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Central-Local government in the Member States of
EU in the field of e-Government
Prof. Elio Borgonovi Dr. Valentina Mele
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Why Central-Local government in the Member
States of EU in the field of e-Government?

• Because E-Gov is organised through functional
  processes
• Because of orizontal and vertical integration
  among levels of Government
• Because we should start thinking of pan-European
  services

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Vision on benchmarking

• Benchmarking E-Government policies in Europe does
  not aim at appointing "champions" or identifying
  "winners," but at initiating a learning process
  whereby experiences can be fruitfully exchanged
  and good practices can be spread, so as to
  improve policies.
• E-Government good-practices has to move beyond
  copying of styles and discourses, to a thorough
  understanding of practice, function and
  performance.

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Building blocks

• Structure (Institutions)
• Functioning (Processes)
• Critical issues

• Who does what?
• How does it work?
• Does it work?

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Research goals I STRUCTURE

• Institutional assets and level of devolution
• Institutional Actors involved in E-gov
• Resources for E-gov
• Responsibilities for E-gov

methodology
Network mapping

• Desk research
• Questionnaire part A

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Research goals II FUNCTIONING
Network functioning

• Questionnaire part B
• Interviews

• POLICY AND STRATEGY DEFINITION
• SERVICE DELIVERY
• FINANCING

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Research goals III ASSESSMENT
Identifying critical issues and emerging themes
of coordination between central and local
government in the field of e-Government
Comparative analysis focus group with the
members of the E-Government working group
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Organizational structure

• IN THE GREAT MAJORITY OF THE MEMBER STATES
• THERE IS A CENTRAL AGENCY/UNIT/DEPARTMENT
• IN CHARGE OF E-GOV

Why?

• public sector typical over-reliance on
  organizational design
• number and heterogeneity of activities
• willingness to signal a high priority to the
  E-Government objectives

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National strategy policy making

• In most of the countries the formulation of a
  National strategy for E-gov is drafted by the
  Central body, and then showed/discussed/submitted
  to Local Administrations or to their Associations
  

Active in all the 15 member states
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Integrated Service Delivery

• For on-line service delivery, possible problems
  of co-ordination seem to be traditional ones,
  such as the definition of strategies, rules and
  standards by levels that do not deliver the
  service directly
• In terms of co-ordination for delivering a joint
  service, most of the countries mainly provide
  data sharing, access to registries databases.
  Some also provide expertise, approval and
  opinions.
• Businesses are included in the online service
  delivery through outsourcing, PPP, technical
  intermediation

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Pan-European service delivery

• BENEFITs
• Larger availability of services
• Easier mobility
• PROBLEMs/CONSTRAINTs
• Disomogeneity of service standards throughout the
  EU
• In some member states the services are delivered
  by the private sector
• Missing coherent implementation
  (authentification, etc)
• Trade-off between usefulness for final users and
  difficult implementation
• Low take-up

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How do off-line delivered services benefit from
Central-Local co-ordination in E-gov?

• Data content is better organized and
  quality-checked
• Backoffice applications have been deployed
• Better response time speed-up the process
• Reduction in errors
• Services and procedure simplification
• Potential for innovative services

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Funding mechanisms

• Having ad-hoc funding for E-gov is often
  considered a fast-tracking mechanism
• In few cases there is no specific budget for
  E-Gov
• CRUCIAL ROLE OF CO-FINANCING!

Autonomous budget management
Special purpose funds
Projects/initiatives submission and selection
process
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Lessons learned

• Including Local Administrations in E-Government
  strategy definition since from the early stage
• Increasing the attention to co-ordinating
  mechanisms
• Fostering vertical through horizontal
  subsidiarity
• Supporting standards rather than standardization
• Ensuring Central/Local accountability of
  government on-line presence
• Considering the bigger EU picture