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Welcome e-Government: servant not master! (in the Netherlands, that is)

I get an email from Matt Poelmans, Director of the Citizenlink - an initiative of the Dutch Government to improve the performance of the public sector by involving citizens. Over in the Netherlands, ‘modernising government’ is to be achieved by giving more responsibility and choice to citizens. As far as the Dutch cabinet is concerned, the required empowerment is being supported by ICTs and the award-winning e-Citizen Charter has been drawn up to help citizens in their new role.

This charter is deliberately written from the citizens’ perspective and consists of 10 quality requirements for digital contacts. Each requirement is formulated as a right of a citizen and a corresponding duty of government. This is not to say that a citizen has no duties. A citizen is not only a customer of services, but also a user of provisions, a subject of law and a participant in policy-making.
The charter, meant for both citizen and government, is not mandatory, but - brilliantly -:

is based on the principle: Comply or Explain.

The 10 quality requirements for digital services are:

1. Choice of Channel - As a citizen I can choose for myself in which way to interact with government. Government ensures multi channel service delivery, i.e. the availability of all communication channels: counter, letter, phone, e-mail, internet.
2. Transparent Public Sector - As a citizen I know where to apply for official information and public services. Government guaranties [sic] one-stop-shop service delivery and acts as one seamless entity with no wrong doors.
3. Overview of Rights and Duties - As a citizen I know which services I am entitled to under which conditions. Government ensures that my rights and duties are at all times transparent.
4. Personalised Information - As a citizen I am entitled to information that is complete, up to date and consistent. Government supplies appropriate information tailored to my needs.
5. Convenient Services - As a citizen I can choose to provide personal data once and to be served in a proactive way. Government makes clear what records it keeps about me and does not use data without my consent.
6. Comprehensive Procedures - As a citizen I can easily get to know how government works and monitor progress. Government keeps me informed of procedures I am involved in by way of tracking and tracing.
7. Trust and Reliability - As a citizen I presume government to be electronically competent. Government guarantees secure identity management and reliable storage of electronic documents.
8. Considerate Administration - As a citizen I can file ideas for improvement and lodge complaints. Government compensates for mistakes and uses feedback information to improve its products and procedures.
9. Accountability and Benchmarking - As a citizen I am able to compare, check and measure government outcome. Government actively supplies benchmark information about its performance.
10. Involvement and Empowerment - As a citizen I am invited to participate in decision-making and to promote my interests. Government supports empowerment and ensures that the necessary information and instruments are available.

This is fantastic. It cuts across policy and delivery (I am not sure how our complicated tax and benefits system could deliver on No3); it highlights choice, shared responsibility, consumer-orientation, transparency, true technology-enabled personalisation, courtsey, privacy, dignity, security, reciprocity and restitution. There is a real vibe of the Dutch government being the servant of the people, doing everything in its power to get things right, keep getting things right, keep listening to service users’ needs and feelings, doing things with or for not TO the electorate.

I’m intrigued to know how the “guarantee of secure ID management” works in practice. But it all sounds pretty user-centric to me. As we reach the second anniversary of the Transformational Government Strategy, I wonder if we could add a similar charter as a coda? How would it change practice in the UK I wonder? 

Published by Ruth Kennedy on 27/01/08 at 7:22pm

Comments

1. Yup. We love Matt, and we love the e-Citizens’ charter (inspired, happily enough, by John Major).

   For earlier refs to Matt’s work see http://tinyurl.com/375e4z

   esp the article of 29 Nov 05
   http://tinyurl.com/2wldlq

   I’ve written to him:

   Dear Matt

   Great work. Speaking purely as a citizen (without any other authority) can we persuade you to apply for the job of CIO for Her Majesty’s Government? The post falls vacant in about 18 months.

   William

   Reply by  on  01/27/08  at  9:11 pm

Ideal Government

Let's say what we want from e-enabled government. Let's observe government first-hand. Let's say "Wouldn't It Be Better If" (WIBBI). Become an ethnographer of bureaucracy today! It beats getting frustrated with public services.

Categories

• "What do we want?"
  • Wibbipedia/MindtheGap
  • Design: Co-creation
    • Online Maps
  • Design: user-oriented
  • Foundation of Trust
    • Identity
    • Data nitwittery
  • Save Time and Money
• Greener government IT
• Pertinent Art
• Power of Information
• Political engagement
• "Transformational Government"
• Government Procurement
• Across the Board
• Ideal Goverment - project

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