Nearly two thirds of government departments are performing better than average in terms of online accessibility, while only about 15 per cent are in need of improvement, says Laurence Millar, director of the e-government unit of the State Services Commission. The e-government strategy, launched in April 2001, had the aim that by June 2004 the internet would be the dominant means of enabling ready access to government. Mr Millar says the 2004 goal has effectively been met.
The progress report on the strategy, released last week, is the first formal benchmark for the scheme.
Further goals are that by June 2007 the internet will be integral to the delivery of government services, and by June 2010 the operation of government will have been transformed by the internet.
The ultimate goal, says Mr Millar, is to have an array of central government functions that can be done online, with websites designed to be "citizen-centric".
The "basic fabric" of government internet services is sound, Mr Millar says, and areas for improvement are relatively minor. These include having better links, more up-to-date information and better search engines.
Mr Millar says high-volume sites such as IRD perform better than those with less public contact. He says this is partly a reflection of individual departments' priorities, and no department is lagging so far behind as to be of concern.
The report examined and gave an assessment of the websites of 41 government agencies.
In January 2006 a standard will be introduced for accessibility for government departments, and Mr Millar says he has no reason to believe any department will fail to make the grade.
Mr Millar says three government sites have been held up as examples of best practice - IRD, Statistics and Archives New Zealand.
As part of the report, two surveys were conducted to examine the public's use of the internet and awareness of online services. "The bottom line from this is New Zealanders use a lot of internet but they don't use it for government," Mr Millar says.
One study found most people perceived government websites as providing information, but did not associate them with providing services. When asked what services should be available online, about half of those recommended already existed.
The "digital divide" was revealed as a factor in accessing online services, with some people in lower socio-economic groups having neither the access nor the skills to communicate with government agencies via the web.
"I see it as e-government's role to take a lead in driving uptake in collaboration with other agencies," Mr Millar says. "How we're going to do that is something we've got to work through, because we're not in the Telecom or McDonald's mass market."
A six-week pilot will be introduced early next year to market e-government services in certain geographic areas, Mr Millar says. This will be followed by a study to see if advertising online services has been successful.
The e-government project has also involved the development of a secure mail service, to guarantee the privacy of information sent as an e-mail.
Legislation currently forbids many government departments, such as IRD, from sending confidential information in emails. The e-government unit has talked to ISPs about delivering secure mail and the project is nearing the vendor-selection stage.
Mr Millar says a similar audit will be held in three years time, and "we'll be looking at what we need to get a similar result then".
Autor: Adrian Bathgate
Quelle: Stuff, 25.10.2004
