Government to Citizen (G2C) Initiatives of Royal Government of Bhutan: A Study on

the Effectiveness of G2C Online Services

Dechen Tshomo
Recognizing the pace at which technology and digitization is advancing, the Royal Government ofBhutan stepped into the ‘grand’ concept of initiating Government to Citizen Services (G2C) widely
known as E-government with an objective to deliver better and faster services to its citizens. It
follows the principles of being effective; efficient; accountable; transparent; and to reduce time andcosts, especially for the citizens residing in the rural parts of the country. This study examines
various factors affecting the effectiveness of online services delivery using Ease of use and Users
satisfaction as the main indicator to understand the effectiveness with internet access point as thekey explanatory variable.
Using the General Structural Equation Model (GSEM), internet access point and devices used toavail the services came out to have a maximum effect on the effectiveness of G2C online services.
The multinomial logistic model is used to check the reliability and robustness of the model. Usingnine core variables, internet access point from home, office and others is found to have greater
influence on the use of G2C services compared to café and is the key factors affecting the ease of use
and users’ satisfaction.
The community centres are set up in Bhutan to support the rural applicants - the main reason
behind the governments’ objective of venturing to G2C. However, perception data collected were all
online and this did not include the rural populace who avail the G2C services through thecommunity centres. This is for the fact that rural populace is not technology literate because ofwhich they avail the online G2C services from the community centres. Community centres in
Bhutan are manned by a government official who avails the G2C services on behalf of the rural
populace, when they approach the centres in order to avail the services.
The perception data reveal passport service as the highest availed services, however, whencompared to the overall G2C services, the citizen service availed came out as the most availed
service and the forestry and business services showed a gradual increase in the number of services
availed annually. A plausible explanation could be that the rural populace of the country avail
citizen, forestry and business services more through the community centers established across thecountry. Overall, the perception survey revealed that majority of the respondents found it easy toavail services leading to majority reporting to be satisfied with the services they availed.
Though, majority reported to have been satisfied by the services they availed through the G2C, themodel revealed access point to be the most important criteria which enhances the user experienceand increases the satisfaction of the users while availing services. Thus, even though the perception
data lacks the representation of those who avail services from the community centres, reliable
access point may still be the important component that will be required to help community centresdeliver G2C services to the rural populace of the country. The internet access point that the users
use significantly affects the use of the services and the users are unsatisfied with the quality ofinternet services. This finding from the result may be an indication of un-balanced development in
the country and probably the reason why less participants from the eastern region of the country
are either satisfied by the G2C services or finds it easy to avail the services.
The most important component which enhances the user satisfaction while availing the services isthe access point, which is either the network coverage or the gadgets they are using to avail theservices. This only tells one thing, the importance of having a reliable and fast internet connectivity
and this applies even for the community centres. Thus, in order for the government to achieve
efficient services delivery, there is a need to invest in improving the coverage within the country andalso to make it more reliable. To improve the user experience, service provider may want to consider
to simplify their application form for the services they provide and also improve in facilitatin g while
delivering the service.