Governments can go further, by creating websites that allow users to conduct transactions online. Just as the private sector makes use of the Internet to offer e-commerce services, governments can do the same with their services. The “Transact” phase of e-Government involve a mutual exchange of information (and sometimes funds) between government and citizens or businesses through step-by-step online processes.
A “Transact” website makes government services available at any time from any Internet-connected computer. Traditionally, government services may have required long waits, confrontation with stifling bureaucracy and the occasional bribe. Innovations such as citizen service kiosks located in shopping centers in Brazil or portable government computers that can be carried into rural pockets of India bring e-government directly to the citizens.
Transact applications can streamline time-consuming bureaucratic procedures, saving money and increasing productivity in the long-run. In addition, by automating and revamping processes governments can help to stem corruption.
The range of ‘e-Services’ applications is broad, given that these applications are online versions of the various transactions citizens or businesses must engage in with central, provincial, local, and municipal governments. Transact applications may include procurement, health care reimbursement, or taxation. In developing countries, any of a wide range of basic services might find willing users.
Because “Transact” applications are several steps (and in some cases, a quantum leap) above “Publish” sites, implementation will neither be simple nor cheap. Consequently, Transact sites may require significant changes for the government workforce. The success of Transact applications, as with other e-Government applications, will likely depend on assessing and responding to the needs and capabilities of the intended users. One of the few available surveys of rural users of e-Government found the following services most in demand: personal documents, including birth, marriage and death certificates, land registry or cadastral services, anti-corruption complaints and other grievances with public services, and transportation related services, including car registration and purchase of bus and rail passes.
The development of Interact services is sometimes combined with the establishment of government-owned or sponsored access points, such as kiosks, community centers or mobile units. The Bahia provincial government in Brazil has developed citizen assistance service centers, which are based in public places such as shopping malls and offer some 500 services.
Given the high cost of Internet access and personal computers, on the one hand, and the wide dispersion of mobile phones on the other, m-Government may emerge as a viable means for delivering Transact functionality.
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