05 October 2001
Local authority staff charged with guiding councils towards the 2005 e-government deadline have complained that they are being hampered by a lack of communication from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
The Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) appealed on October 1 for the DTLR to inform councils 'without further delay' if they are eligible for a share of the £325m earmarked by the government for local authorities' e-government projects over the next two years.
The department has rated councils' e-government proposals, using their Implementing Electronic Government statements (IEGS), from one to four stars.
The DTLR said 6% of the statements were 'unsatisfactory' and 30% needed 'further significant work'.
Socitm called on the DTLR to put councils out of their misery by publishing the results in full and clarifying whether the 30% of councils found wanting could still claim part of the e-government funding.
'The information we have at present is incomplete and unhelpful,' said Glyn Evans, chair of Socitm's Information Age Government group.
'Councils need to know which category their IEGS puts them into and what the categories are. They are also very keen to understand the criteria used by DTLR in making their assessment.'
PFoct2001
