Lessons learned from government ICT-projects
This audit has been performed on request of the Dutch parliament. Some newspapers mentioned government losses of four to five billion euro's on a yearly bases. These news items caused the parliament ... to request this audit. The audit has been performed in only 5 months time and consisted of the re-use of earlier performed audits. We have 'recycled' earlier findings about ICT-projects. ... 'Expensive' does not always mean 'High Quality', so... do not feed the spiral ... Excellent analysis of systemic errors commited when designing Government IT projects. The report aims at the essence of problems which are encountered far from information technologies - in: politics ... , business, psychology... Do not be mislead by date of report, it is evergreen for all who really want to know why IT projects fail.
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Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions
Objective of the audit was to verify compliance of software recording and management with regulatory enactments, as well as to assess the effectiveness of software management in local governments ... and local government educational institutions. ... ... Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions ... Manage your software! Local governments and local government education institution neglect basic safety procedures, use outdated or illegal kinds of software, use two and more different software ... for the same function.
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Report on the government’s processing of confidential data on persons and companies
Rigsrevisionen has examined how eight government institutions process confidential data on persons and companies in 11 selected IT systems. The report is based on IT audits carried out in connection ... with the annual audit in the spring 2014. The purpose of the audit was to assess whether confidential data on persons and companies are adequately protected by the government institutions. ... ... Inadequate protection of confidential data ... If a government institution does not protect confidential data to the extent necessary, the risk that third parties get unauthorized access to the data is very high. In opinion of the Danish SAI ... , inadequate protection of confidential data may also erode the citizens’ and companies’ confidence in government data security. That may eventually become a barrier for the continued efforts to implement ... e-government and make government administration more efficient.
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The National Government Service Centre – Has administration become more effective?
. These viewpoints have been analysed with a special focus on the conditions that applied to the Service Centre when it was formed and the measures taken by the Government and the Service Centre in the first years. ... The purpose of this audit has been to investigate whether the Service Centre has made administrative operational support functions taken over from client agencies more effective, and to find ... explanations for the results so far achieved by the Service Centre. The audit has also aspired to illustrate how agencies that do not subscribe to the services regard their potential for doing so ... ... Has Swedish public administration become more effective? ... The Service Centre – payroll and financial administration IT system for Swedish public agencies under the government – has achieved the target of a subscription rate of 25 per cent of the total ... number of state employees. However, subscription to the Service Centre was initially slower than the Government had predicted and meant lower revenues than expected in autumn 2013. The Service Centre ... then introduced a rigorous review of its expenditure, for example for some planned development initiatives for internal procedures and support systems.<br/>The Swedish NAO noted that the Government’s steering
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Incorrect payments in social insurance - Control activities of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency
, that it is well administered and that it is as free of abuse as possible. It must also be financially stable over time, since major fluctuations impact other areas of the central government budget. When ... /> The Swedish NAO audited the work of the Government and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to prevent incorrect payments in the period 2012–2015. The audit focused on the benefits for which the Swedish Social ... a good picture of how the overall work of the Government and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency to prevent incorrect payments has been conducted. In the latest study incorrect payments of these benefits ... Balance of priorities needed to reduce incorrect payments ... Agency in this regard. However they found also, that serious problems can stem from giving higher priority to the speed of payment and customers satisfaction. They both are undoubtedly important features ... Role of social insurance in public finance is so substantial that reduction of incorrect payments' volume is matter of huge savings. The Swedish NAO noted positive initiatives by the Social Insurance ... of each system, still, the prevention of incorrect payments needs strategic support to be really effective.
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Audit of the Government, Government-guaranteed and Municipal Debt Management Information Systems in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria
The main audit question studied during the audit was: Are the government, government-guaranteed (SDMS) and municipal debt management information systems (CMDR) at the Ministry of Finance effective ... ? The audit covered the period from 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2013 and investigated four major areas: IT system strategy and general management; IT security and controls against disasters; Operational controls ... and Documentation; Application Controls. ... ... Even effective and modern IT systems require improvements and updates to ensure their security and accountability ... For the management of the government, government-guaranteed and municipal debt the Ministry of Finance has established an advanced integrated information infrastructure. According to Bulgarian SAI ... the established system is effective and provides updated, complete and correct information. Nevertheless the audit report points out areas of security, application controls as well as documentation as the subjects ... that need further improvement and optimization.
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Report to on the user-friendliness and user involvement in the development of e-government services in Denmark
The e-government user-friendliness requirements are divided into five overall categories: language, design and flow, data and functionality, and accessibility. 1) The objective of the study ... is to provide an assessment of the authorities’ efforts to ensure that e-government services are user-friendly. The report answers the following questions: - Have the authorities involved the users ... in the development of the e-government services? - Have the authorities conducted post-launch assessments of the user-friendliness of the e-government services, and do the contracts with the suppliers of the solutions ... ... User-friendliness of public services should be consistenty required and tested ... The Danish Rigsrevisionen is of the opinion that the user-friendliness of the services can be improved if the authorities meet all the requirements of the Danish Agency for Digitisation concerning ... the matter. The audit covered user-friendliness related problems in case of five systems, before and after the launch. The systems take-up was also considered, as well as communicating with citizens who ... are unable to use digital services.
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Cyber Attacks: Securing Agencies’ICT Systems
. In the government sector, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)3 has estimated that between January and December 2012, there were over 1790 security incidents against Australian Government agencies. Of these, 685 ... were considered serious enough to warrant a Cyber Security Operations Centre response. <br/> The protection of Australian Government systems and information from unauthorised access and use is a key ... responsibility of agencies, having regard to their business operations and specific risks. In the context of a national government, those risks can range from threats to national security through to the disclosure ... ... Cyber-security strategy needs consistent implementation and periodic reviews ... List of 35 mitigation controls against cyber intrusions are a basic tool of information security strategy of the Australian Government. Top four are: 1. application whitelisting, 2. patching ... application, 3. patching operating systems, 4. minimising administrative privileges. Analysis by the ANAO helps to fill gaps and to direct next steps.
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Performance Audit of Public Debt Management Information Systems
The usage and development of the information technologies in public financial management is an important priority of the country at the phase of intensive implementation of electronic governance ... (E-Governance). The fact that information systems play crucial role in the business processes of the Ministry of Finance affects the state and the public in general. <br/> Bearing in mind the role and importance ... of information systems in the public debt management process and having considered legal requirements to information security, State Audit Office of Georgia conducted Performance Audit of Public Debt Management ... ... More effective IT governance needed ... Importance of effective performance of public debt management e-systems may be explained by the world’s increased dependence on such systems. In parallel with the performance audit of debt management ... information systems of the Ministry Of Finance of Georgia, Supreme Audit Institutions of 11 countries also studied this topic, both in terms of systems’ performance and their practical application by local ... financial institutions. Audit conducted by the State Audit Office of Georgia has revealed security and governance shortcomings related to management and usage of these systems.
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IT Support in the Judicial Chain
The Swedish National Audit Office has examined how well agencies in the judicial chain have handled known flaws in their IT support and whether the Government’s control mechanisms have provided ... the agencies with sufficient prerequisites to expand and improve IT support. ... ... Needed: good conditions by government, better steering and control by authorities ... Despite many years’ of work to modernize the IT support within the judiciary, there are still many deficiencies. The Government has not given the authorities good conditions enough to lead the work ... . The authorities, in their turn, need to improve their steering and control, as well as interact to a much higher degree.
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