Challenges when Auditing e-government

Transcription

1 K.S. Naragan and S. Ramann, Offce of the Comptroller and Audtor General of Inda Challenges when Audtng e-government 1 E-Government defned As per the report on "Audtng e-government" prepared by the INTOSAI Standng Commttee on IT Audt, the defnton of e-government s: "E-Government s the onlne exchange of government nformaton wth, and the delvery of servces to, ctzens, busnesses and other government agences." The Gartner Group descrbe e-government as the contnuous optmzaton of servce delvery, consttuency partcpaton, and governance by transformng nternal and external relatonshps through technology, the Internet, and new meda As per the World Bank: E-Government refers to the use by government agences of nformaton technologes (such as Wde Area Networks, the Internet, and moble computng) that have the ablty to transform relatons wth ctzens, busnesses, and other arms of government. These technologes can serve a varety of dfferent ends: better delvery of government servces to ctzens, mproved nteractons wth busness and ndustry, ctzen empowerment through access to nformaton, or more effcent government management. Another succnct defnton of e-government comes from OECD. The OECD defnes "e-government" as "the use of nformaton and communcaton technologes, and partcularly the Internet, as a tool to acheve better government". The mpact of egovernment at the broadest level s smply better government by enablng better polcy outcomes, hgher qualty servces, greater engagement wth ctzens and by mprovng other key outputs dentfed. 2 Objectves of e-government As wth the defnton, the objectves of e-government also have been gven dfferent scope by dfferent advocates. The World Bank states that the objectves of e-government would be n provdng the followng benefts, whch would ft nto one of the fve categores. Better Servce Delvery to Ctzens: Improved Servces for Busness:. E-Government can be used for Improvng the nterface wth busness and ndustry, whle provdng them wth nnovatve servces Transparency & Antcorrupton: E-government can be used to Reduce opportuntes for petty corrupton at the pont of servce delvery; and provde mechansms to create more accountablty and transparency n the publc sector v Empowerment through Informaton: Informaton s a crtcal ngredent for development. The more nformaton that the poor possess, the greater ther sense of empowerment. Empowered ctzens can more readly hold governments accountable. Wth greater nformaton the poor also are better able to organze and take actons to mprove ther qualty of lfe. v Effcent Government Purchasng: Governments are the largest purchasers n all economes, and for both moral and poltcal reasons they should buy goods and servces n the best way possble. E-government can lead to sgnfcant savngs for the government by brngng n effcency n government purchases, spurred by ncreased competton through transparency. 3 Factors mpactng e-governance projects The prmary objectve of e-governance s better governance. Ths s echoed unformly n almost all defntons and lterature on the subject. Whether t s the OECD defnton of e-government as "the use of nformaton and communcaton technologes, and partcularly the Internet, as a tool to acheve better government", or a statement by an IT Secretary of an Indan provnce that "Ctzens expect the government to provde basc servces. They don't bother f t came va e-mal or by bullock car.", the nherent emphass s on better governance. The factors that wll mpact the status of e-governance n any country would broadly depend on the followng factors: the IT readness wth old and new platforms coexstng and beng mplemented all the tme, often ndependently from the e-government projects; de facto ndependence and autonomy of the Mnstres wth lttle coordnaton between the varous departments/mnstres resultng n even lesser compatblty between the IT Systems. dfferent practces n systems mplementaton; sometmes napproprate user nvolvement and tranng; e-government projects also may not have a central sponsor, leadng to dfferences n mplementaton styles Inablty to manage the change whch comes wth the new ways of workng. The most mportant shft n the culture whch s requred for e-government s the noton of ctzens as customers. The noton of "customer" entals a number of market mechansms, whch cannot be completely transferred to a publc admnstraton possessng a monopoly of the servce. Also, the mndset of Government servants may need to be changed to vew ctzens as customers, whch can take some tme. 27

2 4 Lessons from mplementaton of e-government projects 4.1 Accenture Study The key ponts from ths study are worth mentonng: E-Government matures through a seres of plateaus Value and not cost savngs drves e-government vson CRM underpns e-government wth admnstrators ncreasngly applyng the prncples of CRM n ther e-government ntatves as a way to reorganze onlne servce delvery around customer ntentons. Increasng take-up s a prorty New e-government targets are needed The study also brought out that to delver ths added value servce, governments must work through a four-step process: Identfy the rght servces for the rght customers Implement servces properly: Increase take-up Measure success 4.2. A not-so-dfferent perspectve The Workng Group on E-Government n the Developng World n ther report ttled "Roadmap for E-government n the Developng World: 10 Questons E-Government Leaders should Ask Themselves" has also addressed these ssues albet n a dfferent way. The 10 questons are Why are we pursung e-government? Do we have a clear vson and prortes for e-government? What knd of e-government are we ready for? Is there enough poltcal wll to lead the e-government effort? Are we selectng e-government projects n the best way? How should we plan and manage e-government projects? How wll we overcome resstance from wthn the government? How wll we measure and communcate progress? How wll we know f we are falng? What should our relatonshp be wth the prvate sector? How can e-government mprove ctzen partcpaton n publc affars? 5 Challenges n Audtng e-government 5.1 INTOSAI Survey Fndngs In a comprehensve survey conducted by a Task Force of Intosa Standng Commttee on IT Audt, SAIs of varous countres were asked to dentfy the challenges and rsks foreseen n audtng e-government. Analyss of the responses revealed that the need for specal audt skll and knowledge emerged as the most mportant specal challenge, followed by specal audt approaches and methods for selectng audt objectves and crtera. Other areas dentfed as challenges were: gatherng data and nformaton, and unclear audt mandate. These challenges are specfc to the SAIs maturty level n audtng, and ndcate the unqueness of IT audts n general, and of e-government audtng n partcular. Due to t beng a new area, audt approach, skll, knowledge etc. are stll evolvng. Tranng n these areas both wthn and across SAIs could be of sgnfcant value. However, egovernment has been correctly recognzed by the SAIs as more than a technology mplementaton, as s evdent by ther dentfcaton of "audt approaches and methods for selectng audt objectves and crtera" as a challenge. One has to understand the drvng force or phlosophy behnd e-government to assess the objectve, and n the process, arrve at the audt objectve. 5.2 Need for development of best practces n audt. As e-government s stll evolvng, and the countres are grapplng wth the mplementaton ssues, a normatve approach based on the best practces observed n mplementng e-government may be the deal approach for revewng and Audtng e-government projects by the varous SAIs. Technology and system mplementaton ssues are greatly smlar and rrespectve of maturty of natons n IT mplementaton, all natons are requred to resolve very smlar ssues n handlng e-governance projects. The outcome wll vary as the take-up wll depend on the maturty and confdence of the ctzens n avalng of electronc servces. Ths s even more mportant n case of such servces whch nvolve web based payments through credt card or use of electronc sgnature n flng documents. Whle there s a need to develop a set of best practces of audtng e-governance projects to start wth, there s even a greater need to refne such best practces keepng n mnd the ground realtes of each ndvdual countres. Ths poses the greatest challenge. 28

3 6 SAI-Inda Experence 6.1 E-Government Audts by SAI-Inda Some of the Audts relatng to e-government conducted by us n the last few years are summarzed below: Example-1: eseva Project n Andhra Pradesh: The Andhra Pradesh Government, a Provnce of Inda, had embarked on a much publczed e-government Project. The eseva project amed at provdng one stopshop faclty to ctzens to: () Allow easy payment of electrcty and telephone blls, bookng of bus tckets, obtanng brth certfcates, flng tax returns, etc., at any counter and at any centre; () Collect revenue relatng to varous departments/psus, etc. through eseva and Whle the servce was ntally to be provded through dedcated e-seva centres, t was planned that later access to these servces could also be made avalable over the nternet. At the tme of the Audt, neglgble number of transactons were beng done by the ctzens over the nternet. Audt revealed serous rsks n ths e-government project executon, vz: (a) No feasblty study was ever done; (b) The vendor selecton for project executon was not transparent. (c) Access controls to the data was not approprately mantaned. (d) Documentaton relatng to the IT nfrastructure, ncludng the applcaton source code was not avalable wth the Government. (e) Though all Utlty payments depended on eseva centres, Busness Contnuty and Dsaster Recovery Plannng had not been done. (f) Securty consderatons of transmttng the transacton data over nternet (encrypton etc.) had not been taken nto account. (g) The software applcaton package had many defcences and valdaton nadequaces (h) The lnkage between eseva, and the backend systems of the departmental applcatons whch were specfcally meant for a partcular utlty, lke water charge payment, or electrcty bll payment was not very strong. Ths led to dscrepances between the payments recorded at eseva, and that acknowledged by the functonal department. All these ssues are largely related to poor executon of an IT project. The other ssue s that of ncomplete lnkage wth the back-end systems, the problems from whch are lkely to arse n the days to come. Example-2: Computersaton of Land Record n the Provnce 'X'* In another Audt of a Provncal Government's mplementaton of a Project to Computerse the Land Record, a much needed document whch would have helped the ctzen's easy access to ths mportant record, typcal errors n mplementaton of IT Projects were seen. To name a few: (a) Project was started n 1990 and even after spendng Rs130 mllon, beneft s yet to accrue to ntended publc and even the department. (b) Project was managed by Revenue Department but data was to come from another department (Regstraton Department). No centralzed body was formed to co-ordnate the actvtes between the two departments. (c) The applcaton, developed by the thrd party was found to be faulty, wth documentaton not avalable wth the department. (d) At the end of 13 years, when the Kosks, whch were meant to be the publc nterface to allow access to data, was set up, only lmted data could be made avalable, whch was not of much use to the ctzen. Example-3: Web Enabled applcaton for facltatng Exporters mplemented by a Government aded Organsaton responsble for export promoton* On Audt of ths e-government project, smlar IT Project management and mplementaton falures were seen. Specfcally (a) Rs 3.11 crore was spent to create a web enabled servce so that exporters can enter the requred nformaton through web and aval of the fnancal assstance. Several condtons were requred to be fulflled, n partcular exporters were requred to submt monthly party returns. (b) The project started wth an dea of ntegrated database, whch was essental. Somewhere on the way, n the name of upgradaton of the applcaton, the scope of the applcaton was changed, and the database was dsntegrated such that the fnancal assstance was delnked from the monthly party database. In the process, the basc objectve of the web applcaton was overlooked, and Fnancal Assstance was contnued to be gven even though the exporters dd not submt the monthly party database. At the end, nether could the organsaton obtan the full beneft from the use of ICT, nor could the exporters be provded wth enhanced servce. 29

4 Example-4: Implementaton of EDI Systems by Customs Department: Indan Customs Electronc Data Interchange System (ICES), a project mplemented by the Customs Department of Inda, envsaged acceptance of Customs documents electroncally and exchange of nformaton electroncally wth other agences nvolved n nternatonal trade. The man objectves of ICES defned by the Department were: () respond more quckly to the needs of the trade, () computersaton of customs related functons () reduce nteracton of the trade wth Government agences, (v) Automate the nternal procedures of Customs department as to ensure ncreased effcency, whle also provdng management nformaton system for polcy makng and ts effectve revenue and pendency montorng Durng Audt, t was seen that the project suffered smlar IT Project management and mplementaton falures, as were seen n the audt of other e-government applcatons. The specfc ssues seen were: The project ran nto serous tme and cost overruns due to poor plannng, nadequate allocaton of resources and not followng the well establshed lfe cycle of a computersaton project such that even after nne years, the project was far from complete. Fnancal estmates both for the plot and the All Inda projects had to be revsed due to poor formulaton of ntal estmates, overlookng necessary ngredents of the project. No major gans n trade facltaton occurred snce EDI connectvty had not been establshed and only a very small percentage of consgnments were beng cleared wthn the targeted three days. The department had not yet formulated a securty polcy or mplemented an IT securty regmen coverng access controls etc., leadng to fraudulent payment of drawback of Rs Mllon at one locaton. There were neffcences n procurement procedure leadng to wasteful expendture. The technology for connectvty, was mprudently selected leadng to wasteful expendture of Rs 1.03 Crores (Rs 10.3 Mllon) 6.2 Assessment: Based on our experence of the above Audts, and other smlar Audts, It s our assessment that: Informaton and Communcaton Technology to acheve better government'. Addtonally, the power of nternet can be tapped, as ths s the most amazng technologcal revoluton of recent tmes, whch at one stroke has ncreased the reach of the government from the confnes of ts offce premses to the remotest corner of the country. v v In the past few years, there appears to be an apparent shft n focus n the concept of e-governance from IT Automaton wthn ndvdual departments, to the noton of joned-up government, to e-servces applcaton. Ths has led to a stuaton wheren ICT s beng used for e-servces applcatons pror to IT automaton n ndvdual government departments and to ntegraton of departmental functons. In our assessment, ths attempt to brng n front-end applcatons such as to trgger more substantal back-end reforms wthn government s fraught wth rsks of falure. It s best for Government to frst harness the power of ICT for nternal productvty ncrease. For ths, competence needs to be bult n conceptualzng and mplementng IT Projects. Only when the backend systems are well computersed should one progress to the next stage of enablng value added servce to the ctzens, and the transformaton of ctzens to customers. To gve an example, as brought out n the Accenture Report : "Revenue agences have hstorcally been among the frst n the publc sector to deploy new technology, because of the relatve ease of establshng a busness case for faster revenue collecton and ncreased complance". However, the same project, when mplemented n Inda seems to lose the busness focus. The only apparent objectve s servce to consumer, wthout much focus on the related beneft to the government n terms of ncreased effcency leadng to faster revenue collecton and greater complance. Ths happens because the back end systems wthn the government agences are not equpped to deal wth such transactons when done onlne. In such a scenaro, not only do we fnd poor lnkages between the front-end applcaton and back end operatons, but also the typcal problems found n the mplementaton of any IT Projects, namely: Desgn and Defnton Falures, Decson Makng Falures, Project Dscplne Falures, Suppler Management Falures, and People falure(ths has had been very well documented n the NAO Best Practce Report ttled "Why IT Projects Fal") Government should try to follow the fve stages of maturty as brought out n the Accenture report. One more stage of Maturty, Stage 2-A may be added to ths maturty stage, that of usng Informaton and Communcaton Technology to maxmze the productvty ncrease possble n the Government's nternal operatons. Ths would also call for sgnfcant busness Process Reengneerng. Developng countres may focus on reachng Stage 2A n the maturty stage, and proceed further, only when sgnfcant progress has been attaned. e-government projects vary n scope n a contnuum from the smple Departmental IT Applcaton for ncreased productvty and effcency of a sngle unt(g for G), to an applcaton shared by multple departments of the Government (G to G), to an ICT project provdng servces to Busness (G to B) and Ctzens(G to C). All these forms of IT Implementaton by Government ft the rudmentary defnton of e-government vz 'Use of 7 Challenges for the e-government Audtor: VFM audt s to prmarly assure that the objectves have been acheved n an economc, effcent and effectve manner. Normally the drect lnkage n any VFM study would be between spendng and attanment of objectves n a tme frame, agan usually a 3 to 5 year tmeframe. The audtor seems to say, n a VFM Study: "Spend less, Spend well and Spend wsely" (NAO UK). 30

5 Any e-governance project wll go much beyond ths spendng and objectve paradgm of project management. Ths s because all e-governance projects are lkely to dsplay the followng characterstcs: The Project would have two aspects or faces: one aspect coverng nterface wth ctzens/customers; and second aspect: the back end: Informaton System. Both aspects are equally crtcal for the success of the e-government project, and would requre focus from the audtor. Governments may be more nterested n the nterface wth ctzens, even f that nvolves crss management on a day to day bass at the Informaton System level; Increasngly n developng countres, e-governance project wll be a prvatepublc jont effort, openng up further areas for examnaton by the Audtor. Complex contracts lke BOT, BOOT, BOLT etc may be nvolved f prvatepublc Jont Venture s the mplementaton modalty. Government may actually contrbute more to the project than envsaged n the JV agreement, by means of contrbutons for whch costs are not recognzed. E.g. Use of Government buldngs; Prcng of servces wll need to be taken nto account, wth the dlemma for the Audtor, should the cost be borne by the Government, or Prced, f Prced then at what level? v Audt should be nvolved durng the system development stage, not only to ensure that necessary audt modules are developed, but also to ensure that proper system development methodologes are beng followed. The audtor's role should resemble more of a consultant rasng the rght ssues for further examnaton and mmedate correctve acton, than a polceman, a form of concurrent VFM audt. E-governance audt must be done wthn a transparent framework. It can be best practces developed by SAIs or an acceptable framework lke COBIT or PRINCE II. Smlarly, the Audt procedures must also be transparent and explaned to the audted entty, so that t can apprecate the efforts of the audtor. Audt procedures must nclude nterm reportng. Very lttle pont s served wth the audtor ssung hs observatons pontng out the mstakes. when the project s completed. A more partcpatve role by the Audtor wll create the necessary trust and buld respect for the Audtor. Audt nsttutons, the SAIs may consder postponng the Tradtonal reportng to the legslatve bodes and report the nterm observatons to the senor management, Head of the Mnstry or Department brngng to hs notce the problems n the project. v v Prvacy of data wll become a major ssue n the days to come as more and more ctzens start transactng onlne wth the government. Ths ssue would become more pertnent partcularly n cases of Publc-Prvate partnershp where data s handled by the Prvate party mplementng and runnng the project/servce on behalf of the Government. E-governance projects are lkely to have a propensty for cost escalaton leadng to t becomng a hgh cost projects due to "enhancement of commtment" as no Government wll lke to call t a falure wth consequent loss of face. Government's desre to make t a success at the shortest possble tme may also lead to t turnng a blnd eye to short crcutng of procedures and n some cases even consttutonal provsons. 8 The Way Forward Snce technology s gong to be the cornerstone of all e-government Projects, the audtor should ensure that he acqures the requred ICT sklls, partcularly of Web Technologes and the related prvacy and Securty ssues. 9 Concluson E-government has the potental to transform governance. Governments can advance the agenda on Governance reform, transparency, and empowerment of the ctzens, whle makng the nteracton of the government wth other bodes, more meanngful and productve. It s however, NOT a panacea, and developng countres need to advance on the path of e-governance wth cauton, takng the beneft of the projects mplemented n developed countres. The ntal focus should be on usng ICT for ncreased effectveness and effcency n the nternal Government operatons, and later openng up to allow drect nteracton wth the ctzens. Whle no one would dspute the potental of e-government, mplementaton can be dffcult. Gans are real but rsks need to be understood. Challenge s to promote wde spread use n areas where benefts outwegh rsks. 31