News & Views
Citizenlink - the missing link in e-government
 Matt
Poelmans, director of eCitizen Programme at ICTU in the
Netherlands, presented the Dutch model of eGovernment currently
in use in that country.
“ICTU is similar to SITA,” said Poelmans, “but it is focused on
development in government, aimed at designing infrastructure for
eGovernment and setting standards for generic applications and
seamless service delivery.”
Poelmans went on to explain that the task of Citizenlink, was to
promote service quality, the adoption of e-citizen and Quality
Codes, measuring citizen satisfaction and analysing integrated
service according to life events.
The programme also stimulates citizen involvement and aims to
develop eParticipation instruments.
“The e-Citizen charter stipulates ten quality requirements for
eGovernment,” says Poelmans. “The charter is not mandatory but
has been adopted as a standard or basis for the measurement of
citizen satisfaction, as recommended by the UN and other
bodies.”
The charter contains ten key elements. These include public
sector transparency, convenient services, comprehensive
procedures, considerate administration, accountability and
benchmarking and citizen involvement and empowerment.
The charter also contains a Quality Code for government agencies
to comply with, which decrees that citizens must be informed of
their rights. Lack of compliance in this regard can result in
the agency being fined. “This generates external incentives to
support the internal drive for innovation,” said Poelmans.
The eParticipation programme reaches citizens through the
internet in the standardisation of e-democracy and e-society
tools, he said.
Poelmans explained that in order to keep Citizenlink relevant,
various parties take ownership of particular aspects of service
improvement. “Currently the city council has adopted the
e-citizen charter, the executive board specifies the Quality
Code, various departments’ measure citizen satisfaction, and the
mayor accounts annually for improvements,” he said.
|
 |
 |
|
|
