Paris: 19 November 2009

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a report titled: The Financial and Economic Crisis: IMPACT ON E-GOVERNMENT IN OECD COUNTRIES. The report was part of submission of the OECD to the European Union 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference that took place in Malmö, Sweden from the 19th to 20th November 2009.

The OECD press release titled: Squeeze on public budgets boosting e-government, states:

“The impact of the financial and economic crisis on e-government in OECD countries says that many countries are using the crisis to refocus and speed up their e-government programmes. Germany and Korea, for example, have increased government spending on technology as part of their stimulus packages in order to stimulate the private sector and boost the long-term competitiveness of their ICT sectors.

While most countries said the crisis had left their e-government budgets unaffected, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States had increased their spending in 2009 and anticipate further increases in the years ahead, according to the report.

Austria, Hungary, Iceland and the United Kingdom cut spending on e-government in 2009 and will maintain a lower level of spending going forward. In Iceland, the e-government budget fell by 16.5% in 2009 and is expected to fall a further 18% in 2010.

The crisis has also led governments to re-prioritise their e-government strategies. The US, for example, is using technology and the Internet to enable people to see more quickly and directly where taxpayers’ money is being spent as part of the stimulus package. Korea and the United Kingdom also cited e-government as part of a broader initiative to improve transparency.”

The executive summary of the report states:

“The global financial and economic crisis has over night, put governments under considerable pressure to promptly address a broad range of challenging political, economic and governance issues affecting both the public and the private sector. In their effort to be agile and responsive to the situation, governments have stretched their human and budgetary resources to the limit. To swiftly create the capacity to handle these new challenges, they are looking at how efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector can be improved.

While some governments have chosen to cut e-government spending and reduce the pace of its implementation, others have chosen to seize this occasion to accelerate the pace of e-government implementation. For every country, the main issues are to avoid wasting tax payers' money, ensure that resources are used most efficiently and effectively, and rebuild citizens’ trust through increased transparency in how decisions are made and implemented. As a consequence, governments are also faced with the challenge of paving new ways to increase citizen participation and engagement.

Seen in this perspective, the different government approaches to the crisis response show some common trends. Fourteen of 22 responding countries have included e-government in their crisis response packages. Countries are generally looking into: improving performance and reducing waste in the public sector; making strategic investments in new and innovative key e-government areas; accelerating public spending on e-government; rebuilding trust with citizens; improving the quality of public services; and transforming the public sector by using e-government as a key lever.

The importance of having e-governments' broader strategic potential in mind as part of their economic policy framework has been emphasised by some countries' strategic investment priorities using public sector innovation to spearhead new technological breakthroughs (e.g. ICT security, open source, broadband coverage, and "green IT"). Using the funding of the crisis response to further develop innovative and necessary e-government solutions, can be viewed in those countries as sowing the seeds for new start-ups or business opportunities – thus supporting a long-term sustainable economic growth strategy.

Future work on e-government might benefit from greater insight into how e-government impacts the economy and subsequently, how these impacts can be measured consistently.”

Page 6 of the report states:

Table 1. Is e-government a part of the national crisis response?

Countries

E-Government is a part of the national crisis response

Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia*, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

E-Government is not part of the national crisis response

Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovak Republic, Turkey.

* Accession country to the OECD.

Source: OECD Survey on the impact of the financial and economic crisis on e-government, 2009.

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