Challenges and Prospects of Establishing e- government in Liberia with focus on the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs of the Republic of Liberia.

Abstract: The use of ICT in government institutions of the Republic of Liberia has been around for decades though very few institutions implemented it most especially in the old fashion EDP- Electronic Data Processing systems where large departments were created for centralized data processing tasks. The Old fashion EDP proof very costly, less effective, difficult to manage which provides the basis of establishing a more effective, user friendly, collaborative oriented systems in the form of Electronic government. Though in most other government institutions there is less usage or appreciation of the roles ICT in government. Liberia, just emerging from a long 14 years of civil crisis which destroyed its entire human and technical infrastructure, lacks behind most of the African countries and the world at large in the wagon of implementing ICT and its related research With the continuous and ever important requirement for transparency and accountability in the public sector services, With ICT been a tool to assist efficiency and accountability in the public sector, the government of Liberia has embarked on the implementation of ICT projects in governance, though there is limited research work so far done in use of ICT in governance in Liberia. There has been very little known research in ICT or e-government with specific focus on Liberia, with one limited research done by UN in 2010. Though there are records of research on E-government of developing countries including Kenya, Ghana and post war Rwanda, etc. There are lessons learnt from these research works that will be of good input for the Liberia case as per similarities in challenges and obstacles of implementing e-government developing countries. This thesis research is in support of identifying obstacles, challenges, and benefits of transforming the public sector by introducing ICT. There are few known ICT projects in government including the Finance Ministry‘s IFMIS and ASYCUDA projects, the CSA Biometric systems which were evaluated, partly to ascertain government readiness for e-government. The investigation included some key government ministries. The research results using international approved methodologies identified the e-readiness level of the government of Liberia, with given challenges, obstacles and benefits. The findings of the research show that Liberia can successfully implement e-government if the identified obstacles are removed or minimized.