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

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III. EXTERNAL BARRIERS The overall institutional context in which Danish government organisations are implementing e-government is very favourable, and Danes’ behaviour regarding the use of ICT is positive. However, as the experience of other OECD countries demonstrates, a number of external barriers can impede the development of e-government and the take-up of online services. This chapter looks at four potential external barriers to e-government, three of which (legislative/regulatory issues, budgetary problems and the digital divide) were the subject of the OECD survey. The other potential barrier examined is the external technological environment that individual government organisations face in developing and implementing e-government. These barriers cannot generally be overcome by organisations working alone. Instead, whole-of-government efforts are necessary to ensure that external barriers to e-government are reduced as far as possible. The results of the OECD survey show that, when asked to rate the importance of potential challenges to e-government implementation, survey respondents identified “external barriers” as the biggest challenge to e-government, slightly ahead of competition for resources (73%) and lack of planning within organisations (66%). When asked to rank the importance of external barriers, 92% of survey respondents said that budgetary barriers were a challenge, followed by legislative and regulatory barriers (66%) and then the digital divide (40.5%) (see Figure 3.1). These results are corroborated by Statistics Denmark’s 2004 survey of public sector use of ICT, where budgetary difficulties were ranked as the biggest barrier to e-government (important for 83% of respondents) and legislative and regulatory issues were of lower importance (“major importance” for 10%, and “moderate importance” for 50%, of respondents). Figure 3.1 External barriers to e-government in Denmark Budgetary barriers Legislative and regulatory barriers The digital divide 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Very important challenge Important challenge Somewhat important challenge Not an important challenge Not a challenge (has been mastered) Not a relevant challenge 41
Source: OECD E-Government Survey: Denmark. Legislative and regulatory environment The Danish legal system provides a framework for enabling digital communications both within and across government that is appropriately supportive of e-government. This is the result of new legislation enabling e-government processes (i.e. the Act on Electronic Signatures) and efforts to simplify and modernise existing Danish legislation, with a focus on ensuring that legislation is compatible with digital communication. The initiative to enable e-government through legislative simplification was part of the overall Rule Simplification Programme, launched by the Ministry of Finance in 2002 as a key component of the Government’s programme to modernise the public sector and reduce the administrative and regulatory burden it imposes on citizens and businesses. The goal of this work was to promote digital communication by eliminating legal barriers to both e-government and e-commerce. The Government was committed to implementing any new laws or legislative amendments that might be required by early 2003. The initiative required all Danish ministries to review their legislation and regulations to locate provisions that constrained digital communication between public authorities, citizens and businesses. Where these were identified, ministries looked at the reasons behind their existence and assessed whether or not they could, or should, be changed. Ministries then used this analysis to develop action plans for the modernisation of legislation. A secretariat consisting of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation provided guidance as required, and followed up on the implementation of ministries’ action plans. The secretariats to the State IT Council and the Joint Board of e-Government also had roles in co-ordinating the work. In June 2004, the Danish Digital Task Force took over responsibility for finishing the project and producing a final report on the work that had been undertaken. The document, based on ministries’ status reports on the implementation of their action plans, was seen as the final step in the legislative modernisation programme. As reported by the Task Force, the outcome of the project was that 423 laws or regulations presenting unnecessary barriers to e-government have been amended, or will be in the near future. However, the process also identified another 1,106 laws and regulations that were considered impossible to amend, either because they are tied to specific documents (such as passports, drivers licences, etc.) requiring non-digital procedures to fulfil proof functions, or because they are tied to EU rules or international conventions that prescribe non-digital procedures. Despite the fact that many laws and regulations have not been updated, the modernisation process appears to have had the desired overall effect of removing legal impediments to e-government wherever possible. While the OECD survey did not directly investigate the impact of legislative and regulatory modernisation on e-government implementation, it does show that a relatively limited number of respondents regard conflicting or inconsistent regulations as important barriers to e-government. Denmark has also enacted legislation enabling the use of digital signatures. The Danish Act on Electronic Signatures came into force on 1 October 2000. Administered by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the Act implements EU Directive 1999/93 of 13 December 1999. Its purpose is to promote secure and efficient use of electronic communication, and to ensure that Danish electronic signature products and certification authorities meet a number of requirements – including 42
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 and 30: E-government context Government pol
Page 31 and 32: The Structural Reform Between 2005
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: Abstract Government organisations c
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
Page 85 and 86: Figure 5.2 Share of documents recei
Page 87 and 88: 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
Page 99 and 100:
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
Page 105 and 106:
such a framework be designed; and 3
Page 107 and 108:
schemas used in different areas of
Page 109 and 110:
• Changing conditions in the publ
Page 111 and 112:
municipalities, which might otherwi
Page 113 and 114:
The current situation has evolved o
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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
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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
Page 165 and 166:
Administrative environment Organisa
Page 167 and 168:
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
Page 193:
Statistics Denmark (2004b), Nyt fra
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