The Ghana economy was in decline within a period from 1974 to 1980 and couldn’t utilize any ICTs to overcome the constraints at the time [12] . The low productivity was partly attributed to policy failures, heavy hand of bureaucracy, mismanagement, staff redundancy, inefficient state enterprises, and poor infrastructure. The devastating features challenged the capacity of the civil service for implementing any initiative and policies and also affected performance and morale resulting in the low productivity [13] . The country could not do otherwise than go in Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) and the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) [14] .

The problems of implementing the reforms stemmed partly from the lack of leadership and lack of innovations and technology in the service. These challenges, at that time rekindled the observation of the first president that “it amazes him that up to the present many civil servants do not realize that we are living in a revolutionary era”. The country has wasted time serving colonial masters and cannot any archaic snail-pace methods of work that obstruct progress. He told civil servants to develop a new orientation to enable them to eliminate all elements towards red tapeism and waste [15] . This supposedly marked the beginning of thinking “outside the box” and embracing innovation but it wasn’t until in the late 1990’s, Ghana government faced problems with the upgrading of its personnel management system and embraced the use of ICTs to automate the processing, retrieval and storage of personnel records of its civil service staff [16] .

This brought about many decisions to reform the civil service workforce across all government agency and departments for critical administrative reforms through the application of ICTs. The reforms further demanded that the structural adjustment programs should include goals for the civil service to improve their management and reduce labor costs by downsizing government staff in the public-sector workforce through ICTs in order to get loans from the IMF and World Bank. Despite the foregoing efforts, the civil service was still lacking the capacity to implement subsequent reforms due to the failure in the registry system to keep data recordings about the number of staff in the civil service. The data available were riddled with numerous inaccuracies including records of non-existent staff, position and tenure and inaccurate data on employees due to the manual handling of the registry.

The manual system for tracking staff contained a lot of errors and needed some information management tools to correct it. Because of these problems, the workforce reductions as required by funders and donors were not met. Ghana therefore developed its first Human Resource (HR) information systems in the civil service in 1998. The efforts to build the HR system lasted almost four years longer than projected to implement due to both technical and social reasons but finally developed. The data inaccuracies in the manual records still caused problems, as some employees didn’t get their salaries for the subsequent months in the new system.

This called for the need to do more software programming and data validation. There were still pockets of data inaccuracies in the electronic records but the country forged ahead to use back-office database systems that promised greater data accountability and accuracy. Now management was able to take right policies and decisions about personnel management using the new HR information system [13] . Although it was a difficult experience, the HR system provided early technological infrastructure to pioneer eGovernment services in the country. Subsequently, after the elections in 2000, the Ministry of Communications and Technology lead Ghana into building telecommunication infrastructure that can bring about eGovernment services in the country.

The earlier initiatives concentrated on refining its existing administrative structures to function as the databases for Ghana as the national clearinghouse for information in consultation with: The Office of the President; Ministry of Fi- nance (MoF), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Parliament including Ten Regional Coordinating Councils. This also resulted in the development of ICT4AD policy document in 2003 (this policy document is at the heart of this study and carries its own topic). Also, in 2006, Ghana launched eGhana project in preparation for its eGovernment strategy in the country. The goal of this project is to improve the development of the ICT sector, IT Enabled Services, support local ICT businesses and encourage the development of eGovernment government communications and applications. Among the many objectives, the focus is to implement a web portal, create standards to support the interoperability of its computer systems, set up a high-speed network for data sharing, improve the training of government ICT-related employees and improve the security of government databases [17] .

Ghana is now struggling with new issues to develop the interest in developing and using ICT/eGovernment services in the country [18] . The use of mobile phones has exploded in Ghana, in using mobile communications in accessing audiovisual content. However, a policy maker remarked that most of the content involves sports, entertainment and rather than addressing the challenges of education, employment and empowerment [19] . There is also growing concern that government must develop an Internet culture in the country to lure people into using services online to promote eGovernment services in the country. To meet this objective, there must be assurance of systems integrity. This calls for some legal reforms to litigate Internet fraud and cyber related issues.

The Communication and Information Directorate of Ghana is refining their systems with strategies to connect together all administrative processes and to increase the performance (e.g. minimizing the down time of computer servers and acquiring equipment) of the systems. This will bring trust in the eGovernment services as the systems become more reliable and trustworthy.

eGovernment is explained as the use of ICTs in government to improve public services, managerial effectiveness and to promote democratic mechanisms and values including regulatory framework that assists information intensive projects in the knowledge society [20] . In the concept of eGovernment is simply to utilize the World Wide Web and the Internet for information dissemination and e- services to its stakeholders. This is a direct response to the efficient service delivery by private e-business due to technological change [21] .

The private sector exploited the Internet on large scale than governments though the Internet begun in the United States as a government program [22] [23] . It is logic that governments should lead in e-services, but the private sector did. Osborne and Gaebler (1992) [24] and Kamarck (2000) [25] argued that earlier bureaucracies failed to deliver in the century because of the changing knowledge-intensive society of the 1990s, creating a demand for reforms in governmental processes simply by showing the distance in performance between the public sector and the private sector.

In the United States in the 1950s, banking was almost same as an interaction with government official [26] . But through ICTs, the information economy facilitates the private sector to cater for the customer timely and deliver service through ATMs at any time of the day while the governmental sector is weighed down by both heavy bureaucracy and manual handling of service delivery [27] . However, this triggered governments to begin to see the liberating power of the new technologies of the word that can reduce the costs of public services and also help to rebuild relationships between citizens and their governments [28] . In addition, the concept of eGovernment goes beyond government agencies where they engage just in transferring money by issuing plastic, ‘smart’ benefit cards with a chip to providing Citizens with public assistance benefits, receive veterans services, to enroll in training programs through these cards. These smart cards contain information about citizens’ financial positions and tracking their benefit accounts to reduce fraud [29] . This makes eGovernment looks fairer, more secure, more responsive to citizens, and more efficient than the paper based systems [30] .

At this point, after realizing the capabilities of ICTs, many governments started crafting policies for their use. In 1990, for instance, the United Kingdom proposed a policy, that by 2008 all public services should be able to be delivered electronically [31] . Many government administrations have distributed intranets and Internet with a personal computer on the desk of all public servants and greater use of the Internet now become possible. Many eGovernment projects are still underdeveloped but there is an international trend towards their implementation, though eGovernment policies are designed according to local conditions and cultures [32] .

There are many initiatives of eGovernment currently (the e-Europe Action Plan, 2002; Portugal’s Society of Information 2000-2006 programme, Australia’s Government Online strategy and the Netherlands Electronic Government Action Plan) [33] . Ghana developed its ICT policy document (ICT4AD) in 2003 [34] and is no exception in the ICTs crusade. On the downside, there are several failure reports of ICT policies and projects [35] . Table 1 shows some of the reasons for the failures.

The concept of eGovernment varied along socio-cultural and administrative regimes. In this respect, the developments of eGovernment don’t follow a linear progression. Government’s adaption and adoption of technologies determine the pattern of many eGovernment policies and evolution. Many considerations play vital roles in the evolutionary process. These include issues about the governing system, politics, administrative style, available technology, education and cultures, and economic power.

The processes involved may determine the pattern. Bellamy and Taylor (1998) [28] have categorized these processes into three stages: the first stage is “automation” and managerialism to reduce the costs of existing manual processes; the second stage is “informatization” as a shift from computerization to emphasis on the information; and the final stage is that of “transformation” defined as applying business process reengineering to totally restructure across organizational shields, to share data. More of the process classification can be seen in the five stages identified by the UN (2008) [36] for the purpose of benchmarking its member state eGovernment development as described below.

1) Emerging Stage

The basic unit of these processes is creating a webpage to announce govern-

ment or organization web presence. These webpages are only for the purpose of advertising government brand name and activities albeit not interactive but for informational purpose alone. At times, this information is limited, according to recent research [37] .

This stage marks the interest and will of government going online. Organizational logos and regulations including their services are flooded on the webpages at the emerging stage. The typical department and government home pages at this stage have usually a photo of the head if the head is an elected official and a description of the department. The web presence is also beneficial because it will improve citizens’ convenience and reduce the burden on citizens and frontline employees use this information to study the specifics of procedures and policies find out where to go for post-service support and government services.

According to [36] about 193 of its member states have announced their presence online. Many countries especially from Africa including Ghana remain in the emerging stage for long due to socio-technical and political reasons. Few countries with advanced ICT infrastructures and human resources also find it difficult to move to the higher stages due to lack of transparent institutions, and robust data protection. The communication at this stage is one way from governments to citizens/clients.

2) Enhanced Stage

The enhanced stage is an incremental enhanced and have common characteristic of government webpages of the emerging stage. However the information still doesn’t meet the qualities of good information-accuracy and timeliness because they are not updated for years. All government departments are victims of this allegation in the country. Citizens and other clients prefer to contact government agencies in person for their information needs at this stage because they are dissatisfied by the outdated websites and webpages.

This could be partly attributed to the fact that there is no clear ownership of the roles to constantly update these systems. The fault is unambiguous and the blame has many sources ranging from inadequate manpower to political issues as mention earlier. The information systems may look technical to civil servants because they may be proper consulted and so end up considering such projects as “their project and not our project” referring to the IT experts as people who own the project.

To solve such oversight, governments to invest heavily in skills development programs and designing web sites that are user friendly to enhance information quality. However, the process of communication is still one way as in emerging stage.

3) Interactive Stage

The interactive stage marks government’s full preparation to deliver as much as possible services that can be handled and delivered electronically. It offers opportunity for citizens to download organization forms and access their databases as well. This stage may change the way people interact with their government as processes and workflows are mechanized and handled digitally.

Users can e-mail officials, interact and download forms through the web and make requests and appointments. There is a two-way communications where citizens interact with government agencies with mobile phones and other handheld communication devices connected to Internet. This stage contains web sites with interactive forms and e-mail contact that generate informational responses.

4) Transaction Stage

This stage provides a direct link to agency services, available 24/7. The transaction sites enhance efficiency by making government processes faster, simpler and cheaper. The real time activities provided by this require government responsiveness and proper regulation for online activities. Electronic transactions give a bright hope for better efficiency for both the agency and the customer than simply cataloguing information or data.

However, privacy and trust issues are great concern and contribute to the success of the eGovernment project. Citizens do a lot of electronic payment for services online and any inadequate security measures can easily erode people appetite for using the electronic channel. Financial institutions in collaboration with governments have to establish tight regimes to govern the provision of digital certificates for Internet transactions in order to win citizens confidence to participate in online transactions.

Cases of online fraud pertaining to contractual crimes, offering jobs, credit card crimes and advanced fee fraud have been fairly documented [38] .

5) The Connected Stage

The connected stage denotes total integration of separate systems at different functions (horizontal) and levels (vertical) of services. Both organizational structure and power relation is affected the emerging trends which change public management both upside down and inside out. Public management in the past is substituted by an external focus, as the usual top-down direction of the field is substituted by a system of shared leadership and citizenship management.

There is total integration of services across administrative boundaries through application of e-functions across departmental borders. The benefits of eGovernment are visible here than the previous stages as portals provide one stop shopping shops for all possible online eGovernment services. Portals bring government departments and agencies together electronically proving both intra and interconnections vertically and horizontally for easy services delivery.

It eliminates data burdens that citizens suffer through multiple submission of one’s personal data to be stored in different databases in departments and agencies. For instance, in Ghana, people need to give the same data in almost all government when once data has been collected could be shared to avoid both data and administrative burden on citizens and officials respectively.

However, this stage needs great recourses service for development and maintenance of the system. This may weigh much on national budgets and thereby crowd out poor countries from reaching this point of eGovernment development.

6) Other Stages of eGovernment

There are some other eGovernment stages recommended by researchers and practitioners that can help in the designing eGovernment systems worldwide. We have seen that different countries and organisations have different taste for ICTs application. Information systems evolve with respect to such differences and different forms and patterns are seen all over in addition to those discussed previously.

Table 2 shows some patterns by researchers who think the development of eGovernment is dynamic and have different stages [39] .

The G2G means the intra and inter-departmental exchanges at all levels of gov-

ernment and forms the backbone of eGovernment. This is where government agencies update internal procedures and systems before electronic transactions with businesses and citizens [41] . G2G mostly involves back office operations i.e. sharing data and conducting electronic exchanges between themselves.

Also, regulations and laws that are backing the implementation of eGovernment initiatives fall within this category. State and local governments implement G2G due to their relative proximity, geographically and politically, to citizens. G2G generally deals with other parts of the same government and other governments that exchange information electronically.

Governments can’t do without businesses and vice versa. The policy makers aim at cost cutting and more efficient procurement through ICT means to implement functions, such as sales and procurement in the business world. This leaves governments no choice than embracing such G2B.

Public organizations can best handle processes in procurement systems with G2B interactions with business. Many governments have made significant cost reductions and increase savings e.g. US Department of Agriculture reduced costs for purchase orders from $77 to $32 per order [42] . Many G2B projects have the potential to improve and reorganize the consistency of personnel-intensive tasks, such as employee benefit changes or processing license renewals.

Reverse auction is common G2B interaction with businesses and individuals to bid in real time against each other to win a contract in government. Reverse auctions has become a frequent means used for purchasing products that are easily evaluated for quality and standardized such as office supplies or off-the- shelf technology components in many governments. The decentralized procure- ment system in G2B relationship saves lead-time in product ordering and delivery and allows agencies to monitor over their own projects [43] .

The basic goal of eGovernment is citizen participation in government process by serving them with the best possible means through the magic wand of ICTs and the World Wide Web. This is because citizens have better experience in terms of service quality and delivery from the private sector and become impatient for government long queues for services.

They want to invest their time in more and better things and cannot waste such time standing in lines and enduring bureaucratic nag at government offices. G2C initiatives facilitate also increase citizen participation in government by generating more opportunities that overcome possible geographic and time barriers. People are connecting others electronically who may not physically come into contact with them. These initiatives include renewing licenses and paying taxes are carried out with easiness and less time through G2C.

Some of these initiatives are one-stop shopping site with a variety of tasks, especially those that involve multiple agencies, which doesn’t require users to initiate contacts with each agency individually [44] . Customer resource management techniques are used to foster a good relationship with citizens by making better use of information resources through data mining techniques.

People are motivated to use some of these systems because of low fees for online transactions. For instance, an on-line license renewal in Arizona costs $1.60 per transaction compared to $6.60 manually [45] . These systems are linked with life events and citizen needs to cater for those accustomed to using e-services in their lives [46] .