Uncle Sam just got a little more user-friendly. Since last month, Americans wanting to contact federal government agencies have had to know only one phone number (1-800-FED-INFO). It's provided by USA Services, a new "one-stop shop" for citizens' inquiries, whether via phone, fax or emailed through the federal web portal, www.firstgov.gov. This site in turn connects to more than 22,000 federal and state sites, aiming to get users wherever they want with a maximum of three clicks.
All this is an impressive bit of citizen-centred e-government and all the more remarkable because e-government was very much a Clinton-era project. Al Gore, Clinton's vice-president, was largely responsible for the US's original e-government target, the 1998 Government Paperwork Elimination Act, which requires government agencies to offer electronic services by October this year.
Bush is not known for his ideological commitment to federal government. So why is he putting so much effort into making it work better for the citizen? One clue is in a presidential memo on the subject: Bush says that "Government should be citizen-centred, results-oriented, and market-based."
The White House sees e-government as the key to all three. But more important, it is also the key to smaller government. With phase one of the e-government project almost complete - most services are online - the Bush administration is looking at ways of cutting costs by consolidating federal offices.
Step one of the project is to draw up an "enterprise architecture" for government. Enterprise architectures, loved by management consultants, are functional explanations of what an organisation does and how it does it. Armed with such a model, it is easy to see what can be computerised - and what can be cut. The White House Office of Management and Budget is now working on a federal enterprise architecture which will "guide IT investment decisions within agencies, and support the identification of opportunities to collaborate on, consolidate, and integrate current and planned initiatives".
One model is the US government's e-payment system, which claims to have reduced the number of centres processing government payrolls from 22 to two, saving $1.2bn. The enterprise architecture will also identify opportunities for vertical collaboration, between federal, state and local governments. Departmental processes will move from multiple agencies to "a joint solution, supported by one or two service providers".
If all goes according to schedule, this re-engineering of government will begin in earnest next year.
In theory, this is not very different from the UK's e-government programme, run by the e-envoy. In some areas, such as the Government Gateway authentication engine, the UK can claim a lead. What the e-envoy cannot do is talk so candidly about merging the functions of departments of state, tiers of government or appointing a single contractor to run all government's systems. He must be green with envy.
