The Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has recently completed the final configuration of the SCMU Unified Information and Analytical System, developed by Softline IT (Intecracy Group Consortium) on the Megapolis platform.
As a result, starting from 15 August 2016, the Government has fully switched to electronic paperless document management. This was done in pursuance of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 468 of 22.07.16 "On Amendments to the Model Instruction on Records Management in Central Executive Authorities, the Council of Ministers of the ARC and Local Executive Authorities". The adoption of this Resolution was an important stage in the development of e-government in Ukraine and the introduction of interagency electronic document management, as envisaged by the Government in its operational plan of anti-crisis measures until the end of 2016.
The first and most obvious effect of using IT is an increase in the speed of document circulation by at least 50%. According to Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksandr Saienko, "This will enable us to make decisions and respond faster." About 400 users already work in the system using an electronic digital signature (EDS).
"The next stage of introducing electronic document management will be the transition to electronic approval of regulatory legal acts, which will significantly speed up the Government's work," said Oleksandr Saienko. According to him, from now on the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers does not accept any paper letters from central executive authorities. Documents with a temporary retention period (up to 5 years) must be submitted exclusively in electronic form.
The only documents not processed electronically are those containing restricted information, documents on financial transactions, on personnel matters, those related to the processing of personal data, and documents on ownership rights that require notarisation. Documents related to court disputes, appeals from citizens and district state administrations, incoming correspondence not subject to registration, and documents that, in cases established by law, cannot be originals in electronic form are also handled on paper.
In the long run, significant savings of taxpayers' money on paper are expected; according to Saienko, "in the future the savings will be substantial." In addition, the transition to electronic document management primarily reduces the time spent working with documents, optimises records management processes and increases the efficiency of the government apparatus.
At present, 74 central executive authorities are already connected to the SCMU Unified Information and Analytical System via the System of Electronic Interaction of Executive Authorities (SEI EA).