OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

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Social environment Danish society uses a consensus-based approach to find answers to the questions that confront it – a situation that mirrors the political environment. Danes express the highest levels of satisfaction with “the way democracy works” of any EU citizens. In a survey conducted in 2001, 93% responded that they were either very or fairly satisfied with the way democracy worked. In 2003, trust in Danish politicians was at its highest level since first measured in 1971. The public sector appears to benefit from these public attitudes. Danes exhibit high levels of trust in government, which is notably transparent and free of corruption. Danes have an overall willingness to interact with the State, and there is a general satisfaction with public services, creating a positive environment for e-government implementation. Economic environment Denmark has been near the top of the OECD’s income rankings for many years – its 2003 per capita GDP of USD 29 800 was 15% above the OECD average. In the period 1993-2003, the average annual growth in GDP was a little below total OECD (2.25% compared with 2.6%) and considerably above that of the Euro area (1.8%). However, in both 2002 and 2003 the annual growth in GDP was well below the OECD average, with growth in 2003 being 0.4%, although growth was very close to the Euro area. Over the last few decades, Denmark has changed from being an agricultural/industrial society to becoming a service society, with almost 75% of all employed persons working in the service sector. In 2002, there were about 280,000 enterprises in Denmark, the majority being small and medium-sized enterprises: 55% had no employees, 36% had one to nine employees, almost 8% had between 10 and 99 employees and only 2,200 (0.8%) had 100 employees or more. However, the latter category represents 62% of total employment. Denmark has the most equal income distribution among OECD member countries, partly because of its comprehensive welfare state. Given an ageing population, a key economic challenge is to maintain growth in living standards while preserving the social welfare system. According to population projections, the working part of the population (individuals aged 25-64 years) will decline by 13% over the next four decades, while the population aged 65+ will increase rapidly from 15% of the total population in 2004 to 23% in 2050. The Government’s approach to addressing this challenge, laid out in the year 2000 in its 10-year economic framework called A Sustainable Future - Denmark 2010 (“the 2010 plan”) is to boost employment, restrain public spending growth and pay down debt. The Danish public sector is large, providing over one-third of jobs. Achieving efficiency improvements in the public sector will have an important impact on the fiscal sustainability of the welfare state. Denmark has recognised that achieving these improvements requires, among other things, public investment. In Investing in Denmark’s Future, 2001 (the public investment strategy that is one of the responses to the 2010 plan) there are two particular measures that have a direct bearing on e-government – investing in Denmark’s transition to being a knowledge-based society with increasing use of ICT, and developing more efficient public administrative procedures to free resources for care and nursing. 163
Administrative environment Organisation of State and local government The Danish public sector is divided into State and local government. State government is comprised of both national and local functions and services. The structure of local government is (currently) based on a two-tier system of counties and municipalities, where municipalities “belong” to one of the counties. However, the general rule is that the counties are not superior to the municipalities – they each have their own sphere of responsibility. The public sector in Denmark is characterized by its very decentralized structure and management. Local authority independence is established in the Danish Constitution, and many administrative powers are delegated to the 14 counties and the 275 local authorities into which Denmark is currently (June 2005) divided; the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg each have the dual status of municipality and county. The current Government is pushing forward with the “Structural Reform”, which will replace the 14 counties with 5 regions, and reduce the 275 local authorities to around 98. The Danish public sector is very large. In the third quarter of 2004 the breakdown of public sector employment was: total Danish workforce, 2,188,000; total public sector workforce, 839,000 (38%); municipality workforce, 431,000; county workforce, 176,000; central government workforce, 54,300; public corporations, 78,500. State government The functions of State government are divided into ministerial portfolios which define the structure of Danish ministries. In principle, ministers make all decisions that fall within a ministry’s responsibilities. In practice many decision-making powers are delegated to various administrative bodies. The top-level of administration in a ministry, serving as the day-to-day advisor to the minister, is called the Ministerial Department. Directorates and agencies are the general terms for the State government bodies belonging to a ministry. Normally, their function is to make decisions and carry out functions within a specified area and to advise the Ministerial Department and the minister. Directorates and agencies are usually subordinate to the Ministerial Department, but in some cases they have a more independent position. State government at sub-national levels State government is represented at the sub-national level through local branches of central government organisations that provide nationwide services (i.e. the police, the prison service, and the post office), and institutions or bodies that provide localised services (i.e. universities, regional archives, the lifeboat service, etc.). Currently, at the local government level there are 14 County Prefect Offices (Statsamter), which cover the same geographical area as the counties. The prefect (Statsamtmand) is nominated by the State government. The main task of the prefect’s office is to make decisions concerning family law. It also acts as the secretariat for the County Board of Appeal, which examines decisions made by municipalities on social questions. Municipalities are subject to specific legislation, operate under a presumption of powers of “general competence”, and are overseen by the Ministry of the Interior and Health and 14 County 164
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OECD PEER REVIEW OF E-GOVERNMENT IN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ASSESSMEN
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ANNEX A: OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL AND
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OECD PEER REVIEW OF E-GOVERNMENT IN
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While it is vital that the Governme
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Finance and the MVTU following thes
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this challenge was frequently menti
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Alongside the problem of the reliab
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In terms of its impact on organisat
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and businesses. While it is not cer
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considerable strategic importance t
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government organisations are aware
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8. Monitoring and evaluation Denmar
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Abstract There is a favourable envi
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E-government context Government pol
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The Structural Reform Between 2005
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administrative procedures. The find
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Figure 1.2 E-government structure a
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II. THE CASE FOR E-GOVERNMENT Denma
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• Creation of a competitive marke
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Abstract Government organisations c
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Source: OECD E-Government Survey: D
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Figure 3.2 Legislative and regulato
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modernisation process, especially i
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and the generally high level of tru
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fund it has created providing a tot
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outright barriers. The clearest evi
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Figure 3.5 Use of public digital se
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• Employment status: students and
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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 3: INFORMATION
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Figure 3.A.4 ICT usage among Danish
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Figure 3.A.8 Internet access among
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IV. PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP The e-g
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The strategy notes that Denmark is
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exchanged electronically. This is e
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with even lower rankings for driver
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involvement in e-government therefo
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In addition to support for the Join
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Figure 4.5 Responsibility for desig
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V. ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE This chapt
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Structural Reform and e-government
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The Task Force has initiated a proj
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Figure 5.2 Share of documents recei
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Box 5.1 Improving middle management
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Abstract Collaboration is relativel
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Co-ordination of e-government polic
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Box 6.1 Key e-government co-ordinat
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The CRS encompasses a number of reg
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Digital signatures are now being wi
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Denmark - something that could be a
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Staffed by employees from the Digit
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The additional workload is connecte
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such a framework be designed; and 3
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schemas used in different areas of
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• Changing conditions in the publ
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municipalities, which might otherwi
Page 113 and 114: The current situation has evolved o
Page 115 and 116: Figure 6.6 Impacts of partnerships
Page 117 and 118: Source: OECD E-government Survey: D
Page 119 and 120: Abstract The Danish vision for e-go
Page 121 and 122: Figure 7.1 Drivers of e-government
Page 123 and 124: • To ensure internal knowledge of
Page 125 and 126: • The lack of information and the
Page 127 and 128: Figure 7.2 Source and type of e-gov
Page 129 and 130: Figure 7.4 Constraints on demand fo
Page 131 and 132: When asked about the level of impor
Page 133 and 134: eing for one group or another (e.g.
Page 135 and 136: Figure 7.8 Use of electronic delive
Page 137 and 138: The national portal www.denmark.dk
Page 139 and 140: identification of the relationship
Page 141 and 142: Abstract At the all-of-government l
Page 143 and 144: • At least 60 percent of all publ
Page 145 and 146: External audit Another important el
Page 147 and 148: can have impacts: 1) “service cha
Page 149 and 150: Figure 8.4 Responsibilities for mon
Page 151 and 152: CASE STUDY 1: STANDARDS-BASED E-GOV
Page 153 and 154: pharmacies (e.g. referrals and disc
Page 155 and 156: Danish approach of flexible decentr
Page 157 and 158: CASE STUDY 2: ACHIEVING E-GOVERNMEN
Page 159 and 160: Estimation of benefits for both eDa
Page 161 and 162: ANNEX A: OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL AND
Page 163: ANNEX B: INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND
Page 167 and 168: Other State government responsibili
Page 169 and 170: − Models to support inter-organis
Page 171 and 172: ICT usage As discussed in Chapter 3
Page 173 and 174: Promotion of IT Research and Educat
Page 175 and 176: other reforms. The plan identified
Page 177 and 178: Overall, these action plans were su
Page 179 and 180: E-mail addresses for everyone Anoth
Page 181 and 182: had developed extensive practical k
Page 183 and 184: ANNEX E: METHODOLOGY Definition of
Page 185 and 186: The survey asked State and local go
Page 187 and 188: ANNEX F: GLOSSARY This glossary was
Page 189 and 190: BIBLIOGRAPHY Agency for Governmenta
Page 191 and 192: Ministry of Science, Technology and
Page 193: Statistics Denmark (2004b), Nyt fra
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