With the globalization of e-government, the research of e-government performance evaluation has also attracted great attention from all countries, and many research institutions, consulting companies and scholars have conducted in-depth research and practice on it. The fundamental purpose of e-government performance evaluation is to find and solve problems in time and promote the healthy, sustained and rapid development of e-government.
The comprehensive performance evaluation of e-government is a process evaluation of all inputs and outputs of e-government based on government economics, public management, information technology, investment balance theory, asset evaluation and network evaluation. This process can be tangible or intangible, including both the construction of e-government "hardware" and the development of e-government "software", and the two cannot be neglected. By using the principles of mathematical statistics and operational research and the specific index system, according to the unified standards and certain procedures, through quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis, an objective, fair and accurate comprehensive evaluation is made on the implementation of e-government or the implementation process of specific projects. From the perspective of control theory, performance evaluation is the most critical feedback link in the system. Through constant feedback and revision, the ideal concept of e-government governance can be realized.
Firstly, the necessity of e-government evaluation in China is analyzed.
E-government evaluation is to evaluate the e-government construction of governments at all levels from multiple angles, which can include the evaluation of all inputs and outputs in the whole process from the development environment of e-government to investment, from planning, design, implementation to maintenance, and the essence is to seek maximum performance at the lowest cost. To sum up, the necessity of establishing an e-government evaluation system is mainly reflected in:
(A) E-government evaluation helps to safeguard national security and interests.
Because of the openness and anonymity of the Internet, there is no distinction between nationality, race and country in disseminating information on the Internet. In this case, the traditional national boundaries closely connected with the land and the space for exercising national sovereignty have been broken, and countries have no space restrictions and obstacles of national boundaries and are more closely linked. The development of e-government cannot be separated from the Internet as a supporting platform. With the gradual development of e-government construction and the continuous acceleration of informatization process in various countries, governments of various countries will rely more and more on the Internet. E-government information involves a lot of state secrets, business secrets and personal privacy. The socialization and openness of government information has also opened the door to invasion for lawless people, such as hackers, spies and good people who are eyeing government information. If e-government cannot protect government information from viruses and hackers, it cannot be used and promoted. Therefore, in order to safeguard national sovereignty, information security and their own interests, countries must strengthen the construction of e-government security, which requires the government to insist on evaluating all links involved in e-government information security, so as to adopt active coping strategies and safeguard national security and interests as much as possible.
(b) E-government evaluation helps to measure the return on income after huge capital investment.
E-government funds mostly come from government finance. Compared with e-commerce, e-government is much less constrained in capital investment. Its construction is a huge systematic project, and its use, promotion, maintenance and renewal all require huge capital investment. Since 2002, the state has invested five years to promote the construction of e-government, and the national e-government market has reached about 200 billion yuan, of which the software market will reach more than 30 billion yuan [1]; In addition, China's government online projects need to build at least 6,000 websites. If the construction cost of each website is calculated at an average of 500,000 yuan and the annual operating cost is calculated at an average of 654.38+10,000 yuan, this project will bring at least 3 billion yuan of investment and 600 million yuan of annual expenditure. For government managers, any investment must produce a return, otherwise it is a financial loss. Therefore, reducing the operating cost of e-government is one of the important goals of implementing e-government. If a large amount of investment in e-government can not produce social and economic benefits, it will lose the practical significance of establishing e-government. What kind of return the investment in e-government can bring to the government, enterprises and the public is a problem that government decision makers must care about. Government finance comes from taxpayers' contribution to the country. When implementing e-government, government agencies should be benefit-oriented, open source and reduce expenditure, make full use of existing lines and network resources, and don't let e-government become another burden to increase government budget expenditure. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively analyze and evaluate all aspects and links of e-government, and finally evaluate the implementation benefits.
(C) e-government evaluation is conducive to the overall planning and unified standards of e-government.
1at the end of 993, in order to adapt to the global trend of building an information superhighway, the government of China officially launched the "Three Gold Projects", which is a systematic project led by the central government and characterized by government informationization, with the emphasis on building information infrastructure. At present, China's e-government has built the basic framework of "three networks and one database" system. In the past, information construction was irrelevant, self-contained, fragmented, and enjoyed a low degree, forming one "information island" after another, which affected the overall application of e-government. At the same time, in the absence of unified planning and unified technical standards at present, there are signs of rushing headlong into action, big and complete, small and complete, and blind duplication in the construction of e-government in China. If this trend is not stopped in time, it may bring immeasurable losses to the development of e-government in China. To promote government informatization and e-government, the key is to make overall planning, formulate unified technical standards, and avoid the state that all regions, departments and levels are fragmented. Because of the great differences between China and developed countries in political system, government functions, urban functions and cultural background, its practice cannot be copied. E-government evaluation can make the government and the general public understand the operation and development of e-government at all levels in China, find out the gap between China and developed countries, and urge the government to formulate e-government development strategies and countermeasures suitable for China's national conditions and with China characteristics as soon as possible, so as to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages and build China's e-government.
(D) E-government evaluation is conducive to improving the credibility and image of the government.
E-government performance evaluation is actually an information activity, which is characterized by transparent evaluation process and open information. A comprehensive and scientific description of the performance of e-government and its publication to the public will undoubtedly help the broad masses to understand, supervise and participate in e-government work. E-government performance evaluation is an opportunity for the government to show the effect of its work to the public, and the results can win public support for the government. At the same time, showing the performance of e-government can promote public supervision of new e-government. E-government performance evaluation is also conducive to improving public awareness of e-government, expanding the popularity and influence of e-government, and establishing and consolidating trust in e-government and even the whole government system. It provides opportunities for decision makers and implementers of e-government development planning of governments at all levels and their departments in China to compare, optimize and improve the planning.
Second, China's e-government performance evaluation problems
E-government performance evaluation is of great significance to improve government performance, but China's e-government performance evaluation is not mature in theory or practice, mainly in the following aspects:
(A) the lack of scientific and correct evaluation concept
Many government departments don't pay enough attention to the performance evaluation of e-government, don't know clearly and don't realize the significance of performance evaluation. In some places, e-government evaluation only comes from the whim of individual government leaders and depends on the personal understanding and quality of leaders, so its practice lacks lasting vitality. Some places think that e-government evaluation is an internal audit of government departments, and it is an internal evaluation led by the project implementation unit or its superior competent unit to strengthen internal management and control. This kind of evaluation mainly focuses on capital input and actual output, ignoring the use effect and government value of the project itself, and the indicators and methods used are relatively simple. This evaluation is usually accompanied by project acceptance, and once the acceptance is completed, the evaluation is over.
(B) the lack of corresponding theory published
The economy, efficiency, effectiveness, service quality and citizen satisfaction pursued by e-government should be measured from the standpoint and angle of citizens. At present, there is no corresponding e-government performance evaluation system, authority and standard in China, and there is no recognized evaluation method and process, which leads to the lack of basis, no rules to follow and difficulty in operation. Judging from the domestic research results, the theoretical research of e-government evaluation is not mature, and it is often limited to the technical evaluation of websites, but the evaluation research on improving the service level and internal operation efficiency of e-government is rare.
(C) the evaluation indicators are not uniform
E-government performance evaluation index system involves a wide range of contents, including both "electronic" indicators and "government" indicators; It also involves the value orientation, concept and design mode of government performance evaluation. At present, China still lacks a systematic, scientific and comprehensive evaluation method of e-government, and the corresponding evaluation index system is also very different. The fundamental difference lies in whether to evaluate whether it improves government management or services to the public. Domestic evaluation focuses on what e-government projects have done, while foreign evaluation focuses on what more convenient services e-government has provided to the public. For example, Brown University and Eisenzhe Company are also based on the evaluation of government websites, but there are also a lot of evaluations on the impact of e-government. Therefore, it can be considered that China focuses on the evaluation of e-government output, while foreign countries not only pay attention to the evaluation of e-government output, but also pay attention to the evaluation of e-government impact.
Third, China's e-government performance evaluation countermeasures and suggestions
At present, the development of e-government in China can only be said to be in the primary stage. There are many theoretical and practical problems to be analyzed and studied, and there are also many practical difficulties to be faced and solved. To this end, the following countermeasures and suggestions are put forward:
(A) the establishment of a unified scientific and reasonable evaluation system
E-government performance evaluation can have different evaluation methods and different measurement tools, but there must be a unified evaluation concept and standard. E-government performance evaluation urgently needs to formulate an open and scientific overall framework and standard of e-government performance evaluation, including index system, evaluation model, evaluation method and performance judgment method. When designing e-government evaluation indicators, we can use qualitative and quantitative indicators, and try to measure the operation of e-government in a quantitative way on the qualitative basis. Full consideration should be given to the operability of the indicators used and the availability in the acquisition process; The evaluation model mainly includes evaluation objects and their categories, including comprehensive evaluation model and project evaluation model; The index system is the concrete refinement of the evaluation model; Evaluation methods include a set of best practice questionnaires, field survey, expert evaluation and comprehensive evaluation to obtain specific index values.
(B) the combination of economic benefits and social benefits
The high input of e-government should bring high output. However, due to the political, administrative and public characteristics of e-government projects, the input and output of e-government cannot be measured completely according to the evaluation criteria of a market-oriented project, but the performance of e-government should be comprehensively considered in combination with economic and social benefits. The measurability of social benefits of e-government is inherently weak, and it is difficult to measure its social benefits objectively and accurately, which is likely to become an excuse for some government departments to cover up their low benefits and whitewash their achievements. Therefore, the government should consider the evaluation criteria of e-government goals and combine quantitative methods with qualitative methods to improve the measurability of the goals. For the social benefits of e-government, we should put forward some direct or indirect statistics and investigation methods, and measure the effect through some positive and side methods, so that e-government can embark on the correct track of paying equal attention to economic and social benefits.
(C) the introduction of third-party assessment agencies
At present, the evaluation of e-government in China is mainly based on the government itself, lacking the participation of experts and the public's evaluation of the government. Because the government is also a "rational person", in its own organizational performance evaluation, from the perspective of the government's own interests, the evaluation results often lose fairness and objectivity. In addition to the government, the main body of e-government performance evaluation should also include third-party institutions and the public. Any definite evaluation subject has its specific evaluation angle and irreplaceable comparative advantage. At the same time, the evaluation subject with a specific identity also has its own insurmountable evaluation limitations. The advantage of choosing a third-party organization as the main body of performance evaluation is that it has obvious intellectual advantages and can ensure the fairness of evaluation [3]; The advantage of choosing the public as the main body of performance evaluation is that the public is widely representative, and can be evaluated according to the subjective needs, wishes and values of the public and the public's satisfaction with the effect of e-government, so as to comprehensively measure the satisfaction of e-government to the public's needs and the public's satisfaction with e-government, and embody the concepts of "people-oriented", "convenience" and "benefiting the people" of e-government.
(D) Strengthen the e-government performance evaluation system and personnel training.
E-government performance evaluation is a long-term and systematic work. Whether it can run smoothly depends not only on the whim of leaders or personal understanding, but also on the position of e-government performance evaluation through a series of formal government documents and rules and regulations, which provides an institutional basis for e-government performance evaluation.
At the same time, e-government performance evaluation is a highly professional work, which needs corresponding evaluation technicians. Because the performance evaluation of e-government is operated by the evaluator, the evaluation risk and evaluation result depend on the quality, status and responsibility of the evaluator to a great extent. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen the construction of e-government assessors. First of all, appraisers should consciously abide by professional ethics, adhere to the professional principles of independence, objectivity and impartiality, stand on the position of a third party, completely follow the evaluation purpose, follow legal standards and operational norms, and make independent evaluation and judgment. Secondly, appraisers must master the necessary knowledge, professional skills and methods, especially pay attention to the follow-up education of appraisers, and strive to improve their quality level through corresponding professional training.
Four. Concluding remarks
The failure rate of e-government is quite high all over the world, and the performance evaluation of e-government is an important means to ensure the quality of e-government and improve its success rate. At present, there are still obvious problems in the performance evaluation of e-government in China. Therefore, in the performance evaluation of e-government, a unified, scientific and reasonable evaluation system must be established.