| Abstract [eng] |
Topic relevance and the scientific issue. Development trends of electronic government, their importance for the efficiency of state institutions and for increasing the implementation of public expectations as well as for the development of democracy is undoubted (Millard J., 2003). Electronic government is commonly perceived as the prolongation of state government in electronic space, manifesting itself as realization of state functions, improvement of organizational changes while applying information technologies (Designing E-Government, 2002). Electronic government is one of the ways to modernize state government, to carry out the state reform, while adjusting to the requirements of the knowledge society (Augustinaitis, A., Petrauskas, R., 2002, Paliulis, N., Jurkenaitė, N., 2006), to improve the quality of the relation between the public and the government (Limba, T., Petrauskas, R., 2004). Due to the above mentioned reasons electronic government is able to and has to become one of the effective elements and priorities to the implementation of strategic governance of the state (Andersen, K. V., Henriksen, H. Z., 2005). Discussions keep going on (Dillon, S., Deakins, E., Chen, W., 2005; Domarkas, V., Lukoševicienė, V., 2006) about which of the electronic government features is the most important. There has been a number of concept interpretations of electronic government and constructions of its essence. It is admitted in most discussions (Goldkuhl, G., Persson, A., 2006; Buckley, J., 2003; Burn, J., Robins, G., 2003) that application of information technologies is the background to the main principles of the implementation of electronic government, creating new ways and opportunities for the public to obtain information and public services provided by state institutions, as well as enabling public sector institutions to cooperate not only with each other but also with their clients. Ideas of electronic government establishment are concurrent with the efforts being realized in many countries to modernize public sector, in order to achieve several fundamental targets, such as transparency, efficiency and simplicity (Millard, J., 2003). Putting it in other words, electronic government is the phenomenon of the development of public relations regulated by state and self-government institutions, having the purpose to increase the transparency of the decision making carried out by the executive government, to provide information and public services for the public, business entities and other public sector institutions in a more qualified and effective manner employing the opportunities offered by information technologies. Electronic government is being implemented worldwide and in all levels of governance. Local authorities play a particularly important role, since they can identify the changing customers’ needs best of all (Ancarini, A., 2005). Although the governance functions of those institutions in different countries slightly differ, their common goal remains the same, that is not only to make the governance itself more efficient, but also to make it more accessible for the public (Gronlund, A., 2002; Gugliota, A, Cabral, L., 2005). Municipalities, that are able to provide public service for the consumers in more effective and modern ways can also meet other public needs, in this way implementing directly one of the principles of European local self-government charter that was ratified in Lithuania in 1999, which is the one of ensuring a tighter link between local self-government and the public (Official Gazette, Nr.82-2418, 1999). Basing on that it can be claimed, that the role of electronic government is of quite an important manner while making an impact on a suitable choice of different models for the implementation of the above mentioned and other principles of local authorities. Models of electronic government services, that are created and being analyzed by worldwide scientists, aim at seeking solutions and their alternatives for more efficient public services provision. The years of establishment of the models being analyzed in this paper reflecting the recent development trends of models of electronic government services show that the subject matter of the models of electronic government services is relevant and fairly new worldwide as well as in Lithuania. Quite recently, in 2006, a project named “The Development of System Interaction Capacity - the Interoperability of Public Administration Institutions Information Systems” was started to be designed, which is project of a practical implementation of important fragments of the “Interoperability” model of electronic government services. The implementation of this project that aims at not only the central government, the local authorities’ institutions, but also improving their relation with the public can be named as the focus of relevance of the topic that is being analyzed. Issues and their solutions concerning the efficient electronic government services provision occur worldwide. In some countries, Lithuania is one of them, the models that are identified only hardly coordinate with the models of electronic government services covered in this work or separate fragments of such models being applied in local self-government levels. In order to solve those problems it would be expedient to find new, improved and more effective models of electronic government services that can meet the needs of customers better while providing electronic government services. The object of the thesis. The models of electronic government services. Aim and objectives of the thesis. The aim of work is to develop a model of electronic government services which could ensure the efficient integration of electronic government services in the local self-government level. There have been set the following objectives for the above mentioned aim to be achieved: 1. To reveal the aspects of development trends, problems and efficiency of electronic government services provision in municipalities; 2. Having analyzed the models of electronic government services and having carried out their comparative analysis, to establish the main features of those models; 3. Having analyzed the application peculiarities of the models of electronic government services in the municipalities of certain countries, to establish advantages and disadvantages of applying those models in the countries; 4. Having analyzed the application opportunities of the models of electronic government services in the municipalities of Lithuania, to offer a new model of electronic government services for the municipalities of Lithuania; 5. To carry out research of the application opportunities of the new model of electronic government services for the municipalities of Lithuania. Hypothesis (H1). The current model of electronic government services applied in the municipalities of Lithuania does not enable the efficient provision of electronic government services for customers. Hypothesis (H2). The developed model of electronic government services enables to ensure efficient integration of electronic government services in the local self-government level in Lithuania. Scientific novelty of the thesis. The systematic, comparative analysis of the models of electronic government services carried out in the scientific work and the assessment of opportunities of their application in the self-government level have hardly been analyzed which makes the topic a novelty in Lithuania.With the help of the method of comparative analysis the models of electronic government services have been assessed and there has been distinguished the total of six. Two of them being the main common models of electronic government services have the features that enable the development of new models of electronic government services that are more targeted at changes taking place in public needs and inside organizational processes signifying the novelty of dissertation work. The scientific work analyzes the improvement opportunities of the models of electronic government services and their application alternatives in Lithuanian municipalities. The newly developed model of electronic government services that has been designed basing on the principle of integrating online expert consultation is primarily targeted at improvement of inside processes’ changes of an organization. Practicing the application of that model in the local self-government level starting with improvement of inside processes of an organization should help adapt more accurately and efficiently to the changing needs of the society while providing electronic government services, thus establishing a higher public value. The novelty of work is reflected not only through the integration opportunities’ assessment of the principle of online expert consultation into the theoretical models of electronic government services that have already been developed by the scientists, but also on the basis of this principle there has been developed a “Holistic model of integrating electronic government services” and its practical application realization with the design of “The project of implementing the principle of online expert consultation on the model of electronic government services”. The project is based on the implementation of online consultancy service for the officials of Lithuanian municipalities and is aimed at helping to improve their qualification in this area, as well as changing the attitude that can be sometimes wrong concerning the purpose of providing electronic government services for the public and applying information technologies in local authorities. The research of the scientific work, in particular the experiment that has been carried out in the form of online expert consultancy seminars for Lithuanian municipalities on electronic government services, as there have been no experiments of this kind in Lithuania so far. Sources and methods of the thesis. The scientific work is. |
