Public sector IT managers' organisation Socitm has warned local
authorities not to miss the boat for the next round of e-government
funding.
Councils have until midnight on 31 October to submit their second
Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) statements to the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in order to qualify for another
share of £675m worth of e-government funding.
Bob Griffith, Socitm's national secretary, said, "Local authorities
should recognise that the deadline is fast approaching, especially
when they have to go through the democratic process of getting the
statement agreed by their own council committees."
Officials at the ODPM, which took over the running of e-government
earlier this year from the now-defunct Department of Transport,
Local Government and the Regions, has warned councils that IEG2
statements should summarise the e-government progress they have
made over the past 12 months.
Statements will also be expected to reflect key elements of the
draft national strategy for local e-government, e-gov@local, which
was published for consultation on 8 April 2002.
The first round of IEG funding took place last year, when councils
worked towards a July 2001 deadline for making their first
submission to receive an initial slice of e-government funding.
Typical e-government projects include making council departments'
services available over the Internet and the implementation of
customer relationship management systems.
Councils submitting successful IEG2 statements this year will get a
second payment of £200,000. In order to receive this, however, they
will have to prove that the initial £200,000 grant that followed
last year's IEG process has been used to good effect.
There is help available for councils struggling to complete their
IEG2 statements. Socitm has teamed up with the Improvement and
Development Agency (Idea) to produce guidance to take local
authorities through the process. The information, which is
available on the Idea Web site, is aimed at local authority
e-champions and those responsible for drafting the statements.
Matthew Wolstenholme, e-government consultant at Idea, acknowledged
the importance of the forthcoming IEG deadline but urged councils
to view it within the context of their long-term e-government
strategies.
He said, "The deadline is extremely important but you cannot treat
it as a one-off job. E-government is about ongoing improvement."
E-government implementation deadline
- Councils have until midnight on 31st October to submit their
second Implementing Electronic Government (IEG) statements, which
are designed to prove that local authorities have made significant
e-government progress since last year's IEG statements were
submitted
- The IEG process is designed to allocate shares of £675m worth
of e-government funding up until 2006
- Authorities submitting successful IEG2
statements will receive a payment of £200,000.