Remissvar: reply to public consultation of SOU 2017:23 digitalforvaltning.nu

IT&Telecom companies have been offered the opportunity to respond to the consultation on the Interim Report of the Inquiry on Effective Governance of National Digital Services.

IT&Telecom companies want to focus primarily on the two main areas of the investigation - the establishment of a digitization authority and My Messages - but as an overall comment also emphasize the central point that the starting point for all digital administration in the future should and must be the individual and the individual's needs.

IT&Telekomföretagen welcomes the interim report's proposal that Sweden needs stronger governance of the public sector's digitization in order to once again become one of the leaders in e-government. In this regard, IT&T would like to emphasize that a basic prerequisite for success with the report's ambitions is:

• that the government also intends to more clearly target and specify what is to be achieved in the various areas of digitization, i.e. to also formulate follow-up goals for the national digitization work
• that the actual benefits of digitalization are continuously monitored on the basis of national, European and global measurements and indicators; a purely Swedish perspective is not sufficient in this respect

We welcome the fact that the overall responsibility for digitization of the public sector is gathered and coordinated for better effect. However, there is a clear need to be able to execute this task. IT&T has doubts as to whether an authority can be given the tools to become sufficiently executive. A large part of the digitization of the public sector is based on political decisions that will undoubtedly lie with other government ministers than the one to which an authority can be placed. If an authority is to be chosen after all, the best solution would probably be for it to be subordinate to the Prime Minister's Office. We note that the Danish Prime Minister himself has said that he has a dream and an idea of a digital future and is leading the digitization work, which we believe is a good symbol of how central the responsibility needs to be to achieve a sufficiently rapid effect.

Another problem with a government solution is funding. Digitization of the public sector costs money. So far, this need for funding has lagged behind, which has also meant that we have lost our position in the field of e-government in recent years. If the agency solution is chosen, it must be taken into account already at the time of establishment so that the financing of digitization in future budget processes is not reduced to a special interest.

In terms of the need to put the individual at the center, My Messages is a good example. The possibility of creating a successful national service holds great potential for increased societal benefit. However, it requires the possibility of two-way communication, between authorities as well as between authorities and citizens. Only then will we see a broad application of the service.

In conclusion, we would just like to point out that success in the digital world arena requires foresight, courage and active measures in the public and private sectors.

Link to the consultation response