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e-GOVERNANCE : INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO33.1 Many ountries have initiated e-Governane programmes in order to make government

and its agenies eient, more responsive and transparent. Some o these initiatives are

desried in this hapter.

3.2 Recent Steps in the USA10

3.2.1 In July, 2001 an initiative known as Expanding Eletroni Government was initiated as

a part o the Presidents Management Agenda. Te ojetive was to make use o inormation

tehnology to eliminate wasteul ederal spending, redue governmental paperwork and

improve government response time to itizens. Tis expansion o e-government had three

guiding priniples:

i. It should e itizen-entered and not ureauray or ageny-entered.

ii. It should produe measurale improvements or itizens.

iii. It should e market-ased, aimed at promoting innovation.

3.2.2 Te approah o the Federal Government was aimed frst at modernizing the use

o inormation tehnology within its agenies through using the priniples o e-usiness;

seondly, it aimed at integrating inormation tehnology appliations aross dierent

agenies with a ous on dierent groups o itizens inluding individuals, usinesses, Federal

Government employees, et. Te frst strategy envisaged adoption o ertain e-Governane

praties within government agenies and departments. Te seond strategy involved

ahieving the ollowing perormane ojetives in ase o speifed Portolios:

Government to Citizen (G to C): o provide one-stop, on-line aess to inormation

and servies to individuals.

GovernmenttoBusiness(GtoB): Te Federal Government should not ontinue

to make usinesses report the same data multiple times to multiple agenies.

Government should re-use the data appropriately and take advantage o

ommerial eletroni transation protools.

10Soure: based on Implementing the Presidents Management Agenda or E-Government: E-Government Strategy, April 2003; Exeutive Oe o thePresident


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Government to Government (G to G): Federal, State and Loal Governments should

work together to improve servies to itizens within key lines o usiness.

InternalEciencyandEectiveness(IEE): Te Federal Government should

modernize internal proesses to redue osts.

3.2.3 Te initial e-government aomplishments an e gauged rom the ativation o the

ollowing programmes:

FirstGov.gov: Tis is the itizens gateway to millions o pages o inormationontained in more than 22000 Federal and State Wesites.

Volunteer.gov: Allows itizens to volunteer or more than hundred thousandopenings at National Parks, Veteran Hospitals and other ederal ailities.

Recreation.gov: Provides itizens one-stop online aess to National Parks andPuli rereation areas.

GovBenets.gov:Provides one-stop aess to inormation and servies o over ourhundred government programmes or the eneft o itizens.

IRS Free Filing:Allows itizens to fle their taxes on-line or ree.

BusinessLaw.gov:Provides on-line resoure guide to small usinesses enaling aessto legal and regulatory inormation, ompliane assistane et.

Regulations.gov: Provides a single system supporting the rule making proess.

GoLearn.gov.: Provides e-training ourses, e-ooks and areer developmentresoures.

E-Payroll: consolidates government payroll proessing entres.

E-Clearance: Provides an integrated data ase to enale redutions in the seuritylearane aklog.

3.2.4 Tese initial eorts also led to the realization that a Federal Enterprise Arhiteture(FEA) was needed or implementing suh initiatives. basially, an enterprise arhitetureis the omprehensive view o what an organization does, how it does it and how it is

e-Governane : International Senario


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supported y inormation tehnology. Tis led to the estalishment o the FEA in the

Oe o Management and budget (OMb).

3.2.5 Te importane o e-Governane was also reognized y the US congress whihresulted in the passage o the E-Government At o 2002 whih was signed y the Presidenton Deemer 17, 2002. Tis legislation :

CodiesandexpandstheE-GovernmentleadershiproleofOMBthroughthe

estalishment o an Oe o E-Government and I headed y a Presidentially-appointed Administrator;

Authorizes severalinitiatives (E-Rulemaking,GeospatialOne-Stop,E-Records

Management, E-Authentiation and Disaster Management), and endorses the

FirstGov.gov portal;

Sponsorsongoingdialoguewithstate,localandtribalgovernments,aswellasthe

general puli, the private, and non-proft setors to fnd innovative ways to useI to improve the delivery o government inormation and servies; and

EstablishesanE-GovernmentFund,administeredbyGSA,tosupportITprojects

approved y OMb, that enale the Government to ondut ativities eletronially.Te At authorizes unding through FY07.

3.2.6 Tus, the Oe o Management and budgets (OMb) E-Government and Inormationehnology Oe, has, with the support o the General Servies Administration (GSA) and

the Federal chie Inormation Oers (cIO) counil, estalished the Federal EnterpriseArhiteture (FEA) Program whih uilds a omprehensive usiness-driven lueprint o

the entire Federal Government. Te development o this ramework aims to enale theFederal Government to identiy opportunities to leverage tehnology to :11

Reduceredundancy;

Facilitatehorizontal(cross-federal)andvertical(federal,stateandlocal)informationsharing;

EstablishadirectrelationshipbetweenITandmission/programperformanceto

support itizen-entered, ustomer-oused government; and

MaximizeITinvestmentstobetterachievemissionoutcomes.

Promoting e-Governane Te SMAR Way Forward

11Soure: Expanding E-Government: Partnering or a Results-Oriented Government, Deemer 2004; Exeutive Oe o the President, Oe oManagement and budget


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12http://arhive.ainetoe.gov.uk/e-envoy/resoures-pds/$fle/Strategy.pd

3.3 Recent Steps in the UK

3.3.1 In April 2000, the cainet Oie in the UK ame out with the doument

E-Government: A Strategi Framework or Puli Servies in the Inormation Age.12 Tisdoument did not propose any tehnial solutions to a set o usiness needs. Instead, yreognizing that the usiness o Government is too varied and omplex or adopting suh

an approah, it provided a strategi diretion to the puli setor or transorming itsely exploiting the possiilities o new tehnology. Tis strategy ouses on using e-usinessmethods as a means o meeting the governments targets or eletroni servie delivery,eletroni prourement and e-ommere. Te strategy has our guiding priniples:

Buildingservicesaroundcitizenschoices

MakingGovernmentanditsservicesmoreaccessibleovertheinternetandthroughmoile phones, digital V, all entres and personal omputers

Socialinclusion

Usinginformationbetter.

3.3.2 Tis strategy is entered around ertain ramework poliies whih are geared towardsproviding standardization and uilding onfdene. Tus, the Seurity Framework Poliyprovides a ramework against whih servie providers will need to assess their servies.However, servie providers are ree to propose implementations within the ramework.Te Authentiation Framework Poliy and guidelines estalish a ommon approah

to authentiation or government departments, agenies and the wider puli setor.Tis ramework poliy does not assume the estalishment o a single, national system oidentifation. It looks to the estalishment o a range o authentiation servies y entraland loal government and private and puli setor odies. Further, the Smart card

Framework Poliy provides a mandatory set o standards to ailitate interoperaility.Tis is intended to allow the holder o a smart ard issued y any private or puli setorody to aess the roadest possile range o puli servies. Te strategy also proposes the

development o a Privay Framework to seure the system. Te overall ommon poliyand standards are set out in the interoperaility ramework poliy.

3.3.3 Te institutional mehanism or implementing the strategy is desried elow:

A. Te e-Envoy, supported y the Inormation Age Government champions,will

articulateadetailedchangeprogramme



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leaditsimplementation

identifynewopportunitiesforcross-cuttinginitiatives

reportregularlyonprogresstoMinisters.

b. Te central I Unit (cIU) in the cainet Oe, in ollaoration with

ounterparts in the devolved administrations and lead agenies, will

supportcitizen-focusedserviceintegration

leadimplementationofframeworkpolicies,standardsandguidelines

promotesharedinfrastructureandapplications

establishagovernmentportal

promotecommonpoliciesonthemanagementofinformation.

c. Puli setor organizations will

establishnewwaysofdoingbusiness

implementcommonstandardsandframeworkpolicies

develope-businessstrategies

provide services which are accessibleviathegovernment andother

portals.

3.3.4 In Novemer 2005, the cainet Oe ame out with the doument ransormational

Government: enaled y tehnology. Tis doument reognizes that many systems and

proesses are still paper ased and sta-intensive. Tey are strutured around the produt

or the underlying legislation rather than the ustomer. Further, most government agenies

are designed as islands, having their own dataases, inrastruture and seurity and identityproedures. Tis makes it diult to work with other parts o government as also with the

voluntary and ommunity setor. Te doument also reognizes that the numer, sale

and sheer diulty o puli setor projets puts a stress on the apaity o the puli and

the private setors to deliver eiently. Aordingly, the doument stresses on three key

transormations. Tese are:



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ServicesenabledbyITmustbedesignedaroundthecitizenorbusiness,not

the provider, and provided through modern, o-ordinated delivery hannels.

Tis will improve the ustomer experiene, ahieve etter poliy outomes,

redue paperwork and improve eieny y reduing dupliation and routineproessing, leveraging delivery apaity and streamlining proesses.

Governmentmustmovetoasharedservicecultureinthefront-oce,in

the ak-oe, in inormation and in inrastruture and release eieniesy standardization, simplifation and sharing.

eremustbebroadeninganddeepeningofgovernmentsprofessionalism

in terms o the planning, delivery management, skills and governane o I

enaled hange. Tis will result in more suessul outomes; ewer ostlydelivery ailures; and inreased onfdene y itizens and politiians in the

delivery o hange y the puli servies.

3.4 Recent Steps in New Zealand

3.4.1 Realising the importane o opportunities oered y Ic, the New Zealand Governmentame out with its e-government vision doument in May 2000 and an E-GovernmentUnit was estalished y the State Servies commission (SSc) in July 2000. In April 2001,the government ame out with its E-Government Strategy.13 Tis strategy had a simple

operational vision: New Zealand will e a world leader in e-government. Tis vision wassupported y a time-ound mission: By2004,theInternetwillbethedominantmeanso enabling ready access to government inormation, services and processes.basially, thisstrategy was in the nature o a programme or ation or the State Servies commissions

E-government Unit (EGU) and government agenies working alongside the Unit, aimedat making the most o e-tehnology in government. Te overall ojetive was to reate apublic sector (includingthe public service,Crownentities,StateOwnedEnterprisesandlocal government) that is: structured, resourced and managed to perorm in a manner which

meets the needs o New Zealanders in the inormation age and which increasingly delivers

inormation and services using online capabilities.As per this strategy, e-government wasexpeted to provide:

Better services more onvenient and reliale, with lower ompliane osts,higher quality and value;

Cost efectiveness and eciency heaper, etter inormation and servies or

ustomers and etter value or taxpayers;


13Soure: http://www.e.govt.nz/aout-egovt/programme/e-gov-strategy-apr-01/


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Improved reputation uilding an image o New Zealand as a modern nation,

an attrative loation or people and usiness;

Greater participation by people in government making it easier or those whowish to ontriute; and

Leadership supporting the knowledge soiety through puli setor

innovation.

3.4.2 In the Report entitled Ahieving e-government 2004,14 the progress in implementing

the strategy was examined y assessing ageny wesites, appraising the quality o ageny

metadata reords used on the government portal, onsulting with agenies, reviewing the

EGUs ontriution and analysing reent e-government surveys to measure the demand

or e-government. Te Report showed that the target or 2004 had een ahieved. Te

strategy has een revised regularly and the last revision (ourth revision) was in 2006. Its

goals15 are as ollows:

By2007,informationandcommunicationtechnologieswillbeintegraltothe

delivery o government inormation, servies and proesses.

By2010,theoperationsofgovernmentwillbetransformedasgovernmentagencies

and their partners will use tehnology to provide user-entred inormation and

servies and ahieve joint outomes.

By2020,peoplesengagementwiththegovernmentwillhavebeentransformed,

as inreasing and innovative use is made o the opportunities oered y network

tehnologies.

3.4.3 Te new strategy envisions that eE-governmentStrategyistheall-of-government

approach to transforming how agencies use technology to deliver services, provide information,

and interact with people, as they work to achieve the outcomes sought by government.Te

new strategy omines eorts in dierent areas to provide an integrated ront. Tese area

speif strategies are:

NewZealandDigitalContentStrategy

PublicBroadcastingProgrammeofAction

GeospatialInformationStrategy

JusticeSectorInformationStrategy


14http://www.e.govt.nz/resoures/researh/ready-aess-2004/ready-aess-2004.pd15Soure: http://www.e.govt.nz/ (extrated on 20.08.2008)


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HealthInformation

Strategy or New

Zealand

I CT S tr a t eg i c

Framework or

Eduation.

3.5 UN eGovernment

Survey

3 . 5 . 1 b a s e d o n t h ee-Governane preparedness

levels internationally, theUnited Nations rings outan annual survey report- he United NationsE-Government Survey.

he UN Survey (2008)has used a omprehensivee-government readinessi n d e x t o a s s e s s t h e

preparedness o variousountries or e-Governane. Te omponents o this omposite index inlude the wemeasure index, the teleommuniation inrastruture index and the human apital index.Tese omponents o the index are desried elow:

(a) Te Web Measure Index: It is ased on a fve-stage model, whih uilds uponthe previous levels o sophistiation o a ountrys online presene.

() Te elecommunication Inrastructure Index: Tis is a omposite index o fveprimary indies relating to a ountrys inrastruture apaity as they relate tothe delivery o e-government servies. Tese are:

i. Internet Users /100 persons

ii. Pcs /100 persons

iii. Main elephones Lines /100 persons

Box 3.1: Evaluation o eGovernance Initiatives in New Zealand

o help understand what transormation an mean, and how we an gaugethe extent to whih it has een suessul, the evaluation will look at questions

like:1. Are New Zealanders ale to ahieve the results they need, without

searhing aross many agenies?2. can New Zealanders get onsistent servie whihever omination o

hannels they use to engage with government?3. can New Zealanders provide inormation to government just one, or

do they have to provide the same inormation many times to dierentagenies?

4. Do workers in State agenies work with olleagues aross the setor toput results or New Zealanders ahead o individual ageny interests?

5. Are they drawing on the est examples o learning and development andtools rom aross the government setor?

6. Are mehanisms eing developed or agenies to work together and share

inormation and researh?7. Are inrastruture and systems supporting ollaoration and

partnership?8. Are New Zealanders using the servies provided y agenies, and are

arriers to aess eing redued?9. Are New Zealanders fnding the government servies intended or

them?10. How muh do agenies know aout the experiene o servie users and

do they use this knowledge to improve servie delivery?11. Do New Zealanders have onfdene in the integrity o government

agenies and workers?

Source:EnablingTransformation:Astrategyfore-government2006



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iv. cellular telephones /100 persons

v. broad anding /100 persons

() Te Human Capital Index: Tis is a omposite o the adult literay rate and

the omined primary, seondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio, with

two thirds weight given to the adult literay rate and one third to the gross

enrolment ratio.

It is evident that improving

e-Governane readiness

would require addressing

issues related to not only

inrastruture development

ut also human apital.

3.5.2 Te Survey has laid

stress on the marh rom

e-government to connected

g ov er nment. I t s ta tes

that many governments

a r e m o v i n g t o w a r d s

e-government-as-a-wholeconcept whih ouses on

the provision o servies at

the ront-end, supported y

integration, onsolidation

and innovation in ak-

end proesses and systems

to ahieve maximum ost

savings and improved servie

delivery. Here, the termak oe reers to the internal operations o an organization that support ore proesses

and are not aessile or visile to the general puli. Tese are government untions that

normally do not interat with outside entities. Te term ront oe reers to government

as its onstituents see it, meaning the inormation and servies provided and the interation

etween government and oth the itizens and usiness. In this ontext, the UN doument

mentions that onneted or networked governane involves the governmental promotion

o olletive ation to advane the puli good, y engaging the reative eorts o all o

Box 3.2: UN Five-stage Evolution Model

Stage I-Emerging: A governments online presene is mainly omprised awe page and/or an oial wesite; links to servie providing ministries ordepartments may/may not exist. Muh o the inormation is stati and thereis little interation with itizens.Stage II-Enhaned: Governments provide more inormation on puli poliyand governane. Tey have reated links to arhived inormation that is easilyaessile to itizens, as or instane, douments, orms, reports, laws andregulations, and newsletters.Stage III-Interative: Governments deliver online servies suh asdownloadale orms or tax payments and appliations or liense renewals.In addition, the eginnings o an interative portal or wesite with serviesare evident.Stage IV-ransational: Governments egin to transorm themselves yintroduing two-way interations etween itizen and government. Itinludes options or paying taxes, applying or ID ards, irth ertifates,passports and liense renewals, as well as other similar G to c interations,and allows the itizen to aess these servies online 24/7. All transations areonduted online.Stage V - conneted: Governments transorm themselves into a onnetedentity that responds to the needs o its itizens y developing an integratedak oe inrastruture. Tis is haraterized y:1. Horizontal onnetions (among government agenies)2. Vertial onnetions (entral and loal government agenies)3. Inrastruture onnetions (interoperaility issues)4. connetions etween governments and itizens5. connetions among stakeholders (government, private setor, aademiinstitutions, NGOs and ivil soiety)(Source: United Nations e-Government Survey 2008)



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16Soure: Figure 1.2; Te United Nations e-Government Survey 2008

soiety. Tus, in this ase, Ic-ased onneted governane eorts are aimed at improvedooperation etween governmental agenies, allowing or an enhaned, ative and eetive

onsultation and engagement with itizens, and greater involvement with multi-stakeholders

regionally and internationally. It onludes that An efective connected government is abouta bigger and better ront-end with a smaller and smarter back-end.Te enefts o suhgovernane are indiated in the Fig.3.1:16

3.5.3 Some o the key lessons identifed in the Survey are as ollows:

A key lesson or developing countries in this regard is the necessity o ollowing throughthe trajectory sketched out above (as either three phases o e-government or the closelyrelated ve-stage framework adopted in previous surveys)with a sustained focuson both internal change within the public sector and external connectivity or the

jurisdiction as a whole.

A key lesson or developing countries is the importance o a realistic and incrementalapproach to both upgrading and aligning the rontline interace with the public as

service recipients and back oce capacities or processing inormation and conductingtransactions. Any notion o an available e-government solution or holistic integrationis now widely viewed as unrealistic, and governments in the developing world areincreasingly cognizant o the need or a genuine partnership with industry (where 123



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partnership implies the existence o sufcient knowledge and skills in order to avoidthe pitalls o unrealistic expectations, supplier dependence and escalating costs).

3.6 e-Governance is not about Technology but Governance

3.6.1 Focusing on technology without realizing that e-Governance is asically aout

ushering reorms in governance has led to ailures in many projects across the world. In

a Special Report on echnology and Government pulished in Te Economist, it has

een highlighted that So ar, though, the story o e-government has been one o quantity,not quality. It has provided plenty o reasons or skepticism and not much cause orenthusiasm. ... Indeed, its most conspicuous eature has been colossal waste o taxpayersmoney on big computer systems, poorly thought out and overpriced. More oten, though,

biggovernmentprojectsstaggerintooperationbutworkbadlyOnlyrarelydopromisedbenetsmaterialize.Someof thosewhohavestudiede-governmentcall ita dangerousenthusiasm:atechnologicalquickxthatdistractsfromtherealtaskshardandslowo reorming government and running public services properly.17 Te pitalls o laying toomuch emphasis on technology and leaving governance reorm out o e-Governance (which

is an arduous task) are thus ovious. In act, a large numer o e-Governance initiatives

are ailures, particularly in developing countries or this very reason. On the asis o a

poll, in Septemer 2002, o memers o the eGovernment or Development Inormation

Exchange and analysis o more than 40 reports on e-Government cases rom developing and

transitional countries (which were sumitted or academic assessment at the University o

Manchester), the ollowing working estimates were arrived at in respect o e-Government

projects in developing/transitional countries18:

i. 35% - total ailures

ii. 50% - partial ailures, and

iii. 15% - successes

3.6.2 Te main actors ehind such ailures were identifed as ollows:19

i. he technological interace o the project did not match with the I-

preparedness o the organization owning and implementing the project.

ii. Te organizational processes did not match with the application platorm

provided y the technological solution.

iii. Te management structures were not conducive to implementation and

Promoting e-Governance Te SMAR Way Forward

17Feruary 16th, 2008; page 818Most eGovernment-or-Development Projects ail: How can Risks e Reduced?; Richard Heeks, 200319based on Richard Heeks, 2003


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sustenane o e-Governane projets.

iv. Adequate resoures (time, money et.) were not alloated to e-Government

projets.

3.6.3 Tus, e-Governane projets annot e planted rom outside. A holisti approah hasto e adopted in order to understand the needs o the itizens, the apailities o governmentorganizations, their proesses and strutures and ased on these, the tehnology-asedsolution would have to e devised.


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e-governance-3