Since 2005, the Act on Public Administration requires the electronic administration. The aim was to achieve compliance with statutory requirements according to technical possibilities.
Now there are 41 forms available for clients for submitting applications, furthermore electronic declaration for employers was launched.
The e-forms are used by citizens for administration, and employers required to submit declaration over beneficiaries.
It is much faster and more convenient for clients as they receive replies earlier and can transact affairs 7/24.
Policy Context
The need for implementing electronic administrative services received a major focus in the programmes of the National Development Plan, the Hungarian Information Society Strategy (MITS) and the eGovernment 2005 Strategy and Action Programme. In the year 2004, a consortium commissioned by the Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunications prepared the detailed technical specification of the security services of electronic administration. The project was managed by and the work of the consortium was professionally coordinated by E-Group. Most results of the project have become recommendations or requirements in the area of public administration. By 2005, the statutory framework for the electronic transaction of affairs was adopted in Hungary, with support from the technical preparation activities carried out by the Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunications. Pursuant to the statutes adopted, the Client Gate was implemented in 2005. This is the central system function that supports the registration of citizens with respect to an electronic transaction of affairs and ensure their secure authentication and entry into the electronic service systems of the offices (Single-Sign-On). Over the course of implementation, E-Group created system components of key importance (authentication and electronic signature). The creation of the Client Gate sets the basis in Hungary for achieving the goals with respect to e-administration of the action programme issued by the Commission of the European Communities under the name "i2010: European information society for growth and employment". In addition to the authentication of users, the central system also operates as a secure document forwarding system for all registered users and the relevant administrations. In the near future, the payment of stamp duties payable on procedures will also be possible via this system.Description of target users and groups
Declaration on pension insurance: All business entities, self-emloyed people and other employers must meet a declaration requirement on an annual basis on the insurance relations with respect to the previous year of the persons employed by them. The solution of electronic declaration permits the declaration via the internet. The number of organisations and individuals required to provide data is as follows: Self-emloyed: 470 000 Business entities: 530 000 Other employers: 5 000 On an annual basis, data on 6 million legal relations affecting an average of 4.3 million persons are received. The deadline for declaration is April 30 each year. Administration: There are 41 submission forms (applications, statements, notifications) available via the Internet for an electronic administration that may be downloaded, filled out and submitted to initiate various types of transactions, to disclose various data and information over the course of an affair; and to receive the replies and queries of the Administration. The three large target groups cover: 1.the Hungarian population of adult age, 2.individuals who lived and worked in Hungary; and 3. persons living abroad, who acquired certain rights with respect to pension insurance,. Accordingly, the system permits the initiation and transaction of affairs related to pension insurance to approximately 5,000,000 persons. The system makes it possible to submit approximately 500,000 applications annually for various types of pensions, applications for equitable raises of pensions and cases to be assessed, to forward data known to applicants, data becoming necessary over the transaction of an affair, to be submitted by applicants and to make other statements and declarations. It is possible to manage technical issues pertaining to the disbursement of the approximately 4,000,000 types of pensions provided to the 3,000,000 pensioners (changes in addresses and account numbers etc.).Description of the way to implement the initiative
The system was not developed as part of a regular system integration project, mostly due to the large number of external organisations affected and the fact that the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance was the first to join. We mentioned previously that there was continuous reconciliation on an executive and expert level between the organisation supervising the central system, the operators of the system and the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance. In addition, links ensuring that protocols meet the demands presented by standard statutes and national regulations had to be set up also in relation to authentication providers. Data communication with the regional organisations of the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance had to be set up and compatibility with non-electronic methods for the transaction of affairs had to be maintained, as well. Additional external partners in implementation were the civil organisations of auditors and tax advisors: - National Association of Hungarian Accountants (www.mkoe.hu) - National Association of Hungarian Tax Advisors and Accounting Service Providers (www.adokamara.hu) The web page of E-Group can be found at: www.egroup.hu Multi-channel issues: The system introduced at the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance supports various communication channels in the following manners: 1) The electronic transaction of affairs is not mandatory at the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance. As regards applications, the usual forms can be used also in the future and the forms of the annual declaration related to pension contribution are also available on paper. 2) Clients may also request, over the course of a procedure, that their affairs transacted electronically until that point should be continued on paper or vice –versa. 3) The application forms handled by the system are filled out entirely on-line and data verifications may also use data stored in background systems. At the same time, data may be provided off-line, via a client application. 4) Applications are sent via the web directly to the portal of the Administration, however, forms filled out off-line may also be forwarded to the electronic mailbox of the Administration via the central electronic system service. 5) The response provided by the Administration can be forwarded to clients in different ways: via regular email, via the client mailbox system owned by the Administration or via central storage space services.Main results, benefits and impacts
The system results in a lower number of clients appearing at the client service centres of pension insurance organs, lower postal costs, and the transaction of electronically submitted cases can be planned in a flexible manner. The professional quality level of administrators can be broadened in a new direction. The standardised forms resolve a large number of former administration-related issues as through these forms we can syntactically and semantically verify the responses given to questions, request data relevant to relations and further questions; responses can be identified clearly. Information received from forms can be transferred automatically into our back-office systems and, in the long term, the entire transaction of an affair can be integrated into a single process. All the inhabitants can become targeted users, however, the number of the government Client Gate registered is currently 520,000. In 2006 there were 550 forms and 105 attachments sent in, in the first quarter of 2007, 1000 forms and 400 attachments arrived. In the second quarter, another 1,000 forms have been received. The number of those intending to use the declaration feature in pension insurance involves 17,000 parties required to declaration of which 11,000 have already completed declaration, till now documents arrived electronically in relation to 92,000 persons covered by insurance. This occurred over two months. For the time being, it is not yet possible determine the financial indicators pertaining to the return on the investment due to the required compliance with statutory provisions on the one hand and also taking into account the following: • As regards declaration, the data provided in 2007 can only be considered some sort of a „pilotâ€, taking into account that electronic declaration was only possible as of a date very close to the deadline set forth in the Act. Its real benefits can only be measured in relation to data relating to the year 2007 in 2008. • Unfortunately, most clients involved in pension-related affairs do not yet use the Internet and computers on a user-level (due to their relatively high age). The larger part of those who registered with the government Client Gate are not of an age close to retirement, either. Statistical figures on use indicate that the number of cases is growing continuously. The transaction of affairs is clearly much more convenient to clients; they can receive replies earlier and can respond earlier in their cases, there is no need to store papers but can find the files together in their computers. There is no need to stand in line, make phone calls, they can transact their affairs whenever they have time for it. As pension insurance client service centres can only be found in 33 larger cities, it is rather convenient for a major part of the population that there is no need to travel just to transact affairs. Clients may fill in forms standardized according to types of cases; the advantage of this is that they do not need to read through all the questions on general cases and deal with issues no relevant to them. Instead, we implemented a solution ensuring that, in an interactive manner, based on their former responses and other information available to us, clients will only receive questions that they need to answer by all means. In addition to filling out forms, they may also submit attachments and may send in the scanned form of documents and files that are necessary for the assessment of pensions and other administration, in relation to which the pension insurance organisations did not and do not currently need to collect data. Innovation: The system introduced at the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance goes beyond current practice and can be considered exceptional for the following reasons: 1) It did not develop a special identification system but was the first among Hungarian public administrations to join the central electronic identification system. This resulted a significant reduction of costs, first of all in the areas of the generation and management of user authentication and verification data. 2) The technical solution to legally bind documents and clients – in a manner permitted by Hungarian statutes – ensures non-repudiation by signing all incoming documents by the electronic signature of the Administration and sending the signed document to clients’ registered notification email address. 3) The system facilitates two types of communication channels: the online, web-based filling out of forms on the one hand, and the receiving of forms created in an off-line client application, thus it can be applied in an optimum manner for receiving applications that arrive individually –and for receiving data made available in large quantitites – in relation to pension declaration filing cycles. 4) Over 40 forms can be filled out on-line which is a very high number in Hungary; these were implemented in a uniquely developed forms framework that can be configured in a flexible manner. Since then, a number of administrations in Hungary have introduced this forms framework in their electronic services for the public. 5) If forms are filled out off-line and declaration is implemented via a central storage space, the system will ensure standard file encryption functions (XML Encryption) between the sender and the addressee.Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
The Central Administration of National Pension Insurance was one of the first public administrations in Hungary to implement ePublicServices facilitating the transaction of affairs to the merit. In the next step, the Administration made known the solution and the experiences gained from and the results achieved by the implementation in several ways both in Hungary and to the representatives of other European countries: 1) The Administration gave an account of the operation of the system to high-level executives and IT experts of several Hungarian administrations and other institutions. E.g., to the Hungarian Treasury, to the National Radio and Television Board, or to the National Health Insurance Fund. 2) Presentations to the representatives of professional organisations of auditors and tax advisors. 3) The possibilities for electronic administration and declaration implemented were also presented at press conferences and in the form of press releases. 4) eAdministration was also a topic at the international pension conference organised with the participation of EU/EEC countries; 5) The e-NYENYI service uses the electronic services of the Central System. The Central Administration of National Pension Insurance assisted the developers and operators of the central system in development and in stabilizing the functions. Applying for and participating in the European eGovernnment Awards 2007 also served the intention of the Central Administration of National Pension Insurance to make known and present the developments implemented and the results achieved to the pension insurance institutes and other administrations of countries that plan or have already implemented similar services. Taking into account the major differences in the statutes of the various countries (e.g. the regulation of national pension systems), it is advisable, in any case, to commence consultation and an exchange of experiences at personal meetings.Lessons learnt
1. The commencement of the project was based on already existing statutes, however, several lower level statutes pertaining to it, as well as technical specifications regarding the details were also being prepared. The lessons to be learned: (1) a really good regulation can only be developed in relation to a well-established practice; (2) public electronic services functioning well in practice can also be developed with a given – at times, incomplete – legal framework. 2. The harmonisation of the need for centralisation of the Government and the needs of individual administrations may require additional expenditures of a major extent on both sides, despite a most thorough planning, which must be taken into account as an important factor with respect to project planning. 3. The largest number of practical problems arising on the part of users (citizens) – and thus the largest number of error reports and the most intensive need for support – is presented in connection with the handling of signed documents. The lesson to be learned is that activities related to handling of electronically signed documents must be placed on the side of server infrastructure to the highest extent possible. Scope: International, National
Login or create an account to comment.