ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE LEGISLATION AND THE KEY-FACTORS OF THE QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION

PROCESS OF THE E-GOVERNMENT IN ROMANIA

Lucian CHIRIAC1, PhDZsuzsanna SZABÓ2, PhD

Abstract:The public administration in Romania has been going through a modernization process after

1989. It had to adopt the social and economic realities of the country and on the other hand had to prepare the administrative structures for the EU adherence. One of Romania’s responsibilities, when joining the e-Europe network, was defining the logistic and legislative framework, for the implementation of its own e-administration strategy. The research studies show the importance of the legal infrastructure in the e-government development process. The legislation is an element of readiness and facilitates the implementation process of e-administration, e-government. (See [2], [3]) Today e-public administration is a somewhat amorphous entity consisting primarily of an e-commerce platform to implement e-procurement of government resources, a tendering process aiming to award contracts for both services and goods, and a citizen informing service regarding laws, regulations and tax revenue collection.

This paper presents the legal environment for supporting the development of e-government. It will be analysed the impact of the legislation on the implementation process of e-government. It will be studied how prepared the citizens and the public authorities are for the assimilation and utilization of this rapid, reliable and comfortable means of governance in Romania, and in which way social inequality and rural people would affect this process. The key-factors of the quality and efficiency of services in e-communication in administration will be analysed. An empirical study based on questionnaires has also been included.

1. About the e-government concept

The Internet has created and developed a new type of relationships between the central and local public authorities, between authorities and citizens. The multiplication of the types of activity but also the need for modernization and transparency of the administration’s actions determined the creation of new legal institutions based on the development of the new information and communication technologies. Practically, we may speak about a true revolution in public administration, therefore the application of the information and communication technology leads to a real state reform.

In a broad sense, e-government or e-administration are synonyms, used in the specialist literature in order to describe a complex phenomenon, based on information technology and its application in the relationships between central and local public authorities, between public authorities and individuals or legal persons.

In a narrow sense, e-government expresses through specific-technical means the right of command of the state, whereas e-administration expresses the management of the citizen’s problems through public services.

Broadly speaking, we consider that e-government is developed at least on five levels: a) the creation, functioning and development of the necessary electronic technical-material base; b) presenting (posting) the information and services at the disposal of the users (public authorities, individuals or legal persons); c) electronic interaction between users; d) turning the administrative procedure into an efficient one through the electronic report; e) expanding the electronic network to new domains.

The use of this new type of technologies in the activity of public administration, leads to the elimination of the bureaucratic administrative procedures, administration’s slowness; it simplifies the work methodologies, assures quick solving of public or private action. By using electronic communication means, administration puts in value three functions and these are: the informing function (administrative decisions are presented to its users); the function of providing public services (individuals or legal persons can fulfil their rights and obligations that are offered by law); the function of managing your own attributions given by law (administration, conservation and disposition on the public and private patrimony,

1 As. Professor, Petru Maior University of Tirgu Mures, Romania2 As. Professor, Petru Maior University of Tirgu Mures, Romania

the organization and functioning of the departments, divisions and offices; exercising internal and external administrative control; applying public policies etc.)3

From all those above, we can define, in a broad sense, electronic government (e-government) as the effective managing of the entire administrative activity, central or local, including the delegate one, by means of information and communication technology.

The purpose of e-administration lies in assuring the achievement of the general or private interest in a full transparency and responsibility. The electronic means used in governance and administration strengthen the organization and functioning of public administrative authorities, bring the act of deciding and leading closer to the citizen and the territorial community and last but not least it increases the comfort of European integration of all states. We can say, without making a mistake that the technological evolution caused the need for state reform, but, on another hand, it also required the transformation of the public action with a double effect, both for authorities and for its users. In order to describe these mutations that will end by imposing the new concept of electronic democracy it is enough to observe that: the development of the electronic network brings profound transformations in the ways of action of the administrative authorities or users; the relationships between public authorities and users, between the public and private space are reconfigured; new forms of government will appear, new domains will be conquered. Without any doubt, the 21st century will be dominated by this new source of energy of the public action, or we can state, paraphrasing André Malraux “that the 21 st century will belong to electronic government or will not be.”

The World Bank has defined e-government as “government owned or operated systems of ICTs that transforms relations with citizens, the private sector and/or other government agencies so as to promote citizen empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, or improve government efficiency.” (See [1]) Statistics Canada defines Public Administration as “the establishments of federal, provincial and municipal governments primarily engaged in activities associated with public administration” in order to attain the public good. (See [6]) An analysis of the definitions, from the e-government literature, formulated by Tapscott (1996), ([7]), UNPA&ASPA (2001), ([8]), World Bank (2001), ([1]), Fraga (2001), ([9]), Abramson and Means (2001), ([10]), underlines the most important role of ICT tools “to reinvent the public sector by transforming its internal and external way of doing things and its interrelationships with customers and the business community”. (See [11]) The transformation areas of e-government (internal, external, relational), the e-government web of interrelationships (government to citizens, government to business, government to government, government to employees), the main application domains (e-administration, e-citizens and e-services, e-society) were studied by Hirst and Norton (1998), Tapscott (2001), Allen at al.(2001), Riley (2001), Fang (2002), Heeks (2001). (See [11])

The level of e-government activity in time can be measured by Heeks R. (2006) ([4]) through the following issues: readiness (awareness, infrastructure, digital divide); availability (supply, maturity, stage); uptake (demand, usage, use divide); impact (efficiency, effectiveness, equity). Leading countries in the development of e-government services are United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Brazil. Chile is one of the best examples of e-government in Latin America. (See [1]) While e-government or e-administration become a reality in the developed countries the developing countries and countries in transition have to implement it, have to realize the computerization and have to extend the internet access of the public administration.

Readiness for e-government can be analyzed with seven core elements: data system infrastructure, legal infrastructure, institutional infrastructure, human infrastructure, technological infrastructure, leadership and strategic thinking and e-government drivers. (See [2], [3]) It is known that inclusion and better public services are part of the third priority of the European Commission i2010 Initiative. Member states are working on improving the conditions for electronic communications between government and citizens, business and government through the development and promotion of electronic identification. The development and use of ICTs for interacting with public administrations in the EU are presented with main statistical findings in the article [12], which has been published recently. The statistics for the period 2004-2008 at European level (EU-27) show that the most frequent types of electronic interaction with public administrations are: obtaining information, downloading forms, returning completed forms. In the EU the proportion of interaction shows an increasing tendency. The proportion of enterprises which were interacting was higher and growing at a faster rate than the

3 See Eric Brousseau “Les trois défis de l'Administration Electronique”, http://brousseau.info

proportion of individuals, more than one third of Internet users have benefited from e-government services. Services with highest percentage of users are: the declaration of income taxes, job searches and on-line visits to public libraries.

The benefits of e-government by Heeks (2001) can be evaluated through five categories which can be measured qualitatively (effectiveness measures) such as: better (producing outputs to a higher quality), new (producing new outputs); and can be measured quantitatively (financial measures): cheaper (producing outputs at lower total cost), more (producing more outputs), quicker (producing outputs in less time).

The EU’s strategy in the field of information society has followed three directions: technological research and development, liberalization of the telecommunications market, development of a trans-European network. EU member states are active in the implementation of policies in the area of e-government. In June 2006 the Council of Ministers approved the i2010 e-government action Plan. Member states act on the digitalization of public administration, on the implementation of electronic procurement and on building up a functional networking between governmental departments, between central and local authorities.

The world of the 21st century will definitely clarify and put in practice the concepts, which are so theorized today, of electronic democracy, electronic government and electronic participation, where internet will have a linking role between administration and those administrated. We have to keep in mind that this transformation, which is already foreseen, implies new methods and principles in the administration’s activity, and obliges it to assimilate and adapt, without reservation, because otherwise it risks either to resign or to be in conflict with the reality offered by the advance of the information and communication technology. All those mentioned above provide the theoretical basis of a new start for a new law branch, and this is communication law. The aim of the paper is to analyze the legal environment for supporting the development and implementation process of e-government, to study the implementation process of e-government, to analyze and determine the key-factors of the quality and efficiency of services in e-communication, in administration, to understand the possibility of their adoption and usage in Eastern Europe.The value chain can be successfully used for national benchmark studies, the level of the implementation process can be determined through it. The e-government value chain, the way in which e-government turns input into outcomes was developed by Flynn 2002, Janssen et al. 2004, Capgemini 2005. (See [4]) In [4] the value chain is presented taking into consideration the evolution of e-government activity.

2. Legal Environment for Supporting the Development of e-governmentWhen entering the e-Europe network, one of Romania’s priorities was to define its own legal and

logistic framework, for the implementation of the e-government programme.

By the government Decision no. 271/20014, the Promotion Group of Information Technology was set up in Romania, whose precise tasks were: approving projects in the field of electronic government; submitting proposals to the government regarding the allocation of funds necessary to the local needs of public administration; supervising the implementation of public services through the electronic procedure. Taking into consideration the obligations set by the Romanian government’s decision to this promotion group, but obligations that exceeded the constitutional stipulations and the organic law of organization and functioning of the Government5, this decision was abrogated, but the tasks as far as e-government is concerned were kept by setting up the “Inter-ministerial Council on promoting the information society in Romania”6. The necessity of defining the policy of electronic administration determined the emergence of Law no. 161 of 19th April 2003 on some measures for assuring transparency in performing public services, public functions and the business environment, preventing and punishing corruption, which, in title II, entitled “Transparency in public administration through electronic means” sets the objectives, principles, terms and conditions of usage of the access electronic procedure to public information and services, providing them as well as the general rules of assuring, through electronic means, public information and services transparency as an integrating part of the public administration reform. Not being able to give up all the classical means, the legislator established that once with the use of the electronic means in providing public information and services by the authorities of public administration, there should also be used the traditional procedures, those on paper respectively.

The use of the electronic means in managing public information, implied, obviously for the state the reaching of some objectives: a) reducing public expenditure, fighting against bureaucracy and corruption at the level of the public institutions; b) increasing the level of transparency in the way of using and managing public funds; c) improving the access to public information and services in conformity with the legislation on the protection of personal data and the free access to information of public interest; d) eliminating direct contact between the clerk at the office, citizen and the economic agent; e) providing quality public information and services through electronic means; f) strengthening the administrative capacity of public institutions in fulfilling their role and objectives and assuring in a transparent way public information and services; g) promoting the collaboration between public institutions for providing public services through electronic means; h) redefining the relationship between citizen and public administration, the business environment and public administration respectively, in the sense of facilitating their access to public services and information, through the information technology; i) promoting the use of internet and high technologies within public administration.

In a brief analysis of the implementation stage, we have to admit that the social impact was minimal, the professionalism of public services was not shown, economic growth and the growth in jobs (online jobs) did not occur, transparency was invisible and administration remained inert and motionless, reluctant to any modernization and qualitative insertion. If a balance between action and result had really existed, no doubt that the number of people employed in public administration would not have increased from 900,000 in 2004 to approximately 1,400,000 in 2009.

Providing information and services through electronic means can be achieved, but only by respecting the following principles: transparency in providing public information and services; equal undiscriminating access to public information and services, including for disabled people; the efficiency of using public funds; confidentiality, assuring the protection of the secret of personal data; assuring the availability of public information and services.

In the relationships with individuals and legal persons, interested to use this electronic procedure, the authorities of public administration are obliged, by law, to respect the principles mentioned above.

3. The Romanian National Electronic System In order to assure access to public information and to provide public services to individuals and

legal persons, Law no. 161/2003 set up in Romania the National Electronic System (NES).

4 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 119 of 8th March 2001, abrogated by Government Decision no.13 of 16th March 2009 on setting up the “Information Technology Promotion Group in Romania”, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 100 of 19th February 2009.5 Law no. 90/2001, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 773 of 4th December 2001.6 Government Decision no.13 of 16th January 2009 published in the Official Monitor of Romania no. 100 of 19th February 2009.

The National Electronic System is a unitary item made up of the “E-government system”7 and the “E-administration system”. The two components of the National Electronic System, defined in this way by the law, do not have a different object, it is just that the subject of the legal report to whom the user addresses can be, according to case, either an authority of the central public administration or an authority of the local public administration.

Electronic Government8 (e-Government) is defined as the public utility information system used by the authorities of the central public administration based on the information technology applications that allow access to electronic government services and electronic administrative forms of central public administration9. Electronic Government is a true social and political phenomenon whose purpose is: a) improving access to public information and services of central public administration; b) eliminating bureaucratic procedures and simplifying work methodologies; c) improving the change of information and services between the authorities of public central administration; d) improving the quality of public services at the level of public central administration. The e-government system, if needed, must be imposed through legislation, because the public administration’s shortcomings (bureaucracy, inefficiency, exaggerated costs, etc.) lead to a decisional immobility. The e-government efficiency is quantifies through decision decentralization, amplifying administrative control, European integration and harmonization, quality growth and public services diversification. E-government is performed through at least four types of relationships: the administration’s relationships with companies, enterprises, non-governmental organizations etc., the administration’s relationships with citizens; the relationships within administration; the inter-administration relationships.

Electronic administration (e-administration) is defined as the information system of public utility used by the authorities of the local public administration in order to perform applications based on information technology and thus to assure access to electronic administration services and the electronic administrative forms of local public administration10. This electronic procedure has the same goal as the one of electronic government just that e-administration represents a way of expressing directly and lively participation to the achievement of local democracy and putting in practice the principle of local autonomy.Together with the set up of the National Electronic System also the Agency for the Services of the Information Society was set up, which had to create until 31st December 2009 the Electronic Registry of institutions and authorities of public administration in Romania. The registering in the National Electronic System is mandatory for the authorities of public administration set by Government Decision11 and optional for individuals and legal persons (including banks, notary public, experts, etc.)

7 Accessible on the internet at www.e-guvernare.ro8 In the specialist “electronic” literature Kate Oakley defined electronic government as “an assemble of methods which by using information technologies transform both medical services providing and the most general relationships between citizens and governments”. (Work-shop on e-government – 10-12 June 2002 Strasbourg)9 See the Portal for internet access at www.e-guvernare.ro, called “E-government system”10 The Portal for internet access at www.e-administratie.ro, called “E-administration system”11 Government Decision no. 1085 of 11th September 2003 on NES implementation, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 675 of 24th September 2003 was modified through G.D. no. 538 of 7 th April 2004 on modifying and complementing G.D. no. 1085/2003 for the application of some provisions of Law no. 161/2003, regarding some measures for assuring transparency in exercising public functions, clerks and in the business environment, preventing and punishing corruption, regarding the National Electronic System implementation, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 368 of 27th April 2004.G.D. 862/2009 on modifying and complementing G.D. no. 1085/2003 for the application of some provisions of Law no. 161/2003, regarding some measures for assuring transparency in exercising public functions, clerks and in the business environment, preventing and punishing corruption, regarding the National Electronic System implementation, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 550 of 7 th

August 2009.

The authorities of public administration12 are not only obliged to register, but their failure to register, when there is such an obligation, leads to a sanctioned infringement, the legislator trying through this to determine the overall implementation of this system without any exception.

Starting with the registration date in the National Electronic System each authority of public administration is required, on the one hand to provide electronically the forms set by Government Decision, and on the other hand to accept the forms submitted by individuals or legal persons on paper, those obtained through printing and filling in the forms provided by the national electronic system.

Individuals can register in the National Electronic System based on the documents which certify the person’s identity and domicile, without paying any fee to the system’s operator. In case the individual requesting this breaks the security norms and procedures of the National Electronic System, its registration is denied, and if it has already been granted, it is suspended or revoked, according to case.

Legal persons others than the public administration authorities required to register through government decision, which requires the registration in the National Electronic System have the obligation to present the registration certificate, the functioning authorization, the fiscal registration certificate, the empowerment granted to the company’s representative, the proof of paying the usage fee of the electronic procedure. Although, according to art. 8 letter b. of Law no. 161 of 19 th April 2003 one of the principles that lay at the basis of providing public information and services through electronic means is equal, free, undiscriminating access to public information and services, the legislator, this time, establishes that only individuals and public institutions do not owe usage fees, on the contrary legal persons are obliged to pay the usage fee, thing that is clearly an inequality which should be eliminated. It should be highlighted that the participation in the electronic procedure can be done only after registering in the National Electronic System and this right belongs to any individual or legal person in Romania who has the right to require the registration.

The Operators of the National Electronic System- The attributions specific to the national operating field of central public administration’s information systems, which provide public services meant for the government through electronic means, are the responsibility of the Ministry of Communications and Information Society and are exercised through the Agency for Information Society Services13, set up as public institution with legal personality. The operating at the level of the local public administration’s information systems is performed by the Ministry of Administration and Interior14, and for the System of National Defence and Security the operating is performed by the authority established by the Supreme Council of National Defence.

The electronic procedure is the way through which an individual or legal person benefits from the technical facilities offered by the National electronic System. The electronic procedure can be accomplished through: 1. unidirectional interaction, this means that the receivers of public information and the beneficiaries of the public services have access to the administrative forms, that they can visualize, fill in and print in order to hand them in or to send them to the public administration’s authorities through

12 According to annex no. 1 to the G.D. no. 1085/2003 modified by G.D. no.862 of 7 th August 2009 the authorities of public administration that have the obligation to use the electronic procedure in order to provide services and information are: the Romanian Parliament (obviously it is not part of the public administration as the Government thinks); Presidential Administration (neither this working department is subordinated to the Government); the General Secretary of the Government; the ministries and the institutions subordinated to these; the decentralized public services of the ministries, the national agencies and the other specialist bodies of the central public administration, no matter their way of financing, the prefecture’s institutions; the counties’ councils’; the local city and town councils; the local commune councils, the institutions subordinated to the local councils with or without legal personality; other institutions of the local public administration, no matter their way of financing.13 Emergency Ordinance no. 73 of 28th June 2007 on the organization and functioning of the Agency for Information Society Services, published in the Official Monitor no. 444 of 29 th June 2007; the Agency has legal personality, it is subordinated to a specialist body of the central public administration, and its president can take normative and individual decisions.14 By law, the Ministry of Administration and Interior was obliged, by 31 st January 2004, to set up the National Information Centre of the Public Administration Ministry for the development and promotion of the E-administration System, and starting with the 1st February 2004 the operator of the E-administration System became the National Information Centre of Data Bases integrated of the Public Administration Ministry.

traditional means; 2. bi-dimensional interaction through which the receivers of public information and beneficiaries of the public services have access to administrative forms, which they can visualize, fill in and send to public administration authorities by electronic means; 3. interoperability, which expresses the capacity of information systems, program-products, accessible applications or services through the National Electronic System to communicate and exchange information in an effective and compatible way.15 Any individual or legal person has the right to access through the electronic procedure, public information and services, respecting the legal provisions16, Law no. 544/2001 on free access to information of public interest. However, the participation in the electronic procedure can be done only after registering in the National Electronic System, and any individual or legal person in Romania is entitled to apply for this registration. The electronic form itself (dematerialized), supports, in the case of public administration authorities, the manifestation of will deliberately done, intended to produce legal effects in an administrative act that can be materialized on paper.

4. The implementation of the e-government policy in administrationIn various activity fields of central and local public administration actions were taken in order to

implement the provisions of Title II of the Law no. 161/2003 on transparency in managing public information and services through electronic means, if there were no other previous sectorial regulations.

The Government Decision no. 504 of 24th April 2003 for the approval of the Program on the implementation of Law no. 161/2003 on certain measures to ensure transparency in the performance of public bodies, public positions and business environment, prevention and punishment of corruption 17

stipulated, for instance: the electronic publication of the list of contributors who recorded outstanding budgetary liabilities, the transmission of data regarding the existing information systems within public administration authorities, the creation of databases regarding information criminality, warning users about the legal conditions for access and use of the information systems, publishing the interests statements, publishing wealth statement, etc.

Law no. 455 of 18th July 2001 sets the legal status of the electronic signatures and documents in electronic form, the conditions of providing services that certify the electronic signatures was established18.

The legal treatment applicable in the field of personal data was established in conformity with the provisions of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council no. 95/46/EC of 24 th October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and of Directive no. 97/66/EC of 15th December 1997 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector.

Law no. 677/2001for the protection of individuals regarding the processing of personal data and free movement of such data and Law no. 544 of 12th October 2001 on the free access to information of public interest (information concerning the citizen’s personal data may become public information only

15 On 21st of April 2008 the European Parliament and the Council adopted Decision 2004/387/EC on the interoperable delivery of pan-European e-Government to public administrations, businesses and citizens (IDABC), published in OJ L 181, 18th May 2004, p.25. the decision’s purpose is to promote pan-European electronic government services and telecommunications networks that are based on these services, the reduction of the obstacle that the free movement of goods, people, services and capitals is facing (within the Lisbon strategy, this contributes to the e-Europe initiatives). IDABC is divided into two sections: projects of common interest (information and interactive services at the disposal of public administrations, businesses and the public by the public administrations) and the horizontal measures (pan-European services, infrastructure services, evaluation and promotion strategic activities of e-government, the promotion of using open source software by the public administrations for citizens, services accessible for disabled citizens). See also the European Parliament and Council’s Decisions no. 2046/2002/EC, 786/2004/EC.16 Law no.544/2001 regarding the free access to information of public interest published in the Official Journal of Romania no.663 of 23rd October 2001; Law no. 161/2003 regarding certain measures to ensure transparency in the exercise of public dignities, public functions and in the business environment, the prevention and punishment of corruption, published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 279 on 21st April 200317 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 301 of 6th May 200318 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 429 of 31st July 2001

insofar as it affects the ability of exercising public positions). The electronic identity cards and electronic passports are other subjects that are object to new regulations.

As for public procurement, the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2006, the Government Decision no. 1660/2006 established by clear provisions, the applicationof the electronic procedures in this field.19 The Electronic System for Public Procurement (ESPP) is defined by the legislator as an information system of public utility.

Furthermore, the electronic trade was regulated by the Romanian Parliament by Law no. 365/200220. Once with the harmonization of the Romanian legislation on companies with the First Directive of the Council 68/51/EEC of coordination, Directive 68/151/EEC of the Council as far as the advertising obligations of some types of companies are concerned, as they were modified by Directive 2003/58/EC of the European Parliament and the Council21, the National Trade Register Office, created “the system of intelligent electronic forms” which offers traders the possibility to register and to submit observations in the trade register through electronic means.

As for the transparency of information regarding the outstanding budgetary liabilities, Order no. 551 was issued on 24th April 2003 by the Minister of Public Finance22 through which, in order to discourage the accumulation of budgetary arrears by corporate taxpayers, the Ministry shall notify the public with the list of legal persons recorded with outstanding liabilities to the state budget representing taxes, fees, contributions and other income to the state budget. The General Direction of Information Technology within the Ministry of Public Finance will deal with the processing of information for their publication, updating the information on the site and their removal from the outstanding liabilities account after the payment is made. Moreover systems of electronic payment of local taxes have been developed.

By Order no. 146 of 6th May 2003 the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity adopts the same measures as the above mentioned regarding the legal persons and taxpayers who recorded outstanding liabilities to the social insurance budget of the state and to the insurance budget for unemployment representing contributions23. Furthermore see also Decision no. 225 of 12th May 2003 issued by the President of the National House of Health Insurance24.

There is no doubt that public administration is strongly influenced, at the present, by the use of modern ICT means, which will lead in the end to a real revolution in its activity, but also in the institutional system in itself. Therefore, the access time to public services will be reduced, its quality will change for the better, the factors favouring corruption will be eliminated, the degree of access to public funds will increase, etc. The e–government development will bring the managing act closer to the citizen, will offer the possibility of a rapid interaction with the citizen, will increase the degree of knowledge of the legislative documents, the access to public information and services will be improved and diversified, it will contribute to the redefining of the fundamental rights of the citizen in a new type of democracy. The Romanian strategy for transforming the public administration into an e-administration is presented in [13], as well as a deep analysis about the implementation process, difficulties and solutions in the paper [14].

In 2002, the Urban and Regional Research Centre developed a study on the Romanian Society’s needs and resources. The study shows that after 12 years of post communist transition, almost half of the urban population has weak and very weak relation/interaction with public authorities. The level of communication between citizens and public institutions was considered in 60% weak, very weak or it not existed. Causes for that were considered: the high level of bureaucracy (48%), corruption (12%), lack of transparency (9%), lack of understanding legal rights and obligations (7%). (See [15]) According to MCTI (The Ministry of Communication and Informational Technology) Romania’s telecommunications infrastructure showed a moderate improvement between 1998 and 2003. During this period the percentage of Internet users increased from 2% to 16% and the *.ro domain grew by 245 %. (D. Nica, 2003)

19 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 418 of 16th May 2006 (The Law), the Official Journal of Romania no. 978 of 7th December 2006 (The Decision)20 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 483 of 5ht July 2002, amended by Law no. 121 of 4th May 2006, see I. Schiau “Cadrul juridic al comertului electronic”, Journal of Commercial Law no. 1 / 2000, “Lumina Lex”, Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 5621 JOL 221/13, 4th September 200322 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 304 of 6th May 2003.23 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 308 of 8th May 2003.24 Published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 339 of 19th May 2003.

The Public Administration Information Systems Professionals Association (ANIAP), founded in 2000, realized a benchmark on IS (informational system)/IT (informational technology) in public administration in Romania. The hardware and communication infrastructure, human resources, the e-services, the decisional transparency through e-instruments and IS (informational system) were analyzed on national level. (See [16]) At the national conference of ANIAP held in September 2008 the results for 2006 and 2007 were presented (see http://www.aniap.ro). The formulated conclusion at this event was that in Romania it has started the implementation of the e-administration concept. Based on publicly available data bases ([17], [18], [19], [20], [21]), we analyzed the progress, the efficiency of e-government usage in Romania comparatively with the EU member countries.

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Male F emale Total

E -g ov ernment us ag e by indiv iduals (%)

B ulgaria

G reec e

E U-27

Denmark

Netherlands

R omania

Figure 1 Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2009The most frequent types of electronic interaction with public administrations are: obtaining

information, downloading forms, returning completed forms. In Romania only 33.4% of the population are internet users when the EU average is 63, 8% but it’s an important aspect that in the period 2000-2009 the user growth in Romania was 828, 8% while the EU average is 230, 7%. (See [18]) In EU the internet penetration is 60, 7%. The top internet countries in EU are: Germany (55, 2 %), UK, France, Italy, and Spain. Romania is situated on 8th place with 7.4%.

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Obtaininginformation

Downloadingoffic ial forms

R eturning filled informs

Indiv iduals us ing the Internet for interac ting with public authorities (%)

B ulgaria

G reec e

E U-27

Netherlands

Denmark

R omania

Figure 2 Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2009 "White Charta of Romanian SMEs “(2009) underline that Internet/Intranet is most frequently used in order to: communicate with suppliers/clients (75, 43%); obtain information about business environment (62, 88%); facilitate communication within the company (44, 04%); make transactions, contracts and payments (38, 49%). The internet for communication is used by 88.14% of SMEs in Centre region, but 9.37% of the SMEs do not have a computer, do not utilize internet facilities, e-mail and e-commerce.(See [22]) Enterprises using the internet for interacting with public authorities are presented in figure 3.

Individuals using the internet for interacting with public authorities in Romania in 2007, comparatively with the last situated, top countries and EU average can be seen in figure 2.

The e-government services usage in Romania in 2007, comparatively with the last situated, top countries and EU average can be seen in figure 1.

Enterprises using the Internet for interacting with public authorities (%), 2007

0 20 40 60 80 100

Romania

Bulgaria

Hungary

Poland

Eu-27

Slovakia

Ireland

Finland

Returning filled informsDownloading officialformsObtaining information

Figure 3 Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2009As table 1 shows the impact of the education on ICT usage in SMEs is significant.

IT facilities Entrepreneurs with primary studies

Entrepreneurs with high level studies

Own site 13,33% 19,14%On-line transactions - 13,80%Without IT 26,67% 4,43%Internet 46,67% 88,28%Computers 46,67% 89,45%

Table 1 Source White Carta of SMEs, 2009It is important to remark that only 36, 58% of SMEs have intranet, 16, 20% have own home page,

and only 11, 01% make transactions on-line. The IT usage shows big differences between the development regions. In Europe the highest percent of internet users, who already use e-government services, are found in Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Estonia. Romania is situated among the countries with the highest proportion of internet users who are not interested in e-government services like Latvia, Czech, Ireland. It is known that the usage level of e-government services strongly depends on Internet accessibility. The regular use of the internet in Romania is 26%, the lowest rate in EU. (56% - EU average in 2008, see [36])

5. About National and Organization's Information Infrastructure As we can see on the value chain, it is necessary to analyze the role that information, software and

hardware play in an organization in order to measure the effectiveness of e-government, e-administration. The organization's information infrastructure (OII) and the National Information Infrastructure (NII) are defined and briefly analyzed in [25], [26], [27]. Next we will present some relevant data concerning the situation in Romania comparatively with EU average and countries from central and Eastern Europe. The paper [23] examines the NII in Romania until 2004, and the cluster analysis presented, indicated that Romania belongs to the developing NII cluster. Econometric studies have found evidence of a strong positive relationship between ICT investments and GDP growth illustrating the importance of ICTs for development, both in the commercial and the public sectors. (See [1]) Figures 4a, 4b present the gross domestic expenditure on R&D by sector in Romania comparatively with the last situated, top countries and EU average. (Source Eurostat Yearbook 2009)

Higher education sector

0,06

0,17

0,2

0,24

0,06

0,4

0,4

0,83

0,05

0,24

0,17

0,24

0,12

0,4

0,41

0,65

0,04

0,6

0,08

0,76

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1

2001 2006

Government sector

0,31

0,09

0,19

0,11

0,24

0,15

0,25

0,34

0,34

0,31

0,11

0,21

0,15

0,25

0,16

0,25

0,35

0,32

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4

2006

2001

Figure 4a Figure 4b

Figure 4c

The gross domestic expenditure on R&D in EU is 1, 84%; in USA 2, 61% and in Japan are 3, 39%. The EU average is far from the Lisbon Treaty goal which asks for 3%. Romania’s expenditure on R&D by business enterprise sector is higher than in other sectors on national level, but the increasing tendency is not significant. Romania is situated under the EU average in this respect.

6. Education, e-Skills, k-Skills Research papers proved that educational levels have an influence on the use of e-government

services and studies show a strong relationship between the types of e-government services requested, citizen’s profile based on age and professional, social status.

University degree population share in the total occupied population in development regions

30,20%

12,10%10,70%

13,20%11,10%

8,90%

10,40%9,40%

NE SE S SW W NW C Buch-Ilfov

Figure 5In the implementation process the fact that 35% of the population present individuals with no education, primary level or gymnasium level graduates (NIS (National Institute of Statistics) 2007) must be taken into consideration and strategies to reduce the negative effect of this reality must be developed.

The e-skills term consists of several competencies determined by task, work environment and organizational context (See [29], [30]). The EU 2004 declaration identifies three categories of e-skills. (See [34]) The data presented below show the percent of individuals 16 to 74 years of age (79% of the population) who have computer skills and the next figures 6a, 6b, 6c indicate the percentage of the individual’s level of computer skills in the population. (Source WB 2008)

The expenditure in higher education situated the country on the last place in EU. This situation affects the implementation process and presents an obstacle for efficiency.

The transformation of the governance is considered a priority in Romania. The expenditures in this sector show an increasing tendency being higher than the expenditure in higher education.

Based on NIS 2007 in Romania only 10% of the total employee was university graduate. The distribution of university degree population in development regions can be seen on figure 5.

Low level computer skills

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Bulgaria Poland Romania Hungary Eu-27 Denmark Finland

200520062007

Middle level computer skills

0

10

20

30

40

Bulgaria Poland Romania Hungary Eu-27 Denmark Finland200520062007

Figure 6a Figure 6b

High level computer skills

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Bulgaria Poland Romania Hungary Eu-27 Denmark Finland

200520062007

Figure 6c

Generic computer skills are defined as - using a mouse to launch programs such as an internet browser or word processor, copying or moving a file or filter, using copy or cut and paste tools to duplicate or to move information on the screen, using basic arithmetic formulae to add, subtract, multiply or divide figures in a spreadsheet, compressed files, written a computer program using a specialized programming language.It is important to be mentioned that, based on NIS (2008), 45 % of the Romanian population are rural.

P. Drucker (1959) defines the knowledge worker as: “… is one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace”, e.g. development of business intelligence (collection, analysis), increasing personal and organizational knowledge, knowledge skills, or gaining insight into markets. Figure 7 indicates the innovation, education, knowledge and ICT level in Romania comparatively with the neighbour countries and leading countries on this field in Europe.

9,66

9,57

6,91

8,13

6,42

9,77

9,79

8,82

7,37

8,59

9,32

6,95

7,15

6,07

9,34

9,56

7,56

7,88

6,62

5,65

7,82

6,046,16

5,95

Finland

Denmark

Poland

Hungary

Bulgaria

Romania

%

KI

ICTEducationInnovation

Figure 7 Source: The World Bank, 2008

The knowledge Index (KI) describes a country's ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge. It is an average of normalized scores of education, innovation and ICT. The innovation Index is made up of patent counts and scientific journal article outputs as well as of royalty payments and receipts. Education is defined by literacy rates and secondary and tertiary enrolments, while ICT is measured by telephones, computers, and Internet user counts (see [24]). The data suggest that Romania is at a relatively low level as

High level computer skills mean the percentage of individuals who have carried out five or six computer related activities. Medium level computer skills mean the percentage of individuals who have carried out three or four computer related activities from list. Low level computer skills mean the percentage of individuals who have carried out one or two computer related activities from the list.

compared with Denmark and Finland. Figure 4b shows that other peer countries in the region spend more on education. Romania lags Western Europe on the various knowledge indexes and associated factors.

7. Case StudyThe administrative division of Romania is formed by 41 counties and the capital, Bucharest, with a

status similar to that of a county. The administrative unit is headed by a County Council and by a Prefect. The County Council is elected and its function is to coordinate the activities of communal and town Councils for securing the public services of county interest. The Government appoints a Prefect in every county as its local representative. The communal is a basic administrative structure; it is formed from villages, led by a local council and by the elected mayor.

On national level all county councils, prefectures and town halls have internet and own web site. Public Administration on internet

2

1

1

4

4

3

9

14

42

42

48

0 20 40 60

CountyCouncil

Prefecture

Town Hall

RomanianEnglishHungarianGermanFrench

Figure 8

In order to evaluate the level of e-government activity in Mureş County we elaborated a questionnaire. We collected the data from all public administration structure in Mureş County (County Council, Prefecture, City Hall, and Town halls in municipalities, towns and communes) through all levels of organization structure. The original database used to reach the aim of our research contained 324 observations from Mureş County. In the interest of following a rigorous methodology only the whole completed questionnaires are included. Thus, data availability limits the sample to 297 observations, 21% from prefecture, 25% from town halls, 22, 8% from the county council and 31, 2% from communes.

On the figures 1 means insufficient, low level and 5 excellent, high level. 89% of the individuals consider that ICT presents an efficient instrument in PA, but 10% remark that it is difficult to apply this modern possibility (problem of infrastructure, abilities, knowledge etc.). 97% of

The public administration on the internet through http://www.e-guvernare.ro/ can be accessed 100% in Romanian but only in a few cases there can be found information in English, French, Hungarian and German languages. The number of institutions with foreign languages web site can be seen on figure 8.

In Mureş County there are 4 municipalities, 7 towns and 91 communes. Only 51% of the communes have own web site. The access to the information in other languages is limited. In most of the cases the web sites contain information, geographical and tourist presentation without other e-service facilities.

Web site

1

0

3

0

0

1

2

2

5

2

0

3

4

5

49

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Municipalities

Towns

Commune

RomanianEnglishHungarianGermanFrench

Way to develope e-skills

14%

31%

40%

15% formal education

trainings

individualstudiescolleagues,friends

The participation on training in the field of IT

20%

23%

25%

11%

21%

1

2

3

4

5Figure 11

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

employee uses the internet in daily activities, but the participation on trainings, to develop e-skills and k-skills is not popular (see figure 10). But in the case when the legislation intervenes and the public institute cover the financial costs of the education the participation increase significantly. In this respect over 50% of the civil servants have ECDL certificate.

96% of those questioned consider that trainings develop skills, but only 25% have high level e-skills. The opinion concerning the way by which there can be developed e-skills can be seen on figure 11. The e-skills level of civil servants can be seen on figure 13, but IT is considered by the questioned persons a useful instrument in activities, as can be seen on figure 12.

E-administratin activity in the County

33%

17%17%

33%0%

1

2

3

4

5

Figure 14The development of the e-services, the improvement of the infrastructure need qualified human

resources. Data show that 72% of institutions have an IT department. Only 27% of the employees have advanced level knowledge in English. The most frequent used soft-wares are Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PP), FoxPro, Adobe acrobat reader. The internet is used to obtain information (legislation, public), to communicate with public institutions, legal persons.

The implementation process of e-Administration

15%

17%

36%

21%

11%

1

2

3

4

5

E-skills level of employee in PA

0% 7%

19%

49%

25%12

34

5

The e-government activity in Mureş County, in municipalities, in towns and communes is significantly different and the offered e-services level is 1, 2, and 3 or it doesn’t exist. There are communes without internet access and there are households without electricity.

The role of the legislation in the implementation process of e-government

6% 11%

18%

24%

41%

1

2

3

4

5

The level of the implementation of legislation

3%20%

35%

29%

13%

1

2

3

4

5

The role of the legislation in the implementation process of e-government is considered important by 65% of the questioned (figure 16) but on the other hand it was remarked that the implementation of the legislation must be continued (figure 17).The implementation process of e-government in Romania started in 2007 but in Mures County the situation can be seen on figure 15.

Figure 15

Figure 17Figure 16

IT useful instrument

13%

46%

37%

1% 3%1

2

3

4

5

Figure 12 Figure 13

8. Conclusion, Recommendations

Romania has moved beyond the first phase of initiation and implementation of the information and communication technologies, the work has to go on by allocating material and human resources capable of producing assimilation at the level of the entire population. We are now in the second phase that, on the one hand, it implies the spread of computer among all social categories and setting the electronic competences, and, on the other hand, it implies developing the skills and abilities necessary for the use of the assimilated knowledge in the field of information and communication technology. Paper [32] analyzes the e-government applications, developed in Romania and awarded at international level. Statistics show that Romania is situated among the last countries concerning e-government, but on the other hand it can give best practice examples. From the point of view of financial impact and the number of users the Electronic System for Public Acquisitions e-Procurement is one of the most successful projects. In 2003 the European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen appreciated the ESPP as an example of good practice. Between March 2002 and October 2006 the Romanian state obtained savings over 178 million euro. (See [32]) E-Procurement is not a Romanian invention but its implementation proves that it can be realized in a short time; it could be successful and it could be applied in other countries. The Romanian e-government portal (www.e-guvernare.ro) at the World Summit Award from Geneva in 2003 was selected among the first 5 e-government projects at the world level. The Romanian Knowledge Economy Project wins European Commission e-Inclusion Medal Award 2008. “Access to ICT in Disadvantaged Communities and Improved Digital Literacy” project permitted for 255 communities (1, 8 million people) all over Romania to have opportunity to take part in the new knowledge-based economy through the successful implementation of the local Electronic Net-workers. The project is financed by World Bank with 60 USD million.

The legal infrastructure facilitates the implementation process. As long as the public authorities do not act, the legislator has to intervene through the only instrument available – the law. The legislation is an instrument of the ICT penetration in the public administration, but, in the implementation process, for the efficient utilization of these facilities both the education and the investment have the most important role in the infrastructure.

Based on World Bank 2008 and Eurostat 2009, Romania has the largest share of science and technology workers in one region (Bucharest with 258 per 1000 of population), but on the other hand the annual average growth rate between 2001-2006 is the highest in EU region. The improvement of e-services needs qualified workers. In Romania the employment in knowledge intensive service sector is the lowest among its peer countries On the other hand in Romania the science and technology graduates per 1000 population is relatively high among its peer group. Data show that there is a strong relationship between NII, e-Government, e-skills, and knowledge. E-public administration, however, by virtue of the fact that to date it has been primarily an informing process is yet to demonstrate its need for appropriate k-skills. K-skills then go hand-in-hand with e-skills; that is e-skills support k-skills. While e-skills are technology dependent, k-skills are part of the skills set of the knowledge worker and are mostly self-developed. K-skills are acquired over time through experiential learning. The data suggest that knowledge work in Romania is at a relatively low level as compared to Denmark and Finland. These countries and other peer countries in the region spend more than twice the GDP percentage of Romania on tertiary education.

Romania needs to increase the access level of population to the information public services, needs to increase penetration level of information technologies in order to improve the public administration on national level. Beneficial use of information and communication technologies (ICT) involves awareness of the technologies and their benefits to individuals, availability of the technology. There is also a need to improve information and communication technologies in Romania. On the other hand in Romania the percentage of the government budget for R&D is the lowest among peer groups and EU27. Experience has shown that workshops and training can play an important role in raising awareness about the potential of ICT. On the other hand, based on our empirical study, certain ways of obtaining e-skills show that the percentage of individuals who have obtained IT skills through informal assistance from colleagues/relatives/friends or through self–study (learning by doing or using books, CD-roms) is significantly higher than the percentage of individuals who have obtained IT skills through formalized educational institution or training courses. There’s the need to increase the number of residences with access to the Internet. Need to increase the companies that use the Internet as the main means of interaction with the state institutions. Need to extend the number of villages that have access to the communication networks on broadband.

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