One such new venture is that already operational at court where court sitting postponements are being notified to the lawyers of the parties by SMS. Later on, this service may be extended to the clients, but this would require further tightening of the system. Negotiations are ongoing with the Chamber of Advocates.
Another service regards the notification of trade licences, Public Transport Authority and Malta Tourism Authority licences. There are around 40,000 such licences. Their owners will be notified by an SMS when their licence is up for renewal.
IT and Investments Minister Austin Gatt took part at the second EU ministerial meeting on e-government last week. The conference took place in Como following the first meeting which was held in Brussels in November 2001. All accession countries were represented at the Como meeting.
The conference had two main aims:
- To ensure that e-government services would not be offered by governments to their own citizens but also on a pan-European level; and
- To identify best practices.
Malta also participated in the Europe Awards which were won by Austria, Spain and Germany.
The Maltese submission for best practice regarded M-government.
The submission was being proposed at the same time that 8,000 students all over Malta and in Gozo were receiving, for the very first time ever, their exam results by SMS. The experiment was a huge success.
Although SMS technology is somewhat weak, as it depends on outside factors, such as in areas where there is no proper mobile phone cover, only 3 per cent of the messages were lost.
Furthermore, there were no complaints whatsoever that someone, for instance, received an SMS which told him (her) they had passed, only for the hard copy letter then telling them they had failed.
Another source of satisfaction for the e-government commission was that they had got the two telecom operators to work together on a common platform.
This represented a saving of some Lm50,000 as otherwise they would have had to develop a platform each.
There are other possible uses of SMSs which may be launched soon.
One such use regards the use of SMS to call MPs for divisions in the House of Representatives. This system can also be extended to inform them of the agenda of the next sitting.
Over the next few days it is also expected that government will announce that recipients of Social Security payments to the bank accounts will be told by an SMS that the benefit has been lodged with their account. Any time a benefit is due, many phone calls are made to the department, and consequently much time is wasted by people who want to know if the lodgement has been made.
Clients will be able to use this system to apply for specific government services. There will be a specific site on the Internet where clients can apply to get these services through SMS. One can also go to the appropriate department and register there, or else as from September they can apply through the local council.
One issue regards payment through the mobile for government services. Discussions on this issue with the Malta Communications Authority are at an advanced stage. This will enable, for instance, one to order a certificate from the Public Registry over the mobile phone.
To do this, the mobile must be linked to the person�s credit card. The technology to establish this link is there. What is needed is to set up an electronic payment gateway so that people may be able to pay over the Internet. This will then be replicated for M-government.
The date when these kinds of services start being used by people depends on when the agreement is reached with MCA. There are complex issues of licensing involved, the government sources told this paper. On its part, government would prefer these services to be cost neutral, or even cheaper if the SMS system is used, than they are now when one has to go in person to the department or office.
Once agreement is reached on this matter, the way will be open for many services to be able to be delivered both on the Internet and through SMS.
Deadline anticipated by one year
The Como meeting was attended by 32 ministers from EU member states, accession countries, applicant countries, and EFTA and EEA countries too.
The meeting discussed the way that e-government is developing across Europe with regards to basic public services.
The Commission insisted with the governments represented at the conference that the Internet must not represent just a window of information � i.e. telling you when such an office is open, who heads it, etc. What is more important is that the Internet must be used to deliver services. Governments must not be minimalistic in the way they approach the Internet, the Commission told them. Otherwise people will never get the proper incentive to get Internet access and to put e-government in practice.
Over the coming years, the Commission told the countries represented, e-government services must become the rule in the EU.
The meeting concluded with basic agreement to deliver at least 20 basic services by the end of 2004.
The Maltese Government however intends to have all these 20 services up and running by the end of 2003.
Around half of them are already available. Today, one can use the internet to:
- search for a job;
- apply for social security services for disabled or elderly people;
- send a message to government;
- make a declaration to the police (even this is already available);
- find out which books are held by which public library;
- ask for a Public Registry certificate;
- pay company tax;
- submit the VAT declaration (without being able to pay it online so far);
- report environmental matters;
- calculate one's Income Tax and submitting one�s declaration (even here, no payment is yet possible for the time being).
- Payment of driver licence
- Payment of vehicle licence;
- Payment of VAT;
- Payment of Company Tax;
- Submission of data to the National Statistics Office; and
- Payment of National Insurance payments (for employers).
The development of Internet and mobile phone services including payment bring to the fore the big issues of the trust, the security and the privacy of such systems.
The system government is moving towards seems to be one where authentication and the keys to the system will not be controlled by government but by a private entity which will manage the digital keys of the citizen.
The local councils will be the registry offices for one's electronic identity. Anyone will have to have his own electronic ID Card.
The request then goes to this private entity that generates two electronic keys, which, when used together, will permit access to the services.
One will be like the PIN code which we use to get money from ATMs while government will hold the second key to the person's information.
It is only when these two keys are matched that access is permitted.
Government is then planning two additional levels of security in areas where the sensitivity of the service requested is even more serious.
The first level is a digital certificate or a CD with an encrypted code which will allow the user to access that level of information. The most serious level, the third level, will see the use of a Smart Card or even possibly a fingerprint scan. It is at this level that information regarding the health of the individual will be released to him. This is the level of security at which people are perceived to trust.
Technology in this respect has already been developed and is being tested by Microsoft.
The tender for the private entity which will ensure the security of e-government closes tomorrow. It is hoped that the tender will be adjudicated by the end of August. Malta will be thus one of the first countries in Europe to get things so far advanced.
The security this system entails is a very serious one. The company which wins the tender will have a service agreement with very high penalties for infringement.
Benchmarking
The Como meeting also discussed the second benchmarking report of all European countries. A report on this survey will be given next February in Budapest. The coming report will examine all member states and accession countries together. It will focus on what each country is offering by the way of e-government and what take-up each service has as well as the level of internationality of the service.
The Maltese Government intends to do well in this report said ministry sources. The first report, which was published in June 2002 was already very good with regards to Malta.
Malta, as compared to the other countries, does not have any problem regarding telecommunications and it will have even less problems in the coming years considering that a broadband strategy is due to be in place by the end of September.
Government hopes that by the time the report is drawn up, Malta will be at a par with the Nordic countries.
Quelle: Malta Independent
