E-Bureaucracy

Vendors cruise for contracts on the information freeway despite roadblocks

The move to accelerate e-government efforts has gained momentum with the recent appointment of a federal IT "czar" and the introduction of new bills in U.S. Congress. Despite the funding and organizational impediments e-government faces, vendors are already trying to capitalize on this potentially lucrative business.

In late July, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.R. 2458, the companion bill to the Senate's S.803, the E-Government Act of 2001. Both bills call for better coordination of federal IT programs and policies and a federal CIO with the authority to marshall the disparate IT troops scattered throughout the U.S. bureaucracy. The bills also increase funding for interagency e-government projects to $200 million per year for three years.

These legislative efforts are meeting with enthusiastic approval from the likes of Microsoft and Electronic Data Systems Corp. Both vendors participated in drafting the bills and both stand to gain much from e-government contracts.

"Through technology and the Internet we can make government more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly," said Jack Krumholtz, director of Federal Affairs for Microsoft. Krumholtz added that Microsoft has already picked up a big e-government contract in the United Kingdom to put all transactions between agencies and civilians online by 2005.

Oracle's Larry Ellison put in an appearance at the E-Gov 2001 conference in July, delivering a keynote on "Slashing Through Bureaucracy." IBM has also adopted a higher e-government profile through its Institute for Electronic Government and sponsorship of e-government awards.

The Bush administration reacted to concerns about weak federal IT leadership by appointing former Unisys Corp. executive Mark Forman to the post of associate director for IT and E-Government in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Forman will oversee federal IT policy, direct the federal CIO Council, and spend $100 million allocated in Bush's 2002 budget to fund interagency efforts through 2005, of which only $20 million will be cut loose in 2002.

Critics observe that even $200 million is paltry compared to the estimated $45 billion that will be spent in 2002 on individual government IT projects, most of which don't support interagency systems. Sean O'Keefe, OMB's deputy director, raised other objections during Senate hearings, saying that S.803 doesn't address key e-government issues relating to performance goals, privacy, and security.

Gartner Inc. analyst French Caldwell foresees major problems with the federal IT czar position and said in a June report that someone at the associate director level doesn't have enough clout to manage 23 agencies, "each with its own CIO, infrastructure, and IT priorities."

— Claudia Willen

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