Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

Portugal
2004 Rank: 20
2003 Rank: 20
2002 Rank: 18
Vision introduced: 2002
Vision title:
Quality and Efficiency of
Public Services (Qualidade
e Eficiência dos Serviços
Públicos)
Vision summary:
The eGovernment vision for Portugal consists of
placing the public administration sector in the
group of the best service providers of the country.
This vision must be translated into an efficient and
quality public service and supported by rational
technological solutions.
Regular Internet users (percent of population):
11.82 percent
Portugal
In 2004, Portugal made no movement in the rankings,
remaining in 20th place. For the second year
in a row, it showed very modest overall maturity
improvement (approximately 4 percent) and scored
below the average across all categories—service
breadth, depth and customer relationship management.
Only two services moved from publish or
interact level to transact level and no new services
were added at the transact level.
Much of the problem with Portugal’s slow
eGovernment advancement stems from a history
of development marked by fragmented information
across hundreds of websites, which led to gaps
in relevant information and services. Portugal’s
eGovernment program is showing strong signs
of reinvigoration, however.
The first ideas for a new eGovernment vision
were presented in November 2002. This new vision
focuses on efficient and quality public service, supported
by rational technology solutions. The new
vision represents Portugal’s shift to a more balanced
approach to eGovernment: one that emphasizes
that eGovernment is a means to an end and not an
end unto itself. The main goals of eGovernment in
Portugal are to increase the convenience and satisfaction
of citizens, provide more efficiency with
lower costs, increase transparency of the state mechanism,
increase the democratic participation of all
citizens, promote the development of the information
and knowledge society and achieve international
recognition of the quality of Portuguese eGovernment,
thereby stirring national pride. The minister responsible
for implementing this new eGovernment vision
is Deputy Prime Minister José Luís Arnaut. The
same resolution that gave him this responsibility
also created a Unidade de Missão Inovação e
Conhecimento (Unit for Innovation and Knowledge),
which forms part of the prime minister’s office and
is in charge of driving the information society and
eGovernment policies.
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