e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

levels of government. In particular, the specific issue of electronic identification, including authentication
and digital signatures, is stressed in all of the strategies and programmes.
173. Openness and transparency are also a major theme, embodied in the 1999 Act on the Openness of
Government Activities. With regard to e-engagement, the general goal is that citizens should be empowered
through enhanced transparency in decision making thanks to electronic access to information and
electronic feedback mechanisms (see Part 4.3 “E-engagement” and Appendix 3, Part 7.3.7).
174. Another theme is enabling joined-up government, including the sharing of personal data among
agencies, to eliminate unnecessary services and to reduce the administrative burden on citizens and
businesses. The 1998 Resolution on Electronic Transactions, Development of Services and Reduction of
Data Gathering set a goal of reducing the costs of data collection by one-third by 2001.
175. While reducing running costs is also mentioned in the first information society strategy of 1995,
more recent government documents have not focused on cost savings. Using e-government to achieve
savings in the public administration seems to have been overtaken by customer service goals as the main
driver of e-government. This can be related to the general shift in the focus of public management reforms
from economic factors and structural reforms during the economic recession of the 1990s to strategic
governance including public service values from the 1990s.
176. Few of the national e-government goals, however, take the form of precise targets. The 1998
resolution provided some of the most specific targets:
x An electronic identity card to be issued in 1999.
x A significant proportion of electronic forms and requests to be instituted electronically by
2001.
x The costs of data gathering to be reduced by at least one-third from 1997 to 2001.
177. Apart from the 1998 decision, the relevant decisions and acts set no specific, monitorable targets.
Instead, in each specific area, they present extensive objectives which together form a comprehensive
regulatory framework with regard to PKI, electronic identification and signature, and security and
interoperability of information systems. In fact, the goals seem to reflect a high level of consensus within
the Finnish government. It is on issues that have been less consensual, such as establishing a smart card,
that the government has established the most explicit goals.
178. The lack of clear targets or goals pinpointing action areas may make it harder for ministries and
agencies to know what they need to do or how to prioritise their actions. If goals are the bridge between an
overall vision and specific action, then, as noted above, it is likely that the concern about lack of egovernment
vision and strategy raised by respondents to the OECD survey actually reflects a lack of clarity
on goals and targets.
179. In addition, goals serve not only to provide a direction for action and achievement, they can also
be used to prioritise and even advance action. Without milestones to measure the achievement of goals,
there is less pressure for agencies to act. Only 24% of respondents to the OECD survey felt that decisions
of the Council of Ministers provided the main impetus for developing e-government initiatives (21% of
agencies, but 31% of ministries). As an IT official in the Ministry of Transportation and Communications
stated, “Goals could be a useful tool to push things forward. Agencies don’t know what is expected of
them and the ministry is not giving them a clear signal. Everyone is waiting to see what others are doing.
No one wants to take a risk developing services that no one wants.”
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