Speech of the PM Mirek Topolánek on the Occasion of Opening the 11th Conference on the Internet in State Administration and Local Government 7th 2008
Mrek Topolánek, Prime Minister: I thank you for the floor. I think it is good that you are still here and prime ministers are changing, because as a classical poet said: the worker is mortal - labour is alive. I am not going to address anybody by name; I think it would be rather embarrassing. So, dear friends, dear mayors, dear representatives of the state administration, I appeared at this conference as an opposition politician and I promised what we would do after our victory in elections. I was here last year as a new prime minister and I outlined, together with my colleagues, certain plan how to transfer those promises into reality. And I am here today, apart from other reasons, to try to assess my one-year work, to be accountable to you and to specify what the government achieved in the sphere of the e-government.
I do not want to give a bigwig speech here; I come here repeatedly and with pleasure, because there is no event held in the Czech Republic, where so many representatives of the central level and local government level involved in a single sphere are concentrated. And you represent for me a unique opportunity how to meet people who implement scope of activities created and prepared by the government.
I set an objective for the government which was not easy. How to transfer a country which was behind the others, as far as services provided to citizens were concerned, to one of five best countries? It is not very easy with regard to progress in use of e-government made by Estonia and some other countries. We want to switch the state administration from the off-line regime to the on-line regime.
I do not want to speak long about various institutions, programmes and visions; there are some of colleagues of mine here who will be speaking on them and you will have an opportunity to take part in number of lectures and presentations. They will briefly summarize what is already prepared, what is being prepared and what will come into force. It is true that the e-government, and I do not want to repeat it as it is useless in this society, is not an objective, but it is just tool for the reform of the state and public administration, for a change of the style of thinking from that bureaucratic to a user-oriented style. I will start with something that is not flourishing. First, I should say that the state, I mean the government has not removed all the barriers, and I can perhaps use short time I have been in my position as an excuse; sometimes artificial barriers and obstacles still hamper, the government does not motivate enough, and it does not encourage activity. The state administration is still a juggernaut and work is not completed yet, and it will never be, as it is a never-ending work. Second, the reform of the public administration has not been accomplished yet, as it had been outlined in 2002. The reduction on the central level has not been done, and number of paperwork has not been transferred to regions and municipalities. Useless paperwork on the central level has not been abolished, and the fact that we succeeded in reducing number of employees by 2% does not satisfy me. Third, the e-government became a kind of mantra for many people, it became a cliché and it is perceived rather as an objective than as a tool. People are still willing to use tools of the e-government in case of outdated and useless processes. I think it is crucial and we must work on it together. The fact that 30 billion crowns had been invested into the ICT in the past and modern means had been used; it is one of losses which must not be repeated. Fourth, there are not good contacts of local governments with the central administration; the front office is not separated from the back office, and what we had promised does not operate yet. I think that the state administration is still very resistant and I understood it very quickly; I have not been engaged in the state administration before and it was a kind of a culture shock for me. Fifth, I have fears that we put great emphasise on the drawing of financial means from structural funds. I will be speaking about it, as part of money which will be drawn from the smart administration will be spent on the e-government project. I as the Prime Minister have certain problems with ministerial attitude and I must force ministers to interoperable way of funding; I can see certain risks here. Sixth, as far as things which are not going well are concerned, I would mention creation of certain barriers, I would say a digital inclusion, I have just invented that term. I mean creation of barriers, which thanks to digitalization may cause unpleasant situations for number of people. It means that the system should be open enough to become acceptable for all social groups.
In 2007 we started to build a unified infrastructure of the e-government – that was the well-known Egon of Minister Langer, who presented it here. We implemented the Czechpoint, which was the system by means of which citizens could communicate with the state administration from a single place and to settle their problems from their homes. For me it is good news that 1400 municipalities are involved in this project – 1400 municipalities which consider it as an indispensable means of communication between the state administration and citizens. I will not be speaking about things you have already known that we managed to push through number of bills in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, so that it would be clear that we will manage to fulfil our task – to be among the first five countries by the end of the election period. The E-Government Act was approved by the government in February 2008 and it was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, to the second reading. I hope it will be implemented. The Archives Act is being prepared for the government debate in June 2008. The Act on Identity Cards is being prepared for the debate of the government. The Act on Basic Registers is being prepared for the debate of the government in September 2008. The Act on Registers of Persons is being prepared for the debate of the government in August 20008. Some laws are prepared, but still, the comment procedure is being held as well as communication with all the participants. The Act on Register of Rights and Duties is being prepared for the debate of the government in August 2008. The Act on Register of Inhabitants is being prepared for the debate of the government in August 2008. The Act on e-Collection and e-legislation is being prepared for October 2008. The Act on Collection of Valid Legal Regulations is prepared for the debate of the government in May 2009.
The e-health project has already been mentioned; it should facilitate work of healthcare professionals and to improve access of citizens to information. We also launched the e-Justice project; the first sections of the system of electronic and Internet judiciary have been in operation since 1st October 2007. Full operation of the Bankruptcy Register has been in operation since January 2008. The InforCourt was launched in February 2008. The Commercial Register, statements from records of CzechPoints, the Register of Sentences and the Electronic Pay Order were signed by the President on 2nd April 2008. The Official Information Board – project in June 2008; implementation in December 2008, this system will provide Internet access to topical information. This year, we will start to prepare concrete projects for solution of concrete life situations of citizens. We are working on equalization of an electronic and written form of communication. The Act on Electronic File has been prepared in fact, the analysis of risks will be submitted in April, and the implementation will be in 2009. I can say with clear conscious that those changes are no abstract projects, we are not solemnly declaring so called "information society" with the aim of spending the Government's and EU billions; we do not aim at ticking off our tasks as completed and leaving everything unchanged in fact. We started our changes at the Office of the Government and it is necessary to say that I managed to push through the managerial attitude in the government work. The government is communicating really on-line, without circulation of papers. Those ministers who do not bring their computers at meetings of the government are regularly persecuted. All the documents prepared for meetings of the government are in the electronic form and meetings are lead using a computer. The same procedure is applied in the course of checking the Programme Declaration of the Government; it is the Programme Office which is in charge of this activity. Information is evaluated in regular intervals and is available whenever.
I am convinced that our objectives are feasible and that when I will be standing here at the end of my term, I hope it will be after two years, I will be able to positively answer the following questions: Has the citizen experienced improvement and simplification of communication with the state administration in solving everyday situations? Does the state administration enable the citizen to provide required information only once and comfortably, or has the citizen to provide the same information repeatedly to various authorities? Does the citizen use offered services spontaneously or is he discouraged by unresolved obstacles? Does the citizen feel the same or higher trust in the electronic form of communication with the state in comparison with the paper form? Has the introduction of the e-Government resulted in significant reduction of administrative costs? Have we accomplished our vision: data are circulating, not citizens? Of course, we want to answer these questions in a positive way; we need a control. We cannot do it without a control and I think that Ivan Langer will be speaking about it in his speech.
If you ask me where we will get money for that and whether we have it, I can answer we have. Finances are not a problem; the problem is whether we will have courage and will to push the things through. We reached some cost economies, we can count on structural funds, to certain extent, as a unique money delivery; it means we must not underestimate the smart administration. We must implement these projects in the same way as in case of the e-Government.
In conclusion, I would like to summarize the main principles our strategy is based on, and which I was speaking about. Please remember them, they are: positive objectives and priorities, clear time schedule, unite framework for managing projects and strategies, simple managing structure and concrete division of competences and responsibilities. Of course, without a team of people, we would not be able to implement anything, and I think that we have people available who have courage and who are able to tread on corns of pessimists who are trying to avert it. I know that we have ministers in our cabinet, like Ivan Langer, Martin Říman, Tomáš Julínek, Jiří Pospíšil, it would not be possible in the absence of them. Nevertheless, without Deputy Ministers like Zajíček, Štainer, Korbel, Vaněk, Šnajdr, Bartoňová, Vízková – things would not be implemented either. You certainly guess that it would not be possible without help of the regional political sphere – Tošenovský, Zahradník, Šulc, Vystrčil, Bradík and some mayors like Kubera, Vodrážka, Staňura, Rédl, and Divíšek. It cannot be done in the absence of them. It cannot be done in the absence of yours and therefore we are able to answer your questions and to dispute about certain issues, as in the absence of yours it would be possible to implement it.
I thank you very much for coming here every year; you may have lost your trust in ability of the central political scene to prepare such solution of the problem, which would simplify your work. I hope that we will not disappoint you. I thank you for your attention.
