Leveraging Technology to Improve Public Service Delivery: A Case of Implementation of National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) System in Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), India

Abstract

During the recent past, the governments across the countries have started deploying information and communication technologies to offer public services in a more efficient and effective manner. The implementation of e-governance projects in developing countries requires an altogether different approach as the challenge is to offer public services to all the citizens including those who are less technology savvy. It can be safely inferred that a technology solution implemented in some developed countries may not be simply replicated in a developing country, which has its own set of challenges. In this paper the implementation of National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) in Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), a government body in India has been taken as an illustration to exemplify the effective use of technology to improve the service delivery in public sphere.

Keywords: e-government, e-governance, e-payment, EPFO, ICT, India, NEFT, Provident Fund, Public Services, Social Security,