E-government in Tanzania faces two challenges: (1) whether or not to ensure that
government must become mobile, responsive, efficient and effective in all spheres of
its conduct; and (2) whether or not to provide equitable and high quality service to its
citizens (Heeks, 1998, 2001; Coleman, 2006; Kumar et al., 2007). In order to satisfy
these two conditions, the government should play an appropriate role in creating a
sound environment that allows free access to online information, interactions, trade, and
in building a strong and free internet communications platform.
However, innovative
design and implementation (Heeks, 2001; Ngulube, 2007) of such a “free online”
environment is a somewhat challenging and speculative task, especially for developing
and underdeveloped countries. It follows that the mystification of understanding egovernment as applied in government institutions is still a paradox for a number of
reasons: among of them is the ever-growing speed of internet technology, connectivity,
transmission, accessibility, and sharing of online data and information by consumers
(citizens, business, and governments).
Outdated ICT and telecommunications policies,
absence of legal enforcement of online interactions, ICT regulations and e-government
strategies continue to burden the government in terms of internet technologies, IT pricing,
and related infrastructure. This has made private institutions (IT and telecommunications
industries) experience this as a gateway to skyrocketing their revenue though pricing.
Other miscellaneous charges are applied depending on the services include but are not
limited to service level agreement charges, polling charges, bandwidth monitoring charges,
and monthly service charges. The researcher found that, even internet access, sharing
and transferring information, and data cause another serious institutional challenge in
terms of managing online protections, data privacy, information confidentiality, and
institutional accountability.
Remarkably, data or inform