IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Less than half of all UK local authorities expect to achieve the Government's 2005 target for delivering services electronically, with a significant number not even attempting to meet the deadline, according to new research. Some 15 per cent of the councils surveyed by the Society of IT Management (Socitm), representing around 60 authorities, said they were not following central government e-targets, but focusing instead on e-enabling the services likely to deliver the greatest benefits.

Their annual IT Trends survey found that the total costs of council's e-government programmes up to 2005 are forecast to exceed GBP2bn (E3.11bn). However, at this stage councils are unable to say how nearly half of the estimated spend will be funded.

The findings also suggest that private companies are likely to continue to play a key role in ICT service provision, even though most Heads of ICT feel the actual benefits have been "less than expected".

In addition to financial concerns, the report highlights organisational and culture issues which could hinder the progress of the e-government agenda, such as "insufficient knowledge" among council officers and elected members of their local authority's eGovernment programme.

Just 13 per cent of authorities were judged to be giving "thorough consideration to the opportunities ICT offers to improve services" and the majority of councils felt there were "too many initiatives to cope with". Although progress is being made towards providing services electronically - the report claims that 30 per cent of council services are now e-enabled - few authorities currently have the ability to encrypt data or authenticate citizens in order to handle sensitive or personal data electronically.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Around half of authorities are now buying goods and services electronically, up from a quarter last year, although this still represents a very small proportion of total procurement
• Susceptibility to virus attacks has declined, but 28 per cent of authorities are without an ICT security policy
• Three quarters of authorities used consultants on ICT assignments in 2002
• Almost a quarter of councils have agreed information sharing protocols with health, compared to 9 per cent last year, but many are finding it difficult to progress beyond the discussion stage.

"It is clear that, while IT Trends shows that some joint working and sharing of resources is taking place there is scope to do much more", notes the report's author Brian Westcott. "Sharing learning and development costs, and even ICT resources would increase efficiency and can be done without loss of local independence and identity."

Quelle: europemedia.net