusion of ethical issues in planning of e-government will contribute to the successful implementation of e-government. Only 38.5% of the respondents affirm that the current e-government policy addresses these ethical issues in e-government implementation while 30.8% disagree and another 30.8% are not sure. This study recommends that a holistic approach to the addressing of these ethical issues should be adopted by governments to avoid formulation of policies in silos. The design of such policies must precede any systems design as systems design must manifest efforts to address the ethical issues that arise in the use of the particular systems concerned using Value Sensitive Design.