Sustainable Public Financial Management

Doug Hadden, VP Products

The Government Accountability Office in the United States has published a statement of the use of Web 2.0 by Federal Agencies.  The statement by Gregory C. Wilshusen, Director Information Security Issues, focuses on – well – information security issues. There has been an undercurrent of risk avoidance and general fear of Web 2.0 technologies in government. This statement is fair and balanced (really fair and balanced, not the tag line) with a good assessment of the privacy, access to information and records management limitations of the Government 2.0 state-of-the-art. And, Mr. Wilshusen describes some of the work taken to overcome these concerns.

The audit function in government has transformed in the past few years from compliance – making sure that rules are followed – to performance. Analyzing programs for effectiveness in meeting mandate and achieving value for money. That’s what we need here. Government decision-makers need to understand the benefits – not just the risks. Otherwise, government transformation opportunities slow.

The difficulty with most analysis of Government 2.0 is that there is little distinction made between purely internal collaboration efforts and external public-facing. There’s no question that both types of activities share some elements of benefit and risk. But, as I’ve pointed out in the past, internal Government 2.0 represents a significant opportunity for mission achievement. And, lessons from internal efforts can be used to reduce the risks associated with external Government 2.0 initiatives.

This is section 3.1.6 of a series of blog entries creating a Government IFMIS Technology Evaluation Guide. This includes information to assist in evaluating IFMIS options and the technology requirements for FreeBalance IFMIS implementations. These series will be combined with feedback to produce a comprehensive Technology Evaluation Guide to be published on our web site

This entry summarizes a number of previous posts about Government 2.0 including:

• Proposed Framework for Understanding Government 2.0
• How to Implement Government 2.0
• Government 2.0 Panel Discussion
• Governments Can Be Hip 2.0
• Will Government 2.0 achieve the promise of E-Government?
• Financial Software Must Provide Social Networking Functionality
• How will Government 2.0 transform government?

From E-Government to Government 2.0

E-government was the future. E-Gov was going to transform government. Improve citizen services. Integrate with “life events”. There have been many successful e-government initiatives. Yet government has not yet “transformed”.

Phase 1: Broadcast.  Citizens and businesses have access to information in a more efficient and effective manner than traditional mechanisms. Most governments provide information via the web.

Phase 2: Interact. In the second phase of e-government, businesses and citizens are able to interact with the government. They are able to start a transaction or.  This second phase improves efficiency because businesses and citizens are able to start transactions such as filling out government forms on-line.  Most governments provide interaction capabilities.

Phase 3: Transact. The third phase of e-government supports complete transactions. Citizens and businesses are able to fill out forms, request and pay for services. These “front-office” transactions integrate with “back-office” systems in governments to improve citizen and business services. Some governments support comprehensive transactions.

Phase 4: Transform. The fourth phase of e-government assumed that government services would be magically transformed. The nature of government would change. The relationship between governments and citizens would achieve a new level. But, this did not happen. There was no miracle. There has been some change in government, but not fulfilling the promise of e-government.

Government 2.0 is the logical extension of e-government. Government 2.0 can fulfill the promise of e-government. Many e-government initiatives exposed technology problems. Many governments were unable to integrate the front and back offices.

Phase 4: Single Point. Many experts foresaw the problem of the “single point of contact”. Any life event such as the birth of a child or the creation of a business can require interacting with many government entities across multiple levels. The need to support interaction for these life events is a critical stage. We believe that is the “missing link” to enable government transformation

Phase 5: Internal Collaboration. It is very difficult to transform government to interact and collaborate with citizens and businesses if the government does not collaborate internally. Governments need to collaborate across organizational boundaries. Traditional collaboration tools have not been as successful as Web 2.0 collaboration. We believe that governments need to leverage social networking tools for internal collaboration. This is a relatively low risk. Improving internal collaboration enables governments to move to the next phase.

Phase 6: Transform. Government organizations leveraging social networking for internal collaboration are able to extend externally. Government leaders will understand the power of collaboration and the benefits of exposing data based on the experience of internal collaboration.

Understanding Government 2.0 Effects

Our view is that Government 2.0 represents the technology continuum of e-government. We also see the linkage between Government 2.0 and government back-office technology.

We see government application categories as:

• Internal: internal by governments
• External: external to government with government involvement
• Structural: follow government structure and mandate
• Social: enable collaboration

This framework identifies three classes of applications:

• Back-office: operational budget, financial and civil service management-transaction management
• E-Government: exposing government information and transactions
• Government 2.0: social networking whether exclusively internal or collaborating externally

Relevant Government Trends

There are numerous trends in government that have technology implications. These implications can be mapped against the Government 2.0 framework:

• Collaboration: Use of Web 2.0 tools and metaphors is improving internal government efficiency and moving to external collaboration
• Transparency: Exposing more government information to citizens and businesses is moving from the structural to the social domain
• Accountability: More information from back-office systems is being presented to citizens. That information is being mashed up and analyzed and providing a feedback loop to government
• Performance: Internal social networking and feedback from citizens, businesses and civil society are improving government performance

FreeBalance and Government 2.0

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite was designed with Government 2.0 as core. The underlying architecture is designed to integrate transactions with content and collaboration – to extend the internal structural back-office to enable internal and external social networking. And, the rich application user interface has been designed for simplicity.

The FreeBalance Accountability Suite consists of six IFMIS modules. Governments can acquire sub-modules and selected components within these sub-modules.  This modular offering is consistent with the Public Financial Management component map.

The six IFMIS modules are:

• FreeBalance Public Financial Management provides core government financial management functionality. Real-time information prevents budget overruns and forecasts budget variance. Comprehensive government accounting functions are provided that support cash and accrual accounting. Project accounting, multiple fund control, assets and inventory are also provided.
• FreeBalance Government Performance Management provides comprehensive multiple year budget formulation functionality including multiple versions and scenarios. Analysis and forecasting features enable budget decision-making during planning and budget execution. Budget classifications can link budget execution with output and outcome data.
• FreeBalance Government Treasury Management provides comprehensive multi-currency cash management and bank reconciliation.
• FreeBalance Public Expenditure Management supports government purchasing and procurement management to enable the best value. Flexible workflow configuration adjusts to the government procurement law.
• FreeBalance Government Receipts Management support non-tax revenue sources, tax regimes and integrates with existing tax systems.
• FreeBalance Civil Service Management supports the entire civil service human resources and payroll lifecycle from recruitment to retirement.