E- Government and the saving on public expenditure: VEDOP-MERNİS-TAKBİS applications

Following the industrial revolution, especially together with globalization movements, building of the economic and social factors depended mainly on the fast advancing information and communication technologies. The changes in the political, economic and social sphere has increased the global competition and this has subsequently increased the quality. The changes and the advancing in the information and communication technologies enabled information to be used as a new production factor.The importance of information and its value in the global competition has forced governments to change their governing approach. As a result of this change, the e-Government concept has increasingly widened in Public governance and has become an important element in competition. E-Government applications have enabled savings in the public expenditure and has simplified many processes in the public services, as a result these have been implemented in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world.The first part of this article looks at information gathering and E-Government concepts, followed by examples of E-Government applications used in Turkey and used worldwide. The article will then examine the biggest E-Government projects in Turkey; VEDOP, MERNIS and TAKBIS. Finally the article will examine in detail the three projects as to their ability and extent in saving public expenditure, dealing with off record economy and in the reduction of bureaucracy.