Promoting Accountability, Government Effectiveness, And Controlling Corruption in the Public Sector Globally: Do the Interactive Effects of ICTs Matter?

Abstract

The effectiveness, efficiency, and influence of government programmes and services in various nations and areas are all included in the public sector performance. Public sectors around the world have been affected by negative issues such as corruption, and a lack of accountability. In recent years, governments and individuals have been increasingly utilizing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to ensure Government effectiveness and accountability and combat corruption in the public sector. This study investigates the role of ICTs in promoting public sector performance at the global level. Despite the numerous benefits of ICTs in enhancing public sector performance, there exists a dearth of literature on ICTs and public sector performance. Extant research on ICTs and public sector performance has largely focused on private firms where they measured performance mainly based on profitability levels, making it difficult to generalize such findings to the public sector that measures performance based on increased, Government effectiveness, accountability and a reduction in corruption. With high levels of corruption in public institutions, it has become important to investigate how the adoption of ICTs influences public sector performance. Besides, these past studies offered a narrow view of ICTs and public sector performance as they have largely relied on data from single countries. Apart from that these studies were conducted in the developed country context thus limiting their findings to such contexts. This study examines this relationship at the global level where findings can be easily generalized to cover the global context. The study adopted secondary data from 131 countries globally. To fill these gaps, the study leans on the foundation of accountability theory and a quantitative survey approach as a methodological lens to investigate the effects of ICTs on promoting public sector performance.

By analyzing data in SmartPLS, the results indicate that Government ICT Use and ICT Access were found to significantly influence public sector performance. ICT Access was found to significantly influence Government and Individual ICT Use. Furthermore, the study investigates the mediating role of Government and Individual ICT Use on the impact of ICT Access on Public Sector Performance. The mediating role of Government ICT Use on the impact of ICT Access was found to positively influence public sector performance. Findings suggest that creating a favorable ICT environment will positively influence government and individuals to use ICTs which will promote public sector performance as a means of promoting accountability, government effectiveness and controlling corruption in the public sector. Finally, the study recommends future studies should utilize primary data collection techniques in their research to better possess some degree of control over the constructs of their studies.