Public Services Projects The Citizen's Portal The Citizen's Portal
The Citizen’s Portal is the central channel for electronic access to public services supplied to citizens through the Internet, within a philosophy of an integrated access point. It provides a complementary service in terms of convenience and availability to that physically offered by the Citizen's Shops (site in Portuguese).
Knowledge Society Agency (UMIC) ensured the setting up of the Citizen’s Portal and its functioning and continuous development until 1 May 2007. At that time it offered access to more than 680 services (approximately ½ informational, ¼ interactive, 1/6 transactional) provided by approximately 125 public administration bodies.
From November 2005 the Citizen’s Portal made it possible to register at the site as a user, and also subscribe to and receive message alerts from the "Citizen's Agenda" and news alerts via SMS.
In 2006, in addition to a reorganisation aimed at making it easier for citizens to use, it became part of an electronic payments platform which, amongst other possibilities, enables the issuing of payment orders which can be effected through the unified ATM network widely available in Portugal or even without leaving home or the office for people who have home banking, in this case enabling full dematerialisation of payments.
The interaction which has been achieved with the Citizen’s Portugal required intensive interactive effort on the part of UMIC in regard to entities throughout the Public Administration as a whole and the formation of active partnerships in various sectors whose active performance was essential for the development of the project and which also continues to be essential for its continuance, given that the need to update is a permanent one. The coordination of this activity is a demanding task requiring regular attention.
The Citizen’s Portal has become a brand name recognised by more than 30% of the Portuguese population, with it regularly being classified among the best ten Portuguese sites in terms of performance and usability (KPBI30, Internet Performance and Usability Rates in Portugal). More than half a million users access the portal regularly, mainly for services such as Public Administration information, tax declarations, and the possibility of informing 14 public services of a change of address using one single electronic form at the same time, requests for certificates (from the register of births, marriages and deaths, company register or land register), or information about job offers.
It offers a regular service offering access to support users both via electronic mail and by telephone. Since February 2005 it has offered services supported by SMS, and access through the WAP protocol by mobile phones and PDAs. The services available are to be considerably expanded with the adoption of the Citizen's Card which has been available since 14 February 2007.
An easy access system based on themes from Citizens’ lives was also made available in 2006: my House (text in Portuguese), my Citizenship (text in Portuguese), my Education (text in Portuguese), my Family (text in Portuguese), my Health (text in Portuguese), my Security (text in Portuguese), my Money (text in Portuguese), my Employment (text in Portuguese), my Vehicle (text in Portuguese), my Documents (text in Portuguese), my Taxes and Contributions (text in Portuguese), my Free Time (text in Portuguese).
From 1 December 2006 onwards a Dossier Area has been made available which brings together practical information and services aimed at the needs of citizens. There are 17 available dossiers: Medical Sick Note: What to do? (text in Portuguese), Vehicle Registration Document: Your Single Automobile Document (text in Portuguese), How do you constitute an Association? (text in Portuguese), How do you carry out your Right to Vote? (text in Portuguese), How does Family Planning work? (text in Portuguese), How do you obtain Portuguese Nationality? (text in Portuguese), How do you register a Birth? Which Rights are linked to Maternity? (text in Portuguese), Reconciling Working and Studying (text in Portuguese), Consequences of the New Law on Urban Renting (text in Portuguese), Have you become Unemployed? Know what to do... (text in Portuguese), Taxes Online: How does it work? (text in Portuguese), Find out about Pension Savings Plans (text in Portuguese).
Use of the Citizen's Portal greatly increased during 2005, specifically with regard to traffic (46%), sessions (32%) and unique visitors (29%), and in January 2006 there was 153 GB traffic, 3 million page visits, 433 thousand sessions, and 191 thousand unique visitors from 33 different countries, which illustrates the possibilities that such a resource can provide for the Portuguese community at large living in other countries.
In 2006 use of the Citizen's Portal greatly increased again with regard to sessions (20%) and unique visitors (30%), comparing January 2006 to January 2007, with 3.6 million page visits that month and 249 thousand unique visitors from 51 different countries.
At the start of 2007, the Citizen’s Portal had more than 110,000 people signed up to receive the Newsletter, 15,800 for SMS alerts from the Citizen’s Diary service and 22,000 signed up for SMS alerts from the News’ Service.
During 2006 250 thousand requests for Online Certificates were dealt with through the Citizen’s Portal.
According to EUROSTAT - IS, with regard to the sending of electronic forms to public bodies within EU15 countries, Portugal was located amongst the first five in terms of percentages of individuals and amongst the first three in terms of percentages of enterprises. IRS Income Tax Declarations via Internet numbered over 2.2 million in 2006, a very high figure at an international level, given that it corresponds to more than 40% of the active population.
Responsibility for the running and ongoing development of the Citizen’s Portal project was moved from UMIC to the Agency for Administrative Modernisation - AMA (site in Portuguese), on 1 May 2007, following the start of activities by this new body, to which was transferred the competencies which UMIC had held in the field of electronic public administration, following the publication of the organic law and the statutes of the AMA (site in Portuguese) in the Official Gazette Diário da República, on the 27 and 30 April 2007, respectively, with continuity ensured by the transfer of the member of the UMIC Management Board responsible for electronic public administration projects to become the Director of AMA (site in Portuguese).
The Citizen’s Portal is available at http://www.portaldocidadao.pt/.