Devolution of e governance among multilevel government structure v3

Devolution of e-Governance among Multilevel Government

StructureKashif Farooq

Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan

Presented atIT-Innovations 2006, November 19-21, 2006, Dubai

This paper presents

a framework of devolution

for e-governance

Objective

Centralized e-government

Decentralized e-government

Devolution

Top-down

Political, administrative, fiscal

Issues

How should responsibilities for e-government establishment be divided among the various levels of government (national, regional, provincial, and local)?

To what extent should a program be centralized (i.e.,run at a national government level) versus decentralized (i.e., run at local government level)?

Which government agencies will be involved, e.g., education, health and tourism agencies will be the partner of G2C: Government to Citizen portal?

Should there be individual efforts to provide an Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) or the need of collaboration of agencies?

To what extent should a program make use of citizens and other non-government resources?

To what extent should technical staff and consultants be integrated within a single organization and inter-organizations?

Why Devolution in e-Government?

Typical characteristics

all IT functions centralized in one organizational unit

generally limited IT costs but less effective

impacts IT governance by providing a generally tight governance model that is easy to enforce.

Centralized Initiatives

Typical characteristics policy is required for

decision making, project management, portals, services, funding, revenue collection and operations

distributes IT functions between the various divisions or organizations

generally has a high coordination cost

IT governance is focused on the coordination effort between central and local activities

Decentralized Initiatives

Typical characteristics usually considered the blend of centralized and

decentralized approaches

key decisions are collectively made and then standardized across the enterprise

competencies are decentralized at strategic business units/levels, with knowledge sharing across the enterprise

generally, high IT costs but more responsive to business needs

governance is typically done through committees, with a large potential for sharing across different areas

Federated Initiatives

“that attempts to reconcile the push of centralization with the pull of decentralization.

It does this in two ways: First, through integration drawing the centralized and decentralized approaches

together into some kind of unified or compromise approach.

Second, and more commonly, through divisionThis accepts that This accepts that both centralized and decentralized

approaches will be found, and then attempts to set some demarcation lines that will keep

the two separate, thereby allowing both to be accommodated”

“Core-Periphery Approach”

Richard Heeks “The Core-Periphery Approach to Management of Public Information Systems” IDPM, University of Manchester, UK, 1999, Published in: “Government IT”

Devolution of e-Government

Based on

Core-Periphery Approach

Proposed Framework: (1)

Scale of devolution depends upon the size of the country, its resource base, human capacity, and governance style.

There are two types of devolution e-government devolution among multilevel

government structure portal devolution among different agencies or

departments

Proposed Framework: (2)

VERTICAL AND HORIZOTAL PORTALS IN MULTILEVEL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE

Proposed Framework (3)Federal

Horizontal Portals

Vertical portals (Vortal): In multilevel government structure, a centralized portal providing services to all governments that are the responsibility of lower level government may be named as vertical portal. Like one centralized G2C portal provides services to all local governments

Decentralized Level 1

Horizontal Portals

Horizontal portals (Hortal): Portal of a particular government agency that have not any vertical (multi level government) structure like foreign and defense office are the responsibility of Federal government, so it may be named as horizontal portal

State/Province1 to n

Decentralized Level 2

Horizontal Portals

Local1 to m

Vertical P

ortals

Vertical P

ortals

Vertical P

ortals

Vertical P

ortals

Salient features Devolution of vision, strategies, policies,

standards and laws Devolution in enterprise architecture (EA)

Benchmarking of devolving parameters at each level

Portal devolution: A vertical portal needs devolution among different levels of governments and their agencies

Proposed Framework (4)

What How Where Who When Why

Planner’s View

Contextual

Owner’s View

Conceptual

Designer’s

View

Logical

Builder’s

View

Physical

Integrator’s

View

Integrated

User’s View Functioning

Data Function Network People Time Motive

Devolution Plan Vertical & Horizontal devolution of project Role of different governments and their agencies

Decentralized Workflow Model Arrangements negotiations & collaborations among governments and their agencies

Detail Planning Logical Representation of access privileges of agencies Infrastructure planning breakdown (by regional authorities) planning of decentralized HR Regional promotion & Outsourcing plans

Decentralized Role in Development

Decentralized configuration mgt for each stakeholder

Role of agencies in Infrastructure establishment Capacity building

Decentralized Role in Deployment

Configuration, Testing, QA, Integration results Access privileges coded to control access to specific platforms and technologies

Operational Devolution: Personnel and key stakeholders working within their roles and responsibilities, Execution of CRM, Feedback, Change Request, Benchmarking

Mapping of Proposed Framework on Zachman Framework

Federal Level National: Vision, strategies, policies, standards and laws Federal Enterprise Architecture Federal Vertical Portals (Vortal) Federal Horizontal Portals (Hortal) Benchmarking of decentralized levels Parameters: Implementation of all vertical portals, EA maturity,

horizontal portals of decentralized levels, ICT Infrastructure and human resource development, awareness and promotional activities

ICT Infrastructure facilities ICT skill development plans (within organization and for general

public), awareness and bridging the digital divide Outsourcing policy (ICT Infrastructure, Development and

Services) e-Governance devolution plan for lower decentralized level

Proposed Framework (4)

Decentralization Level 1 (State or province) 1 to n Level 1: Vision, strategies, policies, standards and laws It must be shadow vision, strategies and standards of Federal Enterprise Architecture that must be aligned or the shadow of

federal EA Decentralized role federal vertical portal or virtual office assigned

in federal devolution plan Decentralized configuration and customization of federal vertical

portal Efforts for the promotion of services of federal portals Horizontal portals of this level (must be distinct from federal

portals means no duplication) ICT Infrastructure facilities ICT skill development plans (within organization and for general

public), awareness and bridging the digital divide Outsourcing policy (ICT Infrastructure, Development and Services) e-Governance devolution plan for lower decentralized level

Proposed Framework (5)

Decentralization Level 2 (Local Level) 1-m Level 2: Vision, strategies, policies, standards and laws It must be shadow vision, strategies and standards of federal

level and decentralized level 1 Enterprise Architecture that must be aligned or the shadow of

upper level and federal EA Decentralized role for federal & level 1 vertical portal assigned

in federal & level 1 devolution plan Decentralized configuration and customization of federal & level

1 vertical portal Efforts for the promotion of services of federal & level 1 vertical

portals Horizontal portals of this level (must be distinct from federal &

level1 portals means no duplication) ICT Infrastructure facilities ICT skill development plans (within organization and for general

public), awareness and bridging the digital divide Outsourcing policy (ICT Infrastructure, Development and

Services)

Proposed Framework (6)

In this paper we have proposed a framework for devolution of e-

governance based on “Core-Periphery” approach that defines devolution of e-governance as the push of centralization through integration and pull of decentralization through division of

responsibilities to electronic service delivery, and attempts to set some demarcation lines that will

keep the two separate, thereby allowing both to be accommodated

At the end we have mapped this framework on to the Zachman framework.

Conclusion

Thank You