FOCUS: Mr. Alkalay, a control and technical centre of the E-Government was opened not long ago, what is its activity?
Yuri Alkalay: The control and technical centre of the e-government constitutes a complex system, the purpose of which is to provide integration and an opportunity for data exchange among the primary registers of the state. That way the so-called complex and integrated online services will be enabled.
FOCUS: When will the data exchange start in the system of the e-government?
Yuri Alkalay: It will start with the implementation of the project “The Integration System of E-Government”, the deadline of which is August 21 this year. Then some registers will start exchanging data. The connection of all the registers will be difficult because most of them have different technologies and access regime – the information in them is presented in different formats. So, parallel to the project, we are considering the issue about realizing an exchange between the registers. The online administration already functions, which is not sufficient because the whole stock of paper documents has to be replaced by online document exchange. As the e-government bill is approved, all the departments and local administration offices will have to implement the e-communication.
FOCUS: How will the e-government facilitate the citizens and business?
Yuri Alkalay: E-government doesn’t only refer to the online exchange of documents between citizens and administration, and respectively between business and administration. The international experience has revealed that the share of the online exchange of the business with the administration is some 50%-60%, whereas the online exchange of citizens of developed countries with the administration is up to 30%. The basis of the e-government is the re-engineering and automatization of administrative processes so that the business and citizens can use the so-called “one office”, both online and physically.
FOCUS: Do you think that the online exchange will reduce the level of corruption?
Yuri Alkalay: Experience has shown that the answer is definitely “yes”. The online exchange will do away with the preconditions for corruption, namely, the personal contact when documents are submitted, the impossibility for tracing back the realization of a service. The projects that we are developing will cut the personal contact between applicants and executer, on the one hand, and on the other hand, will enable the applicants to control the process, the terms of fulfillment of a service and the final result.
FOCUS: Do you plan layouts in the state administration?
Yuri Alkalay: It is wrong to think that the human factor will vanish after the introduction of the e-government. For a long time the administrative system will need experts for most of the services it offers. For example, the process of getting a construction permit can’t be automatized completely. The application can be submitted online and the final result of the service can be received online, but the process itself can’t be carried out online. The exchange of information in the administration and the movement of information inside the administration will also be automatized. The international practice is very indicative of that – the savings from introducing the online government systems are not due to layouts of employees, but due to the abolishment of the paper document exchange along with all the expenses on fax, toners, express services and etc. The introduction of the e-government in the administration will raise the criteria about the qualification of employees in the sphere of IT and the administrative processes.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Rumyana Shumkova
Quelle/Source: Focus News, 18.03.2007
