"Websites of government authorities should become the foundation of Ukraine's e-government system," believes Anton Marrero, Honorary President of Softline IT. He said this in an interview with journalists of the Vlast Intellekta news agency on Thursday, 6 September. However, according to him, this requires amendments to legislation.
"Today, every website without exception has a 'Contacts' or 'Feedback' section. But if a citizen sends an e-mail to a government body or submits a request via a special form, the body is not obliged to process the request or respond to it. Even when civil servants accept electronic requests, the agency prints them out on paper, and the document then travels from office to office at the same speed as a paper letter sent by regular mail. As you can understand, this is slow and inefficient," notes Anton Marrero. It is precisely this issue, the expert believes, that must be regulated at the legislative level.
According to him, as a result, government websites are nothing more than "business cards". But for an e-government system to work, a website must become a full-fledged electronic reception office. It should work roughly like this: a Ukrainian citizen, after going through an identification procedure, will be able to order and receive any certificates and permits, and to send information requests and receive answers to them electronically. "In EU countries, more than 70% of public services are available online," emphasizes Anton Marrero.