Policy Context and Legal Framework

The execution of this project is part of an ambitious programme launched by the Portuguese Government to promote administrative and legislative simplification, called “Programa Simplex”, which pursues the following main objectives: 

- create mechanisms for the debureaucratisation of procedures, dematerialisation of processes and administrative simplification;

- guide Public Administration towards a prompt and effective response to the needs of citizens and businesses, increasing their confidence in public services and servants, easing their daily lives, the exercise of their rights and the fulfilment of their obligations, strengthening the safeguard of fundamental rights; 

- allow citizens and businesses to obtain licenses and permits faster and to perform other formalities required to exercise their activity or exempt them from such procedures if these prove useless;  

- ease the rationalisation and efficiency of Public Administration itself, promoting greater sharing of means and information between public services, greater collaboration in transverse processes and online work organisation;  

- favour Portugal’s competitiveness, reducing standard costs for the exercise of an economic activity. 

The Simplex programme arose from the need to change processes and procedures already foreseen in the laws and regulations in force. That need to correct and simplify the strict regulatory processes and procedures and related administrative practices arises out of a negative assessment of their implications or their importance. 

This effort to increase citizen confidence and favour Portugal’s competitiveness, reducing standard costs for the exercise of an economic activity, is not a task assigned to a Ministry, but rather a shared responsibility. Therefore, the Simplex programme is the result of the work that involves the whole Government and, as an entity whose mission is to promote public service modernisation, UCMA was encumbered with the responsibility of preparing and monitoring the first Simplex programmes.

This programme is one of the European objectives for administrative and legislative simplification, particularly in the “Programa de Acção para a Redução dos Encargos Administrativos da Regulamentação existente na EU” (Action Programme for the Reduction of Administrative Burdens arising from the current EU Legislation), launched by the European Commission.

The 2007 Spring European Council ratified the above-mentioned programme and set a target of a 25% reduction in administrative burdens imposed on businesses, which the European Union and its Member States should jointly reach by 2012. It thus invited Member States to set their own targets, at national level. Portugal responded to this challenge and pledged to follow the programme to reduce administrative burdens on businesses within the EU and to develop its own programme, which comprises this project.

Implementation and Management Approach

In order to accomplish this administrative simplification process, which corresponded to measures imposed by the Simplex programme, a joint effort between the National Forest Authority and SIBS-Sociedade Interbancária de Serviços was necessary to integrate the information on hunting licenses.

The decision to bring this process forward is of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fishing and is foreseen in Ordinance No. 1509/2007 of 26 November. The National Forest Authority was in charge of making it operational and, in turn, engaged SIBS to develop the service and implement it in the whole “Multibanco” ATM network. The product was available to citizens as of 1 June 2008, date of the beginning of the hunting season now ending (2008/2009 hunting season), so that all hunting licenses could be issued through this system.

Despite the clear benefits that the application of this mechanism delivers to citizens, the National Forest Authority kept a personal and customised license issuing service at its decentralised offices in order to assist citizens who have trouble dealing with the computer interface of the “Multibanco” ATM system.

Considering that the hunting areas are spread throughout the whole country and that the working hours of Public Administration are not fully compatible with the practice of hunting, the fact that the “Multibanco” ATM network has a wide geographical distribution and the possibility of issuing licenses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week were key factors in chosing this technological solution.

This was also the main factor that determined the success of this project which, already in the first year of implementation, was used by more than 80% of all Portuguese licensed hunters who could obtain their license conveniently and comfortably, from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, without having to travel or wait in queues/line.

Other decisive factors for the execution of this project were:

- the inclusion of the administrative modernisation and bureaucratic simplification objective in the Programme of the XVII Constitutional Government;

- the creation of the Simplex Programme, which specifically included the objective to "simplify and dematerialise the issuance of hunting licenses ";

- changes to the regulatory framework for the licensing of hunters, foreseen in Ordinance No. 1509/2007 of 26 November.

Technology solution

Within the scope of the hunting licensing project, the electronic network of “Caixa Automática Multibanco” (ATMs) was chosen.

To choose this mechanism, a preliminary study was carried out to assess the different adequate technological solutions, which were required to meet the following requirements:

- mechanism already implemented in the country and recognised as secure;

- accessible mechanism, with a wide geographical distribution, preferably covering the whole country;

- fast and user-friendly interfaces;

After assessing the existing resources, it became clear that the electronic mechanism that best suited the pre-set requirements was the “Caixa Automática Multibanco” ATM network system, which is a universal network of banking services, already managed by SIBS in Portugal.

The operability of the whole system proved to be extremely important for the solution found, given that one of the objectives to be reached was the creation of a service that could be easily and intuitively used by citizens, simplifying the whole process and making the relationship between citizens and Public Administration more comfortable, without, however, neglecting the legal security inherent in the licensing process in question.

Moreover, another important aspect was the fact that this system allows the sharing of information with the supervisory authorities for hunting, which can thus consult, at any given place and time, the central register of licensed hunters. In case of consultation by the supervisory authorities, information can be requested to the central server by “sms” (text messaging) and received immediately via the same means.

The decision to bring this process forward was of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fishing and is foreseen in Ordinance No. 1509/2007 of 26 November. The National Forest Authority was in charge of making it operational and, in turn, engaged SIBS to develop the service and implement it in the whole “Multibanco” ATM network.

The modus operandi of this system can be viewed in the file attached to this application. 

Impact

A few examples of qualitative benefits are:

- greater convenience for citizens;

- faster service delivery to citizens;

- simplification and updating of a procedure that was already showing signs of detachment from the current social context;

-  raise the level of security with which these types of licenses are issued and granted;

- assurance that all licenses are granted to citizens holding a valid hunter card, as opposed to what was done before;

- improvement of information exchange and promotion of the sharing of dematerialised information;

- improvement of the mechanism that colects the revenues generated by the licensing process;

A few examples of quantitative benefits are:

- 123336 hunting licenses were issued via the “Multibanco” ATM network in the 2008/2009 hunting season, out a total of 152534 licenses. This implies that more than 80% of the licenses issued are made in a fully computerised environment, regardless of the allocation of human resources and materials;

- relocation of 42 employees from the hunting licensing tasks to cover needs of the National Forest Authority;

- reduction in collection time for Public Administration revenues, which is now automatic and instantaneous and before took at least 42 days (when collection was carried out by Town Halls) and 8 months (when collection was carried out by organisations in the hunting sector);

- reduction collection time for licensing data (number of licenses issued and corresponding hunter cards), which is now automatic and instantaneous and before took around 1 year.

Track record of sharing

This project has enormous potential to replicate itself to other types of licenses issued by Public Administration. Proof of this is the fact that only 3 months after this project was implemented, a licensing system via the “Multibanco” ATM network was developed for fishing in inland waters. In that case, it also became possible to purchase licenses for fishing in inland waters through the well-distributed “Multibanco” ATM network, ensuring greater convenience for all citizens who wish to obtain this type of license.

Note that, here too, the project for the issuance of licenses via the “Multibanco” ATM network has received considerable acceptance and, from the beginning of the year to the end of March, around 100.000 fishing licenses have already been issued through this service.

Besides replication capacity, the project is also shared with other structures in the following aspects:

- part of the revenues generated from this electronic solution are transferred to Organisations in the Hunting Sector, so that they can be reinvested in projects designed to stimulate the sector’s growth, which will help increase revenues obtained through the system;

- police authorities have access to the electronic platform that is generated by this system so that they can consult the records of all licensed Portuguese hunters and increase their capacity to supervise the practice of hunting.

Much work has been done by the National Forest Authority to disseminate the project to other Public services, so that those too may ponder new technological solutions in their relationship with citizens. Moreover, this new system has received extensive regional and national media coverage, which has increased its awareness and replication potential. One example is provided in the attached files.

This application is proof of that dissemination effort, for it encourages the AFN to present its project and the possibility to disseminate the hunting licensing service via the “Multibanco” ATM network outside Portugal and contribute its already acquired know-how to the development of similar solutions within Europe.

Moreover, AFN’s interest in sharing this project with other entities led to its nomination for a national good practice award and it received the Revenue Optimisation Award of the Award for Good Practice in the Public Sector, promoted by Deloitte. See http://www.boaspraticas.com/prm_gala_vencedores.php

Lessons learnt

 The three main lessons that can be learned from the success of this project are the following:

- administrative simplification and the development of technological solutions in the relationship between public administration and citizens increases and assures revenues and allows to control revenues and reduce costs and waste;

- the comfort, convenience and security that these technological solutions add to the work carried out by public administration increases citizen confidence;

- technological innovation contributes greatly to the maintenance and growth of traditional activities, so important for a country’s culture.