Will e-government schemes pay?

The e-Forum, an EC-sponsored European e-government association, held its first conference in Valencia in September. The group is composed of e-government professionals, academics and stakeholders from national governments, regional and local authorities, service providers and integrators, telecoms carriers, publishers and software firms. Their over-arching aim is to stimulate the economic and social role of e-government across Europe.

In the EU, government revenues account for 45 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and government as a purchaser accounts for over 20 percent of GDP. In 2002 governments in the EU spent about £21bn on information and communications technology for public administration alone.

E-Forum has produced a report that states that despite the fortunes spent on setting up e-government services, there is little perceived benefit, as people and organisations are still not using them much. To improve matters, some European governments are now at last designing services to meet the needs of particular users, rather than creating "one-size-fits-all" services.

In Sweden and Denmark, which have some of the highest take-up rates for e-government services, there is a focus on getting disadvantaged groups online to reduce the likelihood of a digital divide between those who have internet access and those who do not. Sweden is trying to get older people online with its "SeniorNet".

Elsewhere, Germany has had notable success with initiatives to encourage women to use the internet via its "Women to web" campaigns. This initiative has resulted in more than 100,000 women taking internet courses.

The UK is one of the few countries to have targeted the whole population, through its UK Online campaigns. The government believes digital interactive TV has the most potential for guaranteeing that all groups will be involved in the digital revolution.

The e-Forum rounds off its report by considering the cash benefits of e-government. It points out that in the UK, electronic filing of tax returns results in a £10 tax reduction - which is not a huge incentive given that if one's tax affairs are in any way complex, there is a need to spend more than this on a package to produce an electronic return.

Some non-European countries have more innovative ways of encouraging use of their services. In Singapore, for instance, there is a high take-up for online tax returns, because people receive one lottery entry for filing a tax return online, a second for filing early, and a third if they get a friend to file online. In Victoria, Australia, if people paid their property taxes online their bill was reduced by two percent and they received lottery entries - which resulted in a tenth of people being refunded their full property taxes for the following year. Soon more than 80 percent of property owners were paying by that route.

Personally, I could forgo the lotteries. But a two percent reduction in my bills for council and income tax, in return for online payment, would go down a treat.

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