Nezavisne novine: Holding the electronic sessions of the Council of Ministers of BiH should start from November, which is the first phase in realization of the Strategy of the Information Society in BiH, says Božidar Škravan, Advisor of the Minister for Transport and Communication of BiH and a head of the IT team in the Council of Ministers.
He explains that holding the sessions in this way will disable the ministers to block the work of the Council of Ministers of BiH by its physical absence.
"It is happening very often that some ministers do not want some decisions adopted and they only plan the trip for the time of the session, the quorum does not happen and decision fails. In the future, each minister will take a laptop and there is no excuse if he/she is not present at the session. He/she can work anywhere", explains Škravan.
It has been estimated that by 2011 the complete Strategy on the Information Society of BiH will be implemented, which will bring us to the reduction of procedures. He says that many things, for which we need to wait at the counters today, will be possible to finish over the internet. Many big savings could be ensured by this and the administrative apparatus could be reduced.
Škravan says that he often faces misunderstanding of the governments during realization of the Information Society.
"Many from the state administration think that computerization is actually a pile of computers", says Škravan who complaints on the slow adoption of the laws and a small number of people who work on computerization of BiH at the Ministry.
NN: The Strategy for Information Society is a project which has been created by domestic experts, with the help of the UNDP. The project has been presented in February 2006 and at the presentation it has been pointed out that it is of vital significance for BiH and that realization of this project can be compared with building the corridor 5C. How much has been done on this Strategy by now?
ŠKRAVAN: We are currently finishing the first of four phases of the Strategy, and that is the electronic government or e-government. I estimate that by the end of this month we will finish this part in the building of the institutions of BiH in Sarajevo. All officials of the Council of Ministers, who will work in this building, will have the basic services, including the internet, SMS messages and they will be networked. This first phase implies the electronic sessions of the Council of Ministers as well. The equipment is here and we are ready to use it.
The biggest problem by now is ensuring the space which is defined for this project. This is a tough paradox. Technical-technological parts of the project, where the tenders, the European Commission, the UNDP, the Ministry are, we have finished, and we are struggling around the banal rooms.
NN: How it is possible that the project which implies a high technology depends on something as banal as the space?
ŠKRAVAN: That is possible with us. The biggest amount of time I have lost around those visits of the first, second, fifth, fifteenth party and address. Everyone says they are not responsible. However, it is important that we are now close to ending this. I succeeded to collect a great number of experts at the Ministry of Transport and Communication. Besides the joint sum of experts of the UNDP and the Ministry, to the team I also included our best known experts from BiH, and those are the University professors from Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar. That way we have ensured the highest possible level in the technical-technological program.
NN: Did the Strategy go by its dynamics, as it has been announced?
ŠKRAVAN: All the laws were problematic and it did slow down the whole project. It is simply unbelievable that the law adoption lasts a year or a year and a half. Very important law in the computer system is the Law on Establishment of the Agency for the Information Society. That law has been supplemented, the amendments have been added, and at the end it has not even been adopted. Then I was nominated for the chairman of the Committee for draft of the new law.
By using my own experiences, I have created a thin contour of the law and asked for the opinions of the entity governments. Now the law has passed all committees in the Council of Ministers and now it should come to the session of the Parliament. I assume, in regard to the fact that I accepted all objections that it will also pass at the Parliament of BiH.
It has been long since the Law on electronic business and electronic signature has been adopted. However, these laws are still not being implemented because all bylaw acts are not finished, which very much damages business and banking. The information system of the state implies not only communicating inside the system of the government, but it is also the two-way communication with the public.
NN: What does represent the developed phase of the e-government and when will BiH come to that level?
ŠKRAVAN: Not long ago I was in Austria and they are the most successful in organizing the electronic government. They have made it in three years. But Austrians do not have the parliamentary and governmental problems we have. In a year and a half we finished the first phase, and I hope that complete strategy will be implemented in 2010 or in the first half of 2011.
In some European countries, after introduction of the information system, about 70% of administration has been dismissed. Practically, there are no counters.
When we introduce this way of communication between the government and citizens, we will achieve immeasurable savings. You can calculate how many people are waiting in the rows every day. If one hour is 10 KM, there are thousands waiting in the rows every day. When we implement the Strategy, it would only be needed to sit in front of the computer, navigate the municipality or any institution, take the form and do the job. Without rows and counters!
The Information Society is a much larger area than people think it is. What once was industrialization, so people from the villages have been going down to the towns, and we had factories and companies with thousands of workers, now it is computerization. Now it is all going in reverse. Now there are some five-six kids sitting at the computer and do a great work. What once did thousands of people now does 50.
NN: In what measure does the politics slow down the process of computerization in BiH?
ŠKRAVAN: When the politics permanently involves in each possible decision, of course everything is being prolonged. I talked to people from the European Commission because I noticed that people know very much about the Information Society. I asked from the EC to ensure the funds so we can make a serial of broadcasts in order to educate people on the Information Society. Many people from the state administration think that it is a pile of computers.
Unfortunately, it is the way in many countries in transition. In the education it is needed to include all the possible officials.
NN: After the last year signing of the regional plan for development of Information Society in the South-East Europe, it has been anticipated that by 2008 all the schools must have computer laboratories and the internet access. Do you have the information on how many schools today does not have the internet access?
ŠKRAVAN: Of course, it has not all been finished. I do not have the data for schools, but from the total of population in the FBiH and the RS only 18 and 20% of persons have the internet access, and in Brčko this number is almost twice bigger. This is very weak. In Austria 95% of citizens have the internet access and we need to tend to it.
NN: How safe is the data of citizens from hacker attacks and misuse since we know that the site of the Parliament of BiH has lately been attacked by hackers twice?
ŠKRAVAN: You know that it happens that some smart kinds invade the Pentagon. I have been asked what if this happens to us. I said that then we need to find a half million dollars and send those young hackers to education. Such things will happen, but this is more coincidence, but not some huge collapse of the system. We have taken a list of protections. The special procedure is who and where can have the access. Attention of security we have dedicated starting from the access in the key offices, centers of connection, to the computer security programs. The problem with misuse of data of the CIPS is not a problem of computer system, it is a problem of people.
NN: Are we ready for accompanying effect of computerization? For the cyber criminal, pedophilia on the internet and other kinds of criminal which are happening by using the high technologies?
ŠKRAVAN: Unless you bring the commodity on the market, you do not know how the buyers will react. Those are all real assumptions and it is normal to expect that there will be different kinds of misuse and crime. However, we firstly need to initiate those systems supplemented by the security systems, and fight against such kind of criminal in the same time. Such crime is more a side effect and those are the secondary things by which the police and jurisdiction will have to deal with. Of course, we will, as the Ministry, always be at service.