Electronic Services (GE0086)

Commitment 6: Introduction and development of electronic services in
Batumi and Rustavi municipalities

The improvement of access to municipal services for local population is one of the major goals of the Batumi Municipality City Hall’s activity. The Batumi Municipality City Hall understands that electronic services are the cheapest, comfortable and rapid services deliverable by the State. Within the framework of this plan, the Batumi Municipality City Hall commits to introduce and develop five (5) electronic services.

Commitment 6: Introduction and development of electronic service in Batumi and Rustavi municipalities
Lead Agency Batumi Municipality City Hall;
Rustavi Municipality Town Hall
Other Involved Actors Public Agency
Civil Society/ Private Sector/ International organization USAID-funded Good Governance Initiative in Georgia (GGI); Forum-member NGOs; UNDP; Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia (DGG) project.

Issues to be Addressed Creation of a unified system based on the principles of e-governance upon exercise of self-government is one of the most important and priority direction of the open government. The Batumi Municipality City Hall needs support in terms of electronic services development. The introduction of such services will make it possible to launch the one-window service system.
Main Objective Improving accessibility of municipal services
OGP Challenge Improvement of public services
OGP Principles Transparency Accountability Civil Participation Technology and Innovation
  
Milestones to Fulfill the Commitment New or ongoing commitment Start date End date
Analysis of key business processes related to municipal services in the system of Batumi Municipality City Hall New Third quarter 2018 December 2018
Introduction of a participatory budgeting module New First quarter 2019 June 2019
Introduction of e-petitions module New First quarter 2019 June 2019
Introduction of a spatial arrangement and architecture module New Second quarter 2019 September 2019
Introduction of a property management services module New Third quarter 2019 December 2019
Introduction of a healthcare and social welfare services module New Second quarter 2019 September 2019
Indicator 5 electronic services have been introduced
Risks and Assumptions The issue is complex and its successful implementation depends on the engagement of the respective donor and civil society.

Commitment 21: Introduction and Development of Electronic Services in Batumi and Rustavi Municipalities

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

“The improvement of access to municipal services for local population is one of the major goals of the Batumi Municipality City Hall’s activity. The Batumi Municipality City Hall understands that electronic services are the cheapest, comfortable and rapid services deliverable by the State. Within the framework of this plan, the Batumi Municipality City Hall commits to introduce and develop five (5) electronic services."

Milestones: 

1. Analysis of key business processes related to municipal services in the system of Batumi Municipality City Hall
2. Introduction of a participatory budgeting module
3. Introduction of e-petitions module
4. Introduction of a spatial arrangement and architecture module
5. Introduction of a property management services module
6. Introduction of a healthcare and social welfare services module

Start Date: Third quarter 2018

End Date: September 2019

Editorial note: For the full text of this commitment, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/georgia-action-plan-2018-2019/.

Context and Objectives

In recent years, municipal governments in Georgia have been trying to make their service deliveries more accessible to the public. Under this commitment, the municipalities of Batumi and Rustavi have committed to introduce five new electronic services to their residents. They list the following services: 1) participatory budgeting, 2) e-petitions, 3) spatial arrangement and architecture, 4) property management services, and 5) healthcare and social welfare modules. Electronic access to these services will cover the entire spectrum of services provided by the municipalities. At a later stage, the government will put all the services on a single platform in both municipalities. It should be noted that the introduction of an electronic module for participatory budgeting in Batumi Municipality overlaps with Commitment 19 from this action plan.

As stated by the representative of Batumi Municipal Services Agency, [111] the agency will engage business analytics to study and describe all the service-related processes. This exercise will provide a good knowledge base for transforming existing services into electronic services. The representative of the United States Agency for International Development’s Good Government Initiative (USAID GGI), which provides technical assistance to Batumi Municipality, also stated that USAID GGI plans to develop a strategy document to identify three pilot services that will be made available online.

The introduction of the five services online in both municipalities is verifiable. However, it is unclear exactly what services will be put online. Likewise, for each of the milestones, it is unclear how many signatures will be required to initiate petitions, what the government's obligation is to respond to issues raised through petitions, or what the indicators of success are.

If fully implemented as written, this commitment could significantly improve business as usual by introducing an entire spectrum of electronic services to citizens. Further, incorporation of service modules on a single platform could significantly change the public’s attitude toward and perceptions of local governance. This commitment could improve access to and the quality of public services and increase civic participation in the two municipalities. [112]

However, the potential impact is somewhat mitigated because the milestones, while ambitious, lack key details about each of the proposed modules. Furthermore, according to USAID GGI, local governments first plan to develop a strategy document that will identify three pilot services to put online. The electronification of services is a costly and time-consuming process, so the municipalities of Batumi and Rustavi will likely have to prioritize which service modules they will introduce. This commitment does not provide information that would enable assessment of the implementation process in the future, nor does it specify the scale, details, accountability mechanisms, and indicators for any of the modules and milestones.

As stated above, stakeholders assess the commitment as ambitious and stress the importance of clarification and prioritization via development of the strategy document to outline what is to be done, when, and how. [113] Thus, although this commitment has the capacity to develop into a transformative set of actions in the future, with the current commitment text, and based on the interviews, it is more likely that the commitment could have a moderate potential impact.

Next steps

Considering that the commitment milestones describe a service area rather than a specific service that will become available electronically, the IRM researcher recommends that Batumi and Rustavi municipalities consider providing specifications and indicators while designing an action plan, to make the milestones measurable and the commitment verifiable. For example, Milestone 21.6 (“Introduction of a healthcare and social welfare services module”) does not specify exactly what healthcare and welfare services will be introduced electronically. If the commitment implies all the existing services in this area, the commitment text should specify and frame the milestone as “all six existing services.” It should also provide the relevant quantified indicators that would signal commitment completion if all six services are introduced. This will not only make the commitment specific but also make it more administratively feasible to implement.

[111] OGP intermunicipal meeting in Ozurgeti: Akaki Gvianidze, Head of Department of Municipal Services at Agency of Municipal Services, Batumi City Hall, interview with IRM researcher, 11 June 2019.

[112] Gvianidze interview, June 2019.

[113] Mariam Gorgadze, Deputy Chief of Party and Mikheil Darchiashvili, Governance Manager at USAID Good Governance at USAID Good Governance Initiative, interview with IRM research, 14 May 2019.

21. Introduce electronic services in Batumi and Rustavi municipalities

Theme VI: Municipalities

Limited

According to the monitoring framework [76] Batumi has introduced electronic modules for participatory budgeting; e-petitions; spatial arrangements and architectures; property management; and healthcare and social welfare. However, all the modules apart from participatory budgeting are limited to publishing statistical data about services, rather than providing services electronically. With the support of USAID GGI, Batumi also conducted business analytics to study all the service-related processes in the city and developed a strategy including recommendations on how to improve 200 local services.

Rustavi has introduced electronic modules for healthcare and social welfare as well as spatial arrangement and architecture, integrated into the MMS system. However, Rustavi experienced technical and financial challenges during the implementation process and put the commitment on hold. [77] In October 2020, the Municipal Services Development Agency (MSDA) took over the project and developed the new platform ms.gov.ge, in which services of social welfare and healthcare, spatial arrangement and agriculture, and property management are available. The municipality also started e-petitions and participatory budgeting in 2020 on its official webpage rustavi.gov.ge. [78] [79]