Governments across the OECD are looking to digitalise their economies, and thereby enhance public service delivery. Digitalisation is an immense opportunity– offering citizens improved access to services and increased digital effectiveness – for the public sector and citizens alike. Governments need to be well equipped to meet digitalisation’s unique challenges and effectively navigate the digital transformation process.
The successful delivery of digitally enabled public services hinges upon government capacities to master the day-to-day operations of digital transformation: planning, procuring, implementing, and monitoring related projects. Bottlenecks in delivery, especially within the procurement process, put governments at risk of failed project implementation, unnecessary costs, and unrealised benefits from digitalisation.
Greece has made digital transformation a top priority in recent years. While advances in political commitment reflect this shift, development of the public sector's institutional capacity to successfully implement and operationalise projects has lagged. Digital and information and communication technology (ICT) procurement presents several distinct challenges, such as: 1) lengthy implementation of procedures, 2) limited market-interaction, 3) lack of focus on quality and agile processes, and, 4) procurement professionals' capabilities.
As Greece anticipates an inflow of public funds from the European Recovery and Resilience Funds (RRF), it is increasingly critical that the government ensures its readiness in managing top-down implementation of digital transformation projects. This report seeks to help the government of Greece strengthen its institutional capabilities for coherent planning, management, procurement, and monitoring of digital government projects. It highlights the role of government-wide co-ordination via Project Management Office (PMO), a key tool to streamline project implementation and agile project delivery.
This report is part of the project “Simplification of administrative processes and support for advancing the implementation of digital transformation projects” conducted in Greece. The action was funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the OECD, in co-operation with the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission.
The report was approved for publication by the Public Governance Committee and the Regulatory Policy Committee on 8 December 2022 and prepared for publication by the Secretariat.