Survey shows a lack of confidence on e-government projects

Senior government information technology officials' confidence in the Bush administration's electronic government initiatives dropped significantly in 2005, according to recently released survey results.

This year, only 15 percent of the respondents to the Association for Federal Information Resources Management's annual survey of the federal information technology community said they expected significant progress on the Office of Management and Budget's lines of business initiatives and e-government. Twenty-six percent did not expect to see any progress.

In 2004, 44 percent of respondents had expressed optimism about progress, while 10 percent had expected none.

The drop returns the percentage of officials foreseeing progress below that recorded in 2003, when about 18 percent of respondents said they believed they would see advances.

The survey went out to more than a thousand senior agency IT officials in mid-November. Ninety-six of the questionnaires were completed, according to AFFIRM.

"The survey results show a precipitous drop in the percentage of respondents who indicate definite progress in this area," AFFIRM stated in a discussion section following the e-government question.

Specific concerns about the initiatives included a lack of alignment with the budget cycle, the need for long-term support and inconsistent progress among the projects.

Respondents also expressed waning confidence in the security of their agencies' IT infrastructures, with 68 percent stating that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, their systems have become less vulnerable. In 2004, 72 percent cited progress.

Forty-four percent of respondents said they believe that agencies' IT workforce skills gap has narrowed, while another 31 percent said the gap remains the same and 18 percent believed it has widened. Program management, and project and budget planning, have been cited as areas where federal technology staffs need work.

Nearly two-thirds of those participating in the survey said IT budgets would take a hit because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this year's natural disasters. Seventeen percent said they expected no change in budgets.

AFFIRM also asked about the most critical challenges facing agency chief information officers.

For the second year in a row, the alignment of IT and organizational mission goals ranked as the most important issue, followed by finding adequate funding for IT programs and projects, and the building of effective relationships in order to gain senior agency executives' support of IT initiatives.

OMB did not respond to a request for comment on this survey, but late Monday released a report on e-government progress and goals for fiscal 2006. Over the coming year, the administration would like to see 90 percent of agencies make acceptable business cases for all of their IT systems, and would like 90 percent of the IT systems to be properly secured from attacks.

Source: The Association for Federal Information Resources Management's Top Challenges Survey