Commission of Audit slams gov’t over slow and ineffective e-government work

The Commission of Audit (CA) has issued a report addressing government work, namely at the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP). This is regarding delays, slow progress and inefficient measures in the development of strategies to enforce the creation of the “e-government,” that is, a government project to digitalize and simplify procedures related to public administration.

The report issued yesterday highlights several problems, such as the investment of huge amounts of public funds in projects that are taking too long to conclude or technologies and procedures that are already outdated.

According to analysis by the CA, the SAFP has injected over MOP237 million into the development of a group of projects that aim to facilitate administrative procedures through electronic services. However, between 2001 and 2016 the conclusion rate for such projects was just 64 percent, which means that from a total of 61 planned projects, only 39 were, in fact, concluded.

The Audit report also recalls that of those projects not concluded, there are at least 16 that have been proposed for over 10 years already, causing backlash against the slow procedures and inefficient measures towards established government goals.

The SAFP tried to refute such conclusions from the CA, initially claiming that all developments prior to 2011 were not under the direct responsibility of the bureau, and that they started to develop projects only after the restructuring of the bureau. However, the CA noted that modernization work had always been a statutory obligation of the bureau, ever since the organizational rules of the public administration department were implemented back in 1994.

In its report, the CA notes that for several years the SAFP and the interdepartmental taskforce coordinated the development of the e-administration under the direct leadership of the SAFP director. To date, it has only conducted a series of preparatory works and preliminary studies, having established several trial projects that were kept in operation for several years without a proper evaluation of efficiency or possible outcomes.
One of the many works considered ineffective by the audit is the development of a human resources management platform. Until December 31 2016, only 22 of the 97 public services were using that system. The figure corresponds to 22.68 percent of the services, “showing clearly that such goal was not achieved” according to the Audit report.

Another example noted is a group of 18 forms used by the SAFP staff, which were to become digital in a measure announced back in 2006. But over 10 years later only one form (related to the “Notification of Absence from Work and Annual Leave”) was possible to complete electronically.

The case is said to be further aggravated by the fact that such forms are for “internal use” and that are not subjected to the many constraints regarding data collection and transfer from citizens, something which led the CA to find the situation “extremely inefficient.”

The CA also provides several recommendations for the SAFP in the report, such as: “Draft concrete plans and implement the lines of government action, with the main objective of achieving the general objective of administrative modernization,” as well as: “Identify the key issues such as specific objectives and the best conditions and limits for each case or situation.”

Regarding the system, the CA noted that SAFP must: “Ensure, in addition to meeting the specific needs of public services, also enable them to create additional functionalities” that should also be “simple and intuitive so that it can be used throughout the Administration in the long term.”

As a last remark, the audit report suggests: “When projects are established, verification that you possess all the necessary conditions for their implementation, such as technical conditions, the provision of technical assistance; and also ensure the existence of legal instruments to support them and establish a reasonable period of execution.”

The SAFP replied to the disclosure of the report in a statement, acknowledging the importance of the report and adding, as has become habitual in these situations, that it will proceed diligently to correct the flaws detected.

In addition to the acknowledgement and compromise, the SAFP added that  works at the end of 2016 had a conclusion rate of around 64 percent and by the end of 2018, the overall project execution rate will reach 80 percent, due to recent works developed after the audit.

In the same statement, the bureau also notes that in 2019, the government is planning to undertake a general review of the Macau SAR Electronic Governance General Plan 2015-2019, adding conditions to continue to strengthen the co-ordination.

The SAFP also noted that it will further the co-ordination works from phase one of the “smart city” construction project and the use of Mega data which began in 2017 in collaboration with the Alibaba Group, and that it will complete the creation of the computing center cloud and reorganization of official data by June 2019.
The SAFP also noted that this technology would then be gradually used in many projects from different fields, in particular tourism, talent training, traffic management, health care services, integrated urban management and the provision of integrated urban services.

With the conclusion of this project, the SAFP stated that the conclusion rate of the works would rise then to 86 percent of the total, becoming “progressively more visible.”

A general evaluation will also be carried out next year, according to SAFP’s reply.