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Introduction
Timor-Leste.Gov
is the official portal web site for the
Government of Timor-Leste and acts as
a gateway for providing government information
and services through the Internet. It
is primarily intended to act as a complimentary
channel for citizens, non-citizens and
businesses dealing with the Government.
Timor-Leste.Gov is maintained by the IT
Division, Ministry of Transport, Communication
& Public Works.
Vision
& Objectives
The goal of the
Information & Services Portal is to
use information and communications technologies
to provide better government services
and information electronically. The following
were the objectives set out for the project:
- Initially, all
available online services and information
relevant to the public to be made accessible
via the portal.
- Progressively,
all services and information that can
be made available online be made accessible
through the portal.
- The portal design
has to be citizen-centric.
- The portal design
has to reflect Timor-Leste culture and
heritage.
- It should provide
a complementary channel for citizens
dealing with the government.
- It should be accessible
via commonly used world-wide-web search
engines.
- It should be available
24 hrs per day, seven days a week.
Brief
Description of the Project
In order to enable
convenient citizen and public sector interaction,
Internet is a key medium for all E-Government
initiatives around the world. This project
focuses on a similar initiative. This
is the face of the government to the world.
At stake will be the image and reputation
of the Government in general and Timor-Leste
as a state in particular. Quality and
value of information to the citizens and
visitors to web sites will be the denominator
to benchmark the integrity of this project.
The project involves development of the
first-ever web Information & Services
Portal for the Government of Timor-Leste
with which web sites of different federal
Ministries/Divisions will be integrated
so that a single point of access is available
to citizens with a strong search facility
for different types of information on
the portal.
In addition, websites will be made for
the Ministries / Divisions of the Government
of Timor-Leste. These sites will contain
useful information for all potential users,
both domestic and international. The information
contained will include organizational
details, rules and procedures, contact
persons and their email, downloadable
forms and data of interest to the general
public. Citizens will be able to access
the individual web sites or get required
services from the central portal to which
all the web sites will be linked. Thus
if a citizen is interested only in a particular
service and does not want to or does not
need to know which ministry/division to
contact then he can access the central
portal only which would list the available
services.
A structured arrangement will be made
in each Division for regular updating
of the web sites to host all new tender/job
notices, latest official gazette notifications,
press releases, changes in policies and
other news items that need to be highlighted.
The project will entail conceptualization,
planning, designing, developing, hosting
and maintaining the web site which should
also include acceptance of queries and
searching relevant databases for customized
information.
Functional
Capabilities of Portal
Based on the
vision and objectives identified above,
the portal will have the following functional
capabilities:
- Citizens will be
able to easily find information and
services through a well-developed menu
structure and sophisticated, easy-to-use,
advanced search facility.
- The portal has
been designed using latest, industry-standard
web technologies, with the concept that
ultimately it will be a fully interactive
web site capable of handling on-line
processing and financial transactions.
- It should ultimately
be e-commerce enabled.
- The portal willenable
convenient, low cost, high value, reliable
and high quality services to the citizens.
- It will build an
image of Timor-Leste as a modern state
that is an attractive location for people
and businesses.
- It will make it
easier for citizens to participate in
government working, if they desire to
do so.
- The information
and services content has been integrated,
packaged and presented in a manner that
minimises cost to the government and
the citizen who is accessing it.
- The portal design
should provide acceptable performance.
The design is simple, with minimum graphics.
- The portal does
not duplicate information available
on other government or non-government
web sites, but providee links to it.
- The portal complies
with international web standards.
- It provides online
FAQs.
- It provides an
effective complaints resolution process
to end-users.
- It is capable of
personalised service delivery.
- It provides a framework
for cross-departmental / cross-agency
service delivery.
Scope of
Services
In
order to implement this project, IT Division
Ministry of Communication, Transport &
Public Work has been engaged after completing
all codal formalities and it has completed
activities leading up to hosting stage.
The various activities performed between
them are as follows:
- Design and development
of the Government portal and development
of standard templates to be followed
for other Government of Timor-Leste
web sites, with the concept that this
will be a highly interactive and dynamic
portal, linking all the individual web
sites of the divisions and concentrating
on services requirements of the citizens.
- Development of
guide lines for the use, management
and design of public sector websites.
- Assisting EGD in
soliciting public opinion on contents
and services requirements for the GOP
portal. Thereafter to help EGD in sifting
and structuring the information received
from different divisions as well as
public response to advertisement on
the subject.
- Provide training
to approx. 150 people in the Ministries
in web maintenance and updating .
- Identification
of the core skills set required for
implementation and post implementation
support, assist in hiring of the staff
and to train the staff.
The IT division
roles are as follows:
- Portal Architecture
design, development and documentation
- Project Management
Plan
- Skills analysis
and transfer Plan for maintenance of
individual ministry/division web sites
during the post implementation period
- Standards Documents:
The following documents are required
to be delivered by the end date of the
project:
- Web Standards and
Guidelines
- Metadata standards
and guidelines
- Internet usage
guidelines for government personnel
- Electronic Records
Management Guidelines
- Data Management
Guidelines
- Information Privacy
Framework and Guidelines
- Information Security
Framework and Guidelines
- Preparation of
RFPs/RFQs for development of the individual
ministry/division web sites.
- Proposal for post-implementation
structure.
For achieving
smooth implementation of the project, the
resource persons nominated by each ministry
/ division will be the focal point of contact.
These resource persons will be responsible
for providing the information required to
be posted in a standard format.
The
updating of information placed on the Portal
The significance
of regular updating of information placed
on the Portal needs no emphasis. Most of
the existing websites are deficient in this
respect. In order to overcome this drawback,
a structural arrangement is being made at
each Ministry so as to bring all the latest
developments on their web sites, e.g. latest
tender/job/scholarship notices, latest notification
on publications in official gazettes, changes
in forms, press releases and other news
that needs highlighting.
Benefits
of the Project
The
benefits of the project are:
- Enhance the Government
of Timor-Leste's image in the eyes of
the citizen and foreign investors
- Information dissemination
to the citizens and strengthen the relationship
between people and the state through
greater participation
- Increase collaboration
between government organizations and
ensure consistency in government communications
- Reduce the interaction
time of government employees with citizens
and yet be productive in delivering
service to the citizen
- Create an IT aware
culture in government employees
- Transfer of technology
and skills for independently operating
the project
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