Public Services Public Services
According to the Connecting Portugal programme the eGovernment projects are aimed at simplifying and improving provision of public services to citizens and companies, namely by promoting:
- Efficiency and ease of use for services provided to citizens by the State, supported by information and communication technologies.
- Transparency in the State’s relations with citizens.
- Making the one-stop-shop principle a reality in the State’s dealings with citizens and companies.
- Cutting costs to rationalise use of resources and State purchases.
- The development of modern public services.
The following are examples of concrete outputs to be achieved:
- Making all basic public services available online.
- Widespread use of Voice Over Internet services.
- Guaranteeing consultation mechanisms for all operators regarding the Government and other public bodies’ competitive procurement for all telecommunication services.
- Training public administration staff, especially those with the lowest level of qualifications, certifying competences obtained and improving training in information technologies.
- Promoting use of open source operating systems by all public services.
- Making all Central or Local Public Administration tenders for goods and services procurement available in a single place online, as well as those for staff recruitment, including the respective records and decisions.
In the short period of less than two years elapsed since the establishment of these guidelines in the Connecting Portugal initiative (2005-2010), part of the Technological Plan and released from late July 2005, by April-May 2007 Portugal recovered the 2nd position it held in 2001 in the ranking of the EU15 countries in the two indicators of sophistication of online basic public services and in the full online availability of basic public services, which results from the assessments carried out regularly by the European Commission. This recovery occurred after Portugal had slipped between 2002 and 2004 to the 11th place in the EU15, and was finally observed in April-May 2007 when the data for the benchmarking promoted by the European Commission in 2007 were collected (see news Portugal rises to 3rd and 4th in the European Ranking of Online Availability of Public Services). The coordination of eGovernment actions during the period of this recovery, from 2005 to May 2007, was assured by the Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC).
Among the 30 countries of the EU27 Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, with the data of April-May 2007 Portugal moved to the 4th place in the indicator of sophistication of online basic public services, and to the 3rd place in the full online availability of these services.
Progress of full availability of basic Public Services online indicator
2001 to 2009 (Score %)
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Source: Capgemini Report prepared for the Information Society and Media Directorate-General, European Commission.
Progress of Portugal position in the Rankings of online Public Services availability among EU15 countries
2001 to 2009, Ranking.
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Source: Capgemini Reports prepared for the Information Society and Media Directorate-General, European Commission.
Última actualização (26/02/2010)