for Local Governments

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ICT for Local Governments
Standards, principles and best practices
2.4 Procedures to achieve and maintain the standards
2.4.1 Organizational Framework
Contrary to what is often thought, the biggest challenge when developing an information
society does not lie in how to get the information technology together, but in
shaping the organizational, legislative and fiscal framework of the local government to
support the development of e-governance.
The proposed organizational model (see Figure 4) offers the local governments a
framework in which to situate the decision-making processes and project management
activities, related to introducing e-government.
As stated above, the organizational model can differ according to the size and the level
of organization of the local government it is to be applied to. A further division is made
between the internal (applying to the back-office of the local government) and the external
aspects (applying to the interaction with central government) of organization
2.4.1.1 Internal organization for bigger municipalities
Even if the basic responsibility of ICT development remains in the hands of the city
mayor or head of administration of the municipality, in local municipalities that can
allocate sufficient resources, the responsibility concerning ICT projects should be delegated
to a specialized ICT manager [26].
The ICT manager, which we will refer to as “CIO” or “Chief Information Officer”, should
be placed at a sufficiently high level within the municipality (usually at the level of head
of department). He or she will be responsible for:
� Creating and implementing an ICT action plan on the level of the municipality;
� Planning and preparing the annual ICT budget, in line with both the municipality
and the central government ICT action plans;
� Implementing projects, including procurement, the organization of supervision
and answering to the municipalities training needs;
� Maintaining the ICT architecture and user support;
� Participating in an ICT task group of municipalities, to be lead by the Central
Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Local Governments.
Benefiting from the supportive, advisory and preparatory activities of the CIO, a city
ICT council should be established to assist the mayor in overall strategic decisionmaking.
Such an ICT Council: