IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Research company Gartner has said that Europe's governments need to prove that they are delivering value for money in their e-government investments. In its report, Gartner said that the governments of Western Europe will spend USD67.8 billion on e-government and information technology in 2003 but said that with this kind of expenditure, there will be pressure to show that it has been worthwhile. "It's a lot of money," warns vice president of research at Gartner, Andrea Di Maio. "That is a lot of hospitals, schools and trains. Technology has the ability to deliver fantastic improvements across society and is an asset equally worthy of investment, but governments must prove that it has broader benefits to the people that pay for it, or they risk public disillusionment."

This is particularly relevant to Ireland, where the government has come under increasing pressure over spending cutbacks in vital areas such as the health sector. Though many of Ireland's e-government initiatives have won important awards, Minister for the Information Society Mary Hanafin has faced criticism this year over costly delays to certain e-government projects including the all-important Public Services Broker, a kind of e-government central nervous system.

Before Hanafin took on the job of Minister for the Information Society, there were calls in the private sector for the government to appoint an e-Minister. Though Hanafin filled that job, some expressed disappointment that the position was not a full cabinet post.

For it part, Gartner said in its report that establishing e-ministers, or public sector Chief Information Officers (CIOs), to oversee the adoption of e-government and ensure that it delivers value for money for taxpayers, is essential. These should be followed by what Gartner calls Domain Information Officers (DIOs), who would focus on architectural, application and data modelling needs, the report said.

"This arrangement would strike a better balance between a centralised and decentralised approach to government management of technology," said Di Maio. "Departments pursue individual agendas without an eye on accountability or cross-departmental prioritisation and assessment. The result is repetition of effort and wasted resources, and the money being spent is not matching the government's stated objectives."

By putting government services on-line, it is hoped that the public can have greater access to information, forms, government services and range of other functions such as tenders and planning permission applications. In fact, e-government has grown to become far more than the re-jigging public sector Web sites, with the term now referring to the re-engineering of way public services are delivered with efficiency and customer service as primary goals.

Quelle: Electric News, 22.10.2003