Addis Ababa University

College of Business and Economics

Department of Public Administration and Development Management

EFFICIENCY OF ELECTRONIC SERVICE DELIVERY: A CASE STUDY OF

AUTOMATED SYSTEMS FOR CUSTOMS DATA (ASYCUDA) IN ETHIOPIAN
REVENUE AND CUSTOMS AUTHORITY (ERCA)

A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Public Administration and Development

Management of Addis Ababa University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Master of Public Management and Policy (MPMP)

By:

Gossa Bekele

Advisor:

Elias Berhanu (Ph. D)

June 2015

Addis Ababa
 Addis Ababa University
College of Business and Economics
Department of Public Administration and Development Management

This is to certify that the thesis prepared by Gossa Bekele entitled Efficiency of Electronic
Service Delivery: A Case Study of Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) in
Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA), which is submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in Public Management and Policy
(MPMP), complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards
with respect to originality and quality.

Approved by Board of Examiners:

________________________________ Signature______________ Date____________

Advisor

________________________________ Signature ______________ Date ____________

Internal Examiner

________________________________ Signature______________ Date ____________

External Examiner

________________________________ Signature_____________ Date ____________

Chair of Department or Graduate Programs Coordinator

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am greatly indebted to Dr. Elias Berhanu of Addis Ababa University who as my advisor
assisted me with his timely and useful comments in the course of writing the thesis. I
have benefited from his encouragement and keen interest in the purpose of the study. My
discussions with him have been enlightening and they have influenced the formulation of
a consistent and comprehensive perspective.

I would like to thank employees and officials of the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority, Ministry of Finance and Economics Development (MOFED), National Bank
of Ethiopia (NBE), Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), Dashen Bank, NIB Bank,
EXPRESS Transit, Ethiopian Transit and Maritime Authority, customers of the ERCA
(importers and exporters) and other clearing agents for providing me the relevant data for
my study.

Above all, my debt is to God, who makes it all possible; and I am also thankful to Ato
Negesse Tefedegn for his moral support and encouragement to write this thesis.

i
TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE NO.

List of Figures--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv
List of Tables- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------v
List of Abbreviations------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi
CHAPTER ONE
1. INTRODUCTION---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------1
1.1. Background of the Study----------------------------------------------------------1
1.2. Statement of the Problem--------------------------------------------------------- 4
1.3. Research Questions---------------------------------------------------------------- 6
1.4. Research Objectives--------------------------------------------------------------- 7
1.5. Methodology of the Study-------------------------------------------------------- 7
1.5.1. Research Methods------------------------------------------------------------ 8
1.5.2. Study Design------------------------------------------------------------------ 8
1.5.3. Data Instrument---------------------------------------------------------------9
1.5.4. Data Analysis Methods------------------------------------------------------ 9
1.6. Scope of the Research------------------------------------------------------------- 10
1.7. Limitation of the Research--------------------------------------------------------10
1.8. Significance of the Study--------------------------------------------------------- 11
1.9. Organization of the Thesis--------------------------------------------------------11
CHAPTER TWO
2. LITERATURE REVIEW-----------------------------------------------------------------12
2.1. Concepts in Public Service Delivery-------------------------------------------- 13
2.2. Electronic Public Service Delivery---------------------------------------------- 19
2.3. Measuring Public Sector Performance------------------------------------------ 23
2.4. Information Communication Technology and Service Delivery
Experiences of Africa------------------------------------------------------------- 30
2.5. Development of Information Technology in Ethiopia------------------------ 37
2.6. Limitations on Information Communication Technology
in Service Delivery---------------------------------------------------------------- 40
2.7. Development of Information Technology in Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority (ERCA) -----------------------------------------------------------------42

ii
 2.8. Implementation of ASYCUDA in Ethiopian Revenue and
Customs Authority---------------------------------------------------------------- 43
2.8.1. Direct Trader Input (DTI) ------------------------------------------------44
2.8.2. Selectivity in ASYCUDA++--------------------------------------------- 46
2.8.3. Transit-----------------------------------------------------------------------47
2.8.4. Flexibility in report generation-------------------------------------------47
2.8.5. Connectivity with Other Systems--------------------------------------- 47
CHAPTER THREE
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS-------------------------------------------- 49
3.1. Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 49
3.2. Characteristics of Respondents-------------------------------------------------------- 49
3.2.1. Customers of ERCA-------------------------------------------------------------49
3.2.2. The Staff of ERCA-------------------------------------------------------------- 50
3.2.3. Interviewed Officials------------------------------------------------------------ 51
3.3. Data Analysis---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 51
3.3.1. Challenges in goods clearance activities------------------------------------- 51
3.3.1.1. Delay in goods clearance--------------------------------------------------51
3.3.1.2. Frequent system failure--------------------------------------------------- 52
3.3.2. Performance efficiency of ASYCUDA--------------------------------------- 53
3.3.3. Contrast between ASYCUDA and Manual System ------------------------ 55
3.3.4. Assessment of service delivery quality in ERCA--------------------------- 57
3.3.5. Assessment of Competency of public service delivery in ERCA After
adoption of ASYCUDA-------------------------------------------------------- 63
3.4. Interview Result and Analysis---------------------------------------------------------71
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1. Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------- 73
4.2. Conclusions------------------------------------------------------------------------- 73
4.3. Suggestions and Recommendations--------------------------------------------- 75
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES

iii
LIST OF FIGURES PAGE NO.
Figure 1: Four service characteristics-------------------------------------------------15
Figurer 2: Relationships among information technology adoption, service
innovation practices and competitive advantage---------------------- 23
Figure 3: The service quality model---------------------------------------------------- 26

iv
LIST OF TABLES PAGE NO.
Table 1.1: population of the study---------------------------------------- ------------------9
Table 3.1: Type of Goods declared by customers---------------------------------------- 50
Table 3.2: Customers of the Organization-------------------------------------------------50
Table 3.3: Reasons for delay of goods clearance----------------------------------------- 51
Table 3.4: Reasons for system failure------------------------------------------------------52
Table 3.5: ASYCUDA brings quality service---------------------------------------------53
Table 3.6: Work facilitation of ASYCUDA-----------------------------------------------54
Table 3.7: Flexibility of workflows-------------------------------------------------------- 55
Table 3.8: ASYCUDA use less time than the manual----------------------------------- 56
Table 3.9: Differences of ASYCUDA from the manual system----------------------- 56
Table 3.10: Reliability of Service delivery process-------------------------------------- 58
Table 3.11: Responsiveness of employees------------------------------------------------ 59
Table 3.12: Courtesy by employees-------------------------------------------------------- 60
Table 3.13: Credibility of Employees------------------------------------------------------ 60
Table 3.14: Tangibility of the organization----------------------------------------------- 61
Table 3.15: Accessibility of service-------------------------------------------------------- 62
Table 3.16: Efficiency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA------------------------ 64
Table 3.17: Effectiveness in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA-------------------- 65
Table 3.18: Accountability in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA------------------ 66
Table 3.19: Transparency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA-------------------- 67
Table 3.20: ERCA is less procedural after adoption of ASYCUDA-------------------68
Table 3.21: Consistency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA----------------------69
Table.3.22: Responsiveness in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA----------------- 70
Table 3.23: Timely performance of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA------------70

v
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ASYCUDA Automated System for Customs Data

CBE Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

ECuA Ethiopian Customs Authority

EFTA European Free Trade Association

ERCA Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority

ICT Information Communication Technology

ISO International Organization for Standardization

MCB Ministry of Capacity Building

MOFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development

NBE National Bank of Ethiopia

SERVIQUL SERVICE QUALITY

SIGTAS | TIN Standard Integrated Government Tax Administration System

(Tax payer Number)

UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNPAN United Nations Public Administration Network

WCO World Customs Organization

WTO World Trade Organization

vi
 ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the efficiency of electronic service delivery by taking
Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) as the case study in Ethiopia
Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA). To conduct this study descriptive research
method was used. The study tried to describe the efficiency of the system (ASYCUDA)
by triangulating different data from the view points of customers, employees, clearing
agents and other relevant offices which use ASYCUDA processed data in their works.
Survey has been used to collect data from the total sample size of 130.The sample
of this study were chosen using stratified random sampling. Questionnaires, interviews,
data analysis and observation were used to collect necessary data. The research study
involved three categories of sample population: customers of the authority, employees of
ERCA and relevant offices which directly use the report of ASYCUDA driven data. Data
analysis was made by using SPSS version 20 software and other simple statistical tools
like percentage, ratio and tables.
The study finding indicates that even though ASYCUDA is facilitating the import
and export process of the authority, it faces implementation problems. This creates
inefficiency in the maximizations of the benefits expected from implementations of
ASYCUDA. The major technical and institutional problems associated with
implementations of ASYCUDA were also analyzed. Some of the challenges which
created problems in smooth process of implementation of ASYCUDA were: lack of
trained manpower, repeated system failure because of different reasons, frequent electric
power interruptions and frequent network failures. These have created a big problem in
import and export process of the authority.
From the descriptive statistics method of quantitative data analysis and interview
interpretation, study concludes that these factors should be improved by creating
coordination inside and outside of the organization to improve the efficiency of
ASYCUDA which solve the problems of import and export process and make the
revenue collection of ERCA smooth. The study gives recommendations accordingly and
some of the recommendations are: give training to employees regarding ASYCUDA,
using latest versions of ASYCUDA (version four instead of version three), improve
management system of the work process, improve the availability of network by
coordinating with Ethiopian telecommunication (ETC) and Ethiopian Electric Power
Authority regarding electric power failure by using alternative source of energy to reduce
the power interruptions at working hours.

vii
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Organizational design is aimed to contribute to the efficient fulfillment of organizational
goals. Thus, efficiency means “doing things right”, and it is an essential factor for the
existence and success of the organization (Hodge, Anthony & Gales, 2003).

Pusić (cited in Benazic, 2012, p. 140) indicated that in many cases in the public sector,
effectiveness, which can be defined as capacity to achieve goals, gains a greater
importance than efficiency. Economic actors seek to structure their relationships – their
firms – as efficiently as possible, and the economic system as a whole operates to weed
out those that fail. Political actors, on the other hand, are typically not concerned with
efficiency in the usual economic sense, and the political system clearly does not weed out
the inefficient (Williamson et al., 1995). The political system is oriented primarily to the
achievement of goals defined in the political process, regardless of the cost benefit ratio.

During the last decade, service giving organizations have been undertaking considerable
transformations at macro and micro level, mainly due to the rapid development of
emerging business applications, technological advances as well as the requirements and
implications of the knowledge and experience-based economy. As a result, customers are
becoming less loyal, more price sensitive and discriminating. To address such challenges
and satisfy the dynamically changing customer needs, exploitation of information
technology capabilities, reengineering business processes and creating business value
have become necessary condition (Sigala, 2006).

According to Sigala (2006), current developments are not only required by service
organizations to transform their business operating models, but also it helps to redefine
their strategic scopes and roles. Overall, within this turbulent economic environment,
business competitiveness and performance is currently being related with issues such as
service quality, experiences adding customer value, exploitation of information and
communication technologies, customer relationship management, personalization and

1
customization of services, cross-cultural understanding and – eventually – satisfaction of
customer needs.

An efficient service delivery is the ability of an organization to deliver simple, effective,

and transparent service, which addresses customer expectation. A customer whose
service expectation has been addressed effectively and transparently becomes confident
towards the organization. Successful service giving companies focus their attention on
both their customers and their employees. They often try to understand the relationship
that links their service provision and customer satisfaction. This consists of important
considerations like internal service quality, satisfied and productive service employee,
greater service value, satisfied, and loyal customer, healthy service profit, and growth to
the company. The ingredient needed for success in the service area is the building of a
client friendly system, making everything easier for customers and to satisfy the needs of
the clients. The system must not be created for the convenience of the company rather on
the axiom" do right thing in the right way". The system is a perfect combination of
effectiveness and efficiency (Egidio, 1990).

It is commonly understood that every government seeks to raise revenue, mainly through
taxation, in order to pay its expenditure on infrastructure development, among others. In
Ethiopia, the responsibility to collect revenue for the federal government rests with the
Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority. In addition to collecting revenue, the
Authority is responsible to facilitate the legitimate movement of people and goods across
the border. Simultaneously, the Authority focuses on those people and vehicles that may
involve in the act of smuggling i.e. the act of bringing into or taking out of the country
goods on which customs duty and taxes are not paid and goods of which the importation
or exportation of which are prohibited by law. The Authority conducts investigation,
audit and prosecutes offenders. In the attempt to discharge its responsibility, the
Authority closely works with the Federal Police, Standardization Authority, Ministry of
Health, and Immigration Service and with other stakeholders (www.erca.gov.et, accessed
on 21 November, 2014).

2
Experience suggests that electronic service delivery can provide massive gain in
effectiveness and efficiency for all forms of tax administration. To accomplish its task,
ERCA has come across two stages: Manual and Electronic declaration and data
processing. However, during manual data processing there was not an updated data and
the national reports were not indicated at their up to date conditions. Hence, recently as a
solution to the problem observed on the manual stage the Ethiopian Revenue and
Customs Authority adopted the ASYCUDA and the Standard Integrated Government Tax
Administration System (Tax-paying Number) SIGTAS | TIN systems.

The Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) is used for customs management
system which covers most foreign trade procedures and activities in goods clearance
process. ASYCUDA is a standardized system that takes into account the international
codes and standards developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
and World Custom Organization (WCO) and they are adaptable to suit the national
characteristics of individual customs regimes and duties of Ethiopia. It all began in 1995
when a group of COMESA delegates came to Ethiopia to introduce ASYCUDA version
2.7 to Higher Customs Officials (www.erca.gov.et, accessed on 21 November, 2014).

The targeted objectives from the implementation of the ASYCUDA system in the
Ethiopian Customs are:
• Trade facilitation
• Effective revenue collection
• MIS and generation of trade statistics

Customs computerization speeds up the clearance of goods and reduces delays in

deliveries to customers. As a result the related overhead costs, which affect the cost of
imports and the price of export, are greatly minimized. And provides more precise
external trade statistics, the computerized database on trade is used for statistical
economic analysis, generate timely reports as required and cash account is automatically
closed every other working day (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), 2001).

3
1.2. Statement of the Problem
According to Berry (1991), the heart of excellent service marketing is characterized by
service reliability, performing the service consistently and accurately. When a company
performs a service carelessly, when it makes avoidable mistakes, when it fails to deliver
as per promises, it erodes the customer confidence in its capabilities and undermines its
chances of earning a reputation for service excellence. From the customer’s perspective,
the proof of a service is its flawless performance.

In Ethiopia, in most cases, service is provided in manner that suits the administrative
convenience (i.e. provider) rather than compliance to the recipient interest. In relation to
this, inconsistency of regulation and guidelines among governing institutions that provide
related service as well as lack of coordination and cooperation among various
departments within an institution and between related institutions often hinder efficiency
in service delivery (Ministry of Capacity Building (Ministry of Capacity Building
(MCB), 2001:3).

Moreover, the service delivery in public institutions is time taking due to excessive
hierarchal organizational structure. And yet sufficient attention is not given in the
planning process of many governmental institutions to improve their time taking service
delivery system as well as procedure of service delivery. In addition, the human resource
management system and working condition in the civil service do not motivate
employees to provide quality service properly. The service users are also not aware of
their rights and obligations regarding how and when to receive the public service (MCB,
2001:5).

Even though the quality of service delivery has increased the satisfaction of customers,
the efficiency of service giving company highly requires the ability to have a good
service delivery system and efficient professionals who fit that technology. Now it is
impossible to forget the contribution of modern information technologies for efficiency
of service delivery system. Electronic service delivery as a system will benefit the
organization in increasing profit, in decreasing transaction cost and maximizing customer

4
satisfaction and it is one of the best services giving system even thought it may stimulate
stress because of the knowledge gap and change challenging nature of human behavior
between employees (Quinn and Byron, 2006).

A company can achieve a strong reputation for quality service only when it consistently
meets customer service expectations. Customers evaluate service quality by comparing
what they want or expect with what they are getting from the company. To earn a
reputation companies should work as per expectations and requirements of customers
because customers are the sole judge of service quality and if customers disagree with the
quality of the service the organization offers, it can be concluded that the company has
problems and must accept and correct accordingly (Berry, 1991:15)

Service companies are under a constant and dynamic change, everybody is aware of this
and so, proactive action is required. What they have aimed to do is to identify issues that
are relevant to make them fit with the required service delivering system and as such
applicable to all involved in the management and competitiveness of service companies
regardless of their location or national boundaries. Though, this is for private
organization some parts are also extended to public organization and ERCA should watch
its service delivery system as well as its efficiency in this changing situation to facilitate
its revenue collection works.

Electronic service delivery facilitates the work of any organization and to maximize this
opportunity and to get organizational efficiency, Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority (ERCA) adopted an electronic service delivery system called ASYCUDA.
There is a claim that the introduction of information technology based service delivery
system cannot guarantee the development of a country even though it may contribute to
total development; this claim of under satisfaction by the service delivery systems
continues to the introduction of ASYCUDA.

It is the experience of the researcher that Clearing agents feel that the adoption of
ASYCUDA does not bring sufficient facilitation of works in the organization. They also

5
believe that the adoption of it cannot bring adequate change in efficiency, transparency
and effectiveness of service delivery in ERCA. This is due to lack of trained employees
and good management system, frequent system failure, network failure and electric
power failure. This study assesses the service delivery in ERCA and demonstrates the
efficiency of the organization after the adoption of ASYCUDA.

1.3. Research Questions

The adoption of the service delivery policy puts clearly on civil service institutions their
responsibility of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their service and of
making every effort on making to attain user satisfaction by ensuring fairness and
accountability in their dealings with the public. It also enables service institutions to serve
service users transparently, ethically and equitably. Above all the policy reminds civil
service officials and employees that they serve clients courteously.

Hence, ERCA applied ASYCUDA system for facilitation of its import and export works
and easy collection of revenues. In this thesis the researcher addresses the following
questions:

i. Is ASYCUDA facilitating work process in the organization and helping to bring

organizational efficiency and effectiveness in ERCA?
ii. What are the perceptions of customers towards efficiency of ASYCUDA?
iii. What changes have occurred on the perception and performance of employees
after the introduction of ASYCUDA?
iv. How much the adoption of AYSCUDA does reduce the transaction cost and the
time the process takes?
v. What are the shortcomings and problems faced in utilization of ASYCUDA and
what are possible solutions?

6
1.4. Research Objectives
ERCA adopted ASYCUDA to facilitate the import and export process activities in the
organization. Here the main objective of this research is to assess the efficiency of
ASYCUDA in service delivery process of ERCA.

The specific objectives are:

 To assess the role of ASYCUDA in facilitating work process in ERCA and
improving organizational efficiency;
 To assess the impact of adoption of ASYCUDA at the level of customers
satisfaction;
 To assess the changes in work performance after the introduction of ASYCUDA
in the organization;
 To assess the cost reduction and the shortening of time after adoption of
ASYCUDA;
 To show the shortcomings and problems faced on utilization of ASYCUDA and
give suggestions and recommendations accordingly.

1.5. Methodology of the Study

Under mixed method approach, the researcher bases the inquiry on the assumption that
collecting diverse types of data best provides an understanding of a research problem
(Creswell 2003). This mixed approach is appropriate when either quantitative or
qualitative approach by itself is inadequate to understand a research problem.

To address the general objective and to fill the knowledge gap, adequate data from both
quantitative (survey questionnaire) and qualitative (in-depth interview) sources are used,
and converge data collected from both sources at the same time to get a comprehensive
analysis of the research problem and interpret the overall result. Therefore, the researcher
used quantitative survey research questionnaire and in-depth interview data gathering
instruments together with documentary analysis. Thus, the researcher used concurrent
mixed approach during the study.

7
1.5.1. Research methods
Research methods are specific techniques/methods of data collection and analysis used to
achieve the broad research objective through addressing the specific objectives of the
study. Consequently, this research used quantitative research methods particularly survey
method and qualitative methods particularly in-depth interview and documentary
analysis.

To address the research problem using a survey method the researcher used semi
structured self-administered questionnaire. The reason to implement self-administered
closed ended questionnaire was because of its low cost requirement and not consume
much time to be answered by the respondents and quicker to administer by the researcher
but, if questions wording is unclear and if respondents are not literate, its response rate is
low. This Survey instrument was prepared in English. The questionnaire had two parts,
the first part was comprised of profile of respondents and the second part is comprised of
the main idea of the study issue.

The other specific method was in-depth interview. In-depth interview is a qualitative
technique designed to draw out a glowing picture of the participant’s perspective on the
research topic. In depth interview is an effective qualitative method for getting people to
talk about their personal feelings, opinions, and experiences. The interviews were made to 6
relevant offices (two officials from each organization). The Offices are Commercial Bank of
Ethiopia (CBE), National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), purposively selected private banks (NIB Bank
and Dashen Bank), Ministry of Finance and Economics Development (MOFED) and the ERCA
itself. Moreover, with regard to qualitative aspect of the method documentary analysis
was made.

1.5.2. Study Design

The study population that the researcher intended to draw a sample is indicated in sample
frame. Sample should be representative; because, based on the representative sample
generalization is given for the entire population. Therefore under this study the sampling
frame were customs official and employees, importer/exporter and third parties clearing
agents.

8
Table 1.1: population of the study

Category Station Total

Addis Ababa(Kaliti) Addis Ababa Bole airport

Employee 258 242 500

Official 24 24 48

Importer/Exporter - - 444

Clearing agent - - 244

Total 1236

Source: MTI, and ERCA

Sample Size
The other element of sample design is determination of sample size, given the limitation
of availability of time and other resources the sample size was determined as follows
even if, there is no single right way for the determination of sample size (Fowler 1984).
Accordingly, the researcher has taken 130 samples that were 10% from the total
employees, 25% from the total officials, 10% from the total importers/exporter, and 10%
from the total clearing agents. Random selection was applied in taking these samples.

Out of this 36, 28 and 16 questionnaires have been properly filled and returned from the
employees, importers/exporters and clearing agents respectively. On the other hand, the
researcher has drawn 12 interviewees from 48 officials to get detailed and clarified
information as they are decision maker in their respective organization.

1.5.3. Data Instrument

The researcher used semi-structured self administered questionnaire for both quantitative
and qualitative aspect of the research method. Further, for the qualitative aspects of the
study methods data were collected from in-depth interview and document analysis from
ERCA.

1.5.4. Data Analysis Methods

The specific methods applied in the study were survey methods and in-depth interview

9
together with documentary analysis. Therefore in this study, Quantitative data from the
questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The rational to use this
descriptive statistics is to describe the basic features of the data in a study and to provide
summaries about the sample and statistical package for social science (SPSS) tool was
used.

1.6. Scope of the Research

The research study is limited in Addis Ababa, which has the biggest customer load on the
Authority and the Addis Ababa Airport Branch Office (Bole) and Addis Ababa Export
and other goods facilities branch office (Kaliti) are the main study areas of the research
with equal proportion of samples taken from both sites. Because of the time and budget
limitations the research was conducted only in Addis Ababa Revenue and Customs
Authority Bole and Kaliti office and the head office and IT departments was covered in
the study that have relevant sources of data.

Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority adopted electronic service delivery system
that facilitates its work on tax collection-ASYCUDA and SIGTAS. ASYCUDA deals
with the tax collection on imports and exports activities and SIGTAS deals with tax
collection from all sources at home. However, the researcher focuses on the ASYCUDA
package and assesses the efficiency of the import and export system after the
implementation of ASYCUDA. This study does not cover the ICT application; it rather
concentrated only on the administrative efficiency of ASYCUDA.

1.7. Limitation of the Research

It was better to investigate and assess both ASYCUDA and SIGTAS to see all over the
efficiency of the system. But because of time and cost limitation the study was only
limited to ASYCUDA and tried to make an intensive study on stratified and randomly
selected samples.

10
1.8. Significance of the Study
i. This paper is important for the authority to observe its gaps in service delivery and
to initiate corrective actions.
ii. It instigates other researchers to investigate more about the system which are
not covered by this paper and other studies
iii. It is valuable for other researchers to use it as a source of reference for
comprehensive and thorough study on efficiency of the public organization.

1.9. Organization of the Thesis

This study is presented in four chapters. It starts with the introductory part which
discusses the service delivery, and electronic service delivery of ICT and ASYCUDA in
Ethiopia .It also deals with statement of the problem, objective of the study, significance
and methodology of the research as well as data analysis methods of this research. The
second chapter deals with the literature of service delivery and deals more on concepts in
Public Service Delivery and electronic service delivery, efficiency measurement of
Public Service Delivery. It also deals more on ASYCUDA and its implementation
ERCA. The third chapter is committed to analysis of the data collected, thereby on the
improvement and give hint on efficiency of service delivery to customers and cost
reduction, transparency and effectiveness in customs operation. Based on the findings of
the study, the final chapter offers suggestions and recommendations towards the
efficiency of ASYCUDA and gives ways for better utilization of the system for ERCA.

11
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Conceptual Framework: Electronic Public Service Delivery and Its Efficiency

Measurement

Introduction
This chapter reviews literatures on concepts in public service delivery, electronic service
delivery, its efficiency and measurement in public sector performance. It also discusses
the development of information technology and its service delivery contribution in
Ethiopia. In addition, some limitations on ICT service delivery are discussed. Finally,
development of information technology and implementation of ASYCUDA in Ethiopian
Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) are also looked into.

Definitions of Important Terminologies

This section attempts to define the terms widely used in this research paper, and it is
important to Understand their meanings and usage in the context of the research paper
which are derived from free dictionary ( http://www. thefreedictionary.com).

Service- is any work that is done by a person or a group of people that provides a
function to others. Service work can be paid or voluntary. This is to say you provide a
service rather than sell an object.
Service delivery- refers to delivery of work by a person or group for the benefit of
someone else or assistance offered by an organization to its customers.
Public service delivery- is a term usually used to mean services provided by government
to its citizens, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing private provision
of services.
Electronic service delivery- is electronic commerce in services, means the provision of
services with the assistance of telecommunications and telecommunications-based tools
.It is any application program or information resource which make to exploit the potential
electronic service and internet service to facilitate all the activities involved.

12
Information Technology-in the broadest sense, information technology refers to both
the hardware and software that are used to store, retrieve, and manipulate information. At
the lowest level you have the servers with an operating system. Installed on these servers
are things like database and web serving software. The servers are connected to each
other and to users via a network infrastructure. And the users accessing these servers
have their own hardware, operating system, and software tools.

Efficiency: a situation in which a person, company, factory, etc. uses resources such as
time, materials, or labor well, without wasting any(cambridge.org/dictionary/business-
English /efficiency)

Consistency- the quality of always behaving or performing in a similar way, or of always

happening in a similar way: (.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/consistency)

2.1. Concepts in Public Service Delivery

A public sector or government organization first and foremost exists for providing service
to its citizens through their operation. Service is generally any activity undertaken to meet
social needs. Public service, particularly, refers to those activities of government
institutions aimed at fulfilling the needs and ensuring the well being of the society as well
as enforcing laws, regulations and directives of government (MCB, 2001:1).

Several distinctive characteristics make special the public service delivery system of the
government from the private ones. These distinctive characteristics in combination make
the performance measurement in public sector a challenging practices and it is not easy to
make a comparison between performance of public and private sector organizations. The
occurrence of differing competitive conditions, differing objectives, constraints and data
difficulties makes very difficult to evaluate performance of public sector service
deliveries (Fox, 2002:14).

According to Ghobadian (Ghobadian et al 1994: 44-45), there are possibly major

differences between service and manufactured goods. These differences have an impact
on the approach and substance of quality management and four of them are:

13
 Inseparability of production and consumption: in service industries, usually
the marketers create or carry out the service at the same time as the full or partial
consumption of the service takes place. The high visibility of the conversion
process means that it is not possible to hide mistakes or quality shortfalls.
Moreover, the involvement of the consumer in the delivery process introduces an
additional process factor, the consumer, over which the management has little or
no direct control (Ghobadian et al 1994:44-45).

 Intangibility of service: Many services are essentially intangible that it is

difficult for the producer to illustrate the service and for the consumer to ascertain
its likely qualities. The consumer cannot see, feel, hear, smell, or touch the
product before it is purchased. Therefore, the consumer often looks for signs of
quality: for example: word of mouth; reputation; accessibility; communication;
physical tangibles; etc (Ghobadian et al 1994:44-45).

 Perishability of services: Services are perishable and cannot be stored in one

time period for consumption at a later date. This means that, unlike manufactured
goods, it is not possible to have a final quality check. Hence, service provider
needs to get the service right first time, every time (Ghobadian et al 1994:44-45).

 Heterogeneity of services: It is often difficult to reproduce a service consistently

and exactly. A number of factors can affect the extent of the heterogeneity of
service provisions. First, delivery of service often involves some form of contact
between the consumer and service provider. The behavior of the service provider
influences the consumer’s perception of quality. It is difficult to assure
consistency and uniformity of behavior (Ghobadian, et al, 1994, 44-45).

14
 Figure 1: Four service characteristics

Intangibility: Inseparability:
Service cannot be Services cannot be
seen, tasted, felt, separated from their
heard or smelled providers
before purchase
Variability
Perishability: Service (Heterogeneity):
Service cannot be
Quality of service
stored for later sales
depends on who
or uses
provides them and
when, where and how

(Source: Kotler and Armstrong, 2001:317)

Modern service delivery, which has been a distinguishing feature of the private sector,
has become a topic issue among government as well as non-government institutions in
their recent effort to transfer good management practices from private to the public
sector. Service delivery basically refers to the systematic arrangement of activities in
service giving institutions with the aim of fulfilling the needs and expectations of service
users and other stakeholders with the optimum use of resources .In short, improvement of
service delivery means increasing the cost effectiveness, coverage and impact as well as
efficiency of service (MCB, 2001:1).

Service companies want to ensure that customers receive consistently higher quality
service in every service encountered. However unlike product manufacturers, who can
adjust their machinery & inputs until everything is perfect, service quality will always
vary depending on the interaction between employees & customers, problems will
inevitably occur. As hard as they may try, even the best companies will have an
occasional late delivery (Kotler and Armstrong 2001:323).

15
However, although a company cannot always prevent service problem, it can learn to
correct the problems immediately. Good service recovery can change angry customers
into loyal ones. Therefore companies should take steps not only to provide good service
every time but also to recover from service mistakes when they do occur. The first step is
to empower front line service employees, to give them the authority, responsibility and
incentive they need, to recognize, care about and tend to customers’ needs. Generally,
they must learn to watch service performance closely and make needed corrections
(Kotler and Armstrong 2001:323).

Improving public service delivery is one of the biggest challenges worldwide. Because,
public services are a key determinant of quality of life while it is very difficult to measure
in per capita income, and also it is very difficult to show its efficiency clearly. They are
also an important plank of poverty reduction strategy in a country. But, it is a particular
challenge in Africa, given the low quality of service provision and the critical needs of
the citizen for quality services from beginning to end by organizing public service
provision is deemed to be a core function of government. These goods and services given
by government have important benefits not captured in market as the reason of they are
subject either to externalities or have equity or minimum service objectives. Given these
features, it is well known that the market provides them as market allocation based on
willingness to pay and the price system does not internalize externalities and mostly
given by the government (Besley and Ghatak 2007:127-128).

In order to bring quality service, service providers can train current employees better or
hire new ones who will work harder or more skillfully. Because it is known that
everything depends on the behavior of staff, if they are empowered they will work for
organizational goal achievements. Empowerment definitely calls for creativity and
enhance employees efficiency. In addition, we can exploit the power of technology
because it saves time and costs, it also has great and often untapped potential to make
service workers more productive and efficient. Hence, companies can differentiate their
service delivery having more able and reliable superior physical environment in which

16
the service products delivered, or by designing a superior delivery process better
customer service (Quinn and Byron, 2006:77-78).

Here, the private sector provides private goods efficiently, and the public sector steps in
to provide public goods and services and uses taxes or subsidies to correct externalities.
People are requesting for quality service which is by government reasoning out they are
tax payers and it has a responsibility to provided as per the requirement of them because
its responsibility is to serve the citizen (Besley and Ghatak, 2007:128).

Nowadays, continuous improvement in service quality is considered a requirement in the

services industry. Supporting multiple service delivery channels with up to date
technology is now a key competitive quality has become an essential part of
organizational success due to increased customer expectations and customization of
services in many markets. In fact, even the definition of service quality is changing. Good
service quality used to mean that the output was made to conform to the specifications set
by the process designers. Today, the concept of service quality is evolving to mean
uniformity of the service output around an ideal (target) value determined by the
customer (Frei, et al, 1997:36).

A performance evaluation in public sector is very difficult and it is particularly serious in

three respects. First, it is frequently difficult to define the service being provided.
Secondly, it is challenging always to price the service being provided. Third, quality
matters particularly in the provision of service because service quality is notoriously
difficult to define much less to measures (Fox, 2002:19).

Competition, processes, and technological improvements in delivery systems have

resulted in a gradual shift in strategic focus from price to service quality. It depends on
the magnitude of service process variability and its impact on service quality and
organizations performance. It has become an essential part of organizational success due
to increased customer expectations and customization of services in many markets (Frei,
et al, 1997:2).

17
However, before applying quality control methods developed in manufacturing to service
operations, more fundamental questions need to be addressed: How does process
variation in services brings organizational efficiency? How do process variations affect
an organization performance? It is very important to point out that removal of
unnecessary process variation is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, for improving
service quality as well as for bring efficiency. It is not sufficient because high levels of
inherent difference will continue to exist due to other factors and must be managed, even
in the best of all possible scenarios (Frei, et al, 1997:2).

There are four major factors which contribute to the substantial difference in the delivery
of services, but not all four of these factors apply to all services, nor is this complete list
of variables, but these four factors represent major explanations for the existence of
process variation in services: heterogeneous customers with different service
expectations; lack of precise policies and processes; high employee turnover; and nature
of customization (Frei, et al, 1997:2).

Due to the co-productive nature of most customers, the presence of heterogeneous

customers usually introduces variation into the service delivery. The principal reason for
this is that a component of the production process (the customer preferences and
expectations) is different for each instance of service delivery. For example, one
customer may want fast service with no idle chatter and another customer may want to
have a discussion amidst service delivery. Serving these customers will likely to require
different amounts of time, and thus will result in higher variation. Aside from variation in
customers, there may also be process variability. Services, typically, do not apply as
much rigor to the definition of each and every step of the production process. In fact, it is
not uncommon for upper management not to know the details of a particular process and
for there to be no institutional knowledge of process designs (Frei and Harker, 1995).

Many organizations want to work for the fulfillment of their goals, but they may not get
the right way of doing a work and intended to move ahead and improve organizational
efficiency. But many activities in service giving organizations require better facilitation

18
as well as skill full employees. Hence, organizations should work to empower employees
to make the service quality as well as to bring organizational efficiency by following
organizational goals as well as implementing better information technology which helps
its performance as well as make an organization efficient and effective in using its
resources.

2.2. Electronic Public Service Delivery

The term electronic services delivery is much used, but seldom defined. The generic
concept, for both the terms 'electronic business' and 'electronic commerce' is widely used
as the conduct of business with the assistance of telecommunications, and of
telecommunications based tools. Hence, electronic services delivery is electronic
commerce in services. It is the delivery of information, products, service, or payments
with the help of telephone, computer or other automated media. It includes many kinds of
business activities, and all commercial transactions conducted by the internet, telephone
and fax and all forms of trade in digitized goods and services. However, it is not
commonly used in relation to government services in developing countries especially like
Ethiopia, but all in all the electronic technologies is a promising application to get a
promising return to the companies who apply it and to the other stakeholders (Clarke,
1999:2) .

Electronic services delivery can be performed using a wide range of electronic tools. The
emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has resulted in a situation
where substantial proportion of recent business activities being focused on that channel.
While electronic commerce can help increase the effectiveness of tax administrations, it
also raises major new issues and challenges established tax systems and laws. The
potential with electronic commerce for avoidance and evasion is major and necessitates
that countries review their tax policies and administration to ensure that tax laws are
applied appropriately (Clarke, 1999:3).

Achieving integration of electronic service delivery capability is not enough for a

government. It also needs to ensure that these electronic services are accessible by the

19
citizens. This is achieved through different Service Delivery Channel, which takes into
consideration the information technology infrastructure, ability of a citizen to interact
with the government electronically, and social considerations. It offers considerable
potential to tax authorities to reduce costs, improve efficiency, accessibility,
transparency, and client orientation (Jenkins, 2002:16).

The emergence of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has provided

means for faster and better communication, efficient storage, retrieval and processing of
data and exchange and utilization of information to its users, be they individuals, groups,
businesses, organizations or governments. What had begun as a faster, more accurate and
simpler means of word-processing quickly lent itself to being used as a tool for
processing and tabulating data as an aid in decision making. With growing
computerization and increasing internet connectivity, this process has presently reached a
stage where more and more users are motivated to modifying their ways of doing things
in order to leverage the advantages provided by ICT. In other words, this has led to
‘business process re-engineering’. So far as governments are concerned, the coming
together of computerization and internet connectivity/web-enablement in association with
process re-engineering, promises faster and better processing of information leading to
speedier and qualitatively better decision making, greater reach and accountability, better
utilization of resources and overall good governance. In the case of citizens, it holds the
promise of enhanced access to information and government agencies, efficient service
delivery and transparency in dealings and interactions with government.
(http://arc.gov.in)

With the increasing awareness among citizens about their rights and the resultant increase
in expectations from the government to perform and deliver, the whole paradigm of
governance has changed. Government, today, is expected to be transparent in its dealings,
accountable for its activities and faster in its responses. This has made the use of ICT
imperative in any agenda drawn towards achieving good governance. It has also led to
the realization that such technologies could be used to achieve a wide range of objectives
and lead to faster and more equitable development with a wider reach (http://arc.gov.in).

20
‘Electronic governance’ is basically the application of Information and Communications
Technology to the processes of Government functioning in order to bring about ‘Simple,
Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent’ (SMART) governance. This would
generally involve the use of ICTs by government agencies for any or all of the following
reasons: (a) Exchange of information with citizens, businesses or other government
departments (b) Speedier and more efficient delivery of public services (c) Improving
internal efficiency (d) Reducing costs / increasing revenue (e) Re-structuring of
administrative processes and (f) Improving quality of services
(http://arc.gov.in/arc_11threport_ch2.pdf).

Electronic governance and web services for citizens will happen only in those countries
that have the infrastructure to support it while some countries have embrace electronic
government, a number of others have not placed enough information or services online,
and are not taking advantage of the interactive features of the Internet. While some
countries have embraced electronic government, a number of others have not placed
enough information or services online, and are not taking advantage of the interactive
features of the internet (Ahmed, 2003:3).

The increasing forces of intensifying global competition, continuing customer demands,

and the significant revolution in digital communication technologies have together put
pressure on many organizations to switch their operations into the e-business world by
making use of electronic commerce, technologies such as the Internet and the World
Wide Web (WWW) as media for business-to-business, and business-to-consumer
transactions. This process potentially facilitates the expansion and development of new
linkages among various business partners around the globe. It also speeds up information
flow and enables information and knowledge sharing with other entities in a "boundary
less" business supply chain (Al-Mashari, 2005:2).

According to Fine (2003:2), determining the impact of information technology on

organizational structure and outcomes has become a crucial task for government. With
the speed of communications and the pace of business constantly on the increase,

21
government need to know how technology is affecting them and their grantees what they
need, what they could be doing better, whether their IT systems are helping or hindering
them in achieving their missions. But certain knowledge of the impact of technology on
an organization or a program is like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: its value is
obvious, and it looks easy to find, but the path toward it is unclear and transient.
Implementations of electronic governance will bring benefit by providing efficiency to
the government service. Improvements in information technology can have dramatic
effects on both the internal and external operations of government internally, improved
IT systems can enhance and strengthen organizational infrastructure and capacity by
increasing the efficiency of client intake; service coordination; information sharing
between departments, staff and board (Fine, 2003:2-3).

Implementing new information technology applications to enable a competitive edge has

become a core and important strategy in most contemporary corporations. Earlier studies
have suggested that information technology plays a fundamental role in an organization's
ability to perform through innovations in products, channels and customer segments.
Information technology infrastructure includes networks, management and provisioning
of large-scale computing, electronic data interchange and shared databases, and research
and development to identify emerging technologies (Chen, 2007:13).

Accordingly, as Chen (2007:13) states, Information Technology adoption will help the
organization to maximize external advantage as well as internal advantage that the
technology provides.

22
 Figurer 2: Relationships among information technology adoption, service
innovation practices and competitive advantage

I T Adoption Service Innovation Competitive

 IT Infrastructure Practices Advantage
 Strategic Alignment Process External
Innovation Advantage
 Organizational Structure
Product Internal
 Individual Learning
Innovation Advantage

(Source: Chen and Tsou, 2007)

2.3. Measuring Public Sector Performance

Service is an intangible experience of customers. It cannot be stored on a shelf, touched,
tested or tried on for size because service is not a thing. Rather, it is a process performed
for the benefit of customers (Brown and Fisk, 1984:250).

It is not easy to standardize and control the characteristic of service delivery and in some
instants what the organization intends to deliver may be completely different from what
the consumer receives. In addition to this the service operations depend on consumers to
communicative their needs or provide information. The accuracy of the information and
the ability of the service provider to understand this information correctly have strong
impact on service delivery. The priority and expectations of the consumer may vary each
time he or she uses the service. Moreover, priority and expectations may change during
the delivery of the service. The variability of service from one period to another and from
consumer to consumer makes quality assurance and control difficult. Service providers
have to rely heavily on the competence and ability of their staff to understand the
requirements of the consumer and react in an appropriate manner (Kotler and Armstrong
2001:318- 319).

Even though it is very difficult to measure the efficiency of public service delivery since
it is involved with many immeasurable factors and its nature makes it difficult to measure

23
easily; Polidano identified some measures to improve public service delivery. They are
summarized as follows:
1. Understanding needs of its customers. These identify all types of
customers or find out what they want and need;
2. Design its service in light of this understanding which means creates or
reforms services to suit its customers and delivering as the way they
requested;
3. Consult with user regularly by gathering information on user expectations
so that service can respond to changing requirements and circumstances;
4. Introduces healthy and well developed arrangements for delivering service
by design and introduces better ways of delivering a service;
5. Employing and motivating capable staff, especially on front line and
recognize the value of its staffs at all level ,appreciate the impact of
motivated frontline employees on service delivery;
6. Monitors service performances and learns lesson so that it can innovate by
establishing suitable and credible performance measurement, regularly
monitors performance and carries out effective analysis, applying lessons
learned to make service improvement;
7. Rectify when things go wrong-recognize sometimes things go wrong and
appreciate efforts and compensation channels that are accessible to all and
efficient to administer;
8. Publicize service and performance levels to all users and communicate
information on service and performance through tried-and-tested methods
and innovative approaches;
9. Balances not overburdening service users with rules and demands for
information with the need to safeguard public money;
10. Deliver and repeatedly deliver to the same high standards service
(Polidano, 1999:7-9).

Shah (2005:121-122), explain more on justification for the difficulties of performance

measurement in public organizations and reasoned as the challenge to analyze output of

24
service and difficulties to measure the outcomes of the given services. To evaluate the
role for these bodies and how they should be structured, it needs a set of criteria. Some of
them can be efficiency, accountability, transparency and ease of administration:
• Economic allocation/efficiency: This is achieved within the organization
when all service responsibilities are organized and allocated to get the greatest
possible gain from the use of all resources (inputs) at its disposal;
• Accountability is achieved when the customer or taxpayer is able to identify
who is responsible for what and is able to link the governing unit responsible
for the service directly to its funding which are tax payers;
• Transparency is achieved when citizens or tax payers have access to
information and decision making forums, so that the general public knows that
what is happening and is able to judge whether it is appropriate;
• Ease of administration is an extension of the criteria of efficiency and
accountability. The easiest system to administer is one that is not confusing
and does not require an unnecessary amount of time and effort in
consultations, correspondence and meetings in reaching decisions (Shah,
2005:121-122)

By considering only few factors it is very difficult to measure the efficiency of public
service delivery because it is very difficult and complicated to measure the service
delivery given by the public organization; hence, sometimes it is better to see it from the
angle of private organization to make the service measurable. One of service quality
measurement models that have been extensively applied is the SERVQUAL model
developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985).

The dimensions of SERVQUAL framework are:

• Tangibles: Physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel;
• Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately;
• Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service;

25
 • Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to
inspire trust and confidence;
• Empathy: Caring, individualized attention the service provider gives to its
customers. (Chowdhary and Prakash, 2007:18).

Service quality continues to be a challenging topic in contemporary quality management

theory and practice. Unlike products, services are not easily measured, tested or
controlled for quality. The most consistent findings of two decades of service quality
research are that: (i) service quality is more difficult for the consumer to evaluate than
product quality; (ii) service quality perceptions result from a comparison of consumer
expectations with actual service performance; and (iii) quality evaluations are not based
solely on the outcome of a service but also involve evaluation of the delivery process
(Nakhai and Neves, 2009).

Figure 3: The service quality model

Dimensions of Brand image Past experience Industry standards

Word of mouth Customer’s Company’s
Service Quality
needs messages
1. Tangibles
2. Reliability
Expected
3. Responsiveness
Service (E)
4. Assurance Service
5. Empathy Perceived Quality
Service (P) (SQ)

(Source: Nakhai and Neves, 2009)

As shown in Figure-03, perceived services quality is the result of the consumer’s

comparison of expected service with perceived service. The comparison of expectations
with perceptions is suggested in the service quality literature: the relative importance of
these criteria in shaping customer expectations prior to the delivery of service may differ

26
0
from their relative importance in actual customer perceptions of the delivered service.
However, an important implication of the service quality model is that the gap between
service performance and customers’ expectations level may lead to dissatisfaction even
when the producer meets the exact design specifications (Nakhai and Neves, 2009).

The problem of measuring the performance of private or public sector organizations is

fundamental to any economy concerned with the accountability, transparency, efficiency
and effectiveness of these institutions. In the private sector it has long been assumed that,
in the long run, the discipline imposed by the marketplace motivates corporations to
strive for cost efficiency and profit maximization, facilitated by feedback from the
markets for capital, corporate control and managerial labor. These include measures
derived from profits, rates of return on assets, investment and invested capital, market
shares and market power (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985)

Overall performance is divided into two components: (i) efficiency, which describes how
well an organization uses resources in producing services; that is, the relationship
between the actual and optimal combination of inputs used to produce a given bundle of
outputs, and (ii) effectiveness, the degree to which a system achieves its program and
policy objectives. In turn, effectiveness encompasses a number of different desired
aspects of service linked to program outcome objectives. These are: (i) appropriateness
(matching service to client needs); (ii) accessibility (aspects such as affordability,
representation amongst priority groups and physical accessibility); and (iii) quality (the
process of meeting required standards or incidence of service failures) (Worthington and
Dollery, 2000).

According to Ghobadian, et al. (1994) service quality is considered a critical determinant

of competitiveness attention; it can help an organization to differentiate itself from other
organizations and through it gain a lasting competitive advantage. High quality of service
is considered an essential determinant of the long-term profitability not only of service
organizations, but also of manufacturing organizations. It affects the repurchase
intentions of both existing and potential customers. Market research has shown that

27
customers dissatisfied with a service will disclose their experiences to more than three
other people. Positive word of mouth can be a very powerful tool for attracting new
customers. Negative word of mouth can have a devastating impact on the credibility and
effectiveness of organizations’ efforts to attract new customers. In addition, customers’
service expectations are constantly rising, while their tolerance for poor service is
declining (Ghobadian, et al, 1994: 44).

The obstacles to service quality improvements are identified and discussed below:

1. Lack of visibility. Service quality problems are not always visible to the
provider. This places greater responsibility on the service provider to be
proactive in the identification of quality problems.
2. Difficulties in assigning specific accountability. The consumer’s overall
perception of service quality is influenced by experience at different stages
of service delivery. However, it is hard to attribute quality problems to a
particular stage of service delivery.
3. Time required improving service quality. Service quality problems often
require major effort over a long period of time to resolve. This is because
service quality is more dependent on people than systems and procedures.
Attitudes and beliefs take longer to change than procedures. It is difficult
for managers to keep their attention focused on the problem and remove the
root causes of the quality shortcomings.
4. Delivery uncertainties. Control of service delivery and quality is
complicated by the individual and unpredictable nature of people. The
people element encompasses both customers and frontline staff of the
service organization (Ghobadian. et.al, 1994:46).

According to Ghobadian et al, (1994), the attainment of service quality requires a lot of
performances through different directions, some of them are:

28
 • Market and customer focus. “Service quality” problems are more likely
to arise in organizations that are not focused on identifying and acting on
the customer’s needs and expectations. A quality organization should put
itself in the “customer’s shoes” and build its policies from the customer’s
vantage point (Ghobadian et al, 1994:46).

• Empowerment of frontline staff. “Service quality” can be enhanced by

giving frontline staff the latitude to make important decisions regarding
the customer’s needs. It is generally recognized that devolvement of those
decisions which affect customer care to the frontline staff pays
(Ghobadian et al, 1994:46).

• Well-trained and motivated staff. Frontline staffs who are not

adequately trained for their job will find it difficult to perform their tasks
effectively. This will be noted by the consumer and is likely to cause
adverse quality perceptions. It is also important to ensure that frontline
staff are effectively supported and well motivated. Motivated staff requires
the provision of: an appropriate and clear career ladder and opportunities;
remuneration and recognition system; a measurement system; and
appraisal procedures (Ghobadian et al, 1994:47).

• A clear service quality vision. One consequence of the interactive nature

of service is the need for a clear vision of quality. In the absence of a clear
vision and definition employees are likely to have their own interpretation
of service quality. Lack of common vision will inevitably increase the
variability experienced by the customer within and without each stage of
the service delivery. Inconsistency and variability of treatment is likely to
have an adverse impact on the perception of quality (Ghobadian et al,
1994:47).

29
2.4. Information Communication Technology and Service Delivery
Experiences of Africa
In the continuum of human development five overlapping phases can be identified: the
nomadic/agrarian, agrarian, industrial, service, and knowledge. In the latter stages, Africa
has lagged behind the rest of the world. During the industrial phase, this lag was
attributable to the colonial experience, which denied most of this continent its
sovereignty over decisions and policies affecting its development and imposed on it
activities that contributed to the development of the colonial powers. The colonial period
was one during which Africa lost control over its political, economic, administrative and
technological destiny (Kwankam and Ningo, 1997: 2).

Information technology penetration in Africa began just after the wider introduction of
mainframe computers in the developed world by the end of 1960s. Later microcomputers
spread widely in the region through direct purchase and by donor development aid
programs. The initial stages of microcomputers introduction into Ethiopia were
characterized by inadequate literacy and irregular understanding of the technology by
potential users. Full adaptation of the technology had been difficult due to conditions like
cultural and literacy problems, languages barriers, in existence of scripts and limited
access to software and training materials. Still most users are still not aware of the
potential of the technology. The original resistance, due to fear and dislike is, however,
replaced by intensive application of word processing, transaction and data processing
(Julie, 2007:1)

If the delay in development in the past can be attributed to the loss of sovereignty, it will
be difficult to explain the continuing lag in this era of political and administrative
independence. Africa must avoid the specter of a new form of colonialism based on the
generation, storage, processing, retrieval, transmission, and distribution of information.
Many African countries are burdened with inadequate communications infrastructure.
The development of IT in African countries will be influenced by answers, if any, to
questions concerning the economic benefits of IT, IT policy, and its impact on
government, society, business, and the security of the state. It is not clear how these

30
concerns will be handled, given the limited experience of other societies. Nevertheless,
they deserve consideration because acceptance of IT will depend on its perceived benefits
in solving some of society's pressing and anticipated problems in education, health-care,
business, government and sustainable rural development (Kwankam and Ningo, 1997:2).

African countries, by virtue of their potential market size, should not be obligated simply
to react to trends in the IT industry, but should play an active part in their determination.
A proactive rather than a reactive approach should be adopted in the development of IT
in Africa. This means anticipating problems and designing strategies to resolve them
before they occur. Our vision should not be limited to catching up with what exists in the
developed world. This will simply guarantee the propagation of the gap between them
and us. Secondly, it will perpetuate problems of appropriateness, adaptability, etc.
perennial issues which will continue to eat up our meager resources (Kwankam and
Ningo, 1997: 2).

With the rapid spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), new
opportunities have been opened for a revival of public discourse and improved
governance efficiency. ICTs offer concrete opportunities for local and national
governments to improve their performance in terms of transparency, participation and
decentralization. The “mainstreaming” of ICTs within planning and design of
development strategies help to strengthen the establishment of efficient, effective and
transparent governance systems. On-line tools can significantly improve the rendering of
services and information flows from administrations to their constituencies;
communication among administrations and citizens can be enhanced and, lastly, ICTs
offer unique opportunities for broadened citizen involvement and participation in the
decision-making process (Gucheteneire and Mlikot, 2009:3).

Ethiopia faces a number of developmental challenges including those that posses barriers
to the development and roll-out of e-government systems. Unlike in the case of the
developed countries whose systems (government administrative systems, etc) are in an
advanced stage of development and hence can be described as ‘e-government system

31
deployment and exploitation ready,’ Ethiopia currently faces a number of e-government
development and implementation barriers and challenges. A number of these barriers and
challenges need to be addressed within the context of developing and implementing a
suitable strategy for facilitating and mapping out how Ethiopia is to roll-out its e-
government program. (Dzidonu, 2006:32)

According to European free trade association, from the beginning of trade, the exchange
of goods, services and money between two parties, has existed. The exchange of one
merchandise for another between two persons or villages, that is barter, is an example of
an early form of trade. It eventually led to persons or villages specializing in certain
products with the sole aim of delivering them to other parties in exchange for
commodities which the first did not have (the delivery of woolens from one village to
another in exchange for cooking equipment produced by the latter, for instance) (EFTA,
1999:12)

Due to the fact that participants in free trade arrangements adopt separate external
customs duties, they run the risk that third countries circumvent these duties by
channeling exports into the free-trade area via the state with the lowest tariff.
Consequently, for a product to qualify for regional preferences and in order to assure free
circulation of goods and services within the free trade area, trade operators are required to
prove by documentation that the traded product has been wholly obtained or sufficiently
processed within the free-trade area. Within a Customs Union there is no need for rules of
origin for internal trade because the Member States have harmonized tariffs and trade
policy with regard to third countries. With regard to preferential trade in services, in the
context of economic integration, the nationality of the service supplier is relevant to
determine whether or not preferential treatment can be granted (EFTA, 1999:26)

With the emergence of money, which is defined as a good that can be exchanged for any
other good, exchange became more and more complex. Indeed, with the development of
institutions that specialised in lending and borrowing money, including gold, and with
revolutions in transport and technology, trade has evolved from exchange within a

32
limited area to a global network of transactions in which, in the 1990’s, orders which are
instantly delivered by fax or e-mail allow a company in Hungary, for instance, to
immediately supply made-to-order merchandise to a company in Germany.

As trade takes place world-wide between a network of competing producers and

consumers, that is suppliers and clients, different trade procedures are established, some
of which are more efficient than others. A given procedure may thus give a producer the
edge over his competitors in a given market. Thus, if the exporting country has border
and customs controls compatible with those of the importing country, the importing
country will prefer to deal with that exporting country rather than with another whose
export procedures are unfamiliar. Moreover, the simplification of trade procedures (also
known as trade facilitation) will reduce transaction costs and increase the volume of
trade.

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial,
created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In
this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world
problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or
wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator.
Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technologies such as computer software
and business methods fall under this definition of technology.

The word technology can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this
context, it is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to
produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfies wants; it includes
technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined
with another term, such as "medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the
state of the respective field's knowledge and tools. "State-of-the art technology" refers to
the high technology available to humanity in any field. Technology can be viewed as an
activity that forms or changes culture. Additionally, technology is the application of
math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the

33
rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and,
as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyber cultured has, at its basis,
the development of the Internet and the computer. Not all technology enhances culture in
a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools
such as guns.

One of the greatest challenges facing public authorities today is to reconcile the
apparently contradictory objectives of enforcing government regulations while at the
same time posing the minimum obstacle to legitimate trade. Enforcement with a
minimum of obstacles is a very good summary of the aim of trade simplification,
facilitation and efficiency. With regard to this area, simplification of procedures is a key
tool to facilitate trade and to increase trade efficiency. In fact, these approaches address
the same goal: if enforcement is needed, then with minimum interference (Dzidonu,
2006:35).

There is no commonly accepted definition of trade facilitation. This could partly be

explained by the fact that the subject of simplifying and standardizing trade information
and its electronic transmission is in a process of constant evolution. However, trade
facilitation could be defined as the simplification of trade procedures for international
traders and agencies in order to facilitate the trade transaction process. This requires a
series of governmental and non-governmental actions within international trade
regulation and procedures. While trade facilitation is in the interest of both traders and
governments, this must not be seen as easing the way for abuse or circumvention of
national and international legislation nor circumvention of efforts to combat fraud.

With the lowering of tariffs across the globe, the cost of complying with customs
formalities has been reported to exceed, in many instances, the cost of duties to be paid.
In the modern business environment of timely production and delivery, traders need fast
and predictable release of goods Clearly, this definition relates to a wide range of
activities including but not limited to import and export procedures (for example,
customs or licensing procedures), transport formalities, payments, insurance, and other

34
financial requirements. However, recently, the definition of trade facilitation has been
broadened to include the transparency and professionalism of customs authorities,
harmonization of various standards and conformity to international or regional
regulations. In a narrower sense, trade facilitation concerns the movement of goods in
cross-border trade (Buyonge and Kireeval, 2008:4).

The main reason for the initial unwillingness of African developing or least-developed
countries to negotiate on trade facilitation was the understandable fear that
implementation of any such agreement would require considerable investment of the
governments of these countries in infrastructure, change of operational procedures and
human resources. It is at the same time unlikely that the developed countries would need
to change anything for implementing any of the trade facilitation measures to be included
in such a multilateral trade facilitation agreement. African countries are now very keen to
explore the possibilities provided by trade facilitation whether in the context of the WTO
negotiations, regional or country-specific initiatives. New trade facilitation initiatives in
Africa address both physical infrastructure (roads, ports, telephone connectivity, etc.) and
administrative hurdles (Buyonge and Kireeval, 2008:3).

Automated systems in Customs provide one of the most important tools for facilitation of
trade procedures. Customs automation results in increased transparency in the assessment
of duties and taxes, substantial reduction in customs clearance times, and predictability,
all leading to direct and indirect savings for both government and traders. The higher the
level of automation of customs procedures in a country is, the greater the possibility of
detailed inspections, detection of fraud, and firm action including prosecution in court.
Early versions of ‘ASYCUDA’, the preferred customs IT system in Africa, have limited
functionality compared to contemporary versions such as ‘ASYCUDA++’.

Most of the employees of the clearing agents’ organizations did not have the knowledge
and ability to use computers and technology efficiently. So understandably it was quite a
challenge for most of the clearing agents to comply with the requirements for exchange
of electronic information with Customs while learning basic IT skills. An important

35
lesson that should be learned is to invest in developing the IT skills of the staff of
companies if customs technological developments are to lead to improved levels of trade
facilitation. (Buyonge and Kireeval, 2008:3).

Customs administrations in Africa are going through a period of rapid change, which
requires a paradigmatic shift in customs operation. There are ongoing positive
developments by Customs to reform and modernize procedures and processes, as well as
commendable initiatives by the private sector to take a more proactive approach to
improve customs administration for the benefit of governments and business. The
increasing positive engagement of business with Customs has helped identify major trade
facilitation weaknesses that if addressed, can help reduce transaction costs in Africa.
These include the lack of a service ethos across all customs management levels,
adversarial relationship between Customs and business, insufficient or inefficient
supporting infrastructure, lack of a facilitation culture in other government departments,
corruption and illicit trade. The challenges present opportunities for businesses to engage
with Customs to bring about the desired change (Buyonge and Kireeval, 2008:5).

However, businesses need to create customs compliance strategies that reflect an

understanding of the Customs business in specific countries. While investments in
infrastructure can be expensive, delays can be minimized through cooperation between
business, Customs and other government agencies. It is also important to take advantage
of information and communication technologies, especially since many administrations
are now automating their systems. Human factors will also determine the amount of
customs-related delays that can be experienced_ specifically the integrity of employees
and customs officials. Due to emerging supply chain security concerns at the global level,
businesses across the world, including in many countries in Africa, are required to have
more transparency in their operations including mechanisms for vetting third party
service providers (Buyonge and Kireeval, 2008:5).

36
2.5. Development of Information Technology in Ethiopia
The world economy is experiencing the effects of rapid globalization and liberalization as
well as the impact of the emerging information age. The prediction is that this will bring
about a new global economic order to be dominated by information and information age
knowledge-based economies. Like other developing countries, Ethiopia is facing new
challenges to her socio-economic development as a result of the emerging information
age characterized by information and communication technologies (ICTs). The crucial
role that ICTs can play in facilitating and accelerating socio-economic development has
been recognized worldwide. And Ethiopia like other countries is equally placed to take
advantage of these technologies to facilitate her socio-economic development process
(UNPAN, 2006:6)

According to Adam (1999) awareness about of information technology has been greatly
growing among users in the field of academics and research, among workers of
international organizations and in international business organizations. This has resulted
in a growing recognition of the importance of networking and expansion of the
technology. The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation has made huge investment
in the development of the network infrastructures.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many
societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's
global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological
processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural
resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its environment. Various implementations of
technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical
questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human
productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional
norms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology assessed 16 January, 2015).

Information Technology (IT) is not a luxury for the poor: rather it is an essential tool for
poverty alleviation as per Asian Pacific Newsletter. The impact of IT is pervasive both on

37
an organization and on society as a whole and it offers opportunities of break through
changes. The ongoing innovation in the IT the Internet is growing with accelerating pace
(Mesfin, 2005:7).

Ethiopia recognizing the developmental potentials and opportunities of the information

and technological revolution has embarked on a process of economic transformation
through the modernization of the key sectors of the economy including those of
agriculture, services and industrial sectors through the deployment and the exploitation of
ICTs. A key strategy is to pursue an agricultural sector development-led industrial
strategy aimed at rural and agriculture centered development, guided by an ICT-driven
competitive and market oriented development approach. Acknowledging the key role that
development, deployment and exploitation of ICTs can play in Ethiopia’s economic and
social development, the Government recognizes the need for the rapid development of
nation’s information and communications infrastructure as well as the development of the
nation’s educational, human resources and other development-focused resources to bring
about the necessary change and transformation required to achieve improvements in the
determinants of the nation’s socio-economic performance (UNPAN, 2006:6).

According to Teferi (2004:13) the application of computers, and thereby the

development and awareness of mechanization, is closely related to the introduction of
computers into Ethiopia by foreign suppliers. In this report an attempt is therefore made
to show how computer usage started in Ethiopia in relation to the major suppliers, namely
IBM, NCR, SERIC Ethiopia, and Burroughs. As a result of competition between
suppliers in Ethiopia, changes in the technology were brought to the attention of users.
Demand for more efficient systems began to be felt.

Coupled with lack of national guidelines, a weak education infrastructure and a restrictive
information seeking culture have remained the stumbling blocks to diffusion of
information and communication technologies in Ethiopia. On the positive side,
international organizations and development aid agencies have played a significant role
in information technology diffusion in the country. The existence of many international

38
organizations in the capital city has created opportunities for demonstrations of key
information technology, transfer of ideas, sponsoring structural development projects and
a potential market segment for emerging small and medium enterprises in the field. The
number of international organizations recognizing the importance of information
technology for the development of local capacity has been increasing (Teferi, 2004:13).

The application of information and communication technology does not just encompass
technology_ hardware, radios, computers, telephones and software and the content or
data, but also needs organization, incentives, procedures and people. Without enabling
policies environment for vibrant private sector development, and the human resources,
telecommunications, energy and social infrastructure development, ICTs application will
remain fragmented. The ability to participate in information and communication
technologies requires participation, partnership, understanding of social implication of
new technologies and management of changes at national level. As an industrial activity,
electronics has yet to start in Ethiopia, though some efforts have been initiated towards
assembling radio receiver sets. Sophisticated systems are in operation in the fields of
mass media, radio communication, telecommunication, and communication and
navigational aids for civil aviation. The data-processing sector, which was practically
nonexistent about 30 years ago, is now within reach of many operational areas. The
earliest use of electronics in Ethiopia was in the mass communication sub sector,
followed by telecommunication and radio communication (Julie, 2007:9).

According to Fikre (2005:10) Information Technology strategy of Ethiopian Revenue and

Customs Authority is to cope with the latest information technology in line with the
international standards for the computerization of Customs. ERCA introduced
ASYCUDA 2.7 version in 1998 and has embarked on the change to implement an
advanced version of ASYCUDA (Automated System for Customs Data), ASYCUDA++
in all Customs administrations to improve the way Customs carry out its tasks by
applying Information Technology. The new system is intended to provide a better
working tool and benefits the users by providing an integrated solution for declaration
processing, accounting management, customs enforcement (selectivity & risk

39
management), and management information system. An efficient and effective customs is
essential to the welfare of the country. It provides the statically information on foreign
trade transaction essential for the economic planning.

According to Fikre (2005:11) the main objectives of ASYCUDA++ are to achieve:

• More effective customs control
• More efficient customs clearance
• Uniform applications of customs Law
• More efficient revenue collection
• More effective data analysis and improved data quality
• Efficient production of external trade statistics and enable exchange of
information between relevant institutions in the country, Customs
administrations in the region and the COMESA centre (Fikre, 2005:11).

2.6. Limitations on Information Communication Technology in

Service delivery
Fortunately, there is some overlap between policy issues for IT and for computer
technology which only a few years back was a preoccupation of many African countries.
The prospect of a technology with such potential impact as IT evolving totally unchecked
within our country is disquieting. Although there are many successful instances of IT
introduction, a few bad examples are sufficient to give the industry a bad name,
particularly with potential users who are not fully committed to the idea. The rational
transfer and application of this technology requires that some guidelines be set down for
service providers, distributors of equipment, and end users alike.

Such guidelines must have the backing of government in order to be effective, and should
cover:
• Acquisition of information technology,
• Use and application of the technology,
• Human resource development, and
• Regulation/deregulation and management.

40
The most pressing needs are for:
• Government policies and legislation to support IT development;
• Informatics policy and management infrastructure;
• Establishment of financing mechanisms, with adequate financial analysis,
controls, and accounting;
• A clear position on the level of control to be exercised locally and a desired level
of dependency on foreign sources; and
• Coordination and integration of the needs of the public and private sectors'
continuing awareness of the state of the art in IT.

According to Fine (2003:3) measurement of the impact of an IT investment is

problematic for a number of reasons:
• There usually isn’t any baseline against which to assess new improvements.
• The process of planning for IT upgrades or installation—discussing how things
are done, what the bottlenecks are within an organization—can, in and of itself,
free up sticking points and improve efficiency, even without the implementation
of new IT systems.
• New technology can be so intimidating for staff that an organization actually
becomes less efficient in the first few months following a technology upgrade—
so an evaluation done too soon might result in a “false negative”, reflecting
inefficiencies that would be resolved with time.
• Sometimes new technologies aren’t used at all (for example, when adequate
training isn’t available or when organizational culture presents barriers), ossifying
an anti-technology mindset and causing long term reductions in efficiency and
impact. Correctly attributing improvements to proximate causes can be a
challenge: at what point does the technology stop having an impact and other
factors (that may be out of the hands of the service provider) come into play?

Faced with such challenges, many nonprofits find the evaluation of technology an
intimidating task. How can nonprofits effectively evaluate the impact of technology on
their work? Innovation Network’s information technology evaluation efforts over the past

41
five years have provided some key lessons for improving the use and measuring the
impact of information technology within nonprofit organizations.

2.7. Development of Information Technology in Ethiopian Revenue and

Customs Authority (ERCA)
Customs plays a key role in international trade. Every international trade transaction
involves at least two customs intervention, one at export and one at import. It is clear,
therefore, that the manner in which customs conducts its business has a substantial impact
on the movement of goods across international borders.

Customs, as an agency of government, has as its primary function the execution of

government policy. Accordingly, although the responsibilities of customs are basically
the same in every country, it would be wrong to assume that there is uniformity or
consistency in the emphasis, which is placed on the discharge of these responsibilities.
Different governments expect different things from their customs authorities. For some
governments, especially those in developing countries, customs are the principal revenue
collectors. For others, customs form the front line in the fight against drugs or are key
implementers of trade policy.

When we come to Ethiopia, as the country is listed in developing countries, revenue

collecting is one of the main objectives of the customs authority, as any other developing
countries do. However, the role of implementing trade policy of the country is not totally
neglected. In this regard, we can mention the vital role of Ethiopian Customs Authority
that plays an important role in implementing export duty incentive schemes which is one
of export trade promotion policy instruments of the government.

Under the civil service reform program, Ethiopian customs authority recently has made
an effort to introduce the new customs transit and clearance control manual to meet its
establishment objectives. But this is not an end by itself; rather, customs has always to be
in reform. In reforming existing customs practices to farther facilitate the movement of

42
goods, customs should adopt modern business process re-engineering (BPR) techniques
to identify inefficient and/or redundant activities for streamlining or elimination.

The main objective of the new manual is to enable customs authority render efficient and
effective service to importers and exporters and ensuring effective customs control in line
with national, regional and international laws and, conventions by shortening both transit
and clearance time of imported and exported goods and reducing document requirement.

Delays in the release of goods are caused by a number of factors including inefficiency
and lack of professionalism on the part of some shipping agents, freight forwarders and
customs clearing agents/brokers. According to the recommendation given by Customs
Co-operation Council on draft guideline on key sectors for trade efficiency, to overcome
this program, government should set minimum standards for these professions and
closely regulate performance (www.erca. gov.et accessed on 2015/02/05).

2.8. Implementation of ASYCUDA in Ethiopian Revenue and Customs

Authority
Delays in the release of goods are caused by a number of factors including inefficiency
and lack of professionalism. In order to facilitate its operation the Ethiopian Customs
Authority started to implement ASYCUDA (Automated System for Customs Data) in
1998 which is developed by UNCTAD (United Nation Conference on Trade and
Development) and implemented by over 80 countries. The ECUA has implemented
ASYCUDA 2.7 in seven clearance offices and one transit office which is located in
another country, Djibouti. Except the two sites in the capital city, all other sites are
working on Local Area Network (LAN). The two sites located in the capital city are
connected to the Automation and Data Processing Department through
Telecommunication line with 64KB Digital Data Network (DDN). The effects of
implementing ASYCUDA in ERCA are:

• Improves clearance conditions for trade

• Provides timely external trade statistics (Mesfin, 2005:12)

43
To meet the demands of modern international trade with the change in technology and
advancement and be in line with internationally accepted standards the ECUA has started
implementing the advanced system ASYCUDA++. The business people users of the
customs computer system are more interested in being served expect to save time and
reduce costs. Therefore the main changes and benefits that come with this ASYCUDA++
implementation are aimed at meeting these objectives. The main features and benefits
expected with ASYCUDA++ migration are:

• Direct Trader Input (DTI)

• Selectivity
• Transit
• Flexibility in report generation
• Connectivity with other systems

2.8.1. Direct Trader Input (DTI)

Under the ASYCUDA 2.7 DTI was not used; so, declarants (customers) prepared
declarations written by hand and presented to customs for data input on the computer
system. This often led to loss of time and data captures as declaration get rejected at
various stages before they can finally be accepted on customs computer system. The
Direct Trader Input is a facility that provides for the declarant to input declaration data to
the ASYCUDA++ module designed for this purpose and then transfer the data directly to
Customs Systems. This is achieved by connection to the customs system with the
telecommunications infrastructure. Effectively DTI will remove the aspect of data entry
from customs responsibility to the declarant. Therefore, a declarant with DTI facility may
prepare, view or check and print a declaration at any time, even outside normal working
hours from their premises. The system requires the declarants to be equipped with a
personal computer, printers and connected to the customs server through
telecommunication line (leased line or dialup line) (UNCTAD, 2000:23).

44
Advantages to Customs
i. DTI reduces the cost of declaration processing (since printing of declarations
copies goes to the declarant).
ii. Rationalizes on manpower utilization as personnel initially deployed for face
examine and data capture can be re-assigned to other needy areas of important
customs work.
iii. Help customs in realizing the objectives of quicker clearance for trade facilitation.

Advantages to the Traders

i. Traders have full control on the information entered on the customs system as
they enter and counter check declarations against customs control files. The
possibility of having someone else key different information from that declared
the hardcopy is realty minimized.
ii. Time loss is reduced as face vet and data input and their accompanying rejection
stages of are removed. The system provides for this through the check stages of a
declaration before registration. Once a declaration has been registered it means
that data elements have been accepted.
iii. The facility allows immediate access to declaration information. From their
premises or some other location where the DTI facility can be located, the
declarant is able to check the status of an entry in customs. For example the
declarant can know if an entry has been assessed or queried, requires physical or
document examination or if it has been released. Further, some summary reports
on declarations and accounts can be seen without necessarily going to Customs
offices.
iv. DTI work can be carried out according to client’s schedules as entries can be
prepared and stored on the client’s PC. This is possible as all the necessary
control tables and the tariff are available on the PC to facilitate this. Depending
on local arrangements, if the customs server is available (left on to accept data)
after normal working hours, the declarants can register declarations anytime even
when the customs office is not open.

45
2.8.2. Selectivity in ASYCUDA++
The introduction of ASYCUDA selectivity is an important component in the package of
procedural reorganizations that should be included in the introduction of ASYCUDA++.
The concept and practice of risk based controls is already in practice and seems to be well
emphasized in the revision of procedures currently going on. At the previous system due
to the limitations of ASYCUDA version 2, these processes are performed manually with
little or no formal risk profiling being used. This approach is not sustainable if the use of
the ASYCUDA++ selectivity module is to be successfully introduced. At present a
structure exists in the Ethiopian Customs Authority (ERCA) that could take up the
responsibility of managing selectivity at a national level. However, its effectiveness in
this area has yet been established as the unit is said to be in its infancy and the team
members have not yet acquired the necessary skills required for this task (UNCTAD,
2000:23)

Using MODSEL many different pieces of data, input as declaration details, can be used
by Customs to select particular declarations for special treatment before any assessment
is made. This provides the means of implementing decisions on processing channels,
which are named 'Red', 'Yellow', 'Blue' and 'Green'. Control over the rates of random
selections and ‘expected rates’ means that Customs Office management or supervisors
have the means to match daily workload, the numbers and levels of declarations selected
for check, to the capacity of the Office to cope with those checks bearing in mind the
existing priorities.

The various lanes can be described briefly as follows:

Red Lane- Goods described within the selected declaration are to be physically
examined before assessment is permitted.
Yellow Lane-All documents relevant to the selected declaration are subjected to a full
documentary check, before assessment proceeds
Blue Lane- Post clearance audit- This provides flexibility, and can allow Customs to
make more efficient use of their resources, such as allowing release of 'low risk' goods,
subject to some check at a later date.

46
Green Lane- All declarations other than those selected Red, Yellow or Blue. This
contains an option to 'delay' the automatic assessment of Green Lane declarations. A
delay can be set to allow Customs time to 'manually' examine details of the declaration,
with the option to re-route to Red, Yellow or Blue if a higher level of check is thought
necessary for those particular goods.

2.8.3. Transit
The system has a facility that manages the transit risks and enforces adequate controls.
The main problems of transit that are related to lack to timely information and system
controls for intervention are adequately addressed. This facility will be deployed between
Djibouti and Inland offices in Ethiopia to facilitate the quick movement of transit data
and goods. This is expected to help in trade facilitation (UNCTAD, 2000: 27).

2.8.4. Flexibility in report generation

There are a number of standard reports that come with the system to help users in
managing customs operational and making decision. In addition to that the system has
flexibility for the user countries to develop additional reports to meet their national
demands. The data managed by ASYCUDA++ is handled by an Oracle database
containing the entire transactions and references table, the user-define report data can
retrieve from the database by SQL statement (UNCTAD, 2000:32).

2.8.5. Connectivity with Other Systems

The ASYCUDA++ is based on modern technology and can easily interface with other
systems used by Banks, Airline and shipping lines and Ministry of Trade and Industry.
These lead to revised procedures that will result in quicker clearance & promote
efficiency in the conduct of trade. To ensure the effective use of IT and delivery of good
service to meet the demands of modern trade, the Ethiopian Customs Authority (ECuA)
has taken the following measures:

47
Formation of Revenue Net
a. This encompasses the key sectors of tax collection that is the Banks, Ministry of
Trade and Industry, the Ethiopian telecommunication corporation. The main aim
is to use the technical expertise in all these sectors and interconnect the systems to
exchange information thereby maximizing the use of resources and offer
improved service
b. Implementation of the Wide Area Network (WAN) to interconnect all the
computerized customs sites to ensure timely availability of data at the central
point and simplified system support for distant areas form the capital city.

Adoption of modern system:

The ERCA has embarked on the use of modern systems that meet demands of modern
trade. Therefore the system that is being put in place has flexibility to interconnect with
commercial systems used in Banks, Airlines etc to facilitate easy exchange of
information for speedy administration of customs clearance (Fikre, 2005:11).

48
 CHAPTER THREE
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
3.1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter primarily deals with the presentation of the detail analysis of primary and
secondary data gathered from the distributed questionnaires to customers and
employees of the ERCA, the interview conducted to officials from different relevant
institutions as well as the analysis of available relevant documents. For the purpose of
obtaining data in this study, semi structured questionnaires were distributed to
customers and officers of ERCA in the airport branch office and Kality branch office.
The other technique for collecting data is interviews from relevant offices like private
and government owned banks, the MOFED, the Information Technology (IT)
department and the Head office of ERCA. In connection with this, the chapter
explains the opinion of customers and officers concerning the efficiency of
ASYCUDA, the problems ERCA is facing while applying the ASYCUDA and the
overall efficiency of ASYCUDA. Moreover, the analysis of this chapter provides the
ground to forward recommendations for implementation where ERCA can improve
the efficiency of the ASYCUDA.

3.2. Characteristics of Respondents

3.2.1. Customers of ERCA
Customers responded to 65 percent (44) of the total 68 questionnaires. The major
customers of ERCA are importers, exporters and both importers and exporters of
different kinds of goods, required for commercial, Investment, project and diplomatic
purposes. As the collected data (Table 3.1) from the customers shows, 34 percent of
customers import or export commercial goods while 34 percent of customers import
project goods, about 23 percent import investment goods and the remaining 9 percent
import diplomatic goods.

49
Table 3.1: Type of goods declared by customers
Frequency
Reponses Import Export Total Percent %)
Commercial goods 7 8 15 34
Project goods 15 - 15 34
Investment goods 10 - 10 23
Diplomatic goods 4 - 4 9
Total 36 8 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

According to this survey, as shown in Table 3.2, it is known that 36 out of 44 (82
percent) of customers are importers, while 8 out of 44 (18 percent) are exporters and
15 out of 44 (34 percent) are both importers and exporters. Since these customers
have working experience in relation to importing and exporting from 2 years up to 10
years, it is safe to conclude that they have the ability to explain concerning the study
at hand as well as to have a say on the performance of ASYCUDA as comparing to
the manual practices of the offices.

Table 3.2: Customers of the authority

Response Frequency Percent (%)
Imports 36 82
Exports 8 18
Both 15 34
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

3.2.2. The Staff of ERCA

Respondents of the questionnaires from staff members were selected randomly. From
500 employees of the authority who work at Bole international air port and Kaliti
custom offices, 50 (10 percent) of respondents in Kaliti and Bole offices were taken
as representative sample and semi structured questionnaires were distributed to them
but the returned questionnaires were 36 which is 72 percent of the total questionnaires
distributed. The employees have working experience from one year to ten years in
ERCA.

50
3.2.3. Interviewed Officials
Supplementary to questionnaires distributed to customers and employees, interviews
were conducted with relevant officers who are directly related to the application of
ASYCUDA driven data which they use as an input as well as in reports. A total of 12
officials from Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, National Bank of Ethiopia, NIB Bank,
Dashen Bank and Ministry of Finance and Economics Development and the ERCA
were selected (2 from each organization) and interviewed. Generally from 130
targeted sample respondents of the written questionnaires and interviews, only 80 of
them were returned and 12 officers were interviewed. Hence, the analysis deals with
the opinions of 92 out of 130 (71 percent) respondents.

3.3. Data Analysis

3.3.1. Challenges in Goods Clearance Activities
3.3.1.1. Delay in Goods Clearance
Delay in goods clearance can be because of many reasons. Respondents were asked
whether goods clearances are delayed or not and what is the reason for delay. As long
as the ASYCUDA system works well and every necessary document is ready, the
clearance process speeds up.

Table 3.3: Reasons for delay of goods clearance

Responses Frequency Percent (%)
Less working habit of workers 2 4
Frequent system failure 11 25
Time taking price checking 6 14
Less transparency 5 11
Un updated database 6 14
Shortage of cargo space 3 7
Electric power failure 7 16
Network failure 4 9
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey, 2015

However, as table 3.3 shows, customers give many reasons for delay of clearance of
goods about 2 out of 44 (4 percent) customers associated the reason for delay with
less working habit of workers, while 11 out of 44 (25 percent) stated that with
frequent system failures cause the delay, 6 out of 44 ( 14 percent) associated the delay

51
with extended price checking and 5 out of 44 (11 percent) agreed that less
transparency in work process of the organization is the reason for delay, the other 6
out of 44 ( 14 percent) associated the reason for delay with un updated database while
about 3 out of 44 ( 7 percent) of customers associated the delay in goods clearance
with shortage of cargo space, 7 out of 44 ( 16 percent ) related the delay with electric
power failure, while 4 out of 44 (9 percent) attributed with network failure as the
cause for delay. This implies that, different reasons cause the delay in goods clearance
and the existence of delay in goods clearance by itself is an indication of a gap to
which the organization has to respond.

3.3.1.2. Frequent System Failure

The other challenge in goods clearance process is frequent system failure, and
respondents from customers as well as employees were asked about the occurrences
and the reasons of frequent failure of ASYCUDA.

Table 3.4: Reasons for system failure

Reponses Frequency Percent (%)
Network failure 13 30
Electric power interruption 13 30
Un skilled manpower and low competency of 8 18
worker
Server problem 4 9
Absence of system supervisor 6 13
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As Table 3.4 shows, with regard to the reasons why the system fails, 13 out of 44 (30
percent) customers stated that it is due to network connections problems , 13 out of 44
(30 percent) said the reason for system failure is frequent electric power interruptions,
8 out of 44 ( 18 percent) customers associated the reason with unskilled manpower
and low competency of employees for the work, 4 out 44 (9 percent) associates the
reason of system failures as server problem while 6 out of 44 (13 percent ) of them
associated the reason of system failure as absence of system supervisor. In relation to
this, most of the respondents stated that whenever system failure happen, it is not
customary that the organization immediately takes corrective measures to maintain
the system and ensure its operational continuity.

52
3.3.2. Performance Efficiency of ASYCUDA
The main objective of the implementation of ASYCUDA is to improve the delivery of
service to the public and thereby to attain an efficient revenue collection mechanism.
Intending to assess the materialization of this objective, the researcher asked the
customers as well as the employees of the organization to express their opinion
regarding the service quality improvement as a result of the adoption of ASYCUDA.

Table 3.5: ASYCUDA brings quality service

Response Frequency Percent (%)
Yes 33 75
No 11 25
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As shown in Table 3.5, most of the respondents 33 out of 44 (75 percent) agreed that
there exist service improvement on quality of service delivery system after adoption
of ASYCUDA, while the remaining respondents 11 out of 44 (25 percent ) did not
agree that there exist service improvement as a result of the adoption of ASYCUDA.
There is of course a change towards bringing quality service delivery process in the
organization , even if the system has big potential to bring more efficiency and quality
service system to the organization ; the complaint given by 25 percent of the
respondents is significant enough to retard the move of the organization for efficiency
and can be a sign for some correction at some point of the clearance process .The
study implies that the ERCA is not in a position to provide full quality and efficient
service delivery system because of the reasons explained above and this in return
hinder its overall efficiency of the service delivery process of ASYCUDA.

Automation of service delivery in customs is part and parcel of creating conducive

customs environments which involves decreasing prerequisites to get service,
simplification of work processes, setting of clear and complete directives and clear
and simple insurance system. It also involves making the control trade based on risk
assessment, creation of work information provision system for clients and most
importantly automation of activities. It is known that automation has a major role to
play in setting the favorable environment.

53
Table 3.6: Work facilitation of ASYCUDA
Response Frequency Percent (%) Rank
Minimize time 7 16 III
Increased speed 12 27 I
Reduce procedure 10 23 II
Reduce cost 3 7 VI
Reduce paper work 4 9 V
Facilitate paper work 5 11 IV
High accuracy 3 7 VI
Total 44 100 -------
Source: Own survey 2015

Customers were requested to explain how ASYCUDA brings quality service delivery
system and as Table 3.6, shows, respondents mention different reasons, 7 out of 44
(16 percent) of customers indicated that the ASYCUDA facilitates work and
minimize processing time, 12 out of 44 ( 27 percent) of respondents stated that
ASYCUDA increased processing speed, 10 out of 44 (23 percent) of them agreed that
it reduced procedure, while 3 out of 44 ( 7 percent) indicated that ASYCUDA reduced
cost, 4 out of 44 ( 9 percent ) of respondents confirmed that the system reduced paper
works, 5 out of 44 ( 11 percent) them stated that ASYCUDA facilitate paper works
and the remaining 3 out of 44 ( 7 percent) them indicated that high accuracy was
achieved as a result of the application of the ASYCUDA. Efficiency is composed of
speed of activities, reduced service delivery cost, decreased in human involvement
and shortening of work process. The adoption of ASYCUDA in Ethiopia Revenue
and Customs Authority service delivery has yielded these benefits at least partly to
users. Customers are able to declare their goods within short period of time, enjoy the
benefit from the speed of activities in the comparison to the manual custom service
delivery system.

As the Table 3.6 shows, when comparing the rating of customers, ASYCUDA has
brought quality service delivery system minimizing processing and service delivery
time ranks III, increasing speed of all the process of goods clearance ranks I, reducing
cost of goods clearance process ranks II, Reduce cost ranks VI, Reduce paper work
ranks V, facilitating paper work ranks IV and by bringing high accuracy in the
process of goods clearance generally ranks VI.

54
3.3.3. Contrast between ASYCUDA and Manual System
Comparing the manual system with ASYCUDA, the later reduced human
involvement as well as unnecessary extended procedures that would have been
inevitable in the manual system and increase processing speed and efficiency.
However, the increased processing speed and efficiency as a result of the ASYCUDA
has not yet reached its optimal level, given the fact that the system frequent fails. The
fact that, most of the respondents agreed on the existence of frequent failure of
ASYCUDA for different reasons. While the respondents agreed to the frequent failure
of ASYCUDA because of different reasons, almost half of the respondents agree on
there are no immediate maintenances of system failure in the organization which
stakes the overall process of goods clearances.

The study on Table 3.7 shows that, most of the respondents 33 out of 44 (75 percent)
indicated that the adoption of ASYCUDA brought more flexible workflows in goods
clearance while the remaining 11 out of 44 (25 percent) the respondents not agree on
the work flexibility because of the adoption of ASYCUDA because there still high
work procedures in ERCA in process of goods clearances and the officers at the front
desk are not flexible enough to facilitate works.

Table 3.7: Flexibility of workflows

Responses Frequency Percent (%)
Yes 33 75
No 11 25
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

In addition to this, respondents were requested about the ease of access to information
about their status of goods; and 50 percent of the respondents agree that they receive
immediate information about status of their goods and if there is no system failure
they received timely service from the organization. Since there is frequent system
failure and there is no immediate correction and maintenance of the system. Then it
implies that mostly there is no immediate access to information by the customers as
per their request which reduce the efficiency of the work process generally.

55
Table 3.8: ASYCUDA use less time than the manual
Responses Frequency Percent (%)
Yes 37 84
No 7 16
Total 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

According to the report issued by Ethiopian Customs Authority (ECuA: 2004), the
introduction of ASYCUDA brought a remarkable improvement by reducing the
number of time consuming steps. What is more is that, as Table 3.8 shows, 84 percent
of the respondents agreed that ASYCUDA uses less time than the manual system. For
instance before the adoption of the system import process was taking from 3 to 8 day
while export was taking from 2 to 4 days. After adoption of ASYCUDA import
process takes from1 to 3 days while export takes from half day to maximum 2 days.
Even though there is progress after adoption of the system still there will be delay
when system fails because of different reasons. In the previous manual system,
collection and work process of duty and taxes and other controlling activities were
carried out one after the other. In the new system after adoption of ASYCUDA, each
activity can be undertaken simultaneously without waiting for the completion of the
preceding tasks.

Table 3.9: Differences of ASYCUDA from the manual system

Responses Percent
Frequency (%)
Manual has poor performance in clearance process 10 28
Manual has slow processing of documents 7 19
Operation is manual 13 36
Manual has more procedures 4 11
Manual creates work load 2 6
Total 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

In relation to this, 36 employees were requested to differentiate (see Table 3.9) about
the difference of ASYCUDA from the manual system, 10 out of 36 (28 percent) said
ASYCUDA is different from the manual that is, the manual has poor performance
compared to ASYCUDA while 7 out of 36 (19 percent) of employees related the
difference with slow processing of documents by the manual system, about 13 of 36

56
(36 percent) of employees believed the manual operation and computerized operation
of ASYCUDA is the main difference while about 4 of 36 (11 percent) related the
difference of as the manual is very procedural while ASYCUDA is not procedural
compared to the manual system and about 2 of 36 ( 6 percent) related with the work
load on the manual system while in ASYCUDA works are more easy because it is
helped by the computerized system.

The ASYCUDA is far better than the manual system in that it is easier to use,
generate and share information. Furthermore, ASYCUDA is faster and more accurate
compared to the manual system. Generally, it achieves better performance of the
organization. Most of the respondents agree that, there was need to change from the
manual to IT based system ASYCUDA.

As the data show, the organization is in good progress after the implementation of
ASYCUDA. However, ERCA is not in the position to maximize the benefits of
ASYCUDA. The research shows, there are fluctuations in perception of the changes
brought by the adoption of ASYCUDA by the organization, but most of the data
gathered from the respondents implies the organization is not efficient enough in
maximizing the benefits expected from the adoption of ASYCUDA.

3.3.4. Assessment of Service Delivery Quality in ERCA

In order to bring organizational efficiency in service delivery, the biggest constituent
is the quality of the service delivering process. Service quality is one of the main
outcomes which brings efficiency to the organization and satisfies the expectation of
its customers. The SERVQUAL model compares the quality of service delivery with
customer expectation and perception of service in terms of tangible assets, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Shah, 2005:121-122). In this part the
researcher tried to assess the service quality delivered by ERCA in the process of
import and export process after adoption of ASYCUDA based on the above
methodology.

It has been reflected that the main objective of implementation of ASYCUDA is to

improve the service delivery processes in ERCA as well as to improve the revenue

57
collection system from import and export process. Based on this objective, the
researcher asked the customers of the organization to express their agreement or
disagreement with respect to different dimensions of service efficiency as well as
quality of service delivery of the organization. Hence, customers have indicated the
following responses as the factors that contribute to the efficiency and reliability of
service delivery in the organization: reliability, responsiveness, competency of
employees, courtesy, credibility, Tangibility and Accessibility of service.

Table 3.10: Reliability of Service delivery process

Reliability of Service Responses
delivery process Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % FR % FR %
Accuracy in 1 3 18 40 2 5 23 52 44 100
performance
Consistency in 1 3 15 33 8 18 20 46 44 100
performance
Keeping records 4 10 13 29 3 7 24 54 44 100
correctly
Service is dependable 1 3 15 33 3 7 25 57 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

Customers were requested to give options about service by the organization

improvement, while customers requested accuracy in performance 19 out of 44 (43
percent ) of the respondents were strongly agreed or agreed about the accuracy in
performance of the organization but 25 out of 44 respondents ( 57 percent ) strongly
disagreed or disagreed the accuracy in performance.

While customers were requested about consistency in performance 16 out of 44 ( 36

percent) of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed about the consistency in
performance in the organization but 28 out of 44 respondents (64 percent) of
customers were strongly disagreed or disagreed on the consistency in performance in
the organization. Customers were also requested about keeping records correctly 17
out of 44 (39 percent) of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed about keeping
records correctly in the organization but 27 out of 44 respondents (61 percent ) of
customers strongly disagreed or disagreed on keeping records correctly in the

58
organization. Form this data 64 percent of respondents strongly disagreed or disagreed
on service delivery improvement in the organization and reliability of the service,
which is given by the organization.

Table 3.11: Responsiveness of employees

Responsiveness Responses
of employees Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % FR % FR %
Employees are
Supportive 11 25 30 67 1 3 2 5 44 100
Service provided
immediately 1 3 15 34 4 9 24 54 44 100
Service is given on
time 1 3 14 32 4 9 25 56 44 100
Information is
given immediately 7 16 33 75 2 5 2 4 44 100
Source: Own survey 2015

Customers were requested about responsiveness of employees to customers, while

customers requested about employees’ supportiveness, 41 out of 44 (92 percent) of
the respondents strongly agreed or agreed about employees’ supportiveness but 3 out
of 44 (8 percent) of them strongly disagreed or disagreed. While customers were
requested about immediate and on time delivery of service 16 out of 44 (37 percent)
of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed about immediate and on time delivery of
service and 28 out of 44 (63 percent) of customers were strongly disagreed or
disagreed on immediate and on time delivery of service. Customers were also
requested about immediate delivery of information by employees when requested 40
out of 44 (91 percent) of the respondents were strongly agreed or agreed about
immediate delivery of information in the organization and 4 out of 44 (9 percent) of
customers were strongly disagreed or disagreed on immediate delivery of information
in the organization.

59
Table 3.12: Courtesy by employees
Courtesy by Responses
employees Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
Agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % FR % %
FR
Employees have
good manner 1 3 7 15 4 10 32 72 44 100
They respect
Customers 1 3 5 12 7 15 31 70 44 100
Employees are
Friendly 1 3 5 11 9 20 29 66 44 100
They care for
Customers 3 7 6 14 5 11 30 68 44 100
property
Source: Own survey 2015

As the data shows in Table 3.12 customers rated very low the courtesy of employees
of the organization and they rate more than 79 percent to strongly disagreed or
disagreed regarding the questions requested about the employees have good manner,
whether they are caring and polite, whether employees respect customers, whether
they care for customers property, whether they are friends to customers .This implies
customers are not happy or not satisfied by the care given by the employees of front
desk officers who are at front desk. Thus the organization has a gap on the employee
and customer relationship which shows the customers who are more than 79 percent
of the respondent are not happy with the front desk officers who work in the goods
clearance processes.

Table 3.13: Credibility of employees

Credibility of Responses
Employees Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
Agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % FR % FR %
ERCA is
trustworthy 3 7 1 2 14 32 26 59 44 100
Honest to
Customer 2 5 2 4 11 25 29 66 44 100
loyal to
customers 3 7 1 2 11 25 29 66 44 100
Source: Own Survey 2015

60
Respondents were requested to speak about credibility of ERCA and 40 out of 44 (91
percent) of the respondents strongly disagreed or disagreed about employees’
trustworthiness, honesty and loyalty to customers. While 11 out of 44 (9 percent) of
the respondents strongly agreed or agreed about employees’ trustworthiness, honesty
and loyalty to customers .This implies that the organization do not have a very good
image which is a very big problem for the organization.

Table 3.14: Tangibility of the organization’s assets

Tangibility of Responses
the organization Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
Agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % FR % FR %
Organization
has best 3 7 1 2 12 27 28 64 44 100
facilities
It has modern
Technology 3 7 5 11 12 27 24 55 44 100
It has skill full
Employees 3 7 5 11 11 25 25 57 44 100
The office is
Convenient 3 7 3 7 11 25 27 61 44 100
Source: Own Survey 2015

The respondents were requested to rate the organization on its facilities, technologies
on use, skill of employees as well as the convenient of the office, accordingly 91
percent respondents strongly disagreed or disagree on the organization having the
good facilities, in addition 82 percent of the respondents strongly disagreed or
disagreed on the organization having modern technologies as well as having skillful
employees. 86 percent of the respondents were strongly disagree or disagree on
convince of the office to customers. The organizations tangibility is very important
matter which make the customer to feel comfortable towards requesting service as
well as to stay in the office; in addition the modern facilities and technologies the
organization acquired made the customers to trust the organization, and believed their
works are made at the maximum best technologies as well as best efforts .The
respondents showed, except the adoption of ASYCUDA, the organization do not have
best facilities, modern technologies, skill full employees and the office is not
convenient to the customers. Thus the organization does not have good image in the
eyes of the customers.

61
Table 3.15: Accessibility of service
Accessibility Responses
of service Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Total
Agree disagree
FR % FR % FR % % FR %
FR
The service is
easily 3 7 1 2 11 25 29 66 44 100
Accessible
Waiting time
for service is 3 7 4 9 10 23 27 61 44 100
short
Convenient
working hours 3 7 5 11 10 23 26 59 44 100
Convenient
locations of 3 7 2 4 11 25 28 64 44 100
service facility
Source: Own survey 2015

Facilitating easy access gives better opportunity to all service users to benefits from
the available services. These promote equity and enhance effectiveness by widening
coverage of the service. 91 percent of the respondents strongly disagreed or disagreed
about the service is easily accessible; 84 percent of the respondents were strongly
disagreed or disagreed on the waiting time for service is short; 82 percent of the
respondents were strongly disagree or disagree on the convenient working hours; 89
percent of the respondents were strongly disagree or disagree on the convenient
locations of service facility. Service users with full, accurate and up to date
information about the public institutions will have better understanding of what and
where service is provided and thus will be a better position to benefit from the
available services. This could also contribute to gains in efficiency by minimizing the
cost (time, effort and resources) of dealing with uninformed service users as well as it
enables stakeholders to hold institutions accountable in case of failures.

As table 3.15 shows the accessibility of service in the organization is not easy and as
we see about 91 percent of the respondent of this study believed that accessibility of
service is very difficult because of many reasons. The effect of ASYCUDA to
maintain up- to- date data is considered to be very low. Close to 91percent of the
respondents is disagreed as to whether the implementation of ASYCUDA resulted in
the availability of updated information. Similarly around 84 percent of respondents

62
were strongly disagreed or disagreed on the waiting time for service is minimal.
Given the status of the ICT infrastructure availability in Ethiopia, it is not surprising
to note that access and communication for service delivery received the lowest
ranking in agreement of customers while requiring about the service delivery of
ERCA.

It has been pointed out that flexibility on generation of reports as one of the benefits
of adopting ASYCUDA data entered into a computerized system not only be easily
connected but also in different formats at any point of the work process help to be
accessed and can be used. There is no need to wait for summation, accumulation or
clearing to get a data about transaction. The data storing mechanism enables to access
information perpetually.

3.3.5. Assessment of Competency of Public Service Delivery in ERCA

after Adoption of ASYCUDA
It is difficult to measure the competency of public service delivery because it is very
difficult to know the value of public goods and service. Shah (2005:121-122) explain
more on justification for the difficulties of performance measurement in public
organizations and reasoned as the challenge to analyze output of service and even
very difficult to measure the outcomes of the given services. To evaluate the role for
these bodies and how they should be structured, it needs a set of criteria. Some of
them can be efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, transparency, timely and ease of
administration. Implementation of ICT- based service instead of manual service
delivery does not necessarily mean that everything is smooth. Adopting ICTs in the
service delivery industry brings machines in to use of furnishing service to the service
seekers, the machines are diligent. They can perform as long as they are maintained
up to the capacity they can serve. And it is known that ERCA adopted the ICT based
service delivery process in order to facilitate the import and export process and in
goods clearance activities to bring organizational efficiency but without maximizing
the potentials of ASYCUDA it is very difficult to ERCA to achieve its objectives.

In this part, the researcher tried to assess the competency of public service delivery in
ERCA in the process of import and export processes after adoption of ASYCUDA

63
based on the efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, transparency, timely and ease of
administration bases of service delivery process of the organization.

Table 3.16: Efficiency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA

Efficiency in ERCA Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent %)
Strongly agree 12 27 14 39
Agree 3 7 17 47
Disagree 19 43 5 14
Strongly Disagree 10 23 - -
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As can be seen from table 3.16, 15 out of 44 (34 percent) of the respondents from
customers strongly agreed or agreed about the efficiency of ERCA after adoption of
ASYCUDA, but most of the respondents that is 29 out of 44 (66 percent) form
customers were strongly disagreed or disagreed about the efficiency of ERCA after
adoption of ASYCUDA. In relation to this, about 31 out of 36 (86 percent) of
employees were strongly agreed or agreed about the efficiency of the performance the
organization because of the adoption of AYCUDA while 5 out of 36 (14 percent ) of
them were disagreed about this idea.

This implies, regardless of the respondent’s inconsistency, 66 percent of the

respondents from customers and 14 percent of employees agreed on the inefficiency
of the performances of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus, though it may
have different reasons, this study shows the organization is not efficient enough to
exploit the potential of ASYCUDA in bringing performance efficiency and process
facilitation of the revenue collection and goods clearance processes.

Efficiency is composed of speed of activities, service delivery cost reduction,

decreased in human involvement and shortening of work processes. The adoption of
ASYCUDA in customs service delivery has yielded these benefits at least partly to
users, dramatic decrease in the time taken for the service delivery was achieved due to
the decreased human involvement and shortening of work flow process (steps).

64
Efficiency is a joint effect system of the operation of different parts of a system .The
excelling of service provision in few parts the whole institutions might hinder the
right functioning of the other. The efficiency aspect is satisfactory only if it is
compared to the manual system; otherwise, the failure of computers printers and
internet connection as well as electric power failure are persistent after
implementation of ASYCUDA in providing customs service. As a result, it becomes
impossible to commutate with the server of ASYCUDA in providing up to four days
in a week on average indicated by many of the respondents including customs officer,
the discontinuity causes an accumulation of unprocessed document and created
backlog. Therefore the general ICT aided customs service delivery will not work
better while each of its subsystems are not working in proper conditions.

Table 3.17: Effectiveness in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA

Effectiveness in ERCA Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 12 27 14 39
Agree 5 12 16 44
Disagree 16 36 5 14
Strongly Disagree 11 25 1 3
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As it can be seen from table 3.17, more than half of the respondents of customers
expressed their disagreement on the effectiveness of the performance of ASYCUDA.
61 percent of the respondents from customers strongly disagreed or disagreed about
the effectiveness of the performance of the organization because of the adoption of
ASYCUDA while 39 percent of the respondent from customers strongly agreed or
agreed about the effectiveness of the performance the organization because of the
adoption of ASYCUDA. In relation to this, 83 percent of the respondent from
employees strongly agreed or agreed about the effectiveness of the performance of the
organization because of the adoption of ASYCUDA while 17 percent of the
respondent from employees strongly disagreed or disagreed about the effectiveness of
the performance the organization because of the adoption of ASYCUDA.

65
Table 3.18: Accountability in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA
Accountability in ERCA Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 3 7 11 31
Agree 14 32 16 44
Disagree 11 25 4 11
Strongly Disagree 16 36 5 14
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As it can be seen from table 3.18, most of the respondents which are customers
express their disagreement on the accountability of the organization, 27 out of 44 (61
percent) of the respondent from customers strongly disagreed or disagreed about the
accountability of the performance the organization while 17 out of 44 (39 percent) of
the respondent from customers strongly agreed or agreed about the accountability of
the performance of the organization. In the opposite to this, 27 out of 36 (75 percent)
of the respondents from employees strongly agreed or agreed about the accountability
of the performance the organization, while 9 out of 36 (25 percent) the remaining of
the respondent from employees strongly disagreed or disagreed about the
accountability of the performance of the organization because of the adoption of
ASYCUDA.

This implies, regardless of the respondents inconsistency above 60 percent of the

respondents from customers as well as 25 percent of employees agreed on the
inefficiency of the performances of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus,
though it may have different reasons, this study shows the organization is not
effective to exploit the potential of AYCUDA in bringing performances efficiency
and process facilitation of the revenue collection and goods clearance processes.

66
Table 3.19: Transparency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA
Transparency in ERCA Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent %) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 10 23 10 28
Agree 5 11 13 36
Disagree 15 34 4 11
Strongly Disagree 14 32 9 25
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

Besides, Table 3.19 also shows, more than half of the respondents which are
customers express their disagreement on the transparency of the organization, 66
percent of the respondents from customers strongly disagreed or disagreed about the
increase in transparency of the performance the organization after the adoption of
ASYCUDA by ERCA but 34 percent of the respondents from customers strongly
agreed or agreed about the transparency of the performance the organization because
of ASYCUDA. In this relation, 64 percent of the respondents from employees
strongly agreed or agreed about the transparency of the performance of the
organization, while about 36 percent of the respondents from employees strongly
disagreed or disagreed about the transparency of the performance of the organization
because of the adoption of ASYCUDA.

This implies, regardless of the respondents inconsistency above 60 percent of the

respondents from customers as well as employees disagreed on the transparency of
the performances of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus, though it may have
different reasons, this study show the organization is not effective to exploit the
potential of ASYCUDA in bringing performances efficiency and process facilitation
of the revenue collection and goods clearance processes.

The level of transparency that ought to be reflected in public service delivery has not
yet been achieved in customs. The means to follow the route of documents once the
declaration is submitted to declaration receiving and data capturing section is hardly
transparent. In case, the declaration and /or its accommodating documents are missed,
there is no enough means to find them back. The degree of transparency in the

67
classification of goods for tariff payment is also very much low, the duty that should
be paid on the same goods differs from one officer’s assessment to another.

Table 3.20: ERCA is less procedural after adoption of ASYCUDA

ERCA is less procedural Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent %) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 14 32 6 17
Agree 3 7 15 42
Disagree 10 23 3 8
Strongly Disagree 17 38 12 33
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As it can be seen from table 3.20, most of the respondents which are customers
express their disagreement on whether the organization is less procedural. 27 out of
44 (61 percent) of the respondents from customers strongly disagreed or disagreed
about less procedural performance of the organization, while 17 out of 44 (39
percent) of the respondents from customers strongly agreed or agreed about less
procedural performance of the organization. In the opposite to this, 21 out of 36 (59
percent) of the respondents from employees strongly agreed or agreed about less
procedural performance of the organization, while 15 out of 36 (41percent) of the
respondents from employees strongly disagreed or disagreed about less procedural
performance of the organization after adoption of ASYCUDA.

This implies, regardless of the respondents inconsistency above 60 percent of the

respondents from customers as well as employees agreed on the less procedural
performance of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus, though it may have
different reasons, this study shows the organization is not effective to exploit the
potential of ASYCUDA in bringing performances efficiency and process facilitation
of the revenue collection and goods clearance.

68
Table 3.21: Consistency in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA
Consistency in ERCA Responses
after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 3 7 5 15
Agree 18 41 13 36
Disagree 4 9 2 5
Strongly Disagree 19 43 16 44
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

As Table 3.21 shows, respondents who are 52 percent of customers responded as

strongly disagreed or disagreed for the question whether the company is consistent or
not while 48 percent of them were strongly agreed or agreed. In this relation 51
percent of employees were strongly agreed or agreed for the consistency of the
organization while 49 percent of the employees were strongly disagreed or disagreed
about the consistency of ERCA in its performances. Unavailability of precise and up-
to date duty paying value and tariff for goods of different country of origin and for
newly innovated products worldwide also hampered the smooth operation of the
customs and big inconsistency in performance of the organization. So experts must
have knowledge and up -to -date information about the working of ASYCUDA.

ASYCUDA is too rigid to accommodate the ever needed changing information and
correction of errors. Every decisions concerning correction should be approved by
both the supervisor and branch manager. Unless some kind of flexibility is available
for the desk officers, the ICTs are not to facilitate the efficient service rendering by
themselves because ITC and centralization of authority could not go side by side,
hence requiring the approval of the authorities to each of the changes in the service
delivery system. The case would become deterring for customs officers who are
required to attend many other tasks.

69
Table 3.22: Timely performance of ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA
Timely performance of Responses
ERCA after adoption of Customers Employees
ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 10 23 7 19
Agree 6 14 9 25
Disagree 4 9 5 14
Strongly Disagree 24 54 15 42
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

Table 3.22, shows, more than half of the respondents who are customers express their
disagreement on the timely response of the organization on its work performances, 37
percent of the respondents from customers strongly agreed or agreed about the timely
performance the organization, while about 63 percent of the respondent from
customers strongly disagreed or disagreed about the timely performance the
organization. On respecting time, 44 percent of the respondents from employees
strongly agreed or agreed about the timely performance of the organization, while
about 56 percent of the remaining respondents of the employees strongly disagreed or
disagreed about the timely performance of the organization because of the adoption of
ASYCUDA.

This implies, regardless of the respondents inconsistency more than 50 percent of the
respondents from customers as well as employees agreed that ERCA is less timely in
its performance after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus, though it may have different
reasons, this study show is that the organization is not timely to exploit the potential
of AYCUDA in bringing performances efficiency and process facilitation of the
revenue collection and goods clearance processes.
Table 3.23: Concern about customers in ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA
Concern about customers Responses
in ERCA after adoption Customers Employees
of ASYCUDA Frequency Percent (%) Frequency Percent (%)
Strongly agree 9 20 4 11
Agree 7 16 10 28
Disagree 14 32 4 11
Strongly Disagree 14 32 18 50
Total 44 100 36 100
Source: Own survey 2015

70
Table 3.23 shows, that more than half (64 percent) of the respondents who are
customers express their disagreement on the concern about customers of the
organization. 36 percent of the respondents from customers strongly agreed or agreed
about the concern of ERCA for its customers after adoption of ASYCUDA, while 64
percent of the respondents from customers strongly disagreed or disagreed about the
concern of customers about the performance of the organization. In relation to this, 39
percent of the respondents from employees strongly agreed or agreed about the
concern of customers about the performance of the organization, while 61 percent of
respondents from employees strongly disagreed or disagreed about the Concern of
customers about the performance of the organization because of the adoption of
ASYCUDA.

This implies, regardless of the respondents’ inconsistency, 61 percent of the

respondents from customers as well as employees agreed on the performances of
ERCA after adoption of ASYCUDA. Thus, this study shows that, the organization has
not been effective in exploiting the technological potential of ASYCUDA to bring
performance efficiency to its customers on revenue collection and goods clearance
processes.

3.4. Interview Result and Analysis

In addition to the questionnaire, the researcher has made an interview with officials in
Addis Ababa Airport Customs branch and Addis Ababa commercial goods facilitation
branch (Kality). During the interview almost all the officials argue that the clearing
process has shown improvement from time to time, especially after the reorganization
of the authority. The interviewees have justified the reason for the improvement as
follows:

Firstly, the BPR study which facilitated the restructuring of the organization is the
base or benchmark for the improvement. Secondly, shifting from manual to full
automated system (ASYCUDA++) is the most decisive measure which serves as a
vital input for the change. This in turns furnished the clearing agents and/or importers
on line declaration services, using the direct trader input (DTI), and it also allows the
access of electronic procedures. Thirdly, the recruiting of graduate employees, has

71
contributed in upgrading the capacity of the authority in performing modern customs
clearing process. Finally, based on the BPR study, time taken for a document based
on level of risk has been specified as a standard, and every employee is expected to
deliver Customs clearance service within or below the presented time indicated on the
manual. However, the officials agreed that, the Customs clearance process and the
presented time length for a document didn’t achieve as expected.

The interviewees extend that, the major causes for the failures of the planned outputs,
are shortage of skilled manpower (in terms of number), interruption of system
network (ASYCUDA++), employee’s insufficient knowledge of the ASYCUDA’s
function, lack of standard training center to equip employees with technical
knowledge of the clearing process and to upgrade their knowhow and create
awareness about the nature of imported goods, so that they can develop self
confidence in classification of goods accordingly.

Meanwhile, in the discussion, the officials added that beside to the listed problems in
the preceding paragraph, the clearing agents and/or owners have a significant negative
role on the Customs clearance process. They argued that, most of the agents do have
no professional ethics even they facilitate to corrupt and are smart enough in cheating
officers. At the same time, importers provide undervalued invoice, wrong certificate
of origin and other forged documents. As the result of these and other related
problems, Customs clearing time for a document/declaration became longer than the
standard.

72
 CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1. INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the adoption and efficiency of ASYCUDA in ERCA. The primary
and secondary data collected from 44 customers and 36 employees at ERCA and 12
officials from six relevant organizations as well as studying the available documents and
observations on the practice are the basis for my conclusions and recommendations for
the performance of ASYCUDA in ERCA.

In addition, the study explores the application of ASYCUDA compared to the manual
system that has been used by ERCA. Consequently, based on the theoretical frame work
discussed in chapter two, the study attempts to describe and analyze the performance
efficiency of ASYCUDA and suggests possible solutions by which ERCA can improve
the performance of ASYCUDA.

4.2. Conclusions

From the findings of this study, ASYCUDA improves the goods clearance activities by
reducing waiting time for service delivery even though the stoppage of the system due to
system failure has taken more time to maintain and start the work process again.

ASYCUDA brought changes in service provision mechanisms like improved quality of

service as well as changes in reduction of cost and procedures which are very important
to achieve the efficiency of the organization, but the organization found to be inefficient.

There is a delay in goods clearance even though the reasons given for goods clearance are
different among respondents. The study found out that; poor working habits of the
employees of the organization, frequent system failures because of network failure as
well as electric power failure, less transparency and un-updated data bases are the most
common reasons for the occurrence of delay in goods clearance.

73
The study explores the major problems ERCA is facing with regard to its way of service
delivery.

• Clearance and Inspection: Inadequate automation of Information exchange,

inefficient use of Customs resources (ASYCUDA), added time consuming, extra
steps in clearance process like the use of physical forms and signatures.

• Facilities: The cargo places are crowded and in adequate that creates delays in
over all processing of goods clearance.

• Information Technology: There is lack of interfaces among internal systems,

poor data flow and integrity, effective use of ASYCUDA software, integration
with outside agencies having IT links and there is no expanded/ continuous
training available for efficient use of ASYCUDA

• Impacts: Some clearance processes remained manual while ASYCUDA and

commercial system capabilities exist. As a result of this, ERCA cannot produce
benefits of automation to reduce transaction costs and increase capacities. In
addition, it is very difficult to efficiently forecast trade and revenue transaction as
well as efficiently to plan for staffing with no workflow processing which have
very significant negative influence on an efficient clearance process .In addition
to this Customs do not have pre-knowledge of upcoming inspection workload, no
real-time visibility of clearance status and inability to determine work patterns
and flows

• Quality of inspections is compromised on slow trade facilitation because

integration of systems does not exist in developed systems. This creates,
inefficient processing of clearance declarations and sometimes duplicate
processes adding to inefficiency

• Lack of automation and integration are the major obstacles to the

implementation of ASYCUDA and still after adoption of ASYCUDA inspections
are slow, time consuming, and costly

74
 • Man power: According to the study, there is no adequate skilled manpower that
immediately maintain whenever the system fails .As a result of this, delay in
service delivery process is occurring which makes the customers to lose a lot of
business opportunity. Besides, this will make it difficult for ERCA to efficiently
collect tax from its customers.

While processing on ASYCUDA ++ system, ERCA does not consider the interest of
banks because it evaluates all information from the point of view of revenue generation.
Moreover other important information like invoice number is likely to be forgotten while
registering in the declaration. The assessment must be from different angles and it must
consider the interests of other interrelated organizations like Banks and MOFED.

It is very difficult to amend errors from ASYCUDA++ system, if error is committed in

using the foreign exchange permit number, all of the processes for those goods in the
whole system will encounter problems and it is very difficult to correct the error easily
because the system does not allow any correction. Mostly replacements of foreign
exchange permit numbers are given by banks to customers and this creates a delay in
goods clearance process.

The ASYCUDA ++ system is excellent in tracing information and security for the
system in the cross checking but still there are some gaps in checking and correcting
some un given numbers used by some importers and exporter intentionally to cheat (take
advantage of) the system and pass the banking processes but generally ASYCUDA brings
efficiency and security

The ASYCUDA ++ frequently encounter errors and interruptions for different reasons
due to electric power failure, network failure, lack of additional features of ASYCUDA
++ system which create inefficiency in ERCA in exploiting the potentials of ASYCUDA.

4.3. Suggestions and Recommendations

From the above discussions, the following suggestions and recommendation are
provided:

75
 1. Hard ware and infrastructure facilities such as high capacity printers, computers
telephones, fax machines as well as good internet connection and uninterrupted
electric power by using other means like generators have to be availed /equipped/, so
that unnecessary delay due to the unavailability of these facilities can be
eliminated

2. The level or degree of transparency must be increased by giving clear and complete
information about the status of every document that is lodged and assessed in
customs to eliminate corruption, manipulation and intentional bias

3. The lack of adequate electricity and telecommunication facilities not only make the
system fail which create very big problem in goods declaration process but also it
deprived the organization to maximize the full potential of ASYCUDA. Hence,
ERCA must create a mechanism by which electricity and telecommunication
facilities can be available.

The study has shown both the strength and weakness concerning the application
ASYCUDA by ERCA. To improve the performance of ASYCUDA, it will be useful to
implement the interventions listed below:

1. As this study showed an effort has not been made to fully exploit the potential of the
ASYCUDA ++ system by ERCA and there is no consistency in goods clearance
process in the organization. These shows there are incorrect records which are
mostly kept that reduce the reliability of tasks performed in the organization. Hence,
ERCA must work for the organizational efficiency by making the work process very
consistent and accurate. In addition, ERCA must make the necessary modification
and adoption of ASYCUDA world which is the latest versions of the customs system
than using ASYCUDA ++ system.

2. Continuous training opportunity must be available to employees to update them so

that they can work efficiently with the system. As this study shows, the customers
complaining about frequent changes of employees. Hence, ERCA should take the
following measures to have competent and capable employees working in the
implementation of the system:

76
 i. Develop and implement a standard training program for all customs personnel
and expand the skill sets of the customs officers, continuously schedule
training, develop and implement a communications process to provide up-to-
date information.

ii. Eliminate paper-based processing, restructure the present units into a

workflow process, structure centers into more efficient workflow
environments, incorporate the efficiencies of workflow queues, and develop
standardized processes in the organization.

iii. Supervisors and front line officers should undergo mandatory training on how
to operate computers and track operations on them

iv. Organization policies, directives and regulations have to be reviewed in line

with the changes that have been taking place due to the implementations of
ICT.

v. Most importantly, every civil servant in Customs Authority has to be

enlightened to facilitate the smooth operation of the service delivery as the
ultimate objectives of utilizing ICT is service enhancement.

3. This study showed that there is poor compliant management system in ERCA and
the customers do not know where to go if they face problems. Hence, ERCA must
establish independent compliant management system, which in turn provides an
input for further service improvement mechanisms.

4. ERCA faces electric power interruption frequently which made the work process of
ASYCUDA to stack and be very slow. Hence ERCA must work with Ethiopian
Electric Power Authority to solve the problem and also must arrange other means
of power supply like availing generator to solve the power interruption in working
hours of the organization

5. Using appropriate/high/ technology the organization must use the latest

technologies to use ASYCUDA at its full potential. Critical technology
requirements for successful implementation of the system are very important.

77
 Thus, ERCA Implement a simplified and standardized process model, eliminate
redundant and manual processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, and develop a more
automated processing model. Incorporate existing systems into ASYCUDA
software, Review existing systems functionality in ASYCUDA and develop
interfaces or incorporate functionality.

6. Work for efficiency, the organization is not efficiently working with ASYCUDA,
and it must give timely service to its customers. If ERCA is to continue to give the
service, it must give proper concern to serve its customers. Hence, ERCA must
change its service delivery system so as to provide timely and efficient service for
its customers.

7. The ASYCUDA ++ system needs to be linked to the system of Banks especially

with the National Bank of Ethiopia as it reduces some problems that will be created
in the clearance process. The process needs networking, to speeding up the process
and sharing the information to the relevant office. ASYCUDA must be user friendly
and ERCA has to work for that goal.

8. The organization must work for the development of skill of employees specially
who are implementing ASYCUDA and should given related training that can help
them to cope with the service delivery system.

78
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 APPENDIX
Addis Ababa University
School Of Graduate Studies
Departments of public administration and development management
Dear Respondents:
The objective of this questionnaire is to secure the necessary and relevant first-hand information
that may be useful to conduct a Thesis regarding “Efficiency of Electronic Service Delivery: A
case study in Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) in Ethiopian Revenue and
Customs Authority (ERCA)” which will be used to prepare a Thesis required for my MPMP
degree in Public management and Policy. Therefore, your response in this regard helps a lot to
undertake the study. The result of this survey will be treated with at most confidentiality and will
be strictly used for academic purpose only. The researcher thus appreciates in advance your
cooperation and sparing your valuable time in filling this questionnaire (by customers).
1. What kind of business are you engaged in now?
a) Importer b) Exporter c) Both
2. What kind of goods do you declare?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. For how many years have you been engaged on this work?
a) Up to 2 years b) From 3 to 5 years c) From 6 to 10 years
d) Above 10 years
4. Do you face delay for clearance of goods because of Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority (ERCA)?
a) Yes b) No
5. If your answer is yes for No. 4, what do you think are the reasons of delay for clearance of
goods?______________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
6. Do you know about the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA)?
a) Yes b) No
7. What is the difference between the ASYCUDA based system and the manual system for you?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
8. Do you think ASYCUDA is facilitating the workflows in clearance of goods?
a) Yes b) No
9. If your answer for the No.8 is YES how?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10. Is there a place to go and ask about the delay of your goods?
a) Yes b) No
11. Do you think ASYCUDA reduces the procedures required for goods clearance?
a) Yes b) No
12. Do you think quality service is given for customers by the organization?
a) Yes b) No
13. Do you think ASYCUDA brings quality service delivery system?
a) Yes b) No
14. If your answer for No.13 is YES, how ASYCUDA brings quality service delivery system?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
15. Does the ASYCUDA system fail sometimes?
a) Yes b) No
16 What are the reasons of the system failure? If your answer is YES for No.15
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
17. How frequently the system fails, if your answer is YES for No.15?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

18. What changes does the adoption of ASYCUDA have brought in the following? (Please put 
Marks as per your perception of the service delivery system of ERCA.)
 S.N Description Strongly agree Agree I do not know Disagree strongly
disagree

1 Efficiency

2 Effectiveness

3 Accountability

4 Transparency

5 Less bureaucratic

6 Consistency

7 Responsiveness

8 Timely

9 Concern about
customers

19. Do you think ASYCUDA requires less time than the manual system?
a) Yes b) No
20. How much time do you take on average to clear the goods before adoption of ASYCUDA?
a) Import__________________________________________________________________
b) Export__________________________________________________________________
21. How much time do you take on average to clear the goods after adoption of ASYCUDA?
a) Import__________________________________________________________________
b) Export__________________________________________________________________
22. Does ASYCUDA make the work flow more flexible?
a) Yes b) No
23. Do you get information immediately about the status of your goods when you requested?
a) Yes b) No
24. Does Staff provide timely service to you?
a) Yes b) No
25. Is there a place to go to complain about a delay of you goods?
 a) Yes b) No
26. Do you think the need from manual to ASYCUDA IT based system was important?
a) Yes b) No
27. Does the organization have trained man power that facilitates the new system?
a) Yes b) No
28. Do you think the failure in the ASYCUDA system immediately maintained?
a) Yes b) No
29. Do you have any experience of immediate correction of ASYCUDA system failure in
clearance of goods?
a) Yes b) No

30. How do you rate the following as per the service delivery of ERCA? (Put  marks as per
your perception of the service delivery system of ERCA.)

S. Description Strongly agree agree I don’t Disagree Strongly

N know disagree

1 Reliability

Accuracy in performance

Consistency in performance

Keeping records correctly

The service is dependable

2 Responsiveness

Employees are very supportive

Service is provided immediately

Giving on time service

Consistency in performance

Information is given immediately

3 Competency

Employees possess required skills

They have required knowledge

 They are experienced

They are qualified

4 Courtesy

Employees have good manner

They are caring and polite

They care for customers property

Employees are friendly

They respect customers

5 Credibility

ERCA is trustworthy

It is always honest to customers

It is always loyalty to customer

6 Tangibility

The organization has best

facilities

It has most modern technology

It has skill full employees

The office is convenient for

service delivery

7 Access

The service is easily accessible

Waiting time for service short

Convenient hours of operation

Convenient location of service

facility

31. Is there anything you want to add about ASYCUDA’s performance in ERCA?
__________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
 Addis Ababa University
School Of Graduate Studies
Departments of public administration and development management
Dear Respondents:
The objective of this questionnaire is to secure the necessary and relevant first-hand information
that may be useful to conduct a Thesis regarding “Efficiency of Electronic Service Delivery: A
case study in Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) in Ethiopian Revenue and
Customs Authority (ERCA)” which will be used to prepare a Thesis required for my MPMP
degree in Public management and Policy. Therefore, your response in this regard helps a lot to
undertake the study. The result of this survey will be treated with at most confidentiality and will
be strictly used for academic purpose only. The researcher thus appreciates in advance your
cooperation and sparing your valuable time in filling this questionnaire (by employees).
1. Customs station ______________________________________________________________
2. Age________________________________________________________________________
3. Educational background a) certificate b) Diploma c) Degree d) Masters e) PhD.
4. Service year__________________________________________________________________
5. Does your work relate directly to Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA)?
a) Yes b) No
6. If your answer is YES, how many years have you worked on implementation of ASYCUDA?
______________________________________________________________________________
7. Do you think there is a delay in clearance of goods in your organization before adoption of the
system? a) Yes b) No
8. What are the reasons /factors/ of delay in clearance of goods if your answer for No.7 is YES?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
9. What are the differences between the new system and the old procedure for you?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10. Do you think ASYCUDA is facilitating workflows in clearance of goods?
a) Yes b) No
11. How ASYCUDA is facilitating workflows if your answer for No.10 is YES?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
12. Do you think there was importance to change form manual to IT based system
(ASYCUDA)?
a) Yes b) No
13. Do you ever face system failure the implementation of ASYCUDA?
a) Yes b) No
14. Does the system fail frequently at high working time?
a) Yes b) No
15. Do you inform the customers the reasons of the delay of their goods?
a) Yes b) No
16. What is the reason if your answer is NO for question No. 15?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
17. Is there a place to go for to customers compliant about a delay of their goods?
a) Yes b) No
18. Do you think ASYCUDA reduce the bureaucratic procedures required for goods clearance?
a) Yes b) No
19. Do you think quality service is given for customers?
a) Yes b) N o
20. Do you think ASYCUDA brings quality service delivery system?
a) Yes b) No
21. Is there frequent ASYCUDA system failure during customer service delivery at ERCA?
a) Yes b) N o
22. What are the reasons for system failure if your answer is YES to question number 21?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
23. Do you think ASYCUDA uses less time than the manual system?
 a) Yes b) No
24. Do you think ASYCUDA is efficient than the manual system?
a) Yes b) No
25. Do you think ASYCUDA reduce the cost involved in the transaction than the manual
system?
a) Yes b) No
26. Do you think the need from manual to IT based system was important (from Manual system
to ASYCUDA)?
a) Yes b) No
27. If your answer is YES what is your reason to question 26?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
28. What changes does the adoption of ASYCUDA have brought in the following? (Please put
 marks as per your perception of the service delivery system of ERCA.)

S.N Description Strongly agree Agree I do not know Disagree Strongly

disagree

1 Efficiency

2 Effectiveness

3 Accountability

4 Transparency

5 Less bureaucratic

6 Consistency

7 Responsiveness

8 Timely

9 Concern about
customers

29. Do you think ASYCUDA make the work flow of goods clearances more flexible?
a) Yes b) No
30. Does the organization have trained man power to facilitate the new system?
a) Yes b) No
31. Do you think the failure in the system immediately maintained?
a) Yes b) No
32. Do you have any experience of immediate correction of system failure in clearance of goods?
a) Yes b) No
33. If your answer is No how long it take them to maintain the system?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
34. Any thing you want to add about the ASYCUDA performance?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your co-operation!

 Addis Ababa University
School Of Graduate Studies
Departments of public administration and development management
Dear Respondents:
The objective of this interview is to secure the necessary and relevant first-hand information that
may be useful to conduct a Thesis regarding “Efficiency of Electronic Service Delivery: A case
study in Automated Systems for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) in Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority (ERCA)” which will be used to prepare a Thesis required for my MPMP degree in
Public management and Policy. Therefore, your response in this regard helps a lot to undertake
the study. The result of this interview will be treated with at most confidentiality and will be
strictly used for academic purpose only. The researcher thus appreciates in advance your
cooperation and sparing your valuable time in answering these questions (by interviewees).
Interview Guide
1. Does your organization require information from Ethiopian Revenue and Customs
Authority (ERCA) for your work? Do you use Automated Systems for Customs Data
(ASYCUDA) processed data (declaration)
2. For what purpose are you using the information you received form ERCA?
3. Do you get immediate and correct information as you request from ERCA?
4. Do you face a delay in receiving any information from ERCA? What do you think is reason
of the delay?
5. Do you think ASYCUDA facilitates the speed of information received form ERCA? What
about your organization?
6. Do you think ASYCUDA reduced the procedure to received information from ERCA than
the manual system?
7. Do you think ASYCUDA brings efficiency generally for the import and export process?
8. Are there any constraints that you face in using ASYCUDA data? Please mention major
Constrains? What do you think as reasons for those problems? What are the possible
solutions/Recommendations/ for those problems?
9. What do you want to add on the performance of ASYCUDA?
Thank you for your co-operation!