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Processes and Education are More Important than Technology

Fees for online services must been seen in relation to the ratio between price and performance
[9.3.2005, TREND / Jozef Andacký, Konštantín Čikovský, Martin Valášek and Peter Marčan]

 

  

Processes are the first and foremost things in the transition to an electronic form of public services, states the business consultant of S&K Management Systems Ľudovít Lauko. “Many administrative processes must be changed, and public administration must be prepared for this,” he advises.

Why shouldn’t a citizen be able to fill in an application for a new identity card, for example, over the Internet, send his photograph in advance and just go to the office to identify himself and pick up the finished document?“Both the office and the citizen would save time,” says Ľ. Lauko.

Auditors confirmed to the plenipotentiary for computerisation, Miroslav Kukučka, that his primary role should be to coordinate the activities of ministries. As well as looking after joint standards for mutual communication, he could also act as intermediary in the exchange of experience and know-how.

“Individual services in public administration are not diametrically different; most of them do not require a specific approach or completely new administrative procedures,” thinks Ľ. Lauko.

The use of the results of the process analysis, however, faces the fact that many ministries have already made much progress in building information systems. If they were to change them from their very foundations, at least one part of the investments so far would be wasted. S&K Management Systems calculated that making twenty standard online services operational does not require very much, based on the current tempo of investments in IT.It is estimated that 4.8 billion crowns would suffice. This includes the digitisation of official forms, making central state databases (registers) accessible, setting up a safety system, implementing new applications and building up a technical infrastructure including employee training.

e-signature is slowing things down

The vision of an electronic government – e-government – is about citizens and businessmen being able to deal with the whole administrative process on the public administration websites. For example, filling in a tax declaration, enclosing a settlement of advances paid in electronic form and sending it to the tax office; with the purpose of not having to fill in one single paper form or sending a single letter by ordinary post.However, one important detail prevents this; according to valid legislation, only a guaranteed electronic signature can be used in communication with public institutions, which is the only acceptable equivalent of a hand-written signature. It does provide a maximum level of safety, but is so complicated that even abroad it has not met much success. And there is no reason to believe it will be any different in Slovakia.

As is the case for banks, state administration could also, however, be content with identification based on a PIN code or GRID card. This is the opinion of the Head Tax Office, for example, which began working on such a system last year. However, it met with the opposition of the National Safety Office (NBÚ) which administers the infrastructure of the guaranteed electronic signature. The tax office put up resistance for a long time, provided arguments, but then in the end they chose the middle way.
It will be possible to fill in and send tax declarations online, but a recapitulative covering letter will have to be printed anyway, signed by hand, stamped and then sent by ordinary post. The Social Insurance has been using this system for a while now for monthly insurance statements. Institutions save administrative means, because data is processed electronically, and the NBÚ is also satisfied, even though the guaranteed electronic signature is not used.
Not according to costs
Even if online public services are successfully made operational and the identification of citizens is resolved to general contentment, computerisation can still fail due to the lack of readiness of bureaucrats. The government is aware of this and has already started to act in this part of the preparation for computerisation.
The department of transport and the Office for State Service suggest that the state invest in IT training for its employees. The plan is for all 30 thousand employees of state administration to go through a certification based on the standard of European Computer Driving Licences (ECDL); and for employees to attend appropriate training where necessary. The department of transport tried this system for itself.
“It was demonstrated that approximately one third of employees need no training and around half were brave enough to try distance learning using multimedia CDs and the Internet. The rest need an instructor,” states the director of the section of the computerisation of society, Tibor Papp.

Will online services be cheaper for citizens than their present physical form? It appears that this will not be the case. However, it has no relation to lower or higher supply costs. “Even now, we cannot talk about an economic background in defining fees for official acts” says the director of the section for personal records and documents of the Ministry of the Interior SR Anton Dubčák.
This can be seen, in his opinion, in the anomalies in the price list of official fees. And nothing is changing for the moment in defining prices. For example, for new passports which will begin to be issued from April 1st, the fees follow the benchmark of EU countries, not real costs.
Online services can be seen in a different way than a purely economic view. “Once upon a time, people sowed wheat by gathering grains in their apron and then throwing it by hand across the field. Nowadays, they have sowing-machines to do this,” mentions A. Dubčák.
“The apron was clearly cheaper, because no mechanisation or technicians were required,” He adds. In the same way, it might be cheaper to walk than to travel by car, but when people use cars, they are usually able to deal with many more affairs.

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