Modernising Public Service Delivery Through eGovernance

Mike O'Brien, UK Minister of State for Energy and eCommerce

Governments can benefit from electronic governance (eGovernance) as it helps them to streamline financial and human resource management and improve procurement, said Mike O'Brien, UK Minister of State for Energy and eCommerce, on 30 November 2004.

eGovernment was about making public services prompt, convenient and easy to use. Mr O'Brien noted: "Ensuring that people have appropriate online access is critical to the successful transformation of public services." 

The minister was inaugurating a two-day conference in London, UK, on 'Modernising Governments -- E-Government for Improved Service Delivery', organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat's Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) and the Commonwealth Business Council. Delegates from 15 countries attended the meeting. They discussed challenges and opportunities in modernising governments; improved public service delivery through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs); and increasing transparency through efficient eGovernment. 

Citing reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mr O'Brien said the effective use of ICT accounts for a significant part of the productivity gap between the best performing economies and those doing less well. 

"In the UK, we have set ourselves a target to reach full capability of joined-up online government services by 2005, with key services achieving high levels of use. Good progress has been made towards meeting this target, with over 70 per cent of services now online. But there is more to do in encouraging people to go online to use our services." 

Professor Victor Ayeni, Director of GIDD, said that ICTs are changing the rules of doing business. "In the realm of government, ICT applications are promising to enhance the delivery of public goods and services to citizens. They not only improve the process and management of government, but also redefine the traditional concepts of citizenship and democracy."

Among GIDD's recent activities in public sector informatics is the development of a master plan for Mauritius for better delivery of government services; and an eGovernance master plan in education for Lesotho.

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 212 1 December 2004

Key Links:

• Goverance and Institutional Development