1.2 - N. Perspectives on e-government and streamlining IT system procurement

Mr. Shuhei Kishimoto of Toyota Motor Corporation gave a presentation on Japan's experience in implementing e-government. He said, according to the 5th Annual Global e-Government Study 2004, Japan was 11th among the 22 developed countries in terms of advancement of e-government. Japan’s ranking of 17th in 2002 and 15th in 2003 suggested that itss progress in establishing e-government had been gradual. One of the key steps in the process had been the adoption in 2003 of an e-Government Construction Plan which documented strategic priorities and action plans until the end of 2005. The plan was built on fundamental principles of high performing e-government programmes: citizen-oriented services, simple and cost-effective government, administration reform to reflect digitization and building an environment that made e-government a reality. However, Mr. Kishimoto said, too much emphasis had been placed on the computerization of administrative procedures without a consensus on the target or mission for developing e-government.

Until the mid-1990s, acquisition of IT systems by the Government had centred on the computerization of formulaic activities such as statistical work or data-processing work. Since the Basic Plan for Promotion of Computerization of Government Affairs was initiated in 1994, the IT system had been introduced widely in administrative fields. Further, since the initiation of the Millennium Project in 2000, investment had increasingly been aimed at building up e-government. The scale of e-government investment was expected to continue to increase. Therefore, it was essential to ensure that the budget for such investments was used efficiently, without undue risk to public funds.

There were some challenges yet to be met, however, such as the impact of change on the bureaucratic structure and the lack of experts to support the acquisition of IT systems in the government sector. Concern as a result of those institutional challenges had resulted in the formation of the Interagency Liaison Conference Concerning the Government Procurement on IT Systems in 2002. The Liaison Conference announced measurements to be taken to improve government procurement, the substance of which was reflected in the national budget for fiscal year 2002. Measures included developing a method to evaluate the value based on the life cycle cost corresponding to the number of years required for an actual project to be implemented. In addition, the method to determine the successful bidder by comprehensive evaluation, which was the cause of extremely low contract prices, was reviewed. Further, it was decided to make information on the result of a bid public by the bidder, the quoted price, etc. after a contract was awarded. Despite those reforms, however, there were still many unsolved issues. To address that, Mr. Kishimoto said the following were needed:

• Changed awareness of IT in the public sector
• Establishment of a CIO (Chief Information Officer) position
• Improved capabilities of staff and in making use of external experts
• Transparent customary practice on contracts
• Project management
• Disclosure of information

The future challenges were to integrate systems and enhance the core competencies of the Government by making use of IT. As was reported at the opening of the presentation, in Japan there was no consensus among the parties concerned on the mission to strengthen e-government capacity. Moreover, in the field where e-government related systems had been developed, such as the certificate authority, e-application and e-bidding, the system had been developed independently by respective ministries and agencies. In the future, activities and systems that crossed ministries and agencies needed to be integrated. That would require the current process to be streamlined and simplified, which required vision. Integration of business operations and systems had to be carried out so as to build a customer-oriented administrative process.

In addition, it was necessary to create a concept of e-government based on enterprise architecture (a strategy to integrate/rationalize the business operations/systems), which was aligned with the target and the mission of the organization.

The importance of visionary leadership was remarked upon during the plenary, with agreement that it was essential. A second important component of e-government development was up-to-date technology. It was noted that the Government of Japan’s computer systems had previously been very advanced, but poor management decisions resulting in expensive leasing arrangements and outsourcing of technology and support had resulted in those systems failing to keep pace. Politicians and their advisers had not recognized the importance of introducing the open network system. The outsourcing situation was good but expensive, because of the monopoly system, and that had had an impact on the IT systems of government offices in Japan.