Promotion of electronic democracy in Šalčininkai District Gžegož Jurgo Senior specialist at Investments and strategic planning division Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration Lithuania EPSA 2011 Final event, Maastricht

Šalčininkai District Šalčininkai District is located in the southeast of Lithuania 45 km from Vilnius Area – 1491,4 square km Population – about people 2

Šalčininkai District Population by nationality 3

Šalčininkai District Borders with Belarus on the east Centre of the District – Šalčininkai city – is only 7 km away from the border International border crossing point 4

Šalčininkai District 5

6

7

Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration More than 100 servants 14 Divisions 13 communes 8

Šalčininkai District Municipality Administration Investitions – more than 50 projects – more than 23 mln EUR 9

Promotion of electronic democracy in Šalčininkai District

Preconditions of the project 1. To few opportunities for expressing opinion – writing an official letter – participating in the Council Meeting 11

Preconditions of the project 2. Insufficient transparency of: – made Councils decisions – issue solving steps 12

Preconditions of the project 3. Manipulation of public opinion – misleading opinions – several identical opinions from one person 13

Preconditions of the project 4. Problems with documents publishing – related legal acts – legal acts containing personal information 14

The objective of the project To create and install the tools of electronic democracy, based on the information and communication technologies, which allow inhabitants, public and private organizations and other legal entities to express their opinion about various Šalčininkai District issues. 15

Specific objectives 1.To create and install the tools of electronic democracy designed for the Municipality Council to vote during the meetings and publish information about voting results installing person identification system installing electronic voting and information publishing systems Council Hall equipment renewal 16

Specific objectives 2.To create and install the tools of electronic democracy that provide district inhabitants with the opportunity to express their opinion and influence Council decisions creating inhabitants electronic voting and opinion expressing system 17

Specific objectives 3.Informing inhabitants through geoinformation system offering Municipal services through geoinformation system 18

Team of the project Municipalitys Administracion specialists (internal resources) Consulting firm (external resource) 19

Team of the project 1.Project manager Responsible for: overall project management organization and coordination of project activities contact with responsible institutions 20

Team of the project 2.Project financier Responsible for: project finance management regular accounting activities financial and taxation accountability payments control 21

Team of the project 3.IT specialist Responsible for: monitoring project activities, especially those regarding proper installation of the systems 22

Team of the project External firm Responsible for: qualitative fulfilment of project activities evaluation of project progress organization of public procurement communication with Šalčininkai District Municipality and other engaged institutions trainings 23

Budget of the project EUR ,00 24

Budget of the project 85% ESF funding 15% cofinancing rate 25

Stages of the project Selection of the scope of the project – a discussion with the representatives of Municipalitys Administration, District inhabitants, public organizations representatives, journalists, youth activists and other interested parties 26

Stages of the project Creation of project management team – forming own team and finding out who can enrich the project with more experience 27

Stages of the project Creation of e-democracy system, its installation and Municipality's web page renewal (old one did not meet requirements for the new system) – geoinformation system – person identification and authorization system – municipality e-gate system – documents actualization system – new website 28

Stages of the project Finalizing of the system – trainings for the Municipality Council members to work with the new system – testing of the system – experimental Council Meeting simulation 29

Detalization of the systems geoinformation system – system allows inhabitants to put the aroused problem (e.g. waste management disorder, electricity supply accident, natural disaster caused problems) on the map and automatically address it to the responsible servant for quick solution 30

Detalization of the systems person identification and authorization system – new electronic voting system for Council members was created – equipment for filming and online observation of the Council Meetings installed – module for instant publishing of voting results created 31

Detalization of the systems Municipality e-gate system – leaving opinions – writing comments – creating petitions – sending queries – expressing public opinion 32

Detalization of the systems documents actualization system – new system of searching and publishing of legal acts created 33

Detalization of the systems launch of a new website – enabling all the mentioned features – video translation opportunities 34

Results 5 e-democracy systems created and installed 50% reduce in personal queries in some of Municipalitys divisions 80% increase in website visits – visits in March 2010 – visits in March 2011 – visits in October 2011 Increase in public questions on the website 35

Results 5 systems installed EUR spent = one of the most efficient projects 36

After application for the EPSA 2011 was submitted... some more recognitions proving the success of the project came: – the new website shared 3rd-5th places in the ranking of the 60 Municipalities website in Lithuania – 8th-10th places as the best website among all public institutions in Lithuania (source: Information Society Development Committee, Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania) 37

Good luck with your projects! 38