An Evaluation Framework for the Impact of Digitalization on the Quality of Governance: Evidence From Indonesia

The goal is to develop an evaluation framework for the quality of governance (QoG) and to evaluate the impact of government digitalization on the QoG for Indonesia. The study develops an evaluation framework to determine the impact of digitalization on the QoG. Data were collected to test the framework in practice by interviewing 10 state apparati and organizing small-group discussions. The manual process of the state government officers' selection in Indonesia is considered very poor and vulnerable to corruption, collusion, and nepotism. The interviewees agreed that digitalization resulted in improved transparency and QoG. Overall, information digitalization has a dual impact as it led to improving service quality, transparency, and government accountability, but it did not result in less corruption, collusion, and nepotism. The findings suggest that digitalizing needs to be complemented by introducing checks and controls to reduce these problems. An evaluation framework offers important insights for digitalization and helps to identify opportunities to improve the QoG further.