If approved, the fiscal year 2003 federal budget will not have a significant effect on improving the security of vulnerable government systems for at least three years, according to Gartner, Inc. "'Although the proposed budget includes a 64 percent increase in IT security spending by government agencies, most of the spending is remedial,'" said John Pescatore, vice president for Gartner. "'The money will go towards fixing known deficiencies, not toward acquiring new and improved security capabilities.'"

Another factor in diluting the effectiveness of the monetary increase on homeland security is the time it takes for government processes to take effect. "'Due to the prolonged government programming and budgeting process, products to address resiliency, reliability and intelligence-sharing in a post-Sept. 11 environment cannot be implemented on a large scale for another three or more years,'" Pescatore said.

Source : "Gartner Says New Government Funding Will Not Have a Significant Effect on Improving Security Of Government Systems for at Least Three Years," October 7, 2002

"More than 60 percent of all e-government initiatives either fail or fall short of expected outcomes, according to Gartner, Inc.'s Executive Programs (GartnerEXP)."

"The average national government has 160 different departments, according to GartnerEXP. Digital government initiatives, spanning multiple agencies and possibly multiple levels of government, require more political capital, complex governance structures, multilevel funding mechanisms and relationship skills than projects contained in a single organization."

"'The many levels of government, each with its own laws, codes and policies, add to the complexity, resulting in large, and thus risky, e-government endeavors that try to cover too much ground,' said Judith Carr, vice president and senior program director with GartnerEXP's government research. 'It's critical that governments groom a new generation of endeavor managers to head these complex, expensive and risky initiatives.'"

"GartnerEXP says many of these e-government failures are attributed to government agencies failing to understand and manage the differences between endeavors, programs and projects."

Source: "GartnerEXP Says a Majority of E-Government Initiatives Fail or Fall Short of Expectations," April 30, 2002