E-Government and E-Services - Case Study Example

E-government has facilitated e-administration, e-citizenship, e-democracy, and e-services.Regional and local government initiatives in Sweden are handled by the respective local county councils and municipalities. The initiatives are further, implemented by these authorities. In 2007 the Swedish Association of local authorities (SALA) and Federation of Swedish county councils (FCC) have formed a joint federation Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SAR). This represents the interest of the 290 local councils in the county (Elliman, 2006).

Vera, a Swedish administrative development agency plays an important role in supporting the municipalities. For instance, through initiating and organizing the projects. The organization also provides funding to the activities. The councils carry out the election of political auditors charged with the responsibility of contracting external professional auditors to audit the activities of the municipalities (Stockholm.se, 2009).The government tries to bring the state to the people; services provided have improved efficiency in the municipality (John, 1995).

Services are provided promptly and at the convenience of the user and they include, access to national and municipal registries, access to investor information, online payment and money transfer, booking of traveling tickets and hotel rooms (Rutherford, 2008).Notice board: the main task is to inform inhabitants. It acts as the municipalities’ home page where contents mostly consist of information concerning the municipality and its services (Brown, 2002).However, there exist obstacles to the implementation of e-government.

The obstacles include the need for an official handwritten signature on documents, users tend to trust physical documents than electronic documents stored in databases. Legal and legal limitations play a role in inhibiting the development and use of electronic services