United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Dubai Municipality (DM) has been serving interest of the residents and businesses for over 60 years. Some of the new important departments in Dubai have been carved out of Municipality. Even then more than half of the services are provided by DM.

There are numerous services provided but one of the services called ‘Property Accident Service’ is quite a winner for both public and private sectors. It has reduced the red tape and improved coordination tremendously. Anytime there is an accident in the emirate of Dubai and there is damage to the public property this service comes into play. There are four main stake holders involved; Vehicle/s which are involved in accident, Insurance companies, Police and Government department/s. Before the system was implemented for each occurrence the related police station (13 at present) had to send a report in person. The involved insurance company then had to get clearance from each department for any damages. This took not only time but money as well.

Now the system is streamlined and the time for clearance certificates has been reduced from weeks to days. The related party can monitor the progress online and see the status of all the departments which are working on the case.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Dubai Municipality (DM) has been serving interest of the residents and businesses for over 60 years. Some of the new important departments in Dubai have been carved out of Municipality. Even then more than half of the services are provided by DM. There are numerous services provided but one of the services called ‘Property Accident Service’ is quite a winner for both public and private sectors. It has reduced the red tape and improved coordination tremendously. Anytime there is an accident in the emirate of Dubai and there is damage to the public property this service comes into play. There are four main stake holders involved; Vehicle/s which are involved in accident, Insurance companies, Police and Government department/s. Before the system was implemented for each occurrence the related police station (13 at present) had to send a report in person. The involved insurance company then had to get clearance from each department for any damages. This took not only time but money as well. Now the system is streamlined and the time for clearance certificates has been reduced from weeks to days. The related party can monitor the progress online and see the status of all the departments which are working on the case.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
2004 July Analysis and Design Database design and structure Integration with LDAP Auto Login New Users Development of Police Department module Development of Revenue Department module August Development of Estimation Department module identification and development of Codes September Audit Trail Messaging System October Payment Voucher Reports December Implementation Testing 2005 January Integration February User Training March Project Close

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Dubai Municipality e-Government initiative started with the start of the century. During the past few years, Dubai Municipality has established itself as a key player in the global e-Government movement. The effort of efficiency comes from the inspiration of leadership of Dubai by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. “Use e-Government solutions as the primary delivery channel to provide a single, easy, integrated, and reliable means of access to Municipal information and services…” The services are aimed at bridging the gap between DM and the users. Automation is not only the main purpose but to bring efficiency to the citizens.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
There are accidents and damages that affect Dubai Municipality assets. These accidents are reported by the Dubai Police. Pertinent documents such as the ‘croquis’ and the on-site police report are attached to the claim. The Dubai Municipality Revenue Department receives the electronic claim form and then assigns it to the Concerned or Beneficiary Department who then will perform an evaluation. Once their evaluation is complete, the Dubai Municipality Revenue Department generates the Payment Vouchers, after selecting the Claims to be processed. The Claims and applicable Payment vouchers use an extensive and customized Business Workflow having full Monitoring and Audit Trail capabilities.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The system is bilingual (Arabic English). Each user of the system is assigned for individual Police Station. DM is give login access to a single Police Administrator who can then issue new individual logins for the Police Station. The navigation bar provides a mechanism that allows the user to easily locate and manage the information that is relevant to a particular accident. The particular accident is selected via a search engine and then the navigation bar provides simple access to all the information in the system for that accident. Access to the system requires the use of a browser. Each police user must have a username and password supplied by DM before being able to access the functionality of the system. This username and password detail is kept secure and managed by the company’s LDAP system. A full audit trail is available for selected users: by roles, status, department and actions taken on the claim with range of dates.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
DM uses the system as a web service, which is made available to the Police department and other entities, such as Insurance companies. A key benefit for those other organizations is that they are able to use its information in other internal information systems, in a completely integrated fashion without having to undertake significant development. Furthermore it assists in the aims of the organizations to have closer and more automated interdependencies. The Police Departments and the Insurance Companies are able to view the claims and their ever-changing statuses. They are able to print attached documents such as the ‘Croquis’ or ‘letter of no-objection’. Another key benefit for Dubai Municipality in the future is the potential for charging external users such as Insurance companies a subscription fee for the Dubai Municipality access and information services. The Insurance companies will gladly pay these nominal amounts as it will be cost effective for them as well as enhance the services to their customers. Some of the reports types are as follows: - Dept Status Report - Audit Trail - Dept Performance Summary - Dept Performance - Paid/Unpaid Accident Reports • By From Date and To Date • By All insurance Companies • By a specific insurance company • By all department / sections • By a specific department/section • By all police stations • By a specific police station • By Individuals/Uninsured cars

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The DM ‘Property Accident Claim’ service has been quite successful. Users are able to cut the travel time and do everything online. It has brought transparency and efficiency to the process. Now everyone is under scrutiny and no stakeholder can put the blame on a third party for the lack of action or slow progress. The insurance companies can issue checks and get their clearance in one step. The smooth functioning has prompted and encouraged other government agencies to be open to such integrated systems by providing online service. Normally, inter departments integration stops at access points and further transaction are carried out either manually or through separate systems. This system allows all parties to participate and each of them works at their own pace to make a decision. Though at times a collective decision is required to know the total value of the damage value but the individual process does not stop. There have been 13 workshops and more than 52 participants have attended the training sessions. Currently the statistics are as follows: 10,490 total transactions 95 registered companies All together 299 registered business users are benefiting from this online service. There are other services which are using the similar model. These private users/companies have to interact with another government agency and in return this agency interacts with Dubai Municipality to complete the transcation. Similar example is the collection of housing fees from tenants through DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority).

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
This service has been a success story but like any other ICT system there is always room for improvement. Some of the issues which came across after implementation of the project are as follows: - Training - Awareness Campaign - Alert Notification There were multiple training sessions and each session did not exceed 4 participants. This way class was small with maximum impact and a chance for hands on training. The course material was kept very basic but the user experience varied as not all users had access to computer systems. There should have been a separate survey to gain access to their current knowledge of internet. As it was separate department there was also a slight concern for commitment but eventually it did not hurt the progress as they saw their own benefit in using the system. Initially there was lack of awareness by private sector companies but that was brought under control with direct marketing and it paid off. Another element that was overlooked was that not all public users had external email accounts even though they had computer systems with Internet. Now work is under way to add online notification system so they can view the alerts.


Institution Name:		Dubai Municipality
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Asad Sultan
Title:		Project Manager
Telephone/ Fax:		971-4-206 4759
Institution's / Project's Website:		971-4-206 4798
E-mail:		assultan@dm.gov.ae
Address:		P.O.Box 67
Postal Code:
City:		Dubai
State/Province:		Dubai
Country:		United Arab Emirates

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information