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About two years ago, the Council of Ministers announced that all cabinet meetings would become paperless, with state officials tapping away at their keyboards and documents swished from one laptop to another.
But how naïve we all were to think that this e-Government change would be the next revolutionary ‘social reform’ which we have heard so often about, often used to describe any minor change that all present and past administrations have sought to introduce, added with a pinch of salt.
Apart from emails going back and forth at light speed, e-Government seems to be more like low-tech Government, as the entire platform needs a major overhaul, and fast.
The introduction of the General Health Scheme (GHS) a week ago proved that this ‘major revolutionary reform of the health sector’ was not well thought out, despite the fact that it has been on the design table for almost four decades, with the latest version being developed during the past decade.
What have all the consultants, programmers and software developers been doing all these years?
Major gaffes such as missing meds and ailment descriptions, inability to register foreign workers, Greek military serving in Cyprus and other Cypriot repats, and other shortfalls cannot be attributed to ‘teething problems’, as its clearly a lack of communication between one department and another.
Why did they not think that the migration department would have to be integrated into the system when the GHS is a service to all citizens and residents of Cyprus.
But this is just the tip of the e-iceberg. Young university graduates, many of whom have just embarked (or are about to) on their first venture, need to secure a “non-bankrupt” certificate from the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver’s office as if this cannot be done online.
Then, if you are seeking employment in the government or a contract, or even the right to change a light bulb in the Presidential Palace, you need to have a certificate to prove your clean police record. Surely, this should/could be done online.
And to top it all off, if you’re waiting to be paid for a job or service to the government, and also happen to owe money to the Tax Office, the social insurance fund, the sewerage board or even local authority, don’t expect a smooth setting-off of balances, as each department has a different work method, mainly because “the computer says no” or simply that the official has not been trained on what the system can or can’t do.
And then, they tell us that one of the biggest impediments in attracting foreign investors is that the judicial system takes aeons to resolve a case or that you need months to get the go-ahead to install a new electricity line to your premises.
The fact that civil servants simply do not want to migrate to a fully-digitised platform (that would ease their workload) but seek to undermine any e-Government system by ensuring that not all parameters are included or foreseen in the design stage, shows that Cyprus is not yet ready to make the great leap into the digital age.
No matter how big the ‘revolutionary social reform.’
