Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

is not irrevocably bound to a single industry standard,
vendor or product.) An architecture team has
been established to develop alternative architectures
for federated identity authentication services that
will apply government-wide. The team will also
present interface specifications for all components
in the federated authentication architecture by
June 2004. The FirstGov portal also has changed,
although less in substance (which was already rich
and intentions-based) than in appearance.
Individual agencies provided some of the United
States’ most innovative offerings in 2003. The US
Department of Labor launched a new version of
GovBenefits.gov (www.govbenefits.gov) that
includes information on benefits programs in 20
states, taking another step toward making the portal
a government-wide source for citizens. This site provides
information on all government benefits, no
matter where the benefits originate. There are several
ways to search for the information and users
can also utilize a questionnaire to be directed to
appropriate programs. Once a specific benefit is
selected, GovBenefits.gov provides a helpful overview
and relevant links for additional information, such
as eligibility guidelines.
The US Department of Health and Human Services,
in conjunction with 11 other government entities
and with private-sector involvement, launched
the www.grants.gov site for the Federal Grants.gov
initiative (one of the 24 major initiatives of the
overall eGovernment program). Users can search
for grant opportunities a number of different ways.
For those granting agencies whose applications are
available online, the application process is completely
electronic.
The 2003 US eGovernment strategy makes no mention
of any concerted marketing effort to increase citizen
take-up of eGovernment services. Rather, campaigns
are agency specific, often with marked success. For
example, the Internal Revenue Service launched its
Free File Web site in January 2004, accompanied by an
aggressive marketing campaign. The agency has also
turned its sights on intermediaries (tax practitioners),
urging them to embrace the convenience of online filing
and the improvements offered through its online
tax forms. The efforts seem to be paying dividends. As
of June 27, 2003, 52.2 million individual tax returns
were electronically filed during the 2003 filing season,
accounting for 42.1 percent of total returns filed. This
represents an increase of 5.8 million (12.5 percent)
electronically filed returns compared to the total
returns electronically filed during the same period in
2002 (46.4 million).
While the government is not providing any centralized
push for eGovernment, it is making moves to
monitor and measure the performance of individual
agencies’ eGovernment initiatives and the overall
program. The Office of Management and Budget has
established goals for eGovernment and information
technology and has developed a scorecard against
specific performance criteria. Additionally, agencies
must provide annual updates on their implementations
of the E-Government Act of 2002. Initial
reports were received in December of 2003. The
government also updates and publishes a chart
detailing the progress and next steps for all 24 of
its current major eGovernment initiatives.
The United States recently has made some significant
changes to the way it manages information
security and privacy. The E-Government Act of 2002
requires federal government agencies to conduct
privacy impact assessments before developing or
procuring information technology or initiating any
new collections of personally identifiable information.
The E-Government Act also requires agencies
to post machine-readable privacy notices on their
websites, detailing agency practices and individual
rights. In an example of how the government is
looking to shore up its own potential vulnerabilities,
the White House published “The National Strategy to
Secure Cyberspace” in February 2003.
Looking ahead, the United States has the right
priorities in place; however, it could take a number
of easily identifiable steps to improve its overall
eGovernment performance. For example, it could
begin working with individual states to replicate
successes, such as the GovBenefits.gov site, to
create fewer access points to a broader range of
government services, no matter where the information
or service originates. It could also look at
Singapore’s success in introducing mobile services.
Recent reviews show that only about 1 percent of
US government sites are accessible through personal
digital assistants, mobile phones or pagers. Finally,
the government should formalize plans for marketing
its services; Canada and Singapore’s proven
successes should inspire the government to focus
on promoting its many excellent online offerings.
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