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

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The Danish public sector is notable for its decentralised structure and management. Counties and municipalities have a high degree of political and administrative autonomy from State government. Local government independence is established in the Danish constitution, and many administrative powers and functions are delegated to this level. As a consequence, local government plays a comparatively large role in the delivery of public goods and services. This allows for relatively close relationships between government, citizens and business – something that e-government benefits from and seeks to build on (the organisation and functions of the public sector are outlined in detail in Appendix 2). Despite the high degree of local government autonomy, Denmark’s national e-government programme successfully manages to encompass all levels of government. While remaining independent from State government, local government’s strong involvement in, and commitment to, the national e-government programme is a positive indicator of how the consensus culture of the public sector has supported the Danish e-government programme to date. Economy and society The Danish economy is strong, with high per capita GDP and the most equal income distribution among OECD countries, partly because of Denmark’s comprehensive welfare state. Given an ageing population, a key economic challenge is to maintain growth in living standards while preserving the social welfare system. One way that the Government aims to meet this challenge is by restraining growth in public expenditure through a variety of measures, including improved public sector use of ICT. As a result, increasing efficiency in government is a clear goal of the e-government strategy. Socially, Danes exhibit the highest levels of satisfaction with the way their democracy works of all EU citizens. People have high levels of trust in government, which is notably transparent and free of corruption. The public sector appears to benefit from these attitudes which, combined with general satisfaction with public services, support Danes’ overall willingness to interact with the State. This is shown, for example, by their willingness to provide personal information to central registers of personal information. These factors contribute to the positive environment for e-government implementation. Key point 1.1 Denmark has a very favourable environment for the implementation of e-government. Positive factors include: • Emphasis on effective use of ICT has been a feature of government policy for several decades. • There is strong political and administrative leadership and support of e-government. • A culture of compromise and consensus exists in the public sector, supporting involvement of all levels of government in e-government. • E-government is not a stand-alone policy. Instead, it is positioned as an enabler of other important policies. • Local government has an independent, but fully engaged and co-operative, involvement in the leadership and implementation of e-government. • Local government delivers many public services, supporting close government-citizen relationships. • There is a high level of public trust in government. 29
The Structural Reform Between 2005 and 2007 the Structural Reform, which will introduce sweeping changes to the structure and responsibilities of the public sector, will be the dominant factor in the environment for e-government. These reforms will impact both State and local government, but will have the most effect at the local level. The Structural Reform is based on the recommendations of the Commission on Administrative Structure, which convened in 2002. Some of the key objectives of the Reform are: • Ensuring that the public sector is open and responsive, uncomplicated and efficient. • Providing citizens with greater choice of services, and better value for money. • Ensuring that the design and operation of the public sector is citizen-centric and allows for dialogue between citizens and politicians. • Supporting the principle of decentralisation as a key factor in meeting local needs, and in building the broad democratic foundation of government. The resulting Agreement on a Structural Reform (2004) defines a new public sector structure and set of roles: • State government will continue to establish the general framework of government and deliver some public services. • 271 municipalities will merge into 98 larger bodies providing the majority of government services, and become the primary point of access to the public sector for citizens and businesses. • 14 counties will consolidate into 5 new regions with reduced responsibilities focused mainly on delivery of secondary health services (i.e. provision of hospitals), regional development and some major operational tasks. These regions will lose the counties’ powers of taxation. The Structural Reform goals of making government more coherent, user focused and efficient are congruent with the goals of the Danish e-government strategy, and the long-term success of the Reform will be influenced by application of e-government at all levels of government. Officials interviewed for this review regarded the Structural Reform positively, seeing it as both a major opportunity for e-government to contribute to the Government’s wider goals, and a potential challenge for e-government due to the risk of divided attention and resources. There was, however, a particular concern that the costs of changes to local government ICT systems that will be driven by the Structural Reform may have been underestimated in the planning of the Reform. The Government is planning to fund the costs of these ICT changes through savings enabled by the Reform (e.g. increased economies of scale). However, actual achievement of such savings implies a need for municipalities and counties to be able to identify a net benefit in making these changes. If they cannot, they will face weakened incentives to invest in e-government and reap any available benefits in the form of either better services or increased efficiency. Any failure to achieve these savings, or to ensure that they are not exceeded by the costs of change, could undermine the success of the Reform and/or limit or slow achievement of e-government objectives. There is reasonable evidence demonstrating that the type of savings the Government expects are achievable. A study undertaken by KMD (KommuneData – the major publicly owned supplier of ICT 30
Page 1 and 2: OECD PEER REVIEW OF E-GOVERNMENT IN
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ASSESSMEN
Page 5 and 6: ANNEX A: OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL AND
Page 7 and 8: OECD PEER REVIEW OF E-GOVERNMENT IN
Page 9 and 10: While it is vital that the Governme
Page 11 and 12: Finance and the MVTU following thes
Page 13 and 14: this challenge was frequently menti
Page 15 and 16: Alongside the problem of the reliab
Page 17 and 18: In terms of its impact on organisat
Page 19 and 20: and businesses. While it is not cer
Page 21 and 22: considerable strategic importance t
Page 23 and 24: government organisations are aware
Page 25 and 26: 8. Monitoring and evaluation Denmar
Page 27 and 28: Abstract There is a favourable envi
Page 29: E-government context Government pol
Page 33 and 34: administrative procedures. The find
Page 35 and 36: Figure 1.2 E-government structure a
Page 37 and 38: II. THE CASE FOR E-GOVERNMENT Denma
Page 39 and 40: • Creation of a competitive marke
Page 41 and 42: Abstract Government organisations c
Page 43 and 44: Source: OECD E-Government Survey: D
Page 45 and 46: Figure 3.2 Legislative and regulato
Page 47 and 48: modernisation process, especially i
Page 49 and 50: and the generally high level of tru
Page 51 and 52: fund it has created providing a tot
Page 53 and 54: outright barriers. The clearest evi
Page 55 and 56: Figure 3.5 Use of public digital se
Page 57 and 58: • Employment status: students and
Page 59 and 60: APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 3: INFORMATION
Page 61 and 62: Figure 3.A.4 ICT usage among Danish
Page 63 and 64: Figure 3.A.8 Internet access among
Page 65 and 66: IV. PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP The e-g
Page 67 and 68: The strategy notes that Denmark is
Page 69 and 70: exchanged electronically. This is e
Page 71 and 72: with even lower rankings for driver
Page 73 and 74: involvement in e-government therefo
Page 75 and 76: In addition to support for the Join
Page 77 and 78: Figure 4.5 Responsibility for desig
Page 79 and 80: V. ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE This chapt
Page 81 and 82:
Structural Reform and e-government
Page 83 and 84:
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
Page 89 and 90:
Abstract Collaboration is relativel
Page 91 and 92:
Co-ordination of e-government polic
Page 93 and 94:
Box 6.1 Key e-government co-ordinat
Page 95 and 96:
The CRS encompasses a number of reg
Page 97 and 98:
Digital signatures are now being wi
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Denmark - something that could be a
Page 101 and 102:
Staffed by employees from the Digit
Page 103 and 104:
The additional workload is connecte
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such a framework be designed; and 3
Page 107 and 108:
schemas used in different areas of
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• Changing conditions in the publ
Page 111 and 112:
municipalities, which might otherwi
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The current situation has evolved o
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Figure 6.6 Impacts of partnerships
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Source: OECD E-government Survey: D
Page 119 and 120:
Abstract The Danish vision for e-go
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Figure 7.1 Drivers of e-government
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• To ensure internal knowledge of
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• The lack of information and the
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Figure 7.2 Source and type of e-gov
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Figure 7.4 Constraints on demand fo
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When asked about the level of impor
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eing for one group or another (e.g.
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Figure 7.8 Use of electronic delive
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The national portal www.denmark.dk
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identification of the relationship
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Abstract At the all-of-government l
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• At least 60 percent of all publ
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External audit Another important el
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can have impacts: 1) “service cha
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Figure 8.4 Responsibilities for mon
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CASE STUDY 1: STANDARDS-BASED E-GOV
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pharmacies (e.g. referrals and disc
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Danish approach of flexible decentr
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CASE STUDY 2: ACHIEVING E-GOVERNMEN
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Estimation of benefits for both eDa
Page 161 and 162:
ANNEX A: OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL AND
Page 163 and 164:
ANNEX B: INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND
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Administrative environment Organisa
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Other State government responsibili
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− Models to support inter-organis
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ICT usage As discussed in Chapter 3
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Promotion of IT Research and Educat
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other reforms. The plan identified
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Overall, these action plans were su
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E-mail addresses for everyone Anoth
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had developed extensive practical k
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ANNEX E: METHODOLOGY Definition of
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The survey asked State and local go
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ANNEX F: GLOSSARY This glossary was
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Agency for Governmenta
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Ministry of Science, Technology and
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Statistics Denmark (2004b), Nyt fra
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