ICT as a Tool for Municipality Transparency and Efficiency in Panama

8/7/2019 ICT as a Tool for Municipality Transparency and Efficiency in Panama

1/6

ICT as a tool for municipality transparency and efficiency in PanamaDiego CardonaEng MSc PhD

[email protected] at the Journal Information Technology in Developing Countries Volume 21, No. 1,

February 2011 from the IFIP Working Group 9.4 and the Center for Electronic Governance, Indian

Institute of Managementhttp://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/feb2011/diego-cardona.htm

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the application at Panama starting in October, 2010 of the initiative Efficientand Transparent Municipalities MuNet developed by the Organization of American States OAS.The objective of this project is to help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT tools to improveefficiency and transparency in its activities. The phase I was developed between 2005 and 2006 in22 municipalities distributed in 11 Latin-American countries supported by 5 experts of 5 differentnationalities. The process implies a diagnosis of the general situation of the municipality including

technological aspects, transparency and efficiency perceptions, and citizen participationdevelopment. Besides the diagnosis, participants receive a course for the Introduction to theFormulation of Electronic Government Strategies in order to prepare a strategy proposal to applyelectronic government with collaboration of a Consultancy Team and a Task Force defined by theMajor in each municipality. The document approved by the society and the political ambit isimplemented by the Task Force. In some cases, using the technological support offered by theproject, specifically with software applications to develop the WEB page of the municipality MuniPortal , another software MuniCompra to improve the buying process, another to supportthe creation of a one stop window for the municipality services MuniServi and a last one MuniParticipa to improve the citizen participation.

ANTECEDENTS

MuNet Phase I

In the last decade the improvement in Information and Communication Technologies ICT and itsapplication in government accelerated the process in Latin-American governmental institutionsdeveloping a citizen centered vision and increasing the active participation of private sector andnongovernmental organization in the public ambit.The impact of ICT is not only an internal process, it also affects the relationship with the citizensimproving efficiency, reducing transaction costs, increasing the satisfaction level and supporting thetransparency in the public management via the clear data flow among the different levels ofgovernment. Finally the ICT creates a bridge with a competitive and globalized world openingmany opportunities at social, cultural and economical ambit. In the Latin-American society, as inother development regions, municipalities are the axis of development and due to its proximity tothe citizens it becomes the point of contact to assure the success of any governmental action.With some few exceptions that confirm the general rule, the Latin-American municipalities appearas inefficient and with a dangerous lack of transparency. As a consequence of this situation, theOrganization of American States OAS designed and applied the MuNet project [1] to help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT tools to improve efficiency and transparency in its activities.


2/6


3/6

medium term in operation. These aspects have been a constant challenge for MuNet in some of themunicipalities and have forced to handle the calendar of activities with excessive flexibility. MuNetwill establish a calendar-commitment with the participant municipalities and the municipality thatcannot follow the calendar will be retired of the project.One of the more valued aspects by the municipalities phase I of MuNet was the possibility of

knowing what was making other municipalities and how they were doing it. It is not a secret thatthe opportunity to take references from advanced municipalities and to extract learned lessons is avaluable tool of advance for the electronic government, for that reason, MuNet II will incorporate acreation of a network of work for all the participant municipalities.

PANAMA PROJECT

The vision of MuNet is to accelerate municipalities movement towards the efficiency andtransparency using ICT, and a minimal level of these characteristics improves the development ofthe society.As a result, the Project objectives are:

Create at the top of mind of the decision makers, that ICT improves the transparency andefficiency.

Support municipalitys efforts to implement ICT as tools to improve transparency andefficiency.

Create and prove a tool kit in order to implement electronic government initiatives.At Panama were selected 28 municipalities to participate in the project under the direction of TheNational Authority for Government Innovation, former Government Innovation Secretariat SIG,the competent entity in charge of planning, coordinating, issuing guidelines, overseeing,collaborating, supporting and promoting the optimal use of ICT in the government sector formodernizing public management, as well as recommending the adoption of national strategicpolicies, plans and actions related to the matter.

The project was launched on October 6, 2010 [3] with a Sensitization of the Majors and ProjectManagers for each municipality. The idea is to continue with the following activities:

Development of ICT, transparency, efficiency and participation diagnosis at municipalityTraining of human resource in electronic government theoryDesign of strategy for electronic government Implementation of technological platform including MuniPortal, MuniCompra, MuniServi and

MuniParticipa

Support consultancy to create the electronic government strategy and the technical platformimplementation.

METHODOLOGYAs it was mentioned, MuNet was designed in order to incorporate the municipalities in theknowledge society using an innovating structure. MuNet applies a dynamic and coordinated workstyle using ICT, mainly internet, email, IP telephony, chats, video and a virtual platform. Enablingremote support from the Consultancy Team to the municipalitys Task Force.The virtual interface developed at the OAS WEB site http://community.oas.org/munet/default.aspxis the key element to improve the relationship among participants creating an efficient learningsystem to share opinions, questions and experiences. This virtual platform develops the remote


4/6

work, the time optimization, the instant assessment and the follow up along the complete projectphases. Additionally, the methodology enforces the relationship between the Task Force and theConsultancy Team, as a basic way to solve traditional project difficulties and consolidate thenormal process.In some cases, the low internet access at some municipalities must be override via the commitment

of the Consultancy Team and the Task Force using alternatives communications ways, telephone,fax or traditional mail. As a result, MuNet proves that is possible to change the traditional workstructures in cooperation and technical assistance projects under low cost policies and use effectivetools without dismissing quality and efficiency.In order to assure the implementation of the Project, each Major designated a Project Coordinator orMuNet Manager as the focal point and responsible of the development of all the activities.Additionally, an employees team of the municipalities, the Task Force, was selected to interactwith the Consultancy Team and to receive the basic course in electronic government strategypreparation, creating the seed for the leadership in this area at the municipality, responsible to dothe diagnosis, prepare the strategy, define the projects and implement it. With this method, MuNetassured the sustainability of the project and an internal structure to develop the technological

implementation of the projects at the municipality.The coordinated work of the MuNet Task Force with the Consultancy Team combined with theimplementation of the proposed methodology will be the base of the design and implementation ofelectronic government strategies. The first draft of the strategies are developed as a result of thecourse in basic theory in electronic government, the final document results from the revision amongthe Task Force with the support of the Consultancy Team.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

Diagnosis

The first step is to make an ICT diagnosis to determine the degree of application of ICT in themunicipality as a departure point for the Consultancy Team and for the Task Force based on theintensity in which they are used in the daily activities of the municipality and in the interaction withcitizens. Also the diagnosis is used to detect the necessities of investment in infrastructure andconnectivity, as well as reveal useful information for the decision making at local level particularlyas far as the preparation, implementation and use of the ICT. On the other hand, the evaluationcontributed to the identification of strengths and weaknesses of the municipality with the purpose oforienting resources towards the advantage of the advantages provided by the ICT. The transparencyand efficiency diagnosis are designed with the purpose of orienting the Consultancy Team and theTask Force on the level of transparency and efficiency in the municipality and the perception of thecitizens of the same one at the beginning of the program. This must be made with a survey appliedto the employs about key information on basic aspects such as information access, the financialhandling of the municipality and the resources investment. Also, it identifies the strengths andweaknesses of the municipality in relation to the existence of mechanisms to follow up complaints.Finally, the citizenship perception of the level of municipal transparency and efficiency isintroduced including the degree of honesty of its employees in the administrative processes and ifthere is communication channels with the citizenship. Finally, all the collected information could bevery useful to the Task Force to evaluate the advances in this field after the conclusion of theproject.


5/6


6/6

EXPECTED RESULTS

The clearest impact of MuNet must be also the most basic step: the beginning of ICT andcitizenship centered activities. Through the support of the Consultancy Team to the Task Force inthe definition of a strategic frame for the use of the ICT in each municipality, a dialogue with thepolitical authorities will be generate delimitating barriers for the consideration of technologyacquisitions in the municipal budget. Other qualitative impacts of MuNet must include the

availability scarce resources, as technology, to improve the process of projects follow up of and itsphysical and financial execution, improvement of connectivity infrastructure, identification ofconcrete objectives to short, medium and long term that ensures the completion of the arduousdigitalization process under the responsibility of a Task Force, as a seed of experts, expanding itsvision beyond the local reality, emphasizing the importance of ICT in the global development andthe necessity to have a strategy of electronic government who orient the initiatives to make.On the other hand, on line services must be implemented to reduce, or in some cases eliminateinterminable lines, loss of time for the citizenship that goes to the municipality, and as aconsequence, improves the life quality and finally a confidence increase of the citizenship towardsthe public administration through the improvement in the benefit of services and the creation ofeffective communication channels between citizenship and government. This contributed as well to

the transparency and the promotion of ethical conduct among employees.

REFERENCES

[1] Cardona, Diego, et. al., MuNet, a new way to improve municipalities, Proceedings of the3rd International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance ACM InternationalConference Proceeding Series; Vol. 322, Pages: 240245, December 2009, ISBN 9781605586632, available at http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1693042.1693090{January, 2011][2] Cardona, Diego, et. al., MuNet, Municipios Eficientes y Transparentes, Washington,Secretara Ejecutiva para el Desarrollo Integral SEDI/OEA, 78 p, ISBN 9780827053182available at http://portal.oas.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=EM7RzXT1b1s%3d&tabid=1169 [January, 2011]

[3] OAS, MuNet Launch in Panama, available at:http://portal.oas.org/Portal/Sector/SAP/DptodeModernizacindelEstadoyGobernabilidad/NPA/MuNeteGovernment/MuNetCountries/Panam/tabid/1811/language/en-US/Default.aspx {January, 2011]

Documents

ICT as a Tool for Municipality Transparency and Efficiency in Panama