REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – NÁRODOHOSPODÁŘSKÝ OBZOR,
VOL. 12, ISSUE 1, 2012, pp. 42–67, DOI: 10.2478/v10135-012-0003-9
Trends of E-government in Czech Municipal and
Regional Self -Government
David Špaček1
Abstract: The paper summarizes trends of e-government projects of Czech territorial
self-governments (municipalities and regions). The summary is based on secondary data
related to philosophy and practice of projects which were awarded or medialized as top
projects in three Czech national e-government awards in the period 2005–2010.
Key words: e-government, e-governance, e-services, Czech e-government awards, self-
government
JEL Classification: H79
Introduction
E-Government represents one field where the mentioned values have been emphasized
repeatedly in the last decade. We will not discuss various approaches to the content of
the term in depth here. It is still apparent what Grand and Chau stated in 2005:
definitions of e-government abound in the literature, we may add that the term is more
stable particularly in its frequency (i.e. we do not meet terms like “digital government”
or “on-line government” today as often as we did in the past, use of the term egovernment/e-governance
is rather globalized), rather than in its content (i.e. definitions
may still vary in their specifics across approaches). Current terminology may also
emphasize a technology that is / is to be used – for example, it is the case of mgovernment
that is currently extensively discussed (see e.g. Snellen and Thaens, 2008)
or e-government 2.0 (see e.g. Criado, 2009, or Accenture, 2009). Still we may outline
that the terms like e-government and e-governance usually refer to initiatives of
governments from various levels that build on possibilities of electronic forms to serve
as an alternative instrument for practical achieving of improvements (better outcomes)
of governments, their bureaucracies and their decision- and policy-making processes in
many ways - e.g. by simplification, speeding up, reduction of costs, enhancement of
inclusion in public decision-making, control empowerment, making necessary
administrative interactions and burdens more comfortable etc. Such improvements
always relate to 2 groups of activities / interactions: to those which are / are to be under
way:
a) in the public administration system itself (within an individual authority or in
interrelationships among multiple public authorities); and / or
1
Masaryk University, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Lipová 41a, 602 00 Brno,
Czech Republic, e-mail: david.spacek@econ.muni.cz.
Volume 12, Issue 1, 2012
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b) in external relationships between public (citizens, businesses, non-governmental
organizations etc.) and more or less integrated back-offices of a single administrative
authority or various public administration sub-systems. Here in particular are the edemocracy
or even e-participation elaborated separately sometimes as a set of
instruments attempting to improve government by achieving better governance
(e.g. Macintosh and Whyte, 2006; Scherer, Schneider & Wimmer, 2008; Špaček, 2008
and 2009).
If we compare terminology (see e.g. Špaček, 2010), we may say that regardless of the
used terms, the terminology available always refers to a general notion of public
administration as a service to citizens. The goal is to ensure that the practice of this
principle will be based on / supported by new technologies. E-government also usually
represents an alternative instrument which offers new means / methods of work for
those who can and/or want to use them (although it is apparent that more duties are
prescribed for public administration and businesses rather than for citizens).
In order to bring innovations, we may distinguish following trends (for example) in egovernment
policies, legislation and projects of EU member states (Špaček, 2012, on
the basis of epractice.eu factsheets, as well as on OECD, 2007, 2008 and 2009):
establishment of new / revision of existing national portals that sometimes innovate
their service delivery mechanisms (e.g. by using mobile IDs, by enhanced
possibilities of personalization) or focus on a specific field of communication
between government and businesses / citizens (including projects from the areas like
e-procurement, e-invoicing, e-health, e-justice, e-environment and others)
piloting e-participation and e-democracy projects (including the community building
projects),
promotion of more internationally recognized instruments for electronic
identification (eIDs),
searching for instruments enhancing effectiveness and efficiency inside public
administration (e.g. promotion of open standards and software solution, more
complex managerial information systems, as well as new institutional arrangements
for e-government coordination and evaluation etc.).
So far, the criticism of e-government practice has argued that new technologies are
insufficiently managed (and evaluated) and used in reorganizing the public
administration, or that they do not involve the general public in decision-making
regarding public affairs (see e.g. OECD, 2003 and 2009).
E-government ideas have been reflected in many realized or planned projects in Czech
public sector, including the legislation as well as national or regional / local projects. In
the Czech Republic, territorial public administration consists particularly of
administration on the municipal and regional self-governments. The aim of the paper is
to outline the specifics of e-government projects of Czech territorial self-government,
and particularly summarize trends of e-government development in Czech territorial
self-government. The paper attempts are based particularly on secondary data (publicly
available information) which outlines the philosophy and practice of projects that have
been awarded or presented among top 10 projects in three famous Czech e-government
awards. Firstly, categories and sub-categories of projects (e-gov services) were created
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
44
using the data about all the surveyed national competitions. Secondly, the projects of
individual competitions were categorized in order to enable a comparison.
1. E-government projects of territorial self-government in Czech national context
In e-government projects of Czech territorial self-government (municipalities and
regions), logically, their self-governmental status is reflected, which brings more
autonomy for their decision-making, more space for flexibility which is limited by
capacities of individual self-governments and by standardization requirements of
legislation with regard to duties inside public administration, as well as in external
relations with citizens. The standardization initiatives are important because the Czech
Republic is specific for having a large number of municipalities. Currently, there are
more than 6 200 municipalities, most of which (almost 80%) have less than 1 000
inhabitants. This has raised questions and brought requirements for new legislation
which – particularly since the new millennium – stipulates standardization initiatives on
e-government development on the municipal level. Among important standardization
instruments particularly the following legal documents are substantial (Špaček and Malý,
2010):
For the purposes of public e-services and their management, particularly the following
existing legislation is of crucial importance:
a) Act no. 106/1999 on free access to information which also incorporates the European
directive on re-use of public sector information. It represents the ius generalis in the
field of public information. It also defines the supply side of public information that
shall be made available in “the way that enables distant access” on the basis of activities
of public authorities, or on the basis of applications made for them by citizens. The act
presupposes a certain level of e-readiness of “legally bound subjects”. This act also
required secondary legislation that would specify some of the prescribed informational
duties (e.g. today’s special regulation of the former Ministry of Informatics no.
442/2006 prescribes compulsory structure of public information) (see e.g. Špaček,
2007). Relevant duties are shattered in various acts and other related laws (e.g. in act on
information systems of public administration that presupposes accessibility of
information systems to disabled people since 1. 1. 2008, and a related special regulation
no. 64/2008 on accessibility of web pages; act on free access to environmental
information (Act no. 123/1998);
b) Relevant duties are prescribed in the administrative procedure act (Act no. 500/2004).
This act also presupposes electronic form of official notice board. Electronic notice
board of an authority may be established indirectly, too, and that is to be done by
making a public-law contract with other authorities in case of low capacities of an
administrative authority to ensure publishing of content of notice board electronically.
No specification of this incapability is prescribed however. The act on administrative
procedure stipulates similar duties regarding the electronic registries, which are special
workplaces of public authorities that should serve for receiving and delivering of data
messages as defined in the act on electronic signature;
c) Act on electronic signature (act no. 227/2000) regulates the practice of this
instrument in the Czech Republic. In case of interactions with public administration
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(“guaranteed electronic signature”), this act also presupposes a more sophisticated form
of e-signature.
d) Act on information systems of public administration (no. 365/2000) currently
prescribes not only new accessibility requirements, but also general duties of “long-term
management” of information systems. Within these duties, the act requires that
administrative authorities elaborate and approve an “information conception” (in the
period 2007 – 2008) that would address long-term aims of quality and security
management, and general principles of buying, developing and running of their
information system (as specified in special regulation no. 529/2006), too. The
information conception shall utilize elaborating the second pillar of the ICT “long-term
management” – documentation of the information system. Both of these parts shall be
approved by a certification. Such a certification is not required with municipalities
which exercise only the basic amount of state administration. The certification shall also
ensure interconnection with other information systems. This act also prescribes special
duties of the Ministry of Interior to administrate the Portal of Public Administration.
The Czech legislation which was passed in the last decade aims at reducing mutual
incompatibilities of municipal information systems that is also important with regard to
another specific feature of Czech public administration – municipalities (as well as
regions) may also be responsible for state administration tasks (we speak about joined /
mixed model of territorial public administration – see e.g. Špaček and Špalek, 2007).
Taking into account characteristics of the joined model of territorial public
administration, practices of Czech e-government projects always reflect characteristics
of state administration and self-government. Centralization, hierarchy and top-down
implementation of projects which intend to modernize in particular are distinctive
features of state administration as a subsystem of Czech public administration. In
territorial state administration, development of e-government is influenced / conditioned
by national projects which are realized by individual branches of state administration
(mostly separately by individual ministries), or in more resorts together with
coordination of the Ministry of Interior. The national projects usually bring adaptation
of information systems of municipalities and regions functionalities of which also cover
the area of self-government. Currently, the following national state administration
projects in particular are important for Czech municipalities and regions:
Czech POINTs. The Czech POINT project represents a one-stop-shop project of the
Czech central government which is still being developed under the responsibility of
the Ministry of Interior. The project was tested during the year 2007 and has been in
full practice since the beginning of 2008. Though a number of services provided by
Czech POINT (which are also provided by municipal offices) has been growing and
ministerial plans presumed that Czech POINT terminals would allow its users to
proceed with any communication with any public authority at any place in the future,
Czech POINTs still represent a network of physical terminals that provide Czech
POINT reception services mostly during office hours of public authorities. They
mostly do not deliver services to users on a 24/7 basis via the Internet, but they
transfer most of the requirements on its providers (for more information see e.g.
Špaček, 2009).
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data boxes (sometimes also as “data mailboxes“). Their practice has been legally
facilitated by the so-called Czech “e-government act” (act no 300/2008 on electronic
transactions and authorised conversion of documents) which came into force in July
2009. The act specifies data boxes as electronic communication instruments that
shall simplify communication between public authorities and businesses and citizens.
From July 1, 2009, all public authorities are obliged to communicate electronically
with each other, and with certain private sector entities and individuals, using
official data boxes. Data boxes are designed for sending and receiving official
documents in an electronic form. The communication through data boxes is now
compulsory in interactions inside public administration system (i.e. between
authorities) and also in interactions between public authorities and corporate bodies
which are registered in the Commercial Register (for more information see e.g.
Špaček, 2010). Representatives from the Ministry of Interior usually distinguish data
boxes from ordinary e-mails emphasizing by the fact that in the case of
communication via data boxes security of communication is guaranteed (as well as
funded) by the State.
Czech eGovernment practice depends on effectiveness of legislation on basic
registers. According to present information, in order to extend the testing period for
one more year, basic registers shall be in full practice since 30. 6. 2012. The
legislation specifies 4 basic registers (Register of Inhabitants, Register of Legal
Entities, Register of Territorial Identification, Addresses and Real Estates, and
Register of Rights and Duties) that shall replace many heterogeneous and often
duplicate records of various authorities. In the case of the Information system of
basic registers as well as of some of the basic registers (e.g. the Register of
Inhabitants, the Register of Right and Duties), public tendering has not been finished
or has finished only recently.
Strategy of e-government implementation in a territory may be also included into the
documents which have coordination and standardization features and impact municipal
and regional self-government. This strategy, which tries to further concretize aims that
may be funded from the Integrated Operational Plan, was approved by government in
December 2008. The strategy aims at establishment of eGON centres in regions that
would facilitate ICT development according to local and regional needs. Working
documents of the Ministry of Interior highlight the future needs of strategic planning (it
presumes approval of eGovernment strategy of a region) and coordination activities of
regions. According to the strategy, the regional and municipal eGON centres shall
include (Špaček, 2010):
technological centres allowing establishment, operation and maintenance of
infrastructure necessary for processing key data of basic registers and other
applications (e.g. file service systems, CzechPOINT@home). According to the
Ministry of Interior, the project will link technological centres to the project of
Czech POINT for municipalities, which will facilitate certain standardization of their
ICT use even in the case of small municipalities. Current working documents also
speak about a very important role of municipalities with extended competences (i.e.
municipalities which have exercised the largest amount of state administration since
2003) – they shall become providers of technological centres for other municipalities.
According to still deliberated plans, they shall primarily run electronic file service
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systems and other services like CzechPOINT@home1 for municipalities from their
administrative districts. The planned criteria speak about effectiveness if such
services are delivered for more than 50% of the municipalities from an
administrative district of a municipality with extended competence in two years
since the time of launching the project).
administration and promotion of e-government, and
e-government education including the support of implementation of central
eLearning system.
CzechPOINT@home (“Citizen portal“) represents a project which shall follow the
Czech POINT project and build on good practices of municipalities and regions (see for
example the projects like Virtuos, eSMO or eObec below) which have already
implemented projects supporting electronic communication of public authorities with
citizens. Its functionalities shall include life events, their connection with electronic
forms, booking system (i.e. systems through which a citizen can book a visit of a
municipal employee / regional office for a certain day and time), acknowledgement of
status of administrative actions of citizens etc. The system shall be connected to basic
registers and integrated into Czech POINTs.
Specific areas of e-government projects which may occur in Czech territorial selfgovernment
represents those which are realized in territorially subdivided statutory
cities and in the Capital of Prague. Statutory cities represents a group of cities whose
specifics is their possibility to subdivide their public administration into a central level
and a lower level represented by municipal parts / districts which, afterwards, have their
own political and administrative bodies. The municipal parts – if established – have
restricted legal status which source from legislation and the called “status” – legal
document approved on the central level of a statutory city (by its central council) which
defines organization of public administration on the central (statutory city) level and on
the levels of municipal parts. We cannot speak about autonomy of municipal parts as
the legislation does not give them independent legal status, they are not independent
legal entities, but only “organizational units” of a statutory city whose property, amount
of self-government, as well as state administration depends on decision of central
council and central authorities. The status of municipal parts of the Capital of Prague is
rather different; the legislation gives municipal parts of Prague their independent legal
status, however, when it comes to the area of their economy, their status is similar to the
status of municipal parts of statutory cities.
The mentioned national strategies and supplementary specifying documents builds on
the fact that regions and municipalities are not in subordination relationships in the area
1
Ministerial plans speak about “typified projects”. Regional technological centers and
technological centres of municipalities with extended competences shall ensure required functions
of the following: a) typified projects of self-governments: electronic file service system, digital
map of public administration (cadastral map, territorial planning and analytical documents), data
depository and managerial information systems for regional statistics, saving and digitalization of
data, CzechPOINT@home, management of crisis; b) already defined projects of self-government
(ePUSA as a database of contacts on self-governments, KEVIS as a central depository of basic
structured data, and HelpDesk for communication within a region or administrative district of a
municipality with extended competences).
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of self-government. E-government practices cannot be commanded in any other than
legislative way, and only good practices may be spread. Cooperation is voluntary, but in
situation, where it has evolved, it is perceived as beneficial. The national plans stem
from the assumption that the most advanced personnel and technologic background is at
disposal particularly on the level of regions and statutory cities. Offer of other services,
which should be realized through the “typified projects” (see above), is possible on the
regional level in cooperation with municipalities with extended responsibilities. This is
the backbone of the future system (Ledvinka a kol., 2009).
2. Czech national e-government awards and characteristics of awarded regional
and municipal projects
In the Czech Republic, practice of e-government is annually evaluated by various
awards. Annually, it is also presented during the ISSS conference, which takes place in
Hradec Králové every spring and focuses particularly on presentations of practitioners
from private companies, municipalities, regions and central authorities rather than of the
academia. Czech e-government projects are also introduced during the autumn INVEX
trade fair. The following competitions are apparently the most famous and thus most
medialized national e-government awards - competition The Best of the
Egovernment.cz magazine, Golden Crest of national awards for innovation in public
administration of the Ministry of Interior. The text below firstly summarizes the
philosophy and the criteria of these competitions, and, secondly, it summarizes
information about the projects awarded / medialized.
Initially, the author wanted to use the classical categorization of e-government projects
into G2C (Government-to-Citizen), G2B (Government-to-Business) and G2G
(Government-to-Government) projects in the summary. Since it was apparent that
several projects include services from more or all of these categories, the final summary
is based on an assumption that it is obviously more practical to categorize awarded /
medialized projects according to their substantive / material focus (in spite of the fact
that for example The Best of the Egovernment.cz magazine competition uses the
summarizing abbreviations G2C, G2B and G2G).
2.1 National awards for innovation in public administration and awarded e-government
projects of territorial self-government
National awards for innovation in public administration of the Ministry of Interior have
been awarded annually within the framework of National quality awards in public
administration since 2005. The award for innovation shall – according to its
specifications – be awarded to new and not traditional ideas which may serve as good
practice examples. It is not awarded in golden, silver or bronze categories, only the
award for innovation is given as itself.
Criteria of the award are annually specified by Statute of awards of the Ministry of
Interior for quality and innovation in public administration. The Minister of Interior
approves the Statute upon recommendation of members of Expert section of quality in
public administration of the Council for quality of the Czech Republic. The Expert
section discusses applications for awards and decides which of them will be included in
the competition; it also proposes to the Minister of Interior those that should be awarded
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the prize, decides the conflict cases and, eventually, about sanctions in cases of violation
of the competition rules. It also appoints evaluators of applications who elaborate
evaluation reports which shall include a proposal of awarding / not awarding a prize.
In the period 2005 – 2010, Statutes of awards for innovation in public administration
enumerated the following criteria:
A solution must apply a new approach or an innovative way of application of
existing instruments, which provably brought about improvement in activities or
increased quality, economy, suitability or efficiency of public service delivery. The
level of innovation must be documented by evidence, the application for competition
requires applicants to state criteria of goals achievement.
A solution shall be applicable in other organizations of public sector, which means
that it shall serve as a good practice example and inspiration.
The award will be given to those organizations which prove accomplishment of
goals stated in the application in its final report.
Since the 2010’s awards, which were announced in February 2011, it has been
required that competitors must prove that their innovative project is carried out for at
least 1 year.
Information about e-government projects of territorial self-governments (municipalities
and regions) which were awarded a prize for innovation in public administration is
summarized in the table 1 (in the appendix). The table summarizes awarded projects
according to their substantive focus. It shows a variety of breadth of individual projects
and also a decomposition / allocation of awards in the period 2005 – 2010. In some
cases, the categories used for summarization contain more broad sub-categories (e.g.
portal solutions). Awarded projects were included in the table particularly according to
the breadth of their implementation which was actually awarded. It is necessary to point
out that the majority of services was developed on the order that authorities placed in
private sector. Projects were often funded from structural funds of the EU or (to a lesser
degree) by Norway grants. The table shows a decomposition of project types in time; to
a certain extent, it also summarizes development of electronization in some authorities
(e.g. in the case of municipalities or regions which received the award repeatedly).
In 2005, 10 authorities were awarded the prize in total, 4 of them were municipalities
which received the award for their e-government projects. Two categories of projects
were awarded. Among those services offered to the public were those that supported the
service to clients within the premises of authorities (e.g. Chomutov was awarded for the
possibility to pay by credit cards in more terminals, which reduced the necessity of
citizens to pay at the cash desk situated in one building of the municipal office only, or
for the possibility to apply for an appointment with a civil servant by an SMS or using
the Internet). Another project that was awarded was that of České Budějovice to
transmit municipal council’s sessions in cable TV or online, where archived videofiles
of sessions were available, too. Among projects related to services, which were
designed for public as well as for internal needs of public administration, geographic
information systems (GIS) in particular were awarded, some of which also allowed
smaller municipalities to coordinate their work on uniform map depository of a region
(this was the case of Děčín municipality).
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In 2006, 12 authorities received the award, 7 of which were municipalities and regions
which were awarded for their e-government project. In this year, electronic support of
service to citizens within premises of the authority was awarded, too (e.g. the calling
facilities and self-serviced Internet application for visiting the municipal office in
Přerov).
Compared to previous year, services which were designed only for internal needs of
individual public authorities were awarded, too. This was the case of information
system of Jablunkov (whose application was very brief and did not contain sufficient
information in my opinion, it only briefly enumerated goals), economic integrated
systems of organizations established by a region (e.g. the IS of Karlovarský region,
which focused on economic agendas of more than 100 of its allowance organizations
and enabled their better control), intelligent forms used for satisfaction measurement of
allowances organizations established by Olomoucký region, which were integrated into
its regional economic IS. Internal needs were the motive for project digitalizing an
archive of the building and construction department (which represents one field of
responsibilities of larger municipal offices) of Chomutov’s municipal office in
particular.
A project which intended to spread good practice was also awarded – the “Dataplán” of
the network Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic (which was established in cooperation
with the Region Vysočina) which also contains elements of managerial IS. It shall serve
municipalities, their voluntary associations (“micro regions”) and regions to monitor
which financial resources and with what effect are allocated to strategic priorities. The
Dataplán also enabled to compare projects between / among municipalities and regions,
and serves as a depository of projects which are to be / were evaluated within the
regional policy funding framework, too.
Compared to previous year, projects from the G2C-G2B-G2G category (i.e. services
designed for the public as well as for public authorities), which were constituting a
metropolitan network, were awarded, too. This was also the case of projects which were
not finalized. This was the case of “eSMO” Information system of the statutory city of
Ostrava. In the time when it applied for the competition, the infrastructure comprised of
21 self-serviced information kiosks, 10 serviced information receptions situated in
authorities of municipal parts, 3 public Wi-Fi hotspots enabling broadband access to the
Internet and 1 contact centre and technological infrastructure for service delivery.
Services in an innovative way (i.e. using the web www.esmo.cz, e-mail, SMS,
information kiosk, information reception or phone) related to the agenda of
documenting and issuing of personal IDs, or to the agenda of waste disposal, were
offered. In the case of personal IDs, a citizen might pre-fill an application form for an
ID card. Electronization of other agendas was prepared. The transactional e-services
were conditioned to prior agreement between a citizen and the authority upon which the
citizen received the log-in data for accessing the private part of the portal. Without these
data a citizen could gain access only to public information related to life events,
activities of individual bodies of the city etc. The agreement could be made in person in
public authority, those who owned the e-signature could also use e-mail.
In 2007, 5 authorities received awards for innovation. 4 of those authorities were
regions and municipalities with e-government projects. Again, projects utilizing new
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instruments for communication with citizens were awarded – the use of Skype to
communicate with municipal office of Koleč for free and self-serviced handling of
selected administrative operations by SMS messages (the project “Phone Book”) in
Chomutov (the project allows citizens to initiate some administrative operations by an
SMS – e.g. the application for verification of number of points in the register of drivers,
the price of the SMS includes the administrative fee, a citizen is also informed about
issuing of a document by an SMS etc.).
Projects of internal economic and managerial IS (it was the case of Hlučín) were
awarded, too. Data depository of Vysočina region is an example of awarded internal IS
project which has a different dimension. The data depository was established due to an
increasing amount of data necessary for decision-making and the increase of costs
connected with their processing. Establishment of the data depository allowed –
according to the application to the competition – that civil servants core work activities
now focus on data analysis rather than on creation of tables. The application pointed out
the “disgust” of some civil servants to accept new methods of work with data and to
learn.
In 2008, 12 authorities were awarded a prize for innovation. 8 of these authorities
received it for e-government projects in territorial self-government.
Among projects which utilize new instruments for communication with citizens, we
may include the “Mobile authority” project of Municipal Part Prague 10 which allowed
civil servants (armed with a notebook with a VPN access to IS) to visit elderly people in
their homes in order to handle administrative tasks from the field of social allowances
etc.
In our category of services for the public, the prize was awarded to the Portal for
cyclotourism of Jihomoravský region was awarded a prize.
In the category of internal economic and managerial IS, we may include the portal of
strategic management of the Region Vysočina, thanks to which employees of the
regional office and members of regional board (i.e. one of political bodies of a region)
can find information from the field of strategic management, quality management and in
the future – as is planned – information from processes management, too. The portal
also comprised of a dynamic element which evaluated key indicators of quality
management and showed deviations against strategic goals (in the time of application,
11 of 33 strategic aims could be monitored in this way). All information was available
to all employees, not only to selected top-managers. In the category of internal
economic and managerial IS, we may also include a new system of handling debts in the
municipality of Šumperk which attempted to simplify a system of fees from citizens in
the self-government, using the SIPO of the Czech Post (the SIPO enables citizens /
organizations to cumulate payments for other individuals / organizations which made a
deal with the Czech POST to enable the SIPO to make only one payment).
Another awarded project – that of municipality Hodonín – followed the DataPLÁN
project which had been awarded a prize in 2006, and enabled creation of an action plan
of a municipality taking advantage of a project on-line depository. This project is
included in the third category of services of grant allocations / public procurements,
because – according to available information – it enabled external organizations (and
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also organizations established by the municipality) to send project proposals to the
municipal office. Application Softender of the municipality Studénka which intended to
ensure remote access to project documentation to applicants for public procurements,
and enabled handling public procurement agenda (establishment, publicizing, evaluation,
applicant selection, archiving) electronically, is another project from this field, which
was awarded this year.
This year, a prize was awarded to one of large and largely medialized projects which
goes beyond establishment of regional communication infrastructure. It was the case of
VIRTUOS project of Plzeňský region. Its functions covered duties of municipalities.
The aim of the project was to proactively try to address problems of middle-size and
small municipalities to comply with the legislatively stipulated duties, as well as to offer
e-services which were considered standard – e.g. booking of time for visiting public
authorities, a possibility of a citizens to monitor status of handling of their submissions
to the authority and to archive his/her activities with the authority from the category of
services for citizens, or electronic file services which could be used by municipalities
that had not established it. The project intended to initiate creation of standards and
became the inspiration during implementation of the national strategy for e-government
implementation in territories (see above).
The table 1 does not include a project “registration place” of Municipal part Prague 13
which received a prize. This project enabled citizens to register and apply for esignature
of a private company (for lower purchase prices).
In the case of projects which were awarded a prize for innovation in 2009 and 2010, we
do not have more information that was formerly available in the form of applications.
Only Powerpoint presentations prepared for the purposes of the national quality
conference are available.
In 2009, 6 authorities of municipalities and regions were awarded, 2 of which for egovernment
projects – the municipality Jablunkov for improving navigation for
searching employees of its municipal office, and Plzeňský region for its “electronization
of internal processes”. In this case we have more information, because the project was
awarded in prize in other competitions (see below).
In 2010, 3 authorities were awarded a prize, 2 of which were municipal and regional egovernment
projects – Zlínský region received a prize for its “information
management”, and the municipality Vsetín for dynamic strategic plan of the Balanced
Scorecard which was handled by software simulating strategic development scenarios
according to changes in model parameters.
2.2 The Golden Crest competition
The Golden Crest competition awards the best websites and electronic services of
municipalities. Its state-wide results are annually announced during an ISSS conference
(see www.isss.cz). The competition is organized in cooperation with Association of
municipalities, Association of regions, Ministry for Regional Development or Ministry
of Interior and association Český zavináč (Czech @) and portal Towns and
Communities Online (see http://mesta.obce.cz/summary_english.asp) .
Volume 12, Issue 1, 2012
53
The competition wants to support modernization of local and regional public
administration through development of electronic services delivered to citizens, and
increase of quality of life in towns, communities and regions. The competition is firstly
organized on the regional level, and the finalists of regional rounds compete in statewide
competition. In this paper only projects which were among the finalists of the
state-wide competition are summarized, again with reference to the period of 2005 –
2010 (the awards in the category “Best electronic service” was firstly awarded in 2004).
Information about e-government projects of territorial administration (municipalities
and regions) which were in the first three places, is summarized in the Table 2 (in the
appendix) similarly to the previous competition. It is necessary to point out that the
summary is more problematic compared to the awards for innovation of the Ministry of
Interior or to the competition The Best of the magazine Egovernment.cz. In the case of
the Golden Crest competition, applications or summaries of projects (based on the
content of applications) are not available, only chart of awarded projects (sometimes,
but not always supplemented with links to awarded e-services) is published on the
website of the competition, sometimes also scoring of individual projects as received by
individual members of evaluation teams are available. The focus of awarded projects
was deduced from the names of the projects. In case of some of them, more information
can be found because these projects were awarded in different national competitions,
information about others can also be found on web pages of municipalities, because
majority of e-services are still provided.
In 2005, the Map of municipality Beroun and its surroundings was awarded in the
category of services from the field of tourism. Municipality of Přerov received the prize
for electronic support of customer service (citizens could monitor carrying-capacity of
selected departments of municipal office, book time for their visits of the municipal
office, and also to monitor the process of their submissions in the case of personal IDs).
Similar services (booking system and process monitoring) were the reason for an award
for municipal office of Vyškov. In this case, we may found many commentaries on the
web pages of this municipality which complained that the service, which would help
them to get information about capacity-carrying of department responsible for driving
licences, was not available during the rush hours (caused by situations where vast
majority of citizens changes their driving licences as required by legislation in certain
deadlines on the last moment). We may also find here the following commentary: “Well,
who wants to make appointment to change/getting a driving licence through e-registry
office till the end of the year, they must be very fast just before midnight. Today, all the
available times for December 20 were occupied in less than a minute... I managed to get
one :-). So I wish others good nerves and very fast fingers on keyboards :-)”.
Municipality of Brandýs nad Labem was awarded in 2006 for online booking of
appointments (which enabled also booking via SMS) and for information of handling
the clients of the department of transport available online. The case was very similar
with municipal office of Most which received a prize in the Golden Crest competition
for E-applications of citizens. This year, online transmissions of sessions of city council
of statutory city České Budějovice were awarded, too.
Municipality of Brandýs nad Labem received a prize in 2007 for its increase of number
of services thanks to which it is possible to make the appointment online. This town was
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
54
also awarded for its project of SMS news services. Municipal part Prague 6 also
received a price for utilization of new instruments in communication with citizens (its
project “Local MMS-ing” – see below). This year, currently operational project eSMO
establishing a G2C-G2B-G2G metropolitan network (comprising services designed for
the public, as well as for public administration as introduced above with regard to
awards for innovation) was also awarded.
In 2008, municipality Bohumín was awarded a prize for utilizing new instruments of
communication with citizens, specifically for the service E-info. The service allowed
citizens to obtain various information – a citizen, who registered himself/herself, can
choose which information may be – subsequently send to his/her e-mail or by an SMS.
According to currently available information, the service is free of charge.
Informational features have other awarded projects – TV6 of Municipal part Prague 6,
or the service e-Museum Senorady (see below).
In 2009, another development of IS eSMO of statutory city Ostrava was awarded.
Currently, the IS offers the following:
information about handled administrative responsibilities (office hours, necessary
documents, legal deadlines etc.)
booking system (booking of day and date of the visit of municipal office
departments or offices of municipal parts; it is also possible to make the reservation
by phone)
free Internet access in offices of municipal parts through information kiosks and in
the municipal library
Wi-Fi Internet access for lower prices
for registered users (who make an agreement with the city), the IS offers online booking,
access to e-forms, preview of handled affairs and running processes, and also an SMS /
e-mail announcement of finalization of the process under way.
In 2009, municipality of Přibyslav also received a prize for transmission of sessions of
municipal councils in cable TV and online availability of archived videofiles of these
sessions. Municipality of Semily was awarded for making it possible for citizens to
announce defects and problems by an MMS – this service (similarly to formerly
awarded Local MMS-ing of Municipal Prague 6) allowed citizens to send a photo with
accompanying message by an MMS or by e-mail.
In 2010, the Capital of Prague was awarded for its portal Public Procurement Under the
Eye Loupe which provides applicants as well as the public with information about
planned and proceeding public procurement. Published information were related to
building procurements (with prices over CZK 1,000,000) (the portal goes beyond legal
duties, because the Czech law defines more duties in case of public procurements with
price over CZK 2,000,000).
This year the GIS – conception of territorial plan of the municipality Šumperk and also
e-Museum Senorady were also awarded. The e-museum offered a guided access to
historical information and 3D exhibits of town which have not been established by the
“stone” museum.
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2.3 The Best of the magazine Egovernment.cz
The aim of The Best of Czech magazine Egovernment.cz project is to annually gather
and present the most interesting e-government projects from the national and territorial
level. In the project, we may distinguish projects which were among the three winners,
and those which were considered to be the most interested in a year (including the three
winners) and were medialized by the magazine. The summary below covers this broader
category which is considered to be The Best projects of the year and focuses only on
projects of municipalities and regions.
In the competition, projects could be applied which aim at improvement of efficiency of
public administration and increase of user / citizen comfort. A project could be applied
or can be drawn attention to by anybody regardless of the size of a project or its focus.
Who will and who will not be among the finalists, that depends on voting of readers of
the magazine, and particularly on decision of evaluation commission (based on scoring),
whose members were representatives from the area of public administration and ICT
experts. Among evaluators, the commission also included representatives from
institutions which were awarded the prize!
Since 2007, the competition organizers have categorized the selected and medialized
projects into the following categories: A – infrastructure, B – services for internal needs
of an authority, C – services for the public, D – education. Individual projects were also
summarized by abbreviations G2C, G2B, G2G. Since it was not possible to compare the
projects due to their heterogeneity and different size mutually, the criteria which were
used for scoring were based on the criteria of the European eGovernment Awards
according to the organizers of the competition. Since 2007, the competition has been
using the following criteria and these were used during evaluation and in decisions if a
project was to be presented to the public:
demonstrability of results and impact of project / solution, relationship between
benefits and costs,
demonstrability of best practice, or the potential for transferability,
multichannel aspects are taken into account,
improvement and effectiveness of management – whether the managerial approach
is innovative, how efficiently does it work with technological instruments,
overall impression and communication capacities (whether there is a compelling
way of presentation and whether the solution is extraordinary or not).
In later years the criteria also contained criteria whether users (target group)
perceive and find the project beneficial, and to what extent they are aware of the
project, and if projects have short-term or long-term effects.
In 2008, projects were presented in the form of answers to questions from the
application which were based on the mentioned criteria. Publicly available information
about projects indicate that the information stems from the verbatim content as stated by
applicants. In the vast majority of cases, the available description of projects which
were among The Best projects and medialized / presented as such, contains a brief and
particularly qualitative description of aims, anticipated benefits and real impacts, rather
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56
than quantitative description as required by the criteria (the application presumes that
applicants gives deeper reasons for their argumentations, it wanted to award those who
used the IPAT or eGEP methodology of impact measurement).
The table 3 (in the appendix) summarizes information about projects, practice of which
was presented in the Egovernment magazine from 2006 (this was the first year of the
competition) to 2008 and in 2010 (in 2009 the competition was not organized).
2.3.1 The Best projects of 2006
In 2006, seventeen projects of municipalities and regions were presented as The Best
projects. In comparison to previously summarized competitions, among those of them
which related particularly to e-services of the G2C/G2B the smart card of Plzeň
(“Pilzen card”) was awarded. It has been offered since May 2004. The project
implementation was divided into 4 phases – during the 0 phase, the card was supposed
to be launched in practice, during the phase 1, its functionalities were supposed to
include identification functions of the card in other independent systems (entrance,
attendance, school, provision of meals etc.), during the phase 2, payment functions of
the card were supposed to be introduced (outside the public transport, where the use of
cards was initiated – in libraries, by transport companies of the integrated transport
system, parking places, sports or culture facilities, in a zoo etc.), during the phase 3,
authorization functions were to be enhanced using the e-signature functions in agendas
of state administration and self-government. According to information available, the
Pilsen card has reached only the phase 2 and also allowed replacement of ISIC student
cards.
In this competition, we may also found projects awarded for implementation of
electronic support of citizens within premises of public authorities (booking system and
services that enable to monitor the number of client services in municipality Přerov or a
similar service, which also included an SMS canal, as in the case of municipality Děčín).
Also the project of Praha5.net Internet for Free was presented among the best projects
within which 16 HotSpots for Wi-Fi access were established (registration which had to
be passed prior to access in order to get log-in data required long-in name, password and
e-mail address).
In 2006, regional information communication networks designed for larger
administrative territory (i.e. larger than a territory of a single town / region) were
awarded. The example here could be the network ROWANET (project of the Vysočina
Region) which offered high speed Internet, roaming (Wi-Fi access points), public
Internet (Wi-Fi through hot spots situated on public places), services of high capacity
depositories, hosting of applications based on HTTP protocols, VPN, or services for
other public authorities (hosting of e-registry office). More limited were functionalities
of other awarded project of this type – the non-public data network of the Capital of
Prague MePNet.
In The Best project, another initiative of the Capital of Prague was medialized this year
– the current project of city portal which should enable citizens to communicate with the
city office through interactive forms which can be not only filled in, but also sent;
citizens can also monitor the phase of their processing. The portal also enabled
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personalization in the “My Prague” section. Atlas of Environment of Prague project was
also medialized, which – based on thematic yearbook – comprised of GIS on air, water,
landscape, waste, noise, etc.
Municipality of Zábřeh was among the three finalists awarded for implementation of
ICTs in the area of human resources management. The project was supplementary to
attendance monitoring system and focused particularly on monitoring of activities of
municipal office’s employees. Following information about activities which were
exercised on PCs were recorded into a log file, including the activities on the Internet.
Similar projects have been also implemented in the private sector. Currently a decision
of the regional court of České Budějovice from February 2011 is important, since it
allowed firms to fire their employees if they spend more time browsing the Internet
without former information that their online activities are monitored.
From the group of projects which relate to internal functioning of public authorities, the
project of electronic handing over of documents within the territory of Municipal part
Prague 9 was also awarded. According to the information available, the project was
expected to bring efficiencies in exchange of documents between authorities using the
infrastructure of the Capital of Prague (that is also why the project is included in the
category ”file service systems”).
In 2006, other GISs were also awarded – the project Development of water piping and
sewer system of Kralovéhradecký region and Map portal of statutory city Plzeň. In the
case of Plzeň, The Best initiative of the magazine Egovernment.cz also presented
development of its internal IS which was built on SAP, and enabled data
interconnection of individual buildings of the city office, offices of municipal parts and
allowance organizations established by the city (e.g. Pilsen municipal transport utilities,
Municipal establishment for social services, Municipal police) and it also connected
some institutions administered by the Regional office of Plzeňský region,
Westbohemian University, Faculty of Medicine, Teaching Hospital Plzeň and other.
That is why the project is included in the subcategory metropolitan network. In the
phase of analysis was a project from front-office area – a system for creation of forms
and data collection, monitoring of the process of citizens’ submission, possibility to use
other instruments for payments etc. The focus of medialized metropolitan network and
portal of municipality Pelhřimov was similar.
In 2006, the project eCity-council of statutory city České Budějovice was also awarded.
It consisted of electronic voting equipment which enabled presentation, application for
discussion and voting. Voting results were evaluated by software and printed
simultaneously, graphical output was also presented during the session of the city
council. Archived audio file was made available on website of the city, as well as results
of voting related to points of the session programme discussed .
Introduced system eSMO of the statutory city Ostrava was awarded which is included in
the subcategory infrastructure of regional communication network within a metropolitan
area which is expanding into G2C / G2B dimensions. Other project of this type is
represented by the network iNOVOMĚSTO which was initiated by municipality of
Nové Město na Moravě. Within this network, 38 interactive information kiosks with
public free internet access existed. Information kiosks were also situated in 19
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
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municipalities. The goal was also to connect municipal offices to metropolitan network
through VPM. Other goals included improvement of attractivity for tourism.
2.3.2 The Best projects of 2007
In 2007, 11 projects of municipalities and regions were presented. Among internal
economic and managerial ISs, which were presented as best projects in 2007, we may
also find IS for administration and filing of real estates of the Capital of Prague, of
economic system of Municipal part Prague 1. The Municipal part Prague 1 also gained
the attention for its new instrument for communication with citizens – a system of
delivery of information and warning and security announcements by an SMS. Among
the projects of Municipal parts of Prague, the “Regional communication service” was
also medialized, its aim being to ensure Wi-Fi access of citizens to communication with
the municipal office It was again supplemented by information kiosks with Internet
access. A project of the Municipal part Prague 10 which focused on
e-learning applications in order to improve education of civil servants of municipal
office of this part was medialized, too. This initiative raises questions why the Capital of
Prague or the Ministry of Interior as the central institution for education of civil servants
does not support similar projects.
A project of preparation of electronic materials for sessions of political bodies (council
and board) of municipality of Uherský Brod could be found among the awarded projects.
The VIRTUOS project of Plzeňský region that we have already introduced was also
medialized in The Best initiative in the e-government projects. GISs also gained
attention in this year – cadastral map of Zlínský region, which was designed only for
needs of public administration (according to available information it could be used by
the regional office of Zlínský region and, on the basis of agreement, also by other
municipalities from the region). GIS “Mapping of camps in Vysočina” which enabled
its users to obtain information about concrete localities of camps, including the contact
data, number of participants, access an Integrated security system to inform – via an
SMS – the head of the camp about any emerging danger – floods, windstorms, police
announcements etc.
In comparison to previously summarized competitions and projects, which were
awarded in this competition in future, the statutory city of Ostrava was medialized for
its transport camera surveillance system, or, the statutory city of Plzeň for its uniform
school IS PilsEDUnet, which enabled teachers, parents as well as pupils to access
information from various fields (e.g. studying results, school attendance, school events,
educational activities etc.).
2.3.3 The Best projects of 2008
In 2008, 9 projects of municipalities and regions were presented among The Best egovernment
projects, 2 of which were also awarded among the finalists. The project
eObec of municipality of Uherský Brod – one of the awarded projects – offered modular
system solution of a private company for communication between municipalities,
regional offices, their organizations and citizens. It is the project from the category of
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infrastructure of regional communication network within a metropolitan area which is
expanding into G2C / G2B dimensions. The VIRTUOS of Plzeňský region which
initiated standardization on the larger territory and which has been already introduced,
is yet another project which was awarded.
In this award there were also projects which had been awarded in previously
summerized competitions – e.g. project of data depository of Vysočina region or the
Phone Book of municipality Chomutov. This year, other projects were repeatedly given
the attention by the magazine Egovernment – e.g. system for information and security
announcement of the Municipal part Prague 1 which was also medialized thanks to
creation of free 24/7 call centre integrated in to system of solution monitoring. Among
the services for the public, tourist portal Výletů ráj (Heaven of Trips) was presented,
which also enabled its users to find out a profile of a journey or to generate its GPS data.
In the case of services designed for internal use, file service of Statutory City of Brno
(which was used also by its municipal parts) was presented.
2.3.4 The Best projects of 2010
In 2010, 7 e-government projects of municipalities and regions were presented among
The Best projects by the magazine Egovernment.cz. Again, we may find GIS among the
projects – Unified portal of analytic territorial documents and territorial plans of Zlínský
region which was established thanks to its cooperation with municipalities with
extended responsibilities from the region. The project which can be used by the public
was an inspiration for one of typified projects of IOP (its subpart Improvement of egovernment
services in regions). Another project of this region was presented in the
best projects – the electronic collection of applications for support from the programme
fund of the region.
Electronization of internal processes of the Regional office of Plzeňský region (which
was also awarded a prize for innovation of the Ministry of Interior in 2009) can be
found among the awarded project, too. Presented information emphasizes that majority
of public authorities did not electronize so many internal processes as the Plzeňský
region and that the established information system became an inspiration for about 8
other regions (there are 14 regions in the Czech Republic, including the Capital of
Prague). Prior to electronization of internal processes, process analysis was carried out
in 2003. Electronization of internal processes was launched in 2004 and according to the
project specification, the level of innovativeness is related particularly to areas where
there is not such great electronization (invoices, travel orders etc.), or where the
electronization is not so complex and integrated.
On the internal environment of a public authority another presented projects were
focused – electronic confirmation of internal documents by employees of municipal
office of Karviná which was build on intranet employee portal, where electronic
documents were filed, or the digitalization of documents of construction department of
municipal office of Litomyšl, which should also protect historical materials and layouts.
The GIS of Dvůr Králové nad Labem which focused on internal needs of property
administration was presented, too.
REVIEW OF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
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Among services focused on G2C / G2G aspects, calendar of events of municipality
Nymburk was presented, which aimed at increase of information about cultural and
sport events in the region.
Conclusive notes
The paper summarizes trends of electronization in Czech territorial self-government on
the basis of information about projects which were awarded / presented in the most
famous Czech state-wide e-government competitions. It shows that the practice is
heterogeneous, projects of various breadth and depth were awarded. Many of them were
awarded repeatedly during individual phases of their implementation.
The summary of focus of projects which were awarded in the period 2005 – 2010 may
be summarized in the table 4 (in the appendix). The table shows that projects which
were based on services for the public in particular were awarded in the surveyed period.
Most of the projects were from the subcategory of electronic support of service to
customers within premises of a public authority, which includes establishment of
electronic calling and booking systems supplemented usually by SMS-messaging, and
from the category of new instruments for communication with citizens / businesses in
administrative agendas, which comprises of call centres, electronic booking systems,
SMS-/MMS-ing or using skype for communication with public authorities. Incremental
nature of change which focuses on improvements of comfort of citizens and not
necessarily requires larger funding is the common feature of these projects.
The second category of services in which most awards were granted was represented by
services designed especially for internal needs of public administration. Here economic
and managerial information systems of various breadth and depth in particular were
awarded. In the case of municipalities and regions, similar projects were launched due
to changes in organization of public administration in the period of 2000 – 2002, which
brought abolishment of former district offices and transfer of their responsibilities to
new municipalities of extended responsibilities or regions (in this case particularly the
transfers included changes in bearers of the functions of founders of various
organizations). They attempted mainly to enhance uniformity and control instruments.
The group in which the e-government projects were not awarded so often is represented
by the category services designed for the public, as well as for public administration.
This group is not important due to the number of awarded projects, but because of its
subgroup of projects I called infrastructure of regional communication network within a
metropolitan area which is expanding into G2C / G2B dimensions, and subgroup
projects offering communication infrastructure in order to standardize internal and
external processes (similarly to the project Virtuos). A very deep focus of
electronization which usually presupposes larger reorganizations of their back offices is
the common feature of these projects.
Although the paper is based on secondary data, it shows some existing directions of
innovations. Although the paper focuses primarily on the supply side of e-government,
it raises questions which may be the scope of future case studies which would also deal
with citizen- and demand-centricity of selected projects, for example. The questions
may be also raised concerning the criteria used in competitions. According to
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supplementary information which is published about the awarded projects, it is apparent
that applicants for awards usually do not specify anticipated and real impacts of their
projects in a deeper way, although such information is anticipated by specifications of
awards or by their applications. Therefore, a future analysis that would focus on
managerial aspects of e-government implementation and user satisfaction would be
beneficial.
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ŠPAČEK, D. (2007). Principle of openness and transparency and the criteria for egovernment
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Appendix
Table 1: Types of projects which received the award for innovation of the Ministry
of Interior in the period 2005 – 2010
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Table 1: continuous
Notes: M – municipality, R – region; CH = Chomutov, ČB = České Budějovice, DĚČ = Děčín, KARK =
Karlovarský kraj, OST = OSTRAVA, NSZM – Národní síť zdravých měst, OLK = Olomoucký kraj, JAB =
Jablunkov, PŘER = Přerov, KOL = Koleč, HL = Hlučín, VYS = Kraj Vysočina, ŠUM = Šumperk, STU =
Studénka, PLZK = Plzeňský kraj, ZLK = Zlínský kraj, VSE = Vsetín.
Source: Author
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Table 2: Types of projects awarded in the Golden Crest competition in the period
2005 – 2010
Notes: M – municipality, R – region; BER = Beroun, PŘER = Přerov, VYŠ = Vyškov, BRNL = Brandýs nad
Labem, ČB = České Budějovice, OST = Ostrava, PR6 = Praha 6, PŘIB = Přibyslav, PR = Praha, ŠUM =
Šumperk, SEN = Senorady.
Source: Author
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Table 3: Types of projects medialized within the competition of the magazine
Egovernment.cz in the period 2005 – 2010*
Notes: * Not only the three best finalists, but all The Best medialized projects are included in the table – see
www.egovernment.cz; M – municipality, R – region; NVM = Nové Město na Moravě, PLZ = Plzeň, OST =
Ostrava, PŘER = Přerov, DĚČ = Děčín, ZÁB = Zábřeh, VYS = kraj Vysočina, PR1 = Městská část Praha 1,
PR5 = Městská část Praha 5, PR9 = Městská část Praha 9, PR10 = Městská část Praha 10, HKK =
Královéhradecký kraj, PEL = Pelhřimov, ČB = České Budějovice, PLZK = Plzeňský kraj, UB = Uherský
Brod, ZLK = Zlínský kraj, CH = Chomutov, BR = Brno, KAR = Karviná, DKNL = Dvůr Králové nad Labem,
LIT = Litomyšl, NYM = Nymburk.
Source: Author
Volume 12, Issue 1, 2012
67
Table 4: Summary of focus of projects awarded in surveyed national e-government
competitions in 2005 – 2010
Note: M – municipalities, R – Regions.
Source: Author