Understanding the Extent of ICT Application in the Public Sector and its Relationship with Good Governance in Morogoro Municipal Council, Tanzania

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been recognized by developing countries as one of the tools needed to tackle many bottlenecks affecting the public sector of various governments today. The rationale of this study was to analyse the extent of ICT application in the public sector and its relationship with good governance in Morogoro Municipal Council, Tanzania. On one hand, good governance was measured in terms of accountability, openness, and citizen participation as well as corruption control while on the other hand, ICT application was limited to use of social media, e-government, SMS, toll free call numbers, e-mailing and video conferencing. The descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect quantitative data from 31 civil servants in Morogoro Municipal Council using a structured questionnaire. Census sampling technique was used to select all civil servants as respondents. The overall findings of the study based on descriptive statistics show that civil servants agreed to a great extent that ICT application is implemented in government functions to enable good governance. Moreover, inferential results show that all ICT applications have positive and significant relationship with good governance in terms of transparency, accountability and community participation. However, e-government, e-mailing and video conferencing were found to have non-significant relationship with corruption control. Therefore, the study concluded that, ICT application is a very crucial determinant of good governance. Based on the findings of this study it is recommended to the government to develop user-friendly e-government websites and improve the use of e-mailing and video conferencing to allow government officials and citizens share information easily and quickly. Also, it is recommended to the government to create awareness of e-government among citizens. Practically, this study provides empirical suggestions for civil servants and citizens on ways they can use e-government platforms to effectively impact provision of services by the government.