E-Governance Services Provided In UAE: A Detailed Discussion On E-Driham

Benefits of E-Governance

Discuss about the Demographic Factors As Determinant Of E-Governance.

E-governance is the way, where the government reaches to the citizens or the business organizations through  online websites. There are several benefits of e-governance.  The use of the online websites saves the time for both the citizens and the government. Moreover, people of the country can reach to the government with their problems directly (Rahman, Ahmed & Sarker,2015). The managing of the information and tracking of the information for the government has been made easy through the use of the e-governance websites. The e-governance websites can be of different types used for different purpose (Shehata, 2015). In this paper the discussion is focused on the e-governance services provided by the UAE. The mention of the important e-governance websites has been done at the initial stage of the discussion. However, the detailed discussion has been done on e-Driham. The description and purpose of the e-Driham has been discussed based on the benefits and the functionality of this e-governance project. Achievements and the outcomes of the e-Driham has been discussed which indicates the significance of this initiative (Alqudah,2018). E-Driham is form of e-payment system, initiated by the government of UAE. The citizen of the country can make online payment using this e-governance service. However, there are some problems and the glitches has been faced by the users while using this application (Rao & Krishna,2013). Those problems have been highlighted in the discussion (Rahman, Ahmed & Sarker, 2015). The raised problems have led to make the recommendations for the further modification and improvisation of the project. The recommendations also direct the future direction for this e-governance project. The recommendations have been made and the conclusion has been indicated that the implementation of the e-governance named e-Driham is successful (Al Athmay, 2015). However,  further modification is needed to improve the overall service. This also indicates the possibilities and the opportunities regarding the initiation of the e-governance services by UAE government.  

The discussion in this paper is divided into two parts. The first part mentions the list of the significant e-governance projects initiated by the government of UAE (Rao,2018). The next part is concerned about the detailed research on the selected e-governance project, which is, in this case, is e-Driham.

There are several e-governance projects initiated by the government of UAE. Some of these are mentioned below.

e-Driham: It is the first online service launched by the government of UAE. This is a service which allows the online payment. It is the parallel payment service which is gaining popularity. This service was initiated in February 2001.

Types of E-Governance Websites

eGovernment Program.: This program or e-service was initiated in November 2001 and was initiated by the ministry of finance. Through this e-governance service the coordination between different committee can be achieved.

e-government strategy: This e-governance service was initiated during the month of March,2003. IBM was given the responsibility to research on the coordination between different agencies of government.

There are many other e-governance projects of UAE. However, in the given list the significant projects have been mentioned.

E-Driham has been selected among all these mentioned projects for the discussion. The main reason for choosing this project is that e-payment system is taking over the conventional offline payment system. The initialization of the e-payment system through e-Driham has provided the opportunity for the citizens to pay the fees and the bill to the government through the online money transaction (Hartl,Hofmann & Kirchler, 2016). This system also helps to save the time for both the citizens and the government. Apart from that the managing of the money and accountability of the economy is managed in a right way using this e-governance project.

The list of e-governance projects are

• E-Driham
• E-government program
• E-government strategy

The selection of the project for the discussion is done on the basis of the significance of the functionality of that e-governance project. In this case, the functionality of the e-Driham has the significant effect (Abdullahi & Hussain,2016). The main reason of choosing this e-governance project is that, the online payment system is gaining popularity and e-Driham enables the way of making the online payment of fees and bills directly to the government.

Online payment system is gaining popularity for its hassle free   system of operation. There are various online payment systems available in the market. However, the main feature of this e-governance system is that it enables the direct connection between the government and the citizens.  The citizens can pay the bills and the fees to the government through this service. It provides better security and authentication in context of money transfer. Moreover, it also saves the time and the resources of transferring the money. These unique features of the system make it appropriate for the selection of this e-governance project for the discussion. The identification of the advantages of this service along with the problems will make a way for the modification and the improvisation of the system. Apart from that the research on the impact of the e-governance service will enhance the possibility of initialization of other e-governance service.

Significant E-Governance Projects Initiated by UAE Government

The selected e-governance project is e-Driham.

E-Driham was proposed in 2001. Recently, the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank has been implemented the second generation of e-Driham system which is also known as e-Driham G2 system. It is an electronic payment method which is easy way to handle and is used for the collection of the revenue.  The system ensures better coverage compared to the previous version of the system. In the new version of the e-Driham system the making of transaction becomes more convenient. Through this system the collection of the government and non-government fees can be done.  The fees can be submitted through the following gateways:

• EFTPOS: Making the payment through counter.
• eMobile: Making the payment via mobile phone.
• eKiosks: Making the payment via electronic Kiosk.
• eWallets: Making the payment via virtual wallet.
• EIPG: the system of online payment that supports ecommerce.
• eDebit and eDirect: Making the payment or debit direct form the bank accounts.
• eVouchers: paying the bill through electronic voucher.

e-Driham system has the online support for 24*7 hours. In case, if users face any problem regarding the transaction of the money they can contact to the help line number.

There are many channels in the e-Driham system. Some of the available channels are:

• Electronic point of sale.
• E-Stamp.
• E-Driham payment gateway.

The card used in e-Driham can be described as Secured Electronic Purse. There are two version of the card:

The Ministry of Finance has provided the chance to avail the card with a face value of certain denominations for making the transaction. The card with the fixed value can be purchased from the several banks which are the members of e-Driham.

The main disadvantage of these cards is that they cannot be recharged. However, a user can use up to two cards simultaneously to steel down the fees and other payments.

The government client card is regarded as second generation of the e-Driham card. This card is used for frequent government services and can be obtained by the individuals and companies. One of the main advantages of this card is that this card cannot be used by the other person except the card holder. Initially there is zero balance once the card is issued (Forti et al.,2014). The owner of the card has to go the nearest e-Driham bank to fill the money in the card. The process is done electronically.

In order to avail the card, the user has to do the application for the card to the Ministry of Finance or to the banks who are members of e-Driham. Once the application is approved the government-client card is issued along with the PIN number to the applicant (Napitupulu & Sensuse, 2014). The  issued card is personalized in nature.

The whole idea was developed by GET group.

Discussion on e-Driham

E-Drihm card of fixed face value:  The cards of fixed face value are available from the banks which are the members of the e-Driham. Some of these banks are-

• National Bank of Dubai.
• Union national Bank.
• Commercial Bank of Dubai.
• Mashreq Bank.

In case of investment and foreign trade Arab Bank is also applicable.

In order to get this type of card the application has to be made to the ministry of finance. After the approval the card is provided to the applicant along with the PIN number. The PIN number of the card has to be kept secured. The amount of money to be filled in the card is decided by the card holder or the card owner.

Required paper work for availing the service;

There is a certain set of procedures and paperwork involved in the process of the application. Some of the documents are required for getting the approval of the application. These required documents are-

• Application form in order to link the existing system with e-Driham.
• Signed document for agreement of joining the system.
• The form regarding the implementation of the table linking.

It has to be noted that there is no processing fee involved in this process.

The receiving of documentation is the initial process. After the receiving of the document the processing and verification of the documents are done. After the verification process the approval I given and the technical process involved in the linking of the existing system in e-Driham is carried out.

Security issues of e-Driham system: The latest technology is implemented by Gitex Technology in e-Driham system for second generation (Meijer,2015). The main adjective of this advanced system to improve the customer experience by improvisation of the security and integrity of the system (Al,2013). The continuous upgrade is done in the system in order to enhance the effectiveness of the system, reducing the wastage of the resources and enhancing the usage of time and resources (Quinlan et al.,2016). The newly added feature which is called auto allocation will lead to the higher accuracy in the accountancy process and human machine interaction. The security of the clients’ side has been improved through the usage of Conformity Certificate of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

The selected e-governance in this case is e-Driham.  This e-governance is regarding making of the payment electronically in order to pay the fees and the bills to the government and non government organizations (Filippi et al.,2014). There are certain theoretic al concepts associated with the use of the e-payment system. These factors and theories have been discussed in this section.

The flow of funds is described by the cash flow between two entities in the business. In this case, the flow of cash is done through the user of the card and the banks, who issue the e-Driham card. The user of the card fills the money in the card from the respective branch of the bank associated with e-Driham. The transfer of the money from the bank to the card of the user maintains certain rules and regulations.

Achievements and Outcomes of e-Driham

Emission account is used to record the emission of the electronic money. The record is a form of database which does not have that much significance (Trutnevyte et al.,2015) . The main purpose of this emission record is to maintain the management of the electronic payment (Marzooqi, Nuaimi & Qirim, 2017). The record contains simple numerical values generated from the payment device. The issue of the electronic money follows the closed circulation system (Karmakar, 2015). The close circulation system for the circulation of the electronic money has the following feature:

• It is issued for the payment purpose only.
• The structure required in this system is tri-polar in nature.
• The system is existed only within the payment process.
• It circulation of the electronic money cannot be done among agents.
• The nature of e-money is not homogeneous.

The outcome of the implementation of e-Driham is positive. E-Driham has enable to make the payment online for any government and non-government organizations. This has helped to reduce the overhead of the payment method (Parishwad & Gupta,2014). Apart from that the consumers will enjoy the secured and authenticated transaction of the money. The overall implementation of this system will help the users to pay the bill or the fees from anywhere and anytime of the day, which increases the flexibility of the system.

One off the major achievement of the e-Driham system is the increase of the revenue for UAE.  The government has received of net $2.1 bn from the implementation of e-Driham. It has been reported that the transaction using e-Driham has been increased 6.94 percentage during 2016. The revenue collected from the e-Driham in 2016 was 2.81 billion which indicates that the total payment recipients rose by 18.7 percentage (EL & AHMED,2017). The total amount of e-Driham card issued during the year 2016 was 2,413,794 which indicates the increase of issuing cards of 37.26 percentage (AL Athmay,  Fantazy & Kumar, 2016). These figures show that the popularity of the e-Driham is increasing.

The other factors include the technical advancement of the payment system.  The time take to process the transaction in e-Driham system is 1.09 seconds and the average execution time of the transaction through e-Driham POS is 1.1 second (BinTouq, 2015). This indicates the effectiveness of this service. The e-Driham system has achieved the positive review by increasing the collection of revenue, and achieving the time efficiency compared to other transaction. The success of the e-Driham system reflects on the high demand of this e-governance service.

The impact of e-Driham is positive as it includes the transaction of money through online. The electronic payment enables the users to transact the money through the secured gateway. Apart from that the overhead for the transaction of the money decreases with the use of this payment system (
Rodrigues, Sarabdeen & Balasubramanian, 2016). The collection of revenue has increased with the use e-Driham system. The increase in the collection of revenue enhances the financial condition of the country. Moreover, the flexibility and simplicity of the system attracts the people to avail this system in a larger scale.  This tendency opens up the digitization of the monitory system will have positive impact on the country for a long term.

Problems Faced by Users of e-Driham

There are certain technical problems, the users have reported during the use of e-Driham facility. Some of these problems have been created due to technical fault. Some of the issues are-

• Not receiving the notifications in the phone: Some of the users have complained that they are not receiving the notifications regarding the transaction and update through the use of e-Driham (Van Essen, Engelen & Carne,2013). This makes the tracking of the status of transaction difficult for the users.
• Changing of PIN: Changing of the PIN of the card has become problematic in some cases. Some of the users have been reported that during the changing of the PIN, technical fault has been occurred (McCord et al.,2017). In this case, the whole procedure becomes confusing for the users.
• Managing and editing the profile: Some of the users have complained that they have faced problem while managing and editing the profile.
• Reporting the issues: Some of the users have complained that the reporting the issues during the use of this e-governance system is problematic. They cannot reach to the support team during the problem. Some of them also reported that the assistance of the support team is not enough.
• Application and blocking of the card: The application process of e-Driham and blocking of the card become issue for some of the users.

However, there are certain initiatives have been taken in order to improve then service related e-Driham. The helpline is open for 24*7.  The passwords and the managing of the card can be done from the FAB ATMs/CDMs.

Some of the technical and managerial suggestions can be helpful for the improvisation of the e-Driham service. These recommendations are follows:

• Proposing the centralized access: The centralized control and access of the e-Driham system will help to mitigate the problems regarding the resetting of the password and PINs along with managing of the profile.
• Giving the proper training to the support team: The main purpose of the support team is to provide the solutions to the users of the service (Subramanian,2014). In this case, it is required to give the proper training to the members of the support team about the various problems and challenges those are occurred in case of usage of e-Driham (Mayahi & Humaid,2016). This will help them to provide solutions to the users in the challenging situations.
• Providing more security: The main feature and the most significant factor of the online transaction is security during the transaction system (McGinnis & Ostrom,2014). The improvisation of the security gateway can be improved as it will help to modify the system. This will fulfill the need of the users.
• Managerial reform: Some of the reformation in the management of the e-Driham system can be taken into care (Kamal Hassan & Saadi Halbouni, 2013). The specification and the information regarding e-Driham and its associated organizations are needed to be mentioned to the users. This will bring the clarity in the whole system.

The advancement of the technology will help to bring the certain amount of the positive effects in the e-Driham system.  The authority managing the e-Driham can take the help of the certain technology and IoT (Internet of Things) in order to improve the system in this e-governance project. Certain ideas like accessing and assigning the cards to the users from any banks of any country can be done (Huitema et al.,2016). In this case, the authentication can be done through the use of advanced technology. It can be said that the future scope of the payment process is very effective.

Conclusion

The discussion has covered the list of e-governance projects implemented by the UAE government. The initial concept of e-governance has been given at the introduction of the discussion. I this context the importance and significance of the e-governance has been discussed.  The list of e-governance projects implemented by the UAE has been discussed along with the brief description. The selection of the E-Driham project as the topic of discussion has been done considering certain parameters. These parameters indicate the significance of this e-governance project. The rest of the discussion covered different aspects of e-Driham. This discussion leads to the findings of certain issues regarding the usage of this system. Technical and managerial recommendations have been made on the basis of this discussion. Apart from that the future aspects of this project is also evaluated in the context of technology.  It can be concluded from the above discussion that the implementation of the e-Driham system is a positive change in the money transaction process. However, certain improvisation can be made using the advanced technology. The overall impact of this e-governance service on the economy of the country is positive.

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