"Only through the development of e-government in Kyrgyzstan it is possible to achieve transparency, accountability, predictability of public procedures and establishment of order," the Advisor to the Director of the State Personnel Service of the KR, the expert Asylbek Bolotbayev believes.
According to him, successfully implemented reforms in this area not only improve the quality of public services, but also reduce the, so-called, transaction costs, reduce the possibility of corruption as well as develop trust relations between government and citizens, being both the main change engine. He shared his view about the creation of E-Gov with 24.kg news agency.
We wanted the best...
The main idea of creating elements of e-government and information society were announced in the "Information and communication technologies for development of the KR" (ICT) national strategy in 2002. Then three priorities of development were introduced for the first time: e-government, e-education, e-economy.
Subsequently the basic laws aimed at creating the legal framework for the introduction of electronic control components were adopted: "On electronic digital signature", "On information of a personal nature", "On access to information held by public bodies and local authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic"...
In the first years after its establishment, the ICT Council worked very actively. Members of the Board met at least four times a year and resolved important coordination challenges in this area. The President of the Kyrgyz Republic himself chaired the meetings, attended by ministers and other members of the government. But in the following years the President paid less and less attention to the activity of the Council. Of course, its efficiency started declining. In 2008 after "The implementation of E-Gov in the Kyrgyz Republic" conference, the ICT Council was significantly degraded by a presidential decree. Its chairman was no longer the president, but the prime minister. This meant that the development of ICT and e-government ceased to be strategically important for the country to consider them at the highest level.
it turned out as always...
In 2010 the Prime Minister signed a decree, according to which the Chairman of the Board of ICT was appointed the Vice Premier. And so far the work on e-government is often fragmented and performed within individual ministries and departments, without coordinating the overall efforts.
Projects on informatization of public bodies, the activities in the field of ICT are not funded by the Government and carried out by means of various international organizations. At the same time, due to lack of proper coordination at the national level the use of financial, human and technical resources is often duplicated and opportunities for development are reduced.
In terms of development of information and communication technologies development Kyrgyzstan took the leading position in Central Asia in 2002-2003. In subsequent years we began to lose dynamics of development. At the moment there is a dynamics, wich is observed, mainly, due to extensive factors.
Exemplar
Speaking about the reforms, Kyrgyz officials of different ranks like to cite Georgia as an example - the country, where the fight against corruption is carried out with a predominance of hard law enforcement measures. Experts, however, believe that the most appropriate for the Kyrgyzstan variant - the experience of South Korea and Estonia, where corruption is eliminated through the development of e-government and transparency.
South Korea ranked 46th among 177 countries in the ranking of the Transparency International (TI) on the prevalence of corruption in 2013 (while Kyrgyzstan took only the 150th in this list). At the same time according to UN rating on the level of e-government development, this country ranks the first one.
Within two generations South Korea has moved from the twenty poorest countries in the world, according to GDP rates, to the top 15 largest OECD economies. The uniqueness of the Korean economic miracle is that authoritarianism is combined with radical economic reforms in the state government. This country has always waged a ruthless struggle against corruption. At least three ex-presidents (the Generals Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan as well as Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide in 2009) were brought to responsibility for committing of corruption offenses, dozens of ministers and senior officers, the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief of Police and the mayor of Seoul.
E-government system was officially launched in South Korea in November 2002. In 2007, the annual United Nations E-Government Survey showed that it was on the 6th place among 192 countries and on the 2nd of 189 countries - on the level of citizens' participation. Today, it performs three main functions - organization of work within the government, civil cases and conducting channel of communication between the Cabinet and the people. The E-Gov web portal contains different information: about government policies and work of state institutions, hearing of civil cases, employment, health care system, as well as various kinds of statistics and more. People have access to various documents and can apply for and receive different information via the Internet. By means of this web resource, you can get 32 kinds of official certificates and documents; more 25 can be viewed online.
For a short historical period it made an unprecedented progress - from one of the most backward agrarian countries to leaders of the world economic development. The reasons for this lie in the presence of a number of factors: strong political will, maximum practical reforms, presence of leaders of global vision for the economic development of the country, a clear setting of goals and objectives. The considered appointments of heads of IT-programs and responsible coordinators of implementation of key state projects from the most experienced professionals, improvement of legislative framework, which allows realizing dynamic implementation of innovations, gave the results.
Estonian experience
Becoming familiarized with the strategy of Estonia, we can note the following aspects. This country took the 28th place in the world TI ranking in 2013, considering the least corrupt in the post-Soviet space. Meanwhile, in the 1990s, the organized crime, racketeering and corruption, including law enforcement bodies, flourished there. But now Estonia is far ahead even from its closest neighbors, such as Lithuania and Latvia.
How could the country achieve such results? By the introduction of IT-technologies and persistent political will. All direct contacts of public officials and citizens are minimized; the work is done through a computer network. Estonians have the ability to make payments, to issue various documents, file tax returns and vote in parliamentary elections over the Internet. Naturally, governmental organizations have no queues: only 5-6 visitors come during a day.
Meetings of the Estonian Government are also conducted online. Their duration is very small, since all the questions in advance agreed on the Internet, and dissenting opinions are reflected in the monitor. All solutions are published in the media for three days. Because of this, officials have to be ready to argue every decision to the press and the public. In addition, all activities of state bodies can be observed by every citizen through electronic information systems.
In 2013 the Anti-Corruption Commission of Ministers of Estonia has developed the "Honest state and oversight" strategy. Now they have to make significant adjustments in the anti-corruption policy in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors. Even today the MPs in Estonia do not have cars and other personal benefits. Moreover, they offer amendments intended to reduce reimbursement for their hospitality expenses by 50 percent and abolish the system of assistants.
If there is a will...
Kyrgyzstan is advisable to use the possibility of two strategies of these countries, seeking to promote transparency and e-government system. Our state faces urgent tasks - to achieve greater transparency, accountability, predictability of public procedures and good governance, which must be strictly adhered to officials. This will be an essential tool to overcome corruption and economic development.
However, the leaders of Kyrgyzstan should select the foreground way of development for further promotion of e-government and ensuring of transparency of its operations, reduction of corruption, improvement of accountability, governance and economic development. Will there be enough political will?
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Makhinur Niyazova
Quelle/Source: 24.kg News Agency, 16.04.2014
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