For another, the key goal of any One-Stop-Shop is to provide convenience and speed to users, both of which are almost totally absent in the OSS that operates physically at the ministry. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that it is a painful ordeal for the people who approach the OSS to start up a business.
Unlike a normal OSS where users provide information only once which is shared with different government agencies, at the existing OSS the users deposit a bundle of documents as required. The same bundle of documents is again required for other agencies such as the Royal Oman Police (ROP), Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health and Muscat Municipality. By the time all procedures are over, one is already highly exhausted, having undergone much mental torture in the process. Procedures are long and punitive.
The objective of any One-Stop-Shop service is to simplify procedures so that individuals do not have to deposit many documents to different government agencies and the duplication is eliminated since information about the firm is provided only once. This is not the case with the Commerce Ministry’s OSS.
Also, the location of the OSS is highly inconvenient. The space provided is very limited. In fact, the ministry needs a new purpose-built building outside Muscat area. The current location is uncomfortable and provides no parking space. To put it bluntly, the experience at the ministry’s current OSS is totally disgusting and its functioning needs to be overhauled 100 per cent.
This assumes significance as more than 50,000 young Omanis are out in the market each year looking for jobs. If they get a very encouraging environment to start up their own businesses and to generate jobs instead of asking for jobs, then half the problem is solved.
The key question that naturally arises in one’s mind is that are our ministers used to always waiting for Royal directives before taking action to improve things or they can act proactively to do what is required to discharge their well-defined responsibilities?
Of course, the Royal directives about the need to extend all support to start-up ventures, e-services and regular interaction with the people to find out and cater to their requirements are well known.
After 41 years of development, the unavailability of an efficient One-Stop-Shop is disgusting and disgraceful.
Plans to launch the online One-Stop-Shop have been around for years now. But progress on this front has been painfully slow. What we have seen are the media campaigns and even propaganda without any concrete results.
So far the OSS system has failed to go online and leaves a lot to be accomplished with regard to its work environment, technical capacity, efficiency, and speed.
With the launch of the Official eGovernment Services Portal (www.oman.om) in 2009, it was hoped that the OSS would be online shortly. But nothing of the sort happened.
People are also unhappy with the tardy pace of the e-government progress. The eGovernment portal, the main gateway to the Sultanate’s online services, offers only 102 e-services, many of which are of no use in daily lives of citizens.
Last year Information Technology Authority (ITA) signed an agreement with the Commerce Ministry to promote eGovernment services among the Sultanate’s business community through the OSS project in an easy and comfortable manner.
According to the ministry this will help keep pace with the steady increase in the number of daily transactions, which stand at around 1,500 per day for example in commercial, industrial and mining sectors.
But again the progress has been tardy and leaves much to be accomplished. To be sure, a good world-class One-Stop-Shop brings all types of services to users when they want it, and where they want it, which reduces time invested in moving to different government offices; and finally it is a helpful tool in encouraging people to launch their own businesses.
Both ministry and ITA continue to be high on rhetoric and short on action. It was never a part of Omani culture to launch publicity campaigns without any concrete and sincere work and results. One-Stop-Shop, whether offline or online, is supposed to be highly supportive of new business ventures.
Gone are the days when people used to start up businesses in the traditional way in which one had to complete more than a dozen procedures, attend to different government offices in different ministries, fill out multiple forms, licenses and permits – sometimes the same information – for different public agencies, involving weeks in starting up a business.
The One-Stop-Shop of modern times offers the possibility to start up a business using one website in a proper order in accordance with the entrepreneurs’ needs. The website simplifies the process of starting up a business due to the fact that a single site groups all the relevant procedures.
Unfortunately, in a country like Oman which holds out immense natural resources, business opportunities and talent, starting up a business is a long-drawn-out and very discouraging process.
The start-up process needs to be simplified on an urgent basis by a single electronic site regrouping all the relevant procedures.
This is important because the Council of Ministers recently directed all government departments to expedite the direct electronic linkage among government units to facilitate the provision of services to citizens.
Moreover, last year in April His Majesty Sultan Qaboos issued a Royal directive to develop communication channels between government bodies and citizens to facilitate people’ transactions at all institutions of the state.
With the launch of the official eGovernment Services Portal in 2009, it was hoped that communication between the government and citizens will be significantly bolstered at all levels of transactions.
Regrettably, so far it has not happened although millions of rials have been invested in the portal-related projects. What has happened is the launch of publicity campaigns to trumpet achievements that do not exist and about the awards received by ITA from foreign agencies.
So far only 21 self-service kiosks have been installed all over Oman, including 15 in Muscat; hardly 10,000 people have registered; and still fewer use the eGovernment Services Portal. Of the 52 ministries, hardly 10 ministries are part of the portal that too with a limited number of e-services. The Commerce Ministry, Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) and other important government entities are not yet part of the e-Government portal. The question is how long the people will have to wait when an efficient, business-friendly and world-class One-Stop-Shop is put in place.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Fahmy al Harthy
Quelle/Source: Oman Daily Observer, 01.04.2012
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