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decision requires it to provide network services (through the Government Information Management Unit) and to regulate events between the information management units of ministries and agencies, supporting exchange and discussion of information and experiences. 511. The dilemma of balancing the need to co-ordinate and to maintain accountability was recognised in the 2001 Standpoint of the Ministerial Steering Group on the Reform of Central Government which was a part of the extensive plan to reform the Finnish central government following an international expert group report commissioned by the Ministry of Finance in 1999. The Standpoint noted that “the achievement of flexible and efficient government requires decision making to take place at the implementation level. Supporting the goals of good governance by means of data management requires, on the other hand, sufficient centralisation of decision making relating to information and data systems to ensure compatibility.” 512. The Standpoint of the Ministerial Steering Group had four parts: A. The role of government in steering administration. This covers work practices, tools and processes including recommendations on: i) the government programme and preparation; ii) the government’s project portfolio; iii) joint handling of strategy policy programmes and the budget framework; iv) co-ordinating ministries and fixed-term ministerial groups; v) joint forums of the whole government; vi) strengthening the joint expert resources of the prime minister and the government; and vii) the information basis of leadership in central government. B. The role of the ministries in steering government, including recommendations on: viii) strengthening the steering role of the ministries in performance management; and ix) extensive preparation belonging to the ministries. C. Government in the service of society, including recommendations on: x) contacts with citizens and citizen groups; xi) improving availability of services – electronic communication; and xii) quality of government and public services. D. The resources and structures of central government, including recommendations on: xiii) the competitiveness of the state as employer – personnel strategy; and xiv) structural principles of central government. 513. In part C, the standpoint stated that services should always be available online and that the aim of the development of online services is to improve the quality of customer service, to decrease the costs of both government and its customers and to reform the working methods of government. 514. The recommendations of the Standpoint stressed that it was the responsibility of each ministry to steer the development of services in its administrative fields. At the same time, it emphasised that development work required close co-operation between administrative fields to create cross-administration service entities. The means to be used to facilitate this cross-administration co-operation, however, were not proposed. 515. Part A on the role of government in steering the administration placed heavy emphasis on strengthening the strategic planning and co-ordination mechanisms of the government and the Prime Minister’s Office, while part B stressed the need to strengthen the ministries’ ability to steer, monitor and evaluate the performance of their agencies, but did not solve the dilemma of decentralised decision-making and cross-administration co-ordination. 158
7.3.11 Identifying and addressing e-government bottlenecks 516. The 2001 report of the Information Society Advisory Board differed from earlier ISAB reports with regard to e-government in that it included an extensive section on the use of ICT in public services. It provided a theoretical framework for analysing the reform of public administration processes and online service projects. It pointed to the characteristics and challenges of infrastructure projects, application projects and agency-specific and cross-administration projects. This was used in a detailed review of several different e-government projects, such as the electronic ID card, the TYVI system, the citizen portal, etc., which resulted in the identification of further challenges and factors affecting both success and failure. 517. On the background of these reviews, the report recommended that the public administration focus on creating added social rather than technological values when producing electronic services. The administration should concentrate on determining the functional needs of the technology rather than the technology itself. The report asserted that the public administration has been up to date in the general development of electronic services even though the level of electronic services leaves much to be desired. According to the report, the administration has found a balance between openness, security and the protection of privacy, but the basic weakness of a decentralised model based on independent actors has resulted in slow development of cross-administration services. 518. In evaluating the development of e-government, the report stated that the public administration was at the same level as the private sector, and in some ways ahead, in the creation of electronic services, even though the most successful services were those between organisations and not citizens’ services. It suggested that that it might be easier to attain added value in electronic services between businesses and the administration than between citizens and administration. On the other hand, the public sector was in many respects behind the private sector in the creation of its internal systems and in the development of indicators measuring its own activities. 519. The 2001 report was therefore a major step forward in terms of dealing explicitly with the challenges and possibilities of developing and implementing e-government, even though, in itself, it did not provide a vision or strategy for e-government in Finland with specific tools, tasks and measures to move the development of e-government forward. 520. This was the goal of the Programme of Action to Promote Online Government 2002-03 by a Taskforce on Online Government established by the ISAB in 2001. The taskforce’s mandate was to: x Define the concepts and aims of online government. x Review the present status of government online services. x Survey expectations of citizens, firms and other organisations regarding online services. x Evaluate the need for electronic identification and authentication. x Draw up proposals for carrying out and co-ordinating projects for online government. x Indicate the required resources. 521. The programme first set out to consider all of Finland’s public administration, encompassing central government and its agencies, as well as the municipal government sector. However, in view of the short time frame (June to December 2001), it was decided to focus on a limited number of strategic points and “bottlenecks” to be addressed in 2002-03. The group also developed a vision, extending to the middle of the decade, on the role of the public administration in the information society. The report and accompanying programme of action were accepted by the Ministerial Working Group on Administration and Regional Development. 159
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OECD e-GOVERNMENT STUDIES e-GOVERNM
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Secretariat wo
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4.2.5 Managing multiple service cha
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This report provides a first compre
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Finland could reinforce citizen sup
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Technical issues have been recognis
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The central government, however, la
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E-government has helped improve pla
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OVERALL ASSESSMENT The first phase
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6. The constitutional independence
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6. As the first OECD report of its
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Box 1.1. E-government co-ordination
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x The central administration does n
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2 THE CASE FOR E-GOVERNMENT 25. The
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Key Points - 4 x Public administrat
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40. As a result of these earlier go
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is illustrative. An online transact
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Health care 50 29 21 Unemployment 8
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3 BARRIERS TO E-GOVERNMENT 61. E-go
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action unclear. In interviews, IT o
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80. As noted in Chapter 2, the Stat
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equired to provide e-government str
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most important way to fund e-govern
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obtain (38%), followed by funds for
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Figure 3.4. E-government technologi
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113. Not surprisingly, the OECD sur
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3.3.2 Types of barriers 119. Respon
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x Technology neutrality in legislat
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“backbone” of the government ne
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egional authorities is decisive, ev
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Box 3.5. The development of mobile
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x Improving the public administrati
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political leaders to impress upon t
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showed that top management commitme
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levels of government. In particular
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home and school, every business and
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E-government Imperative (2003) list
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Key Points - 31 x The proportion of
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Key Points - 32 x Basic online info
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Key Points - 33 x Interactive infor
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of using more efficient electronic
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Key Points - 35 x The proportion of
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233. The Finnish Vehicle Administra
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citizens’ access to information i
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4.3.2 E-engagement at the ministry
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Key Points - 38 x E-engagement init
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255. At the end of 2002, the curren
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Themes portal (e.g. environmental,
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partnerships”). The most signific
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job satisfaction enquiry and models
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Key Points - 42 x Structural impact
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Key Points - 43 x Change management
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Figure 4.17. E-government leadershi
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Page 122 and 123: strategies but also the ability to
Page 124 and 125: 361. Moreover, the lack of opportun
Page 126 and 127: 372. The OECD report on the Finnish
Page 128 and 129: x E-government plans are important
Page 130 and 131: 5 NEXT STEPS 385. In May 2003, the
Page 132 and 133: completely new architecture for gat
Page 134 and 135: 399. Brokers receive revenue from t
Page 136 and 137: 409. In 1998, the government agreed
Page 138 and 139: Figure 6.3. Finnish electronic citi
Page 140 and 141: 430. For both municipalities and KE
Page 142 and 143: 6.3 Case study 3: The citizen porta
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Page 148 and 149: 7.2 Appendix 2: Reports, strategies
Page 150 and 151: x Public Management in Finland (200
Page 152 and 153: ought together government, civil so
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Page 156 and 157: 499. The Ministry of the Interior c
Page 160 and 161: 522. Contrary to former reports by
Page 162 and 163: x By comparison, the term Web site
Page 164 and 165: 7.4.2 List of acronyms AFLRA: The A
Page 166 and 167: 7.5 Appendix 5: Methodology 7.5.1 D
Page 168 and 169: 2. Responses are not included in ov
Page 170 and 171: 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ACCENTURE (2001),
Page 172 and 173: JUSSILAINEN, M. (2003), “Knowledg
Page 174 and 175: OECD (1992), “ICCP Reviews of Inf
Page 176 and 177: “GOVERNMENT RESOLUTION ON HIGH-QU
Page 178: VISTI, S. (1998), “Electronic Ide
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