I. Introduction
With the rapid development of information technology, especially the integration of computer technology and communication technology, human society has entered an unprecedented information age. Information technology, with its strong vitality, constantly promotes the revolutionary transformation of productive forces, and inevitably induces the transformation of social production relations and superstructure. As a product of information technology, e-government has been highly valued by governments all over the world. Theoretically, e-government will bring unparalleled high efficiency and low cost, and all-round communication between society and government, which will greatly enhance the government's ability to manage social affairs and effectively prevent the alienation of public power. Therefore, governments all over the world regard e-government as the core project of building an "information expressway". However, whether information technology can effectively play the expected role in government management depends on whether there is an advanced government performance evaluation system based on the operational characteristics of e-government. If China grafted the traditional government performance evaluation system on the basis of e-government, e-government would surely become a "performance project" that wastes people and money, with first-class facilities, but the actual effect is far from what expected. Todd Ramsey, director of government services at IBM headquarters, pointed out: "About 85% of government IT projects are doomed to failure." It is not that these projects were a disaster from the beginning, but because they took too long and cost too much, and the services provided were not as ideal as expected. As far as the progress of China's current government internet access project is concerned, its situation is worrying. By June 30, 20001year, 5 1 government databases had been built, but most of them were dead databases (only open to internal or research institutions, not to the society), and the information provided to the society was not standardized and random, and there were problems in information collection, processing and maintenance. Some local governments have invested hundreds of thousands and millions to build websites, which have become information islands in the information ocean, far from achieving the expected results. Many local governments blindly introduce the operating mechanism of e-government and the relationship between the central and local governments in the e-government system. It is very likely that a considerable number of local government informatization projects have been unfortunately right by Todd Ramsey. The core reason for this situation is the lack of advanced performance evaluation system in line with the operational characteristics of e-government. If we don't speed up the construction of e-government performance evaluation system, e-government project may become another wave of internet bubble set off by the government after enterprises in China.
Second, the development of government performance evaluation system
Government performance evaluation system is the core institutional arrangement related to the level of government governance and operational efficiency. As the main body of political power, the government carries out necessary political management of society. The political power held by the government is granted by the people and must be accountable to the people. The results of government actions are closely related to people's interests, so it is very necessary to comprehensively evaluate government performance. As far as the world is concerned, the construction of government performance evaluation system in the United States is in the forefront of the world. As early as the 1940s, the American government set out to build a government performance evaluation system, and a special magazine published relevant academic articles. In 1960s, the General Accounting Office of the United States took the lead in shifting the focus of auditing government work from economic auditing to auditing with equal emphasis on economy, efficiency and effectiveness, commonly known as "three-E auditing" and then extended to "five-E auditing". 1972, the workload of American government auditors for performance audit accounts for. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the audit, its audit department is independent of the government administrative department. In the revised Standards for Auditing Government Institutions, Planned Projects, Activities and Duties, the US General Accounting Office 1994 defines performance auditing as: performance auditing is an objective and systematic review of evidence to achieve the purpose of independent evaluation of government organizations, projects, activities and functions, thus providing information for improving public accountability and making decisions for relevant parties to take corrective measures and implement supervision. Performance audit includes economic benefit audit and project audit. A. The economic and efficiency audit includes determining: 1, whether the organization obtains, protects and uses its resources (such as personnel, property and space) economically and efficiently; 2. Causes of inefficiency and uneconomical situation; 3. Does the organization comply with laws and regulations on economy and efficiency? B, the project audit includes determining: 1, reaching the degree of expected results or benefits determined by authoritative organizations such as legislative departments; 2. Effectiveness of organizations, projects, activities and functions; 3. Does the organization comply with the laws and regulations related to the project?
In 1970s, government performance audit developed rapidly in the United States, Britain, Canada, Sweden and other countries, and became the core index to evaluate government performance. However, because the results of government actions are all-encompassing, not just efficiency and economy, it is impossible to evaluate every result in all aspects. In order to avoid the one-sidedness of "three-e audit", the American government performance evaluation system consists of hard indicators and soft indicators. The hard indicator is the government performance audit undertaken by the US General Accounting Office, and the soft indicator is the public's evaluation of the government and the regular release of the government support rate, so as to enhance the legitimacy of the government's ruling status and the authority of policies.
The research of government performance evaluation system in China started late, but it developed rapidly. At present, a considerable number of domestic scholars have turned their attention to this field. Scholars have conducted in-depth research on the value orientation, evaluation model, evaluation index system and evaluation mechanism of government performance evaluation system, but the research on e-government evaluation system is still quite weak and basically has not been carried out. At present, audit has become the main means to evaluate the government in China. China has carried out government audit in an all-round way, but the focus is on economic audit. At present, the efficiency and benefit audit is limited to large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, and government agencies have not fully participated, reflecting that China's government audit mainly focuses on input and process, but has not paid close attention to results and efficiency. There are still some defects in the organizational structure of audit institutions. The National Audit Office is subordinate to the State Council, and the local audit institutions are responsible to the higher audit institutions in business and to the government at the same level in administration, which forms dual leadership and affects the objectivity and impartiality of government audit (6). It can be said that the self-construction of China's government performance evaluation system is still quite imperfect, and there is a certain gap with the development of reality, both in theory and in practice.
Third, China's e-government performance evaluation system
The construction of e-government performance evaluation system in China is imminent, which is incompatible with the rapid development of e-government at present. E-government has broken the limitation of time and space, and objectively created conditions for building a unified, open, efficient, low-cost and democratic government. If e-government is built from bottom to top, due to the fuzziness of local governments' understanding of e-government, there will inevitably be great differences in the structure and function of e-government built by local governments at all levels, which will also directly affect the operational efficiency of e-government. E-government is an unprecedented huge project and another revolutionary change in the history of government management. In order to ensure the success of this project and give full play to the great role of information technology in government management, it is necessary for the central government to take the lead in building a unified organizational structure of e-government, standardize its functions, and establish a standard system of e-government structure and function. The construction procedure of American e-government project is to set up a National Performance Evaluation Committee (NPR) led by Vice President Al Gore, which is composed of computer experts, accountants, efficiency experts, legal experts, management experts, economists, political scientists and other multidisciplinary experts. This Committee is responsible for comprehensively evaluating the structure and function of e-government, forming corresponding standards, and then starting large-scale construction. This rigorous style ensures the success of American e-government projects. According to statistics, from 1992 to 1996, the number of American government employees decreased by 240,000, nearly 2,000 offices were closed, and the expenditure was reduced by11800 million dollars. More than 3,000 new service standards have been formulated by 200 government bureaus, and the outdated standards of16,000 pages have been abolished. Remarkable results have been achieved. More importantly, government employees began to care about people's needs. E-government has narrowed the distance between the government and the people, providing a realistic guarantee for creating a more democratic government.
(A) E-government can not graft the traditional government performance evaluation system in China.
As far as the traditional government administrative structure and government governance means are concerned, "e-government" is a revolutionary change, which will inevitably bring new requirements and contents to the internal operation of the government and the reorganization of departments. Doesn't mean it's just a technological change to the original government operation means. The development of information technology objectively requires the redesign and orientation of government functions, the reengineering of government operation processes and the innovation and integration of government services to adapt to the development of information technology. Revolutionary technological change will bring about the interaction between technology, system and concept, impact the traditional government management concept and traditional management system, and bring about the innovation of concept and system. However, this innovation is not spontaneous. If there is no system and concept innovation synchronized with the technological revolution, the vitality of technology will be restrained, and the adoption of advanced technology will not necessarily bring about the high efficiency and low cost of government operation, nor will it necessarily bring about the improvement of public service level and the development of democratic politics. It must be clear that e-government is not synonymous with modern government, but a powerful tool for modern government to effectively exercise its functions. The government to be built in China is a modern government, not an electronic government. Therefore, we can't just evaluate the government from the perspective of technology, and advanced management technology may not necessarily create a modern government. E-government evaluation must be incorporated into the value orientation of modern government, and the soul of evaluation system is the value orientation of evaluation. A complete evaluation system includes the value orientation of evaluation, the structure and function of the evaluated organization, the evaluation subject, evaluation standards and evaluation methods, that is, the evaluation subject is based on the structure and function of an evaluated organization, and the evaluation standards and methods should reflect the value orientation of the evaluation system. When the structure and function of the evaluated organization face great changes, when the value orientation of the evaluation subject changes greatly, the performance evaluation system will inevitably change.
China's e-government project was officially launched in 1999, and at this time, the government's management model and evaluation system are facing a major transformation. Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, the governance model and evaluation value orientation of our government are different from those of mature market economy countries. 1978 at the beginning of the reform, the government lacked a clear direction for the future development goals, and there were also differences on specific development means. As a result, the people and local governments undertook the task of exploring the road, the central government gave principles, the people and local governments explored specific roads, and then the central government refined, sublimated and popularized them, forming a "three-tier" decision-making model with China characteristics. The advantage of this decision-making mode lies in that it opens the door for various methods that may promote development, allows trial and error, is conducive to breaking through the rigid thinking mode, greatly improves the enthusiasm of local government system innovation, and promotes the rapid development of China economy; The disadvantage is that many reforms in our country are carried out before the theory, and the serious lag of theoretical research has brought extremely serious consequences, which makes the administrative actions of local governments at all levels lack unified norms and standards and are extremely arbitrary. In practice, quite a few local governments have taken short-sighted measures, sacrificing the interests of the environment, workers and the weak, and completely pursuing the maximization of local interests. Rent-seeking prevails, and the market is divided and dismembered by administrative power, which makes the sustainability of China's economic development, the fairness and unity of the market and the fairness of society have serious defects. I believe Beijingers are savoring the short-sighted consequences of government actions in sandstorms. This decision-making model and evaluation system are relatively closed, arbitrary and one-sided, with the characteristics of rule by man, autocracy, irregular procedures and simple pursuit of economic growth goals. Also known as "performance-based" evaluation model, it often emphasizes input and process, ignoring efficiency and results. This "performance-oriented" evaluation model has led to a large number of inefficient and ineffective performance projects and image projects to increase political capital for officials, and has caused a considerable number of local finances in China to get into trouble. As early as 1999, China officials conducted a thorough inventory of all kinds of debts, creditor's rights and guarantees at village level before the end of 1998. Although the exact result is still unknown, there should be no doubt that the debt situation of grass-roots governments in China is amazing. According to Newsweek, a retired director of the Ministry of Agriculture, there are nearly 50,000 townships in China with an average debt of more than 4 million yuan, accounting for about 220 billion yuan. As for the county-level fiscal deficit, it is even more alarming. This is an amazing figure, through which we can understand why so many local governments owe salaries to civil servants and teachers. The main reason for this situation lies in the defects of this decision-making model and evaluation index and the short-term behavior formed by it. Its evaluation system was formed when the relationship between government and market was not clear. Under this evaluation system, the achievements of cadres are mixed. They only ask how many factories there are, not the size of the market. They only ask how much profit there is in the output value, not how much debt they owe. Many enterprises have been built in this way, but few have achieved benefits. This long-term evaluation model has great inertia. If e-government is built from the bottom up, this decision-making model and evaluation system will be displayed in the construction of e-government, and its consequences will be disastrous, which will inevitably lead to the waste of huge wealth of the country. What is worrying is: "At present, most of the e-government projects that have been established (in China) are carried out without macro-planning and guidance," said Dr. Li Guang Gan of the State Council Development Research Center. "If e-government is to become a brand-new government management mode that adapts to modern information technology, it is necessary to establish and improve the supervision and evaluation mechanism of e-government. Only in this way can China's e-government be continuously improved and improved. " Wang Yukai, a member of the overall expert group of China e-government demonstration project and a professor at the National School of Administration, believes that in the absence of unified planning and unified technical standards, the e-government construction in China has shown signs of rushing headlong. If this trend is not stopped in time, it may bring immeasurable losses to the development of e-government in China.
The experience and lessons of more than 20 years of reform and opening up remind us that it is time to end this trial-and-error management mode, China should put theory first, and it is time to promote social development from top to bottom. In fact, before and after China's entry into WTO, the traditional government governance model and evaluation criteria are facing the constraints from international law, and both internal and external environments are promoting the transformation of traditional government into modern government. Although WTO is a set of laws and regulations in the economic field, a good market environment needs to be built and maintained by the government. Therefore, the WTO has much more constraints on the government than on enterprises. To build a market economy system in line with WTO rules objectively requires that our government's performance evaluation system should be in line with western developed countries to a certain extent, while economic rules cannot be in line with the world, and the government's administrative governance model is still dominant. Western countries generally regard growth, fairness, democracy and order as the value core of modern government performance evaluation system. In the article "The Goal of Development", the famous scholar Henyanton put forward five indicators that he thought were at the core of development theory, namely, growth, fairness, democracy, stability and autonomy, and expounded the specific contents of each indicator. Growth refers to economic growth, defined as the increase of per capita gross national product; Equity mainly involves distribution, focusing on two goals, one is to reduce absolute poverty, the other is to reduce inequality; Democracy is defined according to the model of western democracy, mainly focusing on the preconditions of democracy and the development of democratic system; Stability mainly involves political order and political stability; Autonomy mainly focuses on the dependence of underdeveloped countries on developed countries. The core indicators of Henryton are similar to those of other western scholars such as Pennock and almond, such as growth and welfare, democracy and freedom, security and stability, fairness and justice. The difference is that Heng Yundun lists the autonomy separately, which has reference value for the construction of our government evaluation system. Because there is a big gap between the development level of China and that of the west, western governments must consider the realistic conditions when evaluating the application of value orientation in China. However, it is undeniable that growth, fairness, democracy, stability and autonomy should become an important part of China's government performance evaluation system, but the importance of each indicator will be different in different periods.
Democracy, rule of law, efficiency, freedom, human rights, public interests, social justice and due process are the basic values of modern society, and also the basic functions of modern government, which is in sharp contrast with China's traditional government governance methods such as rule by man, closure, inefficiency, bureaucracy and irresponsibility. China's government governance model is moving from direct intervention in civil society to macro-control, from direct government investment to providing high-quality public products and services to the society. The relationship between government and enterprises, government and market, and government and society is in a comprehensive adjustment. The government has changed from an athlete and referee to a referee only. The value orientation of building a modern government in China should be the core of e-government evaluation system. Specifically, the value orientation of e-government evaluation system should include: high efficiency, low cost, legalization, promoting economic growth, maintaining social justice and fairness, democracy, openness, honesty, responsibility, stability and independence. These values should be fully reflected in the evaluation criteria and methods.
(B) e-government evaluation system is based on the internal structure and function of e-government.
Performance evaluation is based on the specific organizational structure and the functions that the organization should perform. It is impossible for the evaluation subject to make a reasonable evaluation without knowing the specific structure and function of the evaluated organization. How to build the organizational structure of e-government? Academic circles and government departments are discussing it. At present, the mature view is that the functions of the central government and local governments are different in the e-government system. The main function of the central government is to obtain relevant information about social operation from local governments at all levels, and make corresponding decisions based on this information, and macro-control the harmonious development of economy and society through legislative, judicial, administrative, financial and financial means; The main duties of local governments should be to provide high-quality public goods and services to enterprises and people in the region, and to maintain the fairness, justice and efficiency of the local market. In this way, e-government includes internal network and external network. The internal network is mainly the communication within the government, and the external network is the link between the government and the people. Based on the function of e-government, its structure should at least include: entity elements, supporting elements, target elements and personnel elements. Specifically, physical elements are the material basis of e-government, including hardware environment, software environment and information resource library; The supporting factor is the legal system to ensure the smooth operation of e-government, including legal norms, information scope and the identity confirmation mechanism of participants; Target elements are the goals of e-government, including electronic official documents, e-commerce, e-mail, e-taxation, e-welfare, e-democracy and government information disclosure. Personnel elements are the guarantee of personnel quality to maintain the good operation of e-government, including system maintenance and data collection and processing.
To ensure the realization of e-government functions, we must first build a reasonable e-government structure, and the complexity of government management itself determines the complexity of e-government structure. In the future e-government, it is necessary to realize "one-stop" handling and "online service" that is not limited by time and space, which requires interactive office work between government departments to handle a large number of matters serving the public, and the management business of each department itself is a relatively independent system, with great differences in business. It is a very complicated problem to realize the interconnection and intercommunication between these government agencies in different business departments and realize the "first-line service". All departments should not only make some necessary adjustments to the traditional administrative procedures, processes and organizational structure of their own units and systems according to the requirements of e-government, but also connect with other government departments under unified standards according to the requirements of interconnection. Because the existing government informatization projects in China are basically independently built by various departments without moving the original government structure, and there are various technical standards, which must be integrated to effectively play its role. If the structure and standards of the established industry or department information system are not effectively integrated, new e-government projects will be launched hastily, making the future integration more difficult.
The following is a reference model of e-government to facilitate analysis:
E-government reference model
Compared with the reference model of e-government, we will find that the substantive elements of e-government projects in China are progressing rapidly, while the supporting elements, target elements and personnel elements are relatively lacking. The main reason is that these elements cannot be completed by local governments alone, such as relevant laws and regulations, the operating mechanism of e-democracy, electronic service standards, and the independence of information collection institutions. Without a strong unified standard, it is unthinkable. China's information laws and regulations on e-government are still blank. What information can be made public? What information cannot be made public? How to ensure the accuracy of government information? How to ensure the quality of information service? At present, there is no basis and it is difficult to evaluate. However, the reliability of government information disclosure under the traditional government management mode is questionable. In this regard, the legislative precedents of the United States and Britain are worthy of reference. 1993, the United States promulgated the Electronic Information Freedom Enhancement Act, which classified the information resources of government departments and stipulated which information needs to be kept secret and which information can be obtained by the public free of charge. In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of information sources, most of the information collection, production and publicity links are undertaken by social institutions independent of the government, not all by the electronic government itself. In TheWhitePaperonOpenGovernment published by UK 1993, the government clearly recognizes that people have the right to demand the quality of information services, and can exert pressure on operators who provide public services. 1In April, 1994, the "Practical Rules of Government Affairs Openness Theory" was officially promulgated, which ensured the reliability of e-government information sources.
It is far from enough for the construction of e-government to only have the in-depth and rapid development of substantive elements. Only when other elements develop synchronously can we give full play to the great advantages of e-government. Professor Wang Yukai pointed out that the key to promoting government informatization and e-government is to make overall planning and formulate unified technical standards. Although China has made some specific provisions in this regard, it has not yet formulated a national medium-and long-term master plan for government informatization, especially in terms of unified technical standards, and it is almost still in a state of fragmentation. Related to this, due to the serious phenomenon of regional division and departmental division in China, it has also led to a large number of redundant constructions, such as basic networks. How to integrate existing resources under unified planning and standards to prevent redundant construction and fragmentation has become the key to the development of government informatization and e-government.
In order to control the development direction of e-government and ensure the full play of its advantages, the evaluation system should give priority to development. First of all, we should standardize the structure of e-government, and then formulate national unified specific standards for the substantive elements, supporting elements, target elements and personnel elements of e-government. Among them, the target element is the output of e-government projects, and the entity element, supporting element and personnel element are the basis to ensure the output of e-government. Therefore, the evaluation of the target elements should focus on the effect evaluation, and the value orientation of e-government such as democracy, social fairness, justice and efficiency should be effectively reflected in its output, and the output of e-government should be evaluated by the national audit institutions and the public. The evaluation of substantive elements should focus on economy and efficiency, that is, the evaluation of whether government departments have built e-government economically and efficiently should be carried out by national audit institutions; The supporting factors should ensure the safety, reliability and efficiency of e-government operation, and reflect the value orientation of modern government, that is, laws and regulations should be advanced, unified and fully reflect the inherent requirements of e-government operation; The evaluation of personnel elements should reflect economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and can also be evaluated by national audit institutions and the public.
(3) Evaluation subject and evaluation method
The power of the government comes from the people. As the trustee of the people, the government of any democratic society will admit it frankly. But since ancient times, the power of rulers has often exceeded its scope, even beyond the people, and the people are often helpless. However, when the power operation of the ruling party deviates too far from the people's wishes, social contradictions will be manifested as violent social conflicts, and even a revolutionary movement will be produced to overthrow the ruling party. History has repeatedly staged such tragicomedy, and people's hearts have become the core restricting force for the operation of government power, leading the replacement of political power like an invisible hand. The main body of government performance evaluation in any democratic society can only be the people, and e-government is no exception. However, people's wishes to express themselves are often restricted by narrow information transmission channels, poor transmission channels and high transmission costs, and cannot be expressed in time, accurately and smoothly. In addition, in order to implement effective social control, the government will inevitably monopolize or block information that is not conducive to political stability or endangers political rule, and will strongly control traditional mass media and selectively release filtered information to influence public cognition and judgment. It is almost impossible for the general public to get enough information, or conversely, to spread their ideas freely and widely to the public through effective channels. Therefore, regardless of ancient and modern times, it is inevitable that government power often deviates from people's wishes. The only difference lies in the degree and length of deviation. This has caused many problems in the government management system, such as bureaucracy, inefficiency, trading of power and money, corruption and government failure. It is difficult to achieve the goals of efficiency and social equity in the traditional government operation mode, and the government itself has become the center of the problem. In order to gain people's trust and establish the prestige of the government, many countries in the world have to make laws and regulations to punish power and money transactions and corruption, restrain bureaucracy and work hard. E-government provides an effective means to fundamentally change this situation. E-government makes government information open, transparent and interactive, which is inherently democratic and open. It greatly enhances the people's power to influence the government, and makes it possible for a government that conforms to public opinion, is efficient, responsible and has high quality.
The reason why e-government excites many far-sighted politicians is mainly because it provides the possibility of large-scale and high-intensity political participation of citizens, and the openness it brings greatly strengthens the transparency and democratization of government administration. Citizen's political participation is an activity in which citizens express their thoughts, intentions and interests in the process of political operation to influence national political decision-making and national behavior. It is the foundation of modern social democratic system and one of the basic characteristics of democratic politics. In contemporary society, in order to gain legitimacy and effectiveness, political authority must let citizens with political participation requirements and abilities participate in the political system and decision-making process; The realization of political stability and the establishment of political order also depend on the institutionalized representation and expression of various social interests. The traditional representative system has many defects in representativeness and timely and comprehensive response to public opinion. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for modern government to introduce direct and extensive e-democracy. The structure of e-government itself also urgently needs people to participate in direct evaluation, because e-government has broken the traditional pyramid management level of the government, flattened the organizational structure of the government, and the power of each government employee has been enlarged accordingly. The public services it provides are mainly completed in cyberspace, and it is difficult for its superior managers to know the service quality. So the most convenient way to evaluate its service quality is to introduce people's direct evaluation.
Fourth, summary.
E-government performance evaluation system is an institutional arrangement related to the success or failure of e-government projects, which has decisive value and significance. China's e-government performance evaluation system should take the value orientation of modern government as the evaluation core, legislation first, and relevant laws and regulations fully reflect the value orientation of modern government. The evaluation should be based on a reasonable e-government structure and its functions, the evaluation subject should be the largest number of people, and the evaluation method should be a combination of soft indicators and hard indicators. The specific evaluation criteria of hard indicators should be formulated by multidisciplinary experts and implemented by the Audit Office. Soft indicators should be gradually popularized in China.