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E-government Implementation in Sri Lanka: Some Lessons from

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Implementing E-Government in Sri Lanka:
Lessons from the UK
Vishanth Weerakkody
Business School, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK.
E-mail: vishanth.weerakkody@brunel.ac.uk
Yogesh K. Dwivedi
School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Singleton Park,
Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK. E-mail: ykdwivedi@gmail.com
Asoka Kurunananda
Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda,
Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. E-mail: asoka@itfac.mrt.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
With the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-government has
emerged as an effective means of delivering government services to citizens. In the recent past,
e-government has become popular in many economically developing countries, yet there are numerous
attempts to reinvent the wheel. This article argues that e-government initiatives in developing countries
can be effectively implemented if experiences acquired by developed countries are shared proficiently.
In this context, research was carried out to identify and compare issues pertaining to implementing
e-government initiatives in a developed country (UK) and an economically developing country
(Sri Lanka). This research identified a number of challenges common to the UK and Sri Lanka
that can be classified into the broad themes of political, organizational, and technical contexts.
Conversely, a number of e-government adoption challenges such as lack of ICT literacy, inadequate
ICT infrastructure, and inability to access e-government services using local languages were also
identified that were more specific for the Sri Lankan context. To address these e-government adoption
challenges, ICT training coupled with multilingual e-services was recognized as the key enabler in a
developing country context. C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords: e-government; developing country; e-services; language barriers; Sri Lanka
1. INTRODUCTION
The combined influences of the Internet and supporting information and communication
technologies (ICTs) have seen commercial enterprises reaching out to people and exploit-
ing business opportunities that previously would not have been possible. Internet-enabled
e-business has also contributed to a significant increase in the speed and ease of business
transactions, not only making competition intense between organizations, but also requiring
Syed Nasirin and Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou are the accepting Guest Editors for this article.
Information Technology for Development, Vol. 15 (3) 171–192 (2009)

C 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online 15 June 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/itdj.20122
171
172 WEERAKKODY, DWIVEDI, AND KURUNANANDA
companies to integrate new and faster systems and adjust to new technology to meet the
needs of customers (Deitel, Deitel, & Steinbuhler, 2001; Weerakkody, Choudrie, & Currie,
2004). Government and industry e-commerce agendas have become more closely linked in
recent times (International Center for Technology Assessment [ICTA], 2004b), and more
people are now less tolerant of poor, impersonal service in the public sector as they become
aware of the power of the Web and experience good service in the private sector (Gunewar-
dena, 2002b; Re-Gov, 2005). Therefore, it is in every government’s interest to make its
public services more efficient and available to gain citizens’ trust, which has often eluded
many governments and political leaders in modern society. Although e-government already
has established itself as the primary enabler for transforming the way government services
are offered to citizens in developed countries, it is now beginning to show promising results
in many developing countries too (Bhatnagar, 2000; Veldanda, 2004). Within developing
countries e-government has the potential to build stronger institutional capacity, offer bet-
ter service to citizens and businesses, and decrease corruption by increasing transparency
(Banerjee & Chau, 2004).
The challenge for governments, however, has been to constantly embrace the oppor-
tunities that ICTs present and to meet the public needs and expectations while being
cost-effective (Bertucci, 2006). Whereas the private sector has harnessed the Internet to
transform its value chain, governments have not exploited the opportunities at the same
rate due to implementation challenges and inflexible structures that are not ready to accom-
modate the change (Montagna, 2005; Weerakkody et al., 2006). E-government challenges
have been discussed by many researchers (Banerjee & Chau, 2004; Chen & Knepper,
2005; Karunananda & Weerakkody, 2006; United Nations Public Administration Network
[UNPAN] and American Society for Public Administration [ASPA], 2001; Weerakkody &
Choudrie, 2005). The findings in these studies show that the degree to which governments
offer online services differs across regions in the world depending on the country’s social,
political, and economic composition.
In developing countries, the implementation of public information systems has encoun-
tered numerous challenges, resulting in a poor success record (Avgerou, 1993; Qureshi,
2005). Therefore, for e-government implementation to be widespread and successful, exem-
plary strategies and practices need to be identified in addition to establishing and prioritizing
processes to be e-enabled. Furthermore, every e-government program needs to have a clear
description of the proposed benefits to citizens, what challenges need to be overcome, and
the level of institutional change that needs to take place for it to be successful in a given
context (Hazlett & Hill, 2003; Re-Gov, 2005). Although many developed countries includ-
ing the UK have identified successful strategies and overcome obstacles to pioneer the
e-government concept (Weerakkody, Jones, & Olsen, 2007), developing countries such as
Sri Lanka have much to learn in this context. Like most developing countries, Sri Lanka has
devised plans to implement e-government on a full scale; from a practical and critical view-
point though, these plans can be viewed as rather ambitious. For this reason, examining two
countries (the UK [a developed country] and Sri Lanka [an economically developing coun-
try]) and their strategies for e-government implementation are therefore timely in identify-
ing good practice scenarios and knowledge-sharing opportunities. To gain experience from
e-government initiatives of a developed country, we have selected a study conducted in a
large West London Borough in the UK (referred as X). To understand the challenges faced
by an economically developing country in the context of e-government implementation, a
parallel study was conducted in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. There are several reasons
for selecting the London Borough of X (referred as LBX) for this study. First, both Colombo
Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

IMPLEMENTING E-GOVERNMENT IN SRI LANKA: LESSONS FROM THE UK 173
and the LBX officially began their e-government initiatives in 2001. Second, although the
population of LBX is not comparable with that of Colombo, X has a large proportion of
ethnic minorities including South Asians (including Sri Lankans) who share similar lan-
guages and cultural and social beliefs. In other words, the recipients of the e-services are
largely non–English-speaking residents who use different languages (other than English)
for accessing public services. Third, LBX is at the heart of a developed country, whereas
Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka (which is at the heart of a developing country). Fourth,
the geographical extent and population in both locations are comparatively similar. Fifth,
the government service structure in the UK and Sri Lanka are similar in many respects, with
the Sri Lankan public administrative structure being modeled based upon that of the UK
(postindependence in 1948). This allows us to acquire experience from an e-government
initiative in a developed country; we argue that comparison of the Sri Lankan e-government
experience with that of another developing country can be counterproductive because the
lessons that can be learned will be limited. Moreover, drawing from the good practices of
the UK in particular is attractive because this country has been considered an e-government
leader since the emergence of the concept in the late 1990s (Accenture, 2003, 2004,
2005).
At present, LBX in the UK has implemented various e-services, yet Colombo in Sri
Lanka is still at an early stage of e-government implementation. In this sense, information
from LBX can be used to analyze the efforts of Colombo’s e-government experiences. How-
ever, because e-government in Colombo is still under development, the researchers were
unable to obtain empirical information from any particular agency or department in the Sri
Lankan government. Therefore, the best source of information pertaining to e-government
in Sri Lanka is the government body known as ICTA, which is responsible for implementing
e-government in Sri Lanka. In this context, the main sources of information for this re-
search were LBX in the UK and ICTA in Sri Lanka. In both LBX and ICTA, there are no
well-documented independent research findings about the progress and challenges faced
in implementing e-government. Therefore, an empirical study based on semistructured in-
terviews with persons responsible for implementing e-government projects were used as
the primary data-collection method. To discuss the aforementioned findings, this article is
structured as follow: The next section offers a brief literature overview of the e-government
challenges from a developing country perspective; the research approach used in this study
is outlined in Section 3; this is followed by an overview of the e-government implementa-
tion challenges in the UK in Section 4 and in Sri Lanka in Section 5. Section 6 then offers
a comparative analysis of the empirical findings in the UK and Sri Lanka; and finally the
article concludes by outlining the research conclusions, limitations, and future directions.
2. RESEARCH CONTEXT: E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION

AND UNDERLYING ISSUES
With the increasing adoption of e-government, academics, consultants, and solutions
providers all want to pronounce their expert opinions. As with many preceding orga-
nizational improvement concepts (such as business process reengineering), the varying
definitions suggested for e-government do not help. Holmes (2001) defines e-government
as the use of technology, in particular the Internet, to deliver public services in a much
more convenient, customer-oriented, cost-effective, and altogether different and better way.
Reffat (2003) states that e-government initiatives are complex change efforts intended to
use new and emerging technologies to support a transformation in the operation and ef-
fectiveness of government. For this article, however, the authors accept the notion that
e-government broadly refers to the use of ICT for procedures and outcomes of central and
local government and their administrative structures (Chadwick & May, 2003; Wimmer,
2002).
Leaving the researchers and pundits to argue its definition in a theoretical context,
at a practical level e-government has grown and become a political imperative at lo-
cal, national, and international levels (Weerakkody & Dhillon, 2008; Irani & Elliman,
2002). It is expected that, as e-government matures, there will be a plethora of benefits
for governments, businesses, and citizens alike (Araujo & Grande, 2003; Holden, Norris,
& Fletcher, 2003). Yet, how these benefits will be reached is still a matter of contro-
versy. Despite the feasibility and availability of technology, government agencies have
confronted many challenges and problems in successfully developing and implementing
e-government systems (Margetts & Dunleavey, 2002; Weerakkody et al., 2004). Over-
coming these challenges, therefore, is one of the biggest tests for the government of any
country planning to implement e-government. Research on e-government has identified
issues such as lack of awareness (Re-Gov, 2005), access to e-services (Fang, 2002), us-
ability of e-government Web sites (Choudrie & Weerakkody, 2003; Porter, 2002), lack
of trust (Bhattacherjee, 2002; Navarra & Cornford, 2003), security concerns (Harris &
Schwartz, 2000; Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky, & Vitale, 2000), resistance to change (Margetts &
Dunleavey, 2002), lack of skills and funding (Federal Computer Weekly, 2001; Weerakkody
& Choudrie, 2005), data protection laws (Bonham, Seifert, & Thorson, 2001; Harris &
Schwartz, 2000), and lack of strategy and frameworks (Reffat, 2003) are hindering the
adoption of e-government in many countries. The literature in particular suggests that, to
successfully implement e-government, a systematic and well-defined approach is needed for
e-government projects to impact positively on the beneficiaries. Successful e-government
is more than choosing the right technology; it is also taking into account the organiza-
tional capability; institutional and regulatory constraints; political, social, environmental,
and cultural challenges; as well as the required human resources (Banerjee & Chau, 2004;
Gil-Garcı́a & Pardo 2005; Montagna, 2005; Weerakkody & Choudrie, 2005).
Although in the confines of this article it is futile to attempt to elucidate all e-government
implementation challenges, this section nevertheless aims to outline some key challenges to
e-government implementation from a developing country’s perspective. Table 1 is adopted
from the work of Gil-Garcı́a and Pardo (2005) and outlines the key challenge category and
description of the associated challenges facing e-government implementation in developing
countries.
Despite the numerous challenges outlined, a few pioneering developing countries have
shown that some e-government services can be successfully implemented (Weerakkody,
Dwivedi, Brooks, Williams, & Mwange, 2007). Yet it also can be argued that the implemen-
tation of e-government in different countries often implies different objectives and levels
of transformation in their public services (Navarra & Cornford, 2003). Whereas plans in
Europe focus on speeding up the development of public e-services European Union–wide
(Weerakkody, Jones, & Olsen, 2007), in the UK plans are focused on e-enabling all key
public services by the end of 2008 (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister [ODPM], 2002).
It is beyond the scope of this article to investigate to what extent the UK plans have been
implemented. However, current research suggests that there has been mixed success and
not all local authorities have achieved their target (Society of Information Technology Man-
agement [SOCITM], 2006). Irrespective of these different plans and successes, however,

TABLE 1. E-Government Implementation Challenges in Developing
Challenge Category Challenges Literature

Technological Issues of use and ease of use are vital Basu, 2004; Beynon-Davis,
infrastructure factors to consider; technological 2002; Chen & Knepper, 2005;
incompatibility, complexity, newness Gil-Garcı́a & Pardo, 2005
of technology; lack of IT technical
skills and experience and security
issues are some challenges that can
potentially affect e-government
development
Partnership and Lack of sense of ownership by partners Holmes, 2001; InfoDEV & CDT,
collaboration and misunderstandings between the 2002
needs of government and capability
of private sector to deliver may
sometimes lead to e-government
project failures
Strategy Lack of strategic e-business plan for Bertucci, 2006; Bhatnagar, 2000;
government to factor in the Internet Heeks, 2003; Holmes, 2001;
integration of services across Ndou, 2004; PCIP, 2002;
agencies; lack of explicit context UNPAN, 2004; Weerakkody
e-government strategy specific to a et al., 2007
country; project over scoping and
unrealistic goals; lack of alignment of
organizational goals and the project;
lack of prioritizing and incorporating
citizens’ pressing needs in
e-government strategy; lack of
rationale on which application is built
Institutional and Belief that failure to achieve intended Banerjee & Chau, 2004; Brown
environmental change reflects a failure in & Brudney, 2003; Dawes &
technology; the issue of Pardo, 2002; Edmiston, 2003
independence and autonomy units
can hinder efforts to use technology
to integrate or share information
across multiple agencies; external
pressure including policies and
politics can also affect outcomes of
e-government initiatives
Human capital Lack of skills and in-house expertise Andersson, Grönlund, &
development necessary not only to understand Hedström, 2005; Ndou, 2004
e-government strategies but to
maintain the new electronic services;
lack of hybrid human capacities
needed in e-government initiatives:
technological, management, and
commercial
Change Diversity of users in organizations Brown & Brudney, 2003;
management involved poses huge challenges; Edmiston, 2003; Heeks, 2003;
changing employees’ attitudes and Weerakkody et al., 2006a
behavior toward citizens; resistance
to change; internal conflicts;
hierarchical bureaucratic structures;
e-government systems are viewed as
threats to jobs; lack of marketing
e-government to public employees
(Continued)
TABLE 1. Continued
Challenge Category Challenges Literature

Leadership role Lack of long-term commitment and Edmiston, 2003; Andersson
strong political leadership to et al., 2005; InfoDEV & CDT,
champion change in e-government; 2002; Jupp, 2003;
lack of understanding of technology Weerakkody et al., 2007
by the elected leaders of a country;
lack of appointed leaders with private
sector experience to lead
e-government initiatives
to find good practice in implementation of e-government it is important to look at different

countries and examine their strategies and solutions to identify what is working and what
is not. Also, it is imperative to understand the benefits and the various challenges faced
in an e-government context as well as the organizational change aspects of e-government
from a theoretical perspective before embarking on practical implementation. The rationale
for this research lies in the reasoning that identifying good practices as well as problems
encountered during the process of e-government implementation in different countries may
encourage knowledge sharing and better implementation practices for individual countries
(Lillrank, 1995).
Considering the above arguments, establishing the meaning of e-government therefore
is the essential first step that must be taken in creating an overall strategy for any given
environment. According to Hunter and Jupp (2001), a true Internet strategy must examine
all aspects of the business model and interactions with customers and stakeholders, and
should identify those areas where more value can be created for all stakeholders by moving
processes and interactions online. The plan of action for e-government should therefore in-
clude the following: a clear definition of e-government that covers key areas to be addressed
and identification of all customers; a vision that is easily understood and succinctly ex-
presses the concept of and plans for e-government; specific goals and objectives that can be
monitored and measured; and identification of policies necessary to support e-government
(Weerakkody et al., 2007). Holmes (2001) argues that, from the various e-government
strategies and actions, there are five underlining principles emerging: put information and
services online and do everything online; ensure easy and universal access to online infor-
mation and services; train government employees to be knowledgeable workers; work in
partnership to make it happen; and remove barriers and lead by example. These suggestions
are equally relevant to both the UK and Sri Lanka, but particularly important for the latter
as the country is relatively new to e-government.
3. RESEARCH APPROACH
To explore the arguments set out earlier in this article in a meaningful manner, a case-study
approach was considered suitable for data collection (Pettigrew, 1990; Walsham, 1993; Yin,
1994), which began at a large local authority/council in the UK. Initial contact was made
with the e-government program manager at LBX through e-mail and a follow-up telephone
conversation. This conversation was followed by an informal meeting to discuss the purpose
of the research and the identification of prospective interviewees. Thereafter, semistructured
interviews (Yin, 1994) lasting between one and two hours were initially conducted with
eight staff members. These people represented cross-sections of the organization as well as
the e-government initiative at LBX. This process helped to eliminate any bias from forming
in the data collected (Denzin, 1978; Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2000; Yin, 1994).
Before interviewing, interview questions attached to an email were sent to the participants,
for the participants to familiarize themselves with the questions. Also a suitable time and
date convenient for the participants was arranged for interviewing (Smith, 2006). The
participants also were given a consent form prior to the interview to read through regarding
the ethical considerations and their rights to withdraw from the study at any time without
any prior notice or explanation. Brief notes were taken in a log book during the interviews
as the participants did not wish the interviews to be tape-recorded. Thereafter, follow-up
structured interviews were arranged with the same staff to confirm the results and clarify
any unclear information (Yin, 1994). The follow-up interviews were brief (between 20 and
40 minutes) and started with the interviewer summarizing the key findings from the main
interview, which was followed by a questioning phase to address any unclear information
or themes that may have been overlooked during the first interview. This phase offered the
opportunity for both the interviewer and interviewee to verify the information disclosed
during the interviews (Creswell, 2003; Tesch, 1990; Yin, 1994).
The interviews were combined with observation and a review of council documentation,
which allowed the researchers to verify and validate the empirical findings through triangu-
lation (Creswell, 2003; Ragin, 1987; Tesch, 1990; Yin, 1994). Although the observations
were brief and confined to a formal walkabout of the council offices and interviewees’
work surroundings at LBX, the review of documentation was more informative as white
papers and government reports regarding LBX were examined at length. Finally, the data
analysis was done by comparing the findings and initially forming themes, which were later
merged/divided and categorized into appropriate headings. The data-gathering process (in-
terviews, observations, and document reviews) for this research lasted for 3 months.
In parallel to LBX, a similar study was undertaken by one of the authors in Sri Lanka
and involved interviews with two senior level employees involved in e-government im-
plementation, the Head of Reengineering and the Director of Human Resources at ICTA
in Colombo. Interviews with both of these people lasted approximately 2 hours, and the
questions were semistructured in nature (Yin, 1994). The interviews were complimented
with several e-mail communications and telephone conversations before and after the inter-
view. These e-mail and telephone communications provided an ideal opportunity to clarify
any information that was unclear or missed during the main interviews. The researchers
also were given access to several other sources of information such as newsletters, project
plans, and working papers. A similar protocol was followed in Sri Lanka; however, personal
relationships with the interviewees led to a more informal approach to questioning them.
The interviews in London and Colombo were independently conducted by the two
researchers, and neither of them was aware of what issues were identified by the other.
The independence helped to avoid any bias that may have influenced the nature of the
questions and the way and sequence the questions were posed to the interviewees (Denzin,
1978; Saunders et al., 2000; Yin, 1994). Although there was a reasonable overlap between
viewpoints in the two cultures, some issues were not seen by the other party at all.
Although e-mails and telephone conversations were used in Sri Lanka, in particular to
clarify the data-collection procedure more than in the UK, the main interview protocol was
similar in both countries. The only impact that the slight differences in follow-up approach
had was on data capture.

Combining the interviews with a review of e-government documentation in both countries

allowed the researches to verify and validate the empirical findings through triangulation
(Denzin, 1978; Saunders et al., 2000; Yin, 1994). Finally, the data analysis was done by
comparing the two sets of findings against each other and forming the initial themes, which
were later merged/divided and categorized into appropriate headings.
4. E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN THE UK:

EXPERIENCES FROM THE LBX
To reach the e-government vision in the UK, the government has developed a cohesive
strategy with a clearly articulated action plan that leverages the resources of the private
sector. This strategy is backed by a strong leadership structure to ensure communication
to citizens and benchmarks for measuring progress (Accenture, 2003; Weerakkody, Jones,
& Olsen, 2007). The key player in promoting e-government initiatives within local coun-
cils in the UK is the labor government. The government has four guiding principles for
e-government: building services around the citizens’ needs; making government and ser-
vices more accessible; social inclusion; and making better use of information (Transforming
Government, 2006). The UK always has been conscious that e-government is a means to
help drive the local policy objectives of mainstream services, release efficiency gains, and
achieve tangible improvements in terms of shared priorities agreed on between central and
local government (ODPM, 2005).
The formation of the office of the e-envoy following the Prime Minister’s announcement
of the government’s commitment to delivering 100% of public services online by 2008 was
the key to the UK’s e-government program. This target of 2008 was subsequently revised
to 2005, quickening the pace of deployment and making the timetable ambitious. However,
in 2005 the ODPM announced that it would extend its support program from 2005 to 2008.
This was not a change of target back to 2008, as many local councils were on course to
deliver the target. Rather, the purpose of the support program was to assist any stragglers.
In November 2002, the National Strategy was published. It was aimed at creating a
common framework where local strategies can be planned with confidence. The framework
also described what needed to be put in place nationally to help this happen. Common pri-
orities for developments in technology and joined-up services that would reduce the costs
of councils were also identified (ODPM, 2003). In transforming services, local government
will be e-business oriented and more accessible, convenient, responsive, and cost-effective
(ODPM, 2002). Consequently, the UK initiated broad changes to its e-government pro-
gram in 2004. Along with significant increases in expenditures on information technology
(IT) and progress on a number of high-profile programs, a new vision for ICT has been
developed, spearheaded through the reformation of the office of the e-envoy into the
e-government Unit (eGU). “The new role of the eGU is focused on ensuring that IT sup-
ports the business transformation of government itself so that it can provide better, more
efficient public services” (Accenture, 2005, p94). Each government agency is responsible
for defining its own IT strategy that will join-up with other services to support the eGU’s
plans (Bhattacherjee, 2002).
LBX, where the empirical study for this research took place, is located in West London
and has a population of 250,000 people from diverse backgrounds and ethnic minorities.
LBX began its e-government program in 2001, and the first phase of implementation fo-
cused largely on improving customer relationship management processes. In 2004, LBX
moved into its second phase of e-government implementation, which focused on process
improvement work. Currently LBX is reengineering its back office processes and imple-
menting new ICT systems to comply with central government guidelines for improved
service delivery. Although overall e-government has improved the quality of service and
information provided to the citizens in LBX, there are still a number of challenges that
the borough needs to address before they are able to deliver fully functional, integrated
electronic services to citizens. Here, we will be examining some of these challenges. Inter-
views with government officials and project managers in LBX council revealed a number
of factors (positive and negative) that influenced the implementation of e-government in
the borough.
4.1 E-Government Enablers

First, the enabling factors that encourage e-government in the borough are summarized
below.
4.1.1 Technological Advancements. Addressing the technological advancements

required to convert from manual operations to an e-business environment, LBX has taken a
number of steps toward digital connectivity. The council has already linked and integrated
their outlying offices in a wide area network (WAN) configuration, resulting for the first
time in 300 home-working and mobile connections, video conferencing, and electronic
learning facilities. LBX’s e-government program manager pointed out that a number of
security features such as the use of firewalls, load-balancing software, single directory
structures, and passwords are being implemented to complement the above. Subsequently
there is an encouragement toward digital media, which, according to LBX’s IT manager,
is helping to convert many manual and tedious tasks currently performed in the borough
offices.
4.1.2 Improved Services. In keeping with the overall philosophy of e-government,

the borough is focusing on providing a number of key services that are likely to have a
positive impact on its citizens. These include free Internet access through public terminals
and kiosks, free access to information through digital television, e-payments, e-billing,
and e-voting. Moreover, the borough is working hard to link up with other boroughs
(local governments) and local businesses in an effort to offer local government to local
government (LG2LG) and local government to local business (LG2LB) services. This is
highly encouraging when viewed in the context of, for example, Layne and Lee’s (2001)
work on e-government implementation stages, and indicates that the council has a well-
defined e-government implementation strategy.
4.2 E-Government Implementation Challenges

However, many challenges were impeding the deployment of e-government and related
services in LBX. The e-government program manager in particular was quick to point
out a number of challenges that were faced by the council in their efforts to implement
e-government. These can be summarized as follows:
4.2.1 Political and Financial Constraints. In the context of management and strat-
egy, although senior and middle management level members of the LBX local authority
offices embrace e-government and are largely committed to the initiative, various political
factors influence the level and speed of progress made in the various projects. One such
factor is the allocation of funding and resources needed to redesign and e-enable current
business processes. Moreover, many senior managers were frustrated with the lack of fund-
ing for e-government initiatives at the local authority level. LBX’s efforts were constrained
due to insufficient funding and the fact that government funding comes in packages for
each financial year. This method of funding is hindering senior management plans for a
long-term e-government strategic plan for the borough. This suggests that the government’s
planned target of having all councils online by 2005 may need to be changed while more
funding and resources are found to support the e-government implementation plans of the
various councils. Furthermore, the method of allocation of funding to local councils by
central government as well as the level of alignment of the local strategies and spending
habits with those of central government may need to be reviewed.
4.2.2 Technology Constraints. From a technical perspective, as pointed out by the

IT manager at LBX council, the process of tendering and procuring the technology and
e-business application software needed for e-government is quite a complex task consid-
ering that LBX has limited experience in e-business. The program manager added, “There
are lots of presentations given by reputed companies, which makes the task of selecting the
format of the electronic forms and screens, for instance quite difficult.” This complexity,
however, is not surprising given the lack of experience in the subject of procuring and using
e-business type applications in the government sector.
4.2.3 Paradigm Shift. Not surprisingly, from an organizational perspective, some staff
members were resisting the change in roles and responsibilities and were exhibiting a
reluctance to switch to the new way of working. Although the majority of the staff members
are residents in the borough, the e-government program manager disappointingly stated,
“it seems like ICT training has had little impact so far in increasing their motivation.”
Resistance to change is nothing new, and project managers encounter this routinely in
the context of most organizational change and improvement initiatives. One common and
established strategy for overcoming this obstacle remains education and training of staff on
the technology or work practices driving the change.
4.2.4 Accessibility of e-Services. From a social context, it was revealed that LBX
has an aging population that is more comfortable with face-to-face meetings with a borough
employee than with using online services. Furthermore, financial constraints prevent many
citizens from owning a personal computer. More importantly, the cost of broadband services
(averaging approximately £15/$22 per month in the UK) and Internet access prevents less
privileged persons from using e-services. Research carried out by the council during the
last 2 years indicates that approximately 70% of the residents believe that the telephone is
the easiest mode of access to information, and many thought that there was limited demand
for online services. In this context, the council is faced with the dilemma of having to sell
(push) the e-government concept to a market with little demand (pull) from the buyer’s
(the citizens in this case) side. However, on a positive note, many local authorities in the
UK, including LBX, offer free Internet access through local libraries, although (as reported
by LBX) many citizens may yet prefer face to face or telephone contact (Weerakkody &
Choudrie, 2005).
4.2.5 Language Barriers. According to a senior manager, language is another social

obstacle that is preventing citizens from using the e-services offered by the council. It was
suggested that some of LBX’s ethnic minorities did not communicate in English and were
therefore unable to use e-services. These categories of people prefer information in hard
(paper) format in their own languages. This senior source pondered, “Perhaps, this issue
will be ultimately resolved with time when web pages are published in different languages
to cater to some of the other main languages spoken by the citizens of the borough.”
4.2.6 Data Protection and Security Constraints. UK data-protection laws, cyber

crime, and credit card fraud were identified by many interviewees as proving to be obstacles
to e-government diffusion, because people are less confident about disclosing their personal
information on the Internet. As suggested by the e-government program manager, this
is to be expected given that LBX’s population is made up of diverse ethnic and social
backgrounds and many citizens were nearer or past the age of retirement, making them less
confident about using technology.
5. THE E-SRI LANKA INITIATIVE: A STUDY OF E-GOVERNMENT

IMPLEMENTATION IN COLOMBO
Since early 2000, successive Sri Lankan governments have recognized the power of ICTs for
effective delivery of government services to the general public. In this sense, the first official
level e-government push came through the Ministry of Higher Education and Information
Technology Development in Colombo in early 2001 (Gunawardena, 2002b). Colombo was
expected to implement this e-government initiative through the Council for Information
Technology (CINTEC). One of the main aims of this e-government initiative was to set up
an island-wide network (National Education Information Network) linking all educational
institutions and related services (Gunawardena, 2002a). This project was funded by a
loan from the World Bank. In 2002, the Sri Lankan Government officially launched a
large-scale project called e-Sri Lanka aimed at exploiting the power of ICT for national
development covering all government services (ICTA, 2004a). With this initiative, the ICTA
was also formed as the apex body of the Government of Sri Lanka for implementing the
e-Sri Lanka project. The main donor of the e-Sri Lanka project is also the World Bank,
but there are many other donor agencies, including the Japan Social Development Fund
(JSDF), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), and the government of South Korea (ICTA, 2004a).
ICTA comes under the government of Sri Lanka and is expected to identify projects
pertaining to e-government, formulate projects, develop plans, prepare schedules, and
write proposal for finding donor agencies. Subsequently, ICTA mediates among the agreed
donor agencies to sign memoranda of understanding with the government and launch the
respective projects. Each project has a project team comprising representatives from ICTA,
relevant government department/services, and the donor agency. ICTA also works closely
with private sector organizations in Sri Lanka to realize the various goals and objectives of
the e-Sri Lanka project. The various e-government projects formed under the e-Sri Lanka
initiative are collectively known as Reengineering Government (Re-Gov, 2005).
ICTA has identified more than 20 e-services to be implemented under the e-government
initiative in Sri Lanka. It also has identified some priority e-services such as e-motoring,
e-foreign employment, e-pension, and so forth, and a number of ongoing smaller projects.
However, it appears that although the e-Sri Lanka initiative started in 2002, many projects
were not launched until recently and progress is below expectations due to various reasons.
There is also little information formally documented and published on the ICTA Web site.
As said before, the motivations and rationale for this research therefore lies in the above
context whereby the authors consider it timely to explore the issues faced by the e-Sri Lanka
project. Moreover, comparing the key e-government implementation challenges identified
in Sri Lanka (Colombo) with those of the UK (LBX) is highly appropriate as lessons can be
learned and good practices shared. The key empirical findings in Sri Lanka are discussed
under the same broad headings of e-government enablers and challenges as with LBX in
the UK.
5.1 E-Government Enablers

5.1.1 Technological Advancements. The establishment of an information infras-
tructure backbone to connect the various government and other overseas agencies involved
in e-government implementation is the key enabler of the e-Sri Lanka project. This back-
bone forms the basis for a National Network Architecture and application platform. The
National Network Architecture ensures network topology, means of transmission, and stan-
dard protocol requirements for electronic service delivery. In this context, Colombo will
develop an island-wide network known as LakGovNet. The network is composed of exist-
ing communication backbones as well as new ones such as Regional Telecommunication
Networks (RTNs). The purpose of RTNs is to provide access to the most underserved
regions of the country. On the back of e-Sri Lanka, the government is also expected to
establish 100 telecenters known as “Vishwa Gnana Kendra” (VGKs) to connect with the
various RTNs. Although work is in progress to open 50 VGK centers (Karunananda and
Weerakkody, 2006), at present only a few RTNs have been implemented. An application
platform known as eGate also will be developed to operate on LakGovNet and will provide
common services such as security, authentication, and payment gateways.
5.1.2 Improved Services. As is common with many e-government programs,

e-services coming under the e-Sri Lanka initiative fall into three categories, namely, Gov-
ernment to Citizen (G2C), Government to Business (G2B), and Government to Govern-
ment (G2G). As said before, there are 20 prioritized e-services identified, among which
e-motoring, e-foreign employment, e-pension, e-DS (Divisional Secretariats), and elec-
tronic human resource management (e-HRM) are selected for implementation in phase 1
of the e-Sri Lanka project (Re-Gov, 2005). All of these projects are expected to integrate
many services. For example, the e-motoring project is expected to link registration of mo-
tor vehicles, motor traffic, insurance services, and so forth. Among other things, the e-DS
project will implement e-government at the Divisional Secretariats level. This will also pro-
vide data from various parts of the country to LakGovNet. One district has been selected
to implement the first e-DS project, which started in October 2004, whereas the e-HRM
project was initiated in September 2004. Three other projects (e-motoring, e-pension, and
e-foreign employment) started in late 2005 and are expected to continue for at least 4 years.
Implementation of a national level population registry is yet another e-service coming
under the first phase of the e-government project in Sri Lanka. In January 2005, the
Memorandum of Understanding was assigned to implement this project (Wattegama, 2005)
and was expected to start in 2005 and finish in December 2008. This work is in progress.
ICTA has also planned and conducted several public-sector training programs in relation to
improving the ICT workforce in the country. Furthermore, there are also several initiatives
in place, such as the development of Sinhala Unicode by ICTA (for the use of local
languages) and e-library, which is funded by the South Korean government. The country
portal www.gov.lk was started in August 2004 and is to be completed in December 2008.
5.2 E-Government Implementation Challenges

It is clear from Section 4 that e-government projects face a variety of issues and challenges.
These issues can be manifold including technical, social, and management of e-services
projects and their implementation. Our research has identified the following as key issues
pertaining to implementation of e-government in Sri Lanka. We notice that these issues are
very much interconnected and difficult to identify as individual units in some cases.
5.2.1 Political and Financial Constraints. Some government officials fear that the
use of ICT will lead to loss of status and power. As a result, various e-government (e-
service) projects have been faced with undue delays and various interruptions in Colombo
in comparison to London (LBX). We noticed that this issue is particularly associated
with some government officials’ unawareness and unwillingness to adopt new ICT-enabled
processes.
5.2.2 Government Support. It was found that lack of adequate support from the
government is a key issue for launching e-government initiatives. This issue is interrelated
with various other issues. For example, we found that lack of awareness about the power
of ICT on the part of some government officials who are at the decision-making level in
Sri Lanka is one key reason impacting many other issues. Financial constraints are another
reason why the government is not readily supporting the implementation of e-government
initiatives.
5.2.3 Technology Constraints. Lack of a powerful, island-wide telecommunication

infrastructure also has been an issue impeding the introduction of many e-services in
Sri Lanka. Dial-up Internet facilities for accessing e-services cannot guarantee a cost-
effective communication/solution for citizens. In contrast, the cost of telecommunication
services is relatively high in Sri Lanka when compared with other countries in the region
or the UK. In this sense, the development of LakGovNet needs serious attention to ensure
cost-effective e-services availability for the general public. The e-service software solutions
have no meaning if the telecom infrastructure is not adequate to deliver the services. One
way to address this issue would be to bring in private sector collaboration for strengthening
the telecom infrastructure initially in Colombo and surrounding urban areas and then in the
more rural areas. Other infrastructural issues such as hardware and software requirements
also can be met through private sector collaboration.
5.2.4 Paradigm Shift. Our research indicates that both government officials and the
general public have shown a resistance to change and are reluctant to accept e-government as
an alternative method of service delivery/receipt. This reluctance is evident when examining
the newly introduced e-services mentioned before as citizens have shown little interest in
making use of these services. More needs to be done to promote these services through
appropriate publicity programs.
5.2.5 Lack of Coordination. It was also evident from this research that various
e-government initiatives are scattered throughout different ministries and government agen-
cies in Colombo without a cohesive overall plan. For example, ICTA has no clear link with
the first e-government project launched by the Ministry of Higher Education in Sri Lanka.
There are also various projects that have been launched using local languages, yet they are
not associated with the relevant components of the e-Sri Lanka project. It is sad to note
that negative attitudes and lack of teamwork has resulted in some projects reinventing the
wheel.
5.2.6 Low ICT Literacy Rate. It was also revealed that the ICT literacy rate in Sri Lanka
is not adequate for bringing e-services to the majority of the Sri Lankan population. This
finding is particularly pertinent when considering populations in rural areas where computer
literacy and command of the English language are sparse. Some of these issues can be
addressed through various training programs. In fact, it is not surprising that ordinary
citizens in a developing society are not adequately literate in ICT, when some government
officials use the same reason for making political interruptions to decelerate the introduction
of e-government in Sri Lanka. The recent survey by the Department of Census and Statistics
of Sri Lanka reveals that, at the national level, only 10% of the population in the age group
of 5 to 59 shows an adequate level of ICT literacy (Satharasinghe, 2004). This rate is 4.7%
in the remote provinces in the country. Surprisingly, the ICT literacy rate in the Western
Province, where the capital of Sri Lanka is located, is also as low as 15.3%.
5.2.7 Language Problems. A majority of new and innovative ICT solutions are avail-
able only in English, which can be a major barrier for persons who wish to access e-service
using their mother tongue. The majority of Sri Lankans speak either Sinhalese or Tamil
as their mother tongue, and the use of English is still limited to a small section of society,
in particular Colombo and other urban cities in Sri Lanka. However, it is encouraging to
note that although this was an issue for countries such as Japan, Korea, and Thailand when
introducing e-government, these countries have successfully implemented e-government.
Also encouraging is the development of standards for local languages (Sinhalese and Tamil)
in Sri Lanka. We argue that appropriate translators are key to effective use of e-services in
Sri Lanka.
6. COMPARISON OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

We present a comparison of e-government issues between LBX and ICTA in Colombo,
Sri Lanka. As mentioned earlier, the goals of this study are to identify comparative chal-
lenges of e-government implementation between a developed and a developing country,
and learn from good practice. In this context, the overall aim of this article is to use the em-
pirical evidence to enhance the e-government experience in Sri Lanka. Table 2 summarizes
the issues identified by LBX and ICTA in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
As outlined in Table 2, lack of strategy and high-level guidance were seen as weaknesses
in Sri Lanka. It was the opposite in the UK where high-level support and clear strategy were
evident. Moreover, lack of government support has been identified as a key issue impeding
the progress in Sri Lanka. Top-level government officials’ unawareness of the power of ICT
has compounded this issue further. However, a series of ICTA-led new training programs
has already started to educate the government officials who might begin to address some
TABLE 2. Issues Facing E-Government Implementation in the UK and Sri Lanka
E-government challenges identified by ICTA in

E-government challenges identified by LBX, Colombo, Sri Lanka
UK
Political Context: high level of central Political Context: no cohesive e-government
government support and the provision of a strategy; lack of ICT awareness among
cohesive strategy and guidelines for local government officials; negative attitude
government toward e-government
Government Support: high level of commitment Government Support: limited funding for
and support for e-government from the prime e-government; negative attitudes of
minister; office of the deputy prime minister government officials and agencies involved
directly oversees all e-government projects in the e-Sri Lanka initiative
Financial Constraints: the way funding is Financial Constraints: the Sri Lankan
allocated (packaged) for local councils government is highly dependent on donor
(local e-government implementation) is funding (such as the World Bank) and
slowing down the pace of implementation private sector contributions
Technology Constraints: difficulties Technology Constraints: need to improve the
encountered in the decision-making process telecommunications infrastructure; high
when selecting ICT services and vendors cost of accessing the Internet/e-services;
(service providers) due to lack of experience lack of access to personal computers
in the public sector
Paradigm Shift: while some government/council Paradigm Shift: government officials’ and
employees were resisting change, citizens are citizens’ attitude to change; citizens and
largely neutral, and their attitudes are government officials reluctant to change
neither for nor against e-government
Project Management: centralized e-government Project Management: overall lack of
strategy which outlines a framework and coordination; various e-government
guidelines for local e-service projects operating in isolation; lack of
implementation; however, lack of flexibility teamwork among ICTA, central
may limit local government innovation government, and private sector
Language Problems: some ethnic minority and Language Problems: English used only as a
elderly citizens preferred face to face or second language; many rural citizens have
telephone contact to Web-based services; no knowledge of English, making the
some also indicated a need for hard delivery and receiving of e-services in
copy–based information in different English unrealistic
languages
ICT Literacy Rate: ICT literacy is relatively ICT Literacy Rate: limited access to ICT for
high among UK citizens; however, most citizens in rural areas; English
elderly and retired people lack ICT language–related constraints; need for
knowledge; elderly and/or disabled citizens improved and accelerated ICT training
find it difficult to use e-government Web sites programs
Data Protection and Security Constraints: *
negative citizens’ attitudes toward security
and trust in relation to exposing personal
information on the Web
* Lack of Awareness: citizens’ lack of
awareness of e-services; citizens
uninterested in e-government
∗ Indicates that the corresponding issue was unique to that country.
of these challenges. In contrast, e-government efforts were made easier at LBX through a
high level of central government support.
In the context of financial issues, the Sri Lankan e-government initiative depended heavily
on external funding. Although this issue does not directly correspond with issues identified
at LBX, the challenges posed by the issue of financial constraints and allocation of funding
at LBX is nevertheless an indirect influence on e-government decision making at LBX.
In the context of technology, the ICTA viewpoint about lack of infrastructure for
e-government is more of a wider technical challenge whereas LBX issues are more associ-
ated with procedural issues such as calling vendors and buying the appropriate technology.
Unfortunately, infrastructure issues pertaining to e-government in Sri Lanka are very much
influenced by limitations of the telecommunication system in Sri Lanka. This exercise is
very costly unless foreign donor agencies wish to support further expansion. On the con-
trary, private sector collaboration can be requested for resolving this issue. In comparison,
rapid advancements in technology and software applications in the UK meant that most lo-
cal authorities were often faced with the dilemma of selecting the most appropriate solution
for their e-government initiative.
The issue of paradigm shift or reluctance to change is a challenge that both LBX and
the e-government initiative in Colombo face. Although this applies to both citizens as
well as government officials in Sri Lanka, in the UK citizens were more neutral toward
e-government. Government officials in Sri Lanka do not want to change their way of life in
public office; the cause of this issue is generally the fear associated with how power will be
distributed after introducing e-government, as many government officials are of the view
that e-services will offer more opportunity for persons who are more ICT aware. Therefore,
giving appropriate ICT training to those persons who might feel politically sidelined may
begin to address this issue over time. In this context, the ICT training programs started by
ICTA should be continued.
The lack of coordination among various e-government–related projects was identified
as a key challenge that needs to be addressed in Sri Lanka. In the UK, a centralized
e-government strategy driven by the labor government provides the necessary framework
and guidelines for local councils such as LBX. For this reason, Colombo can learn from
this approach in which a well-structured master plan and established coordination among
relevant authorities can resolve many of the project implementation challenges.
A language problem has also been identified as a common issue for introducing
e-government in both LBX and Sri Lanka. This issue is more crucial in Sri Lanka because
the majority of the population and government officials operate mainly in Sinhalese or Tamil
(the national languages). This issue cannot be solved without launching e-government ini-
tiatives to make e-services available in local languages. In this context, there is a lot to
be learned from neighboring Southeast Asian countries. As an interim measure, Sri Lanka
could adopt a bilingual approach to enabling e-government services. Also, it was revealed
that citizens at LBX are more used to face to face or telephone contact with their council
than with using Web based e-services. It is the opposite in Sri Lanka; as pointed out before
as an infrastructural issue, telecommunication services in Sri Lanka are not adequate for
supporting (high-speed) e-services. Therefore, in the Sri Lankan context, it can be argued
that citizens do not refuse e-services in view of success or familiarity with other technolo-
gies. On the contrary, we argue that, for some people, e-services cannot be an alternative
solution but can often be the only solution.
Low ICT literacy rate has been identified as another issue impeding the introduction
of the e-government initiative in Sri Lanka. Although it is easy to assume that citizens at
LBX are adequately literate in ICT, many elderly citizens of LBX were also lacking in this
respect. Therefore, it is fair to suggest that this is a key challenge not only for Sri Lanka,
but also for the UK. As ICTA has correctly identified, this issue also may be addressed
through appropriate exposure and training in ICT.

Furthermore, LBX has identified data protection and security as important issues that
were unique to the UK context. Although these issues were not found in Sri Lanka, we
believe that they will need to be addressed in the future in Sri Lanka. For this reason, we
wish to point out that Technology, Architecture, Standards, Security and Policy (TASS)
of the e-government initiative in Sri Lanka has to play a key role in addressing possible
issues related to this dimension. The only issue that was seen as unique to Sri Lanka was
lack of awareness of e-government services, a challenge that can be overcome with a good
marketing and awareness strategy (Weerakkody & Choudrie, 2005).
7. CONCLUSIONS, RESEARCH LIMITATIONS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

This article presented a study of e-government implementation efforts and related challenges
and issues faced by two countries, Sri Lanka (an economically developing country) and
the UK (an economically developed country). The aim was to identify the challenges and
learn lessons from a developed country of the strategies for implementing e-government
services in an economically developing country. Two studies were conducted independently
in the UK and Sri Lanka, thereby avoiding any mutual influence in the identification of
issues in two different scenarios. The studies have shown that there is a strong level of
similarities pertaining to the implementation of the e-government initiatives. However, we
also acknowledged the fact that these two case studies focused on exploring e-government
implementation challenges and facilitators at a strategic level and did not probe deeply into
finding the underlying reasons for these challenges; rather it was perceived as an exploratory
study with a long-term research agenda involving LBX and the e-government initiative in
Sri Lanka.
Four broad challenges (government support, low ICT literacy rate, political constraints,
reluctance to change) of seven identified by ICTA in Colombo have a direct connection
with lack of proper ICT training for e-government in Sri Lanka. According to ICTA, lack of
ICT training together with low ICT literacy rate is the main challenge that the Sri Lankan
e-government initiative has to overcome. Moreover, lack of ICT training was not only an
issue associated with citizens, but also with many senior government officials in Sri Lanka.
Therefore, as one key conclusion, we report that island-wide ICT training must be given
priority in conjunction with other components of the e-government initiatives in Sri Lanka.
We argue that approximately 57% of the e-government issues identified in this article may
be addressed effectively if appropriate ICT training is provided to Sri Lankan citizens and
relevant government officials.
It can be concluded also that inadequacy of the telecommunication infrastructure has been
a major challenge for the implementation of e-government in Sri Lanka. One of the reasons
for the current success of e-government at LBX is the availability of adequate infrastructure
for implementing various e-services. At present, the Sri Lankan telecommunication service
is mainly delivered on standard 64-kb landlines. Technologies such as Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line (ADSL) are limited to only a few areas of the capital of Sri Lanka. Also,
the mobile telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka is still growing compared to that in
the UK.
Moreover, compared with ICT training, expansion to ICT infrastructures is a highly
expensive exercise. Therefore, it is fair to suggest that for an economically developing
country like Sri Lanka this may be achieved only with assistance from foreign donor
agencies. Nevertheless, strengthening the intended main ICT backbone, LakGovNet, is of
prime importance for the success of e-government and the overall e-Sri Lanka initiative. In
addition, in a country where security issues demand more attention of central government,
private sector involvement is another imperative. It is encouraging to note, however, that in
the recent past there has been a growing interest shown by the government to foster private
sector support for the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
Perhaps the most important conclusion of this research is that Sri Lanka should give due
consideration to make its e-services available in local languages. In comparison to other
countries in the region, Sri Lanka has been a latecomer to promoting the use of ICT in
local languages. Lack of Unicode standards, local language parsers, and bilingual lexicon
databases are some of the key themes pertaining to the use of local languages for ICT in
Sri Lanka. Although there are some initiatives that have taken place, ICTA must take steps
to form an umbrella for such initiatives and not allow these to be scattered around the
country. When English language–dominant LBX has identified those language barriers as
an issue for e-government initiatives, it is needless to say that Sri Lanka will face the same
issue many times over.
Finally, we conclude that e-government in Sri Lanka should also be ready to face forth-
coming issues such as data protection and security. This issue already has been identified
by many e-government initiatives in developed countries, yet was not reported by ICTA
during our interviews. Because e-government in Sri Lanka is still in its infancy, this matter
can be taken into consideration sooner rather than facing it after the implementation of
e-services. In summary, we conclude that the finding from this research is beneficial to
identify directions along the e-government initiative in Sri Lanka. Although this article has
only reported on a high-level study of issues faced by the UK and Sri Lanka in the context of
e-government, more studies are needed to explore in detail the challenges/issues discussed.
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Vishanth Weerakkody is a member of faculty in the Business School at Brunel University. His
research focuses on e-government adoption and diffusion and process transformation in the public
sector. Dr Weerakkody is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Electronic Government
Research. He has guest-edited a number of special issues for leading journals on e-government,
including Government Information Quarterly and Electronic Government: An International Journal,
and published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers on these themes.
Yogesh K. Dwivedi is a Lecturer in Information Systems at the School of Business & Economics,
Swansea University, UK. He obtained his Ph.D. in Information Systems from Brunel University,
UK. His research focuses on the adoption and diffusion of Information and Communication Tech-
nology (ICT) in organizations and society. He has co-authored several papers that have appeared

in international referred journals such as CACM, ISJ, EJIS, JIT, ISF, JORS, JCIS, JEIM, IMDS,
TG:PPP, and EG.
Asoka S Karunananda is Professor of Information Technology at the University of Moratuwa in Sri
Lanka. At present he works as Head of Computational Mathematics and Director of Postgraduate
Studies of the Faculty of Information Technology. He has contributed immensely to promote computing
education and research in Sri Lanka. Karunananda has written several books and has more than
90 publications at the national and international levels to his credit. His research interest includes
Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Agent Systems, and E-Government.
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E-government Implementation in Sri Lanka: Some Lessons from

Article in Information Technology for Development · August 2009

Vishanth Weerakkody Asoka Karunananda

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Keywords: e-government; developing country; e-services; language barriers; Sri Lanka

Information Technology for Development, Vol. 15 (3) 171–192 (2009)

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

2. RESEARCH CONTEXT: E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

TABLE 1. E-Government Implementation Challenges in Developing

Challenge Category Challenges Literature

Challenge Category Challenges Literature

to find good practice in implementation of e-government it is important to look at different

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

Combining the interviews with a review of e-government documentation in both countries

4. E-GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN THE UK:

4.1 E-Government Enablers

4.1.1 Technological Advancements. Addressing the technological advancements

4.1.2 Improved Services. In keeping with the overall philosophy of e-government,

4.2 E-Government Implementation Challenges

4.2.2 Technology Constraints. From a technical perspective, as pointed out by the

4.2.5 Language Barriers. According to a senior manager, language is another social

4.2.6 Data Protection and Security Constraints. UK data-protection laws, cyber

5. THE E-SRI LANKA INITIATIVE: A STUDY OF E-GOVERNMENT

5.1 E-Government Enablers

5.1.2 Improved Services. As is common with many e-government programs,

5.2 E-Government Implementation Challenges

5.2.3 Technology Constraints. Lack of a powerful, island-wide telecommunication

6. COMPARISON OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

TABLE 2. Issues Facing E-Government Implementation in the UK and Sri Lanka

E-government challenges identified by ICTA in

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

7. CONCLUSIONS, RESEARCH LIMITATIONS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM). (2006). Local Government Transfor-

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

Information Technology for Development DOI: 10.1002/itdj

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