Title:
E-government in Kazakhstan: Government goals and policies
Keywords:
Kazakhstan; e-governance; ministry website; site analysis
Highlights:
·
Kazakhstan has
introduced an e-governance program for 20 Ministries.
·
Language, content,
utility, transparency and traffic statistics were evaluated.
·
The ministry sites
did not meet their own criteria outlined for e-governance.
·
Soviet style
presentation was dominant and there were no forms available.
Abstract:
The impact of e-governance was examined for Kazakhstan, a central
Asian country which has invested heavily in establishing various ministry
sites. The major government goals were to make government more accessible and
to help formulate a national Kazakh identity. Twenty government sites were evaluated
using various criteria such as language, content, utility for the citizen, and
transparency as well as traffic statistics. It was found that although the
sites showed considerable investment in structure and the Ministers took an
active interest in their blogs, they failed to provide the interactivity with
the site visitors necessary to achieve the stated goals.
1
Introduction
Kazakhstan has had a
highly centralized government in the two decades since independence.
Nevertheless, the President of Kazakhstan in annual speeches and in formulating national
programs has consistently promoted the idea of E-governance (E-gov). The
present paper will focus on the characteristics and the development of the
E-gov phenomenon in Kazakhstan as an example of an attempt to reform public
administration and alter a regime's attitude towards its citizen.
1.1 Research
goal
To examine the
possible impacts and implications of the E-gov program on politics in
Kazakhstan by examining how the regime utilizes this program for its own goals and
its relationship with the citizen. The intentions of the regime were inferred
by analyzing documents and declarations relating to the E-gov as well as
reports and surveys of international organizations about this issue.
Qualitative and quantitative analyzes of sites in the national level were used
to characterize the program in the recent decade.
1.2 Research
hypothesis
The goal of the
regime in Kazakhstan, at least in the level of declaration, was to apply the
E-gov program as part of a comprehensive reform of the administration
mechanism, aiming at making the public service more efficient and improving its
relationship with the citizen. It was expected that by examining the structure
of the web sites it would be possible to measure to what extent the goals were
being met.
2
Citizen-government relationships in Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet era
The Republic of
Kazakhstan became independent in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Kazakhstan is a very large territory and the population of Kazakhstan is
only 17 million, and therefore the state is the lowest population density in
the world. The population is divided into a number of ethnic groups: 53%
Kazakhs, 30% Russians, 3.7% Ukrainians, 3.1% Germans, 2.5% Uzbegs, 1.9% Tatars
(Sabonis-Helf, 2004; Agency of Statistics of Kazakhstan; website:
www.eng.stat.kz 2010).
Kazakhstan formally
has a democratic presidential system and a market economy. In reality, it has
somewhat of a hybrid political regime, with elements of wide political
participation related to many issues, alongside strong centralized rule of
President Nazerbayev. Despite the regular ritual of holding elections, the
regime does not engage in true political competition in determining who gets
the most senior positions. The republic consists of 14 provinces. At the end of
1998 the city of Astana became the capital instead of Almati. The main
institutions of the state are the president, who is elected for seven years in
office, the prime minister, the cabinet of ministers, the parliament (Senate)
with 47 representatives and an additional body called the Majlis, with 77
representatives.
Under the Soviet
regime there was a directed immigration of Russians and people of other nationalities
into Kazakhstan. As a result of this policy there was a varied ethnic
composition which exceeded the number of the native Kazakhs. After the
declaration of independence from the USSR in 1991, many people returned to
their original countries. As a result of this immigration and due to higher
birth rates, the Kazakhs are again the majority and they are about half of the
population versus a third which is of Russian origin. One of the challenges in the
time of independence was to develop a common Kazakhstani identity for people of
all nationalities.
2.2 The
development of the political system and the public service
In December 1991,
Nazarbayev won a free election and Kazakhstan declared its independence of the
USSR. In 1995, a referendum confirmed the continuation of the tenure of the
president until 2000, but already in January 1999 an early election was
declared in which Nazarbayev was elected for a term of another seven years. In
the last election that took place in 2005, Nazarbayev won a third term with 90%
of the votes. In the course of the election the president was accused of
bending the law, biased elections and establishing a totalitarian regime. The
president and his people claimed that the main factor for his being elected
again is his successful dealing with central challenges such as taking care of
the nuclear waste that remained from the Soviet era, establishing an
independent state with no violence or split on any ethnic or religious
background, and executing significant financial and economic reforms (Knox,
2008). The presidential system in Kazakhstan is characterized by a political
and legislative division between the performing institutions of the government.
In the first stage of independence, (1991 until 1995), the state focused on
stabilizing and developing the economic situation. The president's administration
is the focus of decision-making in Kazakhstan, and it operates within the
comprehensive triangle of powers of the president, the ministers' cabinet and
the security-council. The ministers have quite a wide autonomy in issues of
society and economy and they are partners in the process of political decision making.
The second stage of the development of the state was between the years
1995-2000, when significant economic changes took place. During this period a
new Proclamation of Independence was declared in 1995 which included a call for
democracy and for stabilizing the secular nature of the country and the
presidential administration system. During this period, the document Kazakhstan
2030: Prosperity, Security and Improvement of Welfare for Kazakhstan Citizens was
published (Knox, 2008; Addresses of the President of Kazakhstan, 1997). After
the declaration of independence in 1991, Kazakhstan started a wide economic reform,
which included a liberalization of prices, decreasing customs duty and encouraging
the creation of medium sized businesses. Later on, a system for administering
public resources was established and this was the basis of a modern public
service and the foundation of a National Trust (2000). Part of the profits of
the oil industry, as well as other natural resources, was dedicated to social
issues and to improve the distribution of wealth. Since 2000 the economy has
shown meaningful signs of improvement, with an annual growth of about 9.5% of
the GDP until 2008 and increased from 22 billion dollars in 1998 to 133.4 billion
dollars in 2009 (World Bank, 2009). Since 2001, economic growth has been the
main government priority e.g. the GDP doubled during 2000-2008. With the
stabilization of the economic and government situation, the emphasis moved to a
democratic reform that aimed at improving the public service and increasing the
government's responsibility and transparency. A national committee for the
Development of Democratic Reforms headed by the President was founded in March
2006 and its main goals were (Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA
and Canada 2007):
· To
make the liberal and democratic reforms in Kazakhstan irreversible by
mobilizing the efforts of the Government and civil society institutions.
· To
ensure that the majority of the population embraces and adopts democratic traditions
with a view to establishing society as a ‘consolidated democracy’, and to
strengthen the social base of the reforms.
· To
achieve political reforms that represent a compromise among all the forces of society
who have joined together to meet the challenges facing them.
By 2011, a number of
initiatives for the improvement of the political process in Kazakhstan were
initiated. A program for the development of a civil society was approved for the
years 2006-2011 and a law insuring independent local administration was passed (Embassy
of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada 2006). The strategic program Kazakhstan 2030
(1997) was adopted with the goal of Kazakhstan becoming one of the 50
leading countries in the world (2006). This would require massive
re-organization of the government mechanisms with the goal of shifting from
Communist society to the efficiency and transparency associated with Western
governments. Not only the government but the general population would have to
reject the Soviet model with the regime as the center and understand that the
goal of the government is to administer the country and provide efficient services
to its citizens. Finally, a strategic program was designed with the goal of
forming a Kazakhstani national identity from the diverse ethnic groups which currently
made up the population. One of the tools to accomplish the goals of the
strategic program was to be “Government on the Net” a mechanism to use
IT to create an efficient government in which the citizen feels that his voice
is heard. The present paper evaluates the E-gov program as a sign of the
implementation of the plan to increase efficiency since this electronic
government serves as a central focus in the reform of the public service and a
principal tool in improving the government's attitude to its citizens.
3
E-gov, its development and impact on the regime's attitude to the citizen
3.1 Government
online (E-gov)
E-gov is a term that
refers to the use governments do with the information technologies in
their relationship
with the population (UN
E-Government Readiness Knowledge Base, 2010). This entails extensive use of the
internet web for improving the administration's activity and its relationship
with the citizens as well as expediting inner-organization efficiency reforms and
reducing bureaucracy . As the penetration of the internet to the households
increased, the prevalence of the E-gov phenomenon around the world has
increased. Information technologies, in general, and the internet in
particular, serve governmental institutions in various administrative levels
for improving organizational processes and increasing the efficiency of their
activities. The E-gov serves in many countries as a basis for executing a wide
reform in governmental bureaucracy and in its relations with the citizens. The
accepted model in most countries is establishing a central governmental site,
which enables access to the various administration sites and supplying
information and services to the public, to the business sector, and as well as
administration institutions (UN E-Government Readiness Knowledge Base, 2010;
Grönlund & Horan, 2005, 712-728; Palvia & Sharma, 2007).
3.2 The
elements of the program in Kazakhstan
Using the described
model above, Kazakhstan started to integrate computerized systems into the
various administration institutions. This national program for establishing
information infrastructure was formulated at the end of the 90s and the
beginning of the 2000s. A program of developing the national E-gov project was
launched to be implemented in the years 2001-2005. The first stages focused in
establishing IT infrastructure, establishing internet sites for the government
institutions in different levels and widening the use of the internet. The program
was supported and received significant involvement of senior officials. For
instance, in a speech to the nation the President gave in March 2004, he
reported of launching an electronic administration program (Kazinform November
3, 2004). In addition, he said that at that stage the highest priority was to
enable access to the internet, promote education in the field of information
technology and modernize the administration in the country. It was obvious to
the leaders of the project that they had to cope with the challenges of
establishing infrastructure for the E-gov and reducing the gaps of access to
the internet. In the course of the months following Naqzarbayev's speech
(April-July), a committee headed by the Prime Minister, Daniel Akhmetov,
formulated the outlines and the goals of the E-gov. They cooperated with
administrative bodies from the national and the local levels, IT companies and
representatives from the private and the business sectors. It also dealt with
the legal, technological and social implications of the program, and a budget
of 5.3 billion KZT was confirmed for materializing the first stage (Kazinform,
June 8, 2004). At the beginning of August (9.8.2004), the head of the Agency of
Information and Communication - ICA, Birzhan Kaneshev, presented to the
President the liberalization process for the telecommunication system. Right
after this meeting, during September-November, the program entered into
advanced approval stages, including, among other things, a meeting between the
prime minister and senior personnel from Samsung. These meetings continued with
the Minister of Science and Technology and the ICA negotiating with the
company. At the same time the government discussed the first triennial program
for the years 2005-2007 and instructed the Minister of Finance to allocate the
needed resources for the program (Kazinform Kazakhstan National Information
Agency, www.inform.kz 2010.) In 2004, the ICA held a conference which was
organized by international IT companies (e.g. Korean Samsung) on the subject of
E-gov. The conference defined the direction to which Kazakhstan wanted to go at
that stage in order to materialize its goals, i.e., adopting western
applications of service and sharing with the citizens (Kazinform Kazakhstan
National Information Agency.www.inform.kz 2010). In November 10, 2004, the
president signed a decree about implementing the E-gov in Kazakhstan in the
years: 2005-2007: "In order to provide citizens and businesses fast and
qualitative access to public services, and in order to promote the efficiency
of governmental entities through a wide use of information technology, I hereby
instruct…" (AIC Kazakhstan Agency of Informatization and Communication, www.aic.gov.kz).
A program with
specific goals was subsequently announced by the government:
1.
Developing the legal and methodology framework necessary to enable individuals,
businesses and agencies to function in an information society;
2.
Development of government agencies’ e-services;
3.
Ensuring access to e-government services, mending the digital divide, and
providing the necessary educational and training opportunities;
4.
Development of the basic infrastructure of e-government; optimization of the
existing information technology infrastructure of government agencies;
5.
Providing internationally harmonized levels of protection to e-government infrastructure
(Republic of Kazakhstan 2004).
Although most of the
goals are similar to those of other countries, it was realized that Kazakhstan
would have particular difficulties in educating the people towards computerization
and spreading computing skills throughout the population (digital divide.)
The second national
program for the years 2008-2010 was formulated more simply. Its goal was to
create an integrated e-government that efficiently serves all the needs of
citizens and business and consolidates society by means of information
technologies (Kazakhstan, 2007). To accomplish these goals, the specifics
of the second program were more practical. It took into account that the
different ministries had already established sites so what needed to be
developed was the application of these sites. In an interview given by
Kuanyshbak Yessekyev, Head of AIC, in July 2007 to E-gov Magazine, he outlined
the vision and goals of the program:
The
main objective of the Kazakhstan e-Government program is providing quick and
high quality access to public services, enhancing efficiency of government
bodies with the help of ICT, i.e. providing access to ICT for every user in
everyday life.
He pointed out the
main problem was that, at the time, only 12% of the population in Kazakhstan
had the skills to use PCs and only 8% of the population were active
Internet-users (E-gov magazine 2007, 31.5.2010). Regardless of the
digital divide, by 2010, sites were established for most of the administration
offices in the national and the local levels. In light of this impressive
achievement, Kazakhstan's global grading by the UN in 2010 was raised to the 48th place
of readiness for computerization as opposed to its 86th place
in 2008. The purpose of the present paper was to determine to what extent this
massive investment contributed to Kazakhstan's goals for the program and in
which way it succeeded in doing so.
Specifically it was
evaluated how well the regime was achieving the goals of sharing, transparency
and cooperation and how was the internet influencing the regime's attitude towards
the citizen.
4 A
survey of the government's sites and its possible significance
4.1 The
contents of the survey
The survey was
executed during August-September 2010 of about 20 governmental sites in
Kazakhstan at different levels with an emphasis on sites at the national level
and which can readily be accessed from the government's home site and the E-gov
site. The goal of the survey was to investigate the nature and quality of the services
and information the governmental sites provide the surfers, as well as
examining the number of surfers who use them. The results of the survey formed
a data base for analyzing the regime's patterns of operation towards the
citizen. The data was used to indicate if E-gov serves its stated political goals
(a) creating a Kazakh identity in the post-Soviet era, e.g., the issue of
language used in the sites; and (b) reforming the nature of the government
activity, its efficiency, transparency and so on, like publishing budget
reports, bids and ways of communicating with different functionaries.
4.2 The
method of the survey
4.2.1
Statistics.
The statistics was
based on a number of internet analytical tools which follow the data of surfing
in the various sites. All these tools are similar in a certain extent as to the
method of survey and are based only on certain sections of the surfers, but at
the same time one can get a comparison from them. The statistical grade that
was given to the sites was relative to number of participants in the survey.
The highest 20% was scored grade 5, and the 20% at the bottom was scored grade
1 as well as comparing with similar sites in other countries. The government ministry
sites considered are listed in Table 1.
|
Table 1. Ministries and Committees of the Republic of Kazakhstan
which have URLs.
| |
|
Ministry of Internal Affairs
|
www.mvd.kz
|
|
Ministry of Health
|
www.mz.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Industry & Innovative
Technologies
|
www.mt.kz
|
|
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
|
www.mfa.kz
|
|
Ministry of Culture
|
www.mki.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Communication & information
|
www.bam.gov.kz www.aic.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Defense
|
www.mod.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Education & Science
|
www.edu.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Agriculture
|
www.miniagri.kz
|
|
Ministry of
Transport & Communications
|
www.mtk.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Labor and Social Protection
|
www.enbek.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Tourism & Sport
|
www.mts.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry of Finance
|
www.minfin.kz
|
|
Ministry of Economic Development & Trade
|
www.minplan.ka
|
|
Ministry of Oil & Gas
|
www.mng.gov.kz
|
|
Ministry for Emergency Situations
|
www.emer.kz
|
|
Ministry of Justice
|
www.minjust.kz
|
|
Committees
| |
|
National Security Committee
|
www.knb.kz
|
|
Source http://www.e.gov.kz/wps/portal/Content?contentPath=/library2/3_vlast&lang=en
| |
The first tool was
Alexa, which gives the percentage of surfing out of the global surfing
of the surfers listed in the system, which is probably more than 10 million
people worldwide.The grading is relative to a specific site in a section of the
country/world and the number of sites that have a link to that site (a datum
that points of a relative popularity of the site).
Figure 1 presents the
results of the analysis of the surfing data of the government's home site www.government.kz
during the three months (Alexa, August 15, 2010).The second tool was the Kazakh
site Count Zero, www.zero.kz, whose advantage in this research is that most of
its surfers are from Kazakhstan, and the government sites put it at the bottom
of their page, which proves of its reliability in the eyes of the government
(Fig. 2). This tool enables a variety of data about surfing (amount of surfers
and a relative grading) such as the analysis used here about the data of
surfing in public sites in the last three months. The third tool was the Russian
Openstat, which gives good data for part of the sites (Figure 3.) The fourth
tool was whois.1in.kz, which gives most interesting data about surfing within
Kazakhstan (Figure 4). In addition, we considered tools and meters on the site,
like an entrance meter.
Figure 1. Daily reach of gov.kz over a three month period.
From
Jun to Aug, 2010, Gov.kz ranked #24,183 in the world according to the three-month
Alexa traffic ratings. Approximately 87% of visitors to the site come from
Kazakhstan, where it had a traffic rank of 51. The time spent in a typical
visit was
about six minutes. Visitors to gov.kz viewed an average of 5.2 unique pages per
day.
Figure
2 Russian site which ranks site use in the Russian Republic and former
republics of the USSR. The 11th most popular site on Aug. 25, 2010 was the Ministry
of Agriculture of the Russian Federation (Министерство сельского хозяйства
Российской Федерации)
Legend in Russian - 24 August 2010 25 August 2010
4.2.2 Examination and grading the sites
The sites were
evaluated according to different parameters: languages, general information, personal
information, access and cooperativeness, forms, transparency and executing
actions in real time. The criteria for the grading are presented in Table 2.
Table
2. Criteria for
determining grades for general information
Grade
Definition
Method of examining
sites (the way of grading in each parameter).
1. Languages
Definition for
determining the grades:
|
Definition
|
Grade
|
|
none
|
1
|
|
Additional language
|
2
|
|
Two additional languages
|
3
|
|
Kazakh in Cyrillic or Latin script, Russian,
English
|
4
|
|
Kazakh in Cyrillic or Latin script, Russian,
English and two other languages
|
5
|
2.
General information – Quality of information
Definition for determining
the grades:
|
Definition
|
Grade
|
|
There is most partial information. The
information is not updated, unorganized in a friendly way and is not
presented in a way that suits the web.
|
1
|
|
The information contains specification about
the organization and its goals and ways of communication. It is organized in
a reasonable way.
|
2
|
|
The information is updated and dynamic in
part of the site. It contains specification about the organization and ways
of communication. There is little complementing information. There is
compatibility of the information to the presentation in the web. The
information is organized and can be accessed easily.
|
3
|
|
Updated, dynamic, and rich information, well
written and presented in a suitable way. There are complementing details to
the basic information. It is well organized and accessible.
|
4
|
|
Updated, dynamic, and rich information, well
written and presented in a suitable way. There are many details about
organization, with a complementing info that enriches the surfers' knowledge.
The information is suited to different target populations. It is organized
excellently and can be accessed easily.
|
5
|
3. Personal Information
Definition for
determining the grades:
|
Definition
|
Grade
|
|
There is no personal information.
|
1
|
|
There are options of receiving personal
information, which is open only to part of the population.
|
2
|
|
There are several options of receiving
personal information. It is open to all the population. Usually the presented
information is not essential for the citizen in his contacts with
governmental bodies. Citizens do not have an option of changing the presented
information.
|
3
|
|
There are several options of receiving
personal information. The relevant personal information is open for all the
population. Usually it is useful and important for the citizen in his
contacts with governmental bodies. The citizens do not have an option of
changing the presented information.
|
4
|
|
There are many options of receiving personal
information. The relevant personal info is open to all the population.
Usually it is useful and important for the citizen in his contacts with
governmental bodies. The citizens have an option of changing the presented
information.
|
5
|
4. Accessibility and cooperativeness
Definition for
determining the grades:
|
Grade
|
Definition
|
|
1
|
The site contains statistical information
only. One can address through email or a form.
|
|
2
|
There is mainly statistical information in
the site. One can address through email or a form. There are a few tools that
enable the citizens allocate information.
|
|
3
|
There is mainly statistical information in
the site. One cann apply by email or a form and participate in a general
survey. There are numerous tools that enable citizens allocate information,
like search engines, calculators, etc.
|
|
4
|
The site encourages communication with the
surfers and can contain numerous ways of addressing except email and forms,
like distribution list, discussion groups, chats and other interaction means,
as well as participating in focal surveys. There are also advanced
calculators and search engines.
|
|
5
|
The site enables surfers to participate actively in creating
content. There are personally adjusted contents. The site encourages
communication with surfers by numerous ways of addressing except email and
forms, like distribution lists, discussion groups, chats and other
communication means, as well as participate in a variety of votes and surveys
in most of the ministry affairs. There are advanced calculators and search
engines.
|
5. Forms
Definition for
determining the grades:
|
Grade
|
Definition
|
|
1
|
There are no forms in the site.
|
|
2
|
There are e few forms, which are not sorted
and with no instructions of use.
|
|
3
|
There are a few forms with a certain
sorting. They are accompanied by instructions of use and can be printed easily
and be used.
|
|
4
|
There are a few forms, they are sorted, and
can be accessed easily. The forms are accompanied by instructions of use and
can be printed easily and be used.
|
|
5
|
There are many forms, they are sorted and can be accessed easily.
The forms are accompanied by instructions of use and can be printed easily
and be used. The site enables filling in and sending forms on line.
|
6. Transparency
Definition for
determining the grades:
|
Grade
|
Definition
|
|
1
|
Low transparency of the relevant ministry
(There are no programs/working plans, budget, bids).
|
|
2
|
Basic transparency of the relevant
ministry's activity (reduced publishing of programs/working plans and/or
budget, and there are a few bids which are not sorted with no instructions of
use).
|
|
3
|
Good transparency of the relevant ministry's
activity (partial presentation of programs, functionaries, budget. There are
a few bids with a certain sorting, and there are accompanies with
instructions of use and can be printed easily and be used).
|
|
4
|
High transparency of the ministry with
presentation of working plans, detailed budget, many bids, sorted and can be
accessed easily. The bids are accompanied by instructions of use and can be
printed easily and be used).
|
|
5
|
Full and dynamic transparency of the
ministry's activity with working plans, functionaries, detailed budget, many
sorted bids and can be accessed easily. The bids are accompanied with
instructions of use and one can participate in them on line.
|
7. Executing operations in
real-time
Definition for determining
the grades:
|
Grade
|
Definition
|
|
1
|
There in option of executing operations in
the site.
|
|
2
|
There is an option to execute one or two
operations.
|
|
3
|
There is an option of executing a number of
single operations.
|
|
4
|
The site enables the surfers to execute
numerous operations. There is an emphasis on the kind of operations the
citizen can execute.
|
|
5
|
The site enables the surfers execute
conveniently and quickly all the possible operations with the governmental
body. There is an emphasis on the kind of operations the citizen can execute.
|
5. The
survey's findings and its significance
Examining
the administration sites in the national level shows the achievements of the
program on the one hand, while on the other hand the nature of the sites and
the applications raise questions about the intentions of the regime.
5.1 Results of survey of all the sites
The results of the survey are shown in Tables 3 and 4. The sites chosen for this examination are the gate to the government of Kazakhstan (www.government.kz, the president's site (www.akorda.kz), the site of the Agency of Information and Communication and all the sites of the government ministries in the national level, which are linked to the home page of the government (Table 1). In general, the data show monthly entrances between several to tens of thousands and a big gap among the sites in surfing data. In none of the tools there was found data about all the surveyed sites, in part of the sites there were built-in meters in the site or a link to an external analytical tool, and there were even some sites with no statistical information whatsoever, which points of a most reduced use of them.
The results of the survey are shown in Tables 3 and 4. The sites chosen for this examination are the gate to the government of Kazakhstan (www.government.kz, the president's site (www.akorda.kz), the site of the Agency of Information and Communication and all the sites of the government ministries in the national level, which are linked to the home page of the government (Table 1). In general, the data show monthly entrances between several to tens of thousands and a big gap among the sites in surfing data. In none of the tools there was found data about all the surveyed sites, in part of the sites there were built-in meters in the site or a link to an external analytical tool, and there were even some sites with no statistical information whatsoever, which points of a most reduced use of them.
Table 3
– Survey of Sites
|
Real-time applications
|
transparency
|
forms
|
Accessibility & cooperativeness
|
Personal information
|
General information
|
languages
|
Description of site
|
Name of site
|
|
If and
to what extent can citizens execute operations with the office on line, like
paying bills, declarations, service requests.
|
Extent
of transparency of the work of the ministry: working plans, functionaries,
budget, bids. How many of them can be down loaded for registration and on
line participation. Annual reports and statistics.
|
Existence
of on-line forms, accessible and way of sorting, instructions for use and
option to be filled on line.
|
Availability
of advanced tools that enable addressing the ministry directly to get info
and advice. Does the ministry encourage citizens to contact directly for
recommendation, question, complaint. Is there a variety of tools for
communication. Polls, votes, surveys (one vote each).
|
Whether
specific personal info can be accessed, openness to all the population. Can
the citizen act and send requests in the site.
|
Scope
& quality of info, extent of being updated, organization &
presentation of info. Whether info is dynamic/adjusted to different target
populations, like documents, rules, regulations.
|
In
which languages one can find info in the site. Approach to Kazakh
(Cyrillic/Latin script), Russian, Eng or other
| ||
|
Wide
general info in the different languages. Clear links to government bodies in
the national and the local level.
|
Kazakh
in Cyrillic+ Latin script, Russian, English. English is almost updated.
|
Reporting
of government activities with info and links to all government sites in all
levels.
|
Home
site of Kazakhstan's government
| |||||
|
|
A
general site that gives info & services on all government issues.
|
E-gov
site of Kazakhstan
| ||||||
|
1 none
|
3
|
1 none
|
Access
to the minister's blog. He receives abut 100 question per month but there is
no reply. There is a mechanism of Q+A in relevant subjects. One can register
for updates in the mail. In the main page there is a number of a phone center
+ a page with info about addresses + phone no. all over the country. Grade 3
|
1
|
General
info about the ministry structure & activity, news, updated in Russian
& Kazakh. In Eng there is a gap of a month in English updates. Grade 2
|
Russian,
Kazakh, English
|
Home
page of the m. of domestic affairs: news & info about structure and
activity.
|
Ministry
of Domestic Affairs
|
|
Search
engine 1
|
Statistical
reports. Explanation about applying to a position. 2
|
1 none
|
Link
to forum. One can register for updates in the mail. Simple poll. Option of
asking questions.
|
1
|
2.
news info in Russian, Kazakh. In Eng only headlines. The site starts in
Russian. Info about structure + activity.
|
Russian,
Kazakh, English. 3
|
Home
page of the ministry. Info about the ministry's structure.
|
Ministry
of Health
|
|
2
registration as a user in the minister's forum, the minisstry's forum, and as
a supplier in order to participate in governmental bids
|
2
general programs + projects for the near future. Info about available
positions + terms of acceptance. Address + email + phone nos.
|
1
|
2
Access to the minister's forum with registration. There is a statistical page
of means of communication to the different bodies of the ministries, part of
them with email.
|
1
|
2 info
about the ministry, statistical + analytical info, a picture of the president
+ minister in the home page.
|
Kazakh,
Russian, English in development.
|
Home
page of the industry ministry.
|
Ministry
of Industry & Innovative Technologies
|
|
One
register to receive updates by mails.
|
No
info beyond general info about the ministry. Grade 2. Link to 3 different
tools for grading the site.
|
1
|
No
access to the minister's forum. Satisfactory poll of the site. Grade 2.
|
1
|
Info
about the structure+activity of the ministry, relevant news, updated in
Russian+Kazakh. In English only info about activity+rules + regulations for
foreigners + info about the state's plans indifferent issues. Grade 4
|
Russian,
Kazakh, English.
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
for Foreign Affairs
|
|
|
Ministry
of Culture
| |||||||
|
|
Ministry
of Communication & Information
| |||||||
|
1 none
|
Only
general programs. 2
|
1
|
Static
communication means to several functionaries + dates + hours. One can address
a question. Link at the head of the page to the minister's blog with 34
question from last month. Poll about the prestige of army service. 2
|
1
|
General
info about the ministry & its activity, acquisitions + future programs,
rules, info about services. 3
|
Russian,
Kazakh, English
|
Home
page of the ministry from 2009
|
Ministry
of Defense
|
|
|
Ministry
of Environment Protection
| |||||||
|
|
Home
page of the ministry.
|
Ministry
of Education &Science
| ||||||
|
General
info about the ministry's activity, strategic plans. 3
|
Russian,
Kazakh English. Updated.
|
Home
page of the ministry.
|
Ministry
of Environment Protection
| |||||
|
Applications
of updates
|
Partial
presentation of strategic programs and part of the functionaries
+government's decisions.
|
none
|
Access
to the minister's blog with 34 questions in the last month. No clear ways of
communication. Grade 2
|
1
|
General
info + rules + a lot of info about the state & its rules+ president's speeches. 3
|
Russian,
Kazakh English. Updated.
|
Home page
of the ministry.
|
Ministry
of Agriculture
|
|
None
|
General
info about joining the public administration
|
None
|
Access
to the minister's blog with 36 questions in last month. There is a poll about
updates in the site. One can address questions to departments. There are many
answers
|
1
|
General
info including president's speeches + strategic programs of the state + in
transportation
|
Russian,
Kazakh & partial not updated Eng
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
of Transport & Communications
|
|
List
of available positions, one can register and search for positions of about
20,000 jobs
|
A
picture of the president, 2009 budget, grade 3-4
|
None
|
Access
to the minister's blog with 113 questions in the last month. Poll about level
of income, statistical info about phone no. of offices + services nationwide
|
1
|
General
info about the activity of the ministry
|
Russian,
Kazakh + English not updated and not full
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
of Labor and Social Protection
|
|
Multimedia
films
|
President's
picture + all his speeches, list of projects
|
Forms
for getting a license in Russian. 10 kinds of forms in Kazakh. 1
|
Access
to the minister's blog with 23 questions in last month. Phone numbers of
functionaries, list of investments in tourism
|
1
|
General
info about the state and the ministry, international connections
|
Russian,
Kazakh and partial English
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
of Tourism & Sport
|
|
Detailed
monthly budget for 2010 including incomes and expenses. Since 2000 – partial
budget + budgets of local authorities, fiscal budget plans, various reports
|
Link
to the minister's blog with 79 questions in last month. One can send a mail
for clarifications. Questions + answers were published lately in April 2009
|
General
info about the activity of the ministry, legislation in relevant issues,
global info
|
Kazakh,
Russian and not updated English
|
Home
page of the ministry for 2001-2005
|
Ministry of Finance
| |||
|
Registration
system for the blog and the home page
|
Ministry's
budget for 2009-2010' details of acquisition
|
None
|
Link
to the blog of the minister. 31 questions in last month. Phone numbers of
various offices + fax + mail. Survey: How do you rate your experience of our
site?
|
General
info about the state + president's speeches
|
Kazakh,
Russian and not updated English
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
of Economic Development & Trade
| |
|
None
|
Bids,
jobs + winners, questions + answers to the public
|
None
|
Link
to the minister's blog with 21questions in last month. A poll of how do you
estimate to what extent the site is updated.
|
1
|
General
info about the ministry and functionaries
|
Kazakh,
Russian and not updated English
|
Home
page of the ministry
|
Ministry
of Oil & Gas
|
|
multimedia
|
Forum
and questions + answers system
|
Link
to the minister's blog, 41 questions to the minister last month, survey of
you estimate the effectiveness of the ministry
|
General
info about the ministry and functionaries
|
Kazakh,
Russian and not updated English
|
Home
page of the ministry, established in 2006
|
Ministry
for Emergency Situations
| ||
|
multimedia
|
Annual
acquisition plan, picture of the president, when + where people can meet him
|
Many
forms about registration to organizations, updating addresses
|
Link
to the minister's blog, 312 questions + 284 answers. A poll whether you like
the design of the site
|
General
info about the ministry and functionaries, a lot of legal info, like license
for working as a lawyer, or registration of birth
|
Kazakh,
Russian and not updated English
|
Home
page of the ministry,
|
Ministry
of Justice
|
Table 3
– Data of the Statistical Survey
|
General
|
goto.kz
|
flagcounte
|
top.mail.ru
|
Openstat
|
Count Zero
|
Who is 1st in kz
|
Alexe
|
Ministry
| |||
|
Total 2,706,191
entrances. 61887 per month
|
209,628
|
Home page of the
government
| |||||||||
|
Annual 384,008 August 1522 first place in ministries and 37 in
Kazakhstan
|
623,913
|
E-gov site of
Kazakhstan
| |||||||||
|
Annual 24,343 Aug. 4122 8/254
|
296,722
|
A site for a direct
access to the president
| |||||||||
|
Aug. 36,250 visitors, 257,735 visitors, 2/52 place
|
Site of blogs of the
ministers
| ||||||||||
|
surfers
|
watching
|
visits
|
surfers
| ||||||||
|
2555
|
730
|
645
|
Per day
|
843032
|
Domestic
| ||||||
|
107436
|
32339
|
23289
|
July
| ||||||||
|
104
|
Per day
|
Health
| |||||||||
|
1,135,414
|
Ministry of Industry
& Innovative Technologies
| ||||||||||
|
Average Aug. 42,480 more than 50,000 since 2000, 600 entrances per
day, Feb.
|
49,274 since March 2010, total 15,000 in aug.
|
Place 282, 497 entrances, 864 worldwide
|
1,099,805
|
Ministry for Foreign
Affairs
| |||||||
|
3201
|
monthly
|
Place 197, 31 entrances
|
Ministry of
Communication & Information
| ||||||||
|
General
|
goto.kz
|
flagcounte
|
top.mail.ru
|
Openstat
|
Count Zero
|
Who is 1st in
kz
|
Alexe
|
Ministry
| |||
|
30 daily, place 259
|
Ministry of Culture
| ||||||||||
|
Internal 496 monthly,
3888 since starting counting
|
Ministry of Defense
| ||||||||||
|
Ministry of Education &Science
| |||||||||||
|
Ministry of
Environment Protection
| |||||||||||
|
Place 460, 346 entrances
|
Ministry of
Agriculture
| ||||||||||
|
Ministry of Transport
& Communications
| |||||||||||
|
Internal total
59967783 entrances until today
|
Ministry of Labor and
Social Protection
| ||||||||||
|
Ministry of Tourism
& Sport
| |||||||||||
|
536,108
|
Ministry of Finance
| ||||||||||
|
1,042,057
|
Ministry of Economic
Development & Trade
| ||||||||||
|
4th place in the national category and 202 in trhe
general grading. 37161 for 2010 and for Aug. only 8
|
Ministry of Oil &
Gas
| ||||||||||
|
2500/1010607
|
Ministry for Emergency
Situations
| ||||||||||
|
Place 295/356 entrances
|
1771/625545
|
Ministry of Justice
| |||||||||
5.2 Individual findings
It seems that the
most popular site is the government blogs site (www.blogs.gov.kz), which went
into the air at the beginning of 2010 and scored tens of thousands of entrances
per month from all over the country and more than 36,000 entrances during
August. It is interesting that during weekends there is a drastic decrease in entrances.
Maybe it points that most of the surfers surf from their work, and also that
the surfers from the city of Almaty is three times bigger than the surfers from
the capital Astana.
Surfing data to the
blogs site of the government ministers for August 2010 and the year 2010
(Figure 4 A,B)
Figure 4A. The traffic on the minsters' blog site for month of
Aug. 2010.
Figure 4B. The traffic on
the ministers' blog sites for the year 2010.
The site is
accessible from the above address that includes all the blogs, as well as from
each ministry with its relevant blog. On this site one can address the heads of
the regime through the blog, and the blog itself is full of questions and the
administration's responses. In order to examine the site, I posed a question to
the head of the ICA, the agency responsible for the E-gov in the country and
received a fast and professional answer signed by the head of the agency
(Figure 5.)
Figure
5. Question and response by the Head of
the ICA on the Minster of Communication and Information site
Simcha
Shore No. 31833
Blog
Author: Chairman, Agency of the RK For Informatization & Communication
Catagories:
Kutera u
Informatzia (Culture and Information)
Question: Sunday, February 14, 2010
Dr.
Mr. Chairman, I was very impressed with your unique implementation of e
governance. It is no surprise that your program has risen so rapidly in the UN
readiness report 2010. I have decided to devote my research project to your
program. I would appreciate any pdfs you may have in English beside the
material available on the e-gov sit. I would appreciate any statistics on user
use and plans for the future. I would appreciate the opportunity to interview
you directly.
Sincerely,
Simcha Shore Haifa University.
Answer Feb. 18, 2010
Dear
Simcha Shore,
Please
be advised that the information in English on the projects implemented as part
of e-Government in the Republic of Kazakhstan can be found on the websites of
Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Informatization & Communication:
www.aic.gov.kz, "Zerde" National ICT Holding: www.zerde.gov.kz, as
well as National Information Technologies JSC: www.nitec.kz.
Kuanysbek Yessekeyev
The home page of the
government and the E-gov site reached the highest place in the global grading of
Alexa (Alexa, August 30, 2010) among government ministries, but a low grade in
comparison with similar sites in the world. The leading sites in number of
entrances are the home page of the government with 61,887 entrances per month
and a total of 2,706,191 entrances; the site of blogs of the ministries with
more than 250,000 entrances since the beginning of the year (Who is 1 in kz,
August 30, 2010); the site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with about 50,000
entrances since March; the Ministry of Domestic Affairs with about 23,000
entrances since the beginning of the year.
The site of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented its surfing data in the most specific and
transparent way out of all the ministries of the government, as can be seen
tens of thousands of surfers from Kazakhstan and many other countries who have
entered the site (Figure 6.).
Figure 6. Traffic
from various countries as shown on the Foreign Ministry site.
The Ministry of
Defense presents a meter that shows about 500 entrances per month (Figure 7).
The meter reflects the irrelevance of the site for the wide public, possibly
due to the services it offers. Analyzing the nature of the questions and
answers presented in the forum was particularly informative as to the
administration-citizen relationship in this country.
Figure
7 The new surfers' meter in the site of the Ministry of Defense
5.2 Grading of sites according to different parameters
5.2.1
Languages
On most sites there
are three languages: Russian, Kazakh and English. Besides the home page of the
government in which Kazakh appears both in Cyrillic script and Latin letters,
the sites had Kazakh only in in Cyrillic script. In most sites the content in
Russian and Kazakh are identical and updated, whereas in English there is less
content and they are less updated. The chosen languages, Kazakh in Cyrillic and
Latin script, Russian and English shows the difficulty the regime has in
realizing its own policy of using Kazakh language only in Latin script as the
sole official language of the country. The design of the site points to the
need to continue to consider the needs of the Russian population as well as the
Kazakh population that has not yet acquired the Latin script. In addition,
although one can see that the English page is less updated (and probably less
watched in Kazakhstan), the wide availability of English shows the willingness
of the regime to address the international community.
5.2.2
Site content.
Most sites contain a
lot of general information about the activity of the relevant office. For example,
the president's declarations, national programs and so on, most of this
information is updated in Russian and Kazakh, and to a smaller extent in
English. In most sites in the center of the page there are communication
reports relevant to the activity of the department, and it seems that the good
news and successes are emphasized. In contrast on most government sites one
cannot get personal information, except for the E-gov, where one can get
personal information after registering. This is a significant weak point in the
sites as compared with similar sites in other countries.
5.2.3
Interactivity
Generally speaking,
most sites provide phone numbers of different functionaries as well as a
central e-mail address for public applications. The bright side in this respect
is a link to the blog of the minister, which appears in most sites, and seems
to be an active mechanism between the ministers and the population. The
Minister of Justice stars with 312 questions in the last month, 284 of them
were answered. It would be interesting to analyze the content of these
cooperation communications. The last issue in this category, and maybe the most
embarrassing one, is the issue of polls. In this category there were only a few
polls, usually in non-significant issues. For instance, the Ministry of
Commerce and Economic Development wanted to check satisfaction from surfing in
the site (Figure 6). The Ministry of Employment dealt with the question
"Was your salary was increased in the last five years?" (Figure 7). The
Ministry of Transportation and Communication dealt with the question "Are
you updated in the contents of the site?" (Figure 8). The Ministry of Oil
and Gas deal with the question about to what extent was the site updated
(Figure 9) while the Ministry of Justice dealt with the popular question
"Do you like the design of the site?" (Figure 10). On the other hand,
the Ministry of Managing Emergency Situations started an essential poll:
"How do you estimate the effectiveness of the ministry?" (Figure 11).
It is interesting to mention that this poll probably gained the largest number
of participants, with more than 1500 respondents. There
were no forms to be downloaded from most sites, except for the Ministry of
Tourism and the Ministry of Justice. Similarly there were no applications for
filling in and submitting requests through the internet. This was quite an
exceptional finding in comparison with sites of other governments in a similar
grading (UN grading data base) and even lower than that of Kazakhstan.
Generally speaking, in most ministries there were found no applications or
tools for executing actions in the site, except for the option to register for
receiving mail and the Egov site which enables executing payments and certain
operations.
Figure
8 A survey of the Ministry of Commerce on site satisfaction. (My
translation from the Russian.)
Please answer the
survey.
How do you like the work on our site?
How do you like the work on our site?
Unsatisfactory 181 36%
Excellent 135 26%
Satisfactory 103 20%
Good 81 16%
Figure
9 Survey of the Ministry of Employment.
Figure
10. Survey of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Note the
picture of the president on the left.
Figure 11. Survey of the Ministry of
Oil and Gas about the update status of the site. Note the picture of the President.
Figure
12. Survey of the Ministry of Justice
Figure
13. Survey of the Ministry of Ministry of Managing Emergency Situations.
5.2.4
Transparency.
On most sites there
were no applications that would increase transparency, e.g., working plans, budget, bids
or available positions. Therefore most sites received the lowest grade in this
category. The exceptions were: a) The Ministry of Health that contained a
number of statistical reports and a general explanation to the candidates who
were interested in working in the ministry. b) The Ministry of Industry and
Technology in whose site there was a specification about a number of projects
of the ministry and information about available positions and terms of
acceptance. c) The Ministry of Defense provided sketchy information about
entering the military service and about projects. d) The Ministries of
Employment, Finance and Commerce presented budget reports. e) The Ministry of
Oil and Gas presented bids and the winners of senior positions in the ministry.
In this context, it is worth mentioning the interesting way in which the
seniors of the regime, and especially the President, are presented in the main
page of most sites. For instance, in the direct links to the President's site,
which was one of the first sites, he is presented with glory and elegance that
remind of the portraits of leaders in the communist period. Similarly on each
of the Minister's blogs, the minister's picture is prominently displayed,
sometimes with his bibliography (there do not appear to be any female
ministers).
Figures 14A-14E.
6. Real-time
operations and applications – Generally speaking, in most ministries there were
found no applications or tools for executing actions in the site, except for
the option to register for receiving mail and the E-gov site which enables executing
payments and certain operations.
6
Summary and conclusions
The regime in
Kazakhstan has tried in recent years to execute a reform in the public service,
especially in its attitude towards the citizen, as reflected in Kazakhstan
2030. This document, which was planned by the president in the late
nineties, as well as his more recent plans, calls for promoting Kazakhstan to
be one of the fifty leading countries in the world. Both programs emphasize the
need of reform aiming at making the government activity more efficient by
making the government more modern with in its central goal of administering the
country and providing services to the citizen. In the present report describing
the development of the E-gov program in Kazakhstan, a strong commitment of the
senior functionaries to the program was noted as well as significant human and
financial investments have been made for the success of the program. Therefore,
the impressive place of the program in the last UN's grading, in which
Kazakhstan took the 48th place out of 180 is not surprising. At the same time, the way in
which they chose to realize the program and the nature of the sites are points of
uniqueness and at variance from the way the process of E-gov is applied in
democratic countries. Alongside the improvement in transparency and
accessibility of information to the citizen, the program does not provide many
applications, and this low sharing, together with the exclusive control of the
regime in the internet infrastructure and its services, threaten the increase
of freedom of expression of the citizens and leads to self-censorship by the
users. In addition, in spite of the significant improvement in internet
infrastructure and projects for its accessibility for the population, the
amount of users is still small, which damage the prospects of the success of
the program. From another declaration by Yessekyev, the head of the ICA (1.3.2010),
we learn that there are already more than 1750 information services and about
60 interactive applications within the E-gov program, but actually there are
only about 45,000 users out of 15 million inhabitants (E-gov magazine 2007,
31.5.2010). Without users for the sharing applications there will not be any
significant political or other influence on the regime's attitude towards the
citizens. On the other hand, there is an increased use of the sites,which reach
tens and hundreds of thousands entrances per year. Widening the internet and improving
significantly the sites will lead to the continuation of the development and
the success of the program in Kazakhstan. To sum up, the results of the survey
point to a lower level of accomplishment than expected from the lofty goals of
the Kazakhstan government pronouncements. It seems that the government
understands what need to be done as can be seen in the program and its
declarations and considerable investments to date. However, Kazakhstan has a
long way to go before an electronic government that serves the citizen is realized.
References
Agency of Statistics
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E-Government Development Programme, 2005-2007 (2004).
E-gov magazine
(2007). Interview with Kuanishbek Esekeev, Chairman, Agency for
Informatation and
Communications. http://www.egovonline.net/interviewlist/
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UN E-Government
Readiness Knowledge Base. (2010). E-government is defined. UN, 2010.
World Bank Website.
(2009). Available: http://devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/kaz_aag.pdf
(accessed August 26, 2010).
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