The general director of the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC, formerly OPTIC), Pedro Quezada, called on citizens, businessmen and the population in general to use the “Single Portal for Citizen Attention: gob.do », so that they take advantage of the digital services offered by public institutions in the Dominican Republic.
The official indicated that it is an innovative plan to simplify procedures and improve regulations that at the time President Luis Abinader called Zero Bureaucracy, with which the problem of “paying below” would be eradicated in order to speed up the procedures of the services. provided by some state institutions.
Interviewed on the Despierta con CDN program, Quezada indicated that the project initiative arose after a study published in 2019 showed that bureaucracy cost the country 4.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to more than 200 billion dollars. pesos.
“The President, as a businessman, at the time experienced the weight of bureaucracy. Which obviously brings a problem of transparency of payment underneath, in order to speed up the procedures of the service that is done, ”he said.
He said that, in this sense, Law 167-21, on Procedure Simplification and Regulatory Improvement, was voted in the National Congress, and a commission headed by the National Competitiveness Council and the Ministry of Public Administration was appointed.
It is also made up of the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (ProDominicana), the General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships and the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC).
He argued that, as the executing arm of the technology, the OGTIC will allow the transactional and interactive procedures and services of multiple public institutions to be digitally enabled.
More than 1,500 digital services in process
In this sense, he recalled that on October 4 of this year, President Abinader launched the Single Citizen Service Portal www.gob.doin which, according to what he said, the Government has more than 1,500 procedures.
Among these, he pointed out that some are informative and more than 305 are transactional procedures, through which the citizen can execute them and apply the tests so that their service is done through the digital platform.
He also explained that the portal has 4 single windows: a) Single Window for Investment, which allows investors from all over the world to carry out procedures without requiring their presence and pay, even, any tax through this channel; b) Construction Single Window; Digemap Single Window and; finally, the Single Window for Business Formalization, with service 24 hours a day, “so that in less than 2 hours a company can be digitized”.
The official reiterated the call to the general public to access the portal www.gob.do in order to perform all its services online.
“Let me tell you that from June of last year to June of this year, we have simplified, improved and digitized 120 procedures and services, which will allow citizens to make them completely digital without having to go to the offices, including services that are even provided by town halls, such as the land use permit”, he explained.
In this order, he indicated that at the moment they are working with the Mayors of the National District, Santo Domingo Este and Santo Domingo Oeste. Likewise, he informed that later they will work with the other municipalities of the Dominican Republic so that citizens can obtain their land use permits digitally.
They identify more than 2,500 necessary procedures
He explained that the National Competitiveness Council (CNC) and the Ministry of Public Administration identified more than 2,500 procedures that the country must simplify and digitize, but they concentrated on working with the 157 most important, according to the type of service and citizen demand. , of which to date have achieved the digitization of 120.
“What has been the priority? Investment, because to continue economic growth and sustainable social development we require new investments. And we have to ensure that the investor does not have to spend two or three years on a project, but that in 80 days he can carry out all the paperwork”, he added.
He also pointed out that the President announced that all FDA products that arrive in the country with their registrations can be immediately marketed online.
Other services that are available in the Single Services Portal, as explained, are the request for identity card and passport, energy and mines, environment and free zones, avoiding the corruption that occurs in the request for face-to-face services.
When asked if some public institutions have exhibited resistance to the new system of digital services, he responded by denying any attitude of rejection; but he clarified that the regulatory improvement requires changing ancient laws that are out of date, as is the case with the Purchasing and Contracting Law, which must be reformed to simplify the processes.
He said that the same situation occurs with Energy and Mines and the Environment, because they are regulated by laws that do not allow the processes to be simplified.
Therefore, he maintained that together with the MAP they are simplifying and digitizing the processes in cases that do not require modifying laws, while proceedings are being carried out in the National Congress to reform the laws that are necessary.
pending digital services
He argued that of the 37 procedures that remain to meet the goal of 157, at the moment 3 of the Central Electoral Board, those of the Environment and those of the National Energy Commission are pending, because their laws are pending modification.
He added that starting in October, the Zero Bureaucracy program will launch 20 to 25 new simplified procedures every three months, to improve and automate the services demanded by citizens.
He pointed out that they plan to achieve the goal of delivering the 305 highest-priority fully digitized procedures before the end of President Luis Abinader’s term.
“And by 2028, close with all of the 2,500 that were identified. For this reason, we want to announce that the MAP, the CNC and the OGTIC are creating a zero bureaucracy strategic unit, which will be exclusively in charge of working with the improvement, simplification and digitization of all the procedures and services offered by the Government in the different areas. ”, he exposed.
On the other hand, he announced that the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (ProDominicana) will officially launch this Monday afternoon, the modern Investment Single Window, which includes more than 11 digitized services.
He indicated that these services are interconnected with institutions that provide different services. “For example, if you have to carry out a procedure that corresponds to the Ministry of the Environment, through the platform, when the investor carries out those procedures, the services that are from the Environment or Energy and Mines, etc., through the interoperability that we are implementing from the National Competitiveness Council, they are going to be interconnected”, he added.
The CNC monitors services
In this regard, he said that the National Competitiveness Council has a control or monitoring panel for services to ensure that response times are met, learn about success stories and user satisfaction with the service provided.
In addition, he maintained that this will allow seeing where the citizen had complaints and where there would be an opportunity for improvement, to make the necessary corrections and adjustments.
When asked what data protection would be like, he replied that the information goes to the State Data Center, which has high-level cybersecurity tools to protect all the information received by the State. He even stated that the State receives hundreds of thousands of cyber attacks every day, but they are eliminated with the technologies available for these purposes. “And the few that have penetrated, we have managed to recover them and we are working more and more,” he added.
Finally, he reported that the State will open GOB Points (In-Person Citizen Service Centers) in Santo Domingo Oeste and Santiago, which will join those that already exist in Sambil, Megacentro and the one that operates from an express point in Santo Domingo Este.
He explained that more than 20 institutions in the same space provide the services that citizens require through GOB Points.
He also maintained that through the GOB Points, a care center for children and minors will be installed in coordination with the National Institute for Comprehensive Early Childhood Care (INAIPI), so that people can leave children protected while they perform their services. .
