ENHANCING PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Closing Address by the Hon. Dr Alfred Sant,
Prime Minister of Malta
5th December 1997

Ladies & Gentlemen, Distinguished Visitors and Speakers,

We live in exciting challenging times. Even as we take stock of past initiatives, drawing lessons from these we are faced with windows of opportunity with increasing regularity. For many of us, the fact that we are relatively late-starters is, in itself, an added dimension to this opportunity in that we do not carry the burden of major legacy-systems. The green-field scenario in which we can plan and implement, using contemporary technology, gives our societies the chance to leap-frog decades of iterative evolution to support a reformed administration and a more informed and better-served public.

Taken in a national context, we have the opportunity to redress the predicament we experienced as the industrial age passed us by. Yet there is the threat of a menacing widening development gap. Much depends on the prowess of politicians and policy-makers in harnessing society's new tools.

At the same time, there is an increasing rate of obsolescence and renewal of technology and its software components, coupled with pressures to meet heightened aspirations and global competitivity. As we embark on upgrading our technology a new and often unsustainable financial burden is being introduced into the national budget to keep technologies current as well as reasonably standard and consistent.

Many countries have to reconcile this investment with the harsh competing realities of sub-standard health, education and housing. The financial payback resulting from information technology often trails the relevant investment by several years - and is frequently not managed and dissipates in the wash of time. Clearly, alternatives to central budget provisioning - such as public-private-sector partnerships, have to evolve as the need for more investment in technology emerges.

But the issue of sustainability has another dimension which is that of adequate human resourcing and the procurement of capability. There comes a point in development where the rate of progress and sustainability becomes very much dependent on the supply and quality of appropriate skills in the market - both public-sector as well as private. This issue needs to be addressed in a wider context within a country's national IT strategy.

The public service needs to develop and retain core competencies - at least a capability to manage development. It needs to also recognise, however, that large central departments may now be an anachronism; that as the economic environment improves, it becomes harder to retain scarce resources within the public service and that the fast pace of technological innovation requires that we judiciously procure and manage skills from the market. In this way too, the public service can leverage the development of an indigenous IT capability.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have mentioned the importance of registering a payback on investment. I now wish to return to this need to uphold value for money. The return on our investments is often qualitative. That may well be acceptable but in the end Government accounting and public accountability are measured and judged in money terms; that is the stark reality. We will have gone a long way if, at the outset, we look at technology not as the end in itself, but as an instrument enabling the re-engineering of Government and its processes. Otherwise, the new systems threaten to become simply one more layer on the thickening crust of legislation, regulations and procedures - the legacy of successive governments - that increasingly obscures the "raison d'etre" of Government: that is, to serve the public effectively and expeditiously.

This re-engineering requires bold decisions on the part of politicians and policy-makers. Areas of influence may have to be relinquished. Entire functions may be redeployed and trust in other agencies is required. It also requires ownership of technology-driven change by non-technical persons with clear accountability - not just for a technically-successful system, but more significantly, for the benefits, payback and savings that were meant to result. All too often, these are swept under the carpet and no one is held accountable.

Expenditure in information technology will progressively consume a greater proportion of a country's national budget. It is imperative that we strike an overall balance between rate of investment and rate of return. It is relatively easy to develop new systems. By contrast, it is a painfully slow matter to change the management culture, work ethics and motivation in the public service to do justice to the new technology tools and their attendant substantial investments. In the end, it is the human and cultural factors that play a determining role in how far and how fast we progress.

As technical catalysts on the development stage, we would do well to recognise the context within which we all labour and to accept that the meaning of development and delivery must include the widest connotations of change-management and human issues. A system is not delivered and our work is not done until management down the line pro-actively exploits its full potential. In this, we carry at least a shared responsibility with our client-departments.

As policy-makers and actors in the effective application of Information and Communication Technologies, we are facing new responsibilities driven by the technology push. One of these is the need to think beyond the traditional highly structured applications involving large volumes of repetitive transaction processing. We need to address the real world of human interactions. At the end of the line is a member of the public.

We therefore need to update our awareness of how the new technologies may be exploited. These innovative developments transcend departmental and ministry boundaries and indeed can open up Government to direct public interaction and public information for the further cultivation of democratisation.

The challenges abound. We are collectively committed to achieving what are fast-becoming standard goals in public-service reform. These objectives include the integration of services, one-stop shop concepts, public access-points and so on. Other challenges are of a non-technical nature, such as the need to strike a balance between the common good and the individual's right to confidentiality and privacy.

The sharing and collation of data enhances the integrity of that data and enhances our planning and management processes. In our search for data sharing opportunity, however, we need to continually uphold the individual's rights and interests. Whilst the general legal principles surrounding this area now enjoy a degree of consensus, their interpretation and the implementation of regulatory mechanisms is diverse. Perhaps transparency remains our best hallmark of credibility in the workings of the public-service.

It is also incumbent upon us to think beyond the confines of the boundaries of Government operations and to help promote more efficient public and business interactions with Government and initiatives of a national character. One good example of this is the area of Trade Promotion and Trade Facilitation. Trade was a key element in this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, held recently in Edinburgh. The application of technology in this area can leverage opportunity for Small to Medium Enterprises and ease the problems that businesses face when interacting with Government agencies.

Moreover, electronic commerce is fast becoming the basis for commercial transacting. CHOGM advocated initiatives in electronic commerce and COMNET-IT, hosted by the Government of Malta, is committed to collaborating in this area with other agencies, such as the Export and Industrial Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Together with the rest of society, we also carry a responsibility towards the integration of all sectors of society into the mainstream of our endeavours in Education, Leisure and Employment. In this regard, we are in a special position to make an impact on the quality of life for persons with disabilities.

Technology, in this regard, is a double-edged sword. It can serve to alienate such persons as more and more of our jobs and interactions become keyboard-based. At the same time it can be the door-opener to a better quality of life. In the pressures to meet deadlines, how many of us are ready to ensure that our applications are truly accessible to the disabled. Do we ask for accessibility features when specifying our procurement needs or do we regard this as an awkward complication in our daily work.

I would also suggest that our Governments have a collective purchase-power that can be used to leverage the larger IT Corporations into accelerating research and development for accessibility. I challenge and exhort you to take up this opportunity so that the public service may be an example to the rest of the community in terms of meeting its employment obligations to disadvantaged persons, offering productive, and not menial, jobs.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you have spent a fruitful four days sharing experiences and knowledge. There is so much to be gained by not re-inventing the wheel, as we progress along well-trodden ground, and by avoiding much trial and error as we break new ground. I would also like to think that this interaction is not limited to the solitary occasion when we manage to get together for the occasional workshop, at much expense.

We need to develop and uphold mechanisms for continual interaction and development of our thinking in our respective specialisms. COMNET-IT, which is hosted by the Government of Malta, and which organised this Workshop is committed to facilitating such dialogue through networking. In particular, it is also committed to the development of good practice in Public-Sector I.T. I urge you to join this dialogue, also helping to extend the connections to other agencies in your respective countries.

I wish to thank you for coming to our Island and I augur you a safe journey home.