Install a Virtual Single Window for Public Service Request and Receipt in Order to Facilitate Access to Public Information (CI0008)

Current Situation or problem/question to be addressed/having to be resolved: -Difficulties in obtaining administrative documents ( constraints in line with travel, waste of time) -Lack of transparency in issuance of administrative documents; Main purpose: Enable citizens to more easily access public adminsitration services by online posting them. Brief description of the commitment: -Users will request and receive services on line; -The pilot project addresses 40 procedures from four (04) ministries: Tourism, Agriculture, Health and National Education; OGP challenges addressed by the commitment: Public service enhancement ICT utilization; Relevance: -The "e-administrative Procedures" project ensures a digital single window of request and receipt of services from public administration. It aims at ensuring interoperability between the user and the administration via IT systems; -Fight against corruption; -Strengthening of transparency; Ambition: -Receipt of public service processes are defined, simplified and known to all citizens; -Administrative procedures are online posted and accessible to citizens. -Public service users implement their procedure online.

8. Facilitate access to public information

Commitment Text:

Install a virtual single window for public service request and receipt in order to facilitate access to public information

- Brief description of the Commitment

- Users will request and receive services on line.

- The pilot project addresses 40 procedures from four (04) ministries: tourism, agriculture, health and national education

Verifiable and quantifiable stages for implementing this commitment

- Implementation of the management tool of the 'administrative procedures portal'

- Pilot phase study of online posting of 40 administrative procedures of 4 departments

- Issuing the call for tenders for pilot procures dematerialization

- Development of the first e-service of the pilot phase

- Development of the last e-service of the pilot phase

Editorial Note: One out of five milestones was completed before the start of the implementation period. This report focuses on the four remaining milestones.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Public Office and the modernization of administration.

Supporting institution: General Directorate of Modernization of

Start date: 2015

End date: 2017

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to enable citizens to more easily access information about the performance of public administration by making it available online. The government created the commitment to support the president’s ambition to make Côte d’Ivoire an emerging country by 2020.

The government seeks to implement reforms by using information and communications technology (ICT). The director general of the Ministry for the Modernization of Administration and the Innovation of Public Service stated that the executive had instructed the ministry to use ICT 'to bring together the

administration and the administrated.'1 According to the same government representative, the ministry faces obstacles to transparency. These include lack of communication about services, difficulties in internet access, lack of computer and electrical equipment, and an insufficient computer culture.2

The representative also added that among the 5,000 services available, about 30 percent of them are found in Abidjan, compelling people in the rest of the country to travel.3 The government would like to dematerialize certain procedures.

Establishing a virtual window for public service inquiries and reception would make access to information easier, according to the government, because it would offer centralized and permanent availability in all areas. The commitment, as it stands, appears relevant to OGP values. Providing access to information and technology and improving transparency and responsibility would improve the quality and quantity of information the government transmits to the public. Providing these services via internet is a real innovation.

The potential impact of this commitment is minor. It remains difficult to obtain documents and services due to lengthy administrative processing times, corruption, low awareness of services and procedures, and unqualified administrative staff. According to the government representative,4 citizens who cannot read and write face those barriers to accessing information. Fifty-seven percent5 of the population is illiterate, and only 22 percent6 of the population has internet access. This commitment does not consider these factors.

Completion

8.1. Implementation of the administrative procedures portal: This milestone has a limited implementation level.7 The general director of the Ministry for the Modernization of Administration and the Innovation of Public Service stated that communication as well as changes had been implemented. Civil society representatives, however, stated that the portal existed in an experimental phase and was not yet operational. The portal is online and contains links to different procedures. However, none of these pages have been completed.

8.2. Launch of the tender for the dematerialization of pilot procedures: This milestone has been completed. A government representative stated that the call for tender had been done and was accepted in April 2016, before the review period.8 The ministry supplied no evidence concerning the tender. The IRM researcher requested such information during a meeting with the director and followed that request with three emails on 7, 21 and 22 February 2018. However, some dematerialized procedures can be found on the online portal, though they are not all operational at the moment. This is the situation, for example, for cases of litigation and the security of private individuals.9

8.3. Development of the first e-services of the pilot phase: This milestone has not been implemented, according to the government.

8.4. Development of the last e-services of the pilot phase: This milestone has not been implemented, according to the government.

On 21 February 2018, in an email, the technical advisor to the director general and the person at the focal point of this commitment stated that 30 procedures had been dematerialized.10 The assessment report from civil society, however, states that it was 36 procedures. That same number was reported in a September 2017 article on this issue.11

Early Results

The portal is not yet operational.

Next Steps

Due to the reasons stated above, the IRM researcher recommends that this commitment be better defined in the next national action plan. It should include more detail about each milestone and its impact. As confirmed in a 30 October 2017 article submitted to the IRM researcher by the government, this procedure aims to improve the quality of institutions and continuing governance. It requires a structural transformation of public administration, but the online platform should be improved and extended, which would encourage true open government.

1 Dr. Ibrahim Lokpo, General Director, Ministry for the Modernization of Administration and the Innovation of Public Service, interview by IRM researcher, 7 February 2018.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 'Le Taux d’Analphabétisme a Chuté de 7.2% en Côte d’Ivoire,' Official Portal of the Côte d’Ivoire Government, 9 October 2017, http://www.gouv.ci/_actualite-article.php?d=6&recordID=8173.

6 'Côte d’Ivoire Internet Users,' Internet Live Stats, 1 July 2016, http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/cote-d-ivoire/.

7 'Vos Demarches par Theme,' Portail de l’Administration Ivoirienne, http://www.servicepublic.gouv.ci/.

8 Dr. Ibrahim Lokpo, General Director, Ministry for the Modernization of Administration and the Innovation of Public Service, interview by the IRM researcher, 7 February 2018.

9 'Contentieux,' Justice et Sécurité, Particuliers, Portail de l’Administration Ivoirienne, http://www.servicepublic.gouv.ci/accueil/demarcheparticulier/1/59/4.

10 Kacou Gustave, Technical Advisor, OGP point of contact at the Ministry for the Modernization of Administration and the Innovation of Public Service, contact by IRM researcher via email, 21 February 2018.

11 'Administration Ivoirienne: La Côte d’Ivoire va Procéder à l’Opérationnalisation de 36 Procédures,' Abidjan.net, 29 September 2017, https://news.abidjan.net/h/623201.html.

Commitment 8: Install a virtual single window for public service request and receipt in order to facilitate access to public information

Brief Description of the Commitment:

- Users will request and receive services online;

- The pilot project addresses 40 procedures from four (04) ministries: Tourism, Agriculture, Health and National Education.

Verifiable and measurable steps to achieve the commitment

- Implementation of the management tool of the "administrative procedures portal”

- Pilot phase study of online posting of 40 administrative procedures of 4 departments

- Issuing the call for tenders for pilot procedures dematerialization

- Development of the first e-service of the pilot phase

- Development of the last e-service of the pilot phase

Editorial note: The government completed one milestone out of five prior to the implementation period of the commitment. This evaluation will therefore focus on the four remaining milestones that took place during the implementation period concerned.

Responsible Institution(s): Ministry of Public Service and Administration Modernization

Supporting Institution(s): General Directorate of Administration Modernization

Start Date: 2015 End Date: 2017

Action Plan is available here:

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aims to facilitate citizens access to public administration services through the creation of a single virtual platform for public service requests and reception. The idea is that access to information will increase by centralizing service information on a single website that is always accessible to anyone with internet access.

Status

Midterm: Limited

Completion of this commitment was limited by midterm. The portal was online and it included a series of links for several administrative procedures, but none of the pages under the specified links were operational. Implementation of the first and last e-services during the pilot phase had not yet started. Nevertheless, the government completed the milestone related to public procurement for achieving the paperless pilot procedures. As such, a few paperless procedures were available online, though they were not all in force. For more information, please see the 2016−2018 IRM midterm report. ^[40]

End of term: Limited

The IRM researcher received no evidence of activities carried out since the progress report; therefore, completion remains limited. ^[41] The portal is still online (Milestone 8.2) but contains empty sections. ^[42] According to a digital transformation expert, ^[43] there is no database of information on different actors. In other words, each service addresses one or more different administrative entities, in different localities. To date, there is no database of all their data. Additionally, paper records from town hall registers remain un-digitized. ^[44]

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

In Cote d’Ivoire, citizens are obliged to go to Abidjan when they need administrative documents for civil status, transport, health, education, etc. because over 30 per cent of public officials are based in Adijan and thus most public requests are processed here. This portal aimed to make information like conditions, document lists, costs, modalities, deadlines, and service contacts permanently available no matter the time and place. However, as implemented at the end of term, the commitment only marginally changed government practices, because while some information is available online (health, social protection, justice, and security), the content of some sections (papers, education, training, housing, sports, leisure, communication, press, etc.) is still missing.

The available information includes answers to a number of questions, for example: who to ask, what are the documents that need to be provided, what are the associated costs, what is the delivery time, what is the validity period of the document, where can citizens go to find out more and what can they do in case of loss or theft. The portal also offers seven tele-services to citizens. ^[45]

An expert in digital transformation ^[46] concluded that the government clearly wanted to be more open with information availability to citizens. Nonetheless, the services indicated in the action plan and those that had been implemented were not completely operational at the end of term. ^[47] In addition, the unavailability of internet infrastructure in some areas is a hindrance to achieving this commitment. The expert also identified a lack of public servant computer training as an additional constraint. ^[48]

Carried Forward?

The commitment was not carried into the new national action plan for 2018−2020.