About the Role of the Legislation and the Key-Factors

ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE LEGISLATION AND THE KEY-FACTORS

OF THE QUALITY AND EFFICIENCYOF THE IMPLEMENTATION

PROCESS OF THE E-GOVERNMENT IN ROMANIA

Lucian Chiriac[1], PhD

Zsuzsanna SZABÓ[2], PhD

Abstract:

The public administration in Romania has been going through a modernization process after 1989. It had to adopt the social and economic realities of the country and on the other hand had to prepare the administrative structures for the EU adherence. One of Romania’s responsibilities, when joining the e-Europe network, was defining the logistic and legislative framework, for the implementation of its own e-administration strategy. The research studies show the importance of the legal infrastructure in the e-government development process. The legislation is an element of readinessand facilitates the implementation process of e-administration, e-government. (See [2], [3])Today e-public administration is a somewhat amorphous entity consisting primarily of an e-commerce platform to implement e-procurement of government resources, a tendering process aiming to award contracts for both services and goods, and a citizen informing service regarding laws, regulations and tax revenue collection.

This paper presents the legal environment for supporting the development of e-government. It will be analysed the impact of the legislation on the implementation process of e-government. It will be studied how prepared the citizens and the public authorities are for the assimilation and utilization of this rapid, reliable and comfortable means of governance in Romania, and in which way social inequality and rural people would affect this process. The key-factors of the quality and efficiency of services in e-communication in administration will be analysed.An empirical study based on questionnaires has also been included.

1. About the e-government concept

The Internet has created and developed a new type of relationships between the central and local public authorities, between authorities and citizens. The multiplication of the types of activity but also the need for modernization and transparency of the administration’s actions determined the creation of new legal institutions based on the development of the new information and communication technologies. Practically, we may speak about a true revolution in public administration, therefore the application of the information and communication technology leads to a real state reform.

In a broad sense, e-government or e-administration are synonyms, used in the specialist literature in order to describe a complex phenomenon, based on information technology and its application in the relationships between central and local public authorities, between public authorities and individuals or legal persons.

In a narrow sense, e-government expresses through specific-technical means the right of command of the state, whereas e-administration expresses the management of the citizen’s problems through public services.

Broadly speaking, we consider that e-government is developed at least on five levels: a) the creation, functioning and development of the necessary electronic technical-material base; b) presenting (posting) the information and services at the disposal of the users (public authorities, individuals or legal persons); c) electronic interaction betweenusers; d) turning the administrative procedure into anefficient one through the electronic report; e) expanding the electronic network to new domains.

The use of this new type of technologies in the activity of public administration, leads to the elimination of the bureaucratic administrative procedures, administration’s slowness; it simplifies the work methodologies, assures quick solving of public or private action.By using electronic communication means, administration puts in value three functions and these are: the informing function (administrative decisions are presented to its users); the function of providing public services (individuals or legal persons can fulfil their rights and obligations that are offered by law); the function of managing your own attributions given by law (administration, conservation and disposition on the public and private patrimony, the organization and functioning of the departments, divisions and offices; exercising internal and external administrative control; applying public policies etc.)[3]

From all those above, we can define, in a broad sense,electronic government (e-government) as the effective managing of the entire administrative activity, central or local, including the delegate one, by means of information and communication technology.

The purpose of e-administration lies in assuring the achievement of the general or private interest in a full transparency and responsibility.The electronic means used in governance and administration strengthen the organization and functioning of public administrative authorities, bring the act of deciding and leading closer to the citizen and the territorial community and last but not least it increases the comfort of European integration of all states.We can say, without making a mistake that the technological evolution caused the need for state reform, but, on another hand, it also required the transformation of the public action with a double effect, both for authorities and for its users.In order to describe these mutations that will end by imposing the new concept of electronic democracy it is enough to observe that:the development of the electronic network brings profound transformations in the ways of action of the administrative authorities or users;the relationships between public authorities and users, between the public and private space are reconfigured;new forms of government will appear, new domains will be conquered.Without any doubt, the 21st century will be dominated by this new source of energy of the public action, or we can state, paraphrasing André Malraux “that the 21st century will belong to electronic government or will not be.”

The World Bank has defined e-government as “government owned or operated systems of ICTs that transforms relations with citizens, the private sector and/or other government agencies so as to promote citizen empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, or improve government efficiency.” (See [1])Statistics Canada defines Public Administration as “the establishments of federal, provincial and municipal governments primarily engaged in activities associated with public administration” in order to attain the public good. (See [6])

An analysis of the definitions, from the e-government literature, formulated by Tapscott (1996), ([7]), UNPA&ASPA (2001), ([8]), World Bank (2001), ([1]), Fraga (2001), ([9]), Abramson and Means (2001), ([10]), underlines the most important role of ICT tools “to reinvent the public sector by transforming its internal and external way of doing things and its interrelationships with customers and the business community”. (See [11]) The transformation areas of e-government (internal, external, relational), the e-government web of interrelationships (government to citizens, government to business, government to government, government to employees), the main application domains (e-administration, e-citizens and e-services, e-society) were studied by Hirst and Norton (1998), Tapscott (2001), Allen at al.(2001), Riley (2001), Fang (2002), Heeks (2001). (See [11])

The level of e-government activity in time can be measured by Heeks R. (2006) ([4]) through the following issues: readiness (awareness, infrastructure, digital divide);availability (supply, maturity, stage);uptake (demand, usage, use divide);impact (efficiency, effectiveness, equity).

Leading countries in the development of e-government services are United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Brazil. Chile is one of the best examples of e-government in Latin America. (See [1])

While e-government or e-administration become a reality in the developed countries the developing countries and countries in transition have to implement it, have to realize the computerization and have to extend the internet access of the public administration.

Readiness for e-government can be analyzed with seven core elements:data system infrastructure,legal infrastructure,institutional infrastructure, human infrastructure, technological infrastructure, leadership and strategic thinking ande-government drivers. (See[2], [3])

It is known that inclusion and better public services are part of the third priority of the European Commission i2010 Initiative. Member states are working on improving the conditions for electronic communications between government and citizens, business and government through the development and promotion of electronic identification. The development and use of ICTs for interacting with public administrations in the EU are presented with main statistical findings in the article [12], which has been published recently. The statistics for the period 2004-2008 at European level (EU-27) show that the most frequent types of electronic interaction with public administrations are: obtaining information, downloading forms, returning completed forms. In the EU the proportion of interaction shows an increasing tendency. The proportion of enterprises which were interacting was higher and growing at a faster rate than the proportion of individuals, more than one third of Internet users have benefited from e-government services. Services with highest percentage of users are: the declaration of income taxes, job searches and on-line visits to public libraries.

The benefits of e-government by Heeks (2001) can be evaluated through five categories which can be measured qualitatively (effectiveness measures) such as:better (producing outputs to a higher quality), new (producing new outputs);and can be measured quantitatively (financial measures):cheaper (producing outputs at lower total cost), more (producing more outputs), quicker (producing outputs in less time).

The EU’s strategy in the field of information society has followed three directions: technological research and development, liberalization of the telecommunications market, development of a trans-European network.EU member states are active in the implementation of policies in the area of e-government. In June 2006 the Council of Ministers approved the i2010 e-government action Plan. Member states act on the digitalization of public administration, on the implementation of electronic procurement and on building up a functional networking between governmental departments, between central and local authorities.

The world of the 21st century will definitely clarify and put in practice the concepts, which are so theorized today, of electronic democracy, electronic government and electronic participation, where internet will have a linking role between administration and those administrated. We have to keep in mind that this transformation, which is already foreseen, implies new methods and principles in the administration’s activity, and obliges it to assimilate and adapt, without reservation, because otherwise it risks either to resign or to be in conflict with the reality offered by the advance of the information and communication technology.All those mentioned above provide the theoretical basis of a new start for a new law branch, and this is communication law.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the legal environment for supporting the development and implementation process of e-government, to study the implementation process of e-government, to analyze and determine the key-factors of the quality and efficiency of services in e-communication, in administration, to understand the possibility of their adoption and usage in Eastern Europe.

The value chain can be successfully used for national benchmark studies, the level of the implementation process can be determined through it.The e-government value chain, the way in which e-government turns input into outcomes was developed by Flynn 2002, Janssen et al. 2004, Capgemini 2005. (See [4]) In [4] the value chain is presented taking into consideration the evolution of e-government activity.

1. Legal Environment for Supporting the Development of e-government

When entering the e-Europe network, one of Romania’s priorities was to define its own legal and logistic framework, for the implementation of the e-government programme.

By the government Decision no. 271/2001[4], the Promotion Group of Information Technology was set up in Romania, whose precise tasks were: approving projects in the field of electronic government; submitting proposals to the government regarding the allocation of funds necessary to the local needs of public administration; supervising the implementation of public services through the electronic procedure. Taking into consideration the obligations set by the Romanian government’s decision to this promotion group, but obligations that exceeded the constitutional stipulations and the organic law of organization and functioning of the Government[5], this decision was abrogated, but the tasks as far as e-government is concerned were kept by setting up the “Inter-ministerial Council on promoting the information society in Romania”[6].The necessity of defining the policy of electronic administration determined the emergence of Law no. 161 of 19th April 2003 on some measures for assuring transparency in performing public services, public functions and the business environment, preventing and punishing corruption, which, in title II, entitled “Transparency in public administration through electronic means” sets the objectives, principles, terms and conditions of usage of the access electronic procedure to public information and services, providing them as well as the general rules of assuring, through electronic means, public information and services transparency as an integrating part of the public administration reform.Not being able to give up all the classical means, the legislator established that once with the use of the electronic means in providing public information and services by the authorities of public administration, there should also be used the traditional procedures, those on paper respectively.

The use of the electronic means in managing public information, implied, obviously for the state the reaching of some objectives: a) reducing public expenditure, fighting against bureaucracy and corruption at the level of the public institutions; b) increasing the level of transparency in the way of using and managing public funds; c) improving the access to public information and services in conformity with the legislation on the protection of personal data and the free access to information of public interest; d) eliminating direct contact between the clerk at the office, citizen and the economic agent; e) providing quality public information and services through electronic means; f) strengthening the administrative capacity of public institutions in fulfilling their role and objectives and assuring in a transparent way public information and services; g) promoting the collaboration between public institutions for providing public services through electronic means; h) redefining the relationship between citizen and public administration, the business environment and public administration respectively, in the sense of facilitating their access to public services and information, through the information technology; i) promoting the use of internet and high technologies within public administration.

In a brief analysis of the implementation stage, we have to admit that the social impact was minimal, the professionalism of public services was not shown, economic growth and the growth in jobs (online jobs) did not occur, transparency was invisible and administration remained inert and motionless, reluctant to any modernization and qualitative insertion. If a balance between action and result had really existed, no doubt that the number of people employed in public administration would not have increased from 900,000 in 2004 to approximately 1,400,000 in 2009.

Providing information and services through electronic means can be achieved, but only by respecting the following principles: transparency in providing public information and services; equal undiscriminating access to public information and services, including for disabled people; the efficiency of using public funds; confidentiality, assuring the protection of the secret of personal data; assuring the availability of public information and services.

In the relationships with individuals and legal persons, interested to use this electronic procedure, the authorities of public administration are obliged, by law, to respect the principles mentioned above.

1. The Romanian National Electronic System

In order to assure access to public information and to provide public services to individuals and legal persons, Law no. 161/2003 set up in Romania the National Electronic System (NES).

The National Electronic System is a unitary item made up of the “E-government system”[7] and the “E-administration system”. The two components of the National Electronic System, defined in this way by the law, do not have a different object, it is just that the subject of the legal report to whom the user addresses can be, according to case, either an authority of the central public administration or an authority of the local public administration.

Electronic Government[8](e-Government) is defined as the public utility information system used by the authorities of the central public administration based on the information technology applications that allow access to electronic government services and electronic administrative forms of central public administration[9].Electronic Government is a true social and political phenomenon whose purpose is: a) improving access to public information and services of central public administration; b) eliminating bureaucratic procedures and simplifying work methodologies; c) improving the change of information and services between the authorities of public central administration; d) improving the quality of public services at the level of public central administration.The e-government system, if needed, must be imposed through legislation, because the public administration’s shortcomings (bureaucracy, inefficiency, exaggerated costs, etc.) lead to a decisional immobility. The e-government efficiency is quantifies through decision decentralization, amplifying administrative control, European integration and harmonization, quality growth and public services diversification.E-government is performed through at least four types of relationships: the administration’s relationships with companies, enterprises, non-governmental organizations etc., the administration’s relationships with citizens; the relationships within administration; the inter-administration relationships.

Electronic administration (e-administration) is defined as the information system of public utility used by the authorities of the local public administration in order to perform applications based on information technology and thus to assure access to electronic administration services and the electronic administrative forms of local public administration[10].This electronic procedure has the same goal as the one of electronic government just that e-administration represents a way of expressing directly and lively participation to the achievement of local democracy and putting in practice the principle of local autonomy.

Together with the set up of the National Electronic System also the Agency for the Services of the Information Society was set up, which had to create until 31st December 2009 the Electronic Registry of institutions and authorities of public administration in Romania.The registering in the National Electronic System is mandatory for the authorities of public administration set by Government Decision[11] and optional for individuals and legal persons (including banks, notary public, experts, etc.)