Special Mention and congratulations go to all government officials in Lebanon and Morocco for their efforts to modernize public administration and for winning in 2007 the prestigious United Nations Public Service Awards. For more information, please visit:
Delegation from LEBANON receives the 2007 UNPSA
Making it easy and faster to file taxes through
an on-line filing system
Ministry of Finance, Lebanon
For “Taxpayer Service”
Summary
In Lebanon, the Ministry of Finance has improved services delivered to taxpayers, their quality and timeliness making it comparable to international standards.
Challenge
In Lebanon the tax filing system was complicated and information was difficult to access resulting in a low tax payers’ compliance. The Lebanese internal conflicts had adverse effects on Lebanon’s economy plagued by a deteriorating public administration, with aging employees who had limited knowledge of new technologies and techniques adopted in more advanced economies. This resulted in considerable delays and inefficiencies in the delivery of services to a constantly developing private sector, which in turn was harmful to its sound functioning, and inconsistent with the long-term objectives of the Ministry of Finance.
Solution
To overcome the above mentioned challenges, the Ministry of Finance launched a programme: (a) to revamp the tax administration through the reengineering and modernization of existing systems and processes, (b) to promote the simplification of tax returns, (c) to develop tax guides and other communication material to inform taxpayers of their rights and obligations, (d) to promote the recruitment and training, as well as rotation of qualified young graduates for an improved image; (e) to introduce in the Ministry new equipment to improve the delivery of services, (f) to minimize contact with taxpayers through the use of regular and electronic mail for tax enquiries and return filing, and most importantly, (g) to develop a business continuity plan to ensure sustainability of operations in risk situations, an urgent need given the local and regional context.
The taxpayer services function of the Lebanese Revenue Administration has improved considerably over the last few years. It started from a complete manual management of taxpayer files and records, and was transformed by the project to a near complete automated function with dedicated offices, redesigned procedures, and freshly recruited & trained staff. The streamlined processes allowed for the decrease in interaction with taxpayers for increased efficiency. The use of regular and electronic mails & website lead to greater effectiveness of operations to all stakeholders. The internal and external communication was enhanced by the availability & dissemination of information. Finally the quality of service was improved through continuous education, assistance and training of staff.
The tremendous leaps that have occurred in the delivery of services to taxpayers in Lebanon can be considered a veritable achievement realized despite the local and regional challenges. The changes implemented through the new taxpayer services resulted in an overall customer satisfaction and: (a) a higher voluntary compliance rate, (b) reduced number of cases of disputes, (c) increased revenues to the Treasury, (d) updated taxpayer database, (e) enablement of e-taxation, (f) automated track record for taxpayers enquiries for future follow-up, (g) automated process of tracking transactions in process, (h) reliance on postage for distribution and receipt of returns/correspondence, (i) fair gender distribution, and (j) continuous dissemination of information on new developments through media channels, (k) determination of response times for various transactions, and (l) website with downloadable links (for e-filing, and e-tracking of taxpayer accounts), latest developments, and online receipt/reply to enquiries.
Moreover dedicated offices to taxpayer services are now available in Beirut and throughout the regional offices. All these changes led to timely and lower cost services to taxpayers.
Delegation from MOROCCO receives the 2007 UNPSA
Ensuring access of all citizens to civil records
services through the creation of an on-line portal
Arrondissement Agdal, Fez - Morocco
For “eFez project”
Summary:
In partnership with the research team of the ICT-for-Development Laboratory (ICT4D Lab) at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, the Municipality of Agdal, Fez of Morocco, has built a local e-government system to provide electronically a range of services to the public transforming municipal services into a modern citizen-centric system accessible and usable by all, regardless of their degree of basic literacy and/or familiarity with ICT use.
Challenge
In Morocco most government services, such as getting a passport or acquiring the papers required to register to vote, can only be accessed through government offices in the capital, Rabat, or in big cities like Casablanca. By African standards, the country has high rates of telephone and Internet use and relatively high incomes, and the government is already using ICTs to improve program coordination, tax administration, and auditing, public investment planning and monitoring, and spending management. (According to the World Bank, ICT use has cut in half the time the government needs to prepare the national budget.) During the last few years, Morocco started to realize the potential of e-government; however, regardless of its national strategies, e-Government implementation, especially at the local level remained very low, with no evidence of concrete positive impact on ordinary citizens. Accessing information and administrative services in the city of Fez was not easy, especially for disadvantaged groups.
Solution
In response to this challenge, a team composed of researchers from the ICT-for-Development Laboratory (ICT4D Lab) at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco and public officials from the municipality of Fez, worked together to design, implement, and deploy a replicable local e-government system transforming Fez’s archaic municipal service delivery into a modern on-line system. The team successfully completed in July 2006 a pilot e-Government project (eFez) funded by the IDRC and deployed at the local government of the city of Fez.
By making simplified processes accessible through GSM phones (widely used in Morocco), Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and personal computers, the project reduced or eliminated bureaucratic delays. It gives all citizens equal access to services, makes administrative procedures more transparent and visible, and uses government human resources more efficiently. Besides allowing users to access services and request documents (such as residency certificates, birth certificates, and marital status certificates), the new system also offers general information about Fez (tourism, economy, history, architecture, weather, etc.).
To ensure that all citizens can access the portal, the Fez Wilaya (local administration) installed free public digital kiosks. To determine which e-government services should be priorities, the Alakhawayn University project team conducted surveys and interviews among local citizens. By partnering with Laval University to develop software for the portal, the Alakhawayn University team was able to benefit from Canadian e-government expertise. Alakhawayn University provided technical training to the Fez Wilaya employees to ensure they maintain the system beyond the two-year span of the project.
The initiative allows local authorities to ICT-enable their offices, giving citizens fast, easy access to a wide range of government services through a fair and transparent process. This project will serve as a “road map” for rolling-out local e-government across Morocco. The project will also address important research questions about the social impact and political implications of e-government. These questions include: Is e-government viable and beneficial in a country with a high rate of illiteracy? Which segments of Moroccan society are most likely to use e-government services? Which are least likely to use them, and why? What political, social and economic strategies can give the greatest number of people access to e-government? How can ICTs have an impact on strategies for designing and delivering government services?
Designing, implementing, and deploying the project in a citizen-centric, participatory, and interactive manner, enabled the research team to build a local e-government system that matters to the local community, responds to the locally perceived needs, facilitates citizen-friendly service delivery; and thereby, fosters local good governance. eFez success has facilitated a growing interest in implementing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects among political decision makers, civil servants and ordinary citizens. The general public is becoming more and more aware of the urgent need to promote ICT diffusion within Morocco’s governance structures, especially at the local level. For instance, citizens at Fez are voicing their needs to benefit from a similar electronically enabled service delivery in the remaining 33 Vital Records Offices (Bureau d’Etat Civil- BEC). BEC employees and officers are requesting e-Fez be extended to other offices. There is a growing interest in ICT projects among Morocco’s decision makers at the city levels. An increasing number of decision makers in several cities of the Kingdom have approached the research team with regards to their interest in having BEC electronically enabled service delivery deployed within their respective BEC governance structures. In this sense, eFez success has been communicating clearly the feasibility of building e-government system in a typical Moroccan context.
EFez’s success was acknowledged at the national level and awarded with the prestigious prize “eMtiaz 2006” as best e-government project in Morocco. It also received the Technology in Government in Africa (TIFA) Awards in May of 2007.
