Learner’s Submission: Online Public Service in Lithuania

“I live in Lithuania. Lithuania is small country in Eastern Europe, although it is small, but online public services are widespread.

One of the most used public online services is tax declaration. Online tax declaration portal is online for a couple of years now. When I was using it for the first time it was really a challenge.

First of all I had to download some free software to be able to fill various needed forms.

Secondly I had to find out online what forms do I had to fill and download them one by one to my personal computer. After that the filling began. I do not remember exactly how long did it take, but it was quite a long operation. Since that time the portal has evolved, now the user to fill the tax declaration form has to do the following steps:

• Connect to the online tax declaration portal (one can do that through online banking system, digital certification center or from another government portal called “Valdžios vartai” (Government gates). Connection through bank a few years ago was the only option to ensure authentication of the user.).
• The tax declaration is easily found on the main page, it is even filled will all necessary information, user has only to check if it is right.
• After checking the information a single mouse click and the tax declaration is submitted. If there would be any errors or some information has to be clarified the user will receive an e-mail into the mailbox provided in portal.

In the same portal one can submit also other different documents. Personally I am just submitting tax declaration and request to transfer 2% of the income tax to public organization. Also there is different area for juridical persons.

It is really nice to see that online service are not just made and left as it is, but they are being improved over time and more and more features that are nice to have are becoming reality”.  Dmitrijus Chocenka- Vilnius, Lithanua

Learner’s Submission: Online Voter Registration – A Public Service of Puducherry Union Territory, India

“Puducherry a union territory of India online voter registration is a public online service provide for the people to view the voter identity card status. It is the public service maintained by government of Puducherry

Eligibility for the purpose of enrolment in electoral rolls is.

In India, Indian citizens above 18 years of age, with sound mind should not be of unsound mind (If he/she is of unsound mind and stands declared by a competent court then not eligible to be register as voter), be ordinarily resident in the area from where application is made, should not have been disqualified from voting under provisions of any law relating to corrupt practices and other offences in connection with election that is, 171E, 171F of IPC & Section 8A(1), 125 135, 136(2)(a) of Representation of People Act, 1951 ,with all necessary documents needed for registering can register online if they are residing in the constituency .They can participate and cast their vote for the contestants.

To register the citizens have to log on to http://www.ceopondicherry.nic.in after logging in the home page which is completely user friendly .it has four options:

a) Addition of users to a specific constituency
b) Deletion of users from a specific constituency
c) Modification of existing users data if it needs any modification
d) Transposition from one constituency to another.

Further for any assistance in any of the process or doubt in this process a toll free number is given for the user convenience.
After registration the details are verified in person the date of verification is intimated to the citizen .after verification is done and if the citizen is verified by the official the EPIC (electoral photo identity card) is given to him who can also be used as an identity card for may purposes within the country

Form 6 is needed to be filled by citizen who has attained 18 years of age.
Form 6a if he /she is an non residing Indian.
Form 7for deletion of existing user names.
Form 8if any correction in the voter card details printed.
Form 8a if shifting your place from one poll booth to another poll both within the same constituency.

Uploading the scanned copy of the birth certificate, and residence proof is optional but at the time of verification by the booth level officer.

The birth certificate also can be obtained from the common service centres another public service which brings government services to the people.

For the residence proof either the ration card, or any other proof of residence like driving licence can be provided.

Another salient feature of this website is its multilingual content which helps the users to fill the forms online in their own native language.

A search option is also given for citizens to verify their name has been updated in the electoral rolls in their constituency or not.

The search can be made by either the person name or residing address which was given during the voter registration or by the EPIC card number which is available in the voter card.

From the 2014 plastic voter identity cards are given to voters who are getting registered .its integrity can be verified by checking those cards under ultra violet lights. This move by the department is highly appreciated and welcomed by the people. These electoral rolls are revised every year.” – Prabhu Djeapragassam – Puducherry, India

Learner’s Submission: Open Data Portal – Edo State Government, Nigeria

“The online public service that I have made use of in my home country is the Edo State Open Data Portal which is the only online state public service in Nigeria and first sub-national portal in the continent of Africa.

It is a new initiative by the Edo State Government to make information more readily available to those who need it, enhance transparency in government and encourage investors. It is an online platform which makes it easy for the citizenry to access and reuse data from the Edo State Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies free of charge.

The Edo State Open Data Portal which is powered by the Edo State Information and Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) is aimed at improving Government and nipping the embarrassing phenomenon of ghost workers, wastages and misuse of public information and other forms of resource misuse in the bud, empower citizens and ultimately reduce government expenditure, and also effectively break away from the bureaucratic bottle-necks usually experienced while soliciting for information that should normally be made available to the public on request as well as the slow pace of Government officials when speed is of utmost importance.

All that anybody who is in need of information has to do is to have access to the internet and log on to data.edostate.gov.ng where the visitor can randomly search for any information of her/his choice, provided it is in relation to the state and within the purview of its concerns. One could also click on individual hyper links which the reader can directly follow, depending on what is desired by the visitor or available for view.
Being the first online public service in the state, it will take a thorough and extended effort to make Edo State Government data truly useful. Stakeholders expect to have improved data quality. Agencies will have to begin improving the quality of their data simply to avoid public embarrassment.

Up to now, the government’s release of open data has largely been a one-way affair: Agencies publish datasets that they hope will be useful without consulting the organizations and companies that want to use it. The government is therefore expected to build feedback loops from data users to government data providers.

Open data is also of value for government itself as it can increase government efficiency. For example, if the Edo State Ministry of Education can publish all of their education-related data online for re-use, the number of questions they receive will obviously drop, reducing work-load and costs, and the remaining questions will also be easier for civil servants to answer, because it is clear where the relevant data can be found.

Open government data can also help citizens make better decisions in life and make them more active in society. People can easily re-use cadastral information from government data as well as local registers to publish information which helps them find public utilities such as public toilets, public libraries, public parks, hotels, etc.
New combinations of data can create new knowledge and insights, which can lead to whole new fields of application. This potential can be unleashed if government data is really open, i.e. if there needed information are actually available and there are no restrictions (legal, financial or technological) to its re-use by others. Every restriction will exclude people from re-using the public data, and make it harder to find valuable ways of doing so.” – Uhunwa Benard Otamere – Edo State, Nigeria

Learner’s Submission: Online Public Services in Colombia

Have you ever made use of any online public service in your country? If yes, explain which ones and how do they work. If your country does not offer online services, write about the service that you would like to have online and how should it work.

“Yes, I have used various public services in my country. Let’s begin with the DAS certificate. It certifies that the individual does not have any criminal record. This certificate used to be issued through the DAS Department, with a complete  bureaucratic process that took days to be issued. Since 2009, it has been issued online and can be done in minutes. A recent report counts over 1,500.000 certificates issued so far. There is a couple of other public procedures online named  “Registraduría” and “Procuraduría”, which certify that the person has no disabilities or judicial investigations. All of these certificates are issued in PDF documents online from any internet connection.

There are various procedures and services online in my country, I recollect over 700 public services and procedures of which I have used only a few. I would like more services online, actually all public services when possible. I find that the state entities need more interaction with the citizen. They need to open more online services for web online  interaction with the citizen. This is a deficiency I find. For instance, the  CNSC, a state company that manages all the state job contests, shows in its web site a forum, a chat and other interactive tools that do not work. There is no interaction. The only working tool is a post form for complaints. They dont have a RSS which  would be beneficial to be updated to the latest updates of their web site, though various public companies do have the RSS and some  chat services during work hours.

I find a real challenge in my country the web education. I realize most of our citizens do not yet know how to use the Internet public services. There is still lack of confidence in the digital world, part for lack of literacy, part for habits and growth. We have many technological challenges ahead of us in e-services, e-proedures, e-Law, e-payments, e-contracts, e-all etc. There is a recent Citizen Digital Certificate issued so far to many gabinet members and other thousands of citizens that take the course. The Senate has been recently e-contrating online. The technological growth is too fast for the middle and old age citizens to catch up.

Perhaps some type of broad range education will help us on this process. I am an enthusiast of this information age, however, I realize the many challenges ahead of all the e-Governments. I work in ESAP (School for Superior Public Administration) as a teacher and as a public servant and despite the school being a leading Academy for Public Knowledge, it is evident that we got much research and development to do in this area, as well as develop eGovernment courses, postgraduates, masters and PHD’s.  This is one reason to study further these subjects. There is much to be learned yet and I appreciate the UNPAN courses I have taken and looking forward to your valuable comments.” – Gino Alexander Piñeros – Bogotá, Colombia.