Barriers in local e-government partnership: Evidence from Malaysia

This paper explores the implementation of an e-government partnership programme and discusses the barriers that have impeded its implementation in two local governments in Malaysia. Empirical evidence comes from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with managers and users of e-government services. We found that the use of short-term partnership models, lack of funding, failure to deliver results by third-party vendors, poor leadership and digital divide problems have impeded the successful implementation of the e-government programme. We suggest that a collective stakeholder involvement of government, private sectors, including third-party vendors and citizens as 'strategic' partners is essential in the creation of an enabling e-government partnership.