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Organizational Reform and Technological Modernizationin the Public Sector

or

A view over some Information Society initiatives in Portugal

Pedro Veiga

5 March 2005

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Agenda

• Digital Cities initiative (1998-2000)

• Information Society Operational Programme (2000-2002)

• UMIC Work program (2002-2005)

• Concluding Remarks

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Digital Cities initiative (1998-2000)

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National Initiative for the Information Society

• Launched March 1996

• Green Paper for the Information Society in Portugal– April 1997

• Action Plans– November 1997

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Digital Cities Programme (pilot phase)

• E-Government– Local government

• Tele-medicine• Initiatives for schools

– Connect schools to the Internet– Educational Contents

• Local economy– Tele-work, eCommerce for the local economy,

• Citizens with special needs

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e-Gov sub-projects

• e-Gov projects were considered a priority

• Finding:– Limited capacity to develop sub-projects in this area

• But some success cases– Forms for the Agriculture Department (Vila Real)

– Wireless Community Network (Bragança)

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e-Gov sub-projects(some difficulties)

• Availability of communications infrastructures– Limited broadband access– Very expensive

• Lack of human resources

• Limited understanding of the objectives of the programme– What means putting administration services on-line?

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Information Society Operational Programme(2000-2002)

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Information Society Operational Programme

• 2000-2006– First phase 2000-2002

• Several action lines– R&D, Accessibility, Contents, Training (basic and

advanced),– Espaços Internet, connect all schools, ...

• Digital Cities and Regions– e-Gov projects (Municipal level)– Communication Infrastructures

• Open Government– e-Gov projects (Central Government level)– Communication Infrastructures

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Digital Cities and Regions

• e-Gov projects difficult to be designed– Municipality Web sites – YES– Delivery of on-line services - NO

• Lack of human resources to re-engineer the back-office– In expertise and number– Some municipalities are too small

• Complex legal framework

• Difficulties in changing the legacy systems

• Cost and availability of communications

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Open Government

• Some objectives– improve the level of communication

between governments and citizens and companies;

– greater efficiency in administrative processes

– better level of service and reduction of running costs;

– increase in the transparency of the decisions and in the steps taken during the decision process

• Basis of evaluation criteria

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Open Government

• Some success cases– Ministry of Justice network and services

– Ministry of Environment• Data networks and data exchange

– IRS submission

– Ministry of Finance network

• but ...

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Open Government

• Web layer over existing bureaucracy– Organizational engineering– Re-engineer administration processes

• Difficult cooperation between departments– The administration archipelago– The “Certidão”

• Complex and moving legal / regulatory framework

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FCCN Example

• Connect schools to the Internet– eEurope 2002 objective

• Challenges– Gather very reliable and updated data on

schools

– Give updated information to staff teaching and technical at Municipalities

• Centralized system consisting of two portals– Worked well

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UMIC Work program(2002-2005)

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UMIC – Unidade de Missão Inovação e Conhecimento

• Action Plan for the Information Society

• Action Plan for the Electronic Government

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Some UMIC Projects

• b-ON– On-line access to 12.000

scientific journals

• Virtual Campus (e-U)– Wireless networks in all higher

education campuses

– Educational and administrative contents on-line

– Roaming between campuses

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Some UMIC Projects

• Broadband for Universities– Optical cable connection

some major Universities

• Broadband for schools– Migration to ADSL

– Teacher training

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Some UMIC Projects• PUBLIC INTERNET ACCESS POINTS

• ICT IN SCHOOLS

• DIGITAL CITIES AND REGIONS

• DIGITAL INCLUSION - for a society where ALL participate

• NATIONAL e-PROCUREMENT PROGRAM

• CITIZEN´S PORTAL

• INITIATIVE OF PROCESSES REENGINEERING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

• PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS RATIONALIZATION

• NATIONAL INFORMATION SECURITY FRAMEWORK

• ELECTRONIC VOTE

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Concluding Remarks

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• A significant amount of work has been done ... but

• The public administration works as “isolated islands”• Tendency to “reinvent the wheel”

– ... I’ve done it my way

• Duplication of efforts and resources– Resource sharing is difficult for cultural reasons– Frequent changes in the structure of government cause waste of

resources (e.g, ministerial networks)– Lack of interoperability standards

• Need to re-engineer administration processes

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• Complex legal framework– Too many exceptions, frequent changes, ...– Complex and long decision process

• Too much legislative/regulatory production– Overwhelming bureaucracy– Cost and complexity of updating information systems

• Human resources

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Thank You