e-governance and citizen information - Universitat Oberta de ...

E-governance and Citizen Information 112 Relationship with Citizensat the same time they want these benefits to be provided without tax increases, which is tosay, by improving the efficiency of the bureaucratic apparatus and, consequently, productivityin general in the public sector. At the same time, they are demanding an increase inthe transparency of administrative actions and a more fluid and flexible interaction with theadministration.One of the results of this crisis situation is that many public administrations are investinggreat efforts in the modernisation of their organisational apparatus, precisely in order to improvetheir public image. And one of the ways they consider most appropriate to achievethis generic objective is improving the relationship interfaces with citizens, at the exact pointwhere the majority of interactions with users takes place. It is for this reason that a considerablepart of e-governance efforts have seen the incorporation of innovative technologiesof different types into citizen information channels. And, in fact, an important part of the publicitythat the Administration itself does about its services is destined, nowadays, at raisingawareness of and increasing the use of these improved channels – fundamentally the telephoneand the Web.The Generalitat of Catalonia is a clear case in point. The (restored) Generalitat believed,precisely as one of its principal axes, in the improvement of the relationship between citizensand the Administration in order to obtain an increase in transparency, the simplification ofpaperwork, greater agility, etc. Even so, the Generalitat's structure mimics the model of thecentral Spanish state's administration: a model in which these international tendencies arenot reflected (Fernández et al., 2003).In fact, the interdepartmental structure itself does not correspond to clear criteria of eithertransversality or corporate integration. The necessary interconnection between departmentaldatabases in order to integrate citizen information services for the public has not been atall favoured by this schema. The result has been a great proliferation, in the last two decades,of services, telephone lines, websites and citizen information offices that in the majorityof cases do not share information with each other.http://www.uoc.edu/in3/pic