THE EFFECT OF E-GOVERNMENT ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY IN INDONESIA

Abstract

There are very few studies on the effect of e-government on public sector accountability, particularly in developing nations. Using Indonesia as a case study, this study aims to address a research vacuum by analyzing the effect of e-Government on district government performance accountability. The accountability variable is measured using grades ranging from 1 to 3 (low to high)v from the Government Agency Performance Accountability Report (Laporan Akuntabilitas Kinerja Instansi Pemerintah/LAKIP), which reflects the performance achieved by local government institutions over implementation activities funded by the public budget. We used cross-sectional data in 2020, and due to insufficient data for some districts, we employed the purposive sampling technique to observe 435 sample districts out of Indonesia's 515 administrative governments. The sample size exceeds the Fisher formula's recommended minimum value. For quantitative testing, we employ ordered logit regression and classify our results based on the features of each significant independent variable. A standard deviation increase in e-Government-related variables (online system and information and communication technology adoption), with all other factors, held constant, increases local government accountability by 0.301 and 0.313 standard deviations, respectively. Nevertheless, based on marginal effect results, we find that when the online system implementation score in local district government increases by one unit, the probability of reaching the high accountability category increases by 0.8%, while the probability of reaching grade B (moderate accountability) increases by 6.1%. Similarly, we find only 0.9% to be in the category of high accountability, while 7% are in the category of medium accountability if the ICT utilization score increases. In addition, we reveal that an increase in opinion-based audit scores for local government financial reports may contribute to obtaining a greater level of accountability performance in the public sector.