Section 1 - Policies and Standards Maintenance and

This section defines the policies for the production and maintenance of cross Government IS policies and standards. It also addresses issues of compliance. It is anticipated that these policies and standards are mandatory between all Government entities sharing client and/or citizen information.

Policies and Standards Co-ordinator

The Policies and Standards Co-ordinator will be responsible for the co-ordination and maintenance of cross government Information Systems (IS) standards and policies.

This role is expected to be provided within a central agency which has responsibility for Co-ordinating E-Government. At the time of writing this release of the Policies and Standards that agency has not been defined. Until the role has been established the Information Systems Co-ordinator at Ministry of Social Policy will provide this role but any changes to this document will only result from action initiated at the direction of the Chief Executive's IT forum.

Future Direction

It is anticipated that the Policy and Standards Co-ordinator will convene a working group of E-Government participants to review the performance of the standards and update them as processes and technologies evolve. Such a review should occur annually or as directed by the Chief Executives IT forum.

Co-operative Project Approval

Government Entities participating in co-operative E-Government projects will agree on the project Terms of Reference prior to initiating significant expenditure on the project.

The Government Entity primarily responsible for the project (The Project Owner) will prepare the Terms of Reference and distribute it to other Government Entities participating in E-Government transactions addressed by the project and allow a reasonable period for comment from those other Government Entries. The Terms of Reference should be formally approved by the Chief Executives of participating Government Entities, prior to the release of not more than 20% of the project budget.

Service Delivery

Service Level Agreements must be developed between Chief Executives participating in E-Government transactions.

The Service Level Agreement will include the following:

• Fault escalation procedures

• Required Security

• Network performance

• Required transaction levels, latency and throughput

• Cost apportionment

• Business Continuity

• Compliance with Standards and Policies

It is anticipated that a single E-Government Service Level Agreement will exist between each relevant Government Entity with separate schedules for different classes of transactions.

Policies and Standards Compliance

Chief Executives participating in E-Government will produce a quarterly schedule of their Agencies delivery of E-Government services against the service level agreement.

The Schedule of Performance will be distributed to the other parties to the Service Level Agreements and to the central agency responsible for the monitoring of E-Government. Any issues identified in the Schedule of Performance must be addressed in consultation with other participating Agencies and the plan for resolution of the issue(s) lodged with the monitoring agency.

Future Direction

At the time of preparation of this document a central agency to monitor E-Government had not been established. Until that has been done the State Services Commission will fulfil this role.