Volume 21, No. 1, February 2011
ICT
as a tool for municipality transparency and efficiency in Panama
Diego
Cardona
Eng
MSc PhD
ABSTRACT
This
paper presents the application at Panama starting in October, 2010 of
the initiative Efficient and Transparent Municipalities – MuNet
developed by the Organization of American States – OAS. The objective
of this project is to help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT
tools to improve efficiency and transparency in its activities. The phase I was developed between 2005 and
ANTECEDENTS
MuNet
Phase I
In
the last decade the improvement in Information and Communication
Technologies – ICT and its application in government accelerated the
process in Latin-American governmental institutions developing a citizen
centered vision and increasing the active participation of private
sector and nongovernmental organization in the public ambit.
The
impact of ICT is not only an internal process, it also affects the
relationship with the citizens improving efficiency, reducing
transaction costs, increasing the satisfaction level and supporting the
transparency in the public management via the clear data flow among the
different levels of government. Finally
the ICT creates a bridge with a competitive and globalized world opening
many opportunities at social, cultural and economical ambit. In the
Latin-American society, as in other development regions, municipalities
are the axis of development and due to its proximity to the citizens it
becomes the point of contact to assure the success of any governmental
action.
With
some few exceptions that confirm the general rule, the Latin-American
municipalities appear as inefficient and with a dangerous lack of
transparency. As a consequence of this situation, the Organization of
American States – OAS designed and applied the MuNet project [1] to
help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT tools to improve
efficiency and transparency in its activities.
MuNet
offers a tool kit that helps to take advantage of the ICT possibilities
with a complete program that includes; diagnosis, training, consultancy
and technology. The first
phase of MuNet, developed in 2005 was used to validate each component of
the tool kit [2] including:
·
Workshop
to explain the project and to create the necessity among municipalities
·
Diagnosis
about transparency, efficiency, citizen participation and ICT use
·
Task
Force training
·
Electronic
government strategy preparation
·
Technological
implementation
Although MuNet uses ICT to improve efficiency and transparency at municipalities, the strong component of the project is a human team that using virtual tools it is capable to overtake the challenge associated to the public consultancy, organizational knowledge, consecution of political support and cultural resistance.
Learned
lessons
The
first stage of MuNet allowed the OAS to conclude that municipalities of
Latin America have an urgent necessity of support to raise the train of
the knowledge society in different aspects like planning, training,
technology, political issues, information and sustainability. Despite
this, great part of Latin
America municipal political leaders are
not still conscious of which the citizenship is risking if they
lose this train. This first part has also confirmed the suspicion that
only an integral program can put municipalities in the footpath of the
knowledge society. Detached activities of training, consultancy or
technology implementation will hardly obtain sustainable precise results
in the time. Additionally,
phase I confirmed that without the commitment of the upper authority of
the municipality, which in the Literature of the electronic government
would be called political support, no initiative will obtain remarkable
results independent of its integrality.
Also it has been demonstrated that the reality of Latin America
is diverse and that in their varied geography there are almost 20,000
municipalities, many of them with a pressing necessity of support to
materialize its interest to take advantage of the opportunities that
offer the ICT
Following
the well-known economic theories related to the consumer behavior, the
municipalities tend to give a value of 0 US$ to those services that
receive to a cost 0 US$. Although the municipality makes a contribution
to the project in form of human resources and infrastructure, all the
services that received from MuNet in their phase I were gratuitous. In
phase II, MuNet will receive from the participant municipalities a
symbolic amount that allows establishing a clear initial commitment with
the project. The human being needs incentives to surpass themselves and
to assume challenges, then MuNet will incorporate national annual
recognitions as much as international.
Those
professionals near the scope of the electronic government know that a
successful implementation of projects in this area requires a suitable
combination of three main elements: people, processes and technology.
Phase I of MuNet has taken advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT
for accomplishment of work under remote form, but has also confirmed
that no technology can replace the human presence in important
instances. Although MuNet will continue taking advantage of the ICT to
reduce the implementation costs, will include more personal interaction
among the municipal MuNet Consultancy Team and the Task Force.
The
dexterity of the municipal governments to make decisions, when they are
compared with other instances of government, it is a double edged weapon
for a project like MuNet. This agility causes that municipality
priorities can change with more frequency than wished to be and human
resources have a greater level of rotation, so than the one that would
be advisable to maintain projects of medium term in operation. These
aspects have been a constant challenge for MuNet in some of the
municipalities and have forced to handle the calendar of activities with
excessive flexibility. MuNet will establish a calendar-commitment with
the participant municipalities and the municipality that cannot follow
the calendar will be retired of the project.
One of the more valued aspects by the municipalities phase I of MuNet was the possibility of knowing what was making other municipalities and how they were doing it. It is not a secret that the opportunity to take references from advanced municipalities and to extract learned lessons is a valuable tool of advance for the electronic government, for that reason, MuNet II will incorporate a creation of a network of work for all the participant municipalities.
PANAMA
PROJECT
The
vision of MuNet is to accelerate municipalities’ movement towards the
efficiency and transparency using ICT, and a minimal level of these
characteristics improves the development of the society.
As
a result, the Project objectives are:
·
Create
at the top of mind of the decision makers, that ICT improves the
transparency and efficiency.
·
Support
municipality’s efforts to implement ICT as tools to improve
transparency and efficiency.
·
Create
and prove a tool kit in order to implement electronic government
initiatives.
At
Panama were selected 28 municipalities to participate in the project
under the direction of The National Authority for Government Innovation,
former Government Innovation Secretariat – SIG, the competent entity
in charge of planning, coordinating, issuing guidelines, overseeing,
collaborating, supporting and promoting the optimal use of ICT in the
government sector for modernizing public management, as well as
recommending the adoption of national strategic policies, plans and
actions related to the matter.
The
project was launched on October 6, 2010 [3] with a Sensitization of the
Majors and Project Managers for each municipality. The idea is to
continue with the following activities:
·
Development
of ICT, transparency, efficiency and participation diagnosis at
municipality
·
Training
of human resource in electronic government theory
·
Design
of strategy for electronic government
· Implementation of technological platform including MuniPortal, MuniCompra, MuniServi and MuniParticipa
Support consultancy to create the electronic government strategy and the technical platform implementation
METHODOLOGY
As
it was mentioned, MuNet was designed in order to incorporate the
municipalities in the knowledge society using an innovating structure.
MuNet applies a dynamic and coordinated work style using ICT,
mainly internet, email, IP telephony, chats, video and a virtual
platform. Enabling remote support from the Consultancy Team to the
municipality’s Task Force.
The
virtual interface developed at the OAS WEB site http://community.oas.org/munet/default.aspx
is the key element to improve the relationship among participants
creating an efficient learning system to share opinions, questions and
experiences. This virtual
platform develops the remote work, the time optimization, the instant
assessment and the follow up along the complete project phases.
Additionally, the methodology enforces the relationship between
the Task Force and the Consultancy Team, as a basic way to solve
traditional project difficulties and consolidate the normal process.
In
some cases, the low internet access at some municipalities must be
override via the commitment of the Consultancy Team and the Task Force
using alternatives communications ways, telephone, fax or traditional
mail. As a result, MuNet proves that is possible to change the
traditional work structures in cooperation and technical assistance
projects under low cost policies and use effective tools without
dismissing quality and efficiency.
In
order to assure the implementation of the Project, each Major designated
a Project Coordinator or “MuNet Manager” as the focal point and
responsible of the development of all the activities. Additionally, an
employee’s team of the municipalities, the Task Force, was selected to
interact with the Consultancy Team and to receive the basic course in
electronic government strategy preparation, creating the seed for the
leadership in this area at the municipality, responsible to do the
diagnosis, prepare the strategy, define the projects and implement it.
With this method, MuNet assured the sustainability of the project
and an internal structure to develop the technological implementation of
the projects at the municipality.
The coordinated work of the MuNet Task Force with the Consultancy Team combined with the implementation of the proposed methodology will be the base of the design and implementation of electronic government strategies. The first draft of the strategies are developed as a result of the course in basic theory in electronic government, the final document results from the revision among the Task Force with the support of the Consultancy Team.
MAIN
ACTIVITIES
Diagnosis
The
first step is to make an ICT diagnosis to determine the degree of
application of ICT in the municipality as a departure point for the
Consultancy Team and for the Task Force based on the intensity in which
they are used in the daily activities of the municipality and in the
interaction with citizens. Also the diagnosis is used to detect the
necessities of investment in infrastructure and connectivity, as well as
reveal useful information for the decision making at local level
particularly as far as the preparation, implementation and use of the
ICT. On the other hand, the evaluation contributed to the identification
of strengths and weaknesses of the municipality with the purpose of
orienting resources towards the advantage of the advantages provided by
the ICT. The transparency and efficiency diagnosis are designed with the
purpose of orienting the Consultancy Team and the Task Force on the
level of transparency and efficiency in the municipality and the
perception of the citizens of the same one at the beginning of the
program. This must be made with a survey applied to the employs about
key information on basic aspects such as information access, the
financial handling of the municipality and the resources investment.
Also, it identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the
municipality in relation to the existence of mechanisms to follow up
complaints. Finally, the
citizenship perception of the level of municipal transparency and
efficiency is introduced including the degree of honesty of its
employees in the administrative processes and if there is communication
channels with the citizenship. Finally, all the collected information
could be very useful to the Task Force to evaluate the advances in this
field after the conclusion of the project.
Virtual
course
The
course “Introduction to the Formulation of Electronic Government
Strategies” is offered via the online training platform of the OAS https://courses.oas.orgstarting
in November 2010 with duration of seven weeks. This course has been
taken by more than 3000 persons at Ibero- America. During the course the
participants received the necessary knowledge to create the basic
document of electronic government strategy for the municipalities
including the particular aspect of each community under the support of
specialized tutors in electronic government and virtual education. The
participants are nominated by the Major and the MuNet Manager of each
municipality. For this reason, the basic profile of the participants
varied from the employ in a little municipality without education to the
employ in big cities with master degrees. This situation creates an
important challenge to the Tutor Team.
Strategies
development
The
propose work methodology suppose a series of challenges for the
Consultancy Team s as for the Task Force whom participate in the
project. One of the main challenges is to coordinate the daily work
through the virtual platform, since the Consultancy Team did not have
personal communication with the Task Force. In addition, the Consultancy
Team did not have the opportunity to be directly at the municipality;
therefore, all the MuNet universe was developed in the cyberspace having
raised new spaces for the learning and the interchange of experience.
The profile of the Consultancy Team is extremely cosmopolitan
coming from the entire American continent. This diversity made that the
sum of experiences, world visions, explanations of the reality, and
specific knowledge of electronic Government is in fact a great cultural,
diverse, rich and complex mixture. Once the work began, the contact
between the Consultancy Team and the Task Force in each municipality has
been carried out using virtual tools, mainly through the virtual
platform provided by the OAS. Nevertheless, , some of the consultants
chose to use additional tools like the Skype, MSN and Yahoo with the
purpose of facilitating and accelerating the relation as well as to
create the documentation of the process. In some cities, with spread
Internet connection, the task of constructing virtual relations is
relatively easy considering that to impose a discipline without having
personal communication always is difficult. The difficulties are greater
in other municipalities with different social and ethnic realities, and
very specific economies. In that phase, the work of the Consultancy Team
is to support the local work in the rise information on its
administration and in the development of a unique electronic government
strategy endorsed by all the stakeholders.
Technological
tool
The
MuNet project offers to the municipalities e-Muni; a technological
platform, conceived to accelerate the advances of the electronic
government in the municipalities of Latin America and the Caribbean.
e-Government application package “e-Muni”, includes:
MuniPortal (municipal portal), MuniCompra (municipal procurement),
MuniServi (municipal services for citizens) and MuniParticipa (online
participation of citizens).
Technical
support
The Consultancy Team visits the municipalities to present the strategy and to start the technical support in the implementation process, which is the last phase of the project. Those visits follow a basic scheme in relation to the meetings that must be carried out with the strategic actors, the institutional presentation of the OAS and the activities of the MuNet program. Simultaneously, the visits offer the opportunity to give the approval certification to whom participated in the virtual course.
Expected results
The
clearest impact of MuNet must be also the most basic step: the beginning
of ICT and citizenship centered activities. Through the support of the
Consultancy Team to the Task Force in the definition of a strategic
frame for the use of the ICT in each municipality, a dialogue with the
political authorities will be generate delimitating barriers for the
consideration of technology acquisitions in the municipal budget.
Other qualitative impacts of MuNet must include the availability
scarce resources, as technology, to improve the process of projects
follow up of and its physical and financial execution, improvement of
connectivity infrastructure, identification of concrete objectives to
short, medium and long term that ensures the completion of the arduous
digitalization process under the responsibility of a Task Force, as a
seed of experts, expanding its vision beyond the local reality,
emphasizing the importance of ICT in the global development and the
necessity to have a strategy of electronic government who orient the
initiatives to make.
On the other hand, on line services must be implemented to reduce, or in some cases eliminate interminable line, loss of time for the citizenship that goes to the municipality, and as a consequence, improves the life quality and finally a confidence increase of the citizenship towards the public administration through the improvement in the benefit of services and the creation of effective communication channels between citizenship and government. This contributed as well to the transparency and the promotion of ethical conduct among employees.
REFERENCES
[1]
Cardona, Diego, et. al., “MuNet, a new way to improve
municipalities”, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on
Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance ACM International
Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 322, Pages: 240–245, December 2009,
ISBN 978–1–60558–663–2, available at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1693042.1693090
{January, 2011]
[2] Cardona, Diego, et. al., “MuNet, Municipios Eficientes y Transparentes”, Washington, Secretaría Ejecutiva para el Desarrollo Integral – SEDI/OEA, 78 p, ISBN 978–0–8270–5318–2 available at http://portal.oas.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=EM7RzXT1b1s%3d&tabid=1169 [January, 2011]
[3]
OAS, MuNet Launch in Panama, available at:
http://portal.oas.org/Portal/Sector/SAP/DptodeModernizacióndelEstadoyGobernabilidad/NPA
MuNeteGovernment/MuNetCountries/Panamá/tabid/1811/language/en-US/Default.aspx
{January, 2011]