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

projects release resources for other uses by 2006. This goal is notable among OECD countries because
it makes explicit the need for e-government to deliver financial benefits, and seeks to measure and
capture these benefits.
Improved efficiency is also a strong driver of the Structural Reform. Again, there is an
expectation that e-government will enable better use of public resources, through both improved
economies of scale arising from the consolidation of counties and of municipalities, and improvements
to the operating procedures of government organisations.
In the case of both the e-government strategy and the Structural Reform, it is important that the
efficiency benefits that have been targeted are actually realised. Measurement is important; the setting
of measurable goals and the process of measuring them provide incentives for government
organisations to generate the desired efficiencies, and the results and background information needed
to inform further efforts. However, measurement must be accompanied by a strong ex ante logic for
organisations to invest time, money and human resources in e-government initiatives. It is not
sufficient to assume that, as a general rule, investing in e-government will automatically lead to ex
post gains in efficiency. Doing so could lead to both unrealistic expectations of what organisations can
achieve and creation of negative incentives for them to pursue e-government, especially if there is a
risk of being held accountable for achievement of unrealisable goals. In addition to highlighting the
importance of basing e-government initiatives on strong business cases that identify realistically
achievable benefits (something that is increasingly understood in Denmark), it is also important that
the focus on the benefits of e-government encompasses both gains in public sector efficiency and
effectiveness, and broader tangible and intangible benefits for Danish society and the economy. If not,
many worthwhile e-government initiatives could fail to be implemented, and/or poorly conceived ones
may unadvisedly proceed.
Key point 2.1
E-government in Denmark is not pursued as an end in itself. Instead, the national e-government programme is
linked to other government policies, the three most significant of which are: 1) public sector modernisation; 2)
government ICT policy; and 3) improving the efficiency of the public sector. The linkage between e-government
and ICT policy is the longest standing and most widely understood. The link with public sector modernisation is
more recent, and currently less well understood.
Improving public sector efficiency provides a strong policy driver for e-government, being an area where explicit
objectives have been set and measures of achievement put in place. Going forward, it is important that these
objectives are realistically achievable, and are based on capturing not only gains in efficiency but also other
benefits that can arise from e-government.
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