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Croatia

Central State Portal (HR0036)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Croatia Action Plan 2018-2020

Action Plan Cycle: 2018

Status: Active

Institutions

Lead Institution: Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia

Support Institution(s): Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, Council for the State IT Infrastructure, Council of the OGP Initiative

Policy Areas

E-Government, Public Service Delivery

IRM Review

IRM Report: Croatia Design Report 2018-2020

Starred: Pending IRM Review

Early Results: Pending IRM Review

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Access to Information Technology

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion: Pending IRM Review

Description

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL STATE PORTAL
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Implementation of the measure is under way and will continue until 21 August 2020
Leader of the measure OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
Description of the measure
Which public issue does the measure address? It is necessary to continue integrating the internet pages of state
administration bodies on the Central State Portal. Given the limitations
noted in the current version of the Central State Portal, and the specific
issues related to individual state administration bodies which cover wide
fields, the set-up must be improved by adapting it to the specific
demands of individual bodies. Within the e-Citizens system, work must
continue to develop electronic services for citizens in line with their
needs. For the My Administration page, an analysis of user satisfaction
should be conducted, along with confirming further user needs, so that
the page content can be improved. From May 2016 to May 2017, the
Central State Portal was visited 1,278,505 times and 3,400,499 pages
were consulted.
What does the measure include? The measure includes improving the content and design of the Central
State Portal. It should be the central site where physical and legal
persons can get information on services provided by public authorities,
and the central place for access to electronic services. The expected
results will be a redesigned portal (in accordance with the analysis of
user experiences related to e-Citizens and the Central State Portal
already conducted, and the new Directive from the European
Commission on easier access to web pages).
In addition, it is necessary for as many state bodies as possible to
transfer to the joint system for managing web page content (CMS)
owned by the Government of the Republic of Croatia, which guarantees
content will be stored in a single place in the centre for shared services.
How does the measure contribute to resolving the public
issue?
A good quality, simple, consistent web page which fulfils a service for
citizens can contribute to increased use. By improving the arrangement
of information and services, it will be easier and more accessible to use.
The introduction of new visual elements and links with functionality will
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mean that the pages work as a unit to link citizens and information.
Transferring to a joint system for managing the web page content of
state bodies will have a unifying effect and create budget savings, as it
will no longer be necessary for each body to make an individual contract
for web page development and storage.
Why is this measure relevant to the values of the Open
Government Partnership?
The measure is relevant to transparency, since it improves the quality of
published information by increasing the number of items in high-quality,
updated form, and improves public access to information by improving
the user interface, making it easier to access content and electronic
services.
Additional information • The measure is in accordance with the e-Croatia 2020 Strategy
Activities Implementation start date Implementation end date
11.1. Continuing to develop the Central State Portal
as the single place for access to the internet pages
of state administration bodies Underway 31 August 2020
11.2. Continuing to develop e-services through the
e-Citizens system Underway 31 August 2020
11.3. Continuing to develop the My Administration
page Underway 31 August 2020
Contact information
Person responsible in the body which is Leader of the
measure
Function, department
Email and telephone
State participants
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Other participants
involved
Central State Office for the Development of the Digital Society, Council
for the State IT Infrastructure, Council of the OGP Initiative
NGOs, private sector,
multilaterals, working groups

IRM Midterm Status Summary

11. Central State Portal Development

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

"Measure 11. Further Development of the Central State Portal" [99]

A good quality, simple, consistent web page which fulfils a service for citizens can contribute to increased use. By improving the arrangement of information and services, it will be easier and more accessible to use. The introduction of new visual elements and links with functionality will mean that the pages work as a unit to link citizens and information. Transferring to a joint system for managing the web page content of state bodies will have a unifying effect and create budget savings, as it will no longer be necessary for each body to make an individual contract for web page development and storage. (…)"

Milestones:

11.1. Continuing to develop the Central State Portal as the single place for access to the internet pages of state administration bodies

  • Number of ministries and government offices which organise their internet pages as part of the Central State Portal
  • Pages in the Central State Portal adapted for access by persons with special needs

11.2. Continuing to develop e-services through the e-Citizens system

  • Number of new services in the e-Citizens system

11.3. Continuing to develop the My Administration page

  • Number of items in the category My Administration
  • My Administration page updated regularly

Start date: Underway

End date: 21 August 2020

Context and Objectives

This commitment is a continuation from the previous action plan [100] and includes three important components: continued development of the Central State Portal (Milestone 11.1), e-services in the e-Citizens system (11.2), and My Administration webpage (11.3). The indicators stated in each milestone do not mention a specific increase in numerical or percentage terms. The IRM researcher plans to compare beginning and final figures when evaluating results at the end of the action plan implementation period.

The Central State Portal has been available online [101] since June 2014. The platform included all 11 government offices, 12 out of 20 ministries, [102] all 5 central state offices, and 1 out of 7 state administrative organizations [103] at the time the action plan was written. The IT solution and the Portal itself were incorporated into the Information Systems and Information Technologies Support Agency (APIS IT), [104] and will be freely downloadable and its source code published upon completion of the project. [105] According to Ministry of Administration officials, [106] 16 ministries in total will be integrated in the gov.hr domain by the end of 2019. The expected results will be the launch of a redesigned portal in line with the new EU Web Accessibility Directive, [107] adoption of its implementing acts, [108] as well as the new Croatian Web Accessibility Act. [109]

Potentially the most impactful milestone in this commitment, and one of the most important activities in the third action plan overall, is further development of the e-Citizens system. This includes implementation of key state IT infrastructure projects, which are to be partially implemented in 2019: e-Business, e-Fees, e/m-Signature, and e/m-Seal. [110] This also includes expanding use of the e-ID as a certificate, since it will soon allow Croatian citizens to use e-services in other EU countries. [111] According to representatives of the Ministry of Administration, there are now 54 e-services available in the system and 66 e-mail messages that can be delivered to every user through their personal email. [112] From its introduction in the beginning of 2016 to March 2019, there were 661,842 unique users signed up at least once for e-services. [113] In total, e-services have been used over 9,000,000 times in the same period. [114] The e-Citizens system won the first open award in Europe at the 2015 OGP Global Summit held in Mexico City, in the category of "open government for improving public services." [115]

The milestones all relate to increasing access to information through technology and innovation, by opening new technological venues and offering new e-services to both citizens and businesses. The potential impact of the commitment is transformative, given that its most important milestone (11.2) will significantly change the business sector, which has been somewhat neglected when designing e-services and making them available to stakeholders. Despite significant progress in economic and administrative reforms since Croatia’s independence in 1991, problems remain. According to the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA), these include a judiciary plagued by case backlogs and insufficient expertise in commercial affairs, an overly complex and sometimes non-transparent bureaucracy, relatively high costs, and both real and perceived corruption. Employment taxes are high and there is a lack of good real estate title records. Companies in litigation often face many years to reach a final resolution. [116] Business dealings are burdened by administrative barriers (e.g., it took 23 days to start a business in Croatia, according to 2018 World Bank data). [117] This commitment will enable private sector entities to do all their business-related administration through the state Portal (e.g., e-Fees), as well as provide business-to-business (B2B) functionalities, such as e/m-Signature and e/m-Seal. The other two milestones will ensure strong strides are made in increasing the presence and usefulness of public sector and service information (gov.hr and My Administration).

Next steps

During implementation, the government could consider the following:

  • Incorporate all state authorities in the gov.hr portal as soon as possible;
  • Include new electronic services from all public sector bodies in the e-Citizens system, expanding technical solutions to other users of public services such as private enterprises, as well as CSOs, foreign and domestic investors, etc. (in this and the next action plan);
  • Promote the achivements of this commitment with the wider public in order to increase the number of users of all the offered services and portals and to properly validate the quality of the work done; and
  • Transfer technology and know-how to regional and local self-governments, which could significantly increase the number and quality of online services.
[99] Editorial note: The text contained herein is the abridged version of the commitment. The full text is available at: Action Plan for Implementation of the Open Government Partnership Initiative in the Republic of Croatia up to 2020 (OGP, Dec. 2018) 62−66, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Croatia_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf. [100]  Government of the Republic of Croatia, Action Plan for Implementation of the Open Government Partnership Initiative in the Republic of Croatia for the Period 2014 to 2016 (OGP, Jul. 2014) 14−15 (Milestone 3.1) and 20 (Milestone 5.1), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Action%20Plan-OGP-8-7-2014-final-ENG.pdf. [101] Central State Portal: https://gov.hr/. [102] The Ministry of Tourism is still marked as having an external webpage, even though it transferred its content on the gov.hr platform. [103] "Ministries and state bodies" in Central State Portal (Government of the Republic of Croatia, Mar. 2019), https://gov.hr/ministarstva-i-drzavna-tijela/58#ministarstva. [104] "Profile" (APIS IT LLC, accessed Sept. 2019), https://www.apis-it.hr/apisit/index.html#/page?docId=D9619A3BDFD4D0DBC1257F50004F4C2C. [105] "About the Central State Portal" (Government of the Republic of Croatia, 12 Oct. 2017), https://vlada.gov.hr/sredisnji-drzavni-portal/203?impaired=0. [106] Mladen Nakić (Assistant Minister), Silvija Grgić and Ivana Lasan (Ministry of Administration), interview by IRM researcher, 22 Feb. 2019. [107] "Directive (EU) 2016/2102 of the European Parliament and of the Council," Official Journal of the European Union L327/1 (26 Oct. 2016), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016L2102&from=EN. [108] "Publication of the implementing acts under the Web Accessibility Directive" (European Commission, 17 Oct. 2018), https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/publication-implementing-acts-under-web-accessibility-directive. [109] Consolidated text of the law (Croatia), "Decision on Declaring Law on Accessibility of Network Sites and Software Solutions for Public Sector Bodies," Official Gazette NN 17/2019 (Narodne novine, 20 Feb. 2019), https://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2019_02_17_358.html. [110] Hina, "Famous FT1P goes down in history? "Citizens will no longer have to bring documents to do something" (novelist.hr, 3 Jan. 2019), http://www.novilist.hr/novilist_public/Vijesti/Hrvatska/Famozni-FT1P-odlazi-u-povijest-Gradani-vise-nece-morati-donositi-dokumente-da-obave-nesto?meta_refresh=true. [111] Mladen Nakić (Assistant Minister), Silvija Grgić and Ivana Lasan, (Ministry of Administration), interview by IRM researcher, 22 Feb. 2019. [112] "Personal User Box" (Government of the Republic of Croatia, Mar. 2019), https://pretinac.gov.hr/KorisnickiPretinac/eGradani.html. [113] XML file (March 2019) http://data.gov.hr/dataset/e-gradjani-statistika/resource/92998eb9-8d8d-4dd8-bb72-1f04929d4fb2. [114] XML file (March 2019) http://data.gov.hr/dataset/e-gradjani-statistika/resource/177888d5-1aec-4c85-9e92-eaf7da8f82f8. [115] "e-Citizens Project pronounced the best project in Europe in the field of "Open Government for the Improvement of Public Services" (29 Oct. 2015), https://udruge.gov.hr/news/e-citizens-project-pronounced-the-best-project-in-europe-in-the-field-of-open-government-for-the-improvement-of-public-services/3106. [116] "Croatia Country Commercial Guide" (International Trade Administration, 2019), https://www.export.gov/article?series=a0pt0000000PAtbAAG&type=Country_Commercial__kav. [117] "Time required to start a business (days)" (World Bank, 2018), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.REG.DURS.

Commitments

  1. Implementing Right to Information

    HR0026, 2018, Capacity Building

  2. Fiscal Transparency

    HR0027, 2018, E-Government

  3. Political Finance Transparency

    HR0028, 2018, Capacity Building

  4. Commercial Regulations of Companies Owning Local Governments

    HR0029, 2018, Anti-Corruption Institutions

  5. Transparency in NGO Project Finance

    HR0030, 2018, Capacity Building

  6. Protection of Persons Reporting Corruption

    HR0031, 2018, Anti-Corruption Institutions

  7. Parliamentary Transparency

    HR0032, 2018, E-Government

  8. Media Regulations Framework

    HR0033, 2018, Civic Space

  9. Data Opening

    HR0034, 2018, E-Government

  10. Raising Awareness About Open Data

    HR0035, 2018, Capacity Building

  11. Central State Portal

    HR0036, 2018, E-Government

  12. Public Consultations

    HR0037, 2018, Capacity Building

  13. Implementation of Anti-Corruption Policies by NGOs

    HR0038, 2018, Anti-Corruption Institutions

  14. Local and Regional Open Government

    HR0039, 2018, E-Government

  15. OGP Sustainability

    HR0040, 2018, Capacity Building

  16. Right to Access Information Legislative Framework

    HR0010, 2014, Legislation & Regulation

  17. Improving the Implementation of the Right of Access to Information Act

    HR0011, 2014, Capacity Building

  18. Starred commitment Proactive Release of Information and Opening Data

    HR0012, 2014, Capacity Building

  19. Fiscal Transparency

    HR0013, 2014, Capacity Building

  20. Starred commitment Improvements of Transparency and Efficiency in Public Administration Work

    HR0014, 2014, Capacity Building

  21. Improvement of Transparency of Election and Referendum Campaigns

    HR0015, 2014, E-Government

  22. Transparency in the Area of Youth Policy

    HR0016, 2014, E-Government

  23. Media Transparency

    HR0017, 2014, Civic Space

  24. Improving Transparency of Information on Members of Parliament and Their Work

    HR0018, 2014, Asset Disclosure

  25. Improving Transparency of Data on Assets of Officials

    HR0019, 2014, Asset Disclosure

  26. Starred commitment Improving the Consultation Process with the Interested Public in Legislative Procedures

    HR0020, 2014, Capacity Building

  27. Ensuring the Sustainability of Values and Content of the OGP Initiative

    HR0021, 2014, Capacity Building

  28. Starred commitment Participation in Drafting the New Anti-Corruption Strategy

    HR0022, 2014, Anti-Corruption Institutions

  29. Regulation of Lobbying

    HR0023, 2014, Capacity Building

  30. Improving Efficiency of the Ministry of Interior's Complaints Commission

    HR0024, 2014, Justice

  31. Promoting Civil Participation in the Work of Civil Society Organizations

    HR0025, 2014, Civic Space

  32. Improving the Content and Transparency of Budgetary Documents: Publish and Update the State Budget Proposal

    HR0001, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  33. Improving Transparency of Business Activity of the Companies of Special State Interest

    HR0002, 2012, Private Sector

  34. Making the Contents of All Budgetary Documents Understandable and Accessible to Citizens

    HR0003, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  35. Improving Accessibility of Local Budget Contents to the Citizens and the Public: Give Recommendations to Local Units to Publish Budget Documents

    HR0004, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  36. Starred commitment Improving the Legislative Framework for Exercising the Right of Access to Information: Amend the Act on the Right of Access to Information

    HR0005, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  37. Starred commitment Improving Access to Information on Expending Public Resources and Contents of Relevant Registers: Implementation of Acts on Political Activity and Campaign Financing

    HR0006, 2012, Civic Space

  38. Ensuring Transparent Work of Public Authority Bodies in the Service of Exercising Citizen Rights: Enhancement of Web Portal with Info on Exercising Rights

    HR0007, 2012, E-Government

  39. Starred commitment Setting up a System of Participatory Drafting and Monitoring of State and Local Budget Implementation: Public Discussions on Budget Allocation

    HR0008, 2012, Participation in Budget Processes

  40. Starred commitment Improving the Practice of Consulting the Interested Public in Procedures of Adopting New Laws: Amend Procedural Rules

    HR0009, 2012, E-Government