NEWSLETTER - Breaking the Barriers to eGovernment – Overcoming obstacles to improving European public services

Issue No 7. August 2006

Welcome to the seventh edition of the newsletter of the “Breaking the Barriers to eGovernment” project, funded by the European Commission’s eEurope 2005 Modinis programme.  In addition to the findings from the project’s good-practice case studies and other activities, the newsletter contains news, information and resources.  Our overall aim is to offer expert insights and practical advice on ways of overcoming obstacles to the growth of high-quality and innovative uses of eGovernment capabilities in Europe.

New! Interview of the month – Alexandre Caldas, Director-General of CEGER, Portugal

Background on eGovernment in Portugal

The Portuguese Government is currently undergoing restructuring, and there are three main institutions cooperating for delivery of eGovernment services and related issues:

1. The Knowledge Society agency (UMIC) has overall responsibility for the Information Society, and is based in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education
2. The Modernization Task Force, established last year, helps integrate eGovernment as part of government reform and modernization – the Task Force is due to be institutionalized as an Agency for Modernisation of Public Services in September 2006. This institution will be based in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
3. The Management Centre for the Electronic Government Network (CEGER) has overall responsibility for the IT Office of Prime Minister and the electronic Government network, and is responsible for eGovernment services in the back office eCitizens services, as well as networking and certification and security services.

There are also other IT institutions in specific Ministries (e.g. Ministry of Justice, Health, Finance, etc.) who work together on specific issues through working groups and specific sectorial projects.

Current and ongoing projects include:

• PKI Project covering all of the public sector (coordinated by CEGER) and currently establishing a framework for advanced electronic signatures through the whole Public Sector and in particular projects such as the Citizen Card, the Portuguese Electronic Passport and the Electronic Legislative Process
• Common Network for the Public Administration (including Intranet, Internet, Base Networking Infrastructure, etc.)
• Citizen ID Card (which will integrate services from Social Security, Tax, Justice, Electoral Database, and Health)
• Tax reform and filing systems
• ePassport (including a digital certificate)
• National web portal for employment
• Central Purchasing System
• Digitalization of the legislative process

Barriers to eGovernment in Portugal

Organizational change is a significant barrier in Portugal.  It is difficult to map projects to the specific focus of each cabinet or organisation, and to adapt collaborative projects to specific needs.  There is no time to be able to focus on the specific needs of each cabinet, and a need to be more centralized with regard to guidance. 

The related issue of integration is also a real test, especially when it comes to user-centric services.  Making sure that back office integration continues into the front office is a major challenge. 

Legal barriers are also very important, especially for certain projects like the Citizen ID Card.  Users have real privacy concerns, so it is essential to put in place policies regarding the monitoring and tracking of the ID card to address these misgivings.

With regard to leadership, the Modernization Task Force is dependent on the Ministry of State, which helps ensure that political leadership is engaged when needed.  This helps make political barriers easier to deal with. The integration of eGovernment policies with the overall modernization framework in Public services helps to ensure long-term vision and strategy.

CEGER also finds the strong coordination within the Cabinet office a key advantage for eGovernment success.

The digital divide has not been a major barrier to date, but it is anticipated that this could become a much bigger problem in the future as access to the Internet limits demand for services.

Overcoming Barriers to eGovernment in Portugal

The main tools that the Portuguese Government is using to overcome these barriers include:

• Consultation
• Working Groups
• Central Coordination
• Central Leadership to support coordination and integration efforts

What else is needed to help overcome these barriers?

Benchmarking projects are especially useful, so that there is more real evidence available about what works well and what does not.

For more information on eGovernment projects in Portugal

• Portuguese Government Portal: http://www.portugal.gov.pt/Portal/PT
• eCitizens Portal: http://www.portaldocidadao.pt/PORTAL/pt
• Portuguese Public Key Infrastructure: http://www.scee.gov.pt (soon to be available)
• Central Public Administration Trade Forum: http://compras.gov.pt/COMPRAS/
• eGovernment Tax Services: http://www.dgci.min-financas.pt/siteinternet/
• Portuguese-wide Employment Portal :http://www.netemprego.pt/IEFP/index.jsp
• Portuguese Electronic Passport: http://www.pep.pt/
• eCitizen Card: http://www.cartaodocidadao.pt/

eGovernment Barriers Interim Report: Barriers project identifies top barriers to eGovernment progress in Europe

The Barriers to eGovernment project has identified seven top barriers to success in eGovernment: 1) Leadership failures; 2) Financial inhibitors; 3) Digital divides; 4) Poor coordination; 5) Workplace and organizational inflexibility; 6) Lack of trust and 7) Poor technical design. An interim report is now available for public consultation across the EU, contributing to implementation of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan (2006-2010).

According to Professor Dutton, Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, the project findings are “shattering the very common view that there is one ‘killer issue’ – a single major barrier to eGovernment. To the contrary, we are finding a wide range of barriers at many levels, from individual resistance to change to regional economic constraints. However, knowing these barriers will direct attention to the many initiatives required to advance electronic government. We find behind every barrier a set of directions for moving ahead.”

"The top challenge now is to use our knowledge of the barriers, such as their legal foundations, to speed up, rather than slow down the process", says Dr Rebecca Eynon, Project Manager of the study. 

The interim report can be accessed via http://www.egovbarriers.org/?view=Resources&type=Deliverables. Feedback on the interim results will lead to further exploration, in order to refine the project’s findings. An update will be issued in December 2006.

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Third Workshop “Learning from Experience in eGovernment: Why Projects Fail and Why They Succeed”

The project, Breaking Barriers to eGovernment: overcoming obstacles to improving European public services, held its third workshop on the 26th June 2006 at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, UK.

The workshop provided the opportunity for the project to gain from the expertise of a number of external academics and practitioners, and to share some preliminary findings. The discussion sessions following each presentation were most helpful in clarifying concepts, methodologies, and pitfalls. In total, 23 people attended the event from academia, industry and government from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

A complete summary of the workshop, further details about each presentation, PowerPoint slides for all sessions, and webcasts of the presentations by Jerry Fishenden, Chris Parker and Stephen Coleman can be accessed via the project website: http://www.egovbarriers.org/?view=events.

Since the last newsletter, there have been several relevant developments with regard to eGovernment in the international / European community:

• The eParticipation Work programme was adopted by the Commission on 27 July and the Call for Proposals was launched on the 28th of July. eParticipation is a Preparatory Action which aims at harnessing the benefits of the use of Information and Communications Technologies for better legislative processes and better legislation at all levels of governmental decision making, and for an enhanced public participation in such processes. More information here: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/egovernment_research/eparticipation/index_en.htm

• Latest eGovernment Report says that online public services are increasingly interactive: “intelligent delivery” is the next frontier.  The maturity of online public services in the EU keeps improving and they have now reached an overall level of sophistication where full two-way interaction between citizens and governments is the norm. Nearly 50% of services allow the citizen to conduct the whole process on-line, says the latest eGovernment survey carried out for the Commission. This in turn leads to better, more efficient and effective service provision. The sophistication index has risen by 6% in the year to April 2006 in the EU 15 Member States, but by 16% in the EU10, reflecting the considerable efforts made in recent years. Austria leads the online public service league, followed by Malta and Estonia. Since 2001, this survey has measured the share of public services fully available on line in the EU, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Many billions of euros could be saved for European taxpayers every year through administrative modernisation across the 25 EU Member States, as outlined in the European Commission’s eGovernment Action Plan of April 2006.  More information here: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/i2010/index_en.htm

The Impact of eGovernment in Europe conference - 13 September 2006, Helsinki, Finland

High level speakers like the Finnish Minister of Finance, Directors from the public sector, and VPs from SAP and CapGemini join up for this event, a conference of the European Commission and the Finnish Presidency of the EU in collaboration with SAP and CapGemini. To be held on the 13th of September in Helsinki, Finland, the objective is to track the process towards visible impact of the eGovernment Action Plan, to check the status of national and regional impact frameworks and to explore partnerships with industry.

All Member States have undertaken to use eGovernment to achieve “considerable gains in efficiency” and “significant reductions in administrative burdens” by 2010. Under the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan, the Commission and the Member States will put in place an impact oriented measurement framework in line with the i2010 benchmarking framework. Building on the consensus reached with EU Member States on benchmarking indicators, the challenge for the years ahead is to evolve the current eGovernment benchmarking so as to put those indicators in operation in a stepwise – but rapid – manner between 2007 and 2010. Who should attend? National and regional policy makers and industry. Free attendance (limited to 100 participants).  

For more information, see the event website:
http://www.egov-goodpractice.org/event_details.php?&eventid=125

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RISER 2nd Conference on eServices in European Civil Registration, 7-8 September 2006, Tallinn, Estonia

The RISER project consortium is organising the 2nd Conference on eServices in European Civil Registration on the 7th and 8th of September 2006 in Tallinn, Estonia. After a first successful conference held in Vienna, June 2005, this second conference aims to highlight possibilities on how to narrow the gap between national supply and European demand and increase communication regarding the upcoming challenges and objectives in civil registration in Europe.

The conference will cover political, organisational, legal and technical aspects of E-Services in European Civil Registration and related issues. Main topics are:

• Future expectations and requirements for eServices in European Civil Registration
• An overview on civil registration within the New Member States.
• Existing and future cooperation between Member States in Civil Registration
• Examples for Interoperability in eServices from related fields.

For more information, see the event website:
http://www.riser.eu.com/Conf/conf_intro_new.htm

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World e-ID conference, 20-22 September 2006, Sophia Antipolis - French Riviera

The “World e-ID” conference is a summit conference covering the deployment of trusted electronic identities and access to eServices. “World e-ID” has brought together over 60 worldwide renowned experts and knowledgeable practitioners of the domain to present, review and clarify the main issues required for sustainable trusted electronic identities at a real global level.

Sessions include:

• World & Regional Strategies and Trends
• Biometrics for Secure Authentication
• European eID Projects and Developments
• Application areas where e-ID/IAS is a Must
• Business Models for e-ID
• Privacy and e-Inclusion
• Large scale e-ID Systems
• e-ID Emerging Technologies, Digital Signature and Standards
• Electronic ID for travel & e-Services Support, serving the 2 Masters

For more information, see the event website:
http://www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/06/index.htm

If would like to get involved here are a few ways how:

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