QUALITY EVALUATION OF E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES – THE CASE OF ALBANIA

Abstract

Albania has passed a period of three decades in the shift from a centralized to a market economy. In this context, the public sector is confronted by structural changes at the institutional level and the extension and improvement of public services. Electronic services’ quality is a critical issue for the failure or success of e-government objectives. It promotes government efficiency and effectiveness, citizen engagement, and satisfaction. The trend to use electronic services in Albania is similarly driven by efforts to reduce public sector corruption, improve service performance, and reduce costs. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the citizen’s perception of the importance and the quality of e-services provision by the e-Albania gateway, as well as obstacles and challenges of the future. Based on the main types of services provided by the e-Albania platform, twelve indicators were considered. The survey took place in Albania (Tirana region), wherein 190 questionnaires are applied. The main reason for this selection is that Tirana is the largest region of the country, with about 50% of the population concentration and the highest number of users of the government electronic platform. The variables used are qualitative variables and were measured according to the Likert scale (1–5 estimation, from 1–strongly disagree to 5–strongly agree). Each of the main variables is explained and measured through the evaluation of three to five explanatory questions. Through the SPSS program, cluster analysis was used to evaluate the main variables. By analyzing the collected data, it turns out that there is an obvious increase in the number of public services offered, as well as the perception of citizens for the e-services provided by the government plat-form.