The potential for saving money was one of the major reasons that the government pushed for all public services to be available electronically by 2005 at a cost of £7.4bn for Whitehall and local councils. But IT analysis firm Kable has predicted that the massive costs of making services available over phone lines and the internet would outstrip any savings until at least 2012.
Kable's head of forecasting, Karen Swinden, said: "Even this projection could prove to be optimistic. Unlike the private sector, the public sector cannot maximise savings from digitisation by dramatically cutting physical access to services and staff numbers, as it has a duty to ensure equal access those on the wrong side of the 'digital divide.'"
According to the company's report, E-government Cost Savings, Whitehall's investment in IT will yield average savings of £165m a year at both the central and local authority level.
The benefits could begin to kick in this year, but would be heavily outweighed by the amount of money being spent on e-government - Kable estimated the deficit at more than £900m for 2005 alone.
Reductions in staff costs and numbers, less money spent on office space and price reductions for goods and services bought through efficient electronic systems, have all produced savings.
While Whitehall and its agencies, receive their money for electronic services largely from central funds, rather than individual budgets, the council taxpayer shoulders nearly 80% of the cost of local e-government.
However, investment in e-government is likely to drop off dramatically after 2005 while the benefits continue, allowing savings from the new technology to slowly catch up with the amount of money being spent.
Quelle: Guardian Unlimited
