Efficiency of Public Service Delivery—A Post-ICT Deployment Analysis

Abstract

Since 2000, Sri Lanka has embarked upon a path towards digitalization of most of the government functions and the process of public service delivery in the country. The process started with several disjointed initiatives culminating by 2010 into a full-scale program funded by many international donors around the world. Digital promotion agencies such as the Information Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) and infrastructure development entities such as the Lanka Government Network (LGN) were established, and the process significantly picked up pace in various government agencies and departments. This process, sometimes called e-governance, was set into motion to improve the efficiency of the government operations and public service delivery at all governmental levels. A decade has passed since many primary public services underwent a digital transformation. In this paper, we analyze the digital governance process and assess the efficiency status of public services in the country. We conducted an output-oriented, nonparametric analysis of the performance data by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA). The data were collected through a questionnaire-based field survey. Our findings suggest that most public services have not achieved optimal efficiency levels, and there is still plenty to be achieved by performance enhancement measures that have been adopted by the various agencies of the Sri Lankan government.