VOICE : Online Delivery of Municipal Services in Vijaywada, India

Abstract

The Vijaywada Online Information Center (VOICE) delivers municipal services such as building approvals and birth and death certificates. It also handles the collection of property, water and sewerage taxes. The VOICE system uses five kiosks located close to the citizens. These were linked to the back end processes in the municipal offices through a wide area network. The application has reduced corruption, made access to services more convenient, and has improved the finances of the municipal government (known as "municipal corporations" in India).

Application Context

Vijaywada is a city of one million (70% literate) spread over 57 square kms in eastern Andhra Pradesh in India. It is a major agricultural trading center serving domestic as well as export markets. The local government had an annual budget of approximately Rs. 1.5 billion in 1999, of which 70% came from taxes and rest through loans and grants. Nearly 50% of the budget was used for capital expenditures.

Citizens have faced many difficulties in dealing with the municipal government, including bribery and harassment as well as the need to make frequent trips. Several trips to municipal government offices were needed to obtain a building permit or death and birth certificates. The issuance of certificates often was delayed with the intent to extract a bribe. However, complaints could not be filed easily and officers were inaccessible.

In paying taxes/rentals/charges for advertisements in public places, a citizen had to visit the appropriate municipal department to get a demand note and then go to the bank to make the payment. Meanwhile, the municipality lost revenue as a result of collusion between staff and the payee to lower the demand, and due to the inability to send notices to defaulters for follow up.

A New Approach

With funding from the Federal Ministry of IT (48%), the Andhra Pradesh State Government (32%) and the municipality (20%), the VOICE project was launched in June 1998 and implementation was completed in December 1999. There are two components of the VOICE system: 1) work stations distributed in key departments where the work of the department has been automated, and 2) the citizen's interface.

Citizens can go to any of the five kiosks set up in different parts of the city. Some information can be accessed from an Interactive Voice Response System. Those with an Internet connection also can connect to the Web server and retrieve information.

The hardware components include four servers located in the municipal office and 18 clients distributed amongst various departments networked in a LAN. Each kiosk has two terminals with multilingual software. Application software such as Lotus Notes for grievance work flow and a Geographic Information System are used actively. CMC Ltd., a public sector software company, developed the entire application as a product which can be customized for other municipal governments in India.

The following departments have been automated: town planning, taxation, public health, estate, and engineering. Citizens can see the municipal budget allocations online. The status of tax payment, grievance registration, and birth/death certificates also is available online. Business people can inquire about their tax status, advertising space available for lease, and register complaints.

Implementation Challenges

Implementation took place over the course of 18 months. There was considerable resistance to these changes from revenue earning departments, which stood to loose the income received from bribes. Preceding implementation of the project, performance review meetings were held to make officers accountable. The departments later saw the new system as a way of coping with the pressure to perform.

Minimizing the gap between the requirements of the officers and the features that were planned for the system by the developers was a constant challenge. Several meetings had to be organized during the development phase to close this gap. The implementation of the VOICE system was regularly monitored by the commissioner and CMC Ltd., the system developer.

Data entry to create the data bases was a huge task. Nearly 1.5 million records from various departments had to be entered. It was found that the internal staff was unable to cope with this load. A large part of the work was outsourced, but progress had to be monitored closely.

When the system was implemented, training was provided to 220 staff that would interact with separate modules of the system. Sixty officers were given a basic course by professional IT training institutes. A core team of 8 officers was trained in systems administration to manage an internal support desk.

There was nevertheless a tendency to bypass the system and do paper work outside it. The commissioner interacted with departments through the system and did not allow anyone to bypass the system. For example, tender monitoring, issue of work orders, and work progress monitoring was done only through VOICE screens.

Benefits and Costs

The cost of the project paid to the developer was Rs 18.7 million ($0.4 million) of which 48% was spent on hardware and system software and 52% on application development. This is about 9% of the yearly expenditure on establishment.

The benefits have accrued to the citizens and the municipal government. Corruption has been reduced, services are quicker, and the municipality has become more responsive. In just under a year, the system issued 15,000 birth/death certificates, 2,100 building approvals and 224,000 demand notices for taxes. Nearly 7,700 grievances were registered, of which 97% were resolved. The commissioner can view these statistics by wards and departments, making monitoring more effective. Nearly 700 suggestions have been sent by citizens.

All internal processing of applications is now screen-based, generating greater efficiency. For example, the rent calculation for the bill boards is automatic and transparent; the system tracks advertising agencies that have not renewed contracts; and outstanding collections are sent timely notices. The impact on revenue should become known after June 2001.

Key Lessons

This application is significantly different from other service delivery applications, as one of its goals was reform of the municipal government. Reforms of this kind need a champion within the organization, and in the case of VOICE, success was largely a result of the involvement of the commissioner. Identification of key staff to form a core team, constant monitoring, and marketing of the concept to citizens also contributed to the success of the project.

The application is an example of a partnership between federal and state government agencies, the municipal government, and a software development company. Contrary to the pattern in many government departments where new software applications have been custom developed in-house, this product was developed by a private company. The application will be quicker to implement and robust, but likely will be seen as more expensive than in-house software development (which, while relatively inexpensive, may be of poorer quality and reliability).

VOICE was a local initiative, not part of a grand design in the state's e-government effort. In fact, VOICE competes with an application, TWIN, developed by the state government to deliver some services in the city of Hyderabad.

The utility of VOICE could be enhanced by offering information and services from other government departments like police, road transport, railways, and registration. This would require a high degree of coordination at the state level. In the interim, many local initiatives undoubtedly will sprout, and later a solution to link and integrate these different applications will have to emerge.

Case study author: Arvind Kumar (the Municipal Commissioner of Vijaywada during the development of the application) and Subhash Bhatnagar
Information used to develop the case: Discussion with the project leader for CMC Ltd. and material supplied by CMC Ltd.
Date submitted: March 27, 2001