eGov Towards Effectiveness in Public Administration

1
eGov Towards Effectiveness in Public
Administration

• Tomas Sabol
• TU Kosice, Faculty of Economics
• Member of the eEurope Steering Group (Expert
  Chamber)
• Tomas.Sabol_at_tuke.sk

2
Overview of the presentation

• Definition of eGov, eGov Aims
• Critical Success factors
• Benefits and Measuring eGov programmes
• Action Plan eEurope
• Any link between Competitiveness and eGov?
• Social Inclusion/Exclusion, WAI, PIAP
• e-Procurement
• Reengineering
• How much to invest into ICT?
• Webocracy Project

3
Definitions

• e-Government Interaction of PA with citizens
  businesses using Internet
• e-Gov The use of ICT in public administrations
  combined with organisational change and new
  skills in order to improve public services and
  democratic processes and strengthen support to
  public policies
• e-Democracy Fostering public participation of
  citizens in democratic processes using ICT
• e-Governance Processes and structures for
  harnessing the potentialities of ICT at various
  levels of government and the public sector and
  beyond ? Good Governance

4
e-Gov Aims

• Open and transparent public sector (as a part of
  anti-corruption measures) see e.g.
  e-Procurement
• Inclusive government user-centred, at the
  service of all see e-Inclusion/e-Exclusion,
  PIAP
• Productive public sector value for taxpayers
  money see Measuring eGov Programme Progress
• But also
• Increase accessibility of public services (24/7)
• Responsive PA driven by citizens needs
• Increase quality of public services,
• Provide personalised services, new types of
  services

5
e-Gov - as designed by EC

• Interactive
• efficiency simplicity of services by joining-up
  administrations
• enhancing government, enhancing participation in
  democracy
• Inclusive
• preventing digital divide, support the
  disadvantaged
• promoting public Internet and multimedia access
  points
• Business oriented
• supplying online transactions for business
• supporting public/private partnerships
• Multilingual / Multicultural
• stimulating cross-border use of services and
  information
• encouraging public services in more than one
  language
• Source Presentation of Erkki Liikanen, EC
  commissioner

6
Critical success factors

• Vision, priorities and strategy
• Top level IT champion, leadership
• User-driven approach, user-centred design
• Reengineering, change of organisational processes
  (and organisational culture)
• Human resource development, e-skills
• Interesting content, services
• Access to Internet for all
• Trust and security
• Multiple channel delivery of e-services

7
Five categories of eGov benefits

• Financial Reduced costs of government
  operations/enhanced revenue collection (e.g.
  eliminate paperwork, printing mailing costs,
  routine procedures, ...)
• Economic development (e.g. by attracting
  tiurists, investors)
• Reduced redundancy Consolidating and integrating
  government systems (economy of scale, build it
  once, use it often)
• Fostering democratic principles (especially
  developing countries)
• Improved service to citizens and other
  constituencies.

8
Measuring eGov Progress

• Cost-benefit analysis, net-present value and
  internal rate of return
• Return on Investment
• Customer Satisfaction
• Take-up Rates
• Benchmarking
• Usually difficult, but necessary (What cannot be
  measured, cannot be managed)

9
Action Plan e-Europe Government on-line
Electronic access to public services

• eEUROPE, Ministerial Conference, Warsaw, 11-12
  May 2000
• Availability of Internet access terminals in
  public places (libraries, museums, community
  centres, etc.). Deadline end 2002
• Establish an e-marketplace for public
  e-procurement. Deadline end 2003
• Promote the use of open source software in the
  public sector and e-government best practice
  through exchange of experiences across Europe.
  Deadline end 2002
• Simplified online administrative procedures for
  business, e.g. fast track procedures to set up a
  company. Deadline end 2003
• Promote the use of electronic signatures within
  the public sector. Deadline end 2002

10
Link between e-Gov Competitiveness?

• Criteria of Country competitiveness
• Economic Performance
• Government efficiency
• Business efficiency
• Infrastructure
• World Competitiveness Yearbook 2004
• SK 40 (y. 2003 - 46) (1 - US, 2 Singapore, 3 -
  Canada, .., 28 - EE)
• EU25 SK -17 (1 - SWE, 2 DK, , 6 EE, 11
  LT, 12 SL, 13 CR)
• Main issues in SK Availability of capital,
  Education training, RD, Efficiency of PA,
  Basic infrastructure and health sector
• World Economic Forum (102 national economies) SK
  - 43
• Government success in ICT promotion 78 (out of
  102)
• Government prioritization of ICT 75 (out of
  102)
• Source www02.imd.ch/wcy/, www.weforum.org/pdf/Eur
  ope/Slovak_Republic.pdf, Biatec 8/2004

11
Is Info Society e-Gov only about money?

Note Compare e.g. Slovakia vs Estonia in terms
of Info Society GDP/capita Source P Gaspar,
ICEG European Centre, www.icegec.org
12
Social inclusion, Digital divide

• e-Inclusion defines the degree to which
  individuals and communities are empowered to
  participate in Information Society (IS).
• e-Exclusion - those who are excluded from
  participation in IS because of geographical
  location, age (the elderly), health status (the
  disabled), education (skills), social situation
  (low income), gender.
• The digital divide - measures the gap between
  those who are empowered to participate in IS and
  those who are not.
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI),
  http//www.w3.org/wai - Guidelines for
  accessibility of Web sites for persons with
  special needs (elderly, disabled)

13
WAI criteria applied to PA sites in SK

• Servers tested using http//bobby.watchfire.com/
• Citizen - www.obcan.sk
• Office of the government of SK - www.vlada.gov.sk
  
• Meetings of the government - www.rokovania.sk
• Ministry of Interior, Section of PA -
  www.civil.gov.sk
• Ministry of Defense - www.mod.gov.sk
• Ministry of Agriculture - www.mpsr.sk
• Ministry of Environment - www.lifeenv.gov.sk
• Town - www.mesto.sk
• None of the servers satisfies the WAI criteria -
  they do not satisfy criteria with the priority 1
  and 2 (none of the sites satisfies event the
  priority 1 criteria)!
• Note Today Elderly Disabled 15 of total
  population in Europe in 2020 at the age 80
  about 21 mil. people (est.) Source
  IST-1999-29088 Project PRISMA, http//www.prisma-e
  u.net/
• Low awareness of e-Inclusion in Slovakia!

14
Digital divide EU15
Source ESDIS report eInclusion revisited, EC,
2004
15
Digital divide NMS CCs
? Rural/urban divide in NMS more significant than
in EU15 Source ESDIS report eInclusion
revisited, EC, 2004
16
Number of PIAPs per 1000 inhabitants
Note Compare SK vs. Estonia (76x), or SK vs.
Romania (23x)
Source eEurope 1st Progress Report and eEurope
NSO Survey, June 2003NB Calculation base for
Hungary changed since 2001 (schools no longer
included)
17
e-Procurement

• Improving efficiency and competition in public
  procurement
• Improved transparency and accountability of PA
• UK aims to save 350 million over 3 years for
  central civil government purchases
• Ireland aims to save 400 million over 5 years
  (2 of procurement expenditure in the public
  sector)
• Romania https//e-market.e-licitatie.ro/ (launch
  - March 2002)
• 1,000 governmental agencies and 8,000 suppliers
• Estimated savings 70 mil. EUR on 220,000
  transactions
• Czech Republic e-trziste (2003 12,500
  transactions, total value 36 mil. EUR)
• Slovakia ???
• Source eEurope Progress Report, February 2004

18
Reengineering As an essential part of eGov
projects

• Redesign of processes and procedures
• AND
• Acquisition of new skills (training, )
• Change of mindsets (!)
• The most difficult part of the project
• Technology is not the problem. The problem is how
  to use the technology and attitude of people

19
How much to invest into ICT?Firm-level
productivity depending on investment into
IT investment has to go hand-in hand with
management skills
? Principle 20/80 20 in ICT 80 in management
HR
Source Survey by LSE and McKinsley on 100
manufacturing companies in France, Germany, UK,
and USA (Dorgan and Dowdy, 2004)
20
Other issues related to eGov

• Content (Any content, anytime, anywhere, any
  platform)
• Interoperability
• Joined-up services integration and sharing
  resources across departments and institutions
  (interlinking systems, information, ways of
  working)
• Standards open standards,
• Open Source SW cost benefits, risk, security,
  
• Note Strongly preferred by EC. Any discussion
  in Slovakia?
• (In some countries, on some PA levels, ... OSS
  is compulsory)
• Promotion (e.g. awareness of Obcan.sk in 2003
  41 of Internet users, in 2004 29.2 of
  Internet users. Source Survey of PPP, 2004)
• Failure to put interoperable eGov in place ? ?
  Economic and social costs (expensive,
  unresponsive PA) ?

21
A eGov/eDem solution WEBOCRAT system

• Result of FP5 IST-1999-20364 Webocracy Project
• Functionality of web-based WEBOCRAT
• User-friendly publishing on Web simple Content
  Management System
• Publication of tenders support for public
  procurement
• Non-/Moderated discussions e.g. on published
  docs
• Opinion polling on published docs, discussions,
  
• On-line submissions (requests, complaints) - with
  possibility to track their processing status
• Personalisation user profiles,
• Notification alerting on new events relevant to
  the user profile
• Concept-based retrieval automatic retrieval of
  all resources (docs, discussions, pollings, web
  links) relevant to the given concept
• Security role-based access control etc.
• All modules integrated by means of a
  Knowledge Model

22
User interface
Log in
Fulltext search
Different types of relevant resources
User profile
Categories
Resources relevant to the selected category
23
Advantages of the WEBOCRAT

• Easy adaptation to local needs, customizable
  interface
• Intelligent concept-based retrieval - automatic
  retrieval of content relevant to the given
  concept
• Integrated modules all resources (docs,
  discussions, pollings, web links, tenders, )
  linked together
• Open system - easy integration with a legacy
  information system
• Configurable, modular system
• Security and Role management
• Personalised services user profiling
• Multilingual support a new language can be
  added easily
• Thin client solution only standard web browser
  required
• Platform independent tested on Windows, Linux
• Open source solution
• WAI
• Knowledge management
• Tested in natural settings pilots in UK, SK
  (user survey)

24
Thank you for attention! Tomas.Sabol_at_tuke.sk
25
Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

• PPP refers to forms of cooperation between public
  authorities and the world of business which aim
  to ensure the funding, construction, renovation,
  management or maintenance of an infrastructure or
  the provision of a service
• In PA a trend towards outsourcing services
  (driving licenses, management of land records,
  etc.)
• PA a lack of technical skills and expertise for
  implementation of new technologies
• PA focuses on Defining public objectives,
  monitoring, regulating and, where necessary,
  financing those services

26
Public-Private Partnership (2)

• PPP sharing of risks and benefits between PA
  private undertaking
• A regulatory framework is needed (transparency
  and fair competition for the benefit of the
  taxpayer)
• Do not sell just the old business under a new hat
  -)

27
WAI criteria

• Priority 1 A Web content developer must satisfy
  this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups
  will find it impossible to access information in
  the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a
  basic requirement for some groups to be able to
  use Web documents.
• Priority 2 A Web content developer should
  satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more
  groups will find it difficult to access
  information in the document. Satisfying this
  checkpoint will remove significant barriers to
  accessing Web documents.
• Priority 3 A Web content developer may address
  this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups
  will find it somewhat difficult to access
  information in the document. Satisfying this
  checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

28
10 rád pre vytváranie dostupných WWW stránok

• Obrázky a animácie. Pouívajte atribút alt na
  popis kadého grafického objektu.
• Klikatelné mapy. Pouívajte element MAP a text
  pre aktívne oblasti.
• Multimédiá. Pouívajte titulky, prepis zvukových
  informácií a opis videa.
• Hypertextové prepojenia. Pouívajte text, ktorý
  je zmysluplný aj vtedy, ked je vytrhnutý z
  kontexu. Vyhýbajte sa textu ako napr. "Kliknite
  tu".
• truktúra stránky. Pouívajte nadpisy, zoznamy a
  jednotnú truktúru dokumentov. Tam kde je to
  moné, pouívajte CSS na umiestnovanie a
  formátovanie.
• Source http//www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips
  /qt.sk.htm

29
10 rád pre vytváranie dostupných WWW stránok (2)

• Grafy a diagramy. Pridajte strucný obsah alebo
  pouite atribút longdesc.
• Grafy a diagramy. Pridajte strucný obsah alebo
  pouite atribút longdesc.
• Skripty, aplety a plug-iny. Poskytnite
  alternatívny obsah v prípade ak aktívne prvky nie
  sú dostupné alebo podporované.
• Rámce. Pouívajte element noframes a zmysluplné
  názvy rámcov.
• Tabulky. Zabezpecte zmysluplné cítanie riadok po
  riadku. Pridajte strucný obsah.
• Kontrolujte svoju prácu. Vyhodnocujte. Pouívajte
  nástroje, kontrolné formuláre a intrukcie na
  http//www.w3.org/TR/WCAG.
• Source http//www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips
  /qt.sk.htm

30
A eGov/eDem solution WEBOCRAT (2)

• 2) Methodological framework guidance for
  project managers, information architects when
  employing WEBOCRAT-like system
• 3) Guides
• Managers Guidelines - online learning
  environment
• Citizens Guide
• Employees Guide LG Task Administrator's guide
• Installation Manual
• Operations Guide System administrators manual
• Knowledge Model Developers Guide how to build
  a KM

31
Webocracy Project - Lessons learned

• User-driven approach needed (But At early stage
  of eGov development users do not know exactly
  what they can get raising awareness needed)
• Committed Mayor Vision needed
• Promotion towards specific user groups -
  citizens, local businesses, LG employees, local
  councillors,
• New e-Gov/e-Dem system ? not necessarily (in
  introductory phase) less work for LA employees
• Training, system of incentives for LA employees
• Intuitive, simple user interface (users are not
  interested in the technology which is behind)
• ... It is a long process

32
Webo - Results of the evaluation survey (SK)

• December 2003, 425 respondents (LA employees,
  citizens, local businesses, local councillors)
• Content, Up-to-date information, Navigation (OK
  60-80)
• Most useful services (all user groups)
• Publishing information on LA and its services
  (65)
• Online submissions (citizens - 45, businesses
  60)
• Public discussions (32)
• Pollings (20)
• Tenders (public procurement) (20)
• Local businesses Download of forms
• Local councillors results of voting, minutes of
  meetings etc.
• Impact of new Web site (judged by LA employees)
• Improved communication of LA with the public
  (28)
• Better feedback from citizens / We know our
  citizens better (23)
• Improved access of LA employees to information
  (20)
• Improved e-skills of LA employees (18)

33
Webo - Results of the evaluation survey (2)

• Identified barriers
• Limited access to Internet (42)
• Low interest in public issues (35)
• Insufficient e-skills (30)
• Efficiency of work at LA (judged by LA
  employees)
• Increased (35)
• No change (30)
• Workload at LA (judged by LA employees)
• Increased (50)
• Would you object to (commercial) advertisement on
  LA web page? Yes 35 / No 65
• 80 of local businesses are interested in company
  promotion on LA web site
• Would you recommend LA web site? Yes 90

34
e-Gov market in EU

• Year 2002 30 billion spent on the ICT part of
  PA (administrative services only, excluding
  health, education, defence etc.)
• Of this an estimated 5 billion spent on eGov
  (growth 15 p.a.) without investment in
  re-organisation and training
• Government revenues in EU15 45 of GDP
• Employment in public services EU15 29, SK
  25.7
• Labour productivity growth in public services
  EU15 0.9, SK 8.3 (annual growth, average
  for 1996-2002)
• Economic benefits of eGov in Canadian province in
  terms of annual global savings 0.7 GDP
• Source The role of eGov for future for Europes
  Future, COM(2003) Biatec 9/2004

35
To set up a company

• SK 50 days
• Turkey 9 days, Poland 5 days
• Online registration Finland, Australia, France
  (8 days), , Moldavia, Vietnam

36
How to implement an eGov project?

• Define a vision
• Secure a strong political leadership and support
• Identify user requirements (user-driven approach)
• Identify a pilot application, define the
  objectives, identify relevant good practices,
  identify resources (SF, )
• Implement the project (if possible adapt an
  existing solution)
• Measure progress/impact (cost-benefit analysis,
  return on investment, customer satisfaction,
  benchmarking etc.)

37
eGov Roadmap

• Why are we pursuing e-Gov?
• eGov is about transformation technology is a
  tool
• Do we have a clear vision and priorities
• What kind of e-government are we ready for?
• Infrastructure, ICT usage, budgetary resources
  etc
• Is there enough political will to lead the
  e-government effort?
• Expect opposition, motivate leaders,
• Are we selecting e-government projects in the
  best way?
• Do a diagnosis, shop around, match the project to
  the vision, see e-Gov from user's perspective

38
eGov Roadmap (2)

• 6. How should we plan and manage e-government
  projects?
• Establishing e-government teams, its authority, a
  work plan (content, competency, connectivity,
  continuing involvement of key stakeholders,
  capacity building)
• How will we overcome resistance from within the
  government?
• Understand their fear, Seek "buy-in, Explain,
  Train, Evaluate, Force, Reward, Praise
• How will we measure and communicate progress?
  How will we know if we are failing?
• Set overall performance criteria, Set benchmarks,
  Plan and publicize "quick wins" for e-Gov

39
eGov Roadmap (3)

• Relationship with the private sector?
• Private sector as a partner, Everyone needs
  "return on investment, Create realistic business
  models, Find each partner's strengths, Develop
  formal policies on outsourcing
• How can e-government improve citizen
  participation in public affairs?
• Learn as you go, Citizens are the e-Gov experts,
  e-Gov is evaluated through public participation
  

40
eGov Index

• UN study of the Division for Public Economics and
  PA (UNDPEPA), year 2001, 190 M States
• Benchmarking the core areas endemic to national
  e-Gov programs
• Incorporates a countrys online presence,
  evaluates its telecommunications infrastructure,
  assesses its human development capacity
• High eGov capacity - USA 3.11 Australia 2.60
  CR 2.09 Estonia 2.05
• Medium eGov Capacity - Poland 1.96 Latvia
  1.88, Hungary 1.79 SR 1.71 Slovenia 1.66