Tuesday, July 7, 2015

egov 2015

 
 
 
 
 

 
 



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)


 




 
 
 
 
    

 
 
Figure 3.  Russian site which ranks site use in the Russian Republic and former republics of the USSR (rating.openstat.ru)

 
  
  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.

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?
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.

Figure 14 A. The site of the Ministry of Agriculture, www.minagri.kz.

 

Figure 14 B. The site of the Ministry of Commerce, www.minplan.kz

 

Figure 13 D. The site of the Ministry of Justice, www.minjust.kzre


 
Figure 14 E. The site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, www.mfa.kz

 

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

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