Analyzing the obstacles in usage of e-Government web-portal by the citizens of Kazakhstan
By
Timur Kabentayev
Table of contents
1) Abstract
2) Introduction/Background
3) Statement of the problem (incorporated in introduction section) 4) Purpose of Research
5) Literature review 6) Research question 7) Research methodology 8) Data collection and analysis 9) Conclusions
10) Links and Resources 11) Appendice
Abstract
Kazakhstan tries to develop its own e-government project in a westernized format. One of the main creations is implementation of an electronic government web-portal (e.gov.kz). It has made success in providing public services and documents from the government’s perception. But has it been really successful? In this paper we discuss and analyze the challenges and obstacles that the citizens of Kazakhstan come across when trying to utilize the services provided by the web- portal.
A long time ago, even before the advent of our era, artisans, who were only at the initial point of their professional development, decided to build a tower that could reach the greatness of their creator, and according to legends, the ancient artisans spoke the same language with each other, so they managed to agree on this.
Only here the creator did not appreciate the aspirations of his creatures, he was disgusted by their pride. And the creator split the language of the ancient masters, so that they could not do anything together. Driven into a dead end, the artisans could not finish the construction of the tower, which went down in legend as the Babylonian one.
According to legend, they went where, without completing the Tower of Babel.
(c) Genesis Ch. 11.
Introduction.
Technology has become an integral part of our lives in the modern world. We use technologies in every aspect of our daily activities. It’s almost impossible to imagine the lives of many people without a digital aspect. Technology has even taken over the social aspect of our lives. We use computers, smartphones to communicate with other people via social media, email, or internet phone calls. Many countries around the world have seen this as an opportunity to develop their own tool for communication between a country's government and its citizens, now called e- government. (Manoharan A. 2014). Developing e-government projects (Mahmood, Z. 2013) explains the digital government is a tool that enables the government to communicate and provide the public services to its citizens via technological aspect. Many technologically developed countries, such as Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States made huge success in creating and establishing digital government in their structure. Citizens of these countries can communicate with the government at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and without any queues.
Encouraged by such success on an internationally digital level, Kazakhstan government decided to launch its own digital government. But to replicate such success, enormous work needs to be done. It was agreed that the beginning of such a project will be the creation of a web-portal, which we call today the e.gov.kz. Main idea of this was to enable Kazakhstan citizens to get access to documents and public services required online. Today, e-government website offers various services and have made huge progress in the past 5 years.
Although, some problems still remain the same in usage of such a portal. In this study, the obstacles and defining problems in using such a portal from citizens perspective will be revealed.
Despite the fact, there are many studies devoted to the problems of e-government implementation, the level of research on the problems of access to it from the citizens' point of view is unsatisfactory. The purpose of this study is to bridge this gap and contribute to the task at hand. In order to measure the progress and accessibility of e-government in Kazakhstan, this study:
conducted a quantitative study to assess the perception of the portal by Kazakhstanis of different ages; analyzed and compared the obstacles shared by different authors in their literature review, complete study and analyzation of the web-portal and its content.
At the time of 2022, there are four main models of e-government worldwide: continental- European, Anglo-American, Asian, Russian models.
In the continental-European model, the emphasis is on conformism and integration, since the main task of this model is to ensure the widespread regulation of the legal, information and currency
field. This is necessary to ensure the maintenance of the standards of the countries of the European Union, since they have a single currency, almost identical laws, this model with its device is created to ensure the comfort of providing services to citizens of the European Union, because visa-free migration is possible between 28 countries.
The Anglo-American model is aimed more at transparency and accessibility of information, this is due to the political structure of such states as the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom, where this system is applied. Since the political regime in its largest case is a bipolar party system, in an exaggerated sense liberal and conservative political forces. This model reflects the tax returns of all officials, in other words, you can see who and how much is earned from representatives of power. The system is entirely based on the dogmas of democracy.
The Asian model does not always aim to reflect the tax returns of officials, but it is this model that seeks to satisfy the information needs of the population as much as possible, bypassing the bureaucratic machine. The main principle of the Asian model is to provide information as qualitatively and quickly as possible. Demonstrating that power exists due to the fact that it is supported by the population. Therefore, this model tends to modernize at a rapid pace.
The Russian model is the most conservative in the approach to processing requests, due to the fact that the state is very diverse on a national and regional basis. Such a model is characterized by long chains of information processing, and as a result, waiting time. The Russian model is currently undergoing a digital reformation of e-government.
E-government, despite its diversity, sets itself common goals, namely: The search and formation of new forms of interaction between state bodies, the optimization of existing forms of interaction, the reduction of the chain of interaction between government representatives and the population, the maintenance and improvement of the possibility of self-service of citizens, the elimination of legal and computer illiteracy of the population, strengthening the role of participation of representatives of the authorities and leadership in the management of the country, eradicating geographical remoteness and strengthening institutions of power.
Also, e-government allows you to reduce the cost of financial and human resources. Strengthens the institutions of democracy in society, increases the responsibility of the authorities to the people.
It is worth noting that e-government is only a term that is not an addition to traditional government, but only a project that allows more rapid and less costly interaction between the government and citizens.
The idea of the Egov project appeared in 2004, which was voiced in his message to the people by ex-President N. Nazarbayev. The e-government web portal was designed and implemented by the joint-stock company "National Information Technologies". By the end of 2004, the development model and the program for the formation of e-government for the next two years were approved. Where there were four main stages: the publication and dissemination of information, the provision of services by interaction between the state body and the population, the popularization of the portal through financial and legal operations, the formation of the information society. Since 2007-2009, a web portal, an e-government gateway, an electronic interdepartmental document flow, a public key infrastructure, a unified transport environment of state bodies, national registers of identification numbers, and electronic public services have been formed. Around this time, the main functions of the Egov portal begin to work.
Objectives of the Egov.kz portal
1. Reduce contacts between the population and officials.
2. Improving the quality and reducing the time-of-service delivery.
3. Optimization of the state apparatus.
4. Elimination of computer illiteracy of the population.
In January 2010, the information system "Electronic Public Procurement" was released, the implementation of the projects "E-licensing" for business entities, the unified notarial information system "E-notary", "Electronic Akimat" were completed. In the same year, transaction
services appeared that introduced the function of online payments - this made it possible to implement the payment of taxes, state fees, duties, fines. A year later, it became possible to pay for housing and communal services online, as well as the possibility of obtaining registry office services, namely the procedure for concluding / dissolving marriage and registering the birth of a child.
In total, the e-government portal provides 126 interactive and transactional services, where 84 public services, the possibility of paying 21 types of state fees, 16 types of state duties, 4 types of tax payments.
At the end of 2013, 241 types of services were debugged to automation, and a record popularity of the population was recorded, in total, the portal provided 38 million electronic services. In the same year, versions of the portal appeared in the form of a mobile application for iOS and Android.
Portal architecture EP Portal
The interaction of the government with citizens and business structures was organized through the EP portal, which represents a "single point of access" to all electronic services to public information resources of state bodies.
Means of authentication and personalization of users have been introduced, providing access to information resources and EP services using all available means of communication.
Interaction with the payment system of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the implementation of financial transactions was organized.
A consistent launch of EP services was ensured in accordance with the chosen strategy and priorities, taking into account electronic services, the implementation of which requires the interaction of information systems of different departments.
Integration and interaction of various services and information systems of different departments was carried out through web-services and the function of message routing.
The functions of routing messages between the information systems of different departments, as well as transforming these messages on the basis of appropriate XML schemas in order to ensure the compatibility of information systems, were provided through the Government Gateway, which is the interface between the portal and the information systems of departments and local authorities.
The main components of this interface are:
An environment for guaranteed message delivery, transformation, and routing based on standard Internet protocols.
Communicative XML format, which serves as a means of describing and organizing the information interaction of the EP portal and departmental information systems. At the same time, the data was still stored in application systems and databases in its internal format, but if it was necessary to send it to another application, it was transformed into XML format, as an intermediate format understood by all systems.
It is based on the basis of metadata, which describes the composition and properties of data stored in departmental information systems and methods of access to them. Metadata that ensures the efficiency of information retrieval (on the portal), description of weakly structured information (documents), creation of archives with records of electronic documents.
The use of the communicative XML format already at the design stage allowed developers of departmental information systems to systematize, unify and standardize to a certain extent the properties of departmental data.
The functions of continuous support and development of the communicative XML-format, based on the description of departmental information systems in the Register of Engineers, should be entrusted to the national operator in the field of informatization JSC "National Information Technologies".
The development of the portal, taking into account the pace of formation and readiness of the elements of the e-government infrastructure, is an evolutionary process. Its implementation took place in stages.
To implement the e-government portal, it was advisable to purchase standard, debugged software that implements most of the functions described above.
Certification Authority
The certification center was created to support user authentication procedures on the e-government portal, providing confirmation of the compliance of the public key of the electronic digital signature with the private key of the electronic digital signature, as well as to confirm the validity of the registration certificate of the portal user. After the first request, the electronic documents generated by the portal user in this work session were automatically signed with his electronic digital signature and whether it acquired legal status.
The task of the Certification Center is also to ensure secure electronic document flow between the state bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Electronic documents signed in the course of work acquire legal status in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated January 7, 2003 No. 370-II "On Electronic Document and Electronic Digital Signature".
The work of the Certification Center is based on the infrastructure of public keys, the creation and full use of which allowed the government to guarantee a high level of information security, to ensure respect for the constitutional rights of citizens to confidentiality in their interaction with the state, the rights of commercial structures to protect trade secrets, which will lead to an expansion of the range of consumers of services e-government.
User authentication technology will allow the use of specialized personal devices as carriers of key information that exclude the possibility of forgery / replication, for example, smart cards.
National Identification System
One of the main functional components of e-government is the national identification system, which provides procedures for identifying subjects of information exchange.
Currently, the registration and identification of individuals and legal entities is carried out at the departmental level. The existence of various identification numbers, such as the social individual code (SIC), the taxpayer registration number (TRN) and others, complicated the integration of information systems. The concept of e-government requires a single identification number. The solution was creation of unified registers of natural and legal persons that have departmental identification numbers as additional attributes at the transitional stage.
An individual identification number is assigned, from the moment of registration of birth, or the acquisition of citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and at the transitional stage - when issuing an identity card. The identification number must be affixed and used in all documents received by a person during his life. It ensures the integration of data about an individual from different information systems and satisfies this the following requirements: immutability throughout the life of a citizen, the minimum possible length, noise immunity, the possibility of automatic formation in a decentralized mode.
To improve the quality of services provided by the government to citizens and business entities, measures have been developed to introduce identity cards based on microprocessor electronic technologies containing a registration certificate of the public key of an electronic digital signature intended for authentication on the e-government portal.
The implementation of a single personalized accounting is carried out through the formation of the GBD "Individuals".
SBD "Legal Entities" is designed to ensure a single accounting of legal entities and to ensure the integration of departmental registers of legal entities, such as the register of taxpayers, the register of legal entities of statistical bodies, the register of the Ministry of Justice. The implementation of this database will ensure a single centralized registration of legal entities.
The Address Register should serve as the only source of address information for information systems and software of the National Information Infrastructure. This register contains toponymic
and genomic information about all settlements, streets, buildings, apartments and other real estate objects. The address register also records changes in the states of address information (renaming settlements, streets, etc., entering into the effect or termination of toponyms and geonyms). It is based on a single regulatory and reference information of addresses for all participants in the information space.
Unified transport environment of state bodies
In the past, public authorities built or their information and communication systems (ICS) independently and in isolation from each other, focusing solely on their own needs.
In particular, when implementing integrated distributed multi-level systems (tax and customs administration, treasury and pension systems), the lack of a unified transport environment for state bodies led to the creation of corporate communication networks. With this approach, significant financial and material resources are dispersed, there is no unified security policy, the organization of interdepartmental interaction at any level of the administrative-territorial structure of the state is problematic.
The solution was the creation of a single multi-service protected transport environment of state bodies (hereinafter referred to as the UTS GO RK) with the participation of telecom operators based on modern technologies, which allowed:
organize a unified information protection and security policy;
combine existing and developed departmental information systems of state bodies;
Create virtual private networks.
reduce the cost of operating departmental networks of state bodies and networks of interdepartmental information exchange.
The creation of the UTS go RK on the basis of modern technical solutions ensured the organization of a reliable publicly accessible secure data transmission network with the provision of services of guaranteed quality of service for the transmission of heterogeneous traffic (video, voice, data) based on modern data transmission technologies.
Information systems of departments and local authorities
Departmental information systems reflect the specifics of the work of a particular department related to its functional purpose. In the past, the informatization of departments was mainly focused on the automation of internal business processes. In accordance with this concept, the architecture of departmental information systems was revised and supplemented taking into account the provision of electronic services to citizens and business structures. In pursuance of this provision, each department adopted its own program of informatization of the industry.
Within the framework of departmental information systems, the components of the database
"Resources of Kazakhstan" were formed, which are many independent databases, such as: natural and mineral resources and subsoil, the national oil and gas data bank, library collections, etc.
The Real Estate Register is an integral part of the database "Resources of Kazakhstan", and it is a single protected source of information about all real estate objects in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including buildings, structures, apartments.
The land cadaster is designed to store accounting information about land plots.
The main service providers within the framework of the concept are information systems of local authorities, providing such services as registration at the place of residence, payment of utility bills, etc.
Information systems that implement electronic services at the local level have been developed centrally, are being tested in pilot zones and replicated in the regions.
The services of the "government-government" sector were provided with such integrated information systems as a unified system of electronic document management, a standard system of information support for the administrative and economic activities of state bodies. Also, here we can note such departmental systems as the information system for the formation of the republican budget and the Situational System of Public Administration of the Ministry of Economy and budgetary Planning of the Republic of Kazakhstan, integrated information system of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, implemented system of
electronic public procurement of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Public Procurement, etc.
Citizens' position.
Citizens are generally positive about the portal. Of the 5 possible points, 100 people rated the portal at 4.1 points, which on average is a good objective assessment. The portal makes it possible to alternatively and remotely resolve issues with documents. Although it has a high threshold of entry, due to computer illiteracy of the population. This assessment is overshadowed by the difficulties faced by people using the portal. You can classify errors in 2 directions: technical and social.
Technical problems are associated with the software basis of the portal, social - are associated with the interaction of people with the portal.
Literature Review.
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by A.Cooper.
Alan Cooper has written a brilliant book that captures the essence of modern programming, which reflects the dispelled cult of engineering thought, since most modern web interfaces and programs, even at the beginning of their formation, go through one critical error, they are written by engineers for engineers. But completely cut off for understanding and perception by the end user. The author is based on the simplest examples from the category « and what if you cross a computer and an accountant" forms a completely new view of the nature of things in the information environment, and since the primary information consists in its capacity, the author's soaps through the prism of time remain relevant and modern. His engineering moves, literally like a hammer, criticize the creation of a software approach where the anvil is the prism of the end-user's perception. It's silly to deny the fact that all software is created solely to be for the good of all, but because of the timing, most often there are problems. And for the sake of the completeness of the product, engineers who are full of mission to deliver the project by the deadline to their high-ranking management. to the detriment of the interface, they begin to develop program code insanely quickly, which leads to the dissatisfaction of the end user. The user most often does not understand what is in front of him, and about 70% of all the possibilities of software development and the work of specialists are unclaimed, forgotten and useless to anyone. Through the prism of the author's perception, most of the problems were analyzed in this work, using approaches, described in this book.
The main thesis of the book is that you need to create an interface for who will use it. It is necessary to develop the interface in close connection with those who will use it. Building feedback, and the tighter the better, with your audience, with users, with fans, with customers, with haters – all this is very important for obtaining information that a blurred eye does not see. Moving forward blindly is extremely stupid. Keeping in touch - you always know where your path leads next. It also needs to be balanced by a certain "director" of the project, otherwise you can fall in the direction of the whims of the user, and miss new strong solutions to which users are not accustomed. As Ford said,
"If I asked people what they wanted, they would ask for a faster horse." To keep the right balance between these counter-directional vectors requires both experience and understanding, the ability to perceive criticism and willpower.
Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance by Darrell M. West
The central idea of this book is that e-government is not the end point, the state should strive for digital government, which is expressed in the following ideas:
The transparency achieved by digital government allows citizens to hold public servants accountable for their actions. Citizens will be able not to be led by unscrupulous officials, and have legal literacy as an innate skill. The government's digital transformation also reduces the administrative costs typically associated with staff processing huge amounts of documents, as well as printing documents.
The introduction of self-service and automated procedures helps to increase the efficiency of the verification and data collection processes. The efficiency of data processing is positively developing on improving the welfare of the country and decriminalization. The abundance of data collected by services helps government officials make informed decisions regarding activities and policies in their region.
The ideas and concepts created by the author allow us to look at the possible functionality of interaction between the state, business and the population. Contrary to the common misconception that "e-government is a tango for two", do not forget that e-government takes on
the task of improving the business climate, since, without business, there may be no communications between officials and the population. It is fair to say that it is business that is the balancing force of modern democratic society, because business solves the problem of unemployment and the financial well-being of the state, not to mention the social one. which will increase the quality of life of every citizen, by ensuring a strong state apparatus devoid of and a speck of corrupt filth, a transparent, fair and impartial court, completely free from the fraud of the electoral system.
Soslan Gabuev (2017) believes that the term "e-government" describes the format of public administration, the main feature which is the utilization of computer technology and internet in order to offer public services to its citizens. The usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a vital part in online governance, which allows it to move to a new level of engagement between the government and the public.
Frangulova E.V.(2010) believes that digital government is a huge step forward in technological aspect of the country’s development. It is described in her paper that the electronic government is a change in the internal and external structure of the government in an attempt to optimize and improve the services offered and to improve the communication aspect between the government and its citizens.
Drozhzhinov V.I.(2002) emphasized that the electronic government is a system of digital documentation of public governance, which heavily relies on the computerization of the entire range of the management procedures throughout the entire nation. It also serves the aim of increasing the performance of public administration as well as decreasing the expense of social communication for each member of society.
E-Government Survey 2020 by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The material allows you to look from the outside at the development of e-government, its work, and achievements. Thanks to the possibility of comparison with other regions, there comes an understanding that not only in Kazakhstan the entire e-government has experienced a blow during the pandemic. Having the opportunity to look from the outside, it turns out to objectively relate to the situation, taking not only one specific position.
Taking into account the statistics and indicators provided by the United Nations, it can be concluded that the e-government portal of the Republic of Kazakhstan did not have any problems, that is, definitely victories, in the anti-corruption sector.
Thanks to the implemented programs in the project, we can say that we are approaching the indicators of European countries, and do not lag behind the indicators of our Asian neighbors, given how huge the continent is, these are definitely excellent indicators.
E-Government in Kazakhstan: Realization and Prospects by Maxat Kassen.
This research is a retrospective analysis of the global problems of joint efforts that need to be promoted by e-government in terms of unifying the procedural aspects of its implementation. In this regard, the analysis of political events in the globalization of this idea around the world shows that, despite the impressive achievements of all mankind in this direction, which were embodied in such an ambitious project as Partnership – Open Government, further progress in promoting e- government will require addressing many more issues, in particular, mitigating the effects of the global digital divide between developed and developing countries, harmonizing relevant legislation and legal procedures, implementing this initiative in different countries, and, finally, promoting it on a global scale.
Adoption of e-government in the Republic of Kazakhstan by Yerlan Amanbek, Ilyas Balgayev, Kanat Batyrkhanov, Margaret Tan.
This document identifies the factors influencing the use of the e-government portal of Kazakhstan.
Defines the problems that citizens have to face when using the portal. The target respondents of the online survey were citizens of Kazakhstan. The technology implementation model was used as a methodology for measuring attitudes to the use of the portal. In addition, this study discusses
the barriers faced by respondents that may hinder the successful implementation of the e- government initiative. The results show that citizens' awareness is high; most people have visited the portal at least once and find it useful, but only a small percentage of citizens use it regularly.
Where causes are classified and the question of such outcomes is investigated.
Professor Colleen Knucks and Assistant Professor Saltanat Dzhanenova of Nazarbayev University in an interview with the resource "VЛасть" raise concern about the success of e- government, namely, that the current government is striving for beautiful numbers, but not for actual results, that is, it is possible that the desire for a better result will become a trap for Kazakhstan, and it is possible that combating corruption will remain a fantasy. They highlight the term "paradox of abundance" when which small victories create a shadow for big corruption. To be content with little is a big mistake, according to their judgment.
According to the authors, further development within the framework of the state program "Digital Kazakhstan for 2017-2020" will be limited to improving the quality of life of the population through the progressive development of the digital ecosystem. E-government should not be considered the main goal, moreover, there is a constantly growing interest in technical solutions for the state system, which includes the lines of Soviet inheritance.
Transforming E-government in Kazakhstan: A Citizen-Centric Approach by Baurzhan Bokayev, Zhuldyz Davletbayeva, Aigerim Amirova, Zhanar Rysbekova, Zulfiya Torebekova and Gul Jussupova.
The work examines the period of development from 2016 to 2010, the changes that occurred during this period in e-government, the work carried out a survey, where the main issue was to study the degree of public satisfaction with the work of e-government. The most important thing is that this work raises the question of confidence in the platform, to find out how much people are willing to trust the portal and to use its services, questions about the quality of services, it touches the issue of computer literacy of the population. The study proves that the level of corruption has actually decreased, and the platform has become more accessible and understandable to the population, which has increased the level of trust in it.
E-GOVERNMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN: CHALLENGES FOR A TRANSITIONAL COUNTRY by Saltanat Janenova.
The work was based on the time period of 2010, where the author examines the problems of absolute understanding of Internet technology in the population, where people do not understand the operational features of the digital age, due to the authoritarian political regime. The author also raises the issue of e-government being the first step in the formation of e-democracy, how it is needed at that time Kazakhstan 2010, how it is countered by corrupt elements. This is a good basis to have a reflection and comprehension on how far we've come, just remembering that for the first time there was a change of president. E-government has a massive dominance in certifying a person's status. It is possible to draw parallels with the index of state corruption and trace how the country has changed, how the changes have taken place. Through this work, one can conclude that e-government has made a huge leap in its development, really reducing the chain of interactions between the public and officials. But I also inherit problems from 2010, namely the lack of a customer-oriented portal, despite the massive proliferation of smart gadgets.
Reporter Inna Pchelyanskaya published an article where she reflected the degree of protection of the data of citizens of Kazakhstan, or rather, the fact that it is quite realistic to obtain certificates for any citizen, without his consent, the fact is that on October 26, 2017, a resident of Almaty Anna Dmitrievna discovered that an address certificate and a certificate of presence / absence of real estate were received on her behalf. The certificates were issued to an employee of Forte Bank, a certain Berdinov Serik.
This fact suggests that the attacker did not even try to introduce himself as a representative of law enforcement agencies, but received them just like that. And besides, the main real estate transactions occur through the PSC.
Corruption Perceptions Index.
This index has been observing Kazakhstan since 1999, which makes it a huge treasure trove for understanding the country's development, and assessing success from around the world. The resource is a non-governmental organization whose data is referenced by many well-known foreign news organizations with an impressive reputation. Of course, it is impossible to say from personal experience whether this is so, whether this is really information, provided by the portal has the power to reflect the real reality, but if we draw a parallel with other resources, it becomes clear that there is no reason not to trust this source.
The goal of the project is to stop corruption, and to promote transparency and honesty at all possible levels of interaction between all segments of society. The project is respected because it is always ready to cooperate with all organizations that share their goal and vision of the world.
Not seeing obstacles in the confession of religion, race, territorial location, despite any interstate conflicts, since the project itself has a principle in the impartiality of judgments, and so in the condemnation of corruption and bribery. The project can be supported by any organization or state that undertakes not to jeopardize the ability of the project to solve problems independently, scrupulously and objectively. The project has a number of representative offices in many countries of the world.
Journal of Modern Problems of Science and Education 2009, author K.Kuzmina.
The leitmotif of the article is carried by one solid thought, in the industrial era, such innovations as railways and aviation completely changed the face of society and business as a result of the emergence of new markets that could not be thought of before. Thanks to this, various companies have the opportunity to contact new consumers and suppliers. As the State provided legislative support and stability to the new infrastructure, the transport of goods by rail and air increased the efficiency of the economy, contributed to the development of States and thus proved beneficial to all. Just as railways were a new means of communication in the industrial age, in the emerging information age, the Internet plays the role of the basic infrastructure. The growing importance of information and communication technologies in the development of the main spheres of life of modern society and public administration has recently led to the transfer of the use of information technologies to the category of priority areas. Modern ideas about the reform of public administration, along with other elements, include primarily the concept of "e-government" at all levels of government.
Linking citizen satisfaction with e-government and trust in government by Eric W. Welch, Charles C. Hinnant.
In this scientific article the relationship and trust between the government and its citizens is explored. It is shown that the age, gender and employment characteristics are correlated to the use of electronic web services of the government. It is stated that the citizens who have overall trust in their government tend to use the electronic services more frequently and are more satisfied with it, rather than the ones who don't trust their government. Overall, people expect full transparency.
With the research conducted in the article, it is indicated that the citizens mostly look for the ease of service and information, and only after they look for interaction with its government. If we take this into consideration, we can make similar suggestion that the citizens of Kazakhstan mostly look for ease of use and information, rather than interaction with its government.
Citizen-centered E-Government Services: Benefits, Costs, and Research Needs
The paper is based on a large research, this paper can trace trends in the future development of e- government, as well as understand areas in need of investment. The work examines investments in customer-centric e-government, which will increase trust, reduce wasted time, and optimize the cost of unnecessary bureaucracy in the future. The study is based on data from 20 agencies, which leads to its versatility and breadth. It also considers the issue of the abandonment of investment in the direction of customer-centricity, and the possible outcomes from such a choice, which generally creates a very pessimistic dynamic of e-government as a centralized state apparatus.
Research Question.
Analysis of the difficulties faced by citizens of Kazakhstan when using the web portal of the state Study of the features of the e-government portal of Kazakhstan, to identify the reasons why citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan face problems when using the web portal. Analysis of their totality, and the search for the possibility of their prevention.
Research Methodology
The methods of analysis that will be used in this work are based on the deductive and inductive methods, together with the data obtained from the online survey.
The method of analysis and synthesis will be used.
Analysis is the mental dismemberment of an object or phenomenon into parts that form them, that is, the allocation of individual parts, signs and properties in them.
Synthesis is the mental connection of individual elements, parts and signs into a single whole.
Analysis and synthesis are inextricably linked, are in unity with each other in the process of cognition.
Analysis and synthesis only in their unity give a complete and comprehensive knowledge of reality. Analysis gives knowledge of individual elements, and synthesis, based on the results of analysis, combining these elements, provides knowledge of the object as a whole. The methodology of the system approach allows us to put the specific goal of the research question and the totality of the consequences at the forefront. The target question is provided by a constant search for causes and arguments, a cyclical process of analysis and synthesis: the consequences studied in the process of analysis are synthesized, which allows at a new level of knowledge to continue and deepen the study of the system. Synthesis transfers knowledge from one level to another, higher. Analysis of the behavior of various parts of the system is carried out in order to assess the problems. as a whole, to identify the reasons for the deviation from the goal of the portal. Ifthe difficult issue is decomposed into its component parts, the initial consequences can be obtained to form new arguments.
Data collection and analysis
Thousands of people in Kazakhstan are having a lot of trouble interacting with the platform, some are using reimbursable outside help. The worst part of it is that there are no studies and independent surveys that would allow developers and citizens to interact. Therefore, there are no sources other than my survey that would allow Mentally construct a timeline on which to trace the efforts that led to improved citizens' assessments.
In foreign departments, the portal has very high ratings, so we will try to deal with the question "is this really so?".
According to the UN rating, according to the level of e-government, Kazakhstan ranks:
first place in Central Asia, seventh place in Asia, thirty-third place in the world.
According to the Corruption Perception Index, compiled by the international non- governmental organization Transparence International, to assess the level of perception of corruption by analysts and entrepreneurs, Kazakhstan from 1999 to 2021 had the following points.
Year Balls Place in the world
Year Balls Place in the world
1999 23 84 2011 27 120
2000 30 65 2012 28 133
2001 27 71 2013 26 140
2002 23 88 2014 29 126
2003 24 100 2015 28 123
2004 22 122 2016 29 131
2005 26 107 2017 31 122
2006 26 111 2018 31 124
2007 21 150 2019 34 113
2008 22 145 2020 38 94
2009 27 120 2021 37 102
2010 29 110 2022
Where 0 points - a high level of corruption, 100 points - the absence of corruption.
As you can see from the graph, the portal Egov.kz fulfills its primary task, reduces the level of corruption in the state apparatus, reducing contacts between the population and officials.
Whether the Egov portal improves the quality and reduces the duration of services?
Previously, all services were provided in the public service center, that is, in order to get the necessary certificates, it was necessary to stand in electronic queues, moreover, where there was no sorting by directions, that is, a person with the issue of property inheritance could take a queue in front of you, therefore, it was possible that one person was served for more than an hour.
Later, the PSC was equipped with computer desks, in which it was possible to independently open an electronic signature, with the help of this certificate - to independently obtain the necessary documents, but again computers quickly fell into disrepair due to the uncontrolled exchange of information from information carriers, becoming infected with computer viruses.
Interaction with the portal from your personal computer showed good results, but sometimes there were curiosities with the NCA Layer subscription key reader program created by the National Certification Center (NCC RK) of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The application has an open-source code, the application uses most often encryption on SHA1
A link to the source code https://github.com/pkigovkz/NCALayer.
The portal periodically works with failures, from the very beginning of its existence, but only a record from May 25, 2018 remained in the news archive. However, an online survey of the population showed a different picture, there have always been failures in the work of the portal.
Often these are special cases when a certain person cannot get the processing of a certain request. Sometimes these failures occur during the update, or uploading the backup at night.
The largest failure of the portal occurred in March 2020, during the global Covid-19 pandemic. There was a suspension of almost all types of activities, during which citizens were assigned a social payment of 42500 tenge, people massively began to submit appeals, as a result of which the portal simply collapsed, the portal address gave out 404 errors, allegedly the pages do not exist, it was impossible to reach the operators of the telephone line, and the public service centers themselves were closed for quarantine. The portal was completely paralyzed until May 2020, where it was already possible to apply at certain times of the day when the influx of traffic was minimal.
Why did the portal malfunction in 2017-2018?
As part of the preliminary investigation, the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan investigated criminal cases under Article 207 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (disruption of the information system or telecommunications networks) and Article 210 (creation, use or distribution of malicious computer programs and software products) of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the facts of cryptocurrency mining (mining) on the servers of state information systems in the departments of state revenues for Karaganda, Atyrau, Aktobe and North Kazakhstan oblasts of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
This means that employees of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan mined cryptocurrencies on office computers and servers.
During mining, the hardware capabilities of the computer are rented in exchange for a cryptocurrency reward, in which the computing power of the device is used to the maximum.
Consequently, the upload to the e-government portal was with an extremely low bandwidth.
But how are the departments and the Egov portal related?
The e-Government Portal is a kind of one large database interface that stores passwords and user logins, which exchanges information with the information systems of departments. There are 18 such departments and they work on 400 different information systems, some of the systems really process requests, and some are needed only to ensure that this request is fulfilled, something like an internal file sharing service. It is absolutely possible to establish that these information systems were put into operation even before the government began to implement the idea of e-government, it follows that they are all written in completely different programming languages, with completely different libraries, and for completely different tasks, subsequently they tried to optimize them for working with the portal, changing and adding code where possible, and where it did not work out, intermediaries wrote programs for the functioning of a large system. Each of these systems has its own developers who support and function its product, one can only imagine how much the government spends on the maintenance of this software package.
Has the portal overcome computer illiteracy?
In those distant days, when microprocessors were widely used only in SEGA or Dendy, few people thought that their whole life would revolve around these silicon square boards, of course, already with the advent of the first computer clubs, young people at that time were also not worried, they thought that it was all whims, as it was then fashionable to say, "Generation X”. Yes, because the formula has remained unchanged something with a microprocessor and a child equal to a game.
But with the advent of the internet, as well as the progression of a biological process known as
"aging," they are no jokes. Adults began to feel how step by step they were falling into the abyss known as computer illiteracy, and the world they knew was no longer theirs.
With good intentions, programmers try to solve the problem of computer illiteracy by engineering.
But deeper work in this direction does not allow to succeed. Programmers feel the increasing futility of their efforts, and their despair grows, and the gap between generations is growing.
Probably, everyone who has encountered a situation where elderly people asked for help to call from their phone, felt how illogical it is.
It is necessary to investigate the issue of combating computer illiteracy of the Egov portal in 2 stages, because the portal changed its design three times. The first is the stock design as soon as it appeared, the second of 2012 is traditional, the third of 2018 is the newest. There was no special difference between the first two designs of the portal, the navigation remained the same, except that the pages became more colorful, the colors became more pleasant, the menu was more ergonomic. Everything was simplified and accessible as much as possible, there was no tag cloud at all, the portal was designed solely for playback on weak computers, and also did not have most of the functions currently available. Due to the simplicity of the design, users of the first wave easily knew where and what was located, and besides, the consultants of the public service center at that time were engaged in training how to work with the portal, so the users of the first wave increased in number. Queues in the PSCs began to noticeably decrease, the need for mentors began to fall, the PSC began to reform the internal staff, mentors became managers, as new functions and services were added. In 2018, the design was completely changed, it became really more functional and much more complex, a tag cloud, sections and subsections of services appeared.
The second wave of users, who were just beginning to switch to the type of online receipt of services, began to experience huge difficulties, and since there were no mentors left in the PSC, the younger generation was forced to ask for help. This gave rise to the paradox of services. Office service centers began to provide reimbursable assistance in obtaining documents from the Egov portal, and this type of service is popular. The paradox is that it was planned to do for free now a certain segment of the population is available only on a paid basis. Accordingly, this is expressed
in indignation among the population. In 2016, the number of registered users was 4.8 million, today this figure exceeds 7.8 million. On average, citizens every day 5,741 services are provided, the average amount of daily payments is 50 million tenge, which is about 6 thousand transactions (5,872) per month. Every day the portal is visited by about 55 thousand people, more than 1.6 million visits per month. It can be said that the government is fighting computer illiteracy, but it is doing it very inefficiently.
Platforms on Android and iOS also appeared, they usually have an intuitive interface, which is more convenient to use, but still people over 40 years old have not completely switched to this step, so here too, there is a twofold situation, it seems that there are successes, but the high demand for reimbursable assistance speaks for itself.
Interface.
Our world is intoxicated by high-tech tools. Computers are in the workplace and in our homes, vehicles are filled with gadgets based on silicon technology. Each of these powerful, sophisticated computerized devices is discouraging to use. The high-tech industry refuses to acknowledge the simple fact that is obvious to every computer or smartphone owner: our computerized tools are too difficult to apply. The developers believe that their products are as easy to use as technically possible. As engineers, they trust technology and believe that only new technology – say, voice recognition or artificial intelligence – can improve the experience for end users. Ironically, it is likely that the least contribution to the ease of use of software-based products will be made by the new technology. Technically, there is virtually no difference between a complex, confusing program and a simple, enjoyable, powerful product. The high-tech industry has inadvertently put programmers and engineers at the forefront, so their complex engineering culture prevails.
Therefore, most of the "latest" interface design is completely incomprehensible and seems confusing. For example, to get a certificate of condition / inadequacy on the account in the tuberculosis dispensary, looks like running through a maze, since this service has been renamed.
The portal serves as a news platform. The news of the portal itself and any state programs are published. You can, for example, go through an educational program of 5 articles to go through
"Cybersecurity". For whom all this is done - it is unclear?
What is really not important on the portal, the feedback form, it turns out that "hearing government" is just a beautiful epithet. Reviews are available on third-party resources, and they do not always come out on top in the Google search engine. On the resource yareviews.ru in total about the portal 91 reviews, and of them: 57 excellent, 18 good, 8 neutral, 3 negative, 5 extremely negative.
Survey results
The survey was conducted on the %subjectname platform, 100 people were interviewed, where a sample was made by type of activity: representatives of the IT structure %count%, representatives of other structures %count%, thanks to whose answers all the above problems were identified.
The test consisted of the following questions:
It Not IT
What difficulties are possible in the work of the Egov portal from the technical side
What difficulties do you experience when trying to get services on it?
Do you think focus groups during the design of the Egov portal interface would help to improve the quality of service?
What do you think needs to be changed in the Egov portal interface to improve functionality?
Do you feel that the Egov portal is overloaded with unnecessary frames?
Has Egov helped improve your computer literacy?
Is the speed of processing citizens' appeals at the Egov portal acceptable?
Do you feel that Egov helped you, or was it much better to get services offline?
Do you see the point of replacing a government platform with a platform from an enterprise solution?
Have you ever read articles on Egov?
Does Egov need to add a review page? Would you like to see a review page on the Egov platform?
The survey showed that the majority of people believe that the interface is simply overloaded, and they are constantly lost, a small number of people did not like the wholesale receipt of services online, and they would like to return to the traditional option of receiving services.
Conclusions
The main internal problems of the Egov portal:
1) Codependency of 400 programs: According to Minister Bagdat Musin, the Egov portal is only the facade of a huge software complex, since behind this complex there are another 400 different information systems of various departments, but 400 information systems are
just a beautiful figure, because each system has different programs and a completely authentic database of queries in the database, if you just imagine that 1 system consists of 5 different programs - then it becomes clear that the internals of Egov are teeming with 2000 thousand programs that are written in different programming languages and do not have the same structure of database queries, hence it follows that some programs of this complex are engaged in the fact that they are trying to upload some data from one database to another, cut off everything unnecessary and give out, but most often they are trying to just make it work in some form.
Of course, you can turn a blind eye to this, but these information systems are maintained by people who do not know the specifics of the work of other specialists involved, which affects productivity and from where there are huge costs for maintaining all this. If we imagine that every 20 programs are served by 4 people, it turns out that about 80 specialists are involved in maintaining the operability of the system. However, each program has its own creators, the creators of the company, the company employees - which leads to the conclusion that this is a very expensive idea.
2) Corruption of the system: Corruption is an ancient invention, given the fact that we have a whole anti-corruption agency, says a lot that this is an existing and pressing problem of our society. Specifically, nothing corrupt was noticed in the work of the Egov portal, but as we know, Egov uploads data from the servers of the police, health, finance. These servers are on the balance sheet and maintenance of various ministries in which not the most important work IT-savvy people are normal when professionals are narrowly focused, it is not normal when people, being professionals in their field, do not know the simplest basics of affairs related to their activities. In 2018, the Ministry of Finance revealed the fact of mining cryptocurrency at the production facilities of the ministry. What does this mean for Egov?
It follows from 100% of the capacity of the ministry, at least 80% were involved in mining, and let's remember about 400 information systems, which are already lowered into the air by production facilities, then it turns out that in fact the access of information to the ministry at the Egov portal was at the level of a myth, like something that is, but only in rare cases. Can we guarantee, that the production capacities of other ministries are not involved in mining or other operations for which they were not designed?
3) The problem of personnel: In Kazakhstan, there has long been a brain drain, every 9 men and every 8 women are certified specialists, of which not all decide to stay in Kazakhstan and leave the country. Also, in the management of Egov there is a problem with personnel, and at all levels, the most, of course, the main problem is the problem of top management.
During Covid, the Egov portal, there was, to put it mildly, in the non-access zone, as the media claims, the Egov portal had half a month to anticipate and prepare for the upcoming influx of people, and I believe that the Egov leadership tried to do this, but they just chose a strategy that has proven itself as a manual of "how best not to do. the server does not belong to them, they cannot change the developers of other information systems involved, and it is not customary for us to bring the problem to public publicity, so we are waiting for the moment when everyone gets tired of everything so that changes can take place.
4) Portal interface: The interface is so overloaded and incomprehensible that there are services in the centers of office services to pull out the necessary documents for money, this is the most striking argument that something is going wrong.
5) Cybersecurity: Itis now clear that there is a real possibility of obtaining certificates from third parties, without the consent of the first person. In addition, half of the programs in government departments are used with a backdoor. A memorandum on the possible development of GovTech from the Sber group of companies was also signed, this step
shows that high-ranking officials do not understand how important the security of personal data is, and that they are ready to entrust the personal data of millions of people to private companies.
There is no actual security.
6) Cabinet of Ministers: the problem lies in the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers consists mainly of people of the 40+ category, and their income level, and the lack of frequent job changes, does not allow to fully encounter the terrible Egov interface. That is, the Cabinet of Ministers is divorced from the problems of the population, it does not face them and does not observe them, therefore, it does not make public the problematic and unprofitability of the Egov resource.
7) Impossibility of modernization: the only way to make the technical part of the portal productive and economical is to rewrite the behind-the-scenes part of the platform, rather than to modernize 400 information systems.
8) Lack of domestic alternatives to development: Kazakhstan does not notice the human resource and does not develop the information technology industry to the proper extent that the zeitgeist requires, which is why every year there is a leak of qualified personnel, of which about 70% are technical specialists. All problems are cyclical.
Problems that create difficulties for citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan:
1. High threshold of perception of information: On the Egov portal it is not easy to get help, first you need to understand the whole scheme of the order of obtaining help, because in the search field, after entering the query, all the results containing the search tag are displayed, so a person is faced with the fact that instead of the service he is interested in, he goes to the help page of the service, where clicking on the links, a person can go to the page of providing the service. This is confusing, since it is necessary to carefully read the content of the help to understand the algorithm of actions. People are used to classic search engines like Google, or Yandex, where after entering a query, you get the desired result. This creates a lot of problems for people, after which they are forced to ask for help from the staff of the Public Service Center.
2. Certificate error: In order to make transactions with real estate or movable property, and other operations, citizens need to sign their consent to the operation using an electronic key / certificate. This operation takes place using the NCALayer program, where failures very often occur, which are sometimes not solved by actions from the online certificate. People just have to contact specialists and waste their time, for the older generation, this information is initially incomprehensible, they continue to ignore the benefits of the web portal, turning to notaries out of habit.
3. Booking an electronic queue: Users, when booking an electronic queue, calculate their time in order to minimize the loss of their time, but it does not always come out as they expect. Very often it happens that, arriving at the appointed time, people cannot receive the service, and sit in a live queue in fact, as there are technical problems with PSC employees. This is very terribly annoying to most of the people surveyed.
4. Strict requirements for photos: A large number of people do not like the photo on the identity document, but recently the portal has the function of adding a photo for the release of the document, where the necessary requirements are established, after which people can get an identity document with a satisfying photo. Respondents claim that it is very difficult to reissue documents through the web portal, since photos are constantly are rejected by the system, although the requirements were met, and again people are forced to go to the PSC.
5. Inability to change the password to an electronic digital signature: Some of the respondents said that they very rarely encounter the procedures for signing documents with a certificate, due to which they very often forget the passwords from the keys or lose the drive with the contents, which is why they are forced to constantly re-create certificates.
6. Failures in the work of the portal: Very often it happens that when a person still understood how to order a service correctly, having followed all the links in the help, he does not receive it or receives it incorrectly. This happens because there are failures in the portal, where some of the processed requests are frozen and not brought to the end, which is why people spend their time waiting. The only way out is to re-create the query.
The portal was designed by computer engineers who tried to make the portal as multifunctional as possible, most of the functions of the portal were unclaimed and confusing to users. The cumbersome interface created difficulties for use, completely disoriented a lot of people who were disappointed with the experience of working with the portal and now either defend a live queue in the PSC, or pay specialists from the outside to help them get the necessary documents.
Ordinary people are an audience made up of a wide variety of individuals. If you look critically, and try to categorize, you can find that according to statistics, among ordinary people - less than 15% do not know how to use electronic gadgets, and less than 0.3% do not know how to read and write. For whom the concept of e-government is simply inaccessible to understanding.
For the remaining 85% of people in our country, the portal offers to go through a cycle of sophisticated engineering ideas of developers, go through dozens of links, to encounter problems reading the certificate, after - entering the password, without remembering which, you will have to re-create the certificate and re-go through the links, not without a cumbersome and incomprehensibly designed interface.
People have nowhere to express their thoughts and share their impressions, where they could be noticed by the portal workers, so people continue to suffer.
Links and Resources
1) The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by A.Cooper.(February 24, 2004)
2) Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance by Darrell M.
West(2005)
3) Gabuev S.V. - Electronic state services in political-administrative management // Politics and Society.(2017)
4) Frangulova E. V. The essence of the concept of "e-government" and the world experience of its implementation.(2010) ISSN 2072-9502. Bulletin of AGTU. Series:
"Management, computer science and informatics".
5) Drozhzhinov V.I. Electronic government // Improvement of public administration on the basis ofIts reorganization
6) E-Government Survey 2020 by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Retrieved from: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E- Government-Survey-2020
7) E-Government in Kazakhstan: Realization and Prospects by Maxat Kassen.
Retrieved from: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/pnconfs_2010/6/
8)
Amanbek Y, Balgayev I, Batyrkhanov K, Tan M. Adoption of e-Government in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity. 2020; 6(3):46. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc6030046 9) Professor Colleen Knucks and Assistant Professor Saltanat Dzhanenova of NazarbayevUniversity in an interview
10) Transforming E-government in Kazakhstan: A Citizen-Centric Approach by Baurzhan Bokayev, Zhuldyz Davletbayeva, Aigerim Amirova, Zhanar Rysbekova, Zulfiya Torebekova and Gul Jussupova.
Retrieved from: https://www.innovation.cc/scholarly-style/2021_26_1_2_bokayev_e- gov-kazakhstan.pdf
11) E-GOVERNMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN: CHALLENGES FOR A TRANSITIONAL COUNTRY by Saltanat Janenova.
Retrieved from:
https://www.nispa.org/files/conferences/2010/papers/201004220915450.janenovasaltanat .pdf
12) Scandal in the CSC: What is the threat of disclosure of personal data.(2017)
Retrieved from:https://krisha.kz/content/news/2017/skandal-v-cone-chem-grozit- razglashenie-personal-nyh-dannyh
13)E-Government and corruption perception index. Retrieved from:
https://journal.uii.ac.id/JAAI/article/view/10852
14) Journal of Modern Problems of Science and Education 2009, author K.Kuzmina.
15)Linking citizen satisfaction with e-government and trust in government by Eric W.
Welch,
Charles C. Hinnant Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3525668
16) Citizen-centered E-Government Services: Benefits, Costs, and Research Needs(2008) Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221585036_Citizen- centered_e-government_services_Benefits_costs_and_research_needs
Appendices Non IT users
Link to the test: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtJVjG- BhZN96ojz7Ht2aESfYMlXp014n3CxeejH94gvz7zg/closedform
IT Users Link to the test:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeT5lGCUdN1NdCs7_zN28JMTHYbSd6Nuot6 b5I1iz4QjBXMtA/closedform
