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TASKS PERFORMED IDENTIFICATION OF ONE-STOP SHOP SOLUTIONS
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TASKS PERFORMED IDENTIFICATION OF ONE-STOP SHOP SOLUTIONSTask 6: Study best international practices in implementing one-stop-shop solutionsIntroduction One-Stop-Shops (OSS) for permits and licenses came into popularity in the 1980s, as governments increased their customer service mindsets and sought to improve service to the public (How many stops in a OSS). Much like a customer goes to a supermarket to purchase various types of food and household products – saving time and money compared to going to multiple locations for different products -- business representatives can go to OSSs to obtain various licenses and permits. OSSs seek to reduce time and cost required by the customer – as submission of all forms to obtain particular permits and licenses are submitted in a single place. OSSs also strive to increase transparency of the process through reducing the number of human touch points between customer and government, which in turn reduces the possibility for rent seeking. And importantly, OSSs imply a mindset of customer service by the government. All of this promotes increased attraction for formal investment – both foreign and domestic. Formal businesses can obtain financing, which can help them expand, especially important in the case of small and medium sized enterprises. Formalization and expansion of business translates to job growth. And all of this strengthens competitiveness. Hence, it can be surmised that OSSs can be an effective part of the equation to increase investment and a country’s competitiveness. But what exactly is an OSS? And what are the criteria for successful OSSs? There is no shortage of literature on the topic: For every successful example, there seems to be one that didn’t get it right. This may be because successfully implementing an OSS requires a substantial amount of change. Potential areas for change, depending on type of OSS, include laws, administrative authorities, employee functions (and workload), physical location of government employees; and importantly, mindset shift of everyone from the highest levels of government to the citizen. In addition, and importantly, OSSs reduce the strength of vested interests both on the side of government and business. And so, implementing a successful OSS represents a paradigm shift in thought and action on all parties involved. This chapter explores international best practices in implementing OSS solutions through a review of literature and Cardno experience. It considers various models of OSSs, looks at the applicability of various front and back office solutions, and considers best practices through case studies on Singapore and Czech Republic. What is a One-Stop-Shop? Definition In research for this chapter, we came across numerous types of OSSs, several of which are discussed through cases herein. Thus, a single definition is difficult to come by. In fact, the World Bank’s 2010 publication, How Many Stops in a One-Stop Shop? states that: “Any definition of a one-stop shop is going to result in some contentious exclusions (Page 2).” OSSs can rest at different levels of the government structure and can take various forms, for instance, colocation of multiple functions under one roof, a window within a department in a ministry that serves as the front office that coordinates with multiple entities, or which has full authority to complete all processes and issue a permit. The functionality of OSSs can also vary, for instance they may simply be a source of knowledge, they may receive applications, send them to relevant entities for processing and then return them to customers; or they may receive, process, issue the permit or license (or permits and licenses) and return the relevant documentation to the customer. The various types of OSSs and implication for the public and private sector, is discussed below, in “Types of One-Stop-Shops.” All of this said, for the purpose of this study, the definition found in Law no. 161 of Moldova is sufficiently broad to accommodate any model: “a mechanism which enables businesses to provide standardized information and documents through a single reception point, thus complying with all legal requirements related to business regulation (SOW)” For comparison, we present a few other examples of OSS definitions found in the literature.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-secretary-general/en/activities/recent_activities/articles/articles-2013/articles-2013-december/articles-2013-december-2.html Although this statement is in reference to a OSS for Parliament members it is quite reflective of any well-planned OSS. Regardless of the structure of an OSS, the customer will view the OSS as a single permitting body. The back office processes are opaque to them. Therefore, from a customer-centric standpoint, the following aspects are important to have in an OSS (Transforming the Citizen Experience).
Types of One-Stop-Shops There are two widely recognized types of OSSs: single door and single window. In a single door OSS, sometimes referred to as a “single roof OSS” representatives from several agencies are co-located. There is a single contact with the customer. That contact then coordinates with representatives from each required Ministry. This type of OSS does not require changes to legislation but it does require good cooperation between the Ministries and the individual representatives of those Ministries. It requires delegation of staff from each relevant Ministry to the OSS. Optimally, it is also good practice that the delegated individuals are also authorized to make decisions and issue authorizations. If the delegated representative isn’t authorized to provide services, he or she will have to revert back to the Ministry for the approval. In such cases cooperation and timeliness between the Ministry and the representative is crucial. Otherwise the OSS ends up adding time to the process, and in fact becoming ineffective. In a single window OSS “only one employee deals with the customer and coordinates with the representatives of all responsible Ministries. The employee who is the single face to the customer must be empowered and should be aware of the sequence of processes between organizations and of the required documents (the back office). The employee receives the required documents and forms and then distributes them to the organizations’ representatives in the same site, who then implement the required processes. Upon completion, the application is handed to the service recipient through the window. The organization’s representative (or representatives) should be authorized to provide services through the window. This type of OSS typically requires changes to legislation.” Single window OSS are more common than single door. (USAID One Stop Shop Best Practices: A Methodology to Implement One Stop Shop in Public Sector.) Considerations in Conceptualization While OSSs are typically implemented to alleviate some sort of constraint to investment, Sader points out that, “. . . the most important function of an OSS does not actually rest in developing a mechanism that makes it easier for investors to get around administrative bottlenecks. The true strength of an OSS lies in fact in the possibility of identifying shortcomings in the administrative implementation of a country’s investment policy and to remove all these bottlenecks. Hence, at the core of an OSS lies policy reform, rather than short-term, ad-hoc solutions to problems investors face.” This is a key point: Successful OSSs have a place in reform agendas, and must be sequenced accordingly. Processes must be streamlined and laws amended as necessary, prior to implementation of an OSS. Otherwise, there will be no added value to the customer, and in fact the bureaucracy will become more difficult to amend once institutionalized in this manner. Further, while the above mentioned types of OSSs seem straightforward enough. However, the devil is always in details, and when it comes to the OSS, details abound. Several considerations must be keep in mind when conceptualizing an OSS, regardless of model. The OSS concept assumes obligation of a specific public body to obtain documentation needed for processing application even when maintained by other public bodies. Involvement of different public bodies usually implies several administrative fees for their individual actions. That can be quite challenging, as it gives rise to number of questions:
In addition, complex permits that involve several public bodies imply availability of a broad range of personal information to a wide spectrum of organizations and individuals. Protection of personal information requires complex protocols to ensure that all necessary information are available to relevant organizations, while limiting the possibility for misuse of protected information. Impact of One-Stop-Shop Reforms on Private and Public Sectors Through the following examples of Slovenia, Egypt and Malaysia we examine the effects of various OSS reforms – in the context of larger reforms -- on the public and private sectors. Malaysia The Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA) has stood out for decades as a best practice in investment promotion. Its OSS, reflects the best practice. However MIDA is primarily geared to foreign investors and large manufacturing firms. Yet 99% of enterprises in Malaysia are categorized as small and medium sized enterprises. In 2007, a public-private sector Special Task Force - Pemudah, - was launched to facilitate improvements in the public delivery system so as to make Malaysia a more cost-competitive destination for business. Permudah is co-chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government and President of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) representing the private sector. Permudah is also charged with measuring performance of agencies in meeting their efficiencies in processing business licences. Through Permudah, procedures to register and operate businesses have been streamlined. According to the World Bank’s Doing Business website, since 2005 Malaysia has undertaken 17 reforms in areas related to the Doing Business context. Two outputs of Permudah have been OSSs for business registration and licensing. All are accessible online. A description of each OSS follows. What is important to note is, these OSSs are instruments of the country’s economic transformation program – to become high income by 2020.
Permudah and the associated OSSs have helped move Malaysia from 24th place in the World Bank Doing Business 2008 to 18th place in Doing Business 2015. Best practice include.
Of interest in the case of Malaysia is the operation of separate electronic OSSs for registration and licenses. In research conducted for this study, it is unclear why SSM and BLESS are kept separate. The authors speculate that this may be due to the time investment needed to achieve buy-in from multiple relevant public sector stakeholders regarding which agency would be the front office. In other words, the time necessary to achieve this buy-in and develop a process for back-office communication, was not as valuable as maintaining the separate authorities and having separate OSSs. Slovenia Slovenia received the UN’s award for Public Service (2009) for the creation of an OSS focused on business registration. e-VEM as the project was called, initially reduced the registration from 60 to four days and completely reduced the registration fee. The old system also left 90% of registration application incomplete as the agencies did not communicate or coordinate. It is important to note that WBG Doing Business data shows that the time was never less than 6 days and since 2010 to date, on average it takes 6 days to start a business in Slovenia. With the creation of e-VEM in 2009, the system was streamlined and it covers the whole country. There are 180 contact points as well as 90 notaries that are part of this system. Since inception of e-VEM, the project has been complemented by the creation of the Slovenia Business Point, geared not just to the local entrepreneurs, but also foreign investors. The Slovenia Business Point portal is available in English. In addition to the list of permits and steps one requires to start, run and close a business in Slovenia, the English version also contains FDI-like promotional materials focusing on Slovenia’s advantages in terms of geostrategic position, workforce, procedures, etc. The portal also offers an interactive Google map which shows all touch points customers can use around the country.
The entrepreneurship data from WBG shows that the density and the number of newly registered companies has not drastically changed over time. There is a slight 5% increase in the number of newly registered companies and a 6% increase in density within the measured period (2009-2012).
Despite UN prize, some of the shortcomings of e-Vem, as pointed out by the European public administrators1, include that it is too open to misuse since multiple businesses can register with a single address and that the tax administration was not in sync with the rest of the EU countries2. Best practices in developing front office one-stop-shop solutions The front office represents the interface between the customer and the back office employees. The back office is essentially all government agencies responsible for delivering the permit, license or other service. This section outlines various front office options, and includes case studies on Czech Republic and Singapore. Public Agency-Based OSSs (including territorial units) Construction permitting reform in Serbia started in 2012 and is ongoing. The effort represents a good case study on stakeholder management in administrative reform, including public agency based OSS development and implementation. The process involved more 20 public sector bodies, including the local and state government, publicly owned bodies (i.e. State Enterprise for Shelters) as well as other agencies. It included public and private sector stakeholders, and was led by chambers, especially National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED). USAID Business Enabling Project facilitated the process and cooperated with GiZ’s regional projects working on similar issues. The reform required a new law which was passed in 2015. The OSS was introduced on March 1, 2015, with the authority resting with the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. Public-private dialogue led by NALED and USAID BEP included all the stakeholders and covered the entire country. The team went on a road show and talked to the public and private sectors across Serbia. Once the law was passed, the team continued to travel and train the staff of local government units who will implement this in practice. The implementation of the law is two-fold. During 2015 individuals can apply at physical one-stop shops by submitting paper documentation. Starting in 2016, all applications will have to be submitted electronically only. The new IT system will be able to track the efficiency at each municipality, thus creating some healthy competition and showing inefficiencies and areas for improvement at specific locations. The team is conducting a survey currently with investors who went thru the procedure to see what their experience was and how it can be improved. The impact has been tangible.
The handbook on E-Government recommends the following steps.
While ICT is a means to an end, it does not resolve process deficits resulting from organizational or legal issues. The case study on Singapore, below, is a good example of e-government done correctly. Advantages: One of the greatest advantage of e-government is that it eliminates physical touch points between customers and the government staff, thereby increasing transparency. E-government also allows customers the ability to complete and submit applications and find information on their own time, any time of day. Disadvantages: Poor bandwidth limits access especially to citizens and possibly those that are not near city centers. There may also be a restriction for older people. Thus, other options to the e-government option should be available to customers. Further, implementing and maintaining comprehensive e-government solution is costly and time consuming in terms of getting buy-in from all relevant authorities, implementing the ICT solutions, staff training and maintenance. If electronic interfaces between ministries, agencies and departments are lacking – and if there is no agreement to cooperate between public sector groups – the customer ends up in an OSS maze. In the Malaysia example above, for instance, businesses have a separate website to register and a different one to obtain licenses and permits. While the processes are streamlined, it can still be cumbersome to the customer to find the right avenues for their needs. One challenge with e-government centers is duplicative communication with customers. For instance, customers should not be repeatedly asked for the same information by different offices. Once implemented, e-government solutions can be quite cost effective. Post Office Few public sector or quasi-public sector institutions have the reach of post offices. Post offices are often used for individual bill pay and to obtain licenses and other individual documents. In our research we did not come across business licenses at the post office. In this model, post offices typically have specific windows, counters or stations (separate from the stations for typical postal services) where customers can pay bills and apply for licenses and passports. The cost of this service is typically borne by the vendor (e.g., gas or electric company). In India, the Post Office directly markets to businesses as a “smart option . . .to collect their bills or payment through the post office network.” http://www.indiapost.gov.in/epayment.aspx The collection of payments is consolidated electronically using web based software and payment is made centrally through cheque from each post office. Rates for e-payment are based on incremental value thresholds. India has 154,882 post offices; nearly 90% are in rural areas. Currently the e-pay function is available at 14,000 post offices. The bundling of payment services allows utmost convenience in bill paying to citizens. Post offices also offer saving schemes and life insurance. In the UK, the Post Office is truly much more than a place to buy stamps and send packages. Every Post Office includes pay stations where customers can pay bills, add credit to their mobile phones, and top up gas and electricity at the post office, for instance. Customers can also obtain things like fishing licenses, take the picture and apply for renewal of driving licenses and apply for a passport. These organizations typically have fewer outlets than the post office. Thus, the ability to conduct this business at the post office – and the fact that the customer can pay multiple bills and apply for multiple licenses at the post office – reflects a convenience and cost savings. In Ireland, at An Post (and online), individual customers can pay bills such as gas, phone, electricity, water, was collection (for many local authorities) and many more bills through the post at mybills.ie online. It is a free service provided by An Post. Advantages: There are several advantages to using the post office as the front office of an OSS. In most countries, post offices branches are widely available in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. This means there is ample access for business owners, especially small business, which would likely feel the most impact of having to travel far distances to apply for permits. Further, the post office is a brand that people know. This is a great OSS model in situations where vendors are not equipped to accept individual electronic payments and for customers who are not comfortable paying online. Socially disadvantaged groups (and potential owners of micro-enterprises) have more challenges with ICT and this can be a solution. Using the post office as a front office OSS though, will require clear communication to citizens and businesses regarding what can be paid and obtained there. As with other front offices it will require clear back office protocol and communication, and well trained OSS staff. In this case, staff will have to be trained a multitude of topics for instance from a business license to a driver’s license. From a customer perspective, it enables a true OSS, where numerous services can be obtained. From the post office perspective, it helps the post office to be profitable. According to a 2009 study conducted in the UK, households and SMEs in the UK prefer to use the post office access services, compared to other providers. In some cases though there is a clear preference for an alternative, for instance, respondents preferred using the internet to renew car tax and apply for a passport. Interestingly, respondents preferred purchasing stamps at other venues. (The Social Value of the Post Office, page ii). Disadvantages: There are few disadvantages to using the post office as the front office of an OSS. One potential disadvantage is the increased cost to taxpayers (or public sector agencies) associated with public sector agencies providing services through a post office. This is because the post office charges a fee to the public sector agency or the private company for which it is serving as a front office. Thus prior to implementing such a model, the overall cost should be examined against alternatives and the cost savings related to the ease of using the post office for permits licenses which in turn typically results in increased formal business operation. According to the same UK study cited above, providing services through the post office in the UK cost taxpayers an extra £96M per year. Notaries Notaries are typically found at banks, sometimes at post offices and at notary offices. In the former Soviet Union countries especially, notarization of legal documents is required in order for them to be accepted for application of a permit or license. It was not uncommon for customers to have to get multiple documents – and get them notarized – in order to receive a construction permit for instance. Increasingly, the requirement is being removed (to some degree) as processes are streamlined. This in turn saves investors time and money. It is not possible to remove the need for notarization altogether, and in this case it is a good practice to train and have notaries at OSS’s. For instance in the late 1990’s / early 2000s Spain introduced notaries into their single window for entrepreneurs network. Local Government The information on this topic is summarized from the Toolkit for Establishing a Local Government One Stop Desk. Undertaking these steps helps to develop the OSS that is the right fit for the specific local government. In fact, these steps could apply to development of any OSS.
Advantages. One advantage of having a local government-based OSS is that it has the potential to enhance the relationship between the local government and the customer, thereby strengthening local pride. Because it is local it is more likely than other OSS models for relationships to form and for citizens and businesses to feel comfortable (instead of intimidated) to use the services provided. Another advantage is that it will likely create and sustain jobs at the local level. According to the Toolkit for Establishing a Local Government One Stop Desk could be useful to the local government organization because:
Disadvantages: Obviously, the local government can only provide permits and licenses which have been delegated from national authority. Also, in rural areas that are geographically spread out, local government-based OSSs could still require quite a bit of travel when compared to a post office model, or a model with more outlets. In addition, studies have found that duplication and fragmentation of customer contact is a risk (PwC). Phone Based on research for this report, phone services are typically used for knowledge dissemination for local governments as well as national agencies. They may themselves be an OSS for information. It is one of various types of interfaces between the customer and the government. Other forms of interface are face-to-face such as in a physical OSS front office, SMS, and digital channels such as websites. Most instances of phone-based OSS were found at the local levels of government. It is especially popular in the United States. One of the best phone-based models is that of New York City in the United States. Referred to as the “311 Model,” citizens can call 3-1-1 any time of night or day and speak with a customer service representative in 180 languages. The customer service representatives have easy access to information more than 6,000 aspects of the city government. The line averages 30,000 calls per day. The same information is also available at nyc.gov In Serbia, a construction permits call center was launched in conjunction with administrative reforms, as part of the OSS. NALED, a private sector stakeholder is operating the call center. It is supported by public and private sectors and donors. Here, customers can call with any questions regarding obtaining construction permits under the new construction permitting law.
Started in 2008, Czech Posting and Verification Information National Terminal (POINT) is Czech government’s most visible project which has enhanced government’s ability to provide public services. Government did not have an inclusive approach with the citizens and private sector in its design. Czech POINT represents a network of one-stop shops, essentially counters/contact points around the country. Since inception, it has offered increasing number of services which has cut down the administrative burden on both citizens and private sector alike. There are more than 7,000 Czech POINTs. Located mostly at municipal offices and Czech Post branches5. The services provided range from issuing authenticated extracts (Companies Register, Crime Register, etc.) to conversion of paper documents into authorized electronic version. Czech POINTs also offer one G2G service (extracts from Crime Register) without having to require citizens to bring them. Thru the network on several thousand Czech POINTs the project has succeeded in pushing back the administrative burden from citizens and private sector back to government. Czech Statistical Office survey reveals however, that 30% of population has never heard of Czech POINT and another 51% has heard of it but are yet to use it. Only 10% has used the services. Government offers other services thru other portals. First one is the portal.gov.cz, one of the oldest ones. It represented another point where the citizens can transaction with the government when submitting documents for pension insurance, taxes, etc.). The transactional part of the portal has disappeared during the redesign in 2012. Impact of CzechPoint:
Based WBG Entrepreneurship Database, figures for 2004-2012, it is clear that Czech POINT had a positive influence on the registration of firms. During this period, especially from 2007 on, the number of firms has risen sharply. Compared to the period before the reform, there has been a 49% in the number of firms. The density however, has not jumped as much, staying mostly under 3.0 per 1000 citizens.
Some criticisms Media and others are paying attention: The media was following the changes in the cadre at the Ministry of Interior. In 2011, the Deputy of Informatics changed seven times. The following year, another deputy spot, in charge of e-government and public administration changed three times. These frequent changes provided for the accountability vacuum. People who should be held accountable are no longer in the office. During the literature review, a term ‘silent accountability’ kept coming up, as a CEE phenomenon ‘characterized by the discrepancy between a formal existence of many accountability mechanisms and their actual performance.6 The literature goes further to claim that while the Czech e-government has been a process that started in the 1990s, since then almost no evaluation has been published by the bodies which ought to be evaluating the work. The whole process has been criticized by the EU, media and some institutions, also pointing out that more than 60% of ICT public tenders have been awarded without competition. Considering that ICT underpins the system to a degree it does and that its procurement process was not transparent or competitive, opens the whole process to criticism beyond ICT. As of 2013 in the information that has been published, there is no comprehensive evaluation of Czech POINT, the government’s most publicized project. Some of the issues raised include:
Singapore Case Study Much has been written about Singapore’s e-government platforms in general and OBLS in particular. As a country that has consistently performed at the top of World Bank’s Doing Business ranking, OBLS case has been examined from many angles. Singapore represents a great example of an evolution from efficiency-driven to innovation-driven system focused on customer experience. Recognized by the UN for public service7 in 2005, but also by the bodies such as ZDNet, IDG, and MIS Asia for the smart implementation of IT to drive business efficiency and innovation, it is used as one of the successful examples of integrating IT management systems in the overall government services. The OBLS is in the process of being replaced by LicenceOne (Beta version) in the second half of 2015. OBLS and LicenceOne now are fully integrated into Singapore-s e-Citizen platform which allows Singaporeans to pay anything from business registration, to parking tickets and retirement thru one payment system, SingPass. Multi-agency effort: Online Application System for Integrated Services (OASIS) was a multi-agency information management effort which resulted in a creation of OBLS. This online platform integrated 70 licenses across 30 agencies into one common front-end platform. OBLS is essentially portal warehouse containing information on business licenses which allows businesses to apply for multiple licensees at the same time and with Amazon-like convenience. The system is also set up for various types of users, from experienced businessmen and businesswomen who know the system to the first-time entrepreneurs who need the system to be intuitive and easy to navigate. Up to the creation of OBLS, the process of visiting multiple agencies and filing paperwork was cumbersome, time consuming and inconvenient. It also underpinned a siloed system where individual agencies did not communicate, share information or work together. This created a burdensome climate for the private sector. From Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) to OBLS: The whole initiative is a direct result of a public-private dialogue platform, Pro-Enterprise Panel (PEP), convened in 2000 and comprised of both government and private sector high level officials. This body reviewed rules and regulations pertaining to the business operations (registration, licensing, costs and time for complying with those procedures). PEP then articulated these issues to the Committee of Permanent Secretaries (CPS) which appointed Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to come up with a solution. OBLS represents one of the first main outputs of OASIS aimed at creating a more pro-enterprise climate by streamlining system for business registration and licensing. During the initial stages, OBLS worked at four levels, thus ensuring vertical integration. Throughout the process, the communication was constant between different levels of design and implementation, ensuring consistent feedback loops from bottom-up (agency level task force and up) and back. The task forces worked in cutting the red tape in licensing, streamlining regulatory requirements and processes, and finding ways to integrate agencies into the OBLS. Review, evaluate and improve: Detailed policy review for 154 licenses conducted by CPS revealed that 11 were identified as obsolete. The remaining licenses were systematically reengineered with participation at all levels of government. This in turn reduced the time almost in half from 21 to 12.5 days. The private sector savings in the first year of operation amounted to $1.8million. Emphasis on customer-experience: Koh and Leo have developed a framework based on the OBLS example founded on 3Ps, product, process and participation. However, they point out at the core of 3Ps is pro-enterprise and customer-centric mindset. The transition towards multi-agency information management starts with a paradigm shift in public administration itself. One can broaden that statement to include that the transition towards e-government requires this paradigm shift in the very consciousness of the public administration. Without this important shift, the 3Ps would not have been possible. When certain licenses were identified to be obsolete or irrelevant, certain agency’s natural reaction was to stop the abolition of the licenses. Each agency had to change the attitude from agency-centric to pro-customer and pro-enterprise one. Transformational impact: The impact of OBLS has been transformational. Prior to the establishment of this system, the businesses had to supply multiple documents, sometimes duplicate documents to different agencies, spending time and money complying with regulations that would have been better used on building a business. The public sector servants at the same time wasted time and government money on paper shuffling. This produced an environment where the private sector felt that it wasted time and money, but also created an attitude vis a vis government as a force that is stifling private sector growth. With the introduction of OBLS several things improved:
Comparing Singapore’s WBG Doing Business Starting a Business Indicator from 2004 prior to OBLS set up and today, one can see continuous improvements in the scores. Matching to the East Asia average scores, Singapore is way ahead. Even compared to OECD peers, Singapore fairs much more favourably in terms of time, number of procedures, cost and minimal capital required.
Looking at the WB Entrepreneurship Database, figures for 2004-2012 show a steady rise in the density of opened businesses as well as the actual number of businesses. In this tracked period, the number of enterprises registered annually rose by nearly 86%. Density also rose 58%. This clearly shows that by improving legal requirements for startups and creation of OBLS, the Government of Singapore created a more pro-enterprise environment which has improved country’s competitiveness.
WB Entrepreneurship Database 2004-2012 Koh and Leo have developed a framework based on the OBLS example founded on 3Ps, product, process and participation. However, they point out at the core of 3Ps is pro-enterprise and customer-centric mindset. They argue that the transition towards multi-agency information management starts with a paradigm shift in public administration itself. One can broaden that statement to include that the transition towards e-government requires this paradigm shift in the very consciousness of the public administration. Without this important shift, the 3Ps would not have been possible. When certain licenses were identified to be obsolete or irrelevant, certain agency’s natural reaction was to stop the abolition of the licenses. Each agency had to change the attitude from agency-centric to customer-centric and enterprise-centric. Best practices in developing back office solutions Recall that an OSS is the entire public administration, as far as the customer is concerned. At the core of the OSS concept is that a customer mustn’t be the courier for the public administration, taking paperwork between different government offices and their windows/counters. Given the different models of OSSs and the various front office options, the question is, should the structure of the bodies comprising the back-office system change to accommodate introduction of OSSs? The short answer is not necessarily, with an important caveat: pre-OSS structure of permitting bodies reflects the fact that individual bodies are not concerned with relationship of their output for broader use, as the beneficiary of those intermediary outputs are customers, meaning citizens and businesses. When users of their outputs are other public bodies, they become more concerned with usability of their output for the other public bodies, and also with usability of intermediary documents generated by other public bodies. At that point, closer integration of bodies that generate documents frequently used together in permitting processes becomes more appealing. Conclusions The scope of work of this study asks for a conclusion on whether a single public body can be used for OSS of all or most of the permits. The answer is, it depends. It depends on political will, inter-government cooperation, the time required to change regulations, and the time and cost necessary to restructure and train staff across the country, as well as the campaign to educate the public. As the Serbia construction permitting case discussed in this chapter shows, having a single public body be the OSS for a single complex permit can be time consuming and entail multi-donor, multi-stakeholder support. The greatest advantage of having a single public body receive all, most, or significant number of applications is the ease of doing business for the customer as well as the transparency provided by a single touch point. In the system that does not rely on the use of information technology to track all applications, there are additional benefits, such as having a single body monitor the performance of other bodies involved in the permitting process (those making the structure of the back office). However, our working assumption, based on the best international practice, is that introduction of the OSS should go hand in hand with the introduction of at least basic document management or similar IT systems that will enable tracking the status of an application at any point in time and generate reports on the performance of all public- and private sector entities involved. Advantages to submission of applications in a deconcentrated manner, via bodies that had a leading role in the permitting process even before introduction of the OSS, include avoiding loss of time that would be spent on forwarding the application from the single public body to the responsible agencies. This loss of time could be rather small, as the application could be forwarded in the matter of minutes. In order to minimize it, when writing regulations, the safest approach is to make sure enough time is allocated for forwarding applications. When such a deadline is legally established, the practice of the public administration is often to use as much time as they are legally able. Additionally, in practice, there would be cases when employees of a newly formed OSS would actually have difficulty identifying the body responsible for a specific activity. In those cases, submission of the application through an OSS might cause it to be misplaced for a period of time before finding its way to the right body. In our opinion there is no single model of OSS that will work best, or a single way of setting it up. It is the steps prior to setting up the OSS – as well as the process of setting up the OSS -- that must be a focus. Best practices critical for success include the following. These are taken from the CzechPoint, Singapore’s OBLS and other examples as well as Cardno experience.
In addition, while not necessarily a “best practice” per se, a practical point of implementing OSSs and the associated administrative reforms, is to consider multiple, coordinated funding sources. In Serbia, for instance USAID and GIZ are working on construction permitting reform (as discussed earlier) and building on the foundation set by the IFC in business environment reform. These are medium-term processes that require substantial resources and funds. The references of sources for international best practicies are presented in Annex 1. Yüklə 2,85 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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