e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

government’s project portfolio (10 June 1999), which stated that the steering and co-ordination of
information management should be concentrated in the Ministry of Finance and that a strategy of
information management in the state administration should be developed. It noted that existing legislation
on the organisation of information management, the 1998 Resolution on Electronic Transactions and the
1999 Act on the Openness had been considered, but the 2000 Act on Electronic Service in the
Administration was not mentioned.
505. The decision was structured in five parts involving 29 principles: i) general goals for the
development of information management; ii) interoperable systems; iii) servicing of information systems;
iv) development of operational models of information management; and v) steering and organisation of
information management. The principles set out in the decision defined a broad range of specific goals
within each area, but these were not specified as concrete tasks that could easily be measured or monitored
and evaluated.
506. The policy decision was obviously of general relevance to e-government, as information
management is often done electronically. How information is managed is very relevant for the
development and implementation of e-government. Several of the principles refer to specific e-government
issues (e.g. interoperability of information systems, joint electronic services and networks, acquisition of
information technology).
507. Many of the measures regarding the integrated planning, use and cost-effectiveness of IT
systems, compatibility and security of information systems, data sharing and data reduction and electronic
transactions were already part of the 1994 information management decision. The need to reiterate this
guidance indicates the difficulties of implementing decisions even after policy has been decided.
7.3.9 The key co-ordinator: the Ministry of Finance
508. For eight out of the 29 principles in the decision, responsibility for issuing regulations,
instructions, examinations or developing models, networks or programmes was clearly given to specific
authorities. Overall responsibility for the steering and co-ordination of information management was given
to the Ministry of Finance, and a Government Information Management Committee under the Ministry of
Finance handles regulations and instructions relating to information management as well as promotes and
monitors their implementation. The decision stated that the Ministry of Finance shall appoint, as
preparatory bodies to the Information Management Committee, at a minimum: i) a Committee on
Information Security Steering; ii) a Committee on State Information Services; and iii) a Committee on
Operation Practices, Cost-effectiveness and Interoperability of Information Systems. It furthermore stated
that joint information management services of the Government were to be prepared within a month by the
Office of Government and the Ministry of Finance.
509. Regarding evaluation of the decision, principle 29 stated that “an independent evaluation of the
development of state information management in accordance with this decision shall be conducted within
two years from the entry into force of this decision”.
7.3.10 A fundamental dilemma: balancing steering and co-ordination with individual
accountability
510. Even though the Ministry of Finance has been given the responsibility for steering and coordination
across the central administration, each ministry still has responsibility for the vertical steering of
information management in its own administrative sector through the performance management process.
Even in this area, however, the MoF has an important supporting role to play. For example, the 2000
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