2012

E-government
applications in
different countries
Contents
1. E-government overview................................................................................................................2
1.1. Categorization of e-government initiatives............................................................................3
1.1.1. Initiatives based on the participants involved................................................................3
1.1.2. Initiatives based on the stages of evolution of e-services..............................................4
2. Examples of e-government............................................................................................................6
Belgium’s electronic identification card.............................................................................................6
E-government in Denmark.................................................................................................................7
A world class e-government: eCitizen Portal.....................................................................................7
E-procurement in Macedonia............................................................................................................8
Applying for permits in Sweden.........................................................................................................9
Applying for Georgian passport.......................................................................................................10
E-voting in Estonia...........................................................................................................................10

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 1. E-government overview

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are paving the road to an utter
transformation of our society. The fast growth of these new technologies during the last
decades immensely influenced the manner in which we are leading our lives. This in turn, has
caused governments around the world to become aware of their potential and embrace the
possibilities they bring. Governments are challenged to reinvent the ways of working and
providing services if they are to remain responsive to citizen needs.

E-government is referred to as the use of information and communication

technologies in order to ease the communication between the state administration and citizens
or the business community, but also within the government institutions. Therefore, by using
the technologies to transform the processes, better availability, improved quality, and
transparency of the public services is achieved. However, the technology itself can only do as
much as facilitating the process of change to a better government. It serves solely as a tool
rather than a solution provider for the inefficient working of the public administration. The
main focus lies in the transformation of the working practices and introducing new legislation
related to the problem, while assuring security. This presumes considerable effort for
adaptation by all parties concerned, those involved in the implementation, as well as the
users.

The OECD defines e-government as “the use of information and communication

technologies, and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better government”.

Another definition is provided by the Word Bank as follows: “e-government refers to the use
by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the
Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens,
businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different
ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business
and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient
government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased
transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions”.

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Building an e-government is a complex process. Analyzing the working processes,
developing informatics solutions, changing the existing and creating new policies is only the
beginning. The transformation of the public administration’s way of working, more
specifically, the way in which the government is communicating with the citizens and
businesses, is a reform that should give meaning to the technical solutions, but bearing in
mind that their only purpose is to facilitate this change.

The development of e-government is on the list of priorities not only of the developed
countries, but also of the developing countries which are trying to improve governance and
establish better conditions for interaction with the government.

There is a variety of goals that the parties concerned with the implementation of this concept
are trying to achieve:

 building a transparent, honorable and fair public administration;

 increasing the effectiveness and productivity of the functionality of state institutions;
 improvement of the quality of services provided by the public sector to the citizens
and the business community;
 introduction of new type of relations between the state and citizens on one hand, and
the companies on the other, whereby the citizens and the business sector are the focus
of the decision-making process and actively participate in defining specific measures
and policies [Toseva, Ugrinovski, 2010].

1.1. Categorization of e-government initiatives

1.1.1. Initiatives based on the participants involved

The implementation of e-government initiatives interacts with different groups and is targeted
to the achievement of specific aim and goals which can be categorized according to some
criteria. As e-government is in relationship with four main participating parties: other
governments, citizens, employees and businesses, the categorization could be made according
to United Nations Public administration Network as follows:

1. Government to Government (G2G)

2. Government to Citizens (G2C)
3. Government to Business (G2B)
4. Government to Employees (G2E)

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Most sources specify only three first blocks and include G2E as a part of G2G or ignore
it ,but when employees are thought as internal customers and keeping in mind the importance
e-government to be customer-centric should be careful of employees needs too.

Government to Government (G2G):

Refers to the relationship between governmental organizations, as for example national,
regional and local governmental organizations, or with other foreign government
organizations. Governments depend on other levels of government within the state to
effectively deliver services and allocate responsibilities (Riley, 2000). In order to realize a
single access point, collaboration and cooperation among different governmental departments
and agencies is compulsory. Online communication and cooperation allows government
agencies and departments to share databases, resources, pool skills and capabilities,
enhancing the efficiency and effectivity of processes (Ndou, 2004).

Government to Citizen:
Deals with the relationship between government and citizens. E-government allows
government agencies to talk, listen, relate and continuously communicate with its citizens,
supporting, in this way, accountability, democracy and improvements to public services. A
broad array of interactions can be developed ranging from the delivery of services and the
provision of welfare and health benefits to regulatory and compliance oriented licensing
(Riley, 2000).

Government to Business:
Consists of the electronic interactions between government agencies and private businesses.
It allows e-transaction initiatives such as e-procurement and the development of an electronic
marketplace for government (Fang, 2002).

Government to Employees:
Refers to the relationship between government and its employees. G2E is an effective way to
provide e-learning, bring employees together and to promote knowledge sharing among
them. It gives employees the possibility of accessing relevant information regarding:
compensation and benefit policies, training and learning opportunities, civil rights laws, etc.
G2E refers also to strategic and tactical mechanisms for encouraging the implementation of
government goals and programs as well as human resource management, budgeting and
accounting (Riley, 2000).

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 1.1.2. Initiatives based on the stages of evolution of e-services

The sophistication of the government services is used by the European Union, being the
fundamental indicator of the e-government advancement of the member states. The initiatives
are categorized according to the maturity phases through which e-government progresses.
Twenty e-services are being observed, as part of the methodology of this process. Of these,
twelve are proposed for the citizens, and the eight remaining services are towards companies.

Figure 1: Twenty e-government services

Each of the twenty services outlined above is assessed according to the level of sophistication
on which the service is implemented, i.e. according to the depth of interaction that it
determines between the public sector and the users of its services in each of the reviewed
countries. The methodology projects for five degrees of sophistication: 1. Information, 2.
One-way interaction, 3. Two-way interaction, 4. Transaction and, 5. Personalization. The
inexistence of online information for this type of measurement, similar to other
measurements, is considered as the initial starting point. (ePractice.eu)

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 Figure 2: Degrees of sophistication

2. Examples of e-government

Belgium’s electronic identification card

The national portal of Belgium has a link called My Belgium that is the single point of
contact to government information and services. Over 9 million Belgians have eID cards that
allow them to download authenticated certificates from their personal file from the
MyBelgium portal.

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E-government in Denmark

Denmark’s services portal is the gateway to the entire public sector in Denmark and provides
access to an enormous amount of information and services. It paves the way for an efficient
user interface with effective streamlining of public sector departments. The slogan of the
page is “your access to the public”. It is, for example, possible to report an address change on
this website, apply for student loans and student grants scholarships, see and modify tax
issues, apply for a state pension, and report changes in income or marital status. Feedback is
offered through a mailbox called E-Box, which collects all the mail that the citizen receives
from both public authorities and private companies (UN, 2012).

A world class e-government: eCitizen Portal

Through Singapore’s e-citizen portal (http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg), Singaporeans are able to

access about 1,600 e-services pertaining to business, health, education and etc. The e-citizen
portal is divided into categories based on the real-life needs of every individual, with every
single ministry and statutory board providing e-services through the same portal.

Singaporeans thus have one-stop access to government services; they are spared having to
navigate through the bureaucratic jungle. A few of the popular e-services offered are:
submitting application forms for purchase of apartments, searching for school information,
employment search, career development, and voter registration.

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E-procurement in Macedonia

The USAID funded e-Gov Project and the Public Procurement Bureau (PPB), fully supported
by the Government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, developed and
implemented an electronic system for public procurements - ESPP (https://www.e-
nabavki.gov.mk), which provides an easy-to-use, secure, efficient and transparent on-line
solution for electronic public procurements. The e-Procurement system enables electronic
submission, storing, opening and evaluation of the bids thus guarantying a fair and
transparent process. It also makes the bidding process much easier and saves time and money
for the tenderers.

The purpose of this application is to provide the business community with the benefits of the
modern technology by eliminating the human influence in the public procurement process
from the moment of submitting the bid to the moment the most favorable tenderer is
selected. The system offers a secure, efficient and transparent preparation and administration
of all tender-related documents, removes unnecessary paper work and enables secure data
flow throughout the entire procurement process. It also provides a very efficient platform for
a fully transparent and cost-efficient public procurement.

The MESPP is tailor made system for the public procurement system in FYR of Macedonia,
but it is also fully aligned with the EU PP directives. The following phases are covered by the
MESPP: eSourcing, eNoticing, eAccess, eSubmission and eAwarding. MESPP covers the
overal open call procedure, starting with the preparation activities, publishing the tender,
asking questions related to the tender documents/giving answers, submission of bids, public
opening of bids, evaluation of bids, making decisions for selection of most favorable
bid/cancelation of tender, sending notifications for the decisions made and public

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announcement of the decision made. MESPP also covers the restricted call procedure, which
includes the first and second phase of the procedure.

Figure 3: Registering of contracting authority

Applying for permits in Sweden

Figure 4: https://www.verksamt.se/portal/en_GB/web/international/home

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Applying for Georgian passport

On the Georgian government site… there is an opportunity for applying for passport online.
This service is available only for people with Georgian nationality. The procedure
encompasses several steps like: filling in personal information, uploading a picture, paying
for the service, and lastly, a video call in order to confirm the identity of the applicant.
Because of the last step, the application requires the applicant to have a camera and
microphone for the video call.

This is a rare case where the entire procedure can be done electronically, without submission
of additional printed documents.

This is a link to a help video about this service: http://intpass.cra.ge/VideoHelp.aspx.

E-voting in Estonia

Estonia became the first nation to hold legally binding general elections over the Internet in
2005.

• E-voting should offer the same level of security and confidence as traditional
voting

• The Estonian internet voting system builds on the Estonian ID card

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 • ID-card enables to identify voters digitally at a maximum security level.

To vote via Internet voter needs:

 An Estonian ID card with valid certificates and PIN-codes

 Contains:

• Personal data file

• Certificate for authentication (along with e-mail address

Forename.Surname@eesti.ee)

• Certificate for digital signature

Computer used for voting must have:

 A smart card reader

 A driver for ID card (free to download from page www.id.ee/installer)

 A Windows or Linux operating system

Figure 5: Procedure for e-voting in Estonia

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