Corporate social responsibility has been mandated by the government for the private sector in Bangladesh. The Country's Islamic financial institutions can direct their CSR fund towards the enhancement of e governance through ICT development. ICT is the thrust sector of the present government's election manifesto of digitalizing Bangladesh. This will require a series of reforms in almost every sector. Once the government ministries, agencies and divisions are brought within the purview of e-governance, it will check rampant corruption. E governance requires establishment of legal validity to e-documents and e-communication. Islamic funds through public private partnership (PPP) can be invested for establishment and enhancement of e communication country wide. This paper will discuss the role of PPP in CSR based development of e governance. It will underscore the role of Shariah council towards mainstreaming CSR based development amongst the Islamic financial institutions in Bangladesh.
E-governance is the use of ICT by different actors of the society with the aim to improve their access to information and to build their capacities. E-Governance is the public sector's use of information and communication technologies with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective.
Introduction of e-governance is a key to make information technology (IT) relevant to ordinary citizens in a country where a large numbers of population are poor and a digital divide is a significant problem. E-governance will allow ordinary people to constantly interface with the government in both local and central level on various matters. E-governance will allow citizens to communicate with government, participate in the governments' policy-making and citizens to communicate each other. The e-governance will truly allow citizens to participate in the government decision-making process, reflect their true needs and welfare by utilizing e-government as a tool.
One of the most promising aspects of e-government is its ability to bring citizens closer to their governments. While the technology to facilitate this connection is widely available, many government sites have not taken full advantage of its benefits in developing countries like Bangladesh.
3. THRUST SECTOR OF THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT
In Bangladesh, a country where 'disparities' between haves and have-nots are ever increasing, introducing ICT in the governance mechanism faces the challenge of ensuring equitable access to e-governance services by all strata of the society. It is essential to create public awareness with regard to e-Governance services that are available and could be made available to everyone.
The information communication technology sector in Bangladesh is experiencing rapid growth. In recognition of the growth and with high expectations for its continuation, the 2002 national Policy on ICT outlined strategies to strengthen ICT education in domestic universities, thereby improving the skill and knowledge of the burgeoning ICT workforce. In its 2002 declaration on ICT policy, Bangladesh government established for itself an ambitious program for developing e-governance. This program as yet goes largely underutilized. However, building e-government both requires and provides an incentive for the creation of a skilled ICT human resource cadre in public sector. Hence, e-government and public sector ICT human resource go hand in hand, and a coherent national strategy for e-governance provides the best means of fostering such a human resource presence.
Like most of the least developed countries (LDC), inadequacy of ICT infrastructure is a common problem in most government offices of Bangladesh. This situation is further compounded by the marked absence of technical infrastructure planning and sub-optimal utilization of whatever infrastructure is available. The other challenge is in ensuring 'sustainability' of ICT infrastructure.
Due to lack of institutionalized means of developing related skills many e-Government implementation projects suffer from lack of skilled human capital. Only ICT skill courses available for the civil servants are not enough to bridge the gap. There is not much done for the civil servants to enhance their 'soft-skills' associated with managing implementation of e-Governance systems. Government institutions may explore introducing courses on 'change management', etc. to address such deficiencies.
Absence of incentive for acquiring ICT skill is also considered as one of the reason for lacking of ICT skilled human resources in the government. Indeed, in most government offices the use of IT is mostly self-motivated and a matter of individual self-development.
The economic/financial challenge for e-governance system implementation in Bangladesh is two pronged. First, like most developing countries, Bangladesh faces difficulties in investing large sums in e-governance system from its own coffer. Absence of pro-private sector policies impedes this other potential source of investment.
4. THE NEED FOR PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Public-private partnership (PPPs) are government services or private business venture which are funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies. They involve a contract between a public sector authority and a private party, in which the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial financial, technical and operational risk in the project.
In some types of PPP, the cost of using the service is borne exclusively by the users of the service and not by the taxpayer. In other types, capital investment is made by the private sector on the strength of a contract with government to provide agreed services and the cost of providing the service is borne wholly or in part by the government.
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become the latest policy instrument globally for delivering a plethora of public services. In many instances PPPs and ICTs can be interlinked functions as in the case of rural telephony services in Latin America which opted for PPP thereby ensuring the delivery of better services by facilitating modalities and seamless co-operation between both partners. When PPPs are well-thought out and designed with empowerment of localities in mind, they can bring about long-term economic benefit in areas of basic needs.
5. csr THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTERSHIP
The World Bank defined corporate social responsibility to be the commitment of owners of commercial activities to contribute in sustainable development through working with their employees and their families, local community and the society as a whole to upgrade the people's living standards in a certain way that serves commerce and development in the same time. It depends the socially beneficial initiatives by businesses done without any legal obligations. Such social participation are sometimes to gain sympathy and respect of the society or a result of demand from consumers and similar stakeholders. Consequently, many corporations have undertaken initiatives or started to formulate plans with the objective to help the needy segment of the population. Whether the companies have formal CSR plans or not and they are expected to uphold non-financial expectations in the area of human rights, business ethics, environment, community development, corporate governance, and workplace environment.
In Islam, social service holds enormous significance. Whatever services a person renders for the welfare of humankind, and through these deeds, hopes for the blessings of Allah will be regarded as righteous deeds. These deeds if done solely for seeking the pleasure of Allah (and not for recognition or show) will be considered Karze Hasana and will surely be rewarded by Allah. Islam as a religion has not lost its general influence on societies where it is practiced and constitutes a 'complete way of life' for the followers with specific implications for economic life and hence the role that responsible business can play in the development of a community, society or economy based upon the principles of social justice and equity rather than the sole pursuit of efficiency or profit generation. Islam has very specific rules and guidelines concerning economic life. Notions of corporate social responsibility are consistent with an Islamic view of society.
6. ENGAGEMENT OF ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
The five pillars of Islam help to bring people at all levels of society together, in interaction and mutual support. They actually provide a focus on obligations and duties as well as rights and relationships of each other (by removing social hierarchies and barriers) and encourage the development of individuals and the community: spiritually, morally and socially.
Notions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been suggested to be consistent with an Islamic view of society. Indeed, values and principles that have been central to Islam since the time of the holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Blessings be upon him) may serve as a foundation for notions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) similar to those in the West. Much contemporary discussion of CSR, however, has not recognized this. These discussions have largely been based on a Western orientation informed by Western religious values. Moreover, CSR has evolved literally in response to particular issues or problems that are specific to businesses in a Western context. This led to a lack of a comprehensive global context within which a wider perspective of CSR should be positioned. On the other hand, the notion of social responsibility and justice has been an integral part of Islamic society for nearly 14 centuries. While Islamic philosophy is rich in precepts pertinent to CSR based on the Shariah (the Islamic legal and social system) derived from the Holy Qur'an and Hadith, these precepts have not yet been formally synthesized to present a systematic model with an explicit notion of CSR in Islam.
E-government can transform citizen service, provide access to information to empower citizens, enable their participation in government and enhance citizen economic and social opportunities, so that they can make better lives, for themselves and for the next generation. Similar to the dramatic benefits in e-commerce, the developed countries have begun to derive benefits the emergence of e-government -"the ability to obtain government services through nontraditional electronic means, enabling access to government information and to completion of government transaction on an anywhere, any time basis and in conformance with equal access requirement."- offers potential to reshape the public sector and build relationships between citizens and the government.
At the same time, concerns have already been expressed about the gap between the technology haves and have-nots, and more popularly known as "the digital divide." In order to ensure that countries avoid creating a digital divide and create conditions to ensure that growth of the knowledge economy contributes to carrying out a democratic process of efficient, equitable and sustainable development, expanded dialogue and new patterns of cooperation among public, private ad civil society organizations are needed.
Hence CSR funds from Islamic Financial Institutions can rightly be used for promoting e-governance through public private partnerships as both are aimed towards increasing people's access, creating opportunities, ensuring transparency, accountability and citizen's participation thereby reducing inequality and contributing towards economic progress and development.
7. WIN-WIN PARTNERSHIP THROUGH ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Fund shortage has been preventing us from embarking on e-government effectively. E-government requires a large amount of money to harness all its facilities. As we know that Bangladesh is a developing country; therefore, it is impossible for Bangladesh's government to provide huge fund in this regard. Proper resource planning and access to innovative financing mechanisms is critical for e-government sustainability. Moreover, an unstable financial market, lack of a proper e-banking system, hidden costs of business, and an overall unhealthy business environment discourages foreign direct investment in e-government infrastructure development.
The funding problem can be solved with the help of Islamic financial institutions which are growing at a faster pace in recent years. They can mobilize a big amount of fund through corporation social responsibility (CSR) program as promoted by the World Bank and the respective central banks.
The Islami Banks and Institutions should come forward with its CSR funds to help the social organization in promoting the E-governance. It is expected that e-governance would reduce corruption, make the administration effective and empower the people in decision making process. It is also seen a prospective sector for creating employment, generating economic activities and leap frog the development process.
Hence e-governance and Islamic financial institutions should have an obvious fit given the faith-based ethos of Islamic finance, which also gives prominence not only to wealth creation and economic development but also to the promotion of social justice and concepts based on hard work, thrift and low or no indebtedness.
8. RECOMMENDATIONS
Private Partnerships (PPPs) broadly refer to long-term, contractual partnerships between the public and private sector agencies, specially targeted towards financing, designing, implementing and operating infrastructure facilities that were traditionally provided by the public sector. Public-private partnerships aim at combining the skills, expertise and experience of both public and private sectors to deliver higher standard of services to customers or citizens. In developed and some of the developing countries, governments and non-governmental organizations have been working on a wide range of ICT initiatives. For example building of Information centers with broadband connectivity can enable local small business entrepreneurship; tele-education and tele-health capabilities, knowledge of market prices for crops before bringing them to market, and knowledge of successful farming techniques and government programs for farmers.
Many call centres, technical support, help lines and data conversion centres are located in South-East Asia (e.g. India). Many of these centres are established with public and private partnership. A recent successful practice of public-private partnership is the United Nations Development Programme and Coca-Cola Malaysia ICT project. Partnership of these two international organizations resulted in a valuable ICT skill development and employment programme for young people.
However, for introduction of e-governance, we need sufficient and skilled manpower at all tiers. As we have dearth of skilled manpower in contrast with a huge unemployment in the society, it is required to develop and train the youths in disadvantageous condition, with special emphasis on the female students. The CSR funding, if diverted to ICT education programme, can help develop skilled manpower in this sector. Educational or vocational institutions may be chosen for such purpose. Students in disadvantageous position may be selected on the basis of merit and provided with ICT skills on a short term diploma or a long term graduation courses.
Lack of IT awareness is the key reason that hinders us to employ e-government in our national life. Therefore, IT awareness throughout the country is crucial if we want to exploit the advantages of e-government. Seminar and symposium will play a pivotal role to make people aware of the prospects of e-government. Internet is still a big question in rural areas of Bangladesh.
Furthermore, People are key to successful implementation of e-government. The mass in Bangladesh is not capable of harnessing e-government benefits because they lack knowledge and skills required to embrace e-government. Therefore, it is important to build human capital so that e-government can be successful in Bangladesh. Aspiring nation should benchmark Human Capital model of India to have right human resources for its e-government projects. Apart from that, e-government related law has not been enacted in our country so far. Hence, it is important to pass cyber law immediately by endorsing digital signature, credit card payment, document acceptance through online, intellectual property right etc for the proper implementation of e-government. Investments in research and development e-governance software by Islamic Financial Institutions, Logistics support such as housing Government owned IT centers for visiting bank customers can facilitate the process of taking e-governance services to the people.
Presenting the Bangladesh initiatives, Sankhanath Bandyopadhyay, in his article "Driving Factors Behind Successful Public-Private Partnerships in the ICT Sector: The Case of Bangladesh" discussed the partnerships of Telenor (a Norwegian telecommunications group with extensive and fast growing business operations in a number of countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.) and Grameen Bank (GB) in ICT sector. Internal governance regime is strongly related to the performance of partnerships. More importantly, it affects the quality of its services to the end-users. In order to attract international firms to engage in partnerships in the ICT sector, quality of corporate governance practices needs to be uplifted and standardized. It is worth noting that in India, some states have undertaken far more PPPs than others, and a much heavier use of PPPs in some sectors than others.
9. SHARIAH COMPLIANCE
An Islamic financial institution is required to establish operating procedures to ensure that no form of investment or business activity is undertaken that has not been approved in advance by the religious board. The management is also required to periodically report and certify to the religious board that the actual investments and business activities undertaken by the institution conform to forms previously approved by the religious board.
Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has recently developed a standard on corporate social responsibility (CSR) for Islamic financial institutions highlights the importance of CSR from an Islamic perspective and give guidance to Islamic financial institutions in carrying out its CSR functions. The CSR standard complements AAOIFI's 68 existing international standards on Sharia, accounting, auditing, ethics, and governance. According to Sayd Farook, R & D Manager, Centre for Islamic Finance "With substantive provisions on CSR conduct and disclosure, this standard will open the way for Islamic financial institutions to be recognized for their positive ethical and social activities and further differentiate them from other financial organizations as direct contributors to society,". AOIFI's standards are adopted in leading Islamic financial centers across the world including Bahrain, Dubai Islamic Financial Centre, Qatar, Qatar Financial Centre, Sudan, and Syria as well as by the Islamic Development Bank Group. Mohammed A Jawed of Auckland University in New Zealand, while presenting his doctoral thesis on "corporate social responsibility in Islam" pointed out that many current practices of Islamic banks reflects the expected behaviors or practices generated in the Islamic framework. It was also found that many Islamic financial institutions implement the Islamic code of conduct rather extensively.
10. CONCLUSION
In fact, e-government is an ultimate way to achieve good governance in Bangladesh. E-government is indeed a roadmap for efficient and effective government. Hence, we should employ e-government in order to improve our government efficiency. At the same time, we should keep in mind that e-government initiatives can waste resources, fail in their promise to deliver useful services if it is not well conceived and implemented; consequently, it increases public frustration with government, particularly in the developing world where resources are scarce. It is evident that CSR fund retrieved from Islamic Financial institutions may be utilised for strengthening e-governance and thereby promote people's welfare and services creating scope for employment and upholding their right to information. Public-private partnerships have the potential to enable governments to increase public infrastructure or public services by using fewer of their own resources while maintaining or even improving the quality of the standards offered. Public-private partnerships are particularly suited to related development programs because the private sector partner is in a good position to not only provide funding but also to assist with the knowledge and expertise required to operate ICT facilities which in term will contribute towards enhancing and strengthening the governance platform.
