By ADAM GIFFORD
New Zealand has slipped five places to 14th in an international survey of progress towards e-government by global consulting firm Accenture.
But the introduction of a new whole-of-government web portal could push us back up the rankings.
The top three countries were Canada, Singapore and the United States. They
were singled out for putting the citizen at the centre of their efforts and for the way they had integrated the online offerings of different Government agencies.
Australia jumped to fourth in overall rankings because of a significant increase in the number of Government services offered online.
Accenture's government relations head for New Zealand and Australia, Jack Percy, says New Zealand is moving a little slower than other countries, but the survey is probably not a fair reflection of the amount of attention e-government is getting here.
The e-government unit in the State Services Commission has done a lot of behind-the-scenes enabling work in terms of data standards, connectivity standards and security, and it is due to roll out the new Government portal from July.
Percy says the real test will be whether all that activity leads to rapid introduction of a lot of new e-government services.
Trevor Mallard, minister responsible for e-government, says he is not concerned about the slump in the Accenture ranking.
"Developments in our e-government programme are significant this year and I am sure that will be reflected in future surveys," Mallard said.
Accenture surveyed 23 countries, with researchers using Government websites to see which services normally available from a Government they could get online.
It looked for service maturity and the level of completeness the service offered.
Accenture
New Zealand Government
