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

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The move to base the technical implementation of e-government on common frameworks and ICT infrastructures is now highlighting tensions between: 1) the central drive to enable the whole public sector to develop information systems and applications based on common co-ordinating frameworks and systems; and 2) the challenge this creates for individual organisations to translate these frameworks into tangible developments – especially in the context of: • Limited resources. • A frequent need to obtain new expertise to interpret and apply the new frameworks. • Non-standard “legacy” systems and/or reliance on outsourced systems, which, themselves, are not compatible with the new frameworks being put in place. While interviews conducted for this review showed almost universal agreement and acceptance of the need to base public sector ICT on the common co-ordinating mechanisms being developed, there has not yet been a uniform move by organisations to align with and implement them. To some extent this is simply a function of time, as these frameworks have only been introduced in the past two to three years. However, the business case for e-government requires the public sector to become more efficient and coherent through its use of ICT, and these new co-ordination mechanisms are clearly central to achieving those goals. To be effective, they will have to be adopted by virtually the whole of the public sector. Until then, the benefits they can deliver in terms of both increased flexibility to design and deliver services in user-focused ways, and reduced costs and/or greater benefits of ICT, will be impossible to either achieve or maximize. Also, when individual organisations that are not aligned with the co-ordinating mechanisms participate in collaborative initiatives with agencies that are aligned, all agencies are likely to incur additional (and otherwise avoidable) uncompensated costs of electronic interaction (i.e. non alignment creates negative externalities or “spillovers”). This issue raises a major question about how Denmark can strike the right balance between soft and strong co-ordination of e-government. This, in turn, raises deeper questions about centralised versus decentralised approaches to public management. The issue is discussed further in the section on the Danish enterprise architecture below. In the area of e-government for business, an important co-ordinating role is played by the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, located under the Ministry of Economics and Business Affairs. This agency is responsible for the development of the virk.dk portal through which businesses can access public and private sector services. The Ministry of Interior and Health plays a similarly important role in relation to e-government in the health sector. Complementing the e-government co-ordination roles played by these and other ministries are several significant councils and committees. The active involvement of county and municipal government in many policies and projects co-ordinated by State government, coupled with higher levels of autonomy and a more homogenous range of functions and services, has led to their being fewer local government bodies with e-government co-ordinating roles and responsibilities. 91
Box 6.1 Key e-government co-ordination councils and committees State Government The State IT Council: convened in 2000 to contribute to effective application of ICT in the Danish public sector, the Council is a forum for exchanging information, building co-operation, issuing joint guidelines and making proposals around government ICT policy. It has a particular focus on matters related to organisational development. All ministries have a senior manager representing them on the Council, which is chaired by the MVTU. The State IT Forum: established as a sub-committee of the State IT Council, the Forum has a more technical focus on matters related to procurement and use of ICT. All ministries are represented in the Forum by their senior information or technology manager. Again, the Forum is chaired by the MVTU. Council for IT Security: established in 1995 as a successor to the National IT Security Council, which had primary responsibility for advising the Danish Government on ICT security matters, the Council has seven members appointed by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. Its work involves promoting an informed public debate on ICT security, and contributing to Danish ICT security policy. The Council co-operates with the IT Security Division of the National IT and Telecom Agency to strengthen ICT security in Denmark. The Co-ordinating Information Committee: established in 1999 to ensure co-ordinated use of ICT by the different levels of government, the Committee has supported implementation of various e-government initiatives since the inception of Project e-Government. Chaired by the MVTU, the Committee consists of representatives from State, county and municipal government. The Committee has two technical sub-committees working on the Danish enterprise architecture and the government XML framework. Local Government The Municipal Digitalisation Council: responsible for anchoring and focusing work on digitalisation in the municipalities, this council of municipal managers is appointed by Local Government Denmark. The Council helps to prioritise and co-ordinate implementation of specific e-government initiatives, with a focus on the organisational, structural and managerial side, rather than the technical side, of implementation. The Digital Counties: the counties’ e-government co-ordinating body conducts projects in areas of common interest such as digital signatures, electronic document management and XML standardisation. In addition to providing various mechanisms for co-ordination of e-government, Denmark has also taken a more active role in facilitating e-government collaboration through the creation of “new service communities”. These initiatives, supported by the Digital Task Force, facilitate collaboration among organisations that have common or related functions, services or user-groups that may benefit from joint implementation of e-government. Support of new service communities includes: 1) proactively identifying opportunities for e-government collaboration and preparing relevant organisations to analyse and then pursue these opportunities; and 2) supporting collaboration initiatives developed by organisations themselves. Examples of service community initiatives supported by the Task Force since 2002 include: • Administration of medical benefits. • Digital services for families with small children. • Digital vehicle registration. • Establishment of the www.virk.dk business portal. • Selection of “medication” as a special focus area for development of a cross-sectoral business model. 92
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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
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
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: Co-ordination of e-government polic
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
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
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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
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ANNEX A: OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL AND
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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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