Digital Consular Services (RO0055)

Digitalization of consular services performed by diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania abroad
2018-2020 Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), Monitoring and Support for Consular Offices Other actors involved State actors Diplomatic Missions and Consular Offices of Romania Abroad Ministry of Internal Affairs through the Directorate for Personnel Records and Database Administration (DEPABD), National Authority for Citizenship (ANC) CSOs, private sector, multilaterals, working groups Associations of Romanian Communities Abroad What is the public problem that the commitment will address? The impressive increase in the number of Romanian citizens living abroad has led to the unprecedented multiplication of requests for consular services addressed to diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania (MD / OC). Under these circumstances, the MAE has embarked on a comprehensive reform process through the full computerization of consular services by creating an integrated E-Cons platform. Commitment description What is the commitment? Promotion of the Online Consular Counter (www.econsulat.ro), which is the external portal of the IT System for Integrate Management of Services for Citizens (ISIMSC), so that an increasing number of people can have access to these modern tools in order to get information about the required consular services, forwarding the online request and schedule their visit to the consulate. How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? - Better information of the Romanian citizens regarding the available consular services, the reduction of the visits to the consulate and the shortening of the time needed to obtain the 20 requested documents. Increasing the capacity of processing consular services by MD / OC. Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Increasing the quality of consular services offered to the Romanian citizens abroad. Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable Responsible agency / partner Start Date: End Date: Organization of meetings with members of Romanian communities abroad for the presentation of the E-Cons platform MD / OC 2018 December 2020 Popularizing the Online Consular Desk on online social media (Facebook sessions for questions and answers, tutorial posts and audio-visual promotion materials, private messages, etc.). MAE 2018 December 2020 Organization of joint information campaigns MAE-MAI for Romanian citizens to request timely renewal of travel documents MAE / MAI 2018 December 2020 Popularization of the Contact and Support Centre for Romanian Citizens Abroad (CCSCRS) among Romanian communities outside the borders MAE / MD / OC 2018 December 2020 Feedback campaign on the services offered through the platform, as well as on what other services should be added MAE / MD / OC 2018 2020 Further development of the platform to include the newest and most required services MAE / MD / OC 2019 2020 Additional information Budget: Existing funding from the state budget and community funds.

8. Digitalization of consular services performed by diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania abroad

Commitment Text: "Promotion of the Online Consular Counter (www.econsulat.ro), which is the external portal of the IT System for Integrate Management of Services for Citizens (ISIMSC), so that an increasing number of people can have access to these modern tools in order to get information about the required consular services, forwarding the online request and schedule their visit to the consulate."

Milestones:

8. • Organization of meetings with members of Romanian communities abroad for the presentation of the E-Cons platform
   • Popularizing the Online Consular Desk on online social media (Facebook sessions for questions and answers, tutorial posts and audio-visual promotion materials, private messages, etc.).
   • Organization of joint information campaigns MAE-MAI for Romanian citizens to request timely renewal of travel documents
   • Popularization of the Contact and Support Centre for Romanian Citizens Abroad (CCSCRS) among Romanian communities outside the borders
   • Feedback campaign on the services offered through the platform, as well as on what other services should be added
   • Further development of the platform to include the newest and most required services

Start Date: 2018

End Date: December 2020

Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2018-2020 national action plan.

Context and Objectives

According to Eurostat, in 2018, 21.3 percent of Romanian citizens of working age resided abroad, as opposed to only 9.5 percent in 2008. [70] This increase has led to many more requests for consular services addressed to diplomatic missions and consular offices. To address the higher volumes of requests for consular services, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) has created an integrated E-Cons platform and the Contact and Support Center for Romanian Citizens Abroad. However, according to an interviewed MAE representative, these e-consular services are not sufficiently used, and some citizens do not know of them, while others are reticent about employing these tools. [71]

This current commitment aims to better inform Romanian citizens residing abroad regarding the consular services available to them, in addition to making a variety of administrative improvements. Such improvements include reducing the number of necessary interactions between the consular offices and the public, better management of the requests for consular services, and reducing cueing time at consular offices. While the commitment primarily focuses on administrative improvements, technology and innovation are being used to ensure that information is better provided, and this commitment increases civic participation by allowing citizen to suggest improvements for the digital consular services.

While the commitment’s milestones are verifiable, they lack certain details to determine if the commitment could have transformative potential impact. For example, it is unclear how many cultural or educational events will be organized in 2020. Moreover, many audiovisual promotion materials and video campaigns have already been executed before the start of this action plan, [72] disseminated on the webpage, Facebook page, and YouTube channel of the Consular Directorate of the MAE. [73] According to a MAE representative, the information campaigns include flyers and posters posted at the local Directions for Passports and the consular offices. [74] However, it is unclear whether new video campaigns will be executed in 2019-2020. Similarly, according to the representative of the MAE, the surveys and polls will assess the usefulness of the digital tools, their user friendliness, and whether they can be used by people with disabilities. It is nevertheless unclear how these feedback campaigns will be constructed, and how many responses are required. [75]

If fully implemented, the commitment could have a moderate impact on the usage of online consular services, on the time needed to obtain the requested documents and on the processing capacity of the consular offices. The awareness campaigns could generate more online requests, although with 49 percent of online requests in 2018, [76] the citizens likely to be reached may have already been reached. It may also increase the willingness of citizens to follow SMS instructions about when to renew their documents and update the database containing their mobile details, which currently contains many errors and missing information. [77]

Next steps

The IRM researcher views this commitment as a priority, considering the increasing pressure for consular services. The following recommendations can help improve the commitments’ implementation, as well as the design of its continuation in the next action plan, especially in making it more clearly relevant to open government:

• The Consular Directorate of MAE could try to assess the efficiency of the information campaigns it runs, to be able to fund the most effective ones. Consequently, it could require citizens that request documents online to fill in a very short questionnaire and disclose what motivated them to transition from "in person" to "digital."
• The Consular Directorate of MAE could assess the user satisfaction of their digital tools after each user session, and independently assess user satisfaction from the feedback campaign and from the awareness campaigns.
• The Consular Directorate of MAE could publish a summary of the recommendations it receives from the feedback campaign, form the user satisfaction surveys, and organize discussions with local communities of Romanians on their webpage together with a short description of their plans to implement the recommendations.
• The Consular Directorate of MAE could respond to and address the negative comments that users of the digital tools have expressed on their Facebook page. The Facebook page currently has a rating of 3.5/5.

[70] Eurostat (2019) "EU citizens living in another Member State - statistical overview", available at https://bit.ly/2lG4pwM.

[71] Interview with Sorin Badulescu, Ministry of External Affairs (MAE), 6 September 2019.

[72] "The Consulate, closer to home", video available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2krRgap; "Travel documents", video available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2m3I9wJ; "Request a birth certificate", video available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2kE2f0d; "First steps on the portal", video available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2k7eq5u.

[73] The information campaigns about the SMS notification that citizens whose travel documents will expire in the next six months will receive from the Consular Directorate of the MAE, are available [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2kEoFhR, http://bit.ly/2k9u1lb and http://bit.ly/2lIwmDY.

[74] Interview with Sorin Badulescu, MAE, 6 September 2019.

[75] Interview with Sorin Badulescu, MAE, 6 September 2019.

[76] Ibid.

[77] Ibid.

8. Digitalize consular services

Substantial

Overall, this commitment saw substantial completion at the end of the action plan period.

According to a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), Romanian consulates and embassies organized three to four educational events in 2019 where the Online Consular Desk, the Contact and Support Centre for Romanian Citizens Abroad (CCSCRS), and E-Consular platform were presented. [38] The frequency of the events dropped in 2020 due to COVID-19. [39] The MAE's Consular Directorate promoted the Online Consular Desk on its Facebook page [40] and on its website [41] and organized weekly sessions to help citizens use the Online Consular Desk. [42] In addition, the staff of the Consular Directorate now answer on a daily basis questions posed by citizens on their Facebook page in relation to the E-Cons platform. [43] However, the Consular Directorate did not collect feedback on its digital tools (Online Consular Desk, CCSCRS, informatiiconsulare.ro) through online surveys. [44]

MAE executed several video campaigns in 2018 to help Romanian citizens renew their travel documents on time, and disseminated them on the website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel of the Consular Directorate. [45] For example, the staff of the Consular Directorate organizes periodic Facebook sessions for citizens to troubleshoot basic IT problems (e.g., forgotten passwords, setting-up audio-visual communication, etc.) relating to the use of the E-Cons platform and the Online Consular Desk. Similarly, MAE disseminated an awareness-raising video about the CCSCRS in 2019. [46]

In 2020, the Consular Directorate formed a working group to expand and create new data exchange protocols to increase the amount of, and the speed with which, data flows from the National Authority for Citizenship and the Directorate for the Evidence of Persons and Data Base Administration of the MAE to the consular offices. However, the protocols have not been expanded and no new protocols have been put in place at the end of the action plan’s implementation period. [47]

In recent years, an increasing amount of Romanian consular services are carried out online, thus elevating the importance of this commitment’s activities for many Romanian citizens. Furthermore, the travel restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 and the move of almost all consular services online, made this commitment particularly timely. [48] The numerous dissemination campaigns executed by MAE, as well as the Consular Directorate’s Facebook Q&A sessions with citizens helped encourage Romanians to renew their travel documents well in advance of travelling to avoid long waiting queues at the Consular Offices. [49] Although MAE had executed similar audio-video materials prior to the action plan, the informational dissemination efforts in 2020 proved particularly valuable to citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. [50]