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| Monday, 28 February 2005 |
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Adele, a major driving force for government reform
As this long-term project has advanced, Adele has taken the lead role in a cartoon serial put on the Internet by the Ministry for the Civil Service, State Reform and Regional Planning. The serial is constantly updated with new episodes showing how the e-administration is changing her lief. Officially launched by Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on February 9, 2004, the Adele program was created by the Agency for the Development of E-Administration (ADAE), an inter-ministerial service for government reform set up one year earlier along with a Delegation for the Modernisation of Public Management and Government Structures (DMGPSE) and a Delegation for Users and Administrative Simplifications (DUSA). A few months later, Mr. Raffarin spoke to the directors of the central administrations, recommending their priority, "to be at the service of the users more than ever before". He saw this as "absolutely vital" since the vast majority of French people consider that, "the real effect of government reform should be here and not elsewhere: availability, speed, amiability, tailoring of the services to users' increasingly hectic lifestyles, and the development of new technologies." The ADAE was assigned the task of "promoting the development of information and communication systems to modernise the running of the administration and better satisfy the public's needs." A definition that the 2004-2007 Adele program fits perfectly as a project designed to "develop the most widespread and innovative use of information technologies to simplify French people's lives." The French Government has already allocated the program E 1.8 billion for the 2004-2007 period. In 2004, 1.2 million French people filed their income tax returns on the Internet, saving the tax administration E 1.2 million. Those who also opted for the direct debit system had E 20 deducted from their income tax by way of thanks. In 2003, a total of 600,000 people paid their taxes online (five times more than in 2002), over 90% of all administrative forms were available online and nearly two million people visited the French administration's service-public.fr website every month. In addition, individuals and businesses already had access to a range of online procedures for all sorts of formalities, requests for papers and certificates, declarations, registration for competitive examinations, tax and pension calculations, and so on. Adele's gestation period involved the ADAE in extensive consultations in 2003, as much with the institutions as with "pioneers" chosen from among Internet users, national user representatives, unions, civil servants, businesses, local authorities, sociologists, legal experts and MPs. These consultations gave rise to the definition and adoption of 140 measures to introduce 300 new services to simplify the lives of citizens, officials, businesses and local authorities. The most spectacular of these innovations, hugely appreciated by the public, was the nationwide introduction of the 39-39 telephone number, also called Allo, Service Public in October 2004. Citizens can ring this one-stop number and get the administrative information they need in just a few minutes. They don't have to go to a public service office, queue up or trudge endless corridors looking for the right person to speak to. In less than three minutes, users have a friendly person on the need of the line who will answer their questions or put them through to a specialised department if they need expert assistance. And this information covers everything from passport and car registration renewal through moving and divorce procedures to housing urban planning, work, health, education,customs, consumption and taxes. Calls are charged at local rate and the service is open long hours. On the day they opened, the sixty 39-39 helpiline operators received some 100.000 calls.... The next step is to set up a one-stop change of address service in January 2005 so that users only have to inform one administrative service when they change address. This service will then pass on the new details to all the services selected by the user - and these services alone. The Adele project will also simplify civil registration data requests so that all citizens can ask for a copy of their birth or marriage certificate online from the comfort of their own home. A Daily Life Card (Carte de View Quotidienne) is in the pipeline. This aim of this "decentralised" project is to provide easier access to a range of local services (transport, canteen, creche, swimming pool, cinema, library, media library and sports). The new technologies will then be used to pass "information" into the administrative "contact". In 2006, a mon.service-public.fr portal will offer users personalised access to all the e-services provided by the administrations. Users will be able to choose the sections they are interested in, the administrative information they want to receive and to set up a system of personal reminders. E-administration promotion and development have become a focus for international co-operation as shown, for example, by the agreement signed between France and Morocco on 5 July 2004. The ADAE has also received many foreign delegations seeking information on the French e-administration strategy from countries such as China, Japan, Azerbaijan, Canada, Tunisia and Brazil and the "Land" of Bavaria. Website: www.adae.gouv.fr/adele - Claudine Canetti, Actualite En France |
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Produced by Lake House |
A newborn muse has just flitted into the French Government's highly
serious reform plan. Her name is Adele, after the "strategic plan for
the development of e-administration" (Administration Electronique) to
simplify users' lives (individuals and firms).
