The role of ICT in improving efficiency of public ...



The role of ICT in improving efficiency of public administration. Case study: E-Building Supervision developed by the General Office Of Building Supervision in Poland.

Dominik Sypniewski[1]

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development exerts increasing influence over economy and society. It also constitutes opportunities and challenges for public administration. On the one hand, the ICT can lead to the improvement of the efficiency of governance as well as to the reduction of public spending. On the other hand, however, it has to be introduced and applied with reference to an existing, often complex legal environment.

In Poland, a construction industry is one of the leading branches of the national economy and, as in other post-communist countries in the region, it is rigidly controlled and supervised by a state. The public administration involved in supervising the industry includes separate authorities for building permits issuing on the one side and for construction supervision on the other. It also establishes three types of legal relations: (1) between administration and business (A2B), (2) administration and citizens (A2C), and (3) between various administrative bodies (A2A). Thus, the construction-related activities of professional developers and private persons depend – to a great extent – on the efficiency of the specialized administration.

The application of ICT to administration requires fulfillment of many financial, economic, infrastructural and legal conditions. In December 2007 the General Office of Building Supervision completed the project e-Building Supervision, co-financed by EU Sectoral Operational Programme - Improvement of the Competitiveness of Enterprises, Years 2004-2006. The project aimed at establishing on-line access to public services for business and private consumers and at improving the circulation of information between various construction-related public administration authorities. In particular, the project covered six areas:

1) the supervision of a construction products market,

2) the register of building permits’ applications and decisions,

3) the central registers of persons who have building license, building experts and persons subject to penalty under professional liability,

4) the document management system,

5) the register of mandatory controls,

6) the register of building disasters.

The e-Building Supervision project constitutes an ICT system that provides a technical base for on-line public services but mostly improves the connections between construction supervision authorities. As it appears, it can lead not only to the increase of public administration efficiency and public services quality, but also should be used to decrease costs of public services delivery and shorten administrative procedures in the construction industry. Especially A2B services can reduce the cost of a construction process and affect competitiveness within the industry.

The paper present how the e-Building Supervision project was implemented into the Polish legal framework and various challenges its launch introduced. The paper covers different issues: the structure of building administration (1), problems of construction supervision (2), the implementation of ICT to construction supervision (3) and an analysis of e-Building Supervision’s component (4). It presents influence of e-administration on building administration authorities and services that are offered for businessmen and citizens.

1. A general view of the building administration in Poland

The building administration in Poland is divided between two authorities: an architectural and construction administration that is a general authority in charge for supervision and control over compliance with the construction law provisions till the building permit is issued and a construction supervision that is a specialized authority in charge for supervision and control of the rest of building process including construction and maintenance of building structure[2].

The tasks of the architectural and construction administration are carried out by general authorities: starosta (powiat level[3]) and voivod (voivodship level) as well as the central authority of governmental administration which is the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. The tasks of the construction supervision are carried out by powiat inspector of construction supervision, voivod with the assistance of the voivod inspector of construction supervision as the manager of the voivod construction supervision and the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. While the General Inspector, voivod inspector and powiat inspector are organs, all inspectorates are offices of public administration, which concept is inseparable from the concept of the organ[4]. The structure and links between different authorities are presented on the figure 1.

Figure 1. The structure of the building administration

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instance supervision superiority cooperation

The basic duties of the architectural and construction administration and the construction supervision include supervision and control over compliance with the construction law provisions (conformity with local development plans and natural environment protection requirements, conditions of human and property safety in construction process, conformity of architectural and construction solutions with technical and construction regulations and technical knowledge principles, proper performance of independent technical functions in the construction industry and the use of the construction products) and issuing administrative decisions in the matters provided in the Construction Law[5] like decision on the permit for building, decision on the demolition, resolution on the construction works suspension, decision on the permit for use or decision on control to be carried out. The tasks of authorities of construction supervision include also control of the operation of authorities of architectural and construction administration, what could be specified as an investigation of the correctness of administration proceedings carried out by the authorities of architectural and construction administration, and decisions and resolutions issued during such proceedings but without any particular power that can verify these proceedings.

2. The problems of construction supervision

The building administration in Poland was evaluated several times by the Supreme Chamber of Control. According to the most comprehensive control report presented in 2006, there was a lot of problems related to construction supervision. As it is not the purpose of the paper to evaluate construction supervision, I do want to underline some typical problems:[6]

• Passivity of the General Inspector of Construction Supervision: he did not use his powers in order to eliminate incorectnesses of actions taken by powiat and voivod inspectors;

• The number of control proceedings that was inadequate to improve safety of construction process and usage of building structure;

• The proceedings carried out by powiat inspectors were delayed what imposed additional costs on investors;

• Powiat inspectors did not use their powers correctly, did not take actions required by law nor did not check if the controlled individuals took actions required in control protocol;

• The registers of applications for construction permits and registers of decisions on the construction permit were not kept in compliance with law;

• Both powiat and voivod inspectors did not take actions in case investors had not notified on the completion of construction of the building structure.

An another control report presented in 2009 confirmed most of the mentioned incorectnesses, but it also showed that powiat inspectors of construction supervision did not implement 86% of post-control recommendations, what means that actions taken by the General Inspector of Construction Supervision were completely ineffective[7]. The pathologies at powiat level affected not only administration but mostly citizens and businessmen. The procedures for building permit, usage permit and control actions persisted much longer than according to the Administrative Procedure Act, what imposed additional costs on investors.

What were the reasons of such a situation? It was not caused by bad regulation nor by bad organizational structure. Most problems were related to the communication between construction supervision authorities at different levels and limited access to the data about actions taken at powiat and voivodship level. The employees from the General Inspectorate of Construction Supervision could check only randomly selected powiat inspectorates because control proceedings needed a lot of resources to be involved. The recommended solution was an implementation of ICT aimed at improving the efficiency of governance, especially the supervision and control over powiat inspectors of building supervision.

3. The implementation of ICT to construction supervision

The idea of e-administration is utilization of informative and telecommunication technologies in public administration, in connection with changes of organizational nature and acquiring new skills, that aims at improvement of quality of public services, strengthening of citizens' commitment in democratic processes as well as their support for state policy[8]. The legal framework for e-administration functioning is determined by the Statute on February 17, 2005 on Information Technologies in Entities Realizing Public Tasks[9], which defines: principles of the minimum, guaranteeing the openness of computer standards, requirements of information systems used for realization of public tasks as well as public registers and the exchange of information in electronic form with public subjects[10]. It was developed by the Plan of Computerization of the State[11], that defines the directions and destination which in this area should be realized in 2007-2010 years. Most of procedures concerning issuing building permit were recognized in the Plan as public task served with e-administration.

The first ICT used by construction supervision was the register of questioned construction products that was launched in 2004 as an Internet application offering basic services for businessmen and citizens[12]. In December 2007 the General Office of Building Supervision completed the project e-Building Supervision, co-financed by EU Sectoral Operational Programme - Improvement of the Competitiveness of Enterprises, Years 2004-2006. The project aimed at establishing on-line access to public services for businessmen and citizens and at improving the circulation of information between various construction-related public administration authorities. In particular, the project covered six areas:

• The supervision of a construction products market;

• The register of building permits’ applications and decisions;

• The central registers of persons who have building license, building experts and persons subject to penalty under professional liability;

• The document management system;

• The register of mandatory controls;

• The register of construction catastrophes.

Implementation of the e-Building Supervision needed a lot of changes in law. There were launched several amendments into the Building Law creating legal framework for keeping electronic registers. Some ordinances, defining the registers’ formats and model of protocols were relaunched as well. During the process a problem of cooperation between lawmakers and ICT specialists appeared. While some legal concepts concerning mostly the range of data in registers and were changed, the applications had to be changed several times and it raised the cost of project as well.

There are some major assumptions for e-Building Supervision. All applications shall be created on the based on open source software and their architecture shall be interoperational to make integration and development possible in future. So far, all parts of e-Building Supervision are independent, but it theoretically possible to exchange data between the applications. Concerning access to data, it is really important to underline that each application adopted very similar approach. The General Inspector of Construction Supervision has an access to all files and proceedings, the voivod inspector of construction supervision have an access to files and proceedings carried out by subordinated powiat inspectors of construction supervision. The inspectors do not have an access to files and proceedings carried you at the same level (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. The access to data in e-Building Supervision

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4. Analysis of e-Building Supervision’s component

4.1. Supervision of a construction products market (SCPM)

The SCPM application aims at transfering data about construction products and control proceedings from voivod inspectors of construction supervision to the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. An important part of the SCPM is also the national register of questioned contruction products.

The users of the SCPM are employees from the General Office of Construction Supervision and 16 voivod inspectorates of construction supervision. The SCPM allows to create files for each control proceeding, examination protocol and final decision. There are also different statistical tools, that are used by employees from General Office who prepare annual plan for controls.

The national register of constuction products is accesible for any user in Internet[13]. It does not offer any specific services for consumers or business expect data. It is put into general table with the name of product, name and adress of producer (salesman) and information about the decision that was taken by construction supervisory authority (i.e. withdrawal from the market). Additionally there are detailed files about each construction product put into register, including the kind and the range of non-compliance of the questioned construction product, resources, that were used with reference to the questioned construction product and threats along with their qualification, that can be caused by the questioned construction product. So far, there were 669 construction products placed in the register.

4.2. The register of building permits’ applications and decisions

Everyone has the right to develop real estate, but most investments required a building permit to be issued. From investor perspective a duration of the procedure of obtaining the permit is a crucial factor affecting many business decisions and total cost of construction process. Because the procedures for issuing building permits were extended, a new regulation was launched in 2003. If the competent authority fails to issue the decision on the building permit within 65 days of the date the application for such decision has been lodged, the authority of higher instance shall impose a fine on such authority in the amount of PLN 500 for each day of qualified delay, in a resolution that may be appealed. The regulation leaded to improvement, but the procedures were still too long and the higher instances authorities did not have tools to control it. According to Article 82b of Building Law, the authorities of the architectural and construction administration keep a register of applications for construction permits and a register of decisions on the construction permit as well as transfer the data to the authority of higher instance[14]. The registers should specifically include the following data:

• Details on the authority preparing the register;

• Data taken from the applications submitted and decisions issued, including the investor’s personal data.

While the registers may be kept in a traditional paper or electronic form, the ICTs were implemented only at voivodship level. Having an access to all procedures (including applications filled by parties and information on each actions taken by the organ), construction supervision will be able to control architectural and construction administration better and identify those inspectors who do not carry out their duties properly.

4.3. Register of mandatory controls

The register of mandatory controls (RMC) aims at registering, storing and making accessible for authorized officials of construction supervision authority protocols that were prepared after mandatory control has been performed. The control is limited to the most complicated investments, when Construction Law requests investor to obtain a final decision on the permit for use prior to the commencement of the use of a building structure. It was assumed that the number of controls will reach approx. 600 – 700 every year.

The users of the RCM are employees from the General Office of Construction Supervision and 16 voivod inspectorates of construction supervision. They can fill in protocol during the control using a laptop with an Internet connection. It is possible to prepare immediately the protocol that is in accordance with the model for the mandatory control protocol determined by ordinance of the minister competent for construction, development and housing economy. The protocol put into the RCM is accessible by all authorized employees.

While computerization was no implemented at powiat level, the employees from powiat inspectorates of construction supervision cannot use the RCM. They have to prepare three copies of paper protocol. The first shall be delivered to the investor, the second copy shall be forwarded to the voivod inspectorate, and the third shall be kept by the powiat inspectorate.

The RCM offers some e-services for administration like protocol’s browser, data export into .xls files and generating three types of tables:

• Table of all protocols;

• Table of protocols with exceeded schedule of control;

• Table of protocols with verified irregularities.

From investor (that can be both consumer or businessman) perspecitve, an implementation of the RCM shortens the procedure of applying for the final decision on the permit for use. The register is also very useful tool for the controlling performed by the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. It allows to sepearate investments that were not carried out in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the building permit.

4.4. Register of construction catastrophes

The register of construction catastrophes (RCC) aims at collecting data about construction catastrophes (reasons, facts) and clarification proceedings as well as generating different tables and statistics. In case of a construction catastrophe in a building structure, the construction manager, the owner, manager or user is obliged to notify the powiat inspector of construction supervision, who is also obliged to notify about the catastrophe the voivod inspector of construction supervision and the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. The powiat inspector is in charge for carrying out the clarification proceedings relating to the reasons and facts of the construction catastrophe, but it can be taken over by the voivod inspector or the General Inspector.

The users of the RCC are employees from the General Office of Construction Supervision and 16 voivod inspectorates of construction supervision. After notification about the catastrophe, a new file is created. It should include data about the investor or the owner, a building structure and its classification (i.e. single family building, collective habitation building, industrial structure or public use structure) and a range of the catastrophe. The new file has a status “in progress” that is automatically changed after 24 hours into “notified”, what means that the file cannot be erased or changed. The authority carrying out the clarification proceedings shall add to file several detailed modules:

• The analysis of the construction catastrophe,

• The reasons of the construction catastrophe,

• The actions and decisions performed by the authority,

• The notification about the proceedings related to professional liability.

The modules allow users to set exactly on which stage of the construction process and which participant of construction process did not fulfill its duties or fulfill them negligently, or what was the other reason for the construction catastrophe.

The RCC offers to generate different table and statistics: comprehensive overview that is accesible for public[15] and more detailed information used by construction supervision authorities. The register turned out to be very effective controlling tool for the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. It helped to define and reduce a number of irregularities during the clariffication proceedings, speed up the commencement of proceedings related to professional liability and indicate voivodeships and powiats that needed attention. The deeper analysis of data collected in the RCC leaded to some proposals for new regulation leading to decrease of total number of construction catastrophes[16].

4.5. The central registers of persons who have building license, building experts and persons subject to penalty under professional liability (CR)

According to Article 88a par. 3 of Construction Law, the General Inspector of Construction Supervision keeps three central registers:

• Register of persons having construction qualifications certificates (a),

• Register of construction experts (b),

• Register of persons sentenced due to professional liability (c).

The users of the CR officials from the General Inspectorate of Construction Supervision and indirectly officials from relevant professional self-government bar who conduct construction qualifications certificate proceedings. The entry into the central register, referred in letter a, is made as a decision and is a formal requirement for performing independent technical function in the construction industry (i.e. designing, verifying architectural and construction designs, management of construction or other construction works). The entry into the central register, referred in letter b, is made ater the relevant authority of professional self-government takes a final decision on awarding the construction expert title. The entry into the central register, referred in letter c, is made after the relevenat authority of professional self-government takes a final decision on imposing a penalty in the professional liability in the construction industry proceeding.

Althought each of central registers has a specific functions, the structure and range of data is very similar. The registers include in particular the following data:

• Personal data (name and surname, address, PESEL number (in relation to Polish citizens), or passport or another document confirming the identity number (in relation to non-Polish citizens),

• Information on education and academic titles,

• Information on the construction qualifications certificate issued by a professional self-government authority,

• Information on the area, the technical and construction specialization (if any), and the scope of design works or construction works covered by a given qualifications certificate.

All central registers are public and accessible through the web portal of General Inspectorate of Construction Supervision. In the register of persons sentenced due to professional liability there is also information about the penalty (admonition, imposition of an obligation to take the exam for certificate, ban on performing an independent technical function in the construction industry for one to five years) but this information is not public. The penalty can be removed from register at the sentenced person’s request, that can be filled between 2 and 5 years after penalty. The removal of the penalty is noted in the central register of sentenced persons.

While the information about the penalty is not public, it reduces registers utility for citizens and businessmen. The CR should provide opportunity not only to confirm if someone is allowed to design or manage the construction, but also to verify its professional liability record.

5. Conclusions

Introducing ICT to building administration was a necessity. Although it was not the most important priority of computerization, e-Building Supervision provides many services and functions that make possible to improve efficiency and effectiveness of building administration. One has to underline, that the development of e-Building Supervision is profitable for business and citizens, but first of all for authorities of construction supervision. It affects mostly A2A relations, improving the quality of control and supervision carried out by the General Inspector of Construction Supervision. The computerization provides only few services for business and citizens that are limited to the first and second degree of development of the e-administration (on-line information and the one-way interaction).

The example of countries scoring high on public-sector openness and efficiency and e-administration readiness shows that it is related to economic performance and competitiveness. A crucial element of computerization is the electronic platform delivering services for businessman and the citizens, that aims at increasing the efficiency of public administration while providing services. In case of Poland it is still necessary to develop solutions using strongly two-way interaction model, but is has to be coordinated with the amendments of Administrative Procedure Act and its ordinances. De lege lata the electronic service of pleading is possible only at the party’s request or if the party accept it, while electronic service of decision is not possible at all. In reality it means that public administration does not use a great opportunity for prospective costs reduction and speeding up the procedures[17].

It is quite difficult to discuss generality and transferability of the e-Building Supervision to other countries. First of all, there are differences between regulations on construction industry, especially when comparing structure of building administration authorities. The general concept of a set of independent registers (building permits’ applications and decisions, mandatory controls, construction catastrophes) is strictly related to the Building Law and administrative procedure. However, the registers of construction products and persons who have building license offer very essential services for investors and can be easily adopted in different legal framework. While all registers are interoperational and independent, it is possible to use only some selected modules, integrating them with the existing ICTs and developing in future.

An attitude of a public administration personnel to ICTs is quite a different problem. The most effective approach is a natural introduction of ICT solutions[18]. To enable this, the ICTs implementation into public administration shall include staff training stronger than before. It has to be underline that most applications of e-Building Supervision are used at national and voivod level only. It is not obligatory at powiat level because of insufficient telecommunication infrastructure, unprepared employees and prospectively high costs. A real e-administration cannot be discussed until the (information) society commonly and readily uses interactive tools in administration. In order to abolish barriers which limit the possibility of development, it is still necessary to adjust law regulation, enlarge the accessibility on Internet (both in administration, and among citizens), create digital identification, assure suitable level of net and the systems safety and build in the society trust for services provided electronically[19].

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[1] Assistant, Warsaw Univeristy of Technology, Faculty of Administration and Social Science, Poland.

[2] Supervision is a specific kind of competences of an authority higher than that supervised including rights to apply allowed instruments of supervision, which means more than competences of simple control or inspection. In relation to individuals these instruments can be used after passing the procedure provided by the law only. See: Izdebski, Hubert. 2006. Introduction to Public Administration and Administrative Law, Warsaw: Liber, p. 58.

[3] A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. A starosta is a the head of the powiat executive body, and the head of the powiat administration, see: Mo|[pic]dzeD[pic] (access: 3 April, 2010).

[4] The model for the register of applications for the construction permit and decisions on the construction permit and the authorities that can keep the electronic register is determined by the minister competent for construction, development and housing economy.

[5] Individuals can request the data from the RCC on the base of the Statute of September 6, 2001 on Public Information Access (Dz. U. No. 112, Item 1198 with amends).

[6]

[7] See: Szostek, Dariusz. 2009. Doręczanie i odbieranie pism w postaci elektronicznej na gruncie kodeksu postępowania administracyjnego. In: e-Administracja. Prawne zagadnienia informatyzacji administracji, ed. Dariusz Szostek, Wrocław: Presscom, pp. 77-86.

[8] See: Dębicka, Anetta, and Mariusz Dmochowski. 2004. Nowoczesne technologie informacyjne i komunikacyjne jako czynnik profesjonalizacji administracji publicznej. In Profesjonalizm w administracji publicznej. Edited by Anetta Dębicka, Mariusz Dmochowski and Barbara Kudrycka. Białystok: Stowarzyszenie Edukacji Administracji Publicznej, pp. 362-363.

[9] Wójcik, Grażyna, op. cit., p. 52.

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