CCI number: 2007HU16UPO001

Transcription

1 GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATION OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME CCI number: 2007HU16UPO001 Version: EKOP_070703_EN.doc Number of pages: 86

2 CONTENTS CONTENTS...2 GLOSSARY OF TERMS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SITUATION ANALYSIS Scope of the operational programme Efficiency and quality problems in the provision of public services...9 The situation of electronic public services ICT Support to the governance and internal workflows Central Hungary Region Regional Differences Experience of Earlier Programmes SWOT-Analysis Potentials STRATEGY Adjustment to the strategic environment Objectives and Priorities of the Programme Effectiveness of the Horizontal objectives Social Partnership Connection with Other Operational programmes The conclusions of the ex-ante evaluation of the programme Official Statement on the strategic environmental assessment of the EAOP PRIORITY AXES Priority axis 1: Renewal of the internal procedures and the services of public administration Priority axis 2: developments aimed at improving access to public services (delivering the services to the clients) Priority axis 3: Preferential developments Priority axis 4: financing the implemetation of the operational programme (technical assistance) in regions falling under the convergence objective Priority axis 5: financing the implementation of the operational programme in the Central Hungarian region (technical assistance) in the central Hungarian Region FINANCIAL TABLE CONNECTION WITH THE MEASURES FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT FUND IMPLEMENTING PROVISION FOR THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME Management Strategy and Coordination /86

3 7.1.2 Specific management and coordination aspects of Regional Competitiveness resources Managing Authority (MA) Intermediate Body Procedures in Relation to the Implementation of the OP Administrative capacity Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring Evaluation Financial Management and Control The Tasks of the Certifying Authority Rules for Financial Management and Control The Process of Payment to Beneficiaries Control of the European Union s Contributions Provisions related to Information Supply and Publicity Community policies and horizontal principles Sustainability, Equal Opportunities and Partnership, State Aid, Public Procurement Sustainability, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, partnership State aid Public procurement Provisions Related to Electronic Data Communication between the Commission and the Member State Major Projects...83 ANNEX 1: Indicators for the Operational Programme...84 ANNEX 2. CATEGORIZATION OF THE ENVISAGED INTERVENTIONS /86

4 GLOSSARY OF TERMS Access to public- services Administrative organization ASP- centre Back-office Central databases Civil organisation Client Public information goods e-government Electronic management (of cases) Electronic identification Electronization Front-office G2B G2C G2E G2G Good governance Governmental organisations ICT (and IT) Information society Knowledge-based society One stop shop Public access Possibility of the effective utilisation of public services A state organization established to provide the tasks of the special policies and legislation, preparation of decisions, to provide the official tasks of authorities during the application of law Application service provider centre Organisational unit having no direct connection with clients Databases maintained by public administration from public funds A non-governmental and non-profit oriented organisation including churches A person or organisation getting in contact with state or other organizations Information of common interest provided from public funds Application of information and communication technologies in public administration Written administration performed through a telecommunication channel (typically through internet) Info-communication technology (e.g. e-card or digital signature) able to identify persons unambiguously, authentically and safely Storage and transmission of information in an electronic form Organisational units having a direct connection with the clients Connections between governmental bodies and businesses Connection between governmental bodies and clients Connection between governmental bodies and employees Connections between governmental bodies This term is used according to the interpretation of the European Commission Bodies of the central public administration Information and communication technology A society in which the fundamental resource of the society is information and communication technology A society relying on individual and collective knowledge as it fundamental resources Case-handling related to different organization on the same place The possibility for the public use of information networks 4/86

5 Public administration Public services Service providing state Stages of the public electronic services A complex of organisations providing the tasks of the authorities, security, formation and implementation of special policies from the governmental functions (e.g. preparation of laws) Services provided by public administration Conception of a state according to which the duty of a state is first of all providing public services Stage 1 Information: The information necessary to start the procedure to obtain this public service is available on-line Stage 2 One-way Interaction: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to obtain in a non-electronic way (by downloading forms) the paper form to start the procedure to obtain this service. An electronic form to order a non-electronic form is also considered stage 2 Stage 3 Two-way Interaction: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility of an electronic intake with an official electronic form to start the procedure to obtain this service. This implies that there must be a form of authentication of the person (physical or juridical) requesting the services in order to reach stage 3 Stage 4 Full electronic case handling: The publicly accessible website offers the possibility to completely treat the public service via the website, including decision and delivery. No other formal procedure is necessary for the applicant via paperwork 5/86

6 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Objectives and strategies The overall strategic objective of the operational programme is to improve efficiency in public administration. The programme concerns the development of public administration to conform with the demands of modern age, exploiting also the potential inherent in the information society. In order to achieve the increase competitiveness in line with the increasing expectations of the citizens and businesses the institution-oriented approach will be replaced by the serviceoriented and client-oriented approach. By the reorganisation and simplification of the government processes and their subsequent support by means of info-communication we intend to make the operation of the state more efficient, and provide the same amount of services with the use of less resource. The operational programme includes the modernisation of the procedures, processes and services of public administration and the judiciary system with the use of info-communication technology, as well as the interventions aimed at the identification of the clients as a common element of all public services provided by info-communication devices. This overall objective is achieved by the implementation of the following two specific objectives: - improving effectiveness of public services, and - increasing the efficiency of operation. The fulfilment of these objectives will be measured by the following indicator: Change in the satisfaction of citizens/businesses with public administration at country level as a result of the programme. As the quality and effectiveness of the involvement of the state affects both the business environment, the competitiveness of businesses and the citizen s quality of life, the changes in the performance of state functions contribute to the realisation of the Lisbon objectives. Developments In order to develop a client-oriented and efficient service-provider state, it is necessary to ensure consistency between the affected institutions and processes, consolidate the different databases and link them up, with consideration to the legislative and economic criteria, or to provide for data sharing or data access. Furthermore, by transforming public services, if necessary, to improve the quality of the existing services, to develop new services, to provide access to these services, to enforce the criteria of equal opportunities, and to minimize the cost and time needed for the provision and use of these services. To achieve these objectives it is necessary to renew the IT background in the framework of the reorganization of the internal processes and institutions in administration and to deliver the implemented services to the clients.. The priority axes were selected along this logic, though due to the specificities of the governmental hierarchy - and also for technical reasons - the Central Hungary Region should be made a separate priority. Other elements of the programme are the technical assistance priority axes, which facilitate successful implementation. 6/86

7 The total amount of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme is Euro (in current prices 15% national co-financing inclusive). Priority axes Priority 1: Renewal of the internal procedures and the services of public administration Priority 2: Developments aimed at improving access to public services (delivering the services to the clients) Amount (in Euro) In percent ,7% ,5% Priority 3: Preferential developments ,9% Priority 4-5: Technical assistance (both Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objectives) ,9% Total: % The electronic non-stop management of cases accessible from home (round the clock) to be established in the framework of this program will enhance the effectiveness of the interventions of the operative programs and the integrated implementation of the developments. It will also remove the geographical and time limitations of case management increasing its efficiency and the level of client satisfaction, by giving a new meaning to official business hours. Partnership The strategy of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme and the distribution of financial resources among the regions were finalised as a result of partnership negotiations carried out and in compliance with the relevant EU regulations. 7/86

8 2. SITUATION ANALYSIS 2.1. SCOPE OF THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME The objective of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme is to modernise the operation, procedures, processes, and services in public administration and justice by the utilisation of the info-communication technology. The operational programme covers the whole of Hungary. Data in the Hungarian National Strategic Reference Framework covering the support to Hungary from the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund of the European Union in the period called New Hungary Development Plan (hereafter referred to as New Hungary Development Plan or NHDP) indicate that non of the Hungarian regions listed in regulation 1888/2005/EC amending regulation 1059/2003/EC 1 except for the Central Hungary region attained a GDP per capita corresponding to 75% of the EU average in the relevant period of comparison, thus pursuant to regulation 1083/2006/EC they come under the Convergence Objective. Central Hungary, however, surpassed the threshold and pursuant to the regulation 1083/2006/EC comes under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective. Pursuant to Article 32 (1) of Regulation 1083/2006/EC, the European Commission approved that this operational programme covers besides the Hungarian regions under the Convergence Objective also the Central Hungary region under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective for the following reasons: Hungarian public administration faces the same operational deficiencies in all regions regardless of the objective they fall under, thus similar actions are fundamentally needed, the provided public administration services are practically the same throughout the whole country including all developments that provide the basis for the services, though state administration decisions are taken in the Central Hungary Region and implemented at regional levels i.e. mainly in the regions of convergence if improvement is to be achieved, it would be preferable to handle together within a program the two stages of the policy-making cycle, there is a need to develop nation-wide systems both in terms of governance, business management and execution, and since the centre of public administration is in the Central Hungarian region, it is only reasonable for certain system-level developments to have their centres in the central region (e.g. it may be more cost effective if certain developments are based on already existing systems, and the centre of these systems are characteristically in the central region, where also the country s capital is located) for operational, financial, and perhaps security considerations. 1 This EU directive defines the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). 8/86

9 2.2. EFFICIENCY AND QUALITY PROBLEMS IN THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC SERVICES In the past decade and a half social and economic actors in Hungary learnt to adapt to the requirements of the increasingly sharpening international competition. At the same time, the form and operation of public administration and self-governance have remained almost entirely unchanged. As a result, while Hungarian economy is becoming more modern and more competitive, the quality and effectiveness of public services are poor in light of the increasing demands; it is usually expensive and time consuming to avail of public services. Figure 1. International comparison of the whole public sector and the public administration 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% Employment to the national economy HU teljes közszféra EU-15 teljes közszféra CZ teljes közszféra HU közig EU-15 közig CZ közig 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Expenditure to GDP HU közig EU-15 közig CZ közig HU teljes közszféra EU-15 teljes közszféra CZ teljes közszféra Note: data on the international public sector include the debt service Source: Eurostat expenditure of the redemption of debt, whereas Hungarian data do not Source: Hungarian data: MF, international data: Eurostat Within the total public sector the narrower cluster of public administration has remained practically unchanged over the past years. The same is true for both the EU15 and Hungary. However, it transpires from the comparison of the two that while the size of Hungarian public administration matches the data of the EU15 in terms of employment (although a little higher than that of the V-4), the GDP proportionate expenditure is higher in Hungary than the average of the EU15 (and is nearly the same as that of the V-4), even though expenses allocated for public administration were significantly cut back between 2001 and 2004 in terms of the GDP (fell from 5.5% to 3.8% 2 ). This indicator has increased again since then. Hungarian public administration employs proportionately the same numbers but operates at proportionately higher costs, i.e. it has further cost-effectiveness reserves which are capable of putting more efficient operations into service. outlining the characteristic trends of the public sector, the state of public administration services, with particular attention to info-communication, must also be examined from the aspect of the operational programme. In addition to efficiency problems, the system of public services must also face challenges concerning quality: 2 Source: MF 9/86

10 There is an increasing demand from citizens and enterprises towards the reduction of unnecessary administration and the speeding-up of the necessary administration. lients increasingly expect that the government resources collected from their tax contributions be utilised more effectively and in their interest, and there is a growing need for the transparency, democracy and participation. in the decisions Fast and reliable public administration could significantly increase investments and improve the efficiency of the economy. Investors claim that bureaucracy increases in Europe from north to west towards southeast, while effectiveness decline, albeit together with wages levels. A more effective public administration could counterbalance the competitive disadvantage resulting from the cheaper manpower of the countries east and southeast from Hungary. The renewal of public administration services is also essential for the reform of the state required to comply with the obligations to the European Union. The area that affects efficiency and quality the most is the level of online public administration procedures and internal processes. Today the share of electronically accessible services and electronic internal processes are both relatively low. Furthermore and also due to extensive nature of public services and public administration developments up to now the heterogeneity of info-communication applications and the strong division of the databases have a strong impact both on the efficiency of operation and the intensity of the use of public services. THE SITUATION OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC SERVICES A significant part of the information systems used in public administration is not able to make the data managed accessible to the clients and other organisations. The fact that public services are provided in a restricted manner in separate public institutions raises two problems: 1. The parties concerned dare not replace the existing out-of-date programmes and solutions, and have no interest in making such changes. The range of public services and contents is poor; services are static, hardly interactive and not user-friendly. 2. No separate financial budgeting process is coupled with electronic services, the revenues earned from the provision of services and the utilisation of databases and the related expenses are mixed in with the operating budget. Therefore it is not clear which data and services should be made accessible to make the greatest rate of return and benefit to society or even to the institution. At present the institutions simply rely on the statutory regulations when developing the services. The fundamental reason for these two problems are inappropriate regulation, and the lack of the coercive force of competition and efficiency that are characteristic of the private sector. In the past period of time, Hungarian public administration has taken steps towards ensuring publicity, and thus an equal opportunity, democratic access to information and the introduction to electronic public services. Previously the governmental responsibility for the online services was distributed between several actors, but these tasks have been concentrated and assigned the Hungarian Prime Minister s Office from July The regulatory work relating to the field of public administration IT currently in progress at the Prime Minister s Office aims to eliminate the reasons of the above problems and to create a suitable regulatory environment. The endeavour to 10/86

11 create suitable regulatory environment fits in with the objective of laying the foundation for quality legislation included in the State Reform Operational Programme. Progress has been visible in the past few years in several fields. Electronic services relating to the state as service provider were made the responsibility of the state by Act CXL of 2004 on the general rules of public administrative procedures and services as a result of which the development of e-services accelerated. Based on the Government Backbone Network (GBN), the Central Electronic Service System was established, which also provides a link to the institutional system of the EU. - The launch of Client Gate service on the government portal was a major step in the right direction just like making specific elements of public administration procedures electronically available for the public. The most typical electronic processes include administrative processes relating to local taxation and official matters concerning enterprises. The first steps of making the 20 most-sought-after public services in European Information Space (27 in Hungary) electronically available have been taken and today half of the service types are fully available and administrable through the Government Portal. This has placed Hungary in the forefront of the mid-field in the rank among the member states with regards to the availability of e-services. Table 1. Percentage of the 20 basic public services available online (%) Hungary EU EU Estonia Czech Republic Poland Source: Eurostat The achievements made so far are basically due to the co-ordinated client-side developments. They are however far from sufficient, as Hungary suffers from a severe backlog both in terms of the type of transactions that can be accessed electronically and the number of transactions that can be fully executed online. According to a survey 3 about two-thirds of the services provided by the examined regional public administration bodies are not accessible by electronic means. Furthermore, besides considering the advances made on the client side, because of the inappropriate development level of the background systems and the lack of interoperability the biggest challenge is to create integrated services and to provide multi-channel access to the services. These tasks can be fulfilled through the coordinated concept based on the results achieved by the central electronic service provider system. Also the provision of electronically available services remains a mere opportunity as long as clients are unable to make use of it. The situation in Hungary is unfavourable in this respect, as in terms of the trends in internet use of the citizens over 15 years Hungary is ranked at the lower part of the mid-field section among the 25 EU member states. 3 Source: Kopint Datorg, /86

12 Table 2. Individuals using the internet at least once a weak (percentage) Hungary EU EU Sweden United Kingdom Slovakia Italy Czech Republic Source: Eurostat The European Commission annually monitors the volume of transactions completed online in the 20 basic public services. In 2006 Hungary ranked 14 th out of the 28 European countries under review; this is a significant improvement (9 ranks) on the previous position. It will be demonstrated below how much the range of available services meets the demand. Due to the mandatory electronic tax return introduced in certain segments, the use of electronic public services both on the whole and for simple services exceeds the European average (Table 3.) At the same time, it must also be pointed out that Hungarian economic actors are less likely to exploit the potential behind full-scale electronic services than the EU average (Figure 2). Table 3. Rate of corporate users of egovernment business organisations, % EU EU Hungary 45 Source: Eurostat Figure 2. E-government service users in the corporate sector expressed in the percentage of enterprises by e- government service types in 2005 EU25 EU15 Magyarország Hungary full scale electronic collect information download forms send completed teljeskörű infromációszerzés űrlapletöltés kitöltött űrlapok administration forms elektronikus beküldése ügyintézés Source: Eurostat 12/86

13 Individual users of e-government services avail of the opportunity in proportionately lower numbers than enterprises, and Hungary s lag behind the EU15, and the EU25 is also significant. Users with limited sensory capabilities suffer from further drawbacks of accessibility. It must be added that neither the EU, nor the Hungarian figures are particularly favourable at any of the service levels (Figure 3). Table 4. Percentage of individuals having used e-government services in the past three months EU EU Hungary Source: Eurostat Figure 3. Percentage of individuals having used internet and electronic public services in 2004 EU-25 EU-15 Magyarország search információszerzés information download hivatalos official űrlapok send kitöltött completed űrlapok forms forms letöltése beküldése Source: Eurostat One of the obstacles of wide-scale social acceptance is that the available applications are not widely known by either the citizens or businesses who often do not have the skills required for use. Also, the use of the applications is not always simple. An other factor that explains the lower interest shown by the users is that the development of the applications was not driven by social demand but rather by central programs on a mandatory basis. The level of information technology used by the institutions and the entire institutional system has a fundamental effect on the growth of social penetration and on the development of electronic public administration services and content intended to promote information society. The quality and structure of applications used by public administration institutions may greatly vary. According to the available data, the use of both internet and intranet is more widespread in public administration and in the municipal governments of larger communities. Meanwhile the volume of duties to be performed is rapidly increasing. In recent years - the number of first instance cases completed has steadily increased due also among others to the expanding economy and has come close to thirty million by today. 13/86

14 The spread of electronic solutions is also hindered by the following factors: Access to broadband internet is only available within strong confines. For this reason public access (e.g. tele-houses, e-hungary points) is of great importance. In this area the foundation has been laid since public internet access in villages has by now reached the critical mass. The opportunities and skills of certain groups of citizens (pensioners, people living with disabilities or living in remote country areas) in computer use and handling online content present further limitations in the use of e-administration. Furthermore, client satisfaction surveys carried out regarding business management in public administration show that only 25-30% of the society is immediately open to electronic administration, the remaining people would rather wait out. Clients can only access few services electronically, which respond to their actual needs (e.g. they can submit tax returns electronically, a services needed primarily by the state, but can not query the position of their contribution accounts). Practically all areas of the modernisation of public services need a modern IT background. The situation in some of the most important sectors for the OP is the following: The standard emergency management model, which is becoming a routine practice in the European Union, has only been implemented at a formal level in Hungary. Info-communication between the organizations involved in emergency management is inefficient. There is no standard, uniform mission or action control that could promote efficient decision-preparation and support during emergency management. In the same way the info-communication system used to exchange information between law enforcement and intelligence services is inappropriate, paper based and slow. Electronic taxation has undergone significant development in recent years. As a result, for example, in % of all taxpayers and 63% of enterprises and one-man businesses downloaded the forms used for their tax returns from the internet. These figures also indicate that tax-related services similarly to all the other EU member states are among the most sought-after. The developments, however, will only turn into a system that makes the everyday lives of the people easier if the services answering the needs of the clients (for instance query of the contribution accounts) also become available, and electronic payment becomes possible. The renewal of the IT background related to the management of public finances is a critical area that might affect the compliance with the obligations undertaken to the EU (convergence program). At present the many isolated systems can only provide follow-up information (with significant delay), preventing a tight rain on finances. Impressive developments were carried out on the client side (e.g. electronic tax returns), but in consequence of the underdeveloped background systems the data thus collected can not provide up-to-date information for government level management. Thus, before any further advance can be made, it is necessary to put in order the background systems by developing their capacity for processing and providing material information. With the development of the customer service side of the central system of document offices it has become possible to initiate administrative matters electronically through the Government Portal on the basis of a voluntary agreement between the authority and the client. The system allows customers to make an appointment over the internet for any matter that is handled by the document office. For most matters however, due to the lack of electronic payment, fourth level services are still in the far future. Until electronic payment becomes possible this service also does not represent a significant step forward from the point of view of the client. 14/86

15 The electronic submission of cases to be managed is very expensive in a case-by-case approach, which is also a reason for the slowness of its acceptance. The expenses could be reduced significantly with the introduction of administration and document management systems adapted to the internal standards, and with the better utilisation of client services, these however require the further development of the central services ICT SUPPORT TO THE GOVERNANCE AND INTERNAL WORKFLOWS The results of programmes aiming to develop e-public administration have so far been marked by extensive development. Info-communication developments implemented on the basis of individual/local needs as opposed to comprehensive, overall developments have led to parallelism, the introduction of isolated, non-interoperable applications. Based on the achievements so far the e-government portal, the Internet Public Service System of offices of records (XR) and other developments it is only expedient to intensively develop public administration with main focus on effectiveness which ensures the overall and comprehensive application of centrally-developed standards. As a result, applications capable of intercommunication may be brought to existence in the public administration. It can be generally stated that the level of integration of applications based on infocommunication technology is low, and modern database managing applications are not widespread. In a number of cases modern technology is not coupled with appropriate knowledge on usage from the user. These circumstances have a negative effect on both the exploitation of the significant saving potentials on government operation and the improvement of administrative efficiency, which people would find particularly attractive. The penetration of electronic solutions is also hindered by the following factors: Strong aversion against change among the actors of the various levels in public administration, which makes it more difficult to promote development in e-government. The government is certainly not pro-active in satisfying the citizens needs therefore even the existing demands have not been properly determined. The legislative process permitting the utilisation of the latest achievements of information society is slow, while the fast development of technology demands a flexible environment. At the same time the opposite is also true: many legal opportunities remain but written text, because the related developments fail to come true. Occasionally the IT development concepts fail to contemplate the limits of the possibility to amend the legislation, and cause long delays in the start of IT projects. The reform of institutional culture and the preparation of public servants for e- government have received no appropriate attention so far. The procedures are nonstandardised so these processes cannot be made electronic. The 2006 OECD report 4 made the following main observations with regards to the government s e-government policies: Hungary has succeeded in developing the 20 services monitored by the eeurope programme of the European Union, has successfully put the government backbone network and the client gate into operation, owing to which the necessary electronic infrastructure is now available, and also there is opening to provide divided services. 4 OECD E-government project, Preliminary findings: OECD peer review of E-Government in Hungary, June /86

16 The key role in e-government developments is not clarified; it is shared among a number of central government institutions. Although the central government has launched some joint projects, there are few examples for horizontal cooperation and consequent smooth services. The relevant efforts are guided from an exaggeratedly legal standpoint, where it may well be a requirement for the central government institutions and the lower levels of government to implement e-government initiatives, however, they are doing this without synchronising the financial and human resources required for implementation, the necessary skills and the schedule of measures. There are many signs indicating that the government views the reform of state administration and the development of e-government as if they were two independent enterprises. It considers the development and operation of information and communication technologies in public administration as serving the clients through online services and not as a component in the steps to modernisation required for reforming public sector processes and the relationship between the government and the citizens. Government investment in electronic pubic administration must be implemented effectively. In order to successfully implement the e-government project, the Government of Hungary ought to reconsider its picture of e-government investments by looking into business case studies and corporate architectures and to promote implementation by the means of evaluation and monitoring public administration. The 2006 report on the results of information data survey in public administration made the following main observations: The greatest problem is the lack of information strategy and information plan in the administrative bodies. Third of the organisations under review and even more surprisingly half of the ministries did not have an information strategy and plan. A large share of organisations do not know or do not apply the recommendation on the information strategy of government institutions, consequently the available strategies are quite wide-ranging. The amount of money used for information purposes in recent years has been slowly declining. The primary reason for this is the recently introduced cost-saving measures, which naturally also affected IT developments. As for the future, further growth is forecast. Although the number of projects is expected to fall significantly, this will only be the intensification of a process started in previous years. As a result of the process, the amount of money allocable for each project will significantly increase parallel with the increase of overall sums. There is a strong trend towards the concentration of projects. There is similar level of concentration with regards to the institutions implementing the projects: disposition over the available money is in the hands of a relatively narrow institutional circle. This circle possesses 65-75% of all IT funds and it is clear that institutional concentration gradually increases year after year, i.e. the total amount disposable by this relatively narrow institutional circle is gradually expanding while the amount available to other institutions is left to stagnate. A large share of IT developments therefore is associated with a relatively narrow institutional circle. As for the project objectives, there too realignment could be observed with regards to the amounts spent on development. Recent changes in the proportion of the information devices category are evident; after the previous decline, there is a trend of growth again. The share of network development is steadily decreasing, the internet category seems to stabilise, while strategic planning and audit are gradually expanding. After significant expansion in the software category, there is strong decline at present. The trend in the 16/86

17 administration category is the opposite of that for software; after a decline it will have a significant role among the project aims. The conclusion that can be drawn from the practice of the last years is that by concentrating on not demand driven developments and on the categories included in the statistics data collection it has been possible to achieve some development with the available funds. But significantly larger funding would be necessary to attain qualitative changes in the operation of public administration. Without these changes the back office developments are lagging behind which will have negative effects on the service provision as well. There are severe differences in the expansion and development of electronic services offered by Hungarian state administration both in terms of quantity and quality. In order to mitigate these differences the role of regulatory activities must be increased. If central coordination based on common interests is successfully implemented at overall government level too, the institutional e- government strategies and plans will most effectively define the circle and content of e-services to be developed, the necessary regulation, the IT background, the individual and organisational knowledge management, and the necessary EU cooperation. While the role of central public administration as an electronic service provider is relatively uniform, the local governments show a significantly more heterogeneous picture. The document offices are the exception as they offer services based on uniform principles and networks. Most local governments do not yet have a valid strategy with development plans for informatics for the introduction of a common e-government and the need for strategy making at micro-regions has only emerged in recent years. Without such strategy it is impossible or at least extremely difficult to carry out successful developments s. The ability to cooperate with central public administration systems is an important criterion of local government developments. The state of IT at local governments can be described as follows: - almost all (96% 5 ) local governments had at least one computer; 44% of local governments with computers had an internal network operating, and 63% of them were using an electronic bank account management system; - 92% of local government offices has internet access, with a steadily increasing expansion of broadband connection (at present 53% of local governments have broadband access); - electronic document management systems and open source code software are not widely used; conventional training forms and techniques dominate in the IT retraining of employees. In 2005 the current IT-related expenditure of local governments was up by 11% - higher than the inflation rate against the 2004 EUR Information technology had accounted for the largest share of expenditure. It must be noted that fixed phone-related expenditure is extremely high amounting to EUR in Source: Use of info-communication technology and the provision of e-services of local governments throughout the country using a representative sample of Hungarian local government offices, Central Statistical Office, December /86

18 2.3. CENTRAL HUNGARY REGION The above-said are basically true to public administration in Central Hungary too, with the difference that due to the special situation of the region, problems also have different weight. Nearly one-third of Hungary s citizens live in this region, and as the capital is also situated here, the central units providing the background for public services are also installed here. Nearly half of the income generated in this region is realised in the form of public services. For this reason the public service profile is and will remain significant in the economy of the region. Budapest is the centre of national public services and the top of public administration hierarchy. Accordingly, disregarding local government activity, the extent of back-office type government activities is outstanding in Budapest. This means that there is an enormous potential in the development of electronic public services and government back-office processes in the region for the implementation of large and complex state organisation projects, for a profound rationalisation of general government processes and improvement of their efficiency, for the establishment of smooth and single-window services based on internal state cooperation. 2.4 REGIONAL DIFFERENCES In terms of equipment with info-communication means, there are fundamentally no differences that could be traced back to geographical reasons in public administration. It can be demonstrated that within state administration certain regional organisations and within the local government sector, the mayor s offices are more poorly equipped with assets in terms of both volume and quality in smaller communities than the offices of the central administration and larger towns. This, however, does not relate to geographic location but budgetary opportunities and other factors public administration. Geographic differences can be shown, however, in the social media of electronic administration. Households and to a minor extent businesses access to the Internet from home has a closer correlation with the per capita income situation and through this the geographic location. This operational programme, however, has no direct impact on this situation. 2.5 EXPERIENCE OF EARLIER PROGRAMMES The Government of Hungary approved the Strategy of the Hungarian Information Society in The objectives set for HISS rest on two pillars: the modernisation of processes taken in the broad sense of the word, and the modernisation of front-office services. The sector-specific strategies, including the egovernment strategy were elaborated in line with these objectives. The programmes accomplishing the aims of HISS achieved only partial results, not fully congregating into a successfully focused development, corresponding to an overall strategy. During the elaboration of electronic public administration, the parallelisms due partly to the prevailing structure, part of the funds were inefficiently used. In general the earlier electronic public administration developments were narrow focused mostly on the instant realization of the isolated goals. For example the online access of the EU 20 basic services were set up within two years to make them reachable through the web, but the systems 18/86

19 can not handle a great number of cases, because the lack of the development of back-office systems. It is needed to give up this practice, because it gives quick results without long term sustainability. In order to meet the targets set in the abovementioned strategies, the Electronic Backbone Network was established within the state administration which provides the basis for the government s electronic infrastructure. Nowadays this network provides two basic services: Information on 264 administrative cases are accessible via the Governmental Portal ( From 2005 and on this is complemented by the Client Gate which in line with the data protection regulations enables the online starting and handling of such administrative affairs that needs the authentication of the clients. In 2006 more than clients were registered on the Client Gate. 6 The experiences gathered from the functioning of the Governmental Portal and the Client Gate show, that the online one-stop-shop system is the best solution to offer electronic public administration services to the clients. This system is easily extendable with new services, it offers easy access for the clients to the services and a good platform to reach the municipalities. For its benefits the centralized services are in the focus of the development of the electronic public administration. On the other hand, experiences also show that the development of the horizontal front-office systems can not be effective without the parallel improvement of the back-office systems which manage the administrative cases. The municipalities, as target group, were in the focus of the measure Nr. 4.3 of the Economic Development Operational Programme. The measure consists of two parts: the development of information service activities by local governments and the secondary utilisation of databases in the possession of local governments. According to experiences, coherence is weak between these two components. When the above-indicated measure is evaluated, it must be clearly seen that the development concepts of the target group are difficult to measure, as targeted support generates rather than satisfies demand. The needs and development concepts of the target group are subdued and the implementation risks are greatly enhanced by the fact that support intensity amounts to 87.5%. In the case of both applications the problem was encountered that the majority of local governments submitted applications for the implementation of various systems without being familiar with the database for the use of which they had defined the projects outlined in the applications. In the project plans they first envisaged the purchase of an IT system and the survey of the database and the concept of its utilisation by the local government was planned only as a subsequent step. The primary reason for this is that due to the financial situation of the majority of applicants, they could not afford the costly survey of their own data properties until support was uncertain. One of the main grant criteria of measure 4.3 of EDOP was that settlements with population under 10,000 people could not apply alone. The low rate of own resources reflected the true financial position of the local government sector in Hungary. The expected number of population prompted local governments to apply together for grants, which helped the spreading of the elements of the public administration reform and encouraged organisational centralisation and technical standardisation. The results of the implemented grant programs affected 20% of the local governments and 65-70% of the Hungarian population. 6 Source: Summary of the activities and results achieved in the IT developments in the governmental sector and in the electronic governance ( ), PMO EGC Hungarian version: misc.meh.hu/binary/7854_beszamolo_honlapra_2006_06_08.pdf 19/86

20 The targeted second or third level of service appears attainable. The applicants consider the fourth level of service unattainable for several reasons: the legal regulations are full of contradictions, there are no national or international experiences, the IT solutions are hard to integrate, no sufficient expertise is available on the supplier side, and the volume of real user demand is not clear. An evaluation of the impacts of the measures related to the first National Development Plan indicates that in the case of the institutions frittered on the level of official operation they have a direct effect on the work performed by the organisation, while in the case of the isolation of the population, these effects are also felt by users. If time is also considered as a dimension, it can be established that while the changes in the efficiency of office operation are fairly soon felt after the system or certain modules of the system are put into operation, their impacts on the population are likely to appear only after years. The appearance of local government IT strategies and the quality improvement of ITC-supported working places are direct favourable impacts. In connection with the latter, favourable changes are seen in the IT use and approach of the office staff. In the current state of implementation, cost-reducing impact can hardly be detected, and the evaluation of maintenance and operating costs is not clear either. Local government offices expect improved operating efficiency; however, it is increasingly clear that they will only be able to perform the increased amount of work this way. They expect external communication to accelerate and improve in efficiency, which is confirmed by the favourable changes seen in the IT skills and approach of the staff members of these offices. As an indirect impact, planning facilitated the rationalisation of processes, and system operation will provide for transparency and verifiability. At the same time, in the implementation of the Economic Development Operational Programme, as a result of the structure of the grant application in some cases the was not possible to ensure a cost of development proportional to the value of the result, that is, the investment was disproportionally bigger then the benefit for the clients. An other problem was, the isolated applications unable to communicate were developed characteristically reflecting the supply side of the IT market. In summary it can be stated that the call for applications under sections and in the Economic Development Operational Programme have fulfilled their original purpose and the overall aim set for the priority, the development of egovernment. At the same time, it is essential to learn from past mistakes, thus for local governments the development of egovernment must be incorporated in a central programme and centrally elaborated standards are required in order to avoid isolated developments, with the provision that local governments must be able to finance the solutions in the long term. 2.6 SWOT-ANALYSIS Strengths qualified staff with a high rate of IT specialists there are existent e-government solutions, even at the level of local governments in certain special fields, there are good practices for the application of electronic systems in the sector (e.g. taxation) a government backbone network and a Weaknesses instead of costumer-oriented attitude there is institution-centred functioning the prevailing approach and operational practice does not capitalise on the opportunities offered in an information society mostly legislation-oriented operation isolated applications 20/86

21 government portal have been established integrated administration centres (document offices) have been set up the 20 public services highlighted by the European Union have been informatised to a major extent Opportunities the information society and increasing social needs press for changes in public administration information technologies develop rapidly capitalisation on the opportunities inherent in IT solutions, hereby improving efficiency and transparency, and cutting costs compliance with the government-related requirements of the OECD and the European Union, and familiarisation with the best practices of other countries international data exchange for the purposes of services (within the EU) the opening up of EU funds for use in order to develop public administration developments reduce geographic inequalities and increase chances for people living with disabilities the public database underlying the services are not up-to-date, not detailed enough and inappropriately structured the organisational structure is highly hierarchical, workflows are insufficiently standardised slowness in legislation related to information society may become a barrier to developments low level of monitoring and control, personal responsibility is lacking lack of a strategic approach and planning, no impact assessment are made public administration is not careful with the financial resources of either the state or the customers the existent e-government systems are insufficiently complex, fail to extend to several significant issues, and they are used by a definitely low number of users there is no uniform framework for the use of the systems (thus including identification) Threats aversion to the information society and its adaptation in public administration the preponderance of statutory regulations that require two-thirds of the votes to pass and the lack of political consensus may prevent the introduction of optimum IT solutions data protection regulations may impede interoperability and the implementation of the optimum IT solutions due to globalisation and increasing migration, growing difficulties in public administration the cultural barriers of information society and the evolving digital divide limits the number of potential users due to the political sensitivity of public administration, the programme is being influenced from several directions and no uniform control evolves 21/86

22 2.7 POTENTIALS The actions planned in the Electronic Administration Operational Programme can rely on the following potentials: - in the field of electronic public administration several systems providing appropriate basis for the further development are functioning (e.g. client gate, government backbone network, governmental portal etc.); - the operation of the network of docum ent offices have proved that several official affairs can be nearly fully processed online and the time required for administration can be reduced to a few hours; - the electronic developments carried out in the field of the management of tax buinesses show that electronic business management can be made acceptable to the citizens and businesses; - the factors that hinder the use of the systems implemented up to now were identified (that e- payment, the non-repudiation of legal statement are not possible, etc.) so planned and fast advance could be achieved by solving them and - the legal foundations are available (the implementing provisons of the act on the general rules of public administration pocedures, the act on electronic signature, government decrees relating to document managenet, etc.), and through smaller amendements could be necessary, there is no obstacle preventing that most critical developments start as soon as possible. 22/86

23 3. STRATEGY 3.1. ADJUSTMENT TO THE STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT The aim of the New Hungarian Development Plan is promoting the stable growth and the widening of the employment. In order to reach these aims the development plan defines six development priorities. One of these is the realization of the state reform. The Hungarian state fundamentally indirectly assures the conditions for the growth and employment by providing the governmental functions with expectable quality and reliability. At the same time according to the state goals it influences indirectly the economical development as well. The quality and efficiency of the state functioning influences both the business environment, the competitiveness of the enterprises and the quality of life of the citizens. Among the state tasks the field of the administration and public services is determinant: the central and local levels of the administration, and providing public goods and services. The subject of the operational programme is the development of all the abovementioned, according to the need of the modern age, based on the possibilities of the information society. By the denomination of the accented fields the services and managing functions aimed by the developments of the programme must be determined. The task of the widening of the administrative capacities belongs first of all to the State Reform Operational Programme financed by the European Social Fund, the sphere of activity of the present operational programme is directed to the electronic public services. Accordingly financing the resource of the operational programme is the European Regional Development Fund. This operational programme includes the modernisation of the functioning, the procedures, processes and services of the public administration, organisations of defence, and the jurisdiction through the exploitation of info-communication technology, and of the aimed at the identification of the clients, as a common element of the public services provided by info-communication means. The program involves all sectors of state administration, but priority is to be given to the development of the central functions to be used in the form of services by all specialised systems. Other info-communication developments of public services are comprised by another operational programme. Meanwhile special attention should be paid to interoperability. All priority axis of this Operational Programme contribute to the accomplishment of the intervention of the Community Strategic Guidelines denoted as Promote the information society for all under the guideline 1.2. Improving knowledge and innovation for growth by the development of the information society namely by increasing the efficiency of public services. The Operational Programme is directly related to the 8 th guideline of the Revised Lisbon National Action Programme (the promotion of the proliferation and utilisation of infocommunication technologies and the complete development of the information society) and within that assists the actions aimed at the utilisation of the ICT in the field of local administration and public services, the development of the digital content and the ICT content sector, the network information-security and interoperability, as well as the setting-up and application of broad-band infrastructure. The operational programme indirectly assists several other actions of the National Reform Programme, especially regarding business environment. 23/86

24 The program contributes to the creation of better workplaces for the people in public service through the development of the IT devices available for work. Thus, it improves the quality and not the quantity of employment. The programme in its content harmonizes with the initiative of the 2010 European Information Society for Growth and Jobs, with special regard to its part concerned with e-government. In conformity with the union norms the unimpeded treatment of the digital content must be emphasized. The actions determined in the programme were elaborated in line with to valid domestic strategies (i.e. HISS) the coupling together of the conceptions is continuous on a strategic level. As the main goal of the State Reform Operational Programme is to realize a change of culture in the operation of the public administration, the Electronic Administration Operational Programme focuses on establishing a new attitude towards the developments of the electronic public administration services. The new approach has two pillars: every each project will be examined by the linkage with the strategy level of the system developments, how it serves the horizontal aims. The second pillar is the centralization of the horizontal services which can offer solutions for all systems (e.g. electronic payment) to avoid parallel developments. These two pillars can repair the defects which were stated in the analysis. Paradoxically the new approach gives a calculable background to ensure the success of the developments and in the same time a mean for flexible adaptation to the perpetually changing infrastructural ICT environment. During the evaluation of the planned projects the capability to adapt to the new ICT achievements has the same relevance as the long term financial and technical sustainability of the results. If these conditions are taken and they fit into the planned information technology development of the public administration sector, the necessary financial sources will be guaranteed for the projects, in consideration of the value for money principle. The operational programme involves the development achieved in the Central Hungarian Region as well, because in the development of the electronic governmental services on the basis of the international experiences there is no reason for the isolating approach neither in territorial nor in any other sense. 3.2 OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES OF THE PROGRAMME Due to technical reasons the interventions formulated in the 6 th priority of the New Hungary Development Plan are accomplished by two separate operational programmes, which should be planned and implemented in line with each other. The reform of the state s function, public, administrative and other state services inclusive, cannot be separated from the reconsideration of the extension of the state s role and its regional composition, in consequence of it to reorganize the full functional spectrum of the processes and institutions. As a result, it must become clear by what means the Electronic Administration Operational Programme on strategic level is connected to the State Reform Operational Programme. The two operational programmes aspiring to reform public administration and public services wish to achieve the same objective with the help of two kinds of intervention, two different financing rules, and relying mutually on each other. The overall objective of the operational programme is to improve the performance of public administration. In contrast to the State Reform Operational Programme, this programme intends to achieve this objective by the support of spreading electronic public administration. If the most recent IT is 24/86

25 consciously applied, public administration provides more possibilities than earlier for the preservation and stabilization of social values. Simultaneously the information system connecting directly and promptly together the concerned and applying feedback at decision-making, makes the management processes more transparent, and helps to understand them, decreases the unnecessary procedural actions adapting to the circumstances, and following these processes more reliably it separates cases that can be automatically handled from those that requires human intervention. Strengthening the character of service provider and the renewal of the workflow are prerequisites for the improvement of performance. The wrong public administration methods of the offices and the defenceless situation of the clients must be terminated. Since success and career of the members of the society are determined much more by their family and dwelling place than by their abilities, and there are many people among us who are not able to improve the circumstances of their lives due to their age, state of health, or disabilities, the disadvantages originated from the regional access, personal facilities, or age must be counterbalanced. The institution-oriented approach will be replaced by a service- and client oriented approach. The overall objective can be reached, if the planned interventions of the Operational Programme satisfy the needs of the clients and the public administration. Nationwide client satisfaction surveys carried out in the last two years stated that one fourth of the citizens is opened to use web based administration services and a bigger ratio of them is ready to use services through mobile phone, but there is a significant demand to the personal contacts. Of course these ratio will be modified by the planned developments, but according to international experiences, the above mentioned three ways for accessing e-government will exist side by side in the long run. This demand of the citizens appears also in this Operational Programme, which supports the development of all the three ways to ensure the freedom of choice. The satisfaction of the demand of the public administration is the adaptation of the new technologies but gradually and in a forecasted way. Our objective on the other hand is to make the functioning of the state more efficient by reorganisation of the governmental processes, and then supporting them by means of ICT. By the introduction of ICT-supported internal processes the optimal allocation of the resources becomes possible. There will be possibilities of reorganizing, outsourcing and concentrating some processes to make them streamlined. These measures demand developments on the means side. A flexible institutional system must be formed that is able for rapid reactions, changes and by its professional functioning it can renew the internal functioning of the governmental institution systems satisfy the need of the citizens and the business sector by the help of public services in accordance to high and uniform standards. The latter comprises the realisation of the network of connections between the institutions and the clients as well. By fulfilment of these objectives the improvement of the business environment, and by this way, the enhancement of the competitiveness of the country will be possible in an indirect way. To the realisation of the overall objective the following specific objectives are necessary: 1. the effectiveness of public administration services must be improved, and 2. the operational efficiency should be increased. 1. Complex measures must be taken in the interest of the improvements of the effectiveness of public services. The most important projection of this is the permeating of the service 25/86

26 provider view into the functioning of public administration. In the first round it means the organisational and processional support of the client-oriented approach. The final target is the forming of such value added services by which the participation of the client and the subcontractors are continuously able to accommodate to the external needs. It should be granted that access to the services both in electronic and personal way should be given, which guarantees the possibility of the choice between the different ways of access. At the services available on electronic way it is an objective to enhance the transaction level of the public electronic services from the stage of the simplest passing of information until the data share and data transformation level, which can be done in a cost effective way. By the integrated approach and by thorough organisation of the services it must be achieved that the clients could make use of the services at the possible minimum time and in the most tailormade way because this is the only way to get real advantage of the service. The interventions enhancing the stage of the services should be accomplished keeping in mind in every case the criteria of value for money, and with cost-benefit analysis. It can be achieved if the higher functional expenses due to the higher level services are covered by the resources saved on the ICT-supported internal processes and the simplifications. 2. The improvement of the effectiveness of the services should be understood not only in connection of the clients but also in the relations of public administration bodies. The increase of the operational efficiency of public administration depends on the quantity and quality of the available information, so it depends on the information-exchange among certain bodies as well. For example the creation and assurance of applicability of the connection between the governmental databases is an essential precondition of good governing (included decisionmaking and monitoring). After the rationalisation of the different workflows between the governmental units (including the international relations as well) should be standardized, then the appropriate infrastructure for the functioning of the network connections must be established in line with them. The forms of communication must be realized in a way that the governmental bodies could support a more effective and well-coordinated functioning of the government. In case of the development one must carefully pay attention to the principle of gradualness, the disturbances accompanying the changes should be minimized. In the first phase the aim is to build up the centrally available services (and the creation of the necessary legal background), afterwards the implementation of the sectoral developments which will use these services. During the operation of the central services the experiences will be gathered and the operating system corrected if necessary. The ASP-centres that will provide their services to the municipalities should be operated on the ground of the interest of the connected bodies. For the preservation of the country s financial stability, the development of special services in connection to convergence programme has a high priority. Though the IT support of local governments is not covered by this operational program, the goal nevertheless is to introduce IT applications that ensure access to IT services to local governments throughout the country while retaining the principle of voluntary participation. This will ensure real-time virtual connection between state administration and local governments, access to secure applications to local governments and the interoperability of management systems. We must see that the service levels concerning the whole country are concentrated in the capital. Therefore, Budapest deserves a distinctive attention. However, on the long term the site independence of IT services should be better exploited and with the proper selection of the location the opportunity for lower operating costs occasionally accompanied by other advantages as well should be made use of. 26/86

27 The following figure shows the system of goals and priorities of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme. Overall objective Improvement of the performance of public administration Specific objective Improvement of the effectiveness of the public administration services Increase of the operational efficiency - public administration as service provider - providing three ways of access to the services (via the internet, by telephone and face-toface) - value for money - rationalisation of the workflows - developing central IT-services - underpinning good governance Priority axes Developments aimed at improving access to public services Preferential developments Renewal of the internal procedures of public administration and public services The specific objectives complement each other, therefore no one-to-one correspondence can be drawn between the objectives and the priority axes envisaged to carry out the objectives. The interventions of the program serve both to increase effectiveness and efficiency: no objective can by itself increase social benefits to an extent corresponding to the resources available to the OP. Therefore the goal is for public administration to perform its tasks effectively, at the same time sparing resources, that is efficiently. These are the objectives the priority axes serve. The table below demonstrates the indicator dedicated to the overall strategic objective 7 : Overall objective The performance of public administration should improve Indicator The use of electronic public administration services by citizens/businesses as a result of the program The programme desires to achieve the above objectives by the following priority axes: 1. renewal of the internal procedures of public administration and its services; 2. infrastructural developments aimed at improving access to public services (delivering the services to the clients); 3. preferential developments as well as 7 The indicators and the target values assigned to them can be found in the 4. supplement 27/86

28 4. technical assistance both for the Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objectives as horizontal priority axes. Neutrality of the technology is an important standpoint at the accomplishment of the actions covered by the priority axis. Contrary to the former electronic governmental solutions, the principle of neutrality of the technology should be enforced in the field of the communication technology, or in the scope of the software environment. It should be avoided that the citizens and enterprises may be forced to choose a related product from the market due to the deficiencies of governmental services. During the preparation and implementation of the electronic services, mainly regarding the creation of ASP-centers, all kinds of software solutions will be taken into account, those based on open source as well. When choosing the most appropriate solution, besides the technical aspects the total cost of ownership of each choices should be elaborated as well. During the accomplishment it must be assured that the development should fulfil the objectives of the IT-security requirements set in an adequate risk assessment. It is not only an information technology requirement, but contributes to the increase of the confidence of the users with the applications. The information-technological and procedural security of the services has a distinguished importance by warranting the appropriate standards, procedural disciplines and possibilities for action of the network security and assuring the preservation of the information existing only in electronic form for a duration as long as it is compliant on paper. The implementation of the strategy needs to analyse shortly the regulatory framework. As it was stated in the section about the potentials, the basic legislative conditions are sufficient to set up the IT developments in the public administration, though in two aspects the legislative background determines the efficiency of the developments. In one hand the framework should be refilled by the government and the local municipalities with the specific regulations. These regulations are different by regulatory areas and by municipalities. In many cases there is a need for the approval or modification of the mentioned regulatory acts. The preparation is partly the task of the State Reform Operational Programme but also the task of the project owner if it is in its own competence. On the other hand the regulation on the personal data protection is one of the strictest in the EU which fact can not be avoided during the implementation of the OP. The table below shows the complementary structure and logical connection of the actions to be accomplished from the operational programme and from the State Reform Operational Programme. 28/86

29 Figure 4: The structure and logical connection of the developing actions supporting the reform of public administration and administrative services and their representation in the two operational programmes 3.3 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE HORIZONTAL OBJECTIVES The operational programme contributes to the horizontal targets of the New Hungary Development Plan in the following way. From the aspect of sustainable development (sustainability of the environment) the infocommunication technologies applied should contribute to the reduction of the materials and energy required for the operation of public administration, and with the propagation of the use of online services, this effect should extend to the clients as well. Sustainability has additional further aspects too in the operational program. In relation to the society the programme provides identical access to the service to the different groups of society. The contribution to the sustainable state in macro-economic meaning is realized by cheaper functioning of the state, but the benefits appear on micro economic level as well, projected on the singular services. In the safety projection of the sustainability the security of the services must be guaranteed in each case. The programme due to the character of its means will serve equality between men and women, prevention of any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and ensuring accessibility for disabled persons in an indirect manner. The only projects that can be financed in the framework of the programme are those, where the project owner accepts these principles as binding and enforces them in the operation of the organisation. As it was mentioned before, e-accessibility will be prioritised in this process. These principles are enforced not only in respect of the beneficiaries, but also in respect of those who participate in the implementation of the program, first of all the managing authority and intermediate body 8. The program intends to achieve regional and social cohesion by assuring access of the administrative services equally for everybody. At the same time it is part of the functional logic of the programme allowing the wider access to it, first of all the highest social benefit provided by 8 In the selection of the intermediate body too, the prevalence of equal opportunity between genders and the prohibition of discrimination is of utmost importance 29/86

30 the programme. The conscious utilisation of the flexibility in the electronic systems makes it possible that the special social groups among others the disabled people could access customized services by the utmost convenient way for them. In order to strengthen regional cohesion the Electronic Administration Operational Programme contributes with its own tools to reduce the regional differences. In order to ensure regional cohesion we will continuously monitor the allocation of financial funds in the regions and especially in the disadvantaged and highly disadvantaged small regions during the whole period of the programme. These results will be incorporated in the yearly monitoring reports. In the course of implementation of the strategy one has to consider several risk factors for the purpose of their mitigation. Such are the legislative commitments. For example the acceptation of the detailed regulations permitting the utilisation of the latest achievements of information society. In order to handle this factor, the amendment or acceptance of laws hindering the planned interventions will be initiated in due time. It must not be disregarded that when starting the Operational Programme, the potential beneficiaries are in most cases lacking the needed project management skills which would be important for the successful implementation of the planned interventions. One of the aims of the State Reform OP is to spread these competencies in the public administration, that means as time passing by, the situation will improve in this regard. Till then emphasis should be laid on the management side of the planned projects. Last not least, a possible personal and organizational resistance against the change of approach to be supported by the Operational Programme must be taken into account. These risks will mainly be managed through a managerial decision on the use of the relevant IT system. 3.4 SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP The operational programmes were released by the National Development Agency in 16 th October 2006 for consultation with the social partners and simultaneously all the 15 programmes were made accessible on the home page. Opinions were accepted until 8 th November The methodology of partnership harmonisation was based on the methods applied during the discussions of the New Hungary Development Plan. The Agency invited about 4000 partner bodies professional, business federations, and non-governmental bodies among them indirectly by post, or by electronic letter to take part in the harmonisation. The social discussion was open, since from the homepage of the Agency anyone could download the operational programmes with the forms belonging to them on his listed address. The basis of the consultation was an electronic, structured questionnaire, which made easier technically the processing of the submitted opinions and their incorporation. A total of 38 organisations submitted their views on the draft of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme, with more then 110 comments. The majority of the opining organisations were professional organisations, followed in number by the organisations reflecting business and local governments. Environmental organisation did not submit their views on the Operational Programme. The submitted opinions could be previewed on the homepage by anyone for the sake of transparency. The Agency also held discussions on the draft of the Electronic Administration and the State Reform Operational Programmes with the professional and social partners involved in the form of workshops. 20 professional, scientific and non-governmental organisations, opinion formers of the issue were invited. The dates of the consultative forums were shown on the homepage, but we have accepted the application of those organisations as well who had not been invited. Edited 30/86

31 memorandums were composed on all discussions, accessible on the homepage of the Agency as well. The Operational Programme was on the agenda of one of the prominent macro-forums, the Economic and Social Council as well as of the National Development Council established on 5 September All opinions submitted by the due date were processed by the Agency in a spreadsheet form indicating the accepted, refused and the partly acceptable status of the comments, with detailed justification in the two latter cases. The final decision about the acceptance of the proposals made by the partners was made by Operational Programme Inter-departmental Coordination Committee and then by the Planning Operational Committee. After the evaluation of the accepted opinions and recommendations the organisations giving their opinions have got customized answers like regularly until now after closing each social negotiation. The most important modifications on the base of the partnership coordination of the operational programmes: - Regarding the local governmental developments there will be a possibility to establish a few centres providing application services on the charge of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme that the local governments can connect to. - It has been emphasized separately that the non-governmental organisations undertaking state tasks and the economic local governments can be supported to the degree of their task assumption. - The security side of the sustainability come into light - The priority axis and the indicators belonging to them became more exact - The innovative initiatives will be supportable. 3.5 CONNECTION WITH OTHER OPERATIONAL PROGRAMMES This operational programme requires the government s involvement in order to develop the information society and an action coordinated with the operational programmes which may directly contribute to the development of the information society. In respect of relations with the individual operational programmes, the following shall be taken into consideration: 1. The State Reform Operational Programme contains the following: laying the foundations for process reeingneering; the development of human resources to aid process reengineering and implementation of the related organisational development measures; The connection between the objectives of the two operational programs are shown in the following table: ESF-OP specific objective ERDF-OP specific objective Effectiveness X X Efficient use/operation of X X resources Improvement of public services X 31/86

32 2. The Social Renewal Operational Programme developes the background for working from home which may be instrumental for this Operational Programme. 3. In respect of the Social Infrastructure Operational Programme apart from the operations up to the identification of users in the field of IT and e- services development made in connection with human public services which is the subject-matter of this OP, all developments related to sectors will be performed in Social Infrastructure Operational Programme; the Social Infrastructure Operational Programme envisages updating the IT system serving labour market institutions and in respect of digitalisation, this operational programme undertakes only those actions which directly serve the operation of public administration services. 4. The Economy Development Operational Programme extends to the creation of an upto-date public ITC infrastructure, i.e. broad-band developments, which are prerequisites of meeting the herein specified criteria of access to the services. 5. The Electronic Administration Operational Programme does not extend to local governments, supporting only the establishment of the national network of the so-called ASP centres available to local governments. The regional operational programs finance the one-off infrastructure development costs required for local governments to connect-up to the ASP centres. The connection with the Central Hungary operational programme should be underlined. This program contains the local government IT developments confined to the region. 6. The Environment and Energy Operational Programme includes developments of the IT and monitoring systems of environment, that s why these are not supported by electronic adminsitration operational programme. Of course the general measueres of this operational programme (eg.: case handling and processing) covers the environmental public administration bodies. Beside this the 1. prioity axis of EAOP contains the developments of functions of emergency organisations, which facilitates the fulfilment of certain environmental emergency tasks. 7. The Implementation Operational Programme contains the info-communication developments related to the uniform electronic monitoring system as well as the not central, client oriented developments, while this programme facilitates the creation of interoperability between the databases (among them, databases connected to development policy). The Electronic Adminsitrtaion Operational Programme supports the development of central services to be used by the institutional system of development policy. Consistency between the programmes is ensured by the coordinated implementation of the New Hungary Development Plan. 3.6 THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE EX-ANTE EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAMME The ex-ante evaluation of the operational programme was accomplished by the consortium constituted by the EX-ANTE consulting office the Compudoc unlimited partnership, MEGAKOM Strategic Consulting Office, selected by public procurement. During the evaluation there was a tight connection between the evaluators and the projectors, as a result of it the text of the programme has been matured. 32/86

33 The evaluation report stated that the operational programme is essentially appropriate, concerning the profession its competency, elaboration the logic of the actions it is satisfactory, altogether few shortcomings can be found in it. The ex-ante evaluation assisted significantly the development of the program, contributed in a great extent to the improvement of the quality of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme. As a result of the repeated bilateral and multilateral harmonisations with the ex ante evaluators the following main fields have been changed in a positive direction: - At the beginning the interventions of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme and the State Reform Operational Programme were formulated along their own but basically independent logic, which were corrected later on. Adjusting the objectives and priorities together both OP-s were elaborated so that they plan their actions along they own logic but support each other according to their possibilities, assuring the synergies. - The style and tendencies of the operational program shifted away from the angle of IT systems with development potential to responding to the practical development requirements of public administration. - From the earlier position analysis it was not clear that these IT systems of public administration require a thorough modification this sphere of thought was put into the document with the necessary details. - The target system of the OP with respect to the overall and the specific targets has been clarified. The targets follow from the survey of the situation and from the SWOT analysis, and the priority axis can be deduced from them. - The intervention logic became more consistent, the connection between the specific objectives and the priority axes was clarified, the table demonstrating the connection of the objectives and the priority axes illustrates well these relations. - The set of indicators of the operational program have been improved to a great extent, and now almost all of them meet the methodological requirements posed to them. At the same time, the evaluation indicated deficiencies, on which no agreement could be attained with the evaluators (after each remark of the evaluators one can find the response of the planners): - In the analysis of the situation it would be practical to give place to a wider analysis of the client gate s experiences. The planners did not agree, since there has been no such evaluation prepared by independent experts and thus, all observations would have been basically subjective. The operation of the client s gate has shown its incapacity to handle large loads, but the operator was able to remedy this problem in time. It is apparent at the same time that the client s gate will soon reach its capacity limit and further development will become necessary. - The evaluation of the experiences of the earlier programmes concentrates strongly on the 4 th priority of the Economic Development Operational Programme. It is necessary to demonstrate how the lessons of the earlier programmes will be transformed into directions appearing in the strategies. Among the earlier programs, measure of the Economic Development Operational Programme referred to merited special attention due in part to the grant amount and in part to the concentrated time in which the grant was used. This is the reason the evaluation of this program was shown in detail. It is not, however, the only source since the OECD country 33/86

34 report repeatedly referred to in the evaluation of the situation analyses the experiences of other developments, principally those to state administration bodies. - The document does not denote the desirable extent of shift to the requested professional directions to consider the OP successful. It is not evident, what are the plain objectives of the government. The degree of the shift was determined with respect to the requirement of value-for-money. At the same time the objectives are clearly reflected by the priority axes: the establishment of central services, followed on their basis by specialised sectoral developments, with the endeavour of conserving and gradually increasing the level of services in connection with the clients, based on the demands of society. - The topic of the risk assessment appears in a superficial way in the strategy. Risks has been assessed in suitable depth as they were also discussed in the chapter on analysis and strategy. - The priority axes are well elaborated in themselves, but there are problem to be solved that appears in more priority axes, which will make the fulfilment more difficult. During the changes to the operational program the over-lappings have been eliminated. - In the case of certain indicators the determination of the baseline and the target value is missing. In the case of indicators based on surveys the surveys will be carried out in 2007 and the baseline and target values will be supplied without delay. 3.7 OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON THE STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EAOP This section sums up the conclusions of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the OP, with regard to how environmental considerations have been integrated into the Electronic Administration OP, how the environmental report was prepared, the opinions expressed and how the results of evaluating potential transboundary effects were taken into account, and the reasons for choosing the programme as adopted, in the light of the other reasonable alternatives dealt with. Moreover, this section summarises the measures decided upon for monitoring significant environmental impact. This section is the official statement of the Hungarian Government related to the operational programme adopted, based on article 11 of Hungarian Government Decree 2/2005 (I.11.) "The environmental assessment of certain plans and programs" and based on Article 9 of the Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment. The process of the strategic environmental assessment for the OP In order to facilitate the application of the sustainability and environmental aspects, as well as to comply with legal regulations (Directive 2001/42/EC hereafter Directive and its national adaptation, Hungarian Government Decree 2/2005 (I.11.) hereafter Government Decree), strategic environmental assessments (SEA) for the operational programmes have been commissioned by the National Development Office (predecessor organisation of the National Development Agency). The objective of the environmental assessment was to encourage in cooperation with the ex-ante evaluators and the social partners, the integration and application of environmental and complex sustainability aspects during the preparation process for the NHDP s operational programmes. 34/86

35 During the SEA process, special emphasis was put on consultation, communication with partners and presenting partners ideas to planners. The NDA, being responsible for drawing up Operational Programmes, selected a consortium through open public procurement to carry out the SEA procedure; 9 this consortium was led by Respect Kft. The methodology of the SEA report, based on Annex 4 of the Government Decree, and Annex 1 of the Directive was available to be viewed by official and social partners (according to Article 7 of the Government Decree), and was discussed at a partnership forum on 19 June Official bodies (stipulated by Annex 3 of the Government Decree), representatives invited from NGOs and scientific organizations, as well as government bodies participated at the forum, some of whom also submitted their opinion in writing. In line with approved methodology, the preparation of the SEA has been supported by documented reconciliation with the planners. The preparation of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme yielded several opportunities for official, state and social partners to put forward their opinion, especially on environmental and sustainability issues, as follows 10 : During the first partnership of the EAOP (between 18 October 2006 and 8 November 2006, social partners were notified by post about the implementation of, among others, their environmental comments between 14 February 2007 and 31 May 2007). In the process of the ex-ante evaluation (the official participating bodies of the process) In the process of the SEA evaluation (civil organizations and bodies taking part in the interviews and forums of the SEA). The consultation of the SEA Report and the OP (between 15 November 2006 and 14 December) was open to any social stakeholder and specific invitations was sent to the main environmental authorities and NGOs. The above processes were based on the same draft of the OP (16 October version). The text of the OP was completed while incorporating the findings of all of the consultations. During SEA consultations (15 November 14 December 2006), open for all, where relevant environmental NGO s and state organizations were directly addressed. In accordance with Article 8 of the Government Decree and Article 6 of the Directive, the SEA report was subject to consultation from 15 November 2006 for a 30-day period. The consultation was made available to the general public on the NDA website and in a national newspaper. During SEA consultation, the NDA provided a multi-channel option for receiving partners comments: partly on the website of the NDA and partly through a web interface. In case of the EAOP, a forum was held on 29 November 2006, with the participation of the organisations defined by the Government Decree. The comments on the SEA of the EAOP reconfirmed most of the findings of the SEA, and suggested some further issues. After amending the SEA report in accordance with the 9 Other members of the consortium were: Corvinus University of Budapest (Department of Environmental Management and Technology, as well as the Department of Landscape Planning and Regional Development), Environment Awareness Corporate Management Association and BFH Európa Kft. 10 The process also provided the opportunity to mediate discussions between the SEA evaluators and the planners. 35/86

36 consultation, the SEA team discussed the new version with the planners. Following these negotiations, final versions of Operational Programmes were handed over to the Commission. Following the submission of the programme, the NDA published the final SEA report and a summary, which are available at the website. The final SEA report clearly shows how the comments and responses have influenced the OP. Summary of how environmental considerations have been integrated into the OP 11 A detailed and comprehensive evaluation on the development of the EAOP as a result of the SEA can be found in the following report: "Az Államreform és Elektronikus Közigazgatás Operatív Program környezeti vizsgálata". This document can be downloaded from the website of the NDA. The main conclusions of the SEA and the position of the planners: Proposition According to the report, the direct environmental effect of the OP is not significant but all the more pronounced is its effect in implementation on the satisfaction of environmental and equal opportunity considerations. Due to its nature, the program affects environmental sustainability directly by material and energy use in the course of operation of various institutions. Due to its indirect effect, the significance of the program is extremely high: it can indirectly influence environmental and economic sustainability via sustainability requirements determined in relation to central and individual operative programs, as well as their further propagation shaping public awareness. As regards societal sustainability, it affects the latter by shaping information systems and various administrative procedures for the enforcement of which, a clear commitment to the basic principles of sustainability must be manifest. The report emphasizes that the Electronic Administration Operational Programme must adapt to the internal logic of the State Reform OP and it must serve for its implementation. Responses Reasons for choosing the programme as adopted, in the light of the other reasonable alternatives dealt with 12 We are in agreement. We are in agreement, the OP satisfies this. This has been basically satisfied because the two OP have similar objectives, moreover, the Electronic Administration OP will provide for the electronic implementation of the processes transformed by the State Reform OP. However, in addition, due to the fact that the 11 According to Article 11(b) of the Government Decree, and Article 9.1.b. of the Directive 12 According to Article 11(b) of the Government Decree, and Article 9.1.b. of the Directive. 36/86

37 From the aspect of societal sustainability and in general, feasibility of the program, it is important that the inclusion in the new logical system goes far beyond creating the basics of IT compatibility, joint databases and registries. The risk is too high that the planned measures will fail due to the resistance of the involved parties or the Constitutional Court if they are not founded on detailed sociological and legal impact studies. These must chronologically precede IT modernization, otherwise, they have a destructive effect on the sense of safety of people working in the relevant institutions, as well as the familiarity regarding their own administrative affairs, the quality of their work performance and their loyalty. In order for the infocommunication technology (ICT) to serve people as a tool, an indispensable condition is that the necessity and characteristics of applications be determined as deduced from societal and public service processes and starting out from relationships of human coexistence. According to the report, if this is not performed this way, a great hazard exists, namely that the ICT may become a goal out of a tool. In the intervention axes of the operative program, the emphasis is transferred too fast to justifying planned developments from an IT point of view while the State Reform Operative Program does not provide adequate foundation for its institutional, sociological and clear legislative conditions. The report emphasizes that during program implementation, individual attention must be devoted to the requirement that societal groups that are disadvantaged for economic, social, regional or other reasons should be able to properly assert their interests. The SEA recommends the introduction and application of integrated regional evaluations, which are based on the assessment of regional ecological systems with the help of geographic information systems, as well as the analysis of spatial and temporal patterns (e.g. based on the MÉTA5 Programme). For each operational programme, detailed assessment criteria and a Electronic Administration OP is an independent OP, it naturally has its own internal logic. The present operative program has been supplemented by the analysis of risk factors affecting program implementation and the method of their management. In the course of implementation, the indicated risk factors will be monitored, as well. It is natural that the Electronic Administration OP follows its own internal logic. At the same time, connection points between the Electronic Administration OP and the State Reform OP will be recorded, which will be adhered to during implementation. Moreover, the logic of the Electronic Administration OP serves directly the criterion of sustainability: partly via horizontal objectives and partly by eliminating parallel developments. This is the reason why reinforcement of a method of access based on personal contact is an objective in the area of access, which is included in the Electronic Administration OP. This will be incorporated into the monitoring system and the monitoring measures. 37/86

38 monitoring plan should be developed parallel to the development of action plans, containing the programme of measures to follow the SEA. The social partners and national authorities main comments The received comments during the SEA mainly underpinned the statements of the SEA and partly asked for some changes. Proposition The EAOP (Electronic Administration Operative Programme) does not present the differences between individual regions with regard to preparation to IT application and the availability of necessary instruments. It would be important to present the status of services related to the preparation for various procedures. In a great many cases, no satisfactory service exists regarding preliminary information, which would prepare for individual types of cases, related administrative procedures and the opportunities of preliminary information supply. The OP does not discuss the question of the extent of workload increase with regard to the administrative institutions (e. g. as a result of EU accession), and in what areas, to what extent it has occurred and what can be expected in the near future. In this light, the reduction of general employment, institutional rationalization, technology change and various situations of the quality of personnel are difficult to assess. With regard to the OP, we recommend the following to be included among SWOT strengths: large number and activity of civic organization; among opportunities: increase of the role of civic organizations (as encouraged by the EU, as well) in the areas of planning, implementation and monitoring, new opportunities for state involvement. Among potentials, we recommend to mention civil societal backgrounds, as well. Responses Reasons for choosing the programme as adopted, in the light of the other reasonable alternatives dealt with 13 This is true, because its reason is related not to regional differences but to community sizes. This aspect is included to an extent necessary for the implementation of the OP. The OP states the general lack of this factor and subpriority 2.1 serves for the improvement of the latter. This remark concerns the State Reform OP and not this one. This remark concerns the State Reform OP and not this one. 13 According to Article 11(b) of the Government Decree, and Article 9.1.b. of the Directive. 38/86

39 Both authorities and NGOs emphasised the importance of monitoring, the role of civil control in implementation, and the minimum sustainability criteria in the project selection. See section on monitoring measures. Transboundary effects 14 In terms of the strategic nature of the operational programmes, based on the available information, significant transboundary effects can not be properly addressed. At the same time, the SEA draws attention to the fact that in the hierarchy of strategic documents, a need arises to analyse the sectoral level strategic programmes and concepts prepared prior to the OP and which have served as the basis for it, in terms of this aspect. Examining the text and contents of the EAOP it can be stated that the implementation will not cause any important transboundary effects. Based on the hierarchy of strategic documents, the Hungarian Government carried out bilateral consultation with neighbouring countries government of the main concepts in the NHDP, especially the transboundary investments. Moreover, in the programming hierarchy, at lower levels than the OP (in action plans and calls for applications), it is necessary to make further analysis based on the necessary details of possible significant transboundary effects. This work has to be carried out in co-operation with neighbouring countries. Monitoring measures 15 EAOP planners agree with the SEA that an unavoidable problem is posed at OP planning level, by the fact that certain objectives may act in contrary to each other. Therefore, the individual environmental effect of the application cannot be assessed based on the general text in agreement with SEA recommendations in EAOP action plans and during the implementation. This means that at further Operational Programme planning levels (action plans, calls for applications), sustainability aspects of possible alternative support solutions shall have to be considered on an individual basis. Therefore, relevant guarantees were introduced in the implementation section of the EAOP, with special regard to: sustainability criteria (minimum criteria for the acceptance of applications), the Sustainability Guide assisting the principle of sustainability and environmental organisation membership in the Monitoring Committees. Horizontal indicators, including environmental ones, will be regularly assessed as part of the OP monitoring and evaluation process. These monitoring elements were built into the existing monitoring and management system of the EAOP to avoid duplication of monitoring. 14 According to 9. of the Government Decree, and Article 7 of the Directive. 15 According to 12. of the Government Decree and Article 10. of the Directive. 39/86

40 4. PRIORITY AXES For the purpose of implementing the goals formulated in the strategy chapter, the main purpose of the interventions is to increase the usage of the electronic administration and community services, the development of the service provider state and the improvement of efficiency. The aim of the operational programme is not to make the existing systems electronic, but it starts from the operational methods and organisational development corresponding to the state reform and within that, public administration reform of the Government, and aligned to them rethinks the necessary background information system. To this end and mainly based on the actions of the State Reform Operational Programme the rationalisation of the internal functioning of the institutions, the harmonization of the institutional and inter-institutional processes, the improvement of the effectiveness and level of services will be carried out using the possibilities of IT. This will require certain central developments, the further development of the departmental IT systems in line with the central systems, if possible, adjusted to changes due to depreciation. It will also be necessary to rationalize and consolidate different data bases and where it is justified and is made possible by legislation, to interconnect them or assuring data linkage between them. From the view point of clients, it is important by transforming to improve the quality of the existing services, assuring access to the services by realizing new services, assuring equal possibilities of access, minimizing the cost and time required for the use of the service, and from the aspect of public administration a significant improvement of the functional efficiency. While scheduling the actions a proper transition period must be assured for introduction of certain electronic services and for a reasonable time the old form of the services must be maintained as well. In line with the extreme urgency departmental IT systems needed for the fulfilment of the convergence programme, starting from the upper levels of the central administration the new technology must be introduced gradually, and based on the experience gained, continuously adapted to the real acceptance. The principle of gradualness and the temporary conservation of the traditional functioning are necessary for assuring the equal opportunity of the citizens as well. A further advantage of the parallelism is that there is a possibility for the declaration of preferences, assisting by this way the continuous evaluation of the programme. At the same time in the case of the G2G developments the transition times should be minimized. The objective of priority axis 1 is to carry out the electronic developments within public administration, that is to provide G2G services. Priority axis 2 improves access to the services of the state (G2C and G2B). Priority axis 3 contains the interventions of the first two priority axes in the Central Hungarian region covered by regional competitiveness and employment objectives. 40/86

41 4.1. PRIORITY AXIS 1: RENEWAL OF THE INTERNAL PROCEDURES AND THE SERVICES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Objective: to improve efficiency in the functioning of the state by the reorganisation of government processes through their subsequent electronic support. Indicators: online public administration services as a result of the programme the average time of case processing at certain procedures of the state administration the rate of state administrative bodies with case-handling authority providing online (third level) services the rate of EU 20 procedures available online The aim of the priority axis is to carry out the internal developments in the operation of public administration necessary for the ability to provide electronic services, which will enable the provision of IT based (G2G) services within public administration. At the same time, these developments will create the background for the services to be provided to the citizens (G2C) and businesses (G2B); the foundation for their accessibility will be provided by the interventions of priority axis 2. Sub-priority 1.1 besides ensuring the accessibility to the central services supported by sub-priority 1.2 also ensures the modernisation of departmental services. Subpriority 1.2 covers the development of the central services to be used by the departmental systems. At the same time, these interventions also serve the development of the public administration in line with the EU development programs, principally the i2010 program. These interventions could affect all public administration businesses, procedures and processes regardless of being carried out by state administration and/or local government bodies Electronization of the processes of public administration services The objective of this intervention is the electronization of public administration services and to raise the level of transactions. The 20 common basic public services required by the EU will be established in a standardised, uniform framework.futhermore other e-government driven standard/requirement specifications of the public administration services which affect the most the clients will be determined, and on the basis of these specifications the electronization these service processes will be managed. The revision of the processes and the amendment of the related legislation underlying the standardization and electronization will be carried out in the framework of the State Reform Operational Programme. The transformation of the sector-specific professional systems regarding public administration services is built on the possibilities provided by the central services, and during their development consideration must be given to the uniform standards for the diverse forms of relations among governmental units (including international relations). the aim when defining the forms of communications is, that they support the more efficient and co-ordinated operation of governmental bodies, eliminate parallel activities and aid the implementation of act CXL of 2004 on the general rules of public administration procedures and services. From the side of 41/86

42 organisational development and the development of human resources State Reform OP helps the implementation of actual development demands. Furthermore, the following are also included: a) In general the ICT developments of the public administration organizations and the sectorspecific systems according to the above mentioned principles. b) The renewal of the procedures and IT support of judicial system and the registry court, The court procedures need to be rationalised, and IT developments need to be carried out to support the new procedures in order to reduce the time for resolution taking and judgment (the task of the State Reform OP). c) Setting-up service centres for local governments. The electronic public administration for local governments will be realised through the co-ordinated developments of the regional operational programs. In order to avoid isolated systems a local public administration framework will be set-up applicable throughout the country; the central tool of this framework will be the application service provider (ASP) servicing local governments. The hardware infrastructure that supports the operation of the local electronic public administrations and the applications available to them can be concentrated in a few such ASP centres. In this way even the low budget small institutions can make use economically of the most sophisticated infocommunication technologies. When establishing ASP centres it is necessary to take into account that the whole scale of state administration activities must receive support, the reengineered processes and procedures, as well as the local government IT developments carried out in the framework of NDP I must be considered, with special attention to taking further the experiences of best practice. The grant systems of the regional operational programs will have an important role in propagating the e-administration services implemented in the framework of the ASP centres. Though the operational program does not take up the informatics developments of local governments in general, since for local government developments the interoperability with the central public administration systems is an important criteria, the establishment of the central co-ordination and knowledge base definied under the section of 1.2.i), and the implementation of the infrastructure for common use is part of the program. d) The State Reform Operational Programme supports the establishment of the organisational structure of certain institutions followed by the adaptation of the institution models to the other institutions. The institution models are task-based organisations, and the uniform IT support of their internal management system will be carried out as part of this sub-priority. e) Depending on the grant resources available after the development outlined below have been completed, the IT background of law enforcement, emergency organisations and public persecution offices will be enhanced in order to provide efficient answer to the new social and international challenges and through that, to conserve the quality of life of the citizens. In the implementation of the intervention also the development strategies of the different areas, the definition of interoperable set of applications and databases ensuring uniform (standard) interoperability, as well as the establishment of centralised monitoring and security in certain areas, which will allow regulated development must be provided for. This intervention will cover all organs of local power including public and economic bodies (e.g. chambers) as well as non-governmental organisations (including churches), which perform state tasks, to the extent of the state tasks performed. Besides infrastructure developments also the improvement of content services aligned to the needs of the clients and public bodies in the case of internal clients will be supported. 42/86

43 Establishment of the central electronic services required for the efficient operation of public administration The aim of the intervention is to replace with central services as far as rationally possible the parallel sectoral elements in order to avoid parallel developments and unnecessary operating expenses. The Enterprise Architecture determines on the basis of the central infrastructure the standards and other norms and specifications of the services of the central system. This architecture enables to provide quick and safe flow of information among the various sectors of the public administration and to the clients. On the other hand, it provides that the information will be accessible from each and every point of the public administration via the central services through the same means and the same content. The Enterprise Architecture describes the structure of the actions needed to reach a target of a government objective including the necessary workflows, regulations, information needs and information flows, the clients and the technology. In other words, this is a kind of harmonization of the governmental and IT actions with the setting-up of one common frame of standards that enables for the various governmental bodies to cooperate in a coherent and cost-effective way during the egovernment initiatives. With regard to the open sources and the EU regulations and the good practice of the EU Member States these standards, architectures and service models will be regularly renewed. This will be the task of a competence centre or a network of centres. The establishment of central services includes especially: a. Support to the establishment of data links among public administration systems. It is a basic requirement in order to increase the level of service to make the information stores in different registers, whenever the law allows, available in all locations where they are required. The sub-priority, instead of establishing one-to-one data links among the systems, provides central support in line with the legal possibilities especially to the following tasks: Updating and electronization of the current registration systems. The consolidation and updating of the central registers and the changeover from paper to electronic solutions is a fundamental element in establishing data links among the public administration systems. Implementing the transmission of data in registers. In governance operating as a whole and supported by integrated infocommunication no data shall be repeatedly demanded from the citizen, which is available in a register of an other authority if the citizen gave his/her prior authorisation to the use of the data registered at other authorities. Since the citizen can not be obligated to grant his/her approval, it is necessary to develop a public administration strategy and procedure, which fully guarantees the enforcement of the citizen s privacy, but at the same time can provide a comfortable management of business to those who chose the effective solution. Implementation of simplified announcement/declaration. In co-operation with the operational programs involved (State Reform OP, Social Infrastructure OP) the data supply required on different titles connected to financial, state budget and other (labour, insurance) legal relations will be reformed in the following way: the data supplier will only have to capture a data once for a report function and all institutions involved will receive it directly. This also requires the establishment of central support. 43/86

44 The establishment of interoperability among registers, sector-specific professional systems. The ad-hoc forms of data links established between sectorspecific professional systems must be gradually replaced in public administration by the standardised, simpler and cheaper to manage forms of data links. The first to be changed will be the synchronisation type data link of the population and address register data with the other subsystems and the change of the other data links will continue based on the experiences of this development. b. Implementation of electronic document management. In public administration except for the management of official businesses set forth in separate legislation filling systems (recording arrival/filling/administration support/archiving) compatible with eachother and ensuring both efficiency and the compliance with the changing legislation will be introduced, and within that a uniform system will be introduced at the singled out institutions of the central administration. As a first step, the uniform document management system will provide inter-departmental electronic data exchange for the purpose of managing businesses for the ministries, later, on the basis of the experiences this will be extended to standardized tasks and to the other institutions of state administration. The centralised management of the areas below could advance this endeavour: the implementation of secure electronic mail among institutions; the achievement of the security and interoperability required by the service used in the correspondence with clients; the achievement of the capability of tracing documents, for the ministries the filing itself; the digitalisation service (not excluding the large sector-specific professional systems perform their own special tasks autonomously); the ensuring of the long-term conservation of electronic documents. c. Modernisation of the financial and economic operation. One of the long-term obstacles that hinder the increase of efficiency is the non-transparent use of public money, the negligible effect of financial and feasibility aspects on the functioning of the system of institutions. The aim of the intervention is provide to all involved parties in place of the current follow-up registers, up-to-date information background on the financial and economic tangible processes, including the immediate and accurate tracing of public revenues and expenditures accessible to all involved parties without delay. The modernisation of the financial processes will at the same time create the possibility to make electronic payment generally available, and to cut back paper based receipts. The principal development areas of the intervention are the following: - The establishment of the budget planning, central budget and management support system for the treasury and state budget organisations, providing comprehensive services to all state budget institutions from the origination of the allocated funds through undertaking of obligations to the financial performance, and creating transparency for the utilisation of public money. - Modernisation of the large revenue collector systems by making them ready to provide faster and more client friendly services, and within that, especially the implementation of the tax payer centred data management capacity to replace the current slow reacting document based concept for the customs system, the execution of the internal developments for one stop management of business. 44/86

45 - The modernisation of the large expenditure systems (for instance the family subsidy system due to its importance) in order to eliminate potential fraud and to introduce a more effective subsidy provision. - The introduction of electronic public procurement. Public procurement, and within that, centralised public procurement is an especially important area for improving efficiency. These developments, besides building on the general central services, must also build on the uniform financial management services, the implemented e-payment systems, and must be fully in line with the emerging development directions of the EU, taking in consideration the requirements of the participants of the public procurement market of the European Union too. d. The efficient support of the work processes of public administration organisations, by establishing the informatics conditions for group work, project type work and workflow-based work. By organising the processes in a manner that allows the propagation of telework and flexible electronics based employment in public administration, also equal opportunities and efficient organisation are enhanced. In this way disabled people condemned to unemployment for physical or health problems can be employed as well. e. For the purpose of creating good governance and to provide the IT conditions required to ensure the functions related to the member state status management monitoring and decision support systems will be implemented to enhance the position of the managers (both to monitor the activities of the organisation and the performance of the staff), electronic applications will be implemented to support both the legislative process and the access to legislation, electronic solutions to promote the participation of the civil society and systems aiding implementation. f. IT development of the organisations providing back-office functions for public administration. For the more efficient utilisation of public monies informatics developments will be carried out at organisations that provide back-office functions (e.g. accounting of wages, IT, HR management, operations, the organisation of travels and the reception of guests) to the central public administration in a centralised manner. This will ensure not only a more economic operation but will also create the conditions for performance monitoring. g. In co-operation with the State Reform Operational Programme, the revision of the internal client relations activities of public administration bodies, and where necessary their reorganisation and transposition into electronic basis. h. The establishment of key security systems (e.g. for the management of qualified data). i. The changes in the work carried out in governance, the reform of the system of institutions, the new challenges the complex system of technological developments required to accomplish the above demand a new type of organisational operation. In order to contribute to the wide spread utilisation of electronic public administration applications the transfer of the most up-to-date knowledge, the development of standards and different methods, and the collection and dissemination of bets practices within public administration will be supported. 45/86

46 * * * Due to the multi-objective character of the Operational Programme, the priority axis No. 3 contains only developments implemented in the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective. On the other hand, in the case of developments of national effect but implemented within the Regional Competitiveness and Employment objective the financing costs of the project will be shared between this priority axis and the priority axis No. 3 in the case of that development. In the implementation the traceability of the accounts serving for basis of the cost sharing should be ensured. A separate project preparatory facility may also be launched from the priority axis. In every sub-priority of Priority 1 the actions serving the revision and standardisation of the effected processes and providing a comon background for them, an ESF-type actions will be financed under the framework of the flexibility instrument provided for in Section 34 (2) of Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC on the general rules of the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund. Furthermore, the trainings aimed at helping the use of IT applications resulting from the development will also be realised in the framework of this operational program. The prerequisite of the flexibility instrument is that it should serve directly the measure in question, and these can not participate in grants in the framework of the State Reform Operational Programme. In the framework of priority axis 1 it will be possible to provide support for experimentation, which intends to increase the efficiency of operation, or client satisfaction through new technical or organisational solutions. Such initiatives could be for instance: setting-up ASP centres, to provide services to local governments, implementing management monitoring and decision preparation systems in two regions at most, with an experimental character, providing IT support to the institutional models set-up in the framework of the State Reform Operational Program. In all cases the principal objective is to acquire and process development and operation experiences for utilisation. At most 3 percent of the sum allocated to the priority axis can be used for this objective. The following table shows the possible beneficiaries of each sub-priorities: Subpriority 1.1 Subpriority 1.2 Central administrative bodies + + Territorial bodies of the central administrative bodies + + Local governments and their associations + Courts, prosecution, defence bodies + Other administrative bodies + Companies in state ownership + + NGOs fulfilling the tasks of the state + 46/86

47 4.2. PRIORITY AXIS 2: DEVELOPMENTS AIMED AT IMPROVING ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICES (DELIVERING THE SERVICES TO THE CLIENTS) Objective: development of a service-oriented public administration Indicators: - avarage number of weekly visitors of the government portal - number of daily transactions on the Client Gate - number of persons with intelligent identifiers - the proportion of citizens and businesses making online payments to state administrative bodies The key objective of the priority is to deliver the actions required to better serve the customers, the citizens of Hungary. The development of internal services and the establishment and modification of background processes are carried out in the framework of priority axis 1. Subpriority 2.1 creates access interfaces, suitable for initiating business of a general nature, and enables the client to carry out full transactions when applicable. This intervention provides the front-office applications, which should be separate from the sectoral development actions. Such applications are the Government Portal, the Government s Customer Information Centre and the Client Gate, which provide the most important elements of customer access. In order to ensure the seamless operation of these applications sub-priority 2.2 provide for the development and upgrade of the network and safety infrastructure. Sub-priority 2.3. is dedicated to the introduction of a new system of electronic identification. On the user side, the above-indicated actions must be supported through another Operational Programme by expanding and improving (increasing bandwidth) internet access for the population and by providing (special) instruments of access, as well as setting up training courses for users. In each case, efforts must be made for obstacle-free content provision. In order to achieve significant take-up of services and to guarantee equal opportunities for all, special attention will be paid to the accessibility of services by minority groups (disadvantaged, elderly, women, low-income people and people living with disabilities), and the services they actually use Provision of service interface for clients The objective of the intervention is to allow the clients to access services electronically both in person and through remote access (from home or from public internet access points) while ensuring that the principle of equal opportunities in general is applied when it comes to access to front office services. The central client interface services (public administration IT infrastructure, virtual access) ensure that the use of public administration services by citizens and businesses are handled through a uniform infrastructure, with a uniform interface and with easy to learn procedures. This also enables two-way electronic communication and data exchange between the clients and government agencies.. The clients can use the Government Portal where, the client gate and/or actual sector-specific professional systems can be accessed as well as the Government Client Information Centre where they can get information through the phone and /86

48 For cost efficiency reasons it is our goal to make all electronic public administration services - requiring previous client identification - accessible through the Client Gate, where the authentication of identity takes place. The question of representation authority, will be solved in compliance with the requirements of data protection laws and by making use of central services (however in some cases certain institutions will be exempted due to legislative restrictions) An important element of the infrastructure is the storage capacity service provided to clients as well as to institutions. This continuous and reliable service provided on a 24/7 basis ensures that clients can initiate public service transactions, submit applications and supply data independently from time and space. The sector-specific professional systems can then process the cases with an even load which represents significant savings. The direct client relations services of sector-specific professional systems will not terminate (these will stay in place for a long time due to the data protection laws). However, the infrastructure also aids the implementation of these systems since electronic signature based identification and storage capacity can be provided in the form of embeded services as well. The acceptance of electronic services by society will be greatly advanced when citizens can get real time data about the state of their transactions (tracking and identifying transactions), not just simple notification. Such services strongly connected to the developments of priority 1 will be established on the basis of real social needs, assessing the expenditures required for implementation and for the provision of services and with attention to feasibility considerations. The continouos development of electronic administration neccesitates the urgent introduction of an electronic payment system. Support is provided to create the conditions for the introduction of electronic payment in connection to the development of the financial management system in priority 1, by connecting the accounting system of electronic payments to the public administration applications. In order to accomplish full scale electronic transactions it is necessary that payments made electronically and through a mobile phone be accepted. Since the general access interface for transactions is provided by the central system, client side support for the general connecting of payments could be justified. To this end the legislative background will be established, and based on it the service will be developed, if possible, in the form of a central service connected to the central infrastructure or at least integrated to it. The client side developments for applications not handled by the internal public administration services, or for applications not providing satisfactory forms of connection for the clients are also part of this intervention. It is also here, that the front-office services created during the development of the internal systems will be put to use, but they will be made available to the clients on the infrastructure of the physical or virtual service provider centre. The common territorial service centres provide personal, physical access. There are certain types of cases where conducting remote transactions will not be possible even in the future, while the principle of equal opportunities also demand that clients can do business in person. Befor the developments serving these aims the administration modell underlying the function of the cervise centres will be elaborated in the framework of State Reform Operational Programme. After this the development will be carried out in two stages. In the first stage an upgrade of government offices will be carried out. In order to exploit the wide range of sophisticated electronic applications support should be given to the implementation of the infrastructure required for the use of identification services. This means first of all the development (card reader, application environment, etc.) of the service centres of public administration handling heavy traffic loads (document offices, customer service centres), but in the case of offices using other public in accordance with the objectives of the state reform (for instance the verification service of the legal status required for social security eligibility) fast introduction will be possible only with central support. In the future, if required, e-administration information sites can be 48/86

49 operated in certain settlements (connected to the common service centres), where the citizens can initiate the administration of cases and access information of public interest locally. In the second stage due to the continouos development of the document offices the general and customer service centres enabling the use of sector-specific professional services. Gradually at least one common public administration service centre will be set-up in every micro-region. These centres will under the same roof povide for the joint customer service of the state admnistration bodies operating with district jurisdiction, and of certain local government cases of first instance and on a voluntary basis of public utilities and other service providers. In this way clients can handle their official business and get the information they seeek through a onestop-shop solution, saving time and money. In time it would be reasonable to merge the customer services of geographically scattered organisations in order to facilitate efficient information flow and a faster and improved service provision. This programme wishes to improve user skills through public information campaigns and intends to support training that is directly related to the introduction and use of the individual applications. We aim to accomplish these goals by exercising and staying within the boundaries of the flexibility mechanism Development of the Central Electronic Service System and IT security infrastructure The primary objective of the action is to create and provide central services for the various IT connections between clients, public administration and the institutions within public administration. The central infrastructure is based on the Electronic Government Backbone Network (EGB). The objective is to make EGB the internal administrative service provider of the e-administrative infrastructure, on-line access and other general network services. The safe and cost-efficient operation of the networks that provide the IT system infrastructure of administrative and public services requires the integration of the systems currently operating. If those independently operating institutions that have their own closed-system networks are connected to the EGB, maintenance and operation costs are saved, system use becomes more secure and will have more uniform strength, and services can be provided uniformly and on identical standards. As a result, public administration institutions will incur the costs of developing voice data integration and an up-to-date IP-based telecommunication service as a single investment cost. The safe and convenient use of government IT must be ensured by a simple government network of a layered architecture. The rules, regulations, procedures and safety measures required for the enforcement of high safety and data protection rules must be enacted. Simultaneously the following areas need to be covered: information risk management, electronic document management, identification and encryption, network security, the use of logically separated part networks and information technological product rating. The individual parts of IT security can be handled as important infrastructure services. Certain security enhancing services may be set up on the basis of previous experiences (and prevailing statutory regulations), however, adequate protection requires legislation regarding requirements and conditions. The protection of network connections between institutions and the elimination of security-related problems arising from internet access by customers is a priority.. A further task is the development and the operation of safety protections for the internal IT networks of ministries and other central administrative bodies as specified in law, as well as other voluntarily connected institutions of public administration. 49/86

50 In order to increase the use of IT in practice, the creation of further central services are required as well. Within public administration, the exchange of electronic documents (extended electronic correspondence) must be implemented in an interoperable way. The necessary preconditions for these are created by operation 1.2. As a fundamental service, the central infrastructure may include an aggregated store containing the data required for protected and authentic message connections down to the level of organisational units and users for ministries and designated central administrative bodies (besides addresses the public keys used for encryption and making electronic signatures, if there is any). Access to this register naturally requires authorisation through a special system. It should be pointed out that the security enhancements planned for the EGB also serves the horizontal enforcement of protection for the critical infrastructures. The provision of such network accesses which are not part of the functionality of the EGB but are required to access the central services and important for the implementation of this OP are part of the intervention. In general open access to the EGB should be provided for every acceding partner. Additionally, support should be provided for the initiatives directed at the development of the kind of standards required for the interoperable operation, expansion of the infrastructure used for the extension of access and interconnection, the spread of generally adaptable accounting application systems, the cryptographic solutions serving security and authenticity, and the development of metaservices relying on the latter Electronic authentication of citizens A high priority task in the creation of electronic services is the implementation of identification, and of the irrefutability of legal statements, which provide for the required safety in the case of remote access. The currently used password protection is unsuitable for the implementation of public administration transactions involving major risks. For this reason, an authenticatioin system made of at least two components, and a widely accepted solution for irrefutability must be introduced. An obvious method for this is to use intelligent means (e.g. smartcard). In connection with the public utility - but for data protection reasons probably as a separate element - the safe authentication of citizens and the system that carries out this function of authentication must be implemented (in the most cost efficient way, and if possible in connection with an already existing and compulsory document). The objective of introducing the intelligent authentication of citizens is to have suitably secure means for the identification of the citizens, to record their data and communicate with them and for administering their transactions. A task connected to the on-site authentication of citizens is the provision of intelligent documents that are mandatory due to international obligations (passport, international health card, driver s license. The developments contained in this measure also include the systems for issuing and accepting these documents. Since the highest cost factor in the provision of such documents is logistics, and it is advantageous also for the citizens if there is no need for having separate cards for each use, therefore if possible and where the international regulation allows such use these cards should be made suitable for conducting business with the government by electronic means within the national public administration. * * * Due to the fact that the Operational Programme covers several Objectives (multi-objective character), the priority axis No. 3 contains only developments implemented in the Regional 50/86

51 Competitiveness and Employment Objective. In the implementation the traceability of the accounts serving as the basis for cost sharing should be ensured. Separate project preparatory facility can also be launched from the priority axis. In the case of sub-priority 2.1. and 2.3 of Priority 2. the actions connected to the revision and standardisation of the effected processes, ESF-type actions will be financed under the framework of the flexibility instrument provided for in Section 34 (2) of Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC on the general rules of the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund. Furthermore, the trainings aimed at helping the use of IT applications resulting from the development will also be realised in the framework of this operational program for all sub-priorities. The prerequisite of the flexibility instrument is that it should serve directly the measure in question, and these can not participate in grants in the framework of the State Reform Operational Programme. Also in the framework of priority axis 2 it will be possible to provide support to experimentation, which intends to increase the efficiency of operation, or client satisfaction through new technical or organisational solutions. Such initiatives could be for instance: setting-up common public administration service centres in four micro-regions at most, and projects for testing the intelligent identification of citizens. In both cases the principal objective is to acquire and process development and operation experiences for utilisation. At most 3 percent of the sum allocated to the priority axis can be used for this objective. The following table shows the possible beneficiaries of each sub-priorities: Subpriority 2.1 Subpriority 2.2 Subpriority 2.3 Central administrative bodies Territorial bodies of the central administrative bodies Local governments + Micro-regional associations + Other administrative bodies + Companies in state ownership PRIORITY AXIS 3: PREFERENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS Objective: fulfilment of the aims of the 1 st and 2 nd priority axis in the Central Hungarian Region Indicators: Values of the indicators for the Central-Hungarian Region of the 1. and 2. priority axes The Central Hungarian region the only one among the country s regions is classified under the objective regional competitiveness and employment. On the basis of the experiences, the 51/86

52 development of electronic administration cannot be efficiently implemented without a uniform central control. This is confirmed by the experiences of an interim evaluation of the first National Development Plan. This is why this operational programme contains the measures on the development of electronic administration and public services. However, this is only possible if the operational programme has a separate priority for the Central Hungary region as a region falling under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective. This priority axis maps priority axes 1 and 2 on the Central Hungary Region. This is the reason for its two major directions of action Renewal and electronization of administrative procedures The purpose of this intervention is to implement the operations under priority 1 in this Operational Programme exclusively for the institutions located in Central Hungary. Thus, the electronisation of public administration processes, the projects aimed at the provision of central electronic services to support efficient public administration, and the modernisation of financial and economic operation can be financed. In this intervention mainly multiobjective projects will be implemented due to the fact that IT by nature crosses over geographic boundaries. The planned mono-objective projects are the following: - implementation of electronic document management system in the ministries, - improving the availability of IT equipment to state administration organisations in the Central Hungarian Region and - providing an ASP-centre to the municipalities in the Central Hungarian Region Developments for improving access to public services The purpose of this intervention is to support projects that provide adequate access to electronic services implemented in Central Hungary. Thus, it includes the provision of service interface to the clients, the further development of central electronic network and security infrastructure, and the intelligent identification citizens. In this intervention mainly multiobjective projects will be implemented too. The planned monoobjective project is the following: creating common territorial services centres in the region. * * * In the case of projects implemented in the Central Hungary region but having nationwide impacts, the financing costs of the project concerned will be divided between this priority axis and priority axes 1 or 2, whichever is affected by content. The funding to be born by the Central Hungary Region is in line with the rate of the public administrative bodies operating in this region as percent of the total of public administrative units 16 (13.39%), and the remaining part (86.61%) will be assigned to one of the two first priority axes. In the case of both sub-priorities of this priority axis, the revision of the affected processes, the preparation of the standards and the common background and the training programs directly connected to them will require financing ESF-type actions in the framework of the flexibility instrument provided for in Section 34 (2) of Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC. 16 According to the data supplied by the Prime Minister s Office on the 1 st of September 2006 this was 13.39% 52/86

53 The fundamental principle of the flexibility instrument is that the project must be directly related to the purpose of the measure concerned and these projects can not participate in grants from the State Reform Operational Programme. Separate project preparatory facility may also be launched from this priority axis. Also in the framework of priority axis 3 it will be possible to provide support to experimentation, which intends to increase the efficiency of operation, or client satisfaction through new technical or organisational solutions. Such initiatives were only shown for priority axes 1 and 2, while in the Central Hungarian region at most 2 pilot projects can be implemented. For this purpose at most 3 percents of the funds allocated to the priority axis can be used. The following table shows the possible beneficiaries of each sub-priorities: Subpriority 3.1 Subpriority 3.2 Central administrative bodies + + Territorial bodies of the central administrative bodies + + Local governments + + Micro-regional associations + Courts, prosecution, defence bodies + Other administrative bodies + + Companies in state ownership + + NGOs fulfilling the tasks of the state PRIORITY AXIS 4: FINANCING THE IMPLEMETATION OF THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME (TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE) IN REGIONS FALLING UNDER THE CONVERGENCE OBJECTIVE Objective: successful and efficient implementation of the Operational Programme in the Convergence regions Indicator: The implementation rate of supported projects [ratio of approved projcts (granted support) to actually implemented developments (in closed projects)] Pursuant to Section 46 in Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC, the funds are available for financing the preparation, management, monitoring, evaluation, information provision and control activities of the operational programme, including the reinforcement of the administrative capacity required for the implementation of the funds. In the period between , the resources for technical assistance are present at two points: in the technical assistance priority axes of the operational programmes and in the horizontal Implementation Operational Programme. The division of labour between the Implementation Operational Programme and the technical assistance priority axes of the Ops is based on the divison of tasks among the individual levels of the implementation system, the functions of each institution and their operational costs. In line with the above, 53/86

54 - the technical assistance priority axes of the OPs support the technical-operational management of the individual programmes, primarily the activities linked to the projects; - the priorities of the Implementation Operational Programme are aimed at supporting the strategic system activities linked to the New Hungary Development Plan and the operational programmes. The allocation of the financial means for technical assistance is the following: TA Allocation in per cent of the NHDP Implementation OP 1,3% TA priority axes of the Ops 2,6% Total 3,9% The technical assistance priority axes of this operational programme support two kinds of activities. 1. The technical and administrative arrangement of an operational programme (intermediary bodie s tasks) The intermediate bodies participating in the implementation of an operational programme manage the priority axes they are responsible for under the authorisation received from the managing authority and in line with its guidance. Major tasks of the intermediate bodies include: preparation of call for proposals and contracts; acceptance and evaluation of project proposals; the conclusion and amendment of support contracts; monitoring the implementation and progress of the projects; disbursement of the grants and working on the closure of projects; performance of on-site inspections; disclosure and reporting of offences; performance of OP-specific information provision and publicity tasks. (The detailed list of the tasks of the intermediate bodies is to be find in the chapter on implementation.) The tasks of the intermediate bodies are set in contracts concluded between the managing authority and the intermediate body. The intermediate bodies tasks related to the management of the operational programme are financed from this priority axes on the basis of the fulfilled tasks and its performance. One of the most important problems of the financing of intermediate bodies in the programming periode covering was that the occurred costs were all reimbursed, which gave no incentive for cost-efficiency. In order to avoid this problem the National Development Agency will finance the intermediate bodies in the current programming periode through their real performance. Where possible, lump-sum prices are used as the basis of financing (for example number of evaluated project proposals, number of disbursements and so on). (More details are to be find on the financing of Ibs in the chapter on implementing provisions.) 54/86

55 2. Carrying out specific tasks related to the management of the operational programme The priority axis also supports all the activities that can be specifically and exclusively related to the implementation of the OP. These include primarily the following: the operation of the OP monitoring committee and the provision of secretarial services to it; the preparation of annual realisation reports, studies and analyses about the implementation of the OP; and the preparation of evaluations that are not included in the NHDP evaluation plan and evaluations initiated by the monitoring committee. Regarding the multi-objective character of this operational programme and the legal obligations thereof, the activities will be financed through two priority axes. This priority axes covers only the six regions falling under the Convergence Objective. The financial means between the two TA priority axes were allocated according to the allocation of all financial means between the priority axes covering the Convergence Objective and the priority axes covering the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective of this OP. Therefore the allocation of TA among the two priorities are the following: TA priority axes for the Convergence Objective: 78,68% TA priority axes for the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective: 21,32% 4.5. PRIORITY AXIS 5: FINANCING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME IN THE CENTRAL HUNGARIAN REGION (TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE) IN THE CENTRAL HUNGARIAN REGION Objective: successful and efficient implementation of the Operational Programme in the Central Hungarian Region Indicator: The implementation rate of supported projects [ratio of approved projcts (granted support) to actually implemented developments (in closed projects)] Regarding the multi-objective character of the operational programme and the obligations arising from this fact, this priority axes covers the Central Hungarian Region falling under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective. The objectives and actions of this priority axis correspond to those described in priority axes 4. 55/86

56 5. FINANCIAL TABLE Division by the priority axis 17 Electronic Administration Operational Programme (CCI-number: 2007HU16UPO001), data in Euro at current prices Priority axes Convergence objective EU financing (a) Domestic indicative Domestic division financing (b)(=(c)+(d)) State (c) Private (d) Total financing (e)=(a)+(b) Ratio of cofinancing (f)=(a)/(e) Information data Other financial means EIB credits Renewal of the internal procedures and 0 85,0% n.a. n.a. the services of public administration Developments aimed at improving 0 85,0% n.a. n.a. access to public services Technical assistance ,0% n.a. n.a. Total ,0% n.a. n.a. Regional competitiveness and employment objective Preferential developments ,0% n.a. n.a. Technical assistance ,0% n.a. n.a. Total ,0% n.a. n.a. OP grand total ,0% n.a. n.a. Pursuant to the provisions of Article 53 section (1) point b) of Regulation 1083/2006/EC of the Council, the ERDF contribution is calculated with reference to the public eligible expenditure. 17 The categorisation of the intended actions comprises the No.2. supplement

57 Annual division Year SUM TOTAL Data in Euro at current price Structural Funds Cohesion Fund European Union total ERDF (3)=(1)+(2) (1) (2) In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions Total In regions without temporally assistance In temporally assisted regions TOTAL /86

58 6. CONNECTION WITH THE MEASURES FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT FUND The operational programme is adjusted to the interventions of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, assisting them. It should be emphasised that the operational program endeavours to enhance equal opportunities and regional cohesion. It helps this way the access of the rural population to the services of public administration and improves their chances in life. The developments of the EAFRD do not have any direct influence on the targets of the operational programme. The following actions formulated in the New Hungary Regional Development Plan (NHRDP) assisted by the European Agricultural and Regional Development Fund indirectly complement the actions of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme: - the possibility of the rural communities for better access to services (according to the EAFRD 3 rd group of measures: The improvement of the quality of life in the rural areas and the promotion of the diversification in the NHRDP action Nr: called basic services for the rural economy and population) and - Nationwide Rural Network. With the remaining two fields laying in the development axis of the EAFRD The development of the environment and the country and Leader, the Operational Programme has no relationship. There is no fundamental overlapping among the measures financed by the EAFRD and the priorities formulated in the Electronic Administration Operational Programme, since EAFRD intends to develop access to community services in settlements with less then 5,000 habitants and without city status and in areas with a population density less than 100 inhabitants per square kilometre. These services exclude the services provided by the public administration and will basically be of rural development and community development in nature. The public administration service providing centres to be set-up in the framework of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme will be established in the centres of the micro-regions. The services to be developed by the EAOP provided by these centres will be open and accessible for every citizen of that micro-region that means for those living in small settlements as well. Of course, the outcomes of the investments in the e-government solutions born by the EAOP will improve the access to the services of the public administration of those living in small settlements, too. The intention is to use the synergies between the above mentioned action of the NHRDP and the public administration service providing centres financed by the EAOP. The surveys carried out up to now have shown that physical access to basic public administration services poses no problem to the rural population, and therefore there is no social demand for the public administration service providing centres to be set-up in settlements smaller then towns. Although there are no overlapping among the measures, but the common territorial service providing centres could in some cases (mainly in microregions with small settlements) contribute to improving access to community services. These possible synergies will be revealed and relied on during the implementation of the Operational Programme.

59 7. IMPLEMENTING PROVISION FOR THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME The implementation of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme should serve as a certain model for public administration for the successful and effective operation. The fundamental standpoint connected with the elaboration of the implementing system is the summing up of the experiences of the period, developing a coordinated and effective system, the clear separation of the tasks and the circles of responsibilities, terminating the overlapping in the individual processes, to make the processes transparent and easy, and to create a client-friend system. This fundamental point of view should be continuously taken into account by all participant of the process, and by all levels of the implementing system. The following national legislation lays down the governing rules for implementation: Government decree 255/2006. (XII. 8.) on the fundamental rules and institutions in charge of implementation of support from the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund in the programming period MHPMO (Minister Heading the Prime Minister s Office)-MF (Minister of Finance) Joint Decree 16/2006 (XII. 28.) on general rules of implementation of support from the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund in the programming period Government Decree 281/2006 (XII.23.) on rules concerning establishing systems of financial management and controls in relation with receiving support from the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund in the programming period MANAGEMENT Strategy and Coordination Throughout programming and implementation the following aspects of coordination must be ensured: The coherence and consistency between development assistance financed from the Funds as well as from national resources; The co-ordination of programming and implementation between the different Funds EAFRD, EFF, structural funds, Cohesion Fund; Full exploitation of synergies between operational programmes within the NSRF, as well as eliminating duplications and conflicting activities; Taking into account regional considerations in case of sectoral OPs through the continuous involvement of the regional development councils; Ensuring that sectoral policies are represented in regional operational programmes through the participation of line ministries; 59/86

60 The programming and implementation of flagship programmes financed by several operational programmes at a time, including territorial development programmes covering more than one region; Ensuring the promotion and respect of horizontal objectives gender mainstreaming, equality between men and women and prevention of any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, ensuring accessibility for disabled persons with respect to Art. 16 of 1083/2006/EC as well as sustainability with respect to Art. 17 of 1083/2006/EC. The guarantees for coordination equally cover the phases of planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and feedback. In order to provide for efficient cooperation of the organisations the principle processes of coordination are defined by the legal framework. Institutional framework The overall coherence of strategic planning is ensured by the Government. For this the Government approves - the National Strategic Reference Framework (hereinafter referred to as the New Hungary Development Plan, (NHDP) as well as the operational programmes before they are submitted to the European Commission; - the action plans that describe the measures to be implemented by the operational programmes in full detail the schedule, budget, objectives, target groups, of the planned measures as well as the list of projects to be implemented without a competitive procedure, including the list of major projects; - any proposed amendments to the operational programmes prior to their approval by the Monitoring Committees. The Government evaluates the progress of the implementation of the NHDP and the operational programmes on a regular basis. In order to facilitate the co-ordination of strategic planning tasks related to the NSRF and the OPs, the National Lisbon Action Programme, the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and the rural development plan, the Government established the Development Policy Steering Committee (DPSC). The DPSC has the task of discussing proposals and reports to be submitted to the Government, including the delivery of an opinion on the OPs, the action plans, the content of the calls for proposals. (These functions are without prejudice to the functions of the Monitoring Committee.) As a further, high-level advisory body to the Government, the National Development Council (NDC) was set up. The NDC s members are: the Prime Minister, representatives of the regional development councils, delegates of the Economic and Social Council, distinguished experts, the invited members of the DPSC. The NDC evaluates the implementation of the development policy objectives, monitors the implementation of the objectives defined by the NSRF, and the enforcement of the development guidelines of the EU, and based on that, prepares recommendations for the Government. (These functions are without prejudice to the functions of the Monitoring Committee.) 60/86

61 The Government s agency charged with the planning and implementation of the National Strategic Reference Framework is National Development Agency. The NDA is responsible for: the coordination of the planning, programming, evaluation and implementation of the NHDP, the coordination of the planning, programming and implementation of the operational programmes, in accordance with the Council Regulation (EC) 1083/2006 Article 27 Paragraph 4.g) ensuring coordination between the support provided by the operational programmes, as well as in co-operation with the Managing Authority of the New Hungary Rural Development Programme those of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF); the coordination of all above financial sources with the assistance received from the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund and other resources; liaising with the European Commission regarding the questions related to the NHDP and the other operational programmes; the elaboration of the general procedural requirements for the implementation of the NHDP and the OPs, including the development of a single operational manual; the setting up, the operation and the continuous development of the single monitoring and information system; the enforcement and promotion of Community policies and horizontal principles such as sustainability, equality between men and women and non-discrimination, public procurements and in cooperation with the State Aid Monitoring Office of the Ministry of Finance (MoF SAMO) the respect of state aid rules. In the frame of this for the elaboration of documents and guidelines etc., the enforcement of these in the calls for applications and grant facilities, and the monitoring of the fulfilment of these activities; the development of the unified communication strategy regarding the implementation of the NHDP, as well as the requirements related to providing information and publicity on the entire NHDP; the organisational development of the institutional system (i.e. providing training opportunities, development of curriculum, dissemination and promotion of best practices, ensuring coordination upon the regulations) setting up and operation of the unified client service for the NHDP. Coordination processes The coherence, complementarity and coordination of the content of the operational programmes is ensured through the definition of detailed demarcation principles in the OPs themselves. The operational programmes are translated into concrete operations by the so-called action plans, prepared, on a biannual basis, for an OP or a priority axis thereof. The action plans spell out the objectives and content of the planned operations, their schedule and indicative financial allocations. Action Plans are also required to present a detailed justification for the planned measures through describing their: 61/86

62 relationship to community policies (including CSG and Lisbon strategy), sectoral and/or regional strategies and programmes (including connections with flagship programmes); complementarity with developments financed from national resources. The proposals for the actions plans are prepared by the Intermediate Bodies (IBs) and the line ministries and/or regions concerned with the guidance of the Managing Authority (MA) in the framework of a working group where all ministries and regions concerned are represented (Operational Programme Programming Coordination Committee, OPPCC). In the interest of ensuring the complementarity and avoid double funding with rural development and fisheries the representatives responsible for the implementation of the EAFRD and EFF are also taking part in the meetings of the OPPCC, and in the monitoring committee. Small regional advisory networks for the NHDP and EAFRD-EFF will operate in close co-operation. As an extension of the partnership principle, but also in an effort to further strengthen coordination between programmes and measures, the NDA invites comments from social partners and NGOs not just during the preparation of the NHDP and the OPs, but also when elaborating the action plans and calls for proposals. Contributions by potential stakeholders in writing or during dedicated consultation sessions are then taken into account when finalising the detailed content of operations. The application of the partnership principle on the different programming-implementing documents, as well as the fact that the relevant line ministry or in case of the ROPs the relevant Regional Development Council may be represented in the project selection committee also ensures the realisation of coordination aspects. As members of the monitoring committees regions also take part in the drawing up of project selection criteria Specific management and coordination aspects of Regional Competitiveness resources When defining the strategy of implementation by the Managing Authority the MA gives special attention to the decreasing commitment profile of Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective, as well as to the difference between these and those of the Convergence Objective, and ensures the compliance with Art. 22 of 1083/2006/EC (non-transferability of resources) Managing Authority (MA) As of July 2006 the Managing Authority of all OPs operate as separate organisational units of the National Development Agency. The concentration of the management of the implementation improves the effectiveness of the coordination between the implementation of the OPs, the exchange of experience, the transparency, the accountability as well as the rationalisation of management. Designation of the Managing Authority In line with Art. 59 paragraph (1) of regulation 1083/2006/EC, the tasks of the Managing Authority in case of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme are carried out by the NDA s Directorate General Managing Authority for the Public Administration Reform Programme. 62/86

63 Tasks and Responsibilities According to Article 60 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 the Managing Authority is responsible for managing and implementing the operational programme in accordance with the principle of sound financial management, and in particular for: - Coordination of the planning of the operational programmes and the related documents that are under its responsibility. In the framework of the above, it operates with the participation of the relevant ministries, regions and experts the Operational Programme Planning Coordination Committee as a sub-committee of the Planning Operational Committee; - Ensuring that operations are selected for funding in accordance with the criteria applicable to the operational programme and that they comply with applicable Community and national rules for the whole of their implementation period; - Ensuring that the system for recording and storing the accounting records for each operation of the operational programme in computerised form is fed with up-to-date data, and that the data on implementation necessary for financial management, monitoring, audits and evaluations are collected; - Ensuring that beneficiaries and other bodies involved in the implementation of the operations maintain either a separate accounting system or an adequate accounting code for all transactions relating to the operation without prejudice to national accounting rules; - Approval of the calls for applications and the grant contract templates as well as the decisions on the project proposals; - Receipt and control of the requests for funds prepared by the intermediate bodies, countersigns and forwards verification reports prepared by the IBs to the certifying authority; - Ensuring that the evaluations of the operational programmes are carried out in accordance with the relevant Community legislation. Thereby, the MA will play a lead role in defining priorities and tasks for evaluation work, in consultation with the Monitoring Committee (see also the chapter on evaluations); - Preparation and continuous update of the audit trail of the operational programme; setting up procedures to ensure that all documents regarding expenditure and controls required to ensure an adequate audit trail are held in accordance with the requirements of the relevant legislation; - Ensuring that the Certifying Authority receives all necessary information on the procedures and verifications carried out in relation to the expenditure for the purpose of certification; - Operation of the Monitoring Committee and providing it with documents required to permit the quality of the implementation of the operational programme to be monitored in the light of its specific objectives; - Drawing up and, after approval by the Monitoring Committee submitting to the Commission the annual and final reports on implementation; - Providing the Commission with information to allow it to appraise major projects; - Elaborating proposals for the amendments to the operational programme; - Ensuring the implementation of the OP in line with the decisions of the Monitoring Committee regarding the criteria for the selection of operations, implementation of the action plans, ensuring regularity and feasibility of all operations. - Monitoring of the implementation of the programmes under its responsibility, 63/86

64 - Liaising with the competent directorates-general(s) of the European Commission regarding the operational programme, - Participation or where the function is delegated supervision of the fulfilment of in tasks related to providing information and publicity on the entire NHDP, as well as the operational programme; - Gives consent to multi-annual documents related to the implementation; - Managing the technical assistance budget of the operational programme; - Handling of the system level irregularities, making the necessary corrective steps; - Prepares proposals for the Government regarding the identification of priority projects after consultation with the relevant ministers and regional development councils. Further organisational units of the NDA typically regarding the horizontal tasks, related to several OPs, e.g. communication, finance participates in the fulfilment of the tasks of the OP MA. With regard to the Intermediate Bodies, responsible for delegated administrative, financial and technical tasks of implementation, the MA: Provides professional supervision regarding the activities of the Intermediate Bodies related to the implementation of the OP; Approves the internal rules of the Intermediate Bodies related to the use of the OP resources; Prepares instructions and rules regarding the implementation of the OP for the IB. Controls and evaluates the activities of IB on a regular basis. The Intermediate Bodies provide the delegated tasks based on the task-order contracts that ensure that the Intermediate Bodies receive payment for their services based on their performance Intermediate Body Tasks of the Intermediate Body Intermediate Bodies fulfil in relation to one or more priorities especially the following tasks: - Participation in the preparation of action plans falling in its competence. - Preparation of the annual work plan based on the requirements of the Managing Authority. The plan shall contain the dates of the calls for applications as well as the annual targets for commitments, support contracts and payments. - Participation in the preparation of calls for applications and sample support contracts in cooperation with the MA and the relevant ministries. - Admission and appraisal of project proposals, and based on the agreements with the Managing Authority setting up and operation of Assessment Committees, in case this task has been delegated to the Intermediate Body. - Concluding of and amendments to the support contracts. - Verifying that the co-financed products and services are delivered and the expenditure declared by the beneficiaries for operations has actually been incurred and complies with Community and national rules; 64/86

65 - Monitoring of project implementation, payment of contributions, carrying out tasks regarding project closure, performing verification checks, tracking and reporting irregularities. - Recording of data in the single monitoring information system on a continuous basis, providing an up-to-date and reliable database - Preparation of quarterly progress reports on the implementation of the operational programme, the action plan that specifies the details of the implementation process, as well as the annual work plan, with the recommendations on the necessary measures. - Preparation and up-dating of the audit trail. - Fulfilment of tasks related to information and publicity tasks, based on the annual communication plan approved by the NDA. Qualification, Selection and Financing of the IB Intermediate Bodies contributing to the implementation of the operational programmes were selected on the basis of a set of objective criteria measuring their institutional capacity and technical competence. In order to receive the assignment, the prospective Intermediate Body needed to prove the existence of an appropriate, consolidated organisational structure, the availability of human and technical resources, as well as professional competence necessary. (Further information is provided on the selection procedure under the administrative capacity chapter.) To ensure the effectiveness of the implementation, the performance of the Intermediate Bodies will be evaluated on a regular basis. The Intermediate Body participating in the implementation of the OP based on the result of the qualification process was appointed through a joint ministerial decree. Details regarding the tasks, responsibilities, and financing of the IBs were fleshed out in dedicated task assignment contracts, signed by the NDA, the IB and where applicable the owner of the IB. For the sake of effective implementation of the programme in case of certain support frameworks based on an individual decision non-governmental organisations or corporations, commercial banks, can also be involved (e.g. as managers of indirect grants or capital funds). The IBs will be financed through the above mentioned task assignment contracts from the technical assistance priority of the OP. In order to ensure sound financial management, correctness and regularity of expenditure declared by the IBs in relation to their operational costs the contracts among others impose the following requirements: - The IB has to separate in full the costs and incomes related to its activities concerning IB tasks in its financial records as well as in its analytical accounts. Unless unit prices are result of competition, incomes related to IB tasks cannot generate extra profit or finance losses related to other tasks of the organisation. - The MA is required to perform controls of the IB concerning the implementation tasks delegated to it, including the correctness and regularity and effectiveness of expenditure and costs separated in its accounts related to its IB functions. In case an irregularity is detected the MA may suspend the task concerned by the irregularity of the IB or in justified cases all tasks related to the task assignment contract of the IB. 65/86

66 The Intermediate Body of the Electronic Administration Operational Programme In case of the Operational Programme the following intermediate body was appointed as a result of the qualification procedure: VÁTI Hungarian Public Non-profit Company for Regional Development and Town Planning Ltd. Compared to other potential IBs, the relative strengths of Váti Kht. are the existence of a strategic management function, separate statement of the operational costs, wide ranging experiences in the field of using EU funds and the availability of necessary competencies. The qualification procedure evaluated that Váti needs more time for elaborating the issues compared to other potential candidates. On the other hand, the time needed for payments was one of the lowest in case of Váti. Váti was one of the IBs in case of the Regional OP in the last programming period. Váti has gathered lot of experiences concerning the operation of the public administration because of its regional planning activities. These were the reasons for choosing Váti as IB for the Electronic Administration OP and the State Reform OP. With regard to the conditions set out on Art. 10 of Govt.decree No. 255/2006. (XII.8.) IBs may be subject to change. In order to eliminate duplications or overlaps in tasks as experienced during the period as a general rule, all IB tasks related to an operation shall be assumed by one Intermediate Body only. The applicant or beneficiary be in contact with only one organisation (IB) that is responsible for a grant facility during all stages of implementation Procedures in Relation to the Implementation of the OP In order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation, as well to further encourage transparency it is necessary to standardize and simplify the implementation process. Selection criteria need to ensure that operations / projects: - contribute to the social-economic objectives of the NHDP, of the operational programmes, as well as the given priority; - have objectives that are definite, measurable, and achievable; - are cost-effective; - are sustainable from a financial and organisational point of view; - contribute to the enforcement of sustainable development, equality between men and women and non-discrimination; - demonstrate the existence of all necessary pre-conditions for their successful implementation. In each case, specific criteria for the selection of operations will be approved by the Operational Programme Monitoring Committee. Decisions on projects will be made through one of the following procedures: - Major projects: In line with the provisions of Art of 1083/2006/EC, operations financed by the ERDF or the Cohesion Fund comprising a series of works, activities or services intended in itself to accomplish an indivisible task of a precise economic or technical nature, which have clearly identified goals and whose total cost exceeds EUR 50 million (in case of environment exceeds EUR 25 million). In those cases where major projects are foreseen the indicative list of these projects will be part of the operational programme and the action plan and thus it is subject to public consultation. Currently we do not plan any major projects in this Operational Programme. 66/86

67 - Key projects: Projects that can be supported without a call for applications. These too will be carefully appraised in an assessment procedure, first before pre-selected in an action plan (based on preliminary project proposal), and second before approved for implementation (based on detailed project proposal). Partnership approach will be ensured in both stages, as action plans will be subject to public consultation, and NGOs will delegate members to the project selection committees. Such projects have key importance from the economy and the society point of view. Their beneficiaries are usually but not exclusively state or local government organisations. (e.g. infrastructure projects of public benefit, state support of investments having priority employment effect). - One-stage calls for proposals: applied whenever mainly due to the expected high number of applicants (i.e. private organisations) it is reasonable to select beneficiaries on the basis of a fully competitive procedure. - Two-stage calls for proposals: This procedure is applied mainly in cases where the size of the target group and the expected number of applications is more limited (typically: public investments), and projects to be financed are more complex. In such cases, projects are first pre-selected on the basis of preliminary (less detailed) proposals. Proposals successful in the first stage then receive assistance, through the IB, during their elaboration into fully fledged, fundable projects. - Indirect support: covers two different procedures: Indirect grants are used in case of proposals that are below a given value limit, and the allocation of the support, the monitoring of the implementation of the projects, whether they are in accordance with the regulations and the contracts based on the contract concluded with the Managing Authority will be fulfilled by professional management body e.g. non-governmental organisations. Financial support instruments: (e.g. credit, capital, guarantee instruments) are procedures for which the project selection, monitoring of implementation, auditing and the payment of the support will be carried out by financial intermediaries (e.g. banks). Project selection procedures regarding independent measures are set out in the detailed action plans Administrative capacity The budget of the development plan and, within that, the size of the EU s contribution has increased significantly compared to the previous period. Hungary is committed to the continued development of the institutional system, so that the full and continuous availability of appropriate institutional capacities is ensured, and EU support is used in an efficient, effective and timely manner. In order to meet the challenges taking into account the experience of the period Hungary has decided upon the structural reform of the institutional system. This comprehensive reform covers both the increasing of the efficiency of task assignment and operational management as well as in connection with that based on preliminary measurement the extension of administrative capacities. Therefore: - All managing authorities were concentrated in a single institution (the NDA). As a result of that: 67/86

68 The rules and procedures for programming and implementation are now standardised. This increases the transparency of the system and allows for better dissemination of best practices. The common background functions of all MAs (i.e. finances, accounting, communication, legal matters) are to be carried out by horizontal units of the NDA for all the MAs. This allows for increased efficiency. - The Government has revised the assignment of tasks related to programming and implementation between the MAs and IBs according to common principles. The MA will be responsible for the strategic tasks regarding the implementation of the OP while the IBs receive more autonomy and responsibility in the case of specific operational issues related to implementation. Therefore the duplication of tasks is to be eliminated, the possibility for mistakes can be reduced and the performance of all stakeholders will become unambiguously measurable and accountable. - In autumn of 2006 in the frame of an independent institutional assessment the NDA similarly to 2003 has performed a qualification procedure on the potential IBs. The aim of the qualification assessment was to assess the competence of the institutions as regards IB functions, as well as to identify the areas in case of each body needed to be enhanced in order to perform the task (gap assessment). The main considerations of the assessment were: whether or not the body is in possession of sufficient professional experience and skilled human resources; whether the form of organization allows for performance incentive of staff and weather it allows for autonomous performance of tasks of an IB during the period; whether the organizational functions and work is well defined and regulated; As a result of the qualification process precise activity plans were prepared for institutional development for each of the IBs. The action plans established precise deadlines for the IBs that committed themselves to taking the measures necessary in the field of capacity and competences (which may if necessary for instance foresee the employment of additional staff required or the training of staff). The gap assessment action plans form part of the NDA-IB task assignment contract and their execution is followed up by the MAs. It is therefore ensured that all IBs maintain adequate number of qualified and trained staff. - A comprehensive performance measuring and incentive system is introduced both at organizational as well as staff level. Thus, all members of the institutional system became interested in the efficient and as regards the content effective implementation of the programmes. - A predictable, performance-based system of financing has been introduced for the IB. Where possible, financing is based on unit costs (e.g. number of project proposals evaluated, number of payments transferred, etc.). The contract between the NDA and the IB ensures that the IB has financial interest in high standard, fast selection and management of the projects. It also ensures that the IB manages human and technical resources flexibly: they are free to increase or decrease capacities according to their mid-term tasks. Financial resources to cover the costs of the IB have been allocated to the technical assistance priority of the OP, based on a detailed assessment and calculation of the costs of the institutional system in the period. 68/86

69 Through the individual operational programmes, about two thirds of all TA resources available were earmarked for the financing of IB-level task and capacity needs. 7.2 MONITORING AND EVALUATION Monitoring Monitoring Committee Tasks and Competences: The tasks within the competence of the Operational Programme Monitoring Committee with special regard to the efficiency and quality of implementation are specified in Article 65 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 and Art. 14. of Govt.Decree No. 255/2006. (XII. 8.). Accordingly, the Committee shall - consider and approve the criteria for selecting the operations financed within six months of the approval of the operational programme and approve any revision of those criteria in accordance with programming needs; - periodically review progress made towards achieving the specific targets of the operational programme on the basis of documents submitted by the Managing Authority; - examine the results of implementation, particularly the achievement of the targets set for each priority axis and the evaluations; - consider and approve the annual and final reports on implementation, and the annually updated evaluation plans; - be informed of the annual audit report, or of the part of the report referring to the operational programme concerned, and of any relevant comments the Commission may make after examining that report or relating to that part of the report; - propose to the Managing Authority any revision or examination of the operational programme likely to make possible the attainment of the Funds' objectives or to improve its management including its financial management; - consider and approve any application to amend the content of the Commission decision on the contribution from the Funds. The Monitoring Committee debates the action plans referred to in this chapter. In compliance with Article 63 Paragraph (1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 a Monitoring Committee may supervise the implementation of several operational programmes. Composition: The Managing Authorities are responsible for establishing the monitoring committees. In compliance with Article 64 of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006, the composition of the operational program Monitoring Committee will be as follows: The Monitoring Committee according to Art. 64 (1) of 1083/2006/EC is chaired by the person appointed by the Member State, the prevailing member of the Development Policy Steering Committee responsible for the programme area concerned. Members of the Monitoring Committee will be: 69/86

70 - the Managing Authority, - a delegated representative of the line ministers concerned in the implementation of the operational programme, - the Intermediate Bodies concerned in the implementation of the OP, - the representative of the minister in charge of the state budget, - delegated representatives of regional development councils concerned, - at least one delegated representative of local government associations, - at least one delegated representative of the environmental protection NGOs, - one representative of each of the employees and employer s sides of the National Council for the Reconciliation of Interests, - delegated representatives of non-governmental organisations within that, at least one member representing an organisation active for 1.) the Roma people, 2.) disabled people and 3.) equality between men and women and non-discrimination, - one delegated representative of each of the professional and social organisations concerned. Members attending in an advisory capacity: - a representative of the European Commission at its own initiative or the request of the Monitoring Committee; - the representative of MAs in charge of other OPs affected by the implementation of the OP; - one representative each of the Certifying Authority and the Audit Authority, as well as the Central Harmonisation Unit; - for operational programs with contributions from the EIB or EIF, one representative of each of the EIB and the EIF respectively; - as permanent invitees, one representative each of the organisations responsible for the implementation of the EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) and of the EFF (European Fisheries Fund) Description of the Monitoring Information System Indicators and Data Collection Data supplied by applicants and by the beneficiaries will be entered in the monitoring information system - an upgraded version of the Single Monitoring Information System (EMIR) used for the period Feeding the system with data is the responsibility of Intermediate Bodies; the NDA ensures continuous operation and upgrading of the system. The system will ensure the collection, processing and forwarding of data, and the support of implementation, supporting the daily work of all authorities involved in the implementation of the NHDP, as well as the European Commission, and other national institutions. It is a fundamental requirement in the programming period that applicants and beneficiaries meet their data provision responsibilities, wherever possible, through electronic means. The system has been developed by considering these criteria. The IT system delivers real-time data from each level of the implementation system, and serves as a means of electronic communication between the European Commission and Hungary. In order to ensure transparency the system will also be used to monitor 70/86

71 7.2.2 Evaluation compliance with Article 34 paragraph 2 of Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC as regards complementary financing between the ERDF and ESF and respecting the ceilings thereof, including the special cases laid down in Regulation 1081/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Art. 3(7) and 1080/2006/EC Art. 8; the use of additional assistance to the Central Hungary Region pursuant to paragraph 15 Annex II of Council Regulation 1083/2006/EC. Evaluation Plan The evaluation of the operational programmes will take place based on the coordination specified in the New Hungary Development Plan in a systematic system in accordance with the evaluation plan. The evaluation plan enables the preparation for the evaluations, efficient management of the external and internal evaluation capacities, and utilising the opportunities of the harmonisation of evaluations. The evaluation plan of the operational programme contains a 3-year forecast and is annually revised, as it is an ongoing evaluation system. The evaluation plan of the OP will be submitted to the MA of the OP, with the agreement of the organisational unit ensuring the New Hungary Development Plan level coordination of the evaluation to the Operational Programme Monitoring Committee, which will annually approve it. (The Monitoring Committee will also have a right to initiate the carrying out of evaluations.) For the implementation period lasting until 2015, the evaluation plan contains forecasted evaluations, as well as evaluations selected annually in the system of ongoing evaluation. The evaluation plan contains the evaluations described below: - mid-term revision of the operational programme strategy and implementation system ( ); - ex-post evaluation of the operational programme ( ); - annual operational evaluation of action plans (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014); - ex-post evaluation of action plans (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015); - ex-ante evaluation of the contribution of action plans, individual interventions and major projects to the implementation of the objectives of the operational programme, and to the enforcement of horizontal policies (2006, 2008, 2010); - comprehensive evaluation of the operational programme regarding horizontal principles (for example: equality between men and women and non-discrimination, sustainability etc.) (2008, 2010, 2012). The evaluation will include the analysis of the impacts of the Operational Programme on climate change (as far as possible analysing the environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of climate change as well) to support different actions for climate change prevention, mitigation and adaptation. The rules for the potential use of evaluations (publication and availability of evaluation reports, presentation and distribution of results, monitoring the use of recommendations) are laid down in the Operation Manual. These follow the recommendations of the Commission s Working documents on on-going evaluations. 71/86

72 Selection Process of Ongoing Evaluation In addition to the preliminarily planned (comprehensive, strategic) evaluations the unified evaluation plan of the New Hungary Development Plan will from year to year be complemented with evaluations related to the action plans, for which the operational programme Managing Authority will make proposals in agreement with the Monitoring Committee. In the frames of the evaluation plan the evaluations will be made: - in case of those operations of the action plan, for which during the implementation there was a significant difference between the indicator values specified in the implementation schedule; - to summarize the findings in connection with the measure(s) related to the operations of the action plan, and implemented in the 1st National Hungarian Development Plan (NDP1); - 2 years after the completion of operations having no innovative domestic implementation history in order to summarize the findings of the implementation, and to explore impact mechanisms; - to assess the intended and non-intended impacts of at least one operation per priority annually as from 2009, by ex-post evaluation. Irrespective of the evaluation plan, it is justified to launch ad-hoc evaluation on the basis of unforeseen needs arising in the implementation system (Intermediate Body, Managing Authority), and of the requirements of the Monitoring Committee. Evaluation Management The organisation unit ensuring the horizontal, NHDP-level coordination of the evaluation will: - prepare and conduct the preliminarily planned, comprehensive strategic evaluations; - provide resources for the regular evaluations conducted based on unified methodology and the enforcement of the evaluation plan; - prepare and carry out the evaluations conducted in issues which concern more than one of the operational programmes; - prepare and carry out the evaluation of operations having no innovative domestic history; - ensure that evaluation reports are available to the public. The Managing Authority will maintain sufficient capacity for the performance of evaluationrelated management duties, and will: - be responsible for the performance of duties related to the evaluation of the operational programme and the related action plans and operations, and for the implementation of those parts of the evaluation plan of the New Hungary Development Plan, which concern the operational programme; - coordinate, develop and stimulate the operational programme-related evaluation activity; - make proposal for the 3 year evaluation plan of the New Hungary Development Plan; - ensure the incorporation of evaluation results into planning and implementation; - generate the data of the indicators related to the evaluation of the operational programme and their storage in the monitoring information system; - revise the target values of the priority level indicators of the operational programme every second year, upon closing the action plans; 72/86

73 - launch, in justified cases e.g. at the initiative of the monitoring committee evaluations not included in the evaluation plan of the operational programme related to the operations, and support their implementation. Planned resources for evaluation As regards financial resources, NSRF-level evaluations as well as preparation of evaluation methodologies, coordination of evaluation activities and financing of evaluations included in the annual evaluation plan will be financed by the Implementation OP. Further evaluations e.g. at the initiative of the Monitoring Committee may be financed from the Technical Assistance resources of this OP. As regards human resources planned for evaluation purposes, besides the staff of 6 persons in the horizontal evaluation unit of the NDA, and appropriate dedicated human resources provided by the MA will be dealing with evaluations. 7.3 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL The Tasks of the Certifying Authority The Certifying Authority for all operational programmes financed by the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund is a separate organizational unit of the Ministry of Finance. The activity of the Certifying Authority is based on the organisation and experience of the Paying Authority (Ministry of Finance, Office of the National Authorising Officer) of the programming period of The Certifying Authority will perform the tasks described below: - receiving payments from the European Commission; - transfer of EU contributions to the national financing accountof National Development Agency; - drawing up and submitting to Commission certified statements of expenditure and applications for payment; - certifying that the statement of expenditure is accurate, results from reliable accounting systems, and is based on verifiable supporting documents, as well as the expenditure declared complies with applicable Community and national rules, and has been paid in respect of operations selected for funding in accordance with criteria applicable to the programme and complying with Community and national rules; - taking account for certification purposes of the results of all audits carried out by or under the responsibility of the Audit Authority; - in order to support certification carrying out desk-based fact finding assessments and paying fact finding visits on-the-spot at organisations participating in the financial implementation, - keeping accounting records on the turnover of the treasury accounts used to receive transfers, on the receivables and liabilities; - keeping an account of amounts recoverable and of amounts withdrawn following cancellation of all or part of the contribution for an operation; - carrying out financial corrections due to administrative errors and irregularities in the course of the implementation of the operational programme, rendering accounts on Community 73/86

74 contributions repaid to the European Commission;sending forecasts of the likely applications for payment for the current financial year and the subsequent financial year to the European Commission latest until the end of April each year Rules for Financial Management and Control Responsibilities of the MA: - The Managing Authority is responsible for the management and implementation of the Operational Programme in line with the principle of sound financial management. - The Managing Authority delegates the reception, processing and control of the payment claims of the beneficiaries to the intermediate body if there is an Intermediate Body. - The MA monitors the fulfilment of delegated tasks. - The Managing Authority ensures that for the purposes of certification the Certifying Authority receives sufficient information on procedures conducted in connection with the expenditure incurred in the course of the implementation of the operational programme, and declares to the Certifying Authority by counter-signing the verification report of the Intermediate Body that the procedures applied by the Intermediate Body performing the tasks delegated by it are in compliance with the Community and national regulations. The MA arranges for the submission of the verification report prepared by the IB to the certifying authority. - The MA has to carry out on the spot checks based on risk-analysis at the IB over expenditure declared by the IB. In order to enhance effectiveness of this function the MA has the possibility to delegate one or more persons (treasurers) from the Hungarian Treasury to the IB to ensure the correctness and regularity of expenditure verified by the IB including correctness of data recording in the IT system. Responsibility of the IB - The Intermediate Body is responsible for the performance of the tasks delegated by the Managing Authority in accordance with Community and national provisions. - The Intermediate Body provides for the control of the implementation of projects approved in the frame of the operational programme in accordance with Community and national regulations. - The Intermediate Body is responsible for the receiving, processing and performing administrative verification checks on the applications for reimbursement submitted by beneficiary, for carrying out of on-the-spot checks based on risk assessment, and for summarising the results of verifications carried out in verification report for the purpose of information supply to the Managing Authority and the Certifying Authority. The Intermediate Body is responsible for payments to the beneficiaries The Process of Payment to Beneficiaries The beneficiaries will submit their invoices generated in the course of the implementation of the project to the Intermediate Body together with the progress reports, on a regular basis. The Intermediate Body will perform verification checks on applications for reimbursementsfinancially as well as their content and form, and may conduct on-the-spot checks in accordance with the audit plan prepared on the basis of risk assessment. 74/86

75 On the basis of the approved reimbursement claims the Intermediate Body is responsible for payments to the beneficiaries. It informs the Managing Authority on the results of the verifications conducted in the verification report. The Managing Authority transfers the Community and the national contributions to the beneficiary from the central budget, which will be refunded to the Managing Authority by the Certifying Authority from the available pre-financing, and from subsequent interim payments. EUROPEAN COMMISSION Payment from the Funds (prefinancing, interim payments, payment of the final balance) Application for Payment, Statement of Expenditure, Certificate of Expenditure CERTIFYING AUTHORITY Verification Report OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME MANAGING AUTHORITY Ex-post transfer of the contribution of the Funds Verification Report Invoices, documents, implementation reports Transfer of public contribution (national budgetary pre-financing of EU-contribution) INTERMEDIATE BODY BENEFICIARY Payment of public contribution Control of the European Union s Contributions Financial Management and Control The Managing Authority, the Certifying Authority and the Intermediate Body establish and operate the financial management and control system. The financial management and control system shall ensure that the activity of the organisations is in line with the regulations and sufficiently regulated, economical, efficient and effective, the information is accurate, and available in due time. The planning, call for proposals, the financial transaction, accounting, control and monitoring duties are functionally separated, and it is necessary to provide for the adequate regulation of these duties also in the relevant internal regulations. The Managing Authority, the Certifying Authority and the Intermediate Body are responsible for the elaboration of the audit trail, risk management and irregularity handling rules and the immediate entering up of the eventual changes. In the course of the financial implementation, the Managing Authority, as well as the Intermediate Body are responsible for carrying out administrative verifications and risk assessment based on-the-spot checks prior to payments. In the frame of the above, it is necessary 75/86

76 to control whether the physical and financial progress is corresponding with the programme, as well as the project support contracts, and whether the submitted invoices or documents of equivalent probative value are in accordance with the decision related to the application and the contracting terms, the fulfilment of the physical and performance indicators, and the Community and national rules on public procurement. The chair of the National Development Agency, the head of the Intermediate Body, the Certifying Authority and the Audit Authority are in every year obliged to make a statement concerning the proper operation of the management and control systems with content and until a deadline as specified by the legislations. The Minister of Finance executes its tasks concerning the regulation, co-ordination and harmonisation relating to the control of EU Funds through the Central Harmonisation Unit for Public Internal Financial Control (CHU for PIFC). Regarding EU Funds the CHU elaborates and regularly reviews methodological guidelines to be used in relation to internal controls and makes recommendations for drafting and adopting relevant legislation; through the harmonisation of the audit resources it ensures the fulfilment of an effective, efficient and not overlapping audit activity; and through quality assessment it monitors the execution of relevant regulations and guidelines in relation of the internal control systems. The minister responsible for the public finance will set up and operate an audit committee involving organisations involved in the implementation of the EU funds, in order to strengthen the transparent use of Community contributions The Tasks of the Audit Authority The Audit Authority is a body designated in line with the Community and national rules, responsible for auditing the effective functioning of the management and control systems, which is functionally independent from the Managing Authority, the Certifying Authority and the Intermediate Bodies. In Hungary, the same body performs the duties of the Audit Authority with regards to every operational programme. The tasks of the Audit Authority in line with the provisions of Government Decree 312/2006. (XII. 23.) on the Government Audit Office are performed by the Government Audit Office a central office having chapter management rights supervised by the Minister of Finance. The tasks of the Audit Authority are: - according to Article 71(2)of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006, preparation of the compliance assessment criteria of the management and controls systems, to carry out the compliance assessment, and to prepare the report and opinion on the that; - the preparation and fulfilment of the national audit strategy, and annual reporting obligations (annual audit reports and opinions) to the Commission; - implementation of system audits and sample checks; - implementation of audits at the request of the European Commission; - follow-up of the findings of the audit reports and the schedule related to the measures; - preparation of declarations on partial closure, and closure declarations and the underpinning audit reports; - participation in preparing member state responses to audits carried out by the European Commission, as well as in the required negotiations; 76/86

77 - participation in the cooperation with the European Commission according to Article 73 of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 in order to coordinate audit plans and exchange the results of the audits. 7.4 PROVISIONS RELATED TO INFORMATION SUPPLY AND PUBLICITY In compliance with national and Community legislation requirements, the NDA (National Development Agency) will be responsible for the tasks related to the communication and publicity of the New Hungary Development Plan and the operational programmes, with special regard to the following: - Communication to the potential beneficiaries, economic and social partners on the opportunities related to the contributions. Within this, special role will be given to the efficient mobilisation of the prospective applicants, to well-founded project generating activity and information on available calls for applications. - Communication to the public on the role played by the European Union in the implementation of the developments. In the course of the above the communication will focus on the introduction of the results of activities implemented with Community cofinancing. The realisation of activities related to information and publicity involves liabilities on the part of both the actors of the institutional system (NDA, Intermediate Bodies) and on the part of the beneficiaries. It is necessary to coordinate the general communications activities related to the entire New Hungary Development Plan, as well as operational programme-related communications activities and partnership actions at central level. The Intermediate Bodies will participate in the performance of other communications tasks related to the introduction of the support possibilities (organisation of professional and information days, forums for the prospective applicants on the programmes at national, regional, county and micro region level), in promoting the communication activities of the beneficiaries, as well as they also carry out data collection and data provision. On the basis of the information and publicity guidelines prepared by NDA, the beneficiaries have to introduce their own project to the widest public. Concerning the implementation of tasks related to information and publicity, in accordance with the regulations, NDA (National Development Agency) will prepare a uniform communication strategy for the entire New Hungary Development Plan, which will define the objectives and message of the relevant measures, the strategy and content of their implementation, the targeted social and economic groups, the criteria measuring the efficiency of the measures, the proposed budget of the measures, their estimated time schedules, as well as the administrative units responsible for implementation, and their liabilities. The communications plan will be prepared annually on the basis of the communications strategy. The task of the Intermediate Body will be to prepare and submit to NDA (National Development Agency) the communication plan related to the operational programme managed and/or to the entirety of the priorities, for approval. Main areas: - Introduction of support possibilities, efficient mobilisation of applicants, project generation For the successful and effective use of the development resources it is indispensable to efficiently mobilise the potential beneficiaries, and to introduce the support possibilities This area requires especially active, efficient and concentrated communication focusing on identifiable target groups (various segments of the range of potential beneficiaries). In the frame of this special attention shall be given to providing direct information and help with 77/86

78 project generation and in case it is necessary through implementation to organizations representing the most disadvantaged groups. - Introduction of the results of development programmes realised through co-financing The introduction of the realised projects show the success of the domestic use of the structural funds, and reinforces the image of a rapidly and dynamically developing Hungary in the public, strengthens the image of the European Union, and inspires prospective applicants setting a positive example. - Partnership The performance of methodological tasks related to the application of the principle of partnership such as partnership strategy, partnership actions, partnership reports in connection with social partnership process, keeping contacts with the preferred partners, involving of partners in professional cooperation, and the preparation of a strategy and reports related to the application of the principle of partnership are of extraordinary importance for the Hungarian government and for the European Commission. Partnership activities are carried for each OP and action plan separately. In line with the terms of delegation of tasks, for sectoral OPs the horizontal unit of the NDA carries out partnership activities, financed by IOP and the IBs will participate in these. Costs of the monitoring committee will be financed by the TA priority of the OP. - Client-service A special responsibility of the institutional system is the maintenance of relations with potential and winning applicants. From the aspect of the strengthening of the service provision character of the institutional system, and from the aspect of transparency, this is an important area. Accordingly, the performance of the client communication and information supply task in a unified system is necessary at central and also at local level. The main elements of the unified client-information system are: applicant-information site on the Internet, operation of online and telephone-based client services (Contact Centre), coordination of the information activity of the Intermediate Bodies, setting up and operation of an internal information system coordinating the flow of information. 7.5 COMMUNITY POLICIES AND HORIZONTAL PRINCIPLES SUSTAINABILITY, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND PARTNERSHIP, STATE AID, PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Sustainability, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, partnership In the course of the planning and implementation process, all along, criteria of sustainability (with special attention to the environmental aspects of sustainability) must be fully met taking into account the provisions of Articles of 1083/2006/EC. To this end, an environmental assessment was completed in the case of the NSRF and all operational programmes. The NSRF and the operational programmes were submitted to the National Council for Environment Protection. Appropriate management arrangements shall ensure at all levels of programme implementation, that possible effects which are unsustainable or unfavourable to environment, especially as concerns impacts on climate change, the maintaining of biodiversity and ecosystems, and the drawing on natural resources, are avoided or kept as low as possible, so that the environmental charges of the OP in total, will in the end be climate- and resource-neutral. The OPs positive effects and potentials for synergies in the sense of optimising its contribution to an 78/86

79 environmentally sustainable development, shall be exploited at best and, wherever possible, be strengthened. The single Operational Manual to be implemented by all Managing Authorities provides guidance for the due adherence to sustainability considerations in the course of the public procurement procedures (so called green public procurement ). In the course of the consultations on the NSRF and the operational programmes with the social partners a great number of non-governmental organisations specialised in different aspects of environment protection, or equal opportunities expressed their views which if possible, we took into account while working out the final draft of the abovementioned documents. We also extended the practice of consultations with the social partners to the action plans and calls for proposals. Equality between men and women and integration of the gender perspective will be promoted during the various stages of the implementation of the NSRF and all operational programmes. Respect of the principle of non-discrimination (prevention of any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation) will also be ensured during all phases of the implementation, in particular in relation to access to funding. Accessibility for disabled persons is a particular criteria being observed when defining the operations of the various operational programmes and being taken into account during the various stages of implementation as well. The Managing Authority responsible for co-ordination shall develop guidelines and compile an Operational Manual in order to ensure the full respect of the horizontal principles of equality between men and women and non-discrimination both at all stages of programme implementation as well as with regard to the institutional system. These guidelines will be specialized by the OP MA taking into account the specificities of the Fund, the programme and potential beneficiaries and target groups. Also the Managing Authority supports and disseminates good practices, ensures the possibility of counselling for beneficiaries regarding practical application of horizontal principles during project implementation. Special attention is also given to monitoring the progress made towards equality between men and women and nondiscrimination targets on programme level. In the course of the selection process of the projects as minimum criteria the full respect of environmental sustainability and that of the principle of equality between men and women and non-discrimination are mandatory by the law. In order to ensure full compliance with the above requirements we have introduced as a novelty the procedure of the two level evaluations of proposals. In the course of this selection procedure the acceptance of any proposal is subject to the compliance with the horizontal criteria. It is mandatory to include into the Monitoring Committees at least one representative of a nongovernmental organisation specialised in environment protection. Also, at least one representative each of an organisation for Roma people, for persons living with disability, and dedicated to the equality between men and women and non-discrimination should be invited to participate in the Monitoring Committees. Special reports on the compliance with the principles of sustainability and non-discrimination will be compiled, and submitted, on a regular basis to the Government, the Monitoring Committees, the Steering Committee on Development Policy, the National Development Council and Parliament. On an annual basis, the National Council for Environment Protection shall be informed on the environmental impact of the NHDP and on the compliance with the horizontal aspects of sustainability. 79/86

80 In the course of implementation particular attention should be devoted to the monitoring of the gender equality (in particular in view of collecting data broken down by gender); the partnership mechanism; and to the effective participation of the disadvantaged groups (with special attention to the Roma minority) in the programme. Therefore in the course of operations a widely accessible information and customer service will be put in place. It will include provision of targeted information and support services for the disadvantaged groups. The employees of this customer service will undergo specific training courses tailored to the needs of these target groups. For the sake of providing appropriate information to the different handicapped groups, we plan to offer full access to our websites. Applicants from disadvantaged regions will have access to on-site information through branches of the national orientation service established in all micro regions. National advisory network will provide help with project preparation for potential beneficiaries in all micro-regions. Special support by Roma experts is also provided for Roma beneficiaries. The implementation system is fully committed towards the ensuring of the horizontal principles of sustainability as well as the promotion of equality between men and women and nondiscrimination, therefore the introduction of the EMAS is foreseen for the NDA. Furthermore measures will be taken in order to provide for a family-friendly work-environment. Partnership also prevails at all stages of implementation: - members of non-governmental organisations take part in the project selection committees (including for preparatory activities) as full members (with voting right); - half the members of the Monitoring Committee are delegated by non-governmental organizations; - in the frame of environmental impact assessment public consultation is mandatory for projects State aid The NDA takes into account to their full extent legislation in force regarding state aid. To ensure compliance with state aid regulations the State Aid Monitoring Office (SAMO) of the Ministry of Finance participates in the preparation of the programmes and action plans (see further on). Furthermore, it examines, in each case, the relevance of the state aid rules with respect to the activity to be co-financed. The Managing Authority (MA) bears responsibility for the compliance of the operational programme with state aid rules and the SAMO ensures professional control over this compliance. Therefore all support schemes shall be pre-assessed by the SAMO Public procurement Hungary has a Public Procurement Act which was adopted by the Parliament in More than 10 regulations ( secondary legislation ) lays down some detailed rules of public procurements e.g. templates of call for applications, the way of publishing call for applications, special rules related to construction procurements, design contests, etc. Intermediate bodies are responsible for ex post controls related to public procurements conducted by beneficiaries. The National Development Agency has set up a unit for ensuring 80/86

81 regularity during public procurement procedures. The role of the Unit for Public Procurement and Control (UPPC) is to provide management control during public procurement procedures. The rules concerning management control and ex post control are laid down in a regulation which was issued by the minister who is responsible for developments and by the minister of finance (16/2006.(XII. 28.) MEHVM-PM). 7.6 PROVISIONS RELATED TO ELECTRONIC DATA COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE COMMISSION AND THE MEMBER STATE The SFC2007 system of the European Commission under development will operate on the basis of electronic data provision according to the expectations of the Commission. The IT system is accessible for the institutions of the member sates in two different ways (through the website Web Application, as well as directly through electronic connections with the member state system Web Service). It is possible to get connected to the system either using one of the methods, or by combining the two methods. The data that have to be submitted in accordance with the annexes of the regulations will be displayed up to the level of the operational programme components. In the case of those data, which are included in the Single Monitoring Information System (EMIR), data loading will be ensured according to the specifications supplied by the Commission. Those data, which do not have to be recorded in the Single Monitoring Information System (EMIR) (to avoid duplication of data), will be entered in SFC directly by the key users of the responsible central institutions (such as central coordination, Certifying Authority and Audit Authority). The Member State Organisation - MSO, responsible for tasks related to the system will be NDA (National Development Agency) in accordance with to domestic regulations, so the Member State Liaison, as well as the MS System Owner, the executive of the member state organisation responsible for technical issues will be designated also from the members of the staff of NDA (National Development Agency). Regulations on Data Provision Concerning the given data, the method of data provision depends on the way of connection the designated institutions use for data provision purposes out of the two options: - if they upload the data to the SFC2007 system through the website, the authorised key users of the above assigned institutions (central coordination, Certifying Authority and Audit Authority), enter data to the tables within the competence of their organisation in the requested form, as well as verify them. - if the member state system sends the data to the SFC2007 system through direct electronic contact, the authorised key users of the above assigned institutions (central coordination, Certifying Authority and Audit Authority) load the data into the member state system, verify and send them to SFC2007. Irrespective of the way of data recording, the task of the assigned institutions (central coordination, Certifying Authority and Audit Authority) is the direct and perfect loading of the data into the system(s) keeping the deadlines, so that the data provision by other institutions related to their report can also be carried out within the deadline. The documents will be supplied upon upload into the system. The documents will deem to have been sent to the Commission, only if they have been validated by the authorised persons. 81/86

82 If the system is permanently inaccessible, especially if the deadline for the data delivery is endangered, the member state will deliver the information to the Commission in the form of paper-based document specified in the relevant regulations. If the access problem has been solved, the member state, or the designated competent organisation will subsequently carry out the loading of the information to the system (SFC2007). In such cases the official date for sending the documents will be the date of the sending of the paper-based documents. 82/86

83 8. MAJOR PROJECTS According to the current situation, no major projects will be implemented in the Electronic Administration Operational Programme. 83/86

84 ANNEX 1: INDICATORS FOR THE OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME Baseline data for those indicators, which are not measured before launching the Operational Programme will be produced by the measurement to be concluded in Indicators for the overall objective Types of indicators Result Indicator (measures or components concerned) The use of electronic public administration services by citizens/businesses as a result of the program Unit Quantified target (2015) Actual data 2006 % 50/90 17/45 Resource of data CSO/Eurostat (survey to filter out the effect of the programme) Frequency of measurement annually Type of indicator Output Result Indicators of the priority axis 1 Indicator (affected measures and/or components ) online public administration services as a result of the programme the average time of case processing at certain procedures of the state administration Unit Quantified target (2015) Actual data (2006) Source of data Frequency of measurement pieces 80 0 monitoring system annually hours decrease by 20 % n.a. survey annually Result rate of state administrative bodies with case-handling authority providing online (third level) services % 100% 15% PMO EGC / monitoring system annually Result rate of EU 20 services available online % 80% 45% CSO/Eurostat annually Type of indicator Result Output Output Result Indicators for priority axis 2 Indicator (affected measures and/or components) number of average weekly visitors of the government portal number of daily transactions on the Client Gate proportion of persons having intelligent identifier proportion of citizens and businesses making online payments to state administrative bodies Unit Quantified target (2015) Actual data (2006) person pieces Source of data PMO EGC / monitoring system PMO EGC / monitoring system Frequency of measurements annually annually % 100% 0 monitoring system annually % 30% 0 Eurostat (survey to filter out the effects of the program) annually Indicators for priority axis 3 84/86

85 Type of indicator Result Result Output Result Indicator (affected measures and/or components) the average time of case processing at certain procedures in the state administration in the CHR rate of state administrative bodies with case-handling authority in the CHR providing online services proportion of persons having intelligent identifiers in the CHR proportion of citizens and businesses making online payments to state administrative bodies in the CHR Unit hours Quantified target (2015) decrease by 20% Actual data (2006) % 100% n.a. % 100% 0 % 50% 0 Source of data Frequency of measurement n.a. survey annually PMO EGC/ monitoring system monitoring system monitoring system) annually annually annually Type of indicator Output Indicator for priority axes 4 and 5 Indicator (affected measures and/or components) ratio of implementation of the supported projects [approved projects (favourable decision) to the actually implemented projects] Unit Quantified target (2015) Actual data (2006) % Resource of the data monitoring system Frequency of measurement annually 85/86

86 ANNEX 2. CATEGORIZATION OF THE ENVISAGED INTERVENTIONS Categorization of the planned interventions (financial categorisation based on preliminary calculations) Data at current price in EUR According to subject of According to the form Regional division priority of financing Code Sum of EU financing Code Sum of EU financing Code Sum of EU financing Total Total Total /86