Title: Administration reform and administrative
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ADMINISTRATIVE  INFORMATIZATION AND 
ADMINISTRATION REFORMS IN THE KYRGYZSTAN

Salih Murzaev*^*

^* Associated professor, the Academy of management under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Introduction

Within the past ten years, the Kyrgyz Republic has faced radical transformation in their system of public authority and administration. New functions and structures of public bodies have been put in place. The decentralization of the public administration is being put into effect. The social-political and macroeconomic stability has been preserved in the country. However, the difficulties of this transitional period are still not fully passed. More than 50 percent of the population are living in poverty. One of the reasons is the ineffectiveness of the public administration. Government apparatus had long-term experience in planned and directive economy. The government system did not pay enough attention to the development of civil servants. Administration reform is being put into effect to overcome these weaknesses. 

The Kyrgyz Republic as well as other countries, are involved in globalization – specifically, wide application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in all fields of activity. An institutional base has been created in the Kyrgyz Republic for the purpose of policy making in this sphere.  The Administrative Informatization, the process of applying of ICT in the public administration is now taking place. Supported by international organizations, the telecommunication network has been modernized. In ministries and the other public institutions the corporate networks and several modern state computer systems were created. This has created preconditioned for the establishment of the Public Computer Network. However, in order to create the effective system of the public administration on the basis of ICT, legal, organizational, financial and personnel barriers must be overcome.  

Adopted in 2001, the Comprehensive Development Framework of the Kyrgyz Republic by 2010 is aimed at solving the problems of sustainable development. One of its goals is to form effective and transparent public administration. To achieve this goal, there are great opportunities in both the progress of ICT and foreign experience of applying of ICT in public administration. Taking this into consideration, the National Strategy Development of ICT was adopted.  Its mission is to promote the formation of an informational society in the Kyrgyz Republic. One of the components of the Strategy is related to electronic government, a new concept of applying of ICT in the public administration.   

The purpose of this paper is to present a general evaluation of:
•	the policy in the sphere of administration reforms and administrative informatization;
•	the readiness of Kyrgyz Republic to form an electronic Government.

1.	The system of authority and Administration Reform

It is difficult to understand the policy specifics of the public administration and administrative informatization of the Kyrgyz Republic without familiarizing oneself with the system of government authority. Formation of a new social and public administration structure oriented to the principles of democracy and market economy, began with the declaration of independence in 1991. According to the 1993 Constitution there is a tripartite division of government authority:
•	Legislative authority vested in a Parliament – “Jogorku Kenesh” which consists of the House of People Representatives and the House of Legislative; 
•	Executive authority vested in the Cabinet, governmental administrations of seven oblasts and forty six rayons;
•	Judiciary authority vested in three courts: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, the Highest Arbitration Court and local courts. 

In terms of section 3 of the Constitution, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic guarantees the stability of the political system and is the guarantor of the Constitution.  Together with the Jogorku Kenesh, the President defines the domestic and foreign policy and appoints the members of the Cabinet. 

Besides this, the system of government institutions of the Kyrgyz Republic has the government institutions that exist alongside state departments and are not included into each of the three categories of government authority. Among them are: the Central Electoral Commission, the Counting Chamber and others.

Within the first years of independence, the main efforts of the government authority were focused on market reforms. A basic market economy was introduced: free prices and privatization were implemented; foreign trade was liberalized; financial-credit system was reorganized; land-agrarian and legislative reforms were implemented. These actions achieved the general social-political and macroeconomic stability, which is preserved in the country today.   However the political and economical decisions have not always been completely carried out. Civil Service is over-sized and  civil servants are often not qualified. In institutions of the public administration, there are parallelism and duplication of tasks and functions.

Therefore, the next step of building the democratic society was introducing the Administration Reform. The purpose was to put public administration according to progressive economic transformation. In 1997, a consultative institution, the National Public Administration and Civil Service Commission under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (the National Council since 2000) was established. Its main function was to prepare proposals on reforming the public administration and civil service. The Commission in 1998 prepared the most vital document: The Strategy of Administration Reform.  This reform is dedicated to accomplishing the following tasks:
•	adopt law codes and regulations reflecting the goals of administration reform;
•	reduce the number of ministries and departments;
•	optimize the organizational structure of ministries and departments; 
•	delegate authority to the local administrations;
•	improve  the management in public corporations and public enterprises; 
•	create  a system of training and retraining civil servants.

The majority of the tasks above have been achieved.  Let us briefly discuss them.

One of the main results of the Strategy is adopted in the 1999 Law Code “About Civil Service” This law code provided conditions for professional public services development on the principles of competence and professional ethics. This law code also provided classification of public posts and defined the formal ranks, basic rights and duties and social guarantees of civil servants. The law had laid a legal basis for defense of civil servants, the priority of professional characteristics of civil servants. 

Within the first years of independence, the Public Administration in the Kyrgyz Republic had characteristics of the former Soviet socialist system.  It was not capable answering  the challenges of a changing economy, government, administrative policy. The structure of executive authority was reorganized more than once.  In fact, there were twenty-one ministries in 1996 in the Kyrgyz Republic. The total number of civil servants was 17,500 people. Hence the ministries were reorganized. At the beginning, the number of ministries was reduced from twenty-one to fifteen and finally to fourteen.   The number of local government administrations was also minimized. The functioning of numerous state controls institutions resulted in a duplication and parallelism of control actions and repeated re-checks.  Therefore, the number of state bodies of financial-economic control was also reduced.  Within the bounds of administration reforms, the process of decentralization of the public administration is presently being conducted. The organizational and legal basis of self-governance was created. The municipal property was also introduced. All towns and villages are functioning on the principles of self-governance. 

Implemented within the past years administration reforms permitted simplification to some extent of the structure of the state apparatus. This helped to exclude a parallelism and duplication of functions and tasks, to reduce the number of civil servants and to cut down state expenditure. Despite all of these changes, there was no improvement of the effectiveness of the public administration. Its still no suitable to a new role of the state. The public administrations as well as the Civil Service of the Kyrgyz Republic continue to preserve the following disadvantages:
•	numerous state apparatus;
•	low productivity of the civil servants;
•	an un-opened system;
•	insufficient customer orientation to the needs of citizens and businessmen.

All of this not only decreases the reliance of citizens to the public administration,  but also create new obstacles for the democratic processes and economic growth. 

2.	Institutional  framework of Administrative Informatization

Use of the opportunities of ICT in the public administration or Administrative Informatization is conducted within the framework of the general process of informatization of the  Kyrgyz Republic. In the Kyrgyz Republic, the President, the Cabinet and the Jogorku Kenesh define the policy of applying the ICT in the public administration as well as in other spheres. Different structures, established by the state authorities are also involved in the policy-making process in the sphere of ICT. 

The ICT Council under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic plays the key role.  Established in 1997, the ICT Council, is a consultation institution, acting on a the regular basis. Its mission is to coordinate the process of defining and implementing the policy in the sphere of ICT. The ICT Council consists of  a Chairman, the Head of the President’s Administration and twelve members, the heads of ministries and  departments. Within four years of activity, five sessions have been held. Some of the following issues were considered: recommendations on how to built corporate networks, “The problems of 2000”, the development of geo-information systems and others.
 
Another important structure is the Informatisation and Telecommunications Department (ITD) of the  Administrative Issues of the President Administration. It is the working body of the ICT Council under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. The ITD is in charge of provisional organizational, methodological and other activities to state bodies in useing ICT. The ITD is responsible for the exploitation and development of information system in the President’s Administration and Prime minister apparatus.

The Department of Informatisation within the Ministry of Transport and Communications is in charge of implementing the main trends of state policy and coordination activities in the area of informatization. These activities are carried out on the governmental level.

Moreover, there are subdivisions connected with ICT within the ministerial and agency level. In coordination with the other structures, these subdivisions implement the ICT policy. The subdivisions are in charge of the development and exploitation of information systems and networks.

Analysis of the activities of the above-mentioned structures shows that the approach to the ICT development in the Kyrgyz Republic is decentralized. The above-mentioned structures do not have their own budget, and cannot use financial or human resources. Their activities are limited by a certain number of activities. In fact, they do not carry out such activities as standardization, training, monitoring on the regular bases and evaluation of ICT use in public administration. They influence to the process of policy implementation weakly, e.g. on the activities of the ICT departments within ministries and agencies.

Institutional framework of administrative informatisation are the documents determining general state policy in ICT. They are laws, and other legal acts. The most important are as follows:

Informatization Conception adopted by the Government in 1994 (one of the first documents). In this act the following resolution was developed:
•	develop laws and standards in the sphere of ICT and license information services;
•	use market tools for managing informatization process;
•	establish a unified telecommunications network;
•	cooperate with foreign countries and international organizations in the sphere of ICT.

Another document  is the Conception of Legal Informatization, approved by the President’s Decree in 1997. The main goal  of the Conception is to set up the conditions for meeting the requirements of the state organs, natural and juridical persons in getting legal information. This Conception should have provided openness and access to legal information. The Ministry of Justice as an organ of registration normative- legal acts, developing and reviewing legislative bases was determined to implement this conception.

One more important document concerning ICT is the Conception of Informatization Development, approved by the President’s Decree in 1998. The aim of the conception is to stir up the process of meeting the requirements on information system in all spheres of activities. The Conception stipulates the following:
•	development of legislative bases in ICT;
•	establishment of corporate networks in the ministries and agencies;
•	implementation of the project - State Computer Network;
•	formation of national information resources, and
•	access to use ICT by different structures and citizens.

According to this Conception, the activities connected with the ICT development should be done stage by stage. The first stage is to provide legal, economic and technical conditions for ICT development. The second stage is to satisfy the requirements of the society based on ICT.

Nowadays there are more than 10 laws determining the legal bases of ICT. These laws regulate different relations connected with the development, transfer, spread, keeping and use of information along with proprietary rights in the sphere of ICT. Let  us make a brief overview connected with ICT use in public administration.

One of the main Law is “About Informatisation”. It gives the conception of informatisation infrastructure, information resources, information protection. A unified system in organs of public administration and regulation ICT, the authorities and responsibilities were stipulated in the conception. In particular, state organs should support the market of information services and not prevent monopolization in this area. The Law stipulated the users rights to have access to state information resources. There is  no need for the users to report about the reasons for getting this or that information.

Another important Law is “About Electronic and Postal Communications”. It determines the legal bases for exploitation networks. It determines the competence of state organs that are responsible for regulating these activities and giving allowance to get information. This law stipulated the distribution of administrative and regulative functions in the area of communications. The law also determined the rights and responsibilities of the operators in electronic and postal communications as well as the rights and responsibilities of the users.

Two other Laws determine legal relations in the sphere of ICT connected with copyright. The law “About Legal Protection of the ECM Programs and Database” regulates the terms connected with establishment ECM and database programs, legal protection and their use. According to the Law they are considered as copyrights. The ECM programs are legally protected as literature mastery and database as an article collection. The law “About Legal Protection of Topologies of Integral Micro Schemes” regulate the relations connected with the establishment , legal protection and use of topologies of integral microschemes. Legal protection provided by the Law covers only original typology, i.e. topology created as the result of creative activity of the author. Topology is considered original until converse is proved. 

Two laws regulate the access to information resources. The law “About Protection of State Secrecy” differentiates the list data that belong and do not belong to state secret information. In particular, non secret information includees: disaster and extreme situations, that are dangerous for people health; catastrophes and their consequences; ecological situation; natural resources use, culture, agriculture etc. The law “About Guarantees and Free Access to Information” defines the citizens’ rights to ask for necessary information by themselves or through their representatives. This law stipulates that the officials of all state and municipal organs, institutions have to provide everybody with the documents, resolutions and other materials concerning the rights and legal interests.

Juridical status of electronic payments  and regulation of procedures appeared during the process of electronic payments is defined by the law “About Electronic Payments”. But this Law does not regulate the process of postal and telegraphic transfer.

Review of above-mentioned acts show that they include only principal provisions and some of them have declarative characteristics. The tools for implementation those acts are not established. It is particularly connected with the financial base for ICT development. Some of the acts contradict to each other. Administrative informatization is weakly connected with administration reforms. It makes difficulties to implement a unified policy in the area of ICT including public administration.

Nowadays several computer networks of general state level are functioning. The largest are:

State Automatized System (SAS) “Shailoo”. It was established in 2000 under the support of the United Nations Development Programme. Its aim is to monitor elections and referenda. SAS “Shailoo” unifies election committees of all oblasts and rayons. It was successfully used in 2000 and 2001 during the Parliamental and Presidential elections. The ITD of the Administrative Issues of the President Administration is responsible for exploitation SAS “Shailoo”. Under the support of the United Nations Development Programme, also Information System of Public Administration (ISPA) was set up. It is a computerized network unifying ministries, other public administration institutions and their local subdivisions. The ITD of the Administratial Issues of the President Administration carries out the support and exploitation of the system.

Nowadays, nearly all ministries and agencies, local state administrations to some extent use ICT, do have local networks, databases and have information systems of different level and purpose. Corporate networks are in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, National Statistics Committee, Social Fund, Postal Department etc.

Implementation of the SAS “Shailoo” and ISPA has preconditioned the establishment of a unified State Computer Network. Nowadays it includes 44 state organizations. It gives a chance to network cooperation in public administration at different levels. There are about 5000 PC in the public administration institutions. One-fifth of them are within the ISPA system. It means that three to four civil servants have one computer. ISPA establishment resulted in a process of web-sides making in public administration institutions.

Table 1 gives the statistics for net-resources at the central and local levels of public administration. 

** Table 1**
 Web-resources of the central and local
public administration bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic

Using different sources, the process of ICT use in public administration has been developing. A valuable support is provided by international organizations, such as United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others. They contribute by giving grants and credits for the development and establishment information systems and networks, buying computer equipment, programmes, training the civil servants. The Asian Development Bank  credit is used for establishing Information System in the Ministry of Education and Culture. This corporate network unifies the Ministry with its subdivisions in the oblasts and rayon. Computer Land Cadastre, Cadastre on Property and their Owners will be set up in the State agency on Registration the Property Rights and in the end Geoinformation system will be set up. This project is financed by the WB and implemented in cooperation with the State Property Fund. Besides this, some projects work in banking sphere, pension provision, Ministry of Internal Affairs etc.

However the analysis of data proves that, several government institutions are not fully using the opportunities of ICT. For instance, the Table 1 states that not all public institutions do have e-mail, and only 20 per cent of public institutions do have their own web-sides. Often ICT is used to carry out simple functions. The corporate networks of several government institutions operate in an independent mode. This creates additional obstacles for a maintenance of interaction.

3. New  Administration Reform and Administrative Informatization Policy

For solving the problems and carrying out  stable development in 2001 under the support of the World Bank the Comprehensive Development Framework till 2010 was approved. The main goals are: effective and transparent public administration; equitable society, providing protection in the citizens rights and freedom; sustainable economic growth and development. The key factor of the development of the country is an effective and transparent administration. It was mentioned by the President at the beginning of 2002 and was included in a new stage of administration reforms. The following tasks are put during the new stage of administration reforms. They are:
•	optimisation of state apparatus structure;
•	increase professional skills and access to civil service;
•	direct civil service towards citizens and business.

The significant distinction of the new stage of administration reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic is openness of public administration and its direction towards society. One of the tools for solving these problems is the ICT development in public administration. Objectives of new stage of administration reforms bring to necessity to transfer from the policy of computerized public administration to the electronic government.

Nowadays, the main political document defining establishment of electronic government  is National Strategy Development of ICT in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Strategy of ICT was developed under the support of the ministries, agencies, private sector, civil society and local and foreign experts. The Strategy of ICT determines the aims and the tasks, main principles, regulations and trends of state policy in the area of ICT. The main goal of the Strategy of ICT is formation of the information society in the Kyrgyz Republic. One of the trends of state policy is establishing e-Government. The principles of functioning e-Government in the Kyrgyz Republic are openness to legislation, budget process, statistical information. The main activities in establishing electronic government are:
•	formation of State Computer Network;
•	development of electronic filing system;
•	formation of  Public  Information Resources.

Based on the principles and regulations, put on the Strategy of ICT, the government developed and take put Program Development of ICT in Kyrgyz Republic. The Program include actions for created e-Government. 

Therefore, it can be said, that a new stage of Administrative Informatization has begun in the Kyrgyz Republic. The creation of e-Government is one of the main tasks of administration reforms. The first orientation is arising along with a traditional orientation of applying of ICT for increasing an internal effectiveness of the public administration. The second orientation is related to maintenance of the increase of public administration efficiency. The increase is due to more openness and accountability to the citizens. It is improving the quality of services provided by the state. The first orientation of applying of ICT promotes the increase of productivity of civil servants and the quality of administration decisions. The second orientation impedes a corruption and improves reliance of citizens on authority. Developing in the USA and European countries, this orientation of application of ICT assumes interactive interaction of a government institutions and citizens by means of the Internet: from online access to government web-sides to offering information-communication services.

At the present time on the basis of State Computer Network, the governmental Internet-portal is presently functioning (http://www.gov.kg). This Internet-portal is a union of web-sides of  several institutions of public authority. For a while, there is an online access to several Internet resources, providing useful information. For instance, governmental Internet-portal provides users with information on activity of public administration institutions, chiefs of public institutions, postal and e-mail addresses. Although the Internet-portal is not actually e-Government,  it could be considered as the beginning of a first step toward e-Government. It is implied, that in the next stage, the governmental Internet-portal would offer simple services. For example,  consulting and licensing. In the future, other kinds of interactive communication between governmental bodies and citizens, like teleconferences, are supposed to be introduced.
	
The potential effectiveness of e-Government mostly depends on the level of development of the Internet infrastructure in the country. In the Kyrgyz Republic the Internet environment is successfully developing. Due to market reforms, the market of information goods and services had been formed. Internet services are provided by ten private companies. Even though prices are pretty high (from 30 to 50 USD per month) and makes up average income of employers, there are more than seven thousands registered users of Internet in the country. In total there are about 100 thousands Internet users in Kyrgyzstan which has a population of 4,9 million people. Although these numbers are low in comparison with European countries, however they are higher than those in neighbouring states. The chain of Public Access Centers is now being established for the purpose of wide accessibility of state information resources to the public. In order to have access to information resources ISPA two available to everyone Centers has been established: one of which is in Bishkek, the capital of country, and another in Osh, located in southern Kyrgyzstan. It allows small and middle businesses, farm and peasant enterprises to have access to useful and timely information about markets, prices, credits and formal documents.

Last but not least, being created on the basis of State Computer Network e-Government would  not only promote solving the actual problems of political, economic and social development in the Kyrgyz Republic but also:
•	respect for citizens rights to access to open government information;
•	provide society with information on activity of institutions of public authority;
•	strengthen both public control of activity of public authority and reliance of citizens to government authority and government policy;
•	maintain a dialog between institutions of public authority, institutions of civil society and private sector in order to define sustainable policy in the different spheres;
•	strengthen concentration of information resources of public administration institutions and self-governance institutions, as well as information space of the country;
•	improve of public administration, reduce number of civil servants and cut down state expenditures on civil servants;
•	step by step transfer public services into the system of net service and
•	maintain economic activity of market entities  of all types of property.

Establishment of e-Government is a complex problem, which has a number of technical, organizational, legal, financial and political aspects. Accomplishment of the two following tasks are important for development of e-Government in the Kyrgyz Republic.
•	Develop a legal base. It is necessary to widen the legal base of ICT and adopt the following bills: “About Information Resources”, “About Personal Information”, “About Digital Signature” and others. The standards, defining  compatibility of established informational systems and networks as well as their interaction, are not sufficiently developed; 
•	Develop  the mechanisms of financing active informational systems and networks of public administration institutions, and also ICT projects. Limited sources of state budget and considerable external debt requires ICT funds to be spent more effectively;
•	Hire qualified and train civil servants in ICT. In detail, the fact that public servants are not properly acquainted with the concept, goals and tasks of e-Government, is one of the reasons of insufficient application of ICT in daily operations,  public service provision and interaction with other institutions; 
•	Expansion of Chain of Public Access Centers to the State Computer Network. Otherwise high poverty rate could result in another social problem, a digital inequality in the country. Taking into consideration the fact that 60 per cent of population live in a rural area, the problem became more vital. 

Table 2 provides assessment of strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats of e-Government establishment in the Kyrgyz Republic (SWOT analysis).

**Table 2**
SWOT analysis of situation and perspectives
of e-Government establishment in the Kyrgyz Republic

Conclusion
	
The first step toward e-Government has been taken in the Kyrgyz Republic. In the context of the current situation in the country, new perspectives for the process of e-Government establishment could be estimated ambiguously. In spite of certain achievements in the sphere of ICT application, the goal of establishing e-Government is still far from being attained. There are considerable barriers for creating necessary infrastructure. Additionally, there are great differences in the stages of readiness of public administration institutions at both central and local levels on the one hand, people from towns and villages on the other hand. This differences make it difficult for state and society to interact. Some of the noted barriers are possible to overcome. It requires improvement of mechanisms defining and implementing a state policy in the sphere of ICT. However, the following disadvantages of public administration system of  the Kyrgyz Republic have an impact on the development of policy in the sphere of ICT: 
•	mechanisms of political and administration coordination and interaction are imperfect, having preserved features of former system;
•	institutions have not only duplicating goals, functions and tasks but also not clearly stated political and administration functions; 
•	government apparatus is not open and accountable enough to its society, citizens are still not considered as clients;  
•	a public servant’s activity is currently routine work and poorly related to policy making and strategic planning; 
•	the role of non-governmental institutions is still uncertain. Mechanisms of their interaction with state bodies are not developed.

Thus, establishment of proper e-Government which  provides useful interaction between  state bodies and citizens, and offers public services depends on proper public administration. This administration must more close adhere to the given reforms  and informatization. 

Reference

Kyrgyz Republic: new perspectives. Comprehensive  Development Framework of Kyrgyz Republic by 2010. National Strategy. Bishkek 2001.

Public Administration and Civil Service Reform in transitional countries (on Kyrgyzstan materials). UNDP, Bishkek 2000.

Reinermann, H (1997). “Administrative Informatics and Administration reform”. In Morton R.Davies …/et al/ (Eds.), New state, new millennium, new public management: coping with the problems of transition: the case of Slovenia, Ljubljana: SPA; Liverpool: University IPA and M, p.p. 137-146

Tonnisson R. “ICT and its impact on Public Adninistration”. In V. Mirco, H. Reinermann(Eds.),  Information and Communication Technology as Driving Force of Change in Public Administration. The third workshop held in Prague,  Czech Republic September 8-13, 1996, p.p 59-66.

Kalvet T. “Electronic services in public administration”. In J. Caddy, J. Jabes (Eds),  Improving relations between the Administration and the Public. Seventh Annual Conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria, March 25-27 1999, p.p.109-117.

Table 1. Web-resources of the central and local
public administration bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic 

| Name of public institution | Quantity | e-mail | Web-side
| | | Have | Don’t have | Have | Don’t have
1. | Ministries | 14 | 14 | 0 | 5 | 9
2. | Governmental agencies | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4
3. | Governmental commissions | 9 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 8
4. | Oblast governmental administrations | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 7
| Total | 35 | 32 | 3 | 7 | 28

Table 2. SWOT analysis of situation and perspectives 
of e-Government establishment in the Kyrgyz Republic 

Strengths | Weaknesses

The decision on e-Gov establishment had been made. 
There is basis of legislation in the sphere of ICT. 
State Computer Network has been established.
The number of Internet users is rising.
Business structures actively develop. 
Non-government organizations are active.
Kyrgyz Republic is a small-scale country.
The country is open system.

There is no program of establishment of e-Gov. 
ICT legislation is insufficient and contradictory.   
Limited sources of state budget.  
Ineffective applying of ICT by public bodies. 
The majority of civil servants and individuals are not ready to operate within nets. 
More than 50 per cent of population are living in poverty and rural areas.

Opportunities | Threats

Foreign experience could be used.
Support from countries-donors and  international organizations. 
Membership of the Kyrgyz Republic in WTO and in other international organizations.

Dependence in the sphere of ICT. 
Considerable external debt makes up 9 percent of GDP. 
Informational infrastructure is badly protected against external  effects.