Archived document - Public Sector Commission - The Western ...

e-Government Strategy for the Western Australian Public Sector
Effecting Change: The Key Enablers of e-Government
34
3. Governance Mechanisms
As agencies become more interconnected, and the distinction between
government and non-government service delivery becomes less obvious,
there will be new challenges for public sector governance. Our current
system of government is supported by legislation and regulations that
segment information and services between Federal, State and Local
Governments and often at agency level. e-Government will challenge
these existing rules and regulations. A robust governance framework
is required to support transformation to an integrated service
delivery model.
Each year agencies spend significant resources on major infrastructure
and services. Good e-government information management practices
enable the aggregation of data across agencies so as to facilitate a better
whole-of-government understanding of how these resources are being
procured and deployed, thereby increasing the overall transparency and
accountability of government.
Implementing collaborative multi-agency projects would deliver significant
benefits to agencies and the community. However, in the present public
sector environment there are many governance issues to consider:
• Which agency or agencies will pay the initial and ongoing charges to
maintain the e-government initiative
• How will the costs be recouped
• Who will have the responsibility for managing the infrastructure
and services
• Will this add to their costs without fully compensating for the
extra workload
• How will intellectual property issues be managed
• What affect will this have on suppliers to government
• Where does accountability reside
The Role of OeG
OeG is working to identify areas where the implementation of e-
government initiatives would be impeded by a lack of adequate
governance mechanisms and options for cross-government service
delivery. Where possible, OeG will work with agencies to develop flexible
collaboration frameworks to deal with these issues.
As highlighted by the questions above, funding for e-government projects
is going to be a significant governance issue when trying to initiate,
develop and subsequently maintain cross-agency initiatives. OeG is
collaborating with the Department of Treasury and Finance to address
issues such as the initial point of funding for collaborative projects, joint
agency funding bids and ongoing project responsibility.