The development and use of identification services in public administration
The audit examined the implementation and coordination of projects aimed at developing identification services in public administration, cooperation among authorities in this area and compliance ... with legislation in procuring services. The audit also examined development, control and monitoring structures regarding identification services. The audit focused on electronic identification services that are used ... in public administration's electronic transactions. ... ... Unhealthy competition linked with lack of coordinatnion and with procurement irregularities ... See what may go wrong with the IT public procurement. Check out what is the basis to avoid irregularities or omissions in complying with public procurement legislation. National Audit Office ... of Finland identified also risks resulting from lack of horizontal coordination.
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Correct information at the right time in healthcare and nursing – collaboration without effect?
The Swedish National Audit Office has conducted an audit to determine whether Government initiatives have contributed to the objective that authorised healthcare staff shall have access to the right ... patient information at the right time by means of direct electronic access. ... ... Information share is crucial for competitive health care ... Health and social care staff has very limited access to patient information from other care-giving institutions, which may lead to health damage and wrong-treatment. The cooperation between ... the Government and the municipalities must improve if the investments in better access to common patient information shall get impact in practice.
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The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) conducted an audit on the information systems in the area of service delivery to improve the system’s efficiency and convenience.
Korea was recognized as an Information Technology (IT) powerhouse by the international community of the UN in 2010. Such an achievement is attributable to the significant investments that the Korean ... government has commissioned toward improving the country’s information infrastructure within a short period of time.<br/> The government is investing 1 trillion won every year in an e-government project ... for citizens in the welfare and employment sectors by utilizing the renewed information infrastructure.<br/> However, the information system of some government ministries proved to have overlapping functions ... Enormous IT investments require tremendous coordination ... Korean government is investing 1 trillion won in e-government projectsevery year. Thus, the country has earned a reputation for the IT powerhouse. Apart from undeniable advantages, the huge scale ... and the speed, the information technologies are implemented with, cause some problems to be tackled. The SAI Korea turns special atention to two of them: overlapping functionalities and interconnectivity issues.
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Digitisation of municipal services
The purpose of digitisation is to increase the quality and efficiency of public services. It is a goal to make online services the norm for public administration's communication with citizens ... and the private sector. The municipal sector is a significant provider of public services, and digitisation of municipal services is therefore essential for achieving this goal.<br/>The audit surveyed the status ... , assessed the significance of and possible obstacles to digitisation of municipal services. The audit examined how the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation's use of policy instruments contributes ... ... Municipalities have not digitised their services to any extent ... Digitisation increases the quality and efficiency of public services and municipal sector is a significant provider of public services. Report of Riksrevisjonen of Norway shows however ... , that municipalities need a substantial support to execute this demanding task. To provide them with help, the central government has to coordinate own efforts first.
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Is the project 'E-health in Latvia' a step towards the right direction?
Objective of the audit was to verify efficiency and productivity of the actions by the institutions in charge for implementation of the e-health, as well as to audit economy and productivity of use ... of funds invested in the project for achievement of set objectives and gaining the planned benefits. Audit covered such main questions: 1) Will the e-health policy be able to solve problems and achieve ... the objective? 2) Are the actual activities performed by the National Health Service justified for achievement of the set objectives? 3) Will necessary information security and personal data protection be ensured ... E-health is a step forward in right direction, but not all objectives will be reached! ... Project “E-health in Latvia” supports healthy lifestyle, it will provide valuable and accessible information and will promote more efficient provision of services to patients. It is undoubtedly ... a step towards the right direction then. However, as found the Latvian SAI, the e-health policy will not be implemented within the initially planned scope and deadline and within set data security levels ... , thus the objective of this policy – to promote more effective provision of healthcare services will be attained only partially.
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Managing the risk of legacy ICT to public service delivery
The cross-government report describes the case studies from four public services (state pension, Value Added Tax collection, prescription payment and consumer credit licensing services) selected ... to illustrate the range of approaches that small and large government bodies are taking to address the issues arising from legacy ICT (defined as "systems and applications that have been operationally embedded ... within a business function but superseded by newer and more effective technologies or changed business needs"). ... Possible approaches to the problem of 'legacy ICT' ... UK’s government experience in managing the risks connected to legacy ICT provides valuable insight for others facing the same problem and are considering transforming their services.
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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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Effectiveness of development of broadband network or high-speed internet
The National Audit Office audited whether the state has made every effort to ensure that everyone can have unlimited access to fast internet connection by 2020. The National Audit Office also ... analysed whether the network of fibre-optical cables or the basic broadband network, which is built with European Union support and should guarantee high-speed internet connection, has helped to achieve ... this goal. ... ... ... Slower broadband paid by customers ... The Estonian Information Society Development Plan foresees that high-speed internet of 30 Mbit/s should be accessible to all people in Estonia by 2020 and that 60% of the population will be using ... superfast internet of over 100 Mbit/s. To achieve these goals, the state, with the help of European Union support, decided to establish a broadband network which is not further than 1.5 km from 98% of homes ... and institutions. Private companies have not entirely met the Government's expectations. The Estonian SAI has looked for an answer: Why?
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Open Government Data - Are all exceptions to the principle of cost-free access and reuse legitimate?
The United Kingdom, a country seen, like the United States, as a pioneer in open public data, has estimated at £6.8bn (€7,9bn) the revenue in 2010 and 2011 generated for British society by open ... public data, of which £5bn (€5.8bn) is profit. As an example, a start-up has highlighted the existence of areas in which massive savings can be made by analysing prescriptions of patented drugs ... and the corresponding generics.<br/> Such possibilities are not beyond reach for France, which is not only deemed to be among the pioneers but also one of the countries making the most rapid progress in this domain ... ... Open data strategy should decide the costs problem ... French Cour des comptes presents analysis on implementation of the open data practice across the administration. Massive savings are expected, when public access to large amounts of highquality data ... is made easy. France is among the pioneers and countries making the most rapid progress in this domain. Charges for the reuse of the public information has been identified as the main problem.
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VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE - Preliminary Observations on VHA’s Claims Processing Delays and Efforts to Improve the Timeliness of Payments to Community Providers
Due to increases in expenditures and utilization of VA care in the community services in recent years, VHA has had difficulty processing claims in a timely manner. In planning to consolidate its ... existing VA care in the community programs, as required by law, the agency said it will examine strategies for improving the timeliness and accuracy of its payments to community providers.<br ... /> This statement, which is based on ongoing work, summarizes GAO’s preliminary observations about (1) VHA’s, Medicare’s, and TRICARE’s claims processing timeliness in fiscal year 2015; (2) factors that have impeded ... Data processing hold back by technology limitation, workload and administrative burden ... US GAO analyzed all factors of slower processing and user unfriendliness that occur sometimes to the veterans healthcare. The main focus is data processing - and it has been proved that it can ... be failing not only because of technology, but also because of work-process design, staff and organisation.
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