OCA Audit Reports

Issued: January 2008

SUMMARY

E-government is a term whose meaning has evolved over time. However, it is basically about the fundamental transformation of government processes through the use of traditional information technology and the Internet.

E-government is changing how governments work, share information, and deliver services to external and internal clients by harnessing information and communications technology to transform relationships with citizens and business and between arms of government. Additionally, it can increase operational efficiency and automation. So, e-government creates an opportunity to rethink business processes and reengineer them to enable them to be offered electronically through a government’s website.

This report provides the results of our audit of the City’s e-Government initiatives, which began back in the 1990s and are currently undergoing renewed efforts. We found that the City’s current efforts are not completely documented and are missing an executive-level sponsor or leader who is known to all involved parties. While the Communications and Technology Management Office (CTM) is promoting the current website redesign project, it is unclear that this is only the beginning of a structured e-government initiative. Distribution of an enterprise-wide strategic plan will aid in building support for the project.

The stages of e-government development define how far a City has gone towards transforming the way that it does business in the electronic age. We found that the City of Austin is at a similar stage of e-government development when compared to best-practice cities. However, its website has fallen behind when analyzed using best-practice criteria. As we mentioned, CTM has recently launched the first phase of a website redesign project. They are planning on implementing best-practice technologies to help keep content current and aid in making information easy to access by users.

The City’s departmental planning has suffered from the lack of a single citywide strategy and CTM has instructed the departments not to undertake major revisions while the City’s website is being redesigned. We found that departments are also not continuing to explore which services could be offered online. Without using this time to plan future initiatives, departments will not be ready to reengineer service delivery to their various customers when the website redesign is completed.

However, the services being offered online demonstrate the departments’ (and the City’s) progression up the stages of e-government development. The addition of online mapping and permitting services along with the implementation of the online access to the City’s 3-1-1 system show that the City is beginning to use an enterprise-wide approach to service provision.

We have issued four recommendations aimed at ensuring that the City’s e-government initiative is fully documented and explained to all involved parties, and that department directors identify the organizational readiness of their employees and processes. Management has concurred with these recommendations.

Download the entire text of our City of Austin's e-Government Initiative (Size: 1.01 MB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU07110, by submitting this audit report request form.

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