There is a substantial literature on e-government that discusses information and communication technology (ICT) as an instrument for reducing the role of bureaucracy in government organizations. The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical discussion of this literature and to provide a complementary argument which favors the use of ICT in the public sector to support the operations of bureaucratic organizations. Based on the findings of a case study – of the Venice Municipality in Italy – the paper discusses how ICT can be used to support rather than eliminate bureaucracy. Using the concepts of e-bureaucracy and functional simplification and closure, the paper proposes evidence and support for the argument that bureaucracy should be preserved and enhanced where e-government policies are concerned. Functional simplification and closure are very valuable concepts for explaining why this should be a viable approach. •We discuss how ICT affects the operation of public sector bureaucracies;•We propose a framework (functional simplification and closure) to study ICT impacts on bureaucratic rationalisation;•We discuss the case of the Municipality of Venice in the light of the proposed framework;•We discuss the condition under which ICT has positive impacts on bureaucratic procedures and hence on public sector delivery.