Pointing to Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar who was seated in the audience at a front-row table with Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh, she said, "With regards to E-Payments, the Minister of Legal Affairs has indicated that the E-Payment legislation will be before the Parliament before the end of the year." Since the previous administration, the Ministry of Legal Affairs had been pursuing the automation of the issuance of birth certificates and other official documents usually processed by that ministry online.
"The combination of eGovernment, eGovernance and Public Service modernization has shown to be extremely effective," Seepersad-Bachan said. "An Australian study has demonstrated that the convergence of all three variables has resulted in improved service delivery, reduced consumer costs, more social benefits and greater user benefits including significant improvements in the ease of acquiring information, service quality and the ability to make better decisions."
She said what was "even more significant" is that more than 50 per cent of the people surveyed experienced improvements in work or business opportunities. The Government agencies involved also benefit from improved business processes, lower service costs, and from cross-agency collaboration through multi-channel access and one-stop shops, she said.
The public administration minister said there are other examples in several countries and "it is quite clear that if you integrate services and facilitate access through harnessing the growing power of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) you will succeed."
Addressing "the issues we are facing and the approaches we are taking to public service transformation and eGovernance," she said, "the first and major challenge is what I call the weight of expectations that rests heavily on the backs of the public service everywhere."
She said, "Citizens increasingly expect value for money. They value their time and realize that long delays in accessing and enjoying public services are opportunity costs. They see public goods and services, not as gifts of a benevolent government, but as rights to which their votes and tax dollars entitle them. They want and deserve the best service of the highest quality in the shortest time at the lowest cost regardless of race, colour, creed, class, status or geography. They want a level playing field and equitable treatment. Many feel marginalized. They want to have a greater say in those matters that affect them. They want to be in touch with their elected representatives all the time and not just at election time."
She said that public servants also have their needs, concerns and expectations, "the first and most important of which is a fair, objective, transparent, comfortable and safe working environment in which they have some control over the fruits of their labours. They want an environment that encourages and supports mutual trust, respect, rewards and recognition. Most of all, they want to be communicated with and not talked down to or ignored. In a sense they are saying if you want us to treat our clients as people you have to treat us as people too. When it comes to eGovernance, public officers and the Government are on the same wavelength."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Aleem Khan
Quelle/Source: Breaking News Trinidad and Tobago, 06.12.2012
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