Bureaunia Chronicles: Episode 1
The call came on a Tuesday morning. “Minister, the Earth Bank has approved the $500M loan!” My assistant’s voice crackled with excitement through the phone. As Finance Minister of Bureaunia, I’d been fighting for this universal health insurance scheme for two years. Finally, we could transform healthcare for all of our 120 million people.
But as I hung up, reality hit me. We had a big, beautiful vision. A digital system that would connect our fragmented world: birth certificates from the Ministry of Home that never talked to immunization records from the Ministry of Health or the school enrollment data from the Ministry of Education, isolated tax records in my own Ministry of Finance that are not connected to land registries in the Ministry of Land that couldn’t communicate with our Central Bank’s payment systems, privacy-protected mobile phone data locked away by the Telecom Regulator and Mobile Phone Association. Ten years of digital development, funded by our national exchequer, EB, and other funders, had given us islands of technology with no bridges between them.
“We need the best minds on this,” I told my team. The Earth Bank (EB) brought in Anti-Silo Consulting, globally reputed experts who promised to conduct a horizon scan and system study. 5 million dollars, one year, and 8 foreign experts with experience in DPI, digital health, and health financing later, they handed me a thick vision document and strategic plan.
I remember feeling both impressed and overwhelmed. The Health Minister and I, along with 15 of our brightest officials, embarked on a study tour to Bureausia and Bureauland, courtesy of EB funding. We saw gleaming data centers, met with their success stories, attended conferences where everyone spoke of “inclusive transformation.”
Flying back home, I was buzzing with possibilities. In my briefing to the Prime Minister, I painted a picture of digital revolution that would win us the next election cycle, just 3 and a half years away. “This will change everything,” I said, and I meant it.
The $500M loan agreement for 5 years was signed with great fanfare. I chaired a triumphant meeting with my Ministry colleagues and gave the go-ahead with confidence.
But then, as I sat alone in my office that evening, staring at the signed documents, a cold realization crept in. The consultants had left. The study tour euphoria was fading. The thick reports sat on my desk like beautiful monuments to good intentions.
The Hard Truth Behind Bureaunia’s Digital Dreams
The Finance Minister of Bureaunia is not alone with this awareness. Top government leaders around the world, especially in developing nations, who have responsibility—even authority—for bringing about digital transformation in public service delivery are similarly besieged.
For over a decade, Bureaunia has invested heavily in digital systems. Each ministry has proudly built its towering platform of data and technology. Impressive when viewed alone, but isolated from the rest. Meanwhile, our citizens continue to shuffle from one office to another, clutching reams of papers that should have been verified digitally in seconds. It appears that they have built fortresses, not foundations.
If they continue this way, they risk becoming yet another cautionary tale at global conferences: the latest example of how grand digital promises fail to serve and transform. The good thing is that the Minister and his colleagues have a behemoth tome of 500 plus pages that Anti-Silo Consulting (ASC) produced—sometimes countries don’t even have that. So, it’s a good place to start.
However, who in the government has read the 500 plus pages? Who has understood the deck of nearly 60 slides?
Moreover, does the tome address questions beyond interoperability and systems design?
What if they have to restructure institutions by breaking silos? The truth is, digital transformation is not about money or technology. It is about power. Who owns the data? Who decides what is shared and what is hidden, and who has what control? Who is willing to let go of control for the greater good?
What incentives are there for officers to break status quo?
What exact people’s pain points will be alleviated? Or, are they just going to design systems for the officers’ whims and technologists’ ease?
Will they be able to depend on the local ICT industry expertise? Or, international technology expertise is needed? If so, how will knowledge transfer be ensured from the international experts to local ones?
What happens to the digital systems when the EB funding runs out? Who ensures financial sustainability in the long term?
Did anyone—the government of Bureaunia, EB, ASC, the private sector—ask these questions? Does the ASC report provide answers to these questions?
Let’s find out in the next installment of Bureaunia Chronicles.
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