From what we heard from the head of the municipality, Kučevo has taken important steps forward in business digitisation and e-Government as an essential part of this development, particularly with regard to construction permitting procedures and the way related departments operate.
A great step forward was also made in the way the municipality provides services to the general population: procedures are simplified and there is no longer any need to go ‘from one counter to another’ visiting various departments.
This has raised the level of satisfaction among the local population with regard to services provided by the municipal administration.
What sectors of Kučevo Municipality provide the most room to introduce digitisation?
– The most space is available in tasks related to specific requests that local people make to the municipal administration, with regard to their rights and entitlements, their legal interests, and the regulation of their obligations and liabilities, such as in the General Affairs Department that deals with social welfare, child benefits, the electoral roll, war veterans’ benefits and disability benefits, or with regard to construction, urban planning and the tax administration. We will improve our administration so that they can complete everything at a single counter, or online.
What is your experience with the application of e-Government so far, and how are people accepting the novelties it brings?
– The team that will provide electronic services consists of an IT expert and all the staff working in the administrative office, service centre, registry and inspection department. Full interconnection between the Kučevo municipal administration and e-Government is expected in March 2018, which means that the municipal administration is not using e-Government services at this moment.
The first steps to train staff to provide these services have already been taken. Most problems with using electronic services are noted among the elderly and older staff, who generally have problems adopting new technologies. We need more time to educate them and let them get used to the new procedures.
E-Zup is expected to provide better efficiency and effectiveness of administration and procedures. Moreover, this service will increase the visibility and accessibility of information of interest to our citizens, who will be able to track the movement of their cases at all times, once the system is up to full capacity
How important is e-Government for ensuring a more efficient municipal administration?
– We are now introducing the e-Government system, i.e. connecting to the e-Zup system. At the same time, we are informing people about the new procedure for obtaining services through this system, which eases procedures greatly.
The eZup system reduces costs for its users and also saves time for those who now have to queue in front of counters in different institutions to collect the documents for processing their cases. I expect that eZup will provide better efficiency and effectiveness of the administration and procedures.
Moreover, this service will increase the visibility and accessibility of information of interest to our citizens, who will be able to track the movement of their cases at all times, once the system is up to full capacity.