New Technologies to Improve Citizen Services (RS0010)

Establishment of new services through the use of new technologies provides the opportunity for state institutions to provide their citizens with services, and easy and simple access to services. These new services should ensure that people get the necessary information in an easier and more accessible way, and to enable them to electronically perform a number of actions that are primarily related to the state administration authorities. This will allow time saving for citizens and administrative authorities and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and costs that require too complicated bureaucratic procedures. The aim is, firstly, to ensure that all activities regaring the issuance of identity documents could be electronically completed, and, later, to spread this trend to other activities

Commitment 10. New technologies to improve citizen services

Commitment Text:

1.     Establishing “Electronic Bulletin Board“ in all police departments and stations, and Ministry of Interior

a.     To set up kiosks in police stations where citizens can get the information on procedures for obtaining services, or submit the request for services from eGovernment portal

b.     Providing payment of administrative fees via credit cards, at kiosks

2.     The realization of electronic services related to issuance of personal documents to a level limited by the obligatory presence of citizens due to identification and biometric data

a.     Procurement of equipment and installation

b.     Service getting started

Responsible Institution(s): Ministry of E-Government

Supporting Institution(s): Ministry of the Interior; CSOs

Start Date: Ongoing                                                                End Date: Quarter IV 2015

Commitment aim:

This commitment was designed to improve the provision of public services and, eventually, to reduce bureaucratic costs for citizens and public authorities. This commitment targets public services provided by the Ministry of Interior. Specifically, the Ministry could issue personal documents and other services quicker and services could be made more easily accessible to the citizens.

Status

Midterm: Limited

Both activities in the commitment stalled around the testing stage, and no progress was made toward completion within the first year of the implementation cycle. Interviews the IRM researchers conducted with relevant stakeholders indicated that the activities represented significant challenges for the Directorate for E-Government because there was not enough available funding to implement the technology-focused activities. For more information, see the 2014-2015 Serbian midterm IRM report.

End of term: Limited

A government source who preferred to remain undisclosed, stated in early September 2016 that the commitment to establish an “Electronic Bulletin Board” was abandoned due to financial constraints. The source identified financial constraints as the reason for no progress on electronic issuance of personal documents. However, a government source and an independent ICT expert indicated that progress was made in terms of foundations for the services, but that the implementation of the services still requires work. Hence, the overall level of completion of this commitment within the researched time frame remains limited.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

The efficiency of public services in Serbia ranks relatively low in comparison with neighboring EU Member States.^{[Note 43: “Public Sector Efficiency Index in Post-Transitional European Countries for 2015,” http://bit.ly/2gaObFm]} Furthermore, online public services that should be available to citizens and Serbian government entities’ information systems lack the improvements needed to raise their usage and efficiency. For the IRM researchers, this commitment, as written, had limited relevance for OGP values given that the second milestone had no public-facing element. Hence, while the “Electronic Bulletin Board“ could have increased access to information, the fact that work on the bulletin board was halted means that no change in government openness was achieved. Overall, taking into consideration the stage of the first milestone and the unclear OGP-relevance of the second, this commitment resulted in no changes in government openness in Serbia.

Carried forward?

Neither the commitment as written, nor a similar commitment, are included in the 2016-2018 action plan.