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E-Government:
With Our Face to the People
13 July 2007, Friday, 7pm
Mr Youri Alkalay, Jr
Director of the eGovernment Directorate
Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform
There was a serious concern when these words were adopted for the slogan of the very new Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform of Bulgaria. Isn’t it too ambitious for a new administration, with the youngest staff among all other ministries, to try to convert the model of the administration, to change the approach to the citizen, to develop an enterprise model in service provision? Only the time will give the answer of this question, but meanwhile we have started and are following the project roadmap both for changing the legal framework and establishing of technical conditions for performing e-governance.
Working on the two of the “base columns” (regulatory framework and technical conditions) for the success of the e-governance we can gladly report that the third component – positive political will is present in the current cabinet (Council of ministers) of Bulgaria. A need of changes, transition from the state of administration oriented model to the state of a citizen oriented model was detected by the higher state management and to the administrative reform was dedicated a priority status. The development of the e-government systems and deployment of e-governance principles in the administration were recognized as a factor with a primary importance for the administrative reform in Bulgaria.
The Law for electronic document and electronic signature, adopted back in 2002, was targeted to describe the place of the e-document and to assure its equal power to the paper documents. What were missing were the main principles of electronic exchange and the detailed description of the roles of the key-players: administration on all levels, citizens and business.
The need of a constitutional type of law were found by the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform in the very first months of it’s existence and after almost an year of hard work, public debate and inter-administrational co-ordination the Law on e- governance in Bulgaria is a fact as the most important regulation directed towards re-engineering of the administrative model.
What makes this act so important for the administration? The essence, the main principle of the Law is “a single collection and creation of data” or said another words - “a single creation and multiple use of data”. Translated into normal people language this means that administrative institutions can not request the submission of certain data from citizens and organizations (once presented), and they are obligated to collect it officially from the primary administrator (register). It is obvious that this principle will change the orientation of the administration business, so from now on the customer will be in the focus of the system.
The critics would say: “The BIG BROTHER IS COMING” and they could be right in case that there were no limitations, such as: “The primary data administrator is obliged to send the data to all administrative authorities, that on a base of a law have the right to maintain this particular data” and also “no administration have rights to keep the received data for any other services than the requested once, unless that there is a certain agreement of the customer (citizen or business).
An important issue is that the scope of the law includes not only administrations, but bodies performing public functions (notary, etc.) and organizations providing social services (telecoms, power-suppliers, universities, etc.) as well. Such a wide base provides much more possibilities for the customer, but from the other side brings additional complications to system organization, data security issues, authentication, etc.
The signal to the administrations is loud and clear - serious changes have to be done. The administration and other involved bodies are in front of a serious challenge and have to re-organize themselves in order to face it:
- Information systems should exchange data and documents – interoperable automated connections should be established;
- All processes and regulations have to be re-engineered (amended) in order ensure the support of the e-services;
- A single point of entry for all government services has to be established – either this should be the e-gov portal or a one-stop-shop counter in the community service center;
- A completely new looking public servant has to take a place behind the counters – well educated, with IT skills, fluent in the systems of e-government;
- The state should become active in infrastructure development (internet penetration, other modes of access, possibilities for disabled and other social groups to access the e-services and information, etc.)
Is it enough? What else has to be done in order to have a real working e-governance model? The answer to this question is not simple – it has to include several topics like the achievement of technical interoperability between information systems of different administrations, development of the proper infrastructure and equal possibilities for access, increasing administrative capacity, re-engineering of administrative processes, etc. everyone of each is vital to the final result.
Of the up most importance is that the focus of efforts to make e-governance workable must be the analysis and the development of the regulatory framework with the goal of allowing e-exchange, e-identity, paper-less document turnover to be an integral part of the administrative operations. All system of laws, regulations and acts of the local administrations has to be carefully revised and all limitations duly removed. Engagement of the “internal” experts in the working groups is an important factor in achieving success, because they are bringing the practical knowledge for the procedures and proceses.
The adoption of the Law on e-governance and technical regulations connected to it are the most important step in the re-organization of the administration, but one fact has to be remembered – in every regulatory framework there are a lot of regulations in which certain service is described in details like a paper based with paper only result, etc. A deep analysis has to be performed and all regulations amended properly, in order to ensure the complete framework for a successful transformation of the Government and implementation of e-governance principles as a base for all services.
Presentation (PPT, 1MB, in English)
more about the lecturer
 Youri Alkalay has an MSc in Automation at the Department of Automation and Organisation of the Systems at the Technical University – Sofia and has postgraduate qualification in Mathematical Aplications in Automation at the same University. He specialised in Effective Management at the Management School, Open University, Sofia.Youri Alkalay has experience in the field of Research, Communication and Information Technology Systems which he gained at the Central Research Institute for Complex Automation and SMEs. Youri Alkalay is currently Director of the eGovernment at the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform of Republic of Bulgaria where he is responsible for the overall implementation of the eGovernment. |