Electronic Government and Development: Framework review and research of current situation of ICTs in Peruvian local governments

7/30/2019 Electronic Government and Development: Framework review and research of current situation of ICTs in Peruvian

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Presented by Christian R. Bueno

[email protected] 2013 - Wonju


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Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations iii

Abstract 1

1. E-government literature review: origins, evolution and current situation. 2

1.1. Definition and characteristics. 2

1.2. E-government as strategy for development and democracy. 4

1.3. Current situation of ICTs: UN Survey 2012 5

1.4. Challenges and barriers 7

2. Analysis of e-government in the Republic of Peru. 92.1. Origins, evolution and current situation. 9

2.2. Institucionality and master plans. 12

2.3. E-services for citizens and business. 14

2.4. Research about current situation of ICTs in local governments. 15

2.4.1. Internet access: Current situation. 16

2.4.2. Information systems available in local governments. 17

2.4.3. Characteristics and functionalities of peruvian websites. 18

2.4.4. Responsiveness of local governments using ICTs. 23

3. Conclusions 26

References 28


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iii

List of Abbreviations

ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber LineCODESI Comisin Multisectorial Permanente para el Seguimiento y Evaluacin del

Plan de Desarrollo de la Sociedad de la Informacin.

Multisectoral permanent committee for monitoring and assesment of the

development plan of information society

ICT Information and communication technologiesINEI Instituto Nacional de Estadistica e Informatica

National institute of statistc and informatic

MDG Millennium Development GoalsMEF Ministerio de Economia y Finanzas

Minister of economy and finances

MINEDU Ministerio de EducacinMinistry of Education

MINTRA Ministerio de Trabajo. Ministry of WorksONGEI Oficina Nacional de Gobierno Electronico e Informatica

National Officce of E-government and Informatic

ONPE Oficina Nacional de Procesos ElectoralesNational office for elections processes

PCM Presidencia del Consejo de MinistrosPresidency of the council of ministers

RCP Red Cientifica PeruanaPeruvian scientific network

RENAMU Registro Nacional de MunicipalidadesNational Register of Municipalities

RENIEC Registro Nacional de Identificacin y Estado CivilNational register of identification and civil condition

RNP Registro Nacional de ProveedoresNational database of suppliers

SEACE Sistema electronico de compras del Estado.Electronic system of State procurement

SUNAT Superintendencia Nacional de Administracin TributariaNational intendence of tax administration


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Abstract

The information and communication technologies (ICTs) have un-

dergone dramatic change in recent decades, in 1969 were established

the first connection between computers, known as ARPANET,

which marked the beginning of the Internet. Since then, ICTs has

been incorporated in all human fields of knowledge: natural scienc-

es, literature, arts, etc., being a catalyst for research, storage, and dis-

semination of information. Society as a whole has also been adapted

to those changes from being a passive to a completely transactionalsystem where public and private institutions, agencies, stakeholders,

and even individuals are simultaneous suppliers and demanders of

information.

The first steps to create an electronic government in Peru had its

origins in 2003 with the creation of ONGEI, the agencyad hocfor

the development of electronic government. In the same year was

created CODESI a multidisciplinary group responsible to monitor

the fulfillment of the strategic objectives and actions contained in

the plan: digital agenda for Peru.

What have been the achievements in the development of ICT in

Peru?, which is the behavior of citizens and public agencies in re-

sponse to the use of digital services?, which is the situation of local

governments on the use of new technologies? These are some of the

questions that are trying to solve in this report, using official data-

bases, surveys, analysis of national websites and a prior literature

review related with the use of information technologies, both in the

framework theoretical and in its challenges.


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Section 1

E-government literaturereview: origins,evolution and currentsituation.1. E-government literature review: origins, evolution and current situation.

1.1. Definition and characteristics.

The information and communication technologies (ICTs) have un-

dergone dramatic change in recent decades, in 1969 were established

the first connection between computers, known as ARPANET,

which marked the beginning of the Internet. Since then, ICT has

been incorporated in all human fields of knowledge: natural scienc-

es, literature, arts, etc., being a catalyst for research, storage, and dis-semination of information. Society as a whole has also been adapted

to those changes from being a passive to a completely transactional

system where public and private institutions, agencies, stakeholders,

and even individuals are simultaneous suppliers and demanders of

information.

Electronic government is born and developed on one side as a result

of organized groups demanding services and a wide responsiveness

of their government, and on the other hand as part of the political

dynamics of government entities who see citizens like strong provid-

ers of votes, money and volunteer work. In the same analysis Weststates that the consequences are both positive and negative, has in-

creased the effectiveness, efficiency and responsiveness, however

there is much controversy as to the security, privacy and user con-

tent. (West, D. 2005).

'Electronic Government' (or in short 'e-Government') essentially re-

fers to The utilization of Information Technology (IT), Information

and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and other


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web-based telecommunication technologies to improve and/or en-

hance on the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the

public sector. (Jeong, C. 2007).

According with Homburg, V., e-government did not just emerge out

of the blue can be explained by a number of administrative trendsand socio-political developments:

1. Administrative Reform: (70s-90s) bureaucracy is the organizational

model for implementing policies, high criticism on Bureaucracy

(underperformance, inefficiency, etc), Politicians and policy makers

perceive ICTs as a means to further implement administrative re-

form and a new public management.

2. Mimicking the dot-com bubble: (90s) internet technology expan-

sion supported innovative business visions and models called E-

commerce and E-business. This fueled the idea to run the govern-

ment as a business, making technology available to reform both pri-

vate and public sectors.

3. Cleavage between government and citizens: Criticism about gov-

ernment and public sector = lack of service orientation affected neg-

atively on democracy, due to an increased distrust on politicians and

civil servants: no real representation of the will of the people.

Stages of E-government

Authors like Darrel West, Vincent Homburg as well organizations

like UN identified four main stages in the evolution of e-

government, among them the classification of UN is a useful frame-

work to classify the current state of ICTs (UN, Department of Eco-

nomic Affairs 2012: 123-124):

Stage 1, emerging information services: Government websitesprovide information on public policy, governance, laws, regula-

tions, relevant documentation and types of government services

provided. They have links to ministries, departments and other

branches of government. Citizens are easily able to obtain in-formation on what is new in the national government and min-

istries and can follow links to archived information.

Stage 2, enhanced information services: Government websitesdeliver enhanced one-way or simple two-way e-communication

between government and citizen, such as downloadable forms

for government services and applications.

Stage 3, transactional services: Government websites engage intwo-way communication with their citizens, including requesting

and receiving inputs on government policies, programmes, regu-


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lations, etc. Some form of electronic authentication of the citi-

zens identity is required to successfully complete the exchange.

Government websites process financial and non-financial trans-

actions.

Stage 4, connected services: Government websites have changedthe way governments communicate with their citizens. They are

proactive in requesting information and opinions from the citi-

zens. E-services and e-solutions cut across the departments and

ministries in a seamless manner. Information, data and

knowledge are transferred from government agencies through in-

tegrated applications. Governments create an environment that

empowers citizens to be more involved with government activi-

ties so as to have a voice in decision-making.

1.2. E-government as strategy for development anddemocracy.

E-government innovation and development can position the public

sector as a driver of demand for ICT infrastructure and applications

in the broader economy. The effect will be more pronounced in

cases where government programmes constitute a significant propor-

tion of a countrys GDP and where the regulatory environment is

conducive to expansion of ICT manufacturing, so ware and relatedservices. (UN, Department of Economic Affairs 2012: 10)

E-government programmes can be a catalyst in boosting productivity,

thereby speeding up the benefits of newer technologies to the peo-

ple. In the last few years many countries have employed ICT in areas

such as entrepreneurship, innovation, research and development,

promoting distance learning, e-health, e-agriculture, e-trade and oth-

er fields. Accessing these new technologies for development is being

recognized as one of the key sources of economic growth. Of particu-

lar importance is the effect of cellular technologies. Where national

governments have taken a lead, rapid mobile technology prolifera-tion has contributed as much as a one per cent annual increase in

economic growth over the last few years.

In all cases, e-government take a prominent role in shaping devel-

opment making it more in tune with peoples needs and driving the

whole process based on their participation.


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1.3. Current situation of ICTs: UN Survey 2012

In this section I will present a brief description of the main indica-

tors that reflect the current status of use ICTs by countries around

the world base in the E-Government Survey 2012, e-government for

the people published by United Nations in 2012.

The raison dtre of the United Nations E -Government Survey is to

assess whether countries are deploying e-government for inclusion-

for-all. Since each country faces a different set of factors that can

help or hinder its overall progress towards e-government develop-

ment, in this survey the United Nations Survey is extending special

recognition to those countries which, with a population of over 100million, have made a tremendous effort to provide e-government

services to their people, despite the challenges they face.

Building upon the transformative nature of ICT and maintaining

their focus on e-government development, all of the top 20 countries

in 2012 were high- income developed economies. All have values

that range from 164 to 190 per cent of the world average. Of the 20,

14 are in Northern America and Europe; 3 in East Asia (Republic of

Korea, Singapore and Japan); 2 in Oceania (Australia and New Zea-

land); and 1 in Western Asia (Israel).

The Governments main website of South Korea has developed into

an integrated portal where citizens can find almost every service they

want, on both national and local level. The main government portal

is a gateway to services through multiple channels, by theme and

subjects; citizens can also have a customized channel by inputting

their own age, gender and services of interest. Back-office integration

across many departments brings together a powerful search engine

offering advanced categorizing function, which can list results by

websites, services, and news, including at the local level.

Regional comparisons

What is encouraging is the worldwide trend during the last decade.

Since 2003 all regions of the world have steadily improved their e-

government development offerings with European countries visibly

taking off in the last two years. While some countries have advanced

considerably over others, Asia as a whole progressed at a leaner rate

till 2010 almost in line with the advances in the world average

and then took off. With an almost at curve for the period 2003-

2012, e-government offerings in Africa advanced minimally, with the

region as a whole still remaining least e-ready.


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The 2012 Survey assesses four different types of indicators encom-

passing: information such as documents on laws, policies etc., across

sectors of education, health, finance, social welfare and labour; pub-

lic services such as taxes, fines, licenses; e-participation information

and services; and technical features (audio, video, RSS, etc.), whichprovide a conduit for these kinds of information and services to flow

from the government to the citizen.

Three countries the Republic of Korea, Singapore and the United

States are tied as world leaders in online services this year.

A cursory glance at the characteristics of online presence of countries

in 2012 indicates a greater number of features than in previous years

and a growing recognition of the importance of providing relevant

and up-to-date information. The majority of countries (88 per cent)were involved in ensuring that their online e-government offerings

were current and updated within the last three months. Two thirds

offered a site map or index to guide the user through the services.

However, advanced features had an inverse relation to the number

of countries represented. The fact that only 96 countries provided an

advanced search feature on the website, fewer (79) had a privacy

statement and only 39 countries offered a secure website is indicative

of the large number of countries that still have a long way to go in

terms of exploiting the full potential of e-government.


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In conclusion, the 2012 Survey finds that member states have begun

to move from a decentralized single-purpose organization model of e-

government to an integrated unified whole-of-government model for

the people. This approach supports the strengthening of institution-

al linkages with interconnected departments and divisions; greater

efficiency and effectiveness of governance systems; and better public

service delivery.

1.4. Challenges and barriers

The efforts of countries at all levels of development are still affected

by a lack of integration of administrative simplification with e-

government development plans, lack of infrastructure and human

resource capacity and a gap between e-services supply and demand.

Low-income countries, in particular, continue to contend with tradi-tional barriers to ICT investment such as lack of technical skills,

high costs of technology, and ineffective government regulation.

The implementation of new technologies will affront several barriers

and challenges as it described (West, D. 2005: 30-39):

1. Two systems problem: government agencies have to maintainmultiple delivery systems, until users start taking advantage of

electronic delivery systems the multiple channel will increment

costs. Also the simultaneity of digital workers and traditional of

phone and paper origin an organizational conflict due to differ-


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ent backgrounds and incomes, can slow the rate of technological

innovation.

2. Bureaucratic fragmentation: among government agencies, theyare reluctant to change routines, and alter their ways of doing

things. Government agencies must push people to think outside

the box in terms of new ways of delivering services. Three quali-

ties associated with public sector technological innovation are

the ease of usage, compatibility with agency mission, and exist-

ence of relative advantage in the use of technologies.

3. Budgetary resources: another constraint is the cost on infor-mation technology, especially when there are expenses with

higher priority like education, health care and welfare. The

sources of fund can be tax revenues, users fees and commercial

advertising. A interesting model is self-funding a model part-

nership with the private sector. The company developed the ap-plication and receives in return an income from user fees.

4. Group conflict and outsourcing: related with the conflict be-tween groups outside of government due to their expertise, fi-

nancial clout, or political connections some private groups are in

a stronger position to compete for public contracts or establish

parameters or standards for new technologies.

5. Leadership, partisan conflict and media coverage: political lead-ership and professional staff are vital for bureaucratic inertia to

overcome, if the leader doesnt have will nothing will change. Al-

so e-Government is emerging as a partisan issue between politicalparties; the technocratic vision is being replaced by the political

fight over ideas.


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Section 2

Analysis ofe-government in theRepublic of Peru.2. Analysis of e-government in the Republic of Peru.

2.1. Origins, evolution and current situation.

In Peru, the driving organization that promotes Internet in the first

beginnings was the "Red Cintifica Peruana" (Peruvian scientific

network) since 1994, this is how they installed the first internet cen-

tre in the Cultural Center Ricardo Palma with a total of 40 comput-

ers, in order that any person can access internet without any re-

striction. According with the survey of information resources in

1995, the internet presence in Public institutions emerged in 1997,

appeared the firsts websites of public sector and in 2001 waslaunched the Peruvian government portal:www.peru.gob.pe. (INEI

2002: 5).

According with official statistics of 2001, only 59.6% of institutions

in public administration had access to Internet, at the level of local

governments the situation is worst, just 20.9% had access, situation

reflected in the poor use of ICTs in local governments. In the central

government the situation was most favorable; around 80.8% had a

connection, especially in the presidency of ministers council, foreign

affairs, economy and energy with their offices completely integrated.

In the same survey the principal supplier of internet access was the

Spanish company Telefonica del Peru SAC covering 70.2% of

market.

In attention with the kind of use of Internet in 2001 in institutions

of public administration, it seems that majority use to search infor-

mation and in second place to publish basic content. The delivery of

online services was still incipient.(INEI 2002: 9-12)
http://www.peru.gob.pe/http://www.peru.gob.pe/http://www.peru.gob.pe/http://www.peru.gob.pe/


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In2007, PCM conducted a study in order to develop a baseline for

monitoring and evaluate the levels of awareness, use and satisfaction

of citizens, in terms of services provided to them through the Peruvi-

an State Portal and Portal Citizen Services and Companies.

Among the main conclusions of the study are:

Most people who use Internet, access from a public cabin, usual-ly knows in other countries like cybercafe (65.9%), followed by

21.8% who accessed from home, 17.1% from work and 10.8%since college. Mainly accessed by cybercaf are young people 18-

29 years of both sexes and have primary and secondary educa-

tion.

Only 31.9% of those who use the Internet know the PeruvianGovernment Portal, while 68.1% do not know. Of this amount

only 53.9% of people who reported knowing the portal of the

Peruvian State have made use of the Portal in the last three

months.

More than half (58.1%) of those aware of the existence of thePeruvian State portal through a search engine, followed by

friends or relatives (28.4%) and advertising (22.0%). This

knowledge is shared equally at the level of gender, age group and

educational level.

The people have accessed the portal of the Peruvian mainly tofind information about the country / government (39.7%), fol-

lowed by search for news (33.9%), information on opportunities

/ business (22.8%), publications (20.3%), find information

about events, campaigns (19.2%) and perform procedures

(16.0%).


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More than half of people (58.5%) visitors to the portal of thePeruvian State has qualified the service as fair, 22.5% thought it

was bad to terrible and 19.0% considered the service as good to

very good.

The top five web pages of entities known more people who usethe Internet were: Sunat (18.4%), Reniec (15.9%), Inei (9.3%),

Minedu (9.0%), Onpe (6.4%) and Mintra ( 4.9%).

The four main websites that normally use people were: Google(39.8%), Hotmail (21.8%), Yahoo (5.7%) and Sunat (4.2%).

Only 6.7% of people who use the Internet nationwide makepayments online, while 93.3% do not. Around 46.35% of the

people who make online payments, is done by credit card, bank

transfer followed (45.8%), debit card (30.6%) and prepaid

(5.6%). Generally those who pay by credit card are women of 30-

49 years and higher education.

The services that have traditionally performed on people whouse the Internet are: issuance or duplicate ID (9.6%), certificates

and / or payments SUNAT (5.0%), birth certificate (3.6%) and

payments of excise and taxes (3.2%).

According with UN Survey of 2012, Peru have

an e-government development index of 0.5230

positioning the country in the number 82 of

the world ranking and seventh position among

12 South American countries.

Chile (0.6769) is the sub-regional leader in

South America, followed by Colombia (0.6572).

Whereas collectively the sub-region improved its

e- government development by 13 per cent, of

the 12 countries that make up this sub-region

all declined in the world rankings except Brazil

(0.6167) and Suriname (0.4344), indicating that

countries within the region as well as around

the world are investing in and expanding services faster than the countries of this sub-

region.


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2.2. Institucionality and master plans.

Peruvian government created the National Office for e-Government

and Informatics (ONGEI) in 2003, which have been elaborated the

National Strategy of e-Government 2013.2017, the main objectives

are:

1. Achieve the development and delivery of ICT services to better

society through Interoperability between state agencies, the private

sector and civil society.

2. Bringing the Government to citizens through mechanisms that

ensure timely and inclusive access to information and public partici-pation as a means to contribute to the governance and transparency

of state management.

3. Ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of public in-

formation through mechanisms managed information security.

4. Promoting digital inclusion of all citizens, especially the vulnera-

ble, through capacity building and promotion of technological inno-

vation, cultural diversity and respecting the environment.

5. Propose and adjust the legal framework in order to ensure com-

pliance to the deployment of electronic government in the frame-work of the development of the Information Society.


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In 2008 was reformulated the "Multisectorial permanent committee

for monitoring and assessment of the development plan of infor-

mation society" (CODESI) originally created in 2003, a multidisci-

plinary group responsible for channeling the activities carried out

through the various tables or working groups that deal in particular

to monitor the fulfillment of the strategic objectives and actionscontained in the plan: digital agenda for Peru.

The main strategy for the development of information society in

Peru is the "Agenda Digital 2.0" (digital agenda 2.0) under the moni-

toring and assessment of CODESI. There are eight targets that un-

derpin the Peruvian Digital Agenda 2.0 to 2015 (CODESI 2011):

1. Ensure inclusive and participatory access of the population tourban and rural areas to the Information Society and Knowledge

2. Integrate, expand and ensure the development of skills for theaccess and participation of the population in the InformationSociety and Knowledge

3. Secure better opportunities for use and appropriation of ICT toensure social inclusion, access to social services that allow the full

exercise of citizenship and human development in full compli-

ance with the MDGs.

4. Promote scientific research, technological development and in-novation based on national development priorities

5. Increase productivity and competitiveness through innovation inthe production of goods and services, the development and ap-

plication of ICT

6. Develop national ICT industry competitive and innovative andinternational presence

7. Promoting Public Administration quality-oriented population8. Getting approaches Peruvian Digital Agenda 2.0 is inserted into

the local, regional, sectorial, and national to develop the Infor-

mation Society and Knowledge.

In the case of the objective N 7 oriented to develop an efficient e-

government were formulated the following strategies:

Promote interoperability between government institutionsfor cooperation, development, integration and provision of

more and better services to society.

Provide citizens information, procedures and public servicesaccessible by all available means.

Develop and implement mechanisms to ensure timely accessto information and public participation as a means to con-

tribute to the governance and transparency of state manage-

ment.

Implement mechanisms to improve information security.


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Improve the capacities of both public officials and society toaccess and make effective use of e-government services.

Adapt the necessary regulations for the deployment of e-government.

2.3. E-services for citizens and business.

In this section the research will focus basically in services provided

by central government, from different sectors and administrations

oriented to the citizens, business and government. According with

the information of ONGEI website, there around 124 different e-

services provide by the government, most of them oriented to im-

prove internal procedures, it means G2G. Among all services there

are significant groups that improved bureaucracy procedures and

constitute an effective advance in e-government:

Registro nacional de proveedores (RNP): the RNP is an onlinesystem that allows the registration of suppliers of goods and ser-

vices of the State. This database facilitates hiring processes and

government services, as well as audit work by the Comptroller

General of the Republic. It also identifies suppliers who have de-

faulted on previous contracts and are disqualified from contract-

ing with the state.http://portal.osce.gob.pe/rnp/

Sistema electronico de contrataciones del Estado (SEACE): theElectronic Procurement System is a comprehensive system con-

sisting of policies, procedures, standards-based software and in-

ternet use, in order to provide transparency, optimize, modernize

and create savings in the procurement of Peru . SEACE allows

the exchange of information and dissemination on state con-
http://portal.osce.gob.pe/rnp/http://portal.osce.gob.pe/rnp/http://portal.osce.gob.pe/rnp/http://portal.osce.gob.pe/rnp/


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tracts, as well as monitoring the implementation of government

procurement and electronic transactions. Any person or business

registered in the RNP can apply to the different requirements of

goods and services that the government require at all levels.

http://www.comprasestatales.org/

Sunat online: the e-services related with the peruvian authorityof taxes and customs, provides a wide gama of e-services online

for collect all kind of taxes both for individual and business. Al-

so deliver services for different procedures related with customs,

freight movement, auctions, statements, etc.

http://www.sunat.gob.pe/

Portal services to citizens and businesses: is a portal website hostby the central government that allows access to multiple online

tools, categorized by age of citizens, bussiness, and interests like

education, health, communications, transport, etc. The website

compile in one place the different e-services provide by other sec-tor of the State.http://www.serviciosalciudadano.gob.pe/.

2.4. Research about current situation of ICTs in local governments.

2.4. Research about current situation of ICTs inlocal governments.

The development of local governments have been unequal compar-

ing with the capital and big cities of the country, due to the unavail-ability of roads, permanent electricity in some districts, lack of tele-

communications infrastructure, etc.. The first sight of local govern-

ments, statistics from 2001 shows that only 20.9% of local govern-

ments had internet access (INEI 2002:9), a situation that reflected

the emerging use of ICT in local government, in the following sec-

tions we will see what transformations have taken local governments

establishing an analysis to respond the following questions:

1. What is the actual situation related with access to internet ser-vice?

2. What kind of information systems uses local governments?3. How local governments use websites in order to establish an

adequate public outreach and responsiveness?

4. What is the actual capacity of responsiveness of local govern-ments?

From this point all the source of information will be the

RENAMU, the national register of municipalities, created by Law

N 27563 actually under the control of INEI. RENAMU integrates

multiple statistical information from municipalities provincial, dis-

trict and towns throughout the country. (Seewww.inei.gob.pe).
http://www.comprasestatales.org/http://www.comprasestatales.org/http://www.sunat.gob.pe/http://www.sunat.gob.pe/http://www.serviciosalciudadano.gob.pe/http://www.serviciosalciudadano.gob.pe/http://www.serviciosalciudadano.gob.pe/http://www.inei.gob.pe/http://www.inei.gob.pe/http://www.inei.gob.pe/http://www.inei.gob.pe/http://www.serviciosalciudadano.gob.pe/http://www.sunat.gob.pe/http://www.comprasestatales.org/


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2.4.1. Internet access: Current situation.

In 2012, 73.8% (1,353) of all districts around the country (1,834)

had internet access, whilst 26.2% (481) didnt have a connection.However another factor to consider is the connection available.

As the graphic show the connection through satellite and analogical

modem counts around 69.8% of all connections, what is a sign of

the connectivity conditions inside regions. The bandwidth of those

types of connections were the normal standards in developed coun-tries twenty years ago, and is important because depending of the

capacity of data transmission is related also the capability to offer

new services in the e-government context to citizens. Specially in the

case of satellite connections the quality of transmission depends of

exogenous variables related with the weather, what is difficult in the

rainy seasons.

In the case of connections with optical fiber, 30% are located in the

city of Lima and the rest in the major cities of each region. The

ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line) is a standard that allows ahigher average of data transmission compared with analogical mo-

dem and satellite.

Crossing information between size populations of municipalities and

types of connection, there is a clear direct correlation between them.

Small size places with populations below 50,000 habitants have

mainly satellite and analogical connection; whilst larger cities charac-

terized by ADSL and optical fiber.


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There is a big challenge for institutions, because the small cities are

higher in number as well concentrate also the population in poverty

conditions. ICTs technologies are a vehicle to strength local capaci-

ties, so is necessary develop infrastructure and adequate training.

2.4.2. Information systems available in local governments.

RENAMU have also a database related with informatics systems

installed in municipalities, in this case is not necessary have an in-

ternet connection to execute some programs, and can be running in

local networks.

According with statistics around 94.5% of municipalities used an

information system, although the data provide a description about

the kind of systems used, as I will show further many municipalities

failed in the use of ICTs, and dont have continuity in the use of

digital services.

In the other hand the central government had developed e-services

address exclusive for public administration in all levels. For example

the SIAF (Integrate system of finance management) centralize all the

budgetary and accounting process of municipalities, although ac-

countability is not fully automated is used around the country and

facilitates all the process of management and payments.


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2.4.3. Characteristics and functionalities of peruvian websites.

2.4.3. Characteristics and functionalities of peruvianwebsites.

Determining the size of the sample

The first step for this issue is determine the size of the sample, look-

ing again the data containing in RENAMU, despite that many mu-

nicipalities have internet access not all of them had created a gov-

ernment portal or website. I decide to analyze to a representative

sample of websites per each region among all local governments that

have a website registered in the data base.


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A standard formula to determine the sample size is:

Where: n: sample sizeN: population size

: standard deviation, usually a constant value= 0.5

Z: confidence interval, 95% = 1.96

e: limit sampling error, 8% = 0.08

For practical applications I will round the sample size to 150 munic-

ipalities, and make a proration in relation to the number of munici-

palities for each region:


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Features and functions to evaluate.

In the section 1.1. Definition and characteristics related with e -

governments we had seem the different stages or phases of ICTs

solutions, specially the ones related with websites or portal plat-

forms. In that way I proposed two sets of categories to analyze:

1. Informative services: related with information that may be ofinterest of citizens (procedures, notices, tourism and culture,

public management, multimedia content) and business (invest-

ment, local economy). The information is mainly one-way of

consultation with no ability to make queries. But it considers

basic features of interaction like search box, and links to other

websites.

2. Interaction services: in this group are considered e-services thatoffer the possibility of interaction like: online procedures, sur-

veys, intranet or corporate electronic mail, consultations, etc. Al

so was considered the actual influence of social networks, in

websites like facebook, twitter and youtube channels.

The way to evaluate is select randomly a website for a certain region,

follow the link and identify the features named before, not only if

they exists but also are working.

Results obtained.

The first result of the survey was find a lack of quality control infor-

mation from the main database, because many of the electronic ad-

dress were nonexistent or linked to expired web pages, even though

the database RENAMU is from the year of 2012, there is just for

example a case found in Amazonas region where 15 websites did not

exist; and in Madre de Dios any of the 3 links were in service.

The national electronic government office of Peru (ONGEI) pro-

vides a free service to create websites to municipalities

(http://www.peru.gob.pe/secciones/pep_municipalidades.asp) for

this purpose municipality concerned must give basic information toONGEI to create space on the Internet and register the Municipal

Portal administrator. The hosting service is provided by the RCP,

being free for the first year, after that the municipality must make

annual payments. It is probable that after one year registering mu-

nicipalities have not renewed the hosting rights.

Is important to mention that many of the municipalities despite they

dont have a website, they have a facebook account, some of them

managing by local government, which means the official facebook

account, and some others created by individuals that lives outside


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their local places and use the social network like a place to gathered

people that are from that town or city and for some reason live in

other place.

In attention to informative features the results are:

Around 84.6% of municipalities show information about their ad-

ministration performance. But is not only about the variety of pro-

grams developed by municipalities, in many cases it was an unusual

bias to the major and his/her performance, using the websites like a

promotional tools (West, D. 2005: 9). The same correlations it

seems with notices highlighting the performance of the reduced

group of people.

In the other hand tourism and culture is an informative feature that

appeared in 68% of cases, about my personal experience I found out

the inhabitant especially from regions and rural areas have a special

bias to promote their natural resources and local attractions, manyof them complemented properly with a wide multimedia content in

the same range, including gallery of pictures, videos and also music.

However only 34.9% of cases give the opportunity to find specific

information through a search box, is very inconvenient in websites

of large cities that contains a lot on information.

The proportion less favored was investment and local economy,

what I mean with this term is related with information that can be

useful to attract local or foreign investors as well have an idea of the


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potential economy of the area. I consider this information very im-

portant, because the globalization phenomenon allows the flow of

capital without spatial restrictions. Some municipalities, even of

rural area shown interesting information about the potential crops,

harvesting period, volumes, quality of product, etc., that is useful to

exporters and other actor of trading chain.

When we look to interaction services, the results are more limited:

In almost half of websites visited was found a module to make con-

sultations to authorities of local governments, other cases included

were websites that had a broad list of email contacts, for almost all

offices and departments; however was not consider isolated mails

like a wayto invite to contact. In the next section we will see about

the responsiveness using either consultation modules or emails.

The standard module considers the name contact, electronic mail,

and a subject. Some others included more detailed information like

telephones numbers, address, national id, etc. With the exception ofone case any of them offer a version in English language.

The second common interactive issue was the possibility to use an

intranet and sign to a corporate mail, because both options are only

accessible for workers of municipality we cannot state their actually

in service.

Surveys and chance to write an opinion on websites are rarely. In the

case of online procedures counts only 18.1% of websites, however

the outreach is bigger seeing that those e-services belong to large


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municipalities with populations higher than 100,000 persons. The e-

services deliver are broad an including the possibility to follow pro-

ceedings, pay taxes online, register to certain programs, etc.

Finally, a particular case is the relation between websites and social

networks. Results shown that 54.3% have one feature of facebook,twitter or youtube. For example some municipalities linked their

notices screens with posting system in facebook, or re-twit in twitter.

In other cases municipalities are more active in the official wall in

facebook compared with the notice panel on the website. Since indi-

viduals can write positive or negative opinions (and in rare cases

neutral opinions) municipalities pay more attention to followers.

Youtube channels are also used to gather official videos, which can

be accessible for any person with the option to make comments and

interchange opinions with other persons.

2.4.4. Responsiveness of local governments using ICTs.

The last aspect of public outreach that was investigated concerns to

request from ordinary citizens (West, D. 2005:111). The same ques-

tions issued by West were part of my research: how seriously do gov-

ernment officials take electronic requests for information from citi-


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zens? Do they respond to them and if so, how long take and which is

the level of clarity in those responds?.

To test government responsiveness, I sent messages to 135 munici-

palities, using mainly the consultation module available in the web-

site, in second hand writing a mail to major and chief of infor-mation department when was available, and finally using the face-

book private message option, only used with official facebook pages.

The communication was designed in order to respond a briefly ques-

tionnaire of four questions related with the use of ICTs, the com-

plete text deliver (translated now in English) was:

Contact f rom South Korea - Yonsei University

Good afternoon, my name is Christian Bueno; I'm a Peruviancitizen studying a Master in Public Administration at YonseiUniversity - South Korea. I'm working a paper related withthe use of Local Government websites, so I would beg to an-swer four questions that will help me in my research:

1. How important do you consider have a website?Very little / little / fair / important / very important

2. How many consultations receives through its websitemonthly?

3. Within a year, do you consider create new services on itswebsite?

4. Do you use any kind of information system provide by thecentral government? (eg SIAF, SEACE, etc.).

I am infinitely grateful for your support and wish you the bestsuccess in his management. Best regards,

Chr istian R. Bueno

[email protected]

The responsiveness test conduct by Darrell in 2001 obtained a final

response of 80 percent, with 52 percent responding within a single

day, the test was issued to public offices in United Stated.

In our case the results were mediocre. Only 5 percent of messages

were responding (7 cases), not enough to state conclusions about the

four questions mentioned. Is important note that all the websites

provided by ONGEI werent able to deliver messages using the de-


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fault consultation module because an error in the box to write the

content of message (couldnt write more than three letters).

And a particular case was Santiago de Surco, this municipality is

one of the biggest in the whole country in term of economic re-

sources, with a modern website, fully with online services, and bycoincidence my hometown in Lima, Peru. After 12 business days the

official reply was Esteemed neighbor, I want to inform you that all

consultation must send using a document via reception desk located

in the following addresses.

One of the constraints in technological change is named the two

systems problem mentioned in section 1.4. As Darrell pointed out

that government agencies have to maintain parallel delivery systems,

that are costly and also, like in this case, rests efficiency in the rela-

tions between agencies and citizens.


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Section 3

Conclusions3. Conclusions

The use of ICTs had taken a strategic role in the last decades,with the expansion of communications, technologies, and a

bigger demanding of information and services from the pop-

ulations. The countries that lead e-services are developedcountries that occupy the best positions in last survey con-

ducted by United Nations in 2012.

Literature review are valid nowadays, specially the analyzesmade by Darrell West in relation with challenges and barri-

ers, one of the most difficult constrains is the two systems

problem, intrinsically linked with human behavior, resistant

to change and adopt new technologies, and how the bureau-

cracy are the one who models ICTs and not at contrary.

Despite that the government of Peru had a framework thatincludes regulatory laws, medium and long term plans, and

institutions dedicated ad hoc to ICTs development there is a

large gap between theory and practical uses of ICTs, specially

in local governments.

The main areas of development of ICTs in Peru are allocatedwith services deliver by central government. With special

emphasis in taxes (SUNAT), budgetary control (MEF), and

procurement (SEACE).

The use of internet as a medium of commercial transactionsare incipient, the position of Peru in that issue is one of the

lowest in the region, however this situation must be seen like

an opportunity to create innovative services among a popula-

tion afraid to use ICTs.


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To provide e-services a necessary precondition is having anadequate infrastructure of communications, according with

the data obtained the actual situation of bandwidth access is

not ready to support elaborated services like broadcastingand transmission of macro data.

The official institution related with electronic governmentONGEI must improve the quality control of the information

contain in its database, in order to have a real diagnosis of

the current situation of ICTs in the country. I tried to get di-

rect information from ONGEI through mail but until the

date was completed the present paper didnt get any re-

sponse.

The current situation of websites by local governments issimilar to billboards stage, it means only like a passive show-

case without options to interact between agencies and citi-

zens.

There is a big opportunity to establish a close relation be-tween citizens and local governments through social net-

works, promoting the outreach of programs, opinions from

citizens, interchange of experiences, publishing relevant ma-

terial as well multimedia content, with the addition that itdoesnt mean a cost of hosting.

Evidence shows that officials dont pay attention about re-quests coming from digital services. In other side this re-

search couldnt collect data about the volume of request of

citizens and if they really try to use it normally instead of

phone or in-person communication. Also there is no evi-

dence that shows that governments are trying to re direct cit-

izens to use of ICTs in order to take advantage of technolo-

gies.


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References

CODESI 2011. La Agenda Digital 2.0, Plan de desarrollo de la sociedad de informacin en

el Peru. Lima, Peru

Homburg, V. 2008. Information systems in public administration: understanding e-

government. Routledge

INEI 2002.Acceso a internet y ancho de banda en la administracion publica (access to in-

ternet and bandwith in public administration). Lima, Peru

PCM 2007. Diagnstico sobre la percepcin del ciudadano en cuanto al uso del portal delestado peruano y el portal de servicios al ciudadano y empresas indicadores para

la lnea base (Diagnostic about the perception of citizens in the use of oficial peru-

vian portal and the portal of services for citizens and business, indicators to cons-

truct baseline). Lima, Peru

UN, Departament of Economic Affairs 2012. E-Government Survey 2012, e-government for

the people. New York

West, D. 2005. Digital Government: technology and public sector performance. Princeton

University Press

Documents

Electronic Government and Development: Framework review and research of current situation of ICTs in Peruvian local governments