E-Government controls in service-oriented auditing perspective: Beyond single window

Whereas e-government used to be focused mainly on digitalizing documents, the attention is currently shifting to the question how the main governmental functions service, care and control can be realized in the best way in an information age. In this respect, e-customs is a case in point. Worldwide Customs is transforming from the labor intensive paper work it used to be for ages to “e-customs,” where international trade is facilitated by fully exploiting the current global digital infrastructure. As a consequence, a shift in the distribution of responsibilities can be observed (so-called horizontal supervision). The authors show how this shift can be leveraged by further technical developments grouped under the label of Service-Oriented Auditing (innovative auditing services based on the Service-Oriented Architecture). A particular challenge is coordination. There is a need for better coordination of the numerous governmental and supply chain controls. They explore different coordination mechanisms to support this development.