Politicians and public managers continue to debate over whether to centralize or to decentralize departments, information systems and services. Shared service centers (SSCs) are gaining importance in public administration as a means to innovate, to reduce costs and to increase service levels. The SSC is a business model in which selected government functions are concentrated into a semi-autonomous business unit. Implementing SSCs is not easy, as it often requires several trade-offs and an effective organization and management structure.The discussions about the decision whether to use SSCs seem to be predominantly focused on efficiency and effectiveness aspects, which are rational arguments. In this research-in-progress ongoing research into the design and governance of SSC is presented. We analyze a case study at a municipality and identify factors contributing to success and failure. Our preliminary findings suggest that designing an effective management structure, establishing an architecture capturing central and decentral elements, setting the right expectations, creating a sense of urgency and ensuring that all stakeholders understand the centralization/decentralization aspects of the SSC are important elements resulting in success.
Significant changes in the Indonesian political system have affected most aspects of its government and community. First, there is an effort to implement democracy in terms of ideology as well as political practices. Second, the government system is transforming from centralization to decentralization, as the development process is delegated to regional governments (cities and kabupatens). Third, there is an effort to build community consciousness through community participation in national and regional development.Participating in the development process, citizens should be supported with relevant public information. It is the government's task to provide information regarding governmental issues and public interests. As communication and information have been delegated to regional governments, they should execute this task based on good governance principles.However, providing fair and balanced information is not simple. Large populations and regions separated by water and mountains make the task harder. Therefore, regional governments must adopt advanced information technology systems, which functioned to transfer information to the public as well as to receive public feedback medium in an efficient and effective way. To meet those qualifications, regional governments endeavor to implement e-government as a tool for democratizing communication and information.After almost 3 years, there are indications that e-government has not been properly implemented by regional governments. They have faced many problems, including lack of financing, poor technical skill, lack of human resources and infrastructure, and the political will of the government elite itself.Nevertheless, there are many ways to overcome these problems. Standardizing the application of e-government, establishing the regulation of e-government, involving other stakeholders, and developing human resources may aid in the implementation of e-government. In addition, lessons learned from other regions, for example, Kutai Timur or Gorontalo, are also recommended.
This paper examines government reform including decentralization and e-government services in Korea since 1990s. Since the full-scale implementation of local autonomy in Kim Young-sam Administration, Kim Dae-jung Administration, inaugurated in February 1998 just after financial crisis, launched an intensive reform program covering finance, corporate, labor, and public sectors. Among main reform strategies introduced according to New Public Management paradigm were reshuffling local governments, manpower reduction, delegation of central government's functions and resources, paperwork reduction, and so forth. In addition, e-government services were initiated as one of software-oriented reform strategies. In spite of some arguments, Kim Administration gained the performance of e-government as well as government reforms to a considerable degree. Roh Administration, taking office in February 2003, also made public the Roadmap to Government Innovation including decentralization and e-government. It is expected to contribute much to enhancing efficient and effective operation of local governments. Government reform, however, may confront with a contradiction between decentralization of central power and centralized e-government. Seamless integration of works and processes at all levels of government requires cross-agency collaboration and coordination carefully coupled from the central government. In order to mitigate this contradiction, it is recommended to develop a proper reference model for business and technology, which can be applied flexibly to the central and local government all together.
Implementing the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), African Ministers of Planning and Economic Development identified the use of ICTs in central Government and local administration as one of the priority sectors for the entry of Africa into the information era and as a means to support Government’s administration and decentralization process, which is consistent with Vision 2020 in developing electronic information for development in the Gambia.
Responding to a request from the Hon. Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, of the Republic of The Gambia, The Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) sent a mission to the Gambia in November 2002 to carryout a preliminary assessment and discuss modalities for the design of e-Government Strategy for the Gambia with a view to start an e-Government pilot project between the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the Office of The President for the sharing of Financial and Economic Management data and information. It is envisaged that after the successful implementation of the pilot project, all the relevant institutions and services across the country will be subsequently interconnected electronically.
Mary Maureen Brown, Jeffrey L. Brudney, A "Smarter, Better, Faster, and Cheaper" Government: Contracting and Geographic Information Systems, Public Administration Review, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 1998), pp. 335-345