Promotion of electronic democracy in Šalčininkai District

Gžegož JurgoSenior specialist at Investments and strategic planning division

Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration Lithuania

EPSA 2011 Final event, Maastricht

Šalčininkai District

• Šalčininkai District is located in the southeast of Lithuania

• 45 km from Vilnius

• Area – 1491,4 square km• Population – about 37000 people

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Šalčininkai District

• Population by nationality

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Šalčininkai District

• Borders with Belarus on the east• Centre of the District – Šalčininkai city – is only

7 km away from the border• International border crossing point

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Šalčininkai District

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Šalčininkai District

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Šalčininkai District

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Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration

• More than 100 servants• 14 Divisions• 13 communes

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Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration

• Investitions– more than 50 projects– more than 23 mln EUR

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Promotion of electronic democracy in Šalčininkai District

Preconditions of the project

1. To few opportunities for expressing opinion– writing an official letter– participating in the Council Meeting

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Preconditions of the project

2. Insufficient transparency of:– made Council‘s decisions– issue solving steps

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Preconditions of the project

3. Manipulation of public opinion– misleading opinions– several identical opinions from one person

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Preconditions of the project

4. Problems with documents publishing– related legal acts– legal acts containing personal information

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The objective of the project

To create and install the tools of electronic democracy, based on the information and communication

technologies, which allow inhabitants, public and private organizations and other legal entities to express their opinion about various Šalčininkai District issues.

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Specific objectives

1. To create and install the tools of electronic democracy designed for the Municipality Council to vote during the meetings and publish information about voting results

installing person identification system installing electronic voting and information publishing

systems Council Hall equipment renewal

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Specific objectives

2. To create and install the tools of electronic democracy that provide district inhabitants with the opportunity to express their opinion and influence Council decisions

• creating inhabitants electronic voting and opinion expressing system

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Specific objectives

3. Informing inhabitants through geoinformation system

• offering Municipal services through geoinformation system

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Team of the project

• Municipality‘s Administracion specialists (internal resources)

• Consulting firm (external resource)

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Team of the project

1. Project manager

Responsible for: • overall project management• organization and coordination of project activities• contact with responsible institutions

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Team of the project

2. Project financier

Responsible for: • project finance management• regular accounting activities• financial and taxation accountability• payments control

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Team of the project

3. IT specialist

Responsible for: • monitoring project activities, especially those regarding

proper installation of the systems

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Team of the project

• External firm

Responsible for: • qualitative fulfilment of project activities• evaluation of project progress• organization of public procurement• communication with Šalčininkai District Municipality

and other engaged institutions• trainings

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Budget of the project

• EUR 117098,00

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Budget of the project

• 85% ESF funding• 15% cofinancing rate

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Stages of the project

• Selection of the scope of the project– a discussion with the representatives of

Municipality‘s Administration, District inhabitants, public organizations‘ representatives, journalists, youth activists and other interested parties

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Stages of the project

• Creation of project management team– forming own team and finding out who can enrich

the project with more experience

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Stages of the project

• Creation of e-democracy system, its installation and Municipality's web page renewal (old one did not meet requirements for the new system)– geoinformation system– person identification and authorization system– municipality e-gate system– documents actualization system– new website

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Stages of the project

• Finalizing of the system– trainings for the Municipality Council members to

work with the new system – testing of the system – experimental Council Meeting simulation

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Detalization of the systems

• geoinformation system – system allows inhabitants to put the aroused

problem (e.g. waste management disorder, electricity supply accident, natural disaster caused problems) on the map and automatically address it to the responsible servant for quick solution

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Detalization of the systems

• person identification and authorization system – new electronic voting system for Council members

was created – equipment for filming and online observation of

the Council Meetings installed – module for instant publishing of voting results

created

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Detalization of the systems

• Municipality e-gate system – leaving opinions – writing comments – creating petitions– sending queries– expressing public opinion

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Detalization of the systems

• documents actualization system – new system of searching and publishing of legal

acts created

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Detalization of the systems

• launch of a new website – enabling all the mentioned features– video translation opportunities

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Results

• 5 e-democracy systems created and installed• 50% reduce in personal queries in some of

Municipality‘s divisions• 80% increase in website visits– 14000 visits in March 2010– 26000 visits in March 2011– 31000 visits in October 2011

• Increase in public questions on the website

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Results

5 systems installed+117000 EUR spent=

one of the most efficient projects

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After application for the EPSA 2011 was submitted...

• some more recognitions proving the success of the project came:– the new website shared 3rd-5th places in the

ranking of the 60 Municipalities website in Lithuania

– 8th-10th places as the best website among all public institutions in Lithuania

(source: Information Society Development Committee, Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania)

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Good luck with your projects!

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