Governance of common e-Government components

Highlights from an ongoing process in Norway

Ellen Strålberg, assistent director general

Department for ICT-governance and coordination

Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi)

The Soria Moria Declaration:Revitalisation of the public sector shall be done through better use of technology

Objectives:better services for the citizens

make the public sector more efficient

The Government policy: digital first choice

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A vision of a modern digital public sector

“My objective is that we should be able to do most things digital in the future.

The government's goal is digital first choice. This means that communication with the public that today is performed by paper mail, telephone or in person, in the future as far as possible should be done digitally, it will say on the Internet.

Today you receive a paper invoice automatically. If you want an e-invoice, you must explicitly ask for it. Many government agencies do not give us the opportunity. The point of the digital first choice is to facilitate the opposite: The digital communication with the public shall be the automatic first choice – and if you do not want digital communication, you must explicitly ask for it.”

Rigmor Aasrud, Minister of Government Administration and Reform

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Two reports to the Storting outlines importantprinciples for the reform of Governmental agencies

Report no. 17:The development of common IT components is one of three main principles

Report no. 19:lists six overarching goals for public administration, amongst theese are:

Good total use of resources

Clear areas of responsibility

Coordination and good leadership

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Definition of common components

Components (or building blocks)delimited parts of an IT solution

may include software, hardware, databases etc

may comprise a number of building blocks

Common components Components in IT solutions that can be jointly used or reused in several IT solutions within the public sector.

Common "building blocks" that allow the development of electronic services.

Common components serve cross-sectoral needs, but the responsibility is located in one Ministry/agency

An efficient public administration requires that public agencies use common components

That means common components have to serve cross-sectoral needs

The responsibility for common components is placed in several Ministries

That means they have responsibilities for cross-sectoral goals and tasks.

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What is the situation now?Reaching cross-sectoral goals in the public sector is challenging

The Ministries tend to be represented as silos with a weak horizontal coordination.

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Some common components are of particular importance

According to 4 criteria:1. A state agency is responsible for

managing the component.

2. The component meets a need across many sectors and/or administrative tiers.

3. The component is central to the existing and planned electronic services of a number of public agencies.

4. It has great socio-economic significance.

Difi recommends 5 common components

The Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities (basic information about legal entities)

National Population Register (basic information about persons)

The New Cadastre (basic information about property)

Altinn (-components)

Common infrastructure for eID in the public sector

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1. Standardisation of the management role and a clear national responsibility

The quality and trustworthiness of the national com mon components are critical to the all the agencies

This requires trust between the manager of the common componen ts and the service owners with regard to the functionality, availability, and term s of use

We propose the following measures:• Acceptance of the cross-

sectoral responsibility • Establish common

mandatory principles for the management of national common components

2. Financing of cross-sectoral tasks

Challenges today:

costs and benefits are not linked

benefits may accrue significantly later

state budget processes are unable to handle the need to invest in order to realise benefits at a later date or in other sectors and agencies.

We propose the following measures:

Financing of national common components must be ear-marked so that the finan cing promotes the desired service development

Development of a cost-distribution key at the Ministry level for national common components.

3. Coherent prioritisation in a consensus-based committee structure

minister

FAD

Fornyings-minister

Stats-minister

Finans-minister minister

FIN NHD HOD AD

Difi Skattedir. Brreg Helsedir. NAV

Etats-styrere

(eksempel)

Virksom-heter

(eksempel)

minisminister

Forpliktende konsensusfremmende fora Kun den øverste eksisterer i dag med tverrsektorielt helhetsansvar

Xx-dep

Xx

Departements-utvalget

Strategisk topplederutvalg

IT-samordnings-linjen

Behov for tydelig forpliktende konsensusstyring på flere nivå for å få samordnet it-styring og helhetlig fokus på formål

Regjerings-konferansen

4. Increased pressure on line management

Still, the most important challenge in reaching the actual objectives of the components will remain:

New and better electronic services to residents and businesses from all public agencies

We propose the following measures:Develop guides for managers in how to reform the agencies and improve efficiency using IT and common components.Develop and implement a competency and net work programme for departmental managers in the Ministries, focused on how IT can ensure reformation and regeneration, efficiency improvements and benefit realisations in the agencies.Develop and implement a competence and net work programme for strategic and tactical senior managers in the agencies.

Next step?

The report is sent to the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform.

They have sent it on a broad hearing and is now processing the responses.

A general comment is that the report makes an important contribution to shed light on what an increased cooperation on national common components provide concering opportunities and challenges.

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