E – GOVERNMENT AND TRAINING OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN TRNSITIONAL COUNTRIES

George Manliev, Executive Director, Institute of Public Administration and European Integration
Nina Kamenova, ICT Training Manager, Institute of Public Administration and European Integration

Abstract: One of the basic preliminary conditions for implementation of the e-government is the people (civil servants ant citizens), able to work in the new online environment. The effective e-government supposes quite strict demands concerning the qualification of the participants which can be expressed in the following way: basic IT knowledge and practice; permanent increase in the qualification according to the new innovations.
The developing of the IT training strategy of the civil servants and the citizens at all is one of the main tasks, standing before Governments in transitional country. 
In this paper we propose some basic elements of IT training strategy, which developed after experience of our institute of teaching ICT to civil servants. 

Government and his new form e-Government
The developing of technologies influences on the all fields of human activities in several aspects: increasing of the kind of the human activities, changing of the form of their realization and required new organization. 
In historical point on can be defined several forms of administration guidance and services acording to technology of delivering as shown in Fig.1.

	Fig.1. Forms of administration guidance and services acording to technology of delivery
The administrative guideline and service of today is greatly different. The clients today can be at homes or at their offices and using computer and Internet they can be receive some administrative service. They also can be take participation in the administrative guidelines answering on the questions included in the Internet forums on the sites of the state or local government. On can defined E-government as an e-online form of delivering of the government information and services to citizens, the business and the administration itself.
Basic advantages of the implementation of an e-online form respect to the other two forms are:
•	ddecrease in the time for execution of the administration services;
•	ddecrease in the expenses for administration services, referring both to the state and the clients;
•	accessible information and services – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
•	Clients will be able to interact with government from home, at work or on the move.
In the same time technology that associated with the Internet, is having a democratizing impact on society as we move into the Information Age. Government recognizes its obligation to meet the needs of citizens and provide information about legislation and the political process, and to ensure that those who wish to become better informed about government can do so. This translates into the following specific goals for government services: 
•	The citizens and businesses must be at the centre of attention in the design of on-line services;
•	Services must be delivered through several complementary communication channels (on-line and in traditional ways);
•	Security of networks and security access to e-government services;
•	Changes in structures and work organization (back-office and front-office);
•	Increasing participation of citizens and business in local, regional, national and world democratic processes.
The basic preliminary conditions for implementation of the e-government are:
•	development of the information, communication and Internet technologies;
•	incentives, initiatives and programmes of the States to support the realization  of e-government;
•	development of the strategies for application of new technologies in public  administration;
•	creation of needed laws ;
•	investments;
•	people (civil servants ant citizens), able to work in the new online environment.
Specific characteristic of an e-government is the permanent development of the administration as an organization and methods its works in accordance to the technologies. 
The effective e-government supposes quite strict demands concerning the qualification of the participants which can be expressed in the following way:
•	basic IT knowledge and practice skills;
•	permanent increase in the qualification according to the new innovations.
The developing of the IT training strategy of the civil servants and the citizens is one of the main tasks, standing before Governments in each country. 
On can define some basic elements of the IT training strategy in transitional countries as:
•	in reference to the contents - permanent (constant) renewal and completion;
•	in reference to essence of the training - basic, advanced and updative;
•	in reference to the training forms - traditional and е-learning ;
•	in reference to the methods and means of training - traditional and multimedia; 
•	in reference to the technical equipment - to correspond to the requirement of the information technology.
The process of the developing of the IT training program consists following steps: 
1.	defining the target groups belonging to the administration being an object of training;
2.	defining training needs analysis for each target group;
3.	defining the content of the training program in accordance to the needs of the target group;
4.	aplying of the experience of the other institute of public administration in the world.

About Institute of Public Administration and European Integration in Bulgaria
•	Institute of Public Administration and European Integration (IPAEI) is established in May 2000. Its main mission is to enhance the qualification and skills of the Bulgarian civil servants, so that they can develop an effective and responsible public administration system in Bulgaria. The modernization of administrative activities makes a part of the process of transforming Bulgaria into a contemporary European state. This requires of employees in the public administration the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. 
The IPAEI offers courses and seminars that can be clustered in the following thematic areas:
-	Modern Management Skills;
-	Legal Regulations of Administrative Activities;
-	Effective Management of Public Sector Economy;
-	New Administrative Culture;
-	European Integration;
-	Information Technologies;
-	Specialized Foreign Language Training in English, French and German.
The IPAEI also organizes a series of one-day Round Tables to open discussions and shed light on current issues and problems arising from the ongoing legislative and administrative changes in the country. Their objective is through open dialogue to facilitate the acquisition of new ideas and decisions in administrative activities. The Round Tables have already become a regular practice of the IPAEI and are widely attended by the different professional groups in the administration.

ICT training provided of IPAEI
The ICT training provided of IPAEI aims to develop basic knowledge and practical skills of ICT of each civil servant and of cause to develop professional knowledge for usage of different software products and qualified human resources in the field of establishment and maintenance of the computer networks. 
The basic elements of our training program are:
•	basic IT module, which consist: computer systems, operation systems, folders and their structure, files and their types, local computer networks, Internet, Internet technologies (browsers, ftp servers, e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning e. t.), computer text processing by MS Word;
•	specialized courses: MS Excel, MS Power Point, MS Access, MS Project, Web design; Internet based administrative services;
•	forums: seminars, round tables dealing with e-government, automatization of the civil services and mainly of the “one cash desk” type;
IPAEI provide training at Cisco Networking Academy. This is aimed to response to the necessity of public administration for highly-qualified human resources in the field of establishment and maintenance of the computer networks.

Conclusion
In the long and constructive process of development of its own training program and strategy IPAEI reached the following conclusions: 
•	ppeople need all the basic IT knowledge rendered systematically; 
•	the greater necessity of currently updated training programs for the new functions of the latest software products;
•	the greater necessity of specialized training courses for the new software products;. 
•	the greater necessity of the integrated usage of the separate software products, which leads to greater work effectiveness;
•	the greater necessity of implementation of training as a daily activity, which leads to wider usage of the e-learning and the multimedia learning;
•	the IT training nneeds significant finances and dialogue between trainers, civil services, IT business and users in order to make the training updated in its contents and also to make it effective in reference to its methods and ways of delivering.
E-government is a way for governments to use the new technologies to provide people with more convenient access to government information and services, to improve the quality of the services and to provide greater opportunities to participate in democratic institutions and process. Already, there are examples of e-government in more of transitional countries (some web based administrative services), but the main task for the Government is to build on these individual initiatives and develop them into a comprehensive plan for achieving the “e-government”.