The wheels of e-government are grinding slowly,
complains Simon Moores. Bureaucracy and mismanagement are slowing
down transactions that should take seconds to
complete.
Call it a retrospective if you like, I am wondering
where the "e" in government has worked for me in 2003. I’m casting
my mind back on the old year for evidence of a smooth and painless
experience, but I can’t find one.
Together with my Christmas cards came a reprimand from the VAT
office. My quarterly payment was six days late and my knuckles were
firmly rapped. Again.
This was despite me taking the advice of my local VAT inspector
and instructing my bank to issue a transfer three days before the
VAT payment deadline.
This proved to have been a bad idea. My account may have been
debited immediately but it took another six days to credit the
funds to Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise, because a weekend lay in
the way, leaving me up the creek without the proverbial paddle.
Surely, this whole "e" thing is supposed to make life simpler
for business, but all I’m seeing is a steady increase in red tape
and complexity and more single points of failure coming in my
direction. This leads to a consensus among my business friends that
building any new IT service company today is not worth the stress
and effort involved in dealing with different government
departments and regulations.
Meanwhile, an expensive and mushrooming bureaucracy is crushing
domestic productivity and innovation in the belief that the right
mix of technology and taxation hold the solution to the gross
inefficiencies of the public sector.
After last month's verdict on the Soham tragedy we can see that
the collision between the criminal justice system and technology
has given us speed cameras and CCTV but very little else to be
proud of.
Our policing, it appears, remains at the mercy of private-sector
incompetents, the usual suspects responsible for large and
expensive public sector failures in other vital areas of
government.
December’s fourth UK Online Annual Report tells us that
e-government is a great success and we can expect more “automation
and integration of back office functions”.
“Public sector internal administration”, we are told,” should be
standardised and made self-service." These are grand words, but
let’s face it, we are surrounded if not suffocated by examples of
expensive failure in the most vital, mission-critical areas of our
society, health, taxation, education, transport, criminal justice,
child support, social services, the list is endless.
Technology might hold the answer but, like the railways, once
you start outsourcing the responsibilities you find the trains no
longer run on time, the tracks are not maintained properly and many
of the businesses involved don’t even manage to achieve the lowest
common denominator of service, even with the billions of pounds of
taxpayer funded technology at their disposal.
What if the public private partnership and a great deal of the
"e" in government is generating more expense and failure than we
are prepared to admit? How much longer can we carry on before the
wheels really start to fall off the public sector? Or maybe
I’m only being cynical and December’s UK Online Report is a shining
example of better chemistry through e-government.
What do you think?
Is our e-government snarled up with red tape?
Tell us in an e-mail >>
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Setting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of leading industry analyst Dr Simon Moores of
Zentelligence.
Acting globally, Zentelligence (Research) advises
governments, suppliers, business and the media on the evolution,
application and delivery of leading-edge technologies and
specialises in the areas of eGovernment and information
security.
For further information on Zentelligence and its research,
presentation and analyst services visitwww.zentelligence.com