Title: Dr Agnieszka Pawlowska, Assistant Professor
Author: Pawłowska
Last saved by: Ján Andruch

Agnieszka Pawlowska
Political Science Faculty
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University
Pl. Litewski 3, 20-080 Lublin, Poland
tel. (48 81) 532 42 78, fax: (48 81) 532 66 10
e-mail: pawlowsk@sokrates.umcs.lublin.pl

Marcin Sakowicz
Department of Public Administration,
Warsaw School of Economics,
ul. Wiśniowa 41, room 78
02-520 Warsaw, Poland
tel: (48 22) 646 35 74 fax: (48 22) 849 55 05
email: msakow@sgh.waw.pl; msakowicz@interia.pl 

ICT in Polish local government – better services, more transparency, prospects for increased participation
Paper for the Working Group
“Applying the E-government Framework in Transitional Countries”

Introduction
“Public administration is an organizational and executive activity related to political power in a state” [Izdebski, Kulesza, 1998: 27]. Citizens are one of the subjects of that power. Development of mass media, dissemination of information networks (Internet), as well as increase of knowledge has made people exercise effective control over their governments. Information is the instrument of that control in the 21^st century. Making information accessible to the citizens equals breaking monopoly of political authorities in understanding public affairs and of public administration in acquaintance of administrative procedures. Furthermore, it is commonly accepted in democratic societies that all technological innovations should be put into the public domain and be tested not only by experts but by ordinary citizens as well. It concerns electronic tools as much as possible. “For the aim, in a democratic society […] should not be empowering of political élite, but the strengthening of the competence and self-governing capabilities of the citizenry” [6, 2001: 105].
A feature of strengthening the citizenry towards decision-making has been recognized by European Commission and elaborated in the White Paper on European Governance of July 2001. The very fact of delivering White Paper is an evidence of unrest among EU institutions and officials concerning the legitimacy of EU policy. In the document, the following principles of good governance were highlighted: openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness, and coherence. To accomplish these principles Commission proposes several ways, as the first naming “better involvement of citizens in shaping and implementing EU Policy” [European Commission, 2001: 10]. European Commission brings about the need “to communicate more actively with the general public on European issues” [European Commission, 2001: 11]. This communication should be performed at all levels of policy making – from local to supranational.
Governance is defined here as re-establishing “the control of the democratic principal – the sovereign people acting through elections – over its agents in government by reducing insofar as possible the ambiguities of delegation” [Sabel, 2001: 127]. Principles of governance were highlighted in the cited document of European Commission. However, not only goals but means of their achievement were presented. Information policy conducted through information and communication technologies is one of methods of accomplishing most principles of good governance.  
Democratic deficit is a dilemma for EU itself and most of EU members [Daemen, Schaap, 2000]. For other reasons, but it is also a dilemma of transitional countries. Therefore their governments should undertake all necessary measures to introduce principles of governance mentioned in the White Paper. The same concerns instruments of accomplishing those principles. In 1990, legitimacy for the democratic government in Poland was established starting from the local level. That development should persist. 
All that has been hitherto stated might be called “ideological” reasons of ICT use in local government (as well as reasons for delivering this paper). However there are practical reasons that cannot be ignored. Electronic tools successfully support activating local neighborhoods and comprehensive service delivery. Numerous experiences with ICT use in public administration of EU countries made us to start this paper from the following assumptions:
1.	ICT is a medium of gathering information on local community: it enables better recognition of local services’ consumers and their actual needs that make local administration more client-oriented and public policy more comprehensive.
2.	ICT is a medium of bringing openness and effectiveness to local administration: publishing administrative procedures, application forms, lists of required documents and all relevant information make local administration more transparent to the public and increases confidence in institutions on local level.
3.	ICT is a medium of information policy of local government: publishing reports on proceedings of local council and neighborhood committees, official documents concerning local community (budget, spatial plans, etc.), giving local public opportunity to respond through interactive media (Internet) may possibly increase participation in decision-making on local level.

From virtual bureaucracy to e-government
Bureaucratic process used to proceed in two “places”: front office and back office. While the front office is a place where information is gathered from the client and – at the same time – it is transmitted to him/her; the back office is a place where information is processed, i.e. decision is made. There are four phases of handling matters addressed to public offices [Scheepers, 1994: 51]:
1.	intake phase: collecting personal information from the client and providing general information about rights and duties to the client;
2.	investigation phase: collecting and checking information from sources outside the client and making reports and proposals for a decision;
3.	decision phase: testing with legal regulations and final decision about entitlement;
4.	administrative phase: processing and executing decisions, announcement to a client and payment.
First two phases proceed in the front office, next two – in the back office. Virtual bureaucracy means introducing electronic data processing (EDP) and networking to the back office (our definition) and it had dominated public administration till 90-ties (in Poland till roughly 1997). EDP is a general term for software supporting administrative operations. It might include both separately working applications (functional automation) as well as complex Management Information Systems (MIS). However, building information infrastructure based on well developed networks and shared databases is the contemporary need and prerogative of public institutions [King, Kraemer, 1991: 34-35]. Consequently, virtual bureaucracy cannot be created without complete networking of entire information resources of public institution, neither without complex MIS supporting information gathering, processing, storing and disseminating. 
What does introducing networks and MIS actually mean for the whole bureaucracy? The principal facet is “the massive shift from linear, sequential processing of information to parallel, shared processing” [Fountain, 2001: 58]. Networked computing has changed the flow of work, reducing and transforming traditional Weberian bureaucracy into virtual one characterized by [Fountain, 2001: 61]:
1.	Information structured by information technology rather than people.
2.	Electronic and informal communication.
3.	Digitized files in flexible form, maintained and transmitted electronically.
4.	Cross-functional and empowered employees.
5.	Roles embedded in applications and information systems.
6.	Rapid or real-time processing.
7.	Constant monitoring and updating of feedback.
However all mentioned features refer to administrative procedures performed in back office. The primary aim of virtual bureaucracy is to make “production process” in public institution more effective and coherent with organizational goals, in colloquial words – to make clerks’ life easier. Till 90-ties that was prevailing development in electronic applications in public administration. Nevertheless, with governance trend and Internet the new value – value of inter-organizational cooperation and clients’ involvement was introduced. 
Recognizing principles of governance implies informing citizens and/or clients on public affairs and hearing response from them. It means performing deliberate information policy either through traditional media or new ones, i.e. Internet. It also means delivering public services in a new, more comprehensive, up to date way. We recognize governance and Internet as the primary factors transforming virtual bureaucracy into e-government.
E-government is set up when electronic tools are introduced to the front office, that practically means the integration of front office with back office. In that way, all four phases of handling clients’ matters in public institution are electronically supported. Networked databases within institution made public servant able to offer a wide range of information as well as to retrieve and modify citizens’ documents, often in real time [Fountain, 2001: 26]. Integration of information might be followed by integration of services or public programs in the form of one-stop shops. Still, one-stop shops require data standardization that is difficult to achieve even in well-developed information societies. For that reason we would rather bound our discussion to means and results of data integration. 
In the first instance of electronic applications, the aim of better-served client is accomplished through traditional MIS. Still, the latter does not support directly introductory phase of handling clients’ matters. To handle this particular phase of direct contact between client and public servant a Document Management System (DMS) has to be developed. From technological point of view, DMS is one of many MIS applications. However, its raison d’être is considerably different, as well as implications of its use.
DMS consists of application forms and information describing every possible matter being in competence of public institution. Forms are filled out with data delivered by a client, meanwhile system checks out if information is complete and correct. Every matter incoming to public institution has its electronic record. Every section of that record represents an element identifying the case and can be used to recover it. However, the basic element identifying the case is its unique number attached automatically by DMS. By this number client can follow administrative procedure of handling his/her case, possibly using either Internet or intranet in one of the municipality’s information kiosks. Cases are automatically assigned to a proper department and responsible public servant. DMS can deliver decision automatically if the case is a matter of routine. If it is not, computer only edits the decision made by civil servant.
DMS supports not only gathering information, its processing, storing and finally delivering decision to the client, it manages thousands of documents and cases incoming to public institution. Through its analytical capacities it enables instant feedback and constant control of administrative procedures’ correctness. In particular, DMS facilitates:
•	undisturbed flow of documents between different units of public institution;
•	clearing up “bottle-necks” in institution on the basis of statistics of cases handled by each unit;
•	restraining client’s contact with institution to the single office;
•	making performance of this office more effective;
•	standardization of information flow between units of institution;
•	making administrative procedures faster through elimination of repeated the same data input;
•	up to date control of handling clients’ affairs by decision-makers;
•	broad and direct access to information for all entitled public servants.

System RATUSZ, http://www.otago.gda.pl, 24.05.2000.

Introduction of DMS usually results in a change of organizational structure. The office with exclusive aim to serve public administration’s clients is created and numerous public servants from different departments of institution are assigned to work there. Construction of the main office as well as automated data flow change the scope and character of public servants’ occupations both in an office as other institutional units. Furthermore, the main office is also an informational center of public institution. However, no considerable changes in an organizational hierarchy as well as no power shifts resulted from application of information systems in public administration have been observed in a short run [Pawlowska, 1999: 152-153; Fountain, 2001: 12-13].

Centrum Administracyjne, http://www.krakow.pl/samorzad/centrum.html, 6.11.2001; Organizacja i struktura Biura Obsługi Interesantów, http://www.szczecin.pl/boi/struktura/default.htm, 6.11.2001.

Still, we believe the considerable institutional alteration (flattened hierarchies, greater use of project/client oriented structures, more permeable organizational boundaries) shell take place in public institutions if and when institutional intranets are hooked up with Internet to permit citizens and clients direct access to information resources opened to a public. That information resources are not only information itself but also electronic application forms and payments. Only in that way, the very strengths of global network, i.e. despacialization and dezintermediation could be availed [Brown, Duguid, 2000: 22]. 
The starting point is an institutional website informing on all administrative procedures performed by institution, relevant to its clients. Above and beyond, comprehensive information on public institution (structure, authorities) and its activities (competences, financing) would be placed there. Further advance is placing application forms on a website, that can be either printed and filled out manually or down-loaded on client’s computer, electronically filled out, printed and in that form delivered to public institution. Still, in this way, neither despacialization nor dezintermediation are exercised. Both features are implemented when an entire contact between client and institution takes place in a “virtual space”. It is possible only if services and transactions are brought on-line. To perform this shape of e-government three conditions should be fulfilled:
1.	information infrastructure developed to a point that it is accessible to all citizens – clients of public institutions (through personal computers installed at homes or terminals placed in public sites);
2.	information system of public administration developed to a point that it is able to deliver its services on-line (elaboration of the uniform communication standard, integration of payment procedures);
3.	relevant legal regulations that make documents in electronic format equal to paper ones (introduction of digital signature). 
Services and transactions brought on-line are still upcoming in Poland. In 2001 Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) undertook a major global study focused on impact of the Internet on government. E-government was defined as any usage of government online at all levels (federal, state, local,). The average e-government usage across the general global population accounted for 26%.  Of the 27 countries surveyed, Poland with one of the lower e-government usage levels was ranked 22. The study revealed that only 5% of Poles have used the Internet to access government online over the last twelve months. By contrast, Norway has the highest level of e-government, which stands for 53%. The basic obstacle for e-government in Poland is a low number of Internet users, estimated from 9,06 to 20,8% of population. 

How many online? http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/europe.html, 7.02.2002, Wzrasta liczba internautów w Polsce, http://www.i-biz.com.pl/pribiz/pnewstext1.html?274, 6.02.2002.

Information systems are developed diversely in public administration – while local administration undertakes a big effort to push informatization process forward, central agencies are lagged behind [Pawlowska, 2002 ]. Although legal regulations have already been passed, they still wait to be exercised (till August 16^th 2002) and it will certainly take time to prepare relevant infrastructure to make electronic signature “working”. For those reasons, we would rather present advanced e-government project accomplished in Germany and then analyze successful examples of information policy and delivering services with support of electronic media in Polish local administration. 

Digital Signature Act passed on Sep. the 18th, 2001 and it is adapted to the Digital Signature Directive of the EU. Ustawa z 18 września 2001 r., o podpisie elektronicznym, Dz. U. Nr 130, poz. 1450.

Advanced e-government project
MEDIA@Komm is the largest multimedia initiative of the German federal government. It is aimed at creation of virtual town halls and virtual market places. Project initiators took on account that the first and the closest contact between state and citizen take place on the local level and that level should avail advantages of e-government first. The project is also a part of the federal government program Innovation and jobs in the information society of the 21^st century. 136 towns, cities and local communities undertook an effort to create their e-government projects in 1998. Three individual projects – of Bremen, Esslingen and Nürnberg – were assessed as the best. Implementation of projects started at the beginning of 2000, and the end of 2002 should complete them. 

MEDIA@Komm - Focus Project of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Implementation of Virtual Town Halls and Market Places, http://mediakomm.net/index.phtml, 20.11.2001.

“MEDIA@Komm is developing solutions which will enable legally binding services and transactions to be conducted on-line, without discontinuity of media, between the public administration, citizens and businesses” [MEDIA@Komm]. Electronic transactions will be possible due to digital signatures stored on chip cards. Over 100 transactions are to be stored in the digital network, as: residential registration; vehicle registration, Technical Control Board registration; change of address; planning approval applications; registration and cancellation of gas, electricity and water with municipal utility companies; dustbin orders; birth, marriage and death certificates; copies from the family register and information about time of birth; application and delivering parking permits for residents; ticketing for public transport; calling up information from the trade register and trade registration; filling out the debt collection applications; invitations for tender/award for contracts and downloading tender documents and many more. 
Target groups of MEDIA@Komm project are varied:
•	“local communities, as providers of public services for citizens and private business companies,
•	local communities, as users of the digital signature in internal business processes,
•	citizens, as users of public services,
•	citizens, as users of the services of private companies (e-commerce),
•	private companies and chambers of trade, as users of public services,
•	private companies and chambers of trade, as providers of their own services and users of digital signatures” [MEDIA@Komm].
Through implementation of MEDIA@Komm Project, the following goals are to be achieved:
•	more information, 
•	better communication,
•	greater transparency of the administration,
•	customer orientation,
•	better accessibility for the citizen, 
•	faster handling of administrative procedures, 
•	efficiency and effectiveness in business and society. 
However, beside those goals concerning delivering public services, there are considerable social and political objectives of the project. MEDIA@Komm is expected to strengthen citizen participation and involvement through discussion forum and town councilor information system. Already throughout the process of designing and implementing the project, the network of partner relations between business, administration and citizens arise. This innovation in local decision-making is expected to be performed at some other occasions in the future. Our assumption is that, the digital network will further increase social networks, as it is based on data integration and unrestricted communication between partners [Fountain, 2001: 24-25]. This is our argument for earlier presented statement that introducing networking in public administration might change its organizational structure. However, considering the main theme of this paper, we will not go deeper into this discussion.
Participants in the project, i.e. German communities, were relatively uninhibited in designing the process of project’s implementation. Communities used to base an implementation on different pillars or determine different milestones of the project. For example, in Nürnberg municipal association, three sub-projects were sketched [MEDIA@Komm]:
1.	Cross-section projects – individual projects such as the platform, security concept, digital signatures, payment function, document management, user interface, regional on-line platform and proposals for standards for administrative procedures. The cross-section projects provide important services for all communal public-private partnership projects.
2.	Communal projects – the educational region, parking permits for residents, electronic support for the council, electronic house construction file, geographical information, residential register, information from the residential register, information from the trade supervision register, business registration, changes and closure, vanity vehicle numbers, on-line libraries, invitations for tender, award of public contracts and public participation in communal construction planning processes. 
3.	Public-private partnership projects – applications for the regional virtual market place, medical Intranet, support for business start-ups, on-line judicial practice, public transport tickets, company identity cards and the establishment of a local card operating company for the multi-functional chip card/bank card, access to the Internet not only via a PC, but also via TV sets and mobile appliances.
E-government implemented in result of MEDIA@Komm Project is expected to bring time and cost savings of up to 30% compared with present solutions, as well as increase in the functionality and service quality. 
To finish with a picture of advanced e-government project, we may anticipate its final results, as building virtual town hall that is to deliver:
•	information services (on-line calendar of events),
•	interaction services (on-line service delivery),
•	participation services (on-line citizens participation in projects of communal administration).
MEDIA@Komm is not one and only e-government project – there are other numerous projects of this kind in Europe, North America and Australia [For examples see: Porebski, 2001: 146-149]. We only estimate MEDIA@Komm as the most comprehensive event concerning e-government in local administration of EU countries.
We – as citizens – would expect the same comprehensive projects of building e-government designed and accomplished in transitional states. Are they and their societies prepared for that kind of delivering services and mutual relations between administration and citizens? We dare to answer that question in the following part of this paper.
E-government at local level – Polish experience
Evaluation of ICT usage within Poland’s local government is based on basic data and secondary analyses. An important part of this study constitutes examination of questionnaire mailed to 266 cities – members of Association of Polish Cities (APC – Zwiazek Miast Polskich) in December 2001. We received 128 replies, which accounts for 48% of the total number of cities chosen for the survey. In selected cases (Szczecin, Sokołów Podlaski, Częstochowa) interviews with local officials and representatives of local institutions were carried out. Results of this study are not representative for the whole country but bring clear message about development of ICT in urban municipalities. 80% of the total number of city-dwellers in Poland live in the member-cities of the Association of Polish Cities. By contrast, rural municipalities are still in initial stage of ICT usage. For example, only about one third of rural municipalities comparing to more than two thirds of Polish cities had their web-sites in 2001.

Samorządy w Internecie – statystyka, http://www.infoport.pl/content/fs/?dn=2%2C3, 02.02.2002

As e-government refers to any usage of new information and communication information technologies (ICT), it is necessary to distinguish issues more related to democratisation and those focused on delivering public services. In this paper the usage of ICT will be analysed with particular emphasis on these two dimensions.
Democratisation initiatives with information technology
Participation and consultations are mechanisms for identifying and aggregating the will of constituents. Building them into the decision-making process can increase support for governance. OECD rapport Citizens as partners announces that new forms of governance rely on better information, consultation and public participation as key elements for engaging citizens in policy-making [OECD, 2001: 12]. The main questions to be addressed are how effective co-operation within community is realised and what is the role of ICT in the local government development. 
Opening government information
From the local governments’ perspective
Table 1 shows that billboards were the most frequent mechanism for dissemination of municipal information in APC cities. As much as nine out of ten cities spread information via local authorities’ websites. Vast majority of municipalities (77%) communicates with citizens via emails.  Less common were newspapers, local TV and radio. 
Local authorities websites
The majority of local administrations have an Internet presence with web site. The first research on local government websites was conducted by Krzysztof Głomb in 1998 and referred to the level of municipal authorities. In 1998 only 20% of municipalities had active web site. In 1999, new territorial units: poviats were introduced in the administrative reform and among them 41% had their web services in the first year of existence.  In 2000, number of websites increased dramatically. However, this process slowed down in 2001. According to last analyses, almost half of all municipalities (1220) have websites and 72% (267) of poviats.

Source: Krzysztof Głomb, presentation at the E-democracy Conference, Zakopane, June 20-23. 2001, www.miastawinternecie.pl.

Differences between regions are considerable: while the largest%age of municipalities having their own web site was recorded in Opole region (93%), it stands at merely 28% in Podlaskie and 26,5% in Łódzkie region (Figure 2).  On the whole, municipalities of the west and north Poland have dominated the scene.

Data calculated by Krzysztof Głomb (May 2001) – presentation at the E-democracy Conference, Zakopane, June 20-23, www.miastawinternecie.pl.

Table 1. Responses to question by means of what forms cities communicate with inhabitants and local institutions (n=128)
| Form of communication | Number of cities | Percentages
1. | Local councillors’ visiting hours | 96 | 75%
2. | Executive board members’ visiting hours | 80 | 64%
3. | A newspaper published or supported by local authorities | 78 | 61%
4. | An independent local newspaper | 93 | 73%
5. | Billboard in the office | 123 | 96%
6. | Radio | 88 | 69%
7. | TV | 91 | 71%
8. | Web site | 115 | 90%
9. | Electronic mail | 99 | 77%
Source: Own calculations based on 128 questionnaires.
  
Source: Login, Samorządowa Internetowa Sieć Informacyjna, Municipium S.A., Tarnów 2001.
Local authorities tend to benefit from www presence in various ways. Web services allow local officials promote their municipality, attract domestic and foreign investors, and communicate with citizens.  But still, most of websites run by local authorities are static and provide basic information about given municipality, local authorities and their activities.
A vast majority of surveyed cities place investment offers and tourist information on their websites. Data presented in Table 2 confirm assumption that in the first stage of websites development local authorities foremost focus on promotion and attracting the investors. Councils’ resolutions, highly important for local citizens, may be found in 64% of surveyed cities. Less common are city budgets and development strategies, which may be found in one out of two cities’ websites. The least popular are information about local environment and local spatial plans.     
From the citizen’s perspective
In August 2001 SMG/KRC conducted a survey of 1000 citizens who were asked about their opinions on local administrative staff performance in the field of information policy [SMG/KRC, 2001]. Those interviewed in the course of this study stated that they consider local newspapers, local TV and radio as the most important source of municipal information. Next to the media channels, talking to friends and acquaintances is the essential way of obtaining information about local authorities activities. Less important are advertisements in offices and local authorities websites. As for the latter, only 16% of respondents admit that municipal web pages are important source of information on local authorities compared to more than 70% declaring local newspapers to be the most vital source. 
Table 2. The content of Poland’s cities websites (n=123)
| | Number of cities | Percentages
1 | Resolutions of local councils | 79 | 64%
2 | City budgets | 66 | 54%
3 | Development strategy | 65 | 53%
4 | Information about local environment | 43 | 35%
5 | Tourist information | 108 | 88%
6 | Investment offers | 113 | 92%
7 | Spatial plan | 27 | 22%
8 | Real estates offers | 100 | 81%
9 | Tendering for services and products | 76 | 62%
Source: Own calculations based on 128 questionnaires.
However, studies from other countries indicate that Websites of Polish cities have potential to become a significant source of municipal information. For example, in Sweden an average of 22% of those who had access to the Internet visited municipal websites during September 2000 and March 2001 [Rosén, 2001: 3]. This is the highest figure by far for the websites of public authorities. By comparison, only 4% of Swedes visited websites set up by county councils or regions.
Interaction between local authorities and citizens 
If the point is that good governance requires engagement of citizens in policy making, flow of information into one direction from government to citizens is not sufficient. The essential issue is whether local authorities get feedback and analyse opinions of citizens. In APC survey, more than half of responded cities carries out some kinds of questionnaires, ballots or polls either by means of external firms (29%) or within own resources (56%). To other ways of getting known what are people needs belong: monitoring of press, phone calls and email contact.  Almost in every third municipality there are meetings with inhabitants. In some cases, a consultation with citizens in the form of group meeting is carried out. The latter refers to implementation of projects considerably affecting local community. For example, the success of Ełk pro environment investments results from wide participation of inhabitants in discussion groups focused on ecological issues.  
As for on-line questionnaires, ballots or polls, only 26% of cities use this form of interaction for getting feedback. Other Internet enabled applications like chats or discussion fora are getting popular in the number of cities. An interesting initiative was lunched in Lublin. Thanks to special ‘chat-service’ inhabitants can discuss issues with local authorities. Everyday, from 2 to 3 p.m. one may contact a member of executive or deliberative body of Lublin authorities.

ICT in the public service delivery
The approach Let us know what is good for you [Lips, 1998: 329] let the inhabitants to voice their opinions. It strengthens democracy, but at the same time it facilitate the provision of services. Without recognised preferences of their constituencies, local authorities can not fulfil needs of inhabitants. Therefore in many countries the objective of public administration reform is to organise public service delivery from the perspective of the citizen, i.e. the demands and needs she or he wants.
Looking at goals and visions of public service delivery with the use of Internet enabled technologies, we might ask to what extent these objectives are put into practice and what kind of changes are actually taking place. It is very likely that in the near future one service counter will replace traditional fragmentation of bureaucratic administrations. 
For this purpose administrations will be reorganised in a separate front office, where public services will be offered and a back office where policy development take place. ICT should be particularly used in public service delivery where paper-based functions can be easily automated, duplication and fragmentation of data can to some extent be reduced within functional policy areas. Benefits of receiving government services via the Internet are efficiency, time savings, cost-effectiveness, convenience and speed.  Research indicates that Polish cities embark on offering some on-line services.
Table 3. On-line services offered by cities 
| | Number of cities | %age
1. | Downloading forms | 44 | 36
2. | Possibility of sending back forms to the office | 22 | 18
3. | Consultations on handling an issue | 33 | 27
4. | On-line services will be implemented in the near future | 22 | 18
Source: Own calculations based on 123 questionnaires.
In more than one third of surveyed municipalities, citizens can upload different forms via the Internet. However, only in one out of six APC cities clients can send forms back to the office. It is worth reminding that the practical realisation of this function will be possible when the electronic signature law will come into force.  Only 27% of surveyed municipalities provide on their websites the information how to deal with given matters.

Hierarchical and horizontal co-ordination
Another barrier to broad use of ICT within public administration was the relatively decentralised approach that has so far been adopted. This has led to little standardisation or integration of systems between ministries, departments and to numerous problems of incompatibility. The same problem affects information systems of local administrations. In many local authorities there are number of register and data retrieval systems. In result such systems cannot guarantee effective exchanging of data. 
Equally fundamental to top down is horizontal co-ordination of flow of information. An email system would break through the traditional boundaries of different, vertically organised government departments, and stimulate horizontal communication. The resulting electronic ‘spider web’ could led to more information sharing between government organisations. In the survey of Polish cities, 75% of respondents acknowledged that they use email to contact and send information within office. As far as Intranet is concerned, it operates in almost every second APC city. In the study of municipalities from Małopolska region Jaworski-Grzanka [2001: 100] expresses opinion that internal networks are not sufficiently used and there is no effective regulations to improve internal documents circulation. 

Case studies
Szczecin – the best practice of making budgetary information on-line
Szczecin, inhabited by 420 000 people, is the capital of Zachodniopomorskie region. Local democracy in the city is based on full disclosure and transparency in financial management and a dialogue between citizens and local government. Szczecin’s authorities are aware that unrestricted public access to the information is a foundation of local democracy and therefore consequently pursue the principle of full disclosure and transparentness of municipal financial management. In particular, this refers to the budget planning and controls process. In ten years time local authorities made a tremendous shift, from unrestricted information about finance to the situation when information is available to citizens and local authorities in the same scope. 
Under authoritarian rule, information about city management procedures was constrained. At the beginning of the 90ties, budget resolutions were available only to the top municipal management. Since 1998 the programme of full disclosure have been implemented. In effect continuously updated, analytical budgetary and property data are available in printed out and electronic versions. A significant evolution has been reached in the forms of publicising this information – commencing with the traditional, printed out materials through electronic versions published on the city's Internet website: www.szczecin.pl.
Szczecin won the prize of “golden @“ (the best www site) – competition organised by association “Cities on Internet” in the 2001.  Szczecin on-line service provides very accurate and broad information on overall performance of the city, finance, local law, and includes possibility of inhabitants to voice their opinions. But Szczecin’s remarkable achievements are result of very transparent and effective information on city’s finances. 
Szczecin City's website on the finances was launched on 26 February 1998, publishing the city budget for the first time in Poland. Apart from full disclosure of procedures in the decision making process, resolutions taken by City Council and City Executive Board, website provides wide and unrestricted public access to budgetary data. These include: budget project and budget itself, budget reports over the last year, multi-year capital improvement programme, a list and value of updated communal stock property, monthly publication of budget performance reports, evaluation made by rating agencies, evaluation and opinion made by Regional Auditing Agency. During 50 days in the fall of 2001 over 3500 visitors have visited the financials services on line. An interesting point is that citizens have got accustomed to the fact that such documents like the city 2002 budget project or a list of municipal property are published on the website before these documents are actually printed out.
Publishing of a local budget by itself can little say about where the local funds will go and how the local community will benefit from the budget implementing. Therefore information about finance is provided in easy to understand manner. Since 1994, the city publishes the brochures informing citizens about financial situation of the city, which are delivered to every Szczecin’s family. What’s more, brochures describe local finance comprehensively and with good deal of humour, what makes financial issues understandable to an average citizen. Since 1995, the information on the city finances has been distributed on the CD-Roms, while since 2000 in the form of budget cards. For those, who don’t have access to the Internet, the City provided multimedia kiosks.
Szczecin citizens have also the possibility to consult and assess the city authorities’ decisions. Local authorities encourage citizens to voice their opinions about city budget, development strategy and major local events. For this purpose officials use both on-line and off-line questionnaires and polls. As for electronic delivery of services, due to implementation of DMS inhabitants are offered broad on-line services like registering business, electronic circulation of documents and register of matters system.
Sokołów Podlaski – from tiny website to e-services 24 h. 
Sokołów Podlaski, with population of almost 20 000 inhabitants, is situated in the eastern part of Mazowsze region. The town is a seat of municipal and poviat authorities. Evaluation of ICT usage by municipality of Sokołów Podlaski was carried out between June 2001 and February 2002. These included interviews with local politicians, officials, journalists and entrepreneurs.
In the spring of 2000 Town Executive Board decided to create website of Sokołów Podlaski. Mayor of the town, Zbigniew Karakula, asked what was the critical factor for launching web site, said: “Time has changed, we live in XXI century and there is need for this kind of undertaking”. Initially, www.sokolowpodl.pl provided basic information about town, local authorities and their activities. After one year from launching, the website won the prize “golden @” for the best one in the category of small towns and municipalities. An interesting fact is that this success is mainly the result of work of one person – webmaster of the office.  Hardly had the web site been awarded, officials, local institutions and neighbourhood municipalities manifested more involvement in enhancing this service. Furthermore, a lot of vigorous involvement in providing content for the web site indicate young people, but they very often quickly give it up. However, not everything showed up a success from the beginning. For example, discussion fora occurred to be used to make fun or to disseminate vulgar words.
Nevertheless, the web site is constantly updated and became a crucial element of bettering provision of services.  Apart from putting into practice of ISOO 9001:2001 the on-line service fosters accomplishment of strategy Municipal office friendly to the citizens. However, new standardised system of quality in administration arouses criticisms and controversy among some local journalists. In spite of this, implementation of ISOO had positive influence on on-line services. Thanks to ISOO it was easier to elaborate procedures and involve all officials to work on e-service project. Finally, not all interviewers are satisfied with the way municipal information is distributed but even the strong opponents of local authorities admit that web site is a remarkable step to transparent and effective work of local authorities.  

Conclusions and recommendations
As a result of ICT applications, the communication relationship with government has become more flexible form citizen’s point of view, providing more opportunities for contact with government about public services and information. However, taking into account various developments, the rate and, the extent to which ICT is actually causing changes in the relations between government and citizens, is limited. Therefore the revolutionary renew in public service delivery does not seem to occur at the moment, but it is difficult to determine the effects the ICT will finally have on the relationship between local authorities and citizens. We may conclude that electronic democracy and service delivery is still in infancy. 
There is no other way out for local authorities like continuation of ICT usage. Polish local governments need to enhance the services they already have, make it user – friendly and easier to access the appropriate information. In order to achieve this the goals should be clarified. First of all local authorities need to ensure that on-line government information and services are fully accessible to all who wish to do so. As for managing information, they should undertake all efforts to ensure that it is current, accurate, understandable, trustworthy and available in a timely manner. It is clear that trust is a key issue that must be resolved before e-government is widely adopted.
Undoubtedly, local authorities’ efforts in applying ICT must be supported by central government actions and programmes. In the second half of 2001 Poland adopted several vital legislative measures, programs and strategies strengthening access to public information and use of ICT. These include law on public sector information, law on electronic signature and The Action Plan for the Information Society Development in 2001-2006 (E-Poland strategy). But whether the adopted measures guarantee truly effective access to information and contribute to the creation of knowledge economy and effective e-government is debatable.

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