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To:
Director, E-government Unit, State Services Commission
The
New Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux welcomes the
opportunity to provide comment for the first 6-month revision of
the e-government strategy.
As
a general evaluation of the e-government strategy to date, the Association
would give Government and its agencies a mixed scorecard. Our initial
concerns that we raised when the strategy was launched are still
relevant, especially in respect of the gap between the information
‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.
It
is too early to provide a comprehensive evaluation of how the strategy
is progressing, and government agencies are still working on some
foundational parts of the strategy (e.g. the portal) to ensure a
whole of government, or “big picture” approach will work.
Our
comments offer an evaluation of 2 key aims of the strategy –
“better services” and “cost effectiveness and efficiency”.
We also discuss issues around Citizens Advice Bureaux’ roles
as intermediaries.
Better
services
One
of the key functions of the Association is to identify and provide
accurate and relevant information to our 88 member bureaux. The
Association would like to report that this function has been made
easier because many government agencies now publish their information
on-line. This makes is simpler for us to order hardcopy resources
– which are still used extensively – for all bureaux and
other community agencies whom we provide information services to.
However,
the Association has concerns about government agencies becoming
increasingly reliant on only providing information on-line and not
making information available in hardcopy. There have been a few
cases where we have asked for hardcopy information to distribute
to bureaux and have been told that we should get the information
from a website. This, most often, is impractical, costly and extremely
frustrating for our members, their clients and us.
Cost
effectiveness and efficiency
In
the e-government strategy document the Government announced that
it would provide “cheaper, better information and services
for customers and better value for taxpayers”. The recent actions
of the Department of Internal Affairs, increasing the fee for many
basic services, shows that clearly this is not true at all. The
Association is extremely alarmed at the prospect of other government
agencies following the lead of Internal Affairs and increasing costs
to citizens in order to invest in e-government-related services.
The
Association opposes the recent increase in fees that the Department
of Internal Affairs has introduced for births, deaths and marriages
and citizenship related services. For one, these services are among
some of the most basic and fundamental that government provides
citizens, and further, it is inherently contradictory for the Department
to increase these fees in order to investment in improving its on-line/e-government
services at the same time the Government champions the cost effectiveness
of e-government.
The
Association does not believe that the Department can justifiably
increase its fees in order to fund any e-government services. We
strongly recommend that Government and its agencies, if serious
about effective e-government, invest properly in e-government programmes,
and not attempt to fund these programmes by increasing fees for
services.
Citizens
Advice Bureaux as intermediaries
When
the Government launched the e-government strategy it publicly recognised
that they “expected an increased use of intermediaries such
as Citizens Advice Bureau” by those who do not or cannot access
the internet. At that time we discussed our concerns about this.
Our concerns included the need for consultation, sufficient resources
and funding to fill this role, and other support including internet
training for our volunteers.
Since
the launch of the strategy the Association has begun a joint project
with a government agency. With the Ministry of Consumer Affairs
, and the Consumers’ Institute, the Association and our members
are helping to provide a public service that enables electricity
consumers without internet access to find the cheapest available
electricity retailer or plan and to provide information to help
those consumers switch power companies or plans.
The
Ministry has provided funds to enable us to provide this service,
including funds for all bureaux to have a permanent internet connection.
We believe that this project provides a useful model for any future
e-government-related project.
The
Association does have concerns that government agencies will begin
to promote the Citizens Advice Bureaux as useful intermediaries
for e-government services without first consulting or supporting
us to assist in that service. This is a role bureaux are very keen
and able to fulfil. However, we strongly recommend that the E-government
Unit, as a part of its “big picture” considerations, ensure
government agencies are aware of our potential role in e-government
and the support that we require to fill any role.
Summary
and final comments
While
we find it easier to do our information research on-line, we have
been frustrated when trying to source information in hardcopy form
for Citizens Advice Bureaux.
Service
fee increases to fund on-line service development by a major government
department contradict a key aim of the e-government strategy of
providing cheaper and better information and services to citizens.
Citizens
Advice Bureaux have been identified as useful intermediaries between
citizens and e-government services. It is important that Government
support us appropriately to fill this role, and we suggest the current
project we are undertaking with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs
provides a model for such support.
We
would like to conclude by thanking the E-government Unit for listening
to our earlier comments when the strategy was launched. Since that
time you have involved us in the development of the thesaurus and
have offered us opportunities for continued input. You have also
recognised the constraints on us to provide extensive and comprehensive
input into the progress of the strategy, and we believe that there
is goodwill between us.
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