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

administrative procedures. The findings of the committee provided an important analytical bridge
between the ICT and early e-government policies of the 1990s and the re-organised approach
implemented from 2001 onwards.
Today, there are two organisations with principal responsibility for e-government across the
public sector – the Danish Digital Task Force situated in the Ministry of Finance, and the IT-Policy
Centre in the MVTU. Together, their work is focused around what is called Project e-Government.
The shift is significant – the Ministry of Finance has a broad focus on matters of public administration
policy and operations, and substantial economic and bargaining powers in relation to the rest of the
public sector, both of which augment the strengths in public sector ICT policy and technical
development that the MVTU brings to e-government.
Project e-Government
Scheduled to run from 2001 to 2006, Project e-Government is the national programme involving
both State and local government in a co-ordinated push for e-government across the public sector. The
project is under the leadership of the Joint Board of e-Government, which is a uniquely Danish
arrangement for overall administrative steering of a national e-government programme. Chaired by the
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, the Board’s membership consists of the permanent
secretaries of five other State government ministries and the managing directors of Local Government
Denmark and the Danish Regions. The relationship between the Board and ministers is outlined in
Chapter 4. The work of the Board is supported by both the Digital Task Force (which also serves as
the secretariat to the Board) and the MVTU’s IT-Policy Centre.
Established as part of the first e-government strategy published in January 2002, the prime
functions of the Board are to:
• Create the right conditions for e-government.
• Develop an overview of e-government and transmit knowledge about it across government.
• Assure progress in e-government implementation.
While the Joint Board is responsible for leadership of e-government it does not have any formal
powers to decide how, where or when government organisations will implement e-government (other
than for Board members own organisations). Instead, any power it does possess is directly derived
from its ability to facilitate agreement among organisations to act in certain ways (e.g. in the adoption
of standards, or participation in initiatives such as eDay, which is detailed in Chapter 4 and Case Study
2 of this report). In interviews, officials frequently suggested that progress with e-government would
improve if more aspects of the e-government programme were made mandatory. For example, many
people felt that mandatory adoption of the Danish enterprise architecture would be advantageous,
because it will only fully achieve its desired effect once all organisations have aligned themselves with
it. However, this did not translate into a call for the Board to be granted a mandate for
decision-making in these areas. Rather, interviewees indicated that these sorts of decisions should be
made by ministers.
As discussed in Chapter 4, any moves towards greater levels of centralised direction over how
Danish government organisations should implement e-government should be considered in light of
how this would fit with current Danish public management traditions and practices. If changes are
made, it will be important to base them not only on a technical analysis of what is required to achieve
e-government goals, but also assessment of how such changes may affect, or be affected by, the
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