Riyadh: Failure of electronic transactions are related primarily to administrative negligence, Abdul Aziz Al-Mulhem, assistant deputy minister of culture and information, said on Monday.
Taking part in a debate during the e-transactions conference, he said ninety percent of failed e-transactions were due to resistance to change, weak communication and ignorance. Only 10 percent of the failure were technical in nature, he added. Al-Mulhem said "many Saudi employees fear that computers will replace them in the future, and there will be no need for workers."
However, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf allayed fears of government employees on the first day of the conference, assuring that "no employee in his ministry will lose their jobs as a result of implementing the e-governance program."
"There is another major reason for the delay in implementing e-transaction in the Kingdom. It is the love of possession. Every employee believes that his job belongs to him and nobody can replace him," Al-Mulhem said. Speaking about the significance of e-security while implementing e-transactions, Al-Mulhem said "e-security means providing information to the right person at the right time, not blocking it."
Thamer Al-Mutairy, project manager of the Ministerial Committee for Administrative Organization, said complicated procedures would delay services.
He identified negligence of employees, out-dated regulations and overlapping of authorities of different government agencies as main reasons for the delay in services.
By Ali Al-Zahrani
© Arab News 2007
