Supporting citizens to create accounts on eGovernment Portal at the counters of 106 cities and municipalities
More than 100 cities and municipalities in Serbia have appointed administrators and counter officials who will help citizens create accounts on the eGovernment Portal and enable them to schedule an appointment for issuing personal documents, pay property taxes, get a decision from the cadastre in their e-mailbox, enroll a child in kindergarten or school or perform any of the remaining 500 services offered by the Portal.
NALED, in cooperation with the Office for IT and eGovernment, with the financial support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is implementing a project to improve the electronic delivery of documents to citizens and businesses by public administration bodies. Part of the project is the initiative to enable the largest possible part of the population to become eCitizens and perform administrative tasks electronically by opening an account on the eGovernment Portal. This is supported by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Government.
- Since 30 December when the initiative to appoint administrators and counter officials was sent to local governments, 106 cities and municipalities have so far performed this step. Together with NALED, we are now working to strengthen the capacity of local governments to become an electronic service point to citizens and to improve work in the digital environment. We pay special attention to introducing citizens to eGovernment services and we encourage them to use those services more, as millions of registered citizens already do on the eGovernment Portal - says the director of the Office for IT and eGovernment, Dr. Mihailo Jovanović.
- Along with the ID card, the citizens will receive a username and password at the counter, as well as the installation of the mobile phone application, and the officials will explain the basic functionalities and the way the portal works. The use of electronic services saves time and money for going through administrative procedures related to the most important life events and is especially important during a pandemic when it is crucial to avoid crowds and long queues in front of counters - says Jelena Bojović, Policy Director at NALED.
In addition to opening an account, citizens will also receive printed data (parameters) for further logging to the Portal. To access the Portal, they will use the so-called two-factor authentication, i.e. after entering the username and password on a mobile phone or tablet, they will be asked to confirm with one click that they are the ones trying to access their account, which ensures an additional level of personal data security.
Trainings for local officials
The initiative to provide support to citizens and businesses when opening an account on the eGovernment Portal is implemented and financed within the eDelivery project, which is financed by the EBRD, with the aim to improve the use of electronic services and electronic delivery of documents. The project is being implemented by NALED and the Office for IT and eGovernment, and one of the activities is the training of local officials for the use of the eGovernment Portal and applications for issuing electronic identities, eID of citizens. The Ministry of Public Administration submitted instructions to local governments for the appointment of administrator for the eGovernment Portal, eDelivery and eID, i.e. commissioners who will supervise the functioning of the system, provide access to counter employees and assign user roles in working with citizens and businesses.
