Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview VI. Working Group on E-government Author(s) David Špaček Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic David Spacek, Jiri Spalek Title Communication and electronic public administration: Some issues in the context of the Czech system of public administration File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Communication within the system of public administration is considered a crucial factor for achieving effective and economical functioning of the whole system of public administration as a specific institutional tool for the implementation of public policies. The quality of information relationships between individual subjects of public administration is determined by a number of factors, and it influences the overall systematic structure of the whole public administration organization. Further, it also affects the quality of information flows carried out within the whole system of public authority of the state, as well as the characteristics of external relationships of public administration. The quality of communication can be significantly influenced by utilization of modern information and communication technologies (ICT). The proposed paper will analyze especially the relationship between electronic public administration and the present public administration model as developed within the reform of public administration in the Czech Republic, which has a significant impact on the form of electronic public administration in the Czech context. The paper will also deal with related issues that may arise in this “mixed” model of public administration in the Czech Republic, i.e. when both of the types of public administration activities - state administration and self-governmental activities - are carried out by the same bodies both at the regional and local levels, and not by bodies with separate competencies. The paper will also analyze possible assets of utilization of ICT for the improvement of communication within this particular system of public administration. In this respect, we will also provide a critical analysis of the Czech Portal of the Public Administration (www.portal.gov.cz) and competencies of the central level of public administration in the area of communication management and utilization of ICTs by subjects of public administration in the Czech Republic. The paper will, among others, draw on an empirical survey focused on a critical analysis of the communication between two most recently set up components of public administration: regional authorities and municipal authorities with extended sphere of activity (“municipalities of type III”), especially as regards their activities in the sphere of state administration. However, the results of this survey also contain recommendations for the whole system of communication within state administration. The mentioned survey based on a questionnaire survey conducted from June to August 2005 as part of the “Conception of Improvement of Communication between the State Administration and Self-governing Bodies” project (VA2005205005). This survey was carried out by the Masaryk University as deputed by the Czech Ministry of the Interior. The aim of this project, based especially on the questionnaire survey, is to submit a pragmatic solution to the coordination of communication between the regional level of state administration and state administration implemented at the level of municipalities of type III (and possibly their potential communication relationships with the central level of public administration). The topic of the paper comes under the conference working group VI (E-Government). It is related to the following efforts of the working group coordinators: “We would like to encourage additional country specific studies in order to obtain a more holistic picture of e-government development in CEE countries.” The proposed contribution focuses on the problematic area that has been described by the coordinators of working group VI as follows: “in-depth analysis of E-government development in individual countries by specific technological, regulatory and organisational aspects”; and it also concentrates on the issues of “the effect of E-government on improving public governance and management policy (public policy, management and governance).”
