Information, Knowledge and Management: Re-assessing the role of ICTs in public and private organizations SSPA Bologna 3-5 March 2004 E-GOVERNMENT AS AN INSTRUMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM AND THE ACCOUNTABILITY ISSUE: how to guarantee accountability in the public sector

E-government policy has characteristics different from most other public policies. As it influences how to manage institutions, how to decide policies, and how to implement them, it is an area that spans different policy fields. E-government is, secondly, often a policy aimed to overcome “government failure”. These “government failures” are considered as problems to be solved through e-government policy, which introduces private sector management tools and/or methods and tries to use these experiences and techniques to overcome the problems typical in public sector. Another important aspect to be stressed is that e-government policy is the only public policy that guarantees its legitimacy with best practices. The reason why e-government and related policies are expected to be legitimized by empirical “best” cases and experiences is not clear. As there is no established model of public governance that includes e-government comprehensively, perhaps a new “governance model” should be examined – to legitimize e-government policy using a broader range of stakeholders.