3. e-Government
Electronic government, or e-government, is a concept that reflects the potential of ICTs to transform public administration, with substantial improvement in its organization, service delivery, and relationships with society. This concept is framed within a progressive view of democratic governance, transparent and open to citizen participation.
3.1 Estratégia, coordenação e liderança do governo eletrônico
E-government policy should be part of a priority agenda of the federal, state, and municipal governments aligned with other policies directed toward creating an information society. The e-government policy should be guided by a strategic vision and supported by an federal intragovernmental coordination unit with a mandate and resources to act, and with links to other levels of government and with society. Public information technology companies and administrative information technology units in governmental agencies should be aligned with the e-government policy and restructures for updating their technologies and operational procedures.
Proposals
· Encourage the strategic insertion and institutional and technological strengthening of the coordinating unit for e-government policies at each level of government.
· Develop a strategic vision and policy through broad discussion and participation.
· Bring about a convergence of the visions and strategic agendas of e-government and the modernization of public administration
· Restructure public information technology companies and providers of information technology to the agencies and services of strategic importance. Direct the companies toward seeking new technologies, making use of outsourcing, with direct administration limited to services or activities involving the state security and secrets.
· Restructure the administrative information technology units to realign them within public administration organs and agencies, in harmony with the e-government policy. This realignment should be contemplate improving strategic involvement in designing and implementing e-government projects cutting across organs and agencies of government.
3.2 Delivery of e-government services to the citizen
Electronic government allows evolution to a new standard of relations between citizens and governments. This standard brings advances in service delivery over the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with multiple forms of access: personal computer (PC), digital television, public access terminals, bank ATMs, service delivery companies, telephone, mobile devices like mobile phones and PDAs, fax and mail. The majority of demand for standardized services and information can be met through these new channels made possible by information technology. Face-to-face service should be retained, but directed to highly complex demands, offering personalization and greater quality.
Proposals
· Consolidate a single portal integrating access to government services and information, without eliminating sites established by governmental units or by theme, having their own addresses on the Internet.
· Create units and means to assure integration, monitoring and evaluating e-government services, including through standardization of performance indicators.
· Promote integrated management of information on citizens using public services, following the principle of not asking the citizen for information which the State already has.
· Broaden the offer on the Internet of public services offered by the federal, state and municipal governments, with review and simplification of processes, migrating toward electronic means, offering in all of them at least complete and up-to-date information and /or electronic appointment making. Prioritize inclusion of services relevant to the life of the citizen that facilitate their lives and interactions with government.
· Integrate routines and procedures across services to better serve citizens, meeting their needs in a convenient way. Deepen the ability to provide complete services, with quality and reliability through integration of work processes, overcoming formal barriers between government agencies and between the levels and spheres of government.
· Interlink the services of integrated service centers (one-stop shops like the Poupatempo, in São Paulo, SAC in Bahia, Vapt Vupt in Goiás, Super Fácil in Amapá, Tudo Fácil in Rio Grande do Sul) where all relevant services are offered at the federal, state and municipal level, and make them available on Internet, through web access.
· Regarding the executive branch of government, take strong actions to integrate services and processes, coordinating with the other powers, the states, and municípios, building partnerships to favor the citizen and offering technical and financial support when necessary.
· Set up secure electronic payment channels for all forms of taxation, using the Internet or public access terminals.
· Offer electronic processing of documents, to be implemented on a priority basis, as soon as legal requirements are met, making use of this form of communication in transactions with the government.
· Broadly disseminate resources, like magnetic cards and e-mail addresses, using the mail service and social service agencies like the Federal Savings Bank and the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
· Develop or extend and improve the electronic employment services in states, based on the São Paulo model, already in use.
· Unify the labor market, reducing transaction costs and expanding employment opportunities for citizens by establishing an Internet portal interlinking employment databases in all units of the National Employment System (SINE). Assure the supply of information on employment and training opportunities and resources for forwarding resumés and request for employment, by interested members of the labor force.
3.3. Transparency, social control and governance
Implementing e-government broadens and deepens the possibilities and formats of opening government information on its decisions on policies, services, administrative processes, budget, financial execution, and decision-making processes. This opening should be compatible with preserving the security, privacy and the public interest. Transparency portals on the Internet and the ability to access reports and indications from computerized systems of public administration are powerful tools for promoting transparency. Electronic governance practices can be developed in the form of Internet consultations and the continuous dissemination of information for the policy communities in each segment of government activity.
Proposals
· Release information to the citizens as a continual and obligatory practice of all all agencies of government, embracing all administrative units, projects and activities, making this a direct responsibility of each manager. Assure correct, structured and easily understandable information which is regularly updated.
· Release information on the Internet at the same time it is released by any other means. Take the necessary care to preserve privacy and security as well as other matters of public interest, whenever relevant.
· Encourage opening information from computerized systems supporting public management and administration for continual dissemination on the Internet, through reports of public interest available in government portals. Specifically, supply information on budgets, revenues, expenditures and accounts on the Internet.
· Spread the use of systems for citizen relations, of call centers and ombudsmen, taking advantage of their interlinking through electronic means of communication and using multiple media, as tools of e-government for social control of the State.
· Carry out public consultations on the Internet as a stage in decision-making processes on policies, whenever there is a foreseeable impact on specific sectors of society or when the complexity and/or relevance of a matter justifies the opening of na exchange of views.
· Establish integrated monitoring of public policies for following all government actions, online and by area of activity, to be made available to the legislative branch, accounting courts, and society.
3.4 Redesign processes and structures
Making available intensive communication structure across the whole government will facilitate organizational arrangements allowing horizontal coordination of civil servants and managers and their teams, overcoming formal barriers between agencies and units. Networked organizational forms will able to spread rapidly, generating gains in agility and performance. As well as spurring redistribution of power in public organizations, they can attenuate the vertical and hierarchical nature of traditional government structures.
Proposals
· Link redesign of processes and structures with integration of computer systems and databases and with the improvement of service delivery through application of ICTs.
· Align e-government measures with public administration reforms.
· Define and implement an agenda for organizational restructuring related to interoperability of services and integration of computer systems and databases. This agenda will lead to integrated change processes and be progressively spread to other areas.
· Integrate computer systems and supporting applications for management in the states (budget, financial execution, planning, multi-year planning, payroll, etc.) with redesign and integration of processes, improving quality and making possible the establishment of automatic controls, more effective and deburocratized.
· Improve service delivery and management of agencies and units by restructuring administration and processes through intensive use of information technology, deepening the relationship between e-government and modernization of public administration.
3.5 Government purchases and contracting (e-procurement)
Government purchasing and contracting can be carried out by intensive use of information technology, all passing through a computerized system integrating all stages of the process, with major gains in efficiency, performance and transparency. Implementing advanced systems of sourcing requires computerized systems, crucial if these systems are to be viable.
Proposals
· Establish and perfect e-procurement portals on the Internet and supporting computerized systems for the management of contracts and bidding processes, spreading to all the states those techniques which are already consolidated: electronic bidding, publicizing requests for purchases of goods and services on the Internet, simplification of supplier qualification, registry of prices paid and broad dissemination of contracting on the Internet.
· In connection with the previous item, advance in revising legislation and norms to allow the using the full potential of ICT in the procurement.
3.6 Legislative branch
The Internet can emerge as an important channel to make available information and for citizens to manifest their preferences to government. Parliaments are institutions with the potential to host a variety of forms of discourse with society which are made possible by electronic communication channels, especially the Internet. Developing these channels directly improves accountability and responsiveness of the state to citizens. Far from substituting traditional mechanisms of democracy, e-legislation processes can be important institutions for consolidating parliamentary institutions in Brazil
Proposals
· Adopt standards and a compatible technological platform to interlink the information systems of Congress, the state assemblies and the municipal chambers, establishing a virtual forum for legislators and citizens.
· Offer and develop electronic communication channels with citizens in various forms, exploiting the potential of ICTs, especially the Internet: direct contact with legislators and advisory units of Congress and state and municipal legislative bodies, forums, discussions, electronic voting, expressions of preferences, channeling complaints and denunciations and accompanying the legislative process.
Provide information to citizens on the Internet concerning behavior and preferences of legislators and on legislation moving through the legislatures.
4. Strategic sectors
The strategic sectors – education, health, public safety, justice, electronic commerce and development of the ICT sector itself – are important for the e-Brasil program because they are characterized by a high potential to contribute to the e-Brasil objectives of building a more equitable and competitive Brazil, and there is considerably synergy between them and with the other lines of action of the e-Brasil Program. They also each have their own specific characteristics and a certain autonomy in their relation with public polices and government programs.
4.1 Education
Applying information technology in the daily activities of public schools makes possible transformations in teaching by broadening access to information and communication formats that provide interactivity and develop expanded social relations. The methods of teaching, educational content and even the relationship between students and teachers are positively influenced by the dynamism and innovation of ICTs.
Proposals
· Accelerate the computerization of all public schools (state and municipal), giving them broadband connectivity to the Internet, using all the available means, like intragovernmental networks, and increasing the number of computers per school and per student, where computers are already available.
· Assure rights of access to education through the offer of services to students and parents, in particular registration online for public schools.
· Expand the supply and use of distance education, revising the legislation and norms governing it, making its massive use possible while assuring quality. Accelerate the systematic retraining of teachers in the state and municipal schools.
· Create a national distance education agency to facilitate the accelerated development of this form of education, especially in technical and higher education and the continuing upgrading of the labor force at all levels.
· Promote the development of quality educational content for use in on the Internet, in telecenters and in the schools, integrating the resources of interactive digital television for all public education, including access to digital libraries.
· Expand opportunities for forming and training federal, state and municipal civil servants, with intensive and systematic use of distance education, integrating actions in existing government schools and training institutions and creating mechanisms and incentives for participation of governments at all levels.
· Promote partnerships with the S System (Senai, Senac, Senar, Sebrae, etc.), private corporate universities, public universities, and privat universities for the lifelong education of and training of the labor force.
4.2 Health
ICTs applied to the Unified Health System (SUS) can lead to a great increase in coverage and quality of health services and greater equality in access for the population in all parts of the country, especially poor people and those living in isolated areas. For example, improved qualification for services, supported by shasring information among health professionals through Internet sites, tele-health programs, etc. Increased communication among these professionals through electronic means is a mans to reduce disparities in knowledge and experience, reducing the need to move patients to secondary and tertiary facilities.
Proposals
· Develop a health portal with subportals for doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and other health professionals, and also for the population at large to facilitate education, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
· Establish the Brazil Health Network, linking all units in the state and municipal health systems .with broadband connections, through public networks and two-way satellite communications, creating an environment adequate for education, training, medical consultations, second opinions and telemedicine, offering online appointments and online reservation of hospital beds within the SUS.
· Fully develop the Sole Patient Card in all areas of health, through computerized systems for identification and providing health services.
· Support ;the development of data and information standards for electronic first aid, nomenclature and codes for services, medicines, diagnostics, and treatments that can be adopted at the national level by all public and private health organizations.
· Develop and apply a set of ethical and professional norms which assure quality and guide professional responsibility in health and medical websites, services provided at a distance (telemedicine, tele-education in health, etc.), and that are recognized by the population.
· Support the development of emerging centers of excellence in the use of ICTs for health, both in the public and academic sectors, as in small and medium enterprises, through development projects oriented to this sector under the Innovation Law, the Information Technology Law, Sectoral Funds and other government finance programs for providing scholarships, subsidies, contracts and development of projects hardware, software, and services for the health market.
· Promote the intensive training of specialized interdisciplinary professionals for the development and application of ICTs for health in Brazil, including through encouraging exchanges with countries which are more advanced in this area.
· Launch a latest generation digital satellite dedicated exclusively to health and education, with highly differentiated pricing, if possible using the Fust.
4.3 Public Safety
Electronic government facilitates faster integration of the diverse institutions working in the area of public safety, with immediate impact, in a crisis situation with urgent need for results. The interlinking of computer networks and databases and the application of geographic information systems can have a major positive impact.
Proposals
· Interlink the public safety databases (Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, the state military and civil police, Scientific Police, Transport Departments – Detrans, the prison system, the information system of the Ministry of Justice and the municipal governments), adopting the necessary security measures.
· Integrate the operations centers of the civil and military police and fire departments of the states in a single installation in the capital and in large cities of the interior, with facilities to use and coordinate databases and radio communication systems.
· Develop and implement a unified intelligence center supported by computerized information systems, in the offices of the state secretaries of public safety to more efficiently serve the needs of police planning.
· Establish or expand the scope of state systems for crime mapping using geographic information systems (GIS) in all the territory of the states.
· Implement systems of video monitoring to recognize people using databases of criminals and suspects in critical security areas for public safety and also vehicle license plates, through databases on stolen vehicles, or without proper licenses or payment of the vehicle tax (IPVA).
· Implement systems for video-hearings in criminal courts and prisons, for hearings of dangerous prisoners and to reduce the cost of police escorts and transport.
· Create an emergency information system, integrating traditional means of mass communication, government portals, mobile telephones, and in the future, interactive digital television.
· Expand the possibilities of registering crime incidents via Internet, including those of more serious nature in a first stage, reducing under-reporting..
· Expand the possibilities of obtaining documents online from secretariats of public safety: certificates of criminal records, proof of police incidents or car accidents, proof of registering a theft or loss of documents and all possible stages of fines for transit violations.
· Offer citizens information on the location of local police stations, the responsible police chiefs and the contact telephones for emergency situations.
· Inform citizens concerning the principal crimes in the neighborhoods where they live or work, including the publication of photos of principal criminals.
· Make available the existing studies in police academies and centers of higher police education (principally dissertations and monographs) to increase debate, studies, and research on public safety.
· Expand the dissemination through the Internet of the kinds of crimes registered by city, beyond those currently available (homicide, vehicle theft, robberies in general) to allow citizens to monitor the performance of the police and take specific precautions in cases of rape, aggressions, traffic accidents with victims, robberies in buses, robbery of pedestrians, robbery of commercial establishments, theft from residences and commercial establishments, and pick pocketing of pedestrians. .
· Expand the publishing on the Internet of criminal registries for police districts in the state capitals in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants.
· Establish a sole telephone number for emergencies: police, fire departments, ambulance service, etc.
4.4 Justice
Electronic government makes it possible to speed up and simplify routines and procedures thorough automating legal proceedings and establishing electronic archives related to the revision of legislation and norms. Meeting citizen demands will be substantially improved, especially as regards the time cases take, with a positive impact in reducing transactions costs, which are systemic, and also juridical uncertainty. .
Proposals
· Simplify judicial procedures in the course of migrating them to electronic means, with reduced times for processing and increases transparency
· Make electronic processing of cases possible by approving existing draft legislation, permitting redesign of processes and routines. Establish a system of digital certification to reduce the use of paper in the judicial system.
· Establish an interoperable architecture in the judicial branch of government for integrating the information systems of the various courts.
4.5 Electronic commerce
The expansion of electronic commerce has systematic impacts on the competitiveness of the economy, especially through the integration of markets, speeding up transactions and reducing their cost, broadening access to information, and developing new virtual businesses. Electronic transactions should be institutionalized with adequate judicial and legal support and confidence won vis à vis the government, the business sector and the consumer.
Proposals
· Accelerate the digital inclusion of micro, small, and medium enterprises and their technical and business training for efficient use of ICTs in their business.
· Strengthen the communication infrastructure outside the urban areas so that agribusiness and the rural economy sustained by small businesses can use the results of research and innovation,
· Provide incentives for the use of digital certificates in commerce and in relations with government, mobilizing the notary publics so they can participate in issuing such certificates. .
· Computerize and speed up the registration of businesses and the payment of taxes, working with the federal government.
· Consolidate a reliable environment for both individuals and businesses to participate in e-commerce, through creating services not only to assure the security of their operations, but also to win the confidence of partners. These services, such as arbitration chambers, dispute resolution systems, guarantees and seals of quality conferred by authorities or representative entities, should be created in conformity with internationally adopted norms..
· Encourage the global integration of Brazilian companies, through adopting international norms and standards in their various procedures. Priorities in this area are actions to facilitate customs procedures and the integration of online payment services with an international scope.
· Computerize the processing of imports and exports in ports and airports of the states to simplify and speed up routines and procedures.
4.6 Developing the ICT sector
The effort to date with privatization of telecommunications has guaranteed the infrastructure necessary for the growth of software and services in the country. Manufacturing in the Brazilian ICT sector naturally passes through the same process of concentrating production in contract manufacturing (outsourcing), generally international in scope, that the developed countries have undergone, to guaranteeing the logistics of more competitive production. In order that this process not reduce national value added to insignificant levels, incentives to innovation are the only viable road. In Brazil today, the software and services sector can grow rapidly, with some specific short and long term measures.
Proposals
· Revise the Law on Information Technology to include measures to promote the research and development by businesses.
· Reduce the tariffs on inputs for the information technology sector to reduce contraband and final production costs.
· Establish a policy of public sector procurement to encourage local production of software by micro and small Brazilian firms.
· Create a wide-ranging policy to educate, train, and re-train human resources, with attention to higher and secondary education, aligned with the needs of the business sector. The urgent need for English language education should be considered.
· Build a coherent set of tax and other fiscal measures compatible with the nature of software and services enterprises in the ICT sector, seeking to meet the competitiveness of the principal competitors of the Brazilian industry.
· Set up poles for the export of software and services, with specific tax and legal regimes, to attract large-scale investments in export, and provide incentives for partnerships for Brazilian firms in carrying out large-scale undertakings in the ICT sector.
Telemática e Desenvolvimento Ltda.
