Analysing Selected South African e-Government Failures through the Theory of Unintended Consequences

The implementation of e-government Information Systems (ISs) is important for digital transformation, facilitation of government policies and improving service delivery to citizens. Like all other technological innovations, implementation of e-governemnt IS requires the evaluation of their ethical implications. This study was aimed at analysing three selected cases from the reports of the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) to determine the extent to which these implemented ISs’ failures led to unintended consequences from a software engineering ethics perspective. Using Merton’s theory of unintended consequences, the study revealed that whilst the implementation of these ISs was a purpose action, ignorance, error and blindness of software practitioners and decision-makers to a hasty implementation of IS are sources of unintended ethical consequences of system failures. Such failures have led to unintended consequences such as unscrupulous people benefiting from the funds, legitimate beneficiaries losing out on benefits and the government losing lots of money. The adoption of an ethics-aware framework for ethical risk identification and impact assessment can significantly improve the prevention of unticipatable and unwanted consequences of government ISs implementation.