Expert Group Meeting on Innovating Public Service Delivery for Sustainable Development

Transcription

1 Expert Group Meeting on Innovating Public Service Delivery for Sustainable Development Session I: Overview and setting the context Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen! Allow me, first of all, to thank the kind invitation that has been addressed to me to intervene at this meeting on innovating public service delivery for sustainable development. We know that modern societies, with their characteristics of high capacity for change and innovation require an active, attentive and flexible PA that may be able to accompany and frame the pace of economic, political and social evolution of which they are part. The modernization of public services, to meet the demands of results (efficiency, effectiveness, cost reduction, better service quality ) and response to society s needs and expectations, has been a priority for governments of almost all developed countries. Within this framework the Portuguese public services have focused on innovation and modernization, and the successive governments through their programs have laid special emphasis on the need to improve the quality of goods and services delivered to citizens. In this context, for instance, the Quality System in Public Services was set up in the late nineties, as a management philosophy that allows to reach increased effectiveness and efficiency of services, de-bureaucratization, simplification of procedures and satisfaction of implicit and explicit citizens needs. Likewise administrative modernization measures were taken, namely simplification of procedures, hearing of users and information system for the management. The digital revolution, however, calls for a new vision and the use of new tools 1

2 for better public service delivery. Several initiatives have been put in place and I can say that Portugal has been working in the last years either in the field of Open Administration, with publication and aggregation in reusable formats of information produced by PA, thus facilitating the access to citizens and companies to relevant information provided by the public sector, or E-government with projects like the Citizen s Card, that gathers in a single document data of each citizen relevant for his/her identification such as, the civil identification number, tax identification number, user s number of health services and social security number. I could speak about the Common Knowledge Network,an electronic platform where good practices are shared related to modernisation,innovation and administrative simplification undertaken by the Portuguese Public Administration, as well as by Portuguese Speaking Countries, or the Zero Licensing initiative that aims to make the carrying out of commercial and economical activities simpler, speedier, transparent and cheaper. Also an UNU-Egov has been installed in Portugal- United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy Driven Electronic Governance, and I believe it will be mentioned in these days. Among all the initiatives taking place I d like to choose some examples of what we are doing in Portuguese PA in using these new possibilities, focusing on three issues: how to reach every citizen; making PA focus on it s core function and rationalizing costs and the use of resources, and civil servants, for technology cannot replace people dealing with people. Combining the advantages of ITC, which enables services to be provided at a distance, with a proximity to the population is a new strategy that is being put in place, for a better public service delivery to citizens and entrepreneurs enabling citizens to interact with the State in an innovative and efficient way. The Citizen s One Stop- Shops are one of the flagship initiatives of this area, an innovative concept of public service delivery bringing together in the same 2

3 space several public and private entities, in a national network of more than 100 Multiservice One-Stop-Shops which has been in place for some years but is now evolving to a new concept, using the new possibilities created by ICT. This initiative is called the Aproximar Program, which can be roughly translated as Bringing Closer Program. It consists of a strategy for the reorganization of services in Central Administration dealing with the public by creating a new PA functioning paradigm, involving, for the benefit of the citizens, local partners, including municipalities and other local bodies, who know best the population s needs and territory It aims to reorganize public services dealing directly with the citizens spread throughout the country (for instance, social security, taxes, employment services, registry services, but also youth programs, agricultural services, business licensing). The idea is to bring them together (transforming their back-offices) whenever possible in citizen s one-stop-shops, by setting up, at least, one in each municipality. Subsequently citizen s spaces will be implemented, where people may contact and have access to digitally delivered services. An assistant, when needed, will be provided, considering that digital literacy is not at the same level everywhere in the country and for the whole of the population. Complementing the strategy, for the most remote parts of the country citizen s minibuses will serve as mobile citizens spaces, through which services will reach the citizens. For persons with restricted mobility the "door-to door" program will make transportation available. A pilot is already functioning in 4 multi municipal areas in different parts of the country. Other initiatives that have been in place for some time, like the Citizen s and Company s Portals, that gather information on all public services available in Portugal, and a Citizen s Contact Centre that responds to thousands of requests per month through telephone or are being complemented with new ones. Recently, the Citizen s Map has been launched, a platform available on the web, in smartphones and tablets that provides information about public services. Downloading the application to a mobile phone, the 3

4 citizen can, for instance, know the nearest service to apply for the citizen card, contact and opening hours and can, in real time, interact with the system used in the citizen s one stop-shops, in order to know how many people are waiting, what number is to be called at that moment and how long has the last person waited in line. Very soon, the same tool will make it possible to take a number and manage the request from a distance. Shared services as a means to get better public service delivery through better use of resources are also been put in place, in pilot ministries. The model has focused on five action areas: in Finance Shared Services (GeRFiP), that integrates budget, property and logistics; Human Resources, that integrates the processes of human resources management and the Integrated System of Management and Performance Appraisal in the Public Administration (SIADAP); public procurement; State s Car Fleet Management, and finally, sharing of means and resources in the development of the information systems and rationalization of ICT infrastructures. The main beneficiaries of these innovations are citizens who may be able to access public entities more simply and solve minor problems faster, in a more personalized way, and public services that will be able to dedicate their resources to their own core functions. Last, but not least, for a better public service delivery the human element is essential, and special attention is being put not only in renewing staff, after several years of reducing PA size, targeting the needs for specific competencies, but also creating tools for a better recruitment and selection throughout PA. Recruiting top managers based on open competition is one of the measures taken to strengthen leadership and get managerial skills and professionalism within and outside PA. In a context of cost control and strict fiscal measures, it is a challenge to keep a motivated and highly functioning PA. At the level of public organizations there is a need to stimulate and create conditions for the emergency of creativity and innovation and in this aspect 4

5 bonuses for public employees have been created for those who have more innovating ideas that contribute to better functioning of public services. The most recent bonus created in 2014, is related to training. The best training topic and methodological proposals are integrated in the training plan of the subsequent year of the National Institute for Public Administration. We are aware that the innovation process is of paramount importance for the performance improvement of the public and private sectors and the success in the public sector is increasingly dependent on its capacity for innovation and creativity. Governments need to innovate given the challenges which they have to face such as the need to provide high quality services with lesser resources and improve their response capacity to citizens demands and expectations. Public services face a broad range of challenges that require new and innovating approaches and fullfil their tasks within a context of complexity and growing change. It is therefore imperative that Governments and public services become involved in continuous innovating processes, since the conventional solutions already known are no longer sufficient. We are here to learn from each other how to cope with these new challenges by way of creative responses, to provide innovative public service delivery for sustainable development. 5