Large majority of WB-funded projects in e-Government sphere failed to bring desired results

• It has built up some hesitancy within WB to release funding for such projects in future 
• However, pandemic could provide new lease of life for such efforts 

In an alarming revelation, the World Bank has indicated that 90 percent of projects, which they have funded towards making the government and the public service in Sri Lanka digitally friendly, have failed to bring the desired results, according to sources. 

The results have also built some hesitancy within the multilateral agency towards releasing further funding for such projects in Sri Lanka as the success rate has been so dismal. 

In fact the revelation by the World Bank has also put Sri Lankan authorities in an embarrassing and uncomfortable spot when dealing with the concessional lender when seeking further support for such projects in the country as the expectations of such funding support hasn’t materialised.

According to highly placed sources, many other funding agencies have also begun to be reluctant to funding Sri Lanka’s government’s digitalisation efforts due to their awful progress. 

 An ICT-enabled government or an e-Government has been in the making for more than a decade now and the OneGovernment 2020 initiative developed in 2013 by the Information Communication Technology Agency to provide a “fully integrated, citizen friendly, cost effective and converged service delivery to all by 2020 through a responsive and networked government,” hasn’t realised its stated objectives fully even by 2021. 

However, the pandemic and the forced transition into digital could provide the much-needed impetus to accelerate the journey towards e-Government. 

Meanwhile, bilateral and multilateral funding agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the likes who have been the major funders of physical infrastructure development in the post-liberalised Sri Lanka have now identified building government or public digital infrastructure development as one of the top most priority in realising durable development goals of impoverished countries such as Sri Lanka.  

According to Finance Ministry data available through April this year, the World Bank remained the largest multilateral financier to Sri Lanka with US$ 134.4 million in loans being disbursed in the first four months.

The bulk of these disbursements have been channelled into projects related to roads, water supply and sanitation, ground transport, power and energy and disaster management among a host of other areas which did not feature ICT related disbursement in the portfolio as a separate item. 

While funding is crucial to make the transition of the government into a more digital-friendly one, what is more crucial is the change in attitudes and the building skills and competencies in information and communication technology among the public servants to use digital platforms in public service delivery remotely, which will bring enormous cost savings and efficiencies across the economy.