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DELIVERING SERVICES
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Box 3.5 The high failure rate of e-government projects
Despite spending more than $600 billion on IT over the past decade, the federal government has achieved
little of the productivity improvements that private industry has realized from IT. Too often, federal IT projects
run over budget, run behind schedule, or fail to deliver promised functionality.
—U.S. Office of Management and Budget 2010
Many public sector digital technology projects fail.
Although the evidence is limited, various estimates from
surveys of government officials, audit reports, and country
cases suggest that about 30 percent of these projects
are total failures, with the project abandoned before
completion. Another 50 to 60 percent are partial failures,
with significant budget and time overruns and only a
limited number of the project objectives achieved. Fewer than
20 percent are successes. a In some cases, even if e-government
projects are successfully implemented they may actually
worsen outcomes as, without proper regulatory safeguards in
place, automation makes it easier to perpetrate fraud and corrupt
practices, and to erase records or avoid capturing them
altogether, thereby eroding transparency mechanisms. b
Risky for the private sector, these projects do worse in
governments. One survey of U.S. information technology
projects found success rates of 59 percent in retail, 27
percent in manufacturing, and 18 percent in government. c
Larger projects are more likely to fail than smaller ones,
with success rates of only 13 percent on average (figure
B3.5.1) and a skewed distribution, with a small proportion
of projects accounting for a major chunk of budget and
Figure B3.5.1 Success rate of large
public sector ICT projects
Failed
13%
58%
Partially failed
29%
Succeeded
Sources: WDR 2016 team, based on Standish Group 2014 and World Bank
(2015a) Digital Governance Projects Database. Data at http://bit.do
/WDR2016-FigB3_5_1.
Note: “Large” is above US$6 million. Data are for 2010 to 2014.
ICT = information and communication technology.
Figure B3.5.2 Performance of World
Bank–funded ICT projects
Percent
100
80
60
40
20
0
ICT projects All projects
Highly satisfactory
Satisfactory
Moderately satisfactory
Moderately unsatisfactory
Unsatisfactory
Highly unsatisfactory
Sources: WDR 2016 team, based on Standish Group 2014 and World Bank
(2015a) Digital Governance Projects Database. Data at http://bit.do
/WDR2016-FigB3_5_2.
Note: Data are for 1995 to 2015. ICT = information and communication
technology.
time overruns. One comprehensive review of more than
1,400 public sector information and communication technology
(ICT) projects found that a sixth went over budget
by 200 percent, posing “systemic” fiscal risks. d
World Bank–funded projects have not fared much better:
27 percent of the roughly 530 information technology
projects from 1995 to 2015 were self-evaluated by the
World Bank as moderately unsatisfactory or worse, in line
with all projects (figure B3.5.2). But far fewer were rated
“satisfactory” or above, with 35 percent for ICT projects and
56 percent for all projects.
e-government scholars provide numerous explanations
for these stark numbers. A widely quoted study blames a
large gap between the regulatory, political, management,
process, and skill realities in government and the ambitions
(Box continues next page)