Recommendations Issued to Promote Digital Government

Digital Government: The Next Step to Reengineering the Federal Government, a report issued by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), recommends principle and policy changes that the federal government should take to further develop digital government. The report also describes the means that the government can use to integrate information technology into its operations. Most of the findings and recommendations may be useful for state agencies, programs and departments.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a national think tank focusing on the development of a new governing philosophy and an agenda geared toward the information age, first addresses the obstacles that block the quick, efficient development of a digital government. These include: lack of political support for digital government, focus on agencies and their needs versus customers and their convenience, and a lack of competitive pressures that force a shift toward a digital economy.

The report profiles 12 principles for implementing successful digital government. These are:

• considering customers first; 
• re-inventing, not automating governmental processes; 
• setting ambitious goals for the development of digital government; 
• investing heavily in digital government to reap savings in the future; 
• focusing on digital transactions between government and citizens; 
• making government applications interoperable with commercial ones;
• returning savings from electronic transactions to taxpayers; 
• promoting open access to information on the internet; 
• respecting information privacy rights of citizens; 
• maintaining current traditional access to government; 
• expanding, not duplicating efforts made by the private sector, and, 
• taking digital government development action in the immediate future.

The report also makes four policy recommendations to speed the development of digital government including: creating the position of Chief Information Officer for the federal government; establishing a $500 million Annual Digital Government Fund to invest in cross-agency digital government development projects; allowing agencies flexibility in the use of funds; and expanding the availability of funding for the development of digital governmental applications.

PPI asserts that the development of a digital U.S. economy will provide the federal government with an opportunity to overhaul the way it provides services to citizens and result in increased trust in government and reduced overall costs of government. In order to be completely successful, however, PPI says, Congress and the Administration must make digital government development a high priority.

For more information or to view the complete report, visit http://www.dlcppi.org/texts/tech/digitalgovernment.htm