United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

(1) What was the problem with the building permit system in Korea?

Building construction is a very complex process involving planning, design, construction, and other steps. Building permits must be obtained to ensure the safety of the building, electrical system, and water system; reduce its environmental impact; and ensure compliance with applicable laws.

In Korea, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) executes the laws on such permits and the Building Code, while local governments grant permits to applicants in accordance with the laws and local regulations. However, the building permit procedure in Korea was extremely complex and opaque, and the frustrations of the public were neatly summed up in the common refrain, "Once you build a house, you become a government critic."

The process of obtaining a building permit imposed all manner of inconveniences on applicants: reviewing and complying with some ninety laws and acts that were byzantine, submitting about forty types of documents, and visiting authorities at least five times. Local government officials, for their part, had to spend inordinate amount of time and administrative resources in handling a tremendous volume of documentation including blueprints.

Worst of all, an applicant had to deal with about twenty consultative organizations before obtaining a building permit. Such a process requiring provision of so much documentation and frequent visits to government agencies was extremely inefficient and untransparent. The process took an average of sixty days and was naturally an inviting target for irregularities and corruption such as unlawful solicitations and charging fees for expedited service. (In 2005, the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption considered the construction adminstration to be most corrupt of all administrations.)

Such a dubious building permit system elicited public distrust, which, in turn, spread to the central government agencies responsible for executing the applicable laws and regulations. In fact, the system has reduced public confidence in the government in general.

(2) The solution is innovation enabled by information technology

Drastic change had been urged to eliminate the public inconvenience and raise administrative efficiency and transparency in granting building permits. MOCT, which is responsible for urban, building, and housing policies in Korea, decided to comprehensively overhaul and upgrade the architectural adminstration and establish e-Government enabled by information systems. It formed a task force on Promotion of Architectural Administration Informatization to drive the entire initiative.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
(1) Increased public confidence in architectural administration with higher transparency MOCT has implemented information systems for architectural administration, transforming what was once a major corrupt system into a leader of clean administration. We have eliminated red tape so that applicants no longer have to visit dozens of consultative agencies, and the processes have been streamlined and made straightforward to remove any possibility of corruptive behaviors. The e-AIS was launched in July and December 2007, during which time we conducted a survey on public confidence and procedural transparency in the city of Busan. The index was 3.1 on a 5-point scale in July and rose to 3.7 in December, showing gradual improvement of the overall transparency and public confidence. (2) Permit process shortened from 60 to 15 days Our next objective was to shorten the time required for processing permit applications from 60 days to 15 days. We sought to root out inefficiencies in the permission process without compromising reviews on essential matters. This objective was largely accomplished by having applicants submit all the required documentation and consult the appropriate agencies online. Cyber consultation was especially important in this regard. It allowed for parallel processing, whereas the original process was very sequential. By August 2007, the processing time had been shortened conspicuously to an average of 18.7 days from 60 days. (3) Annual cost savings of about $1.6 billion These accomplishments are expected to bring annual cost savings of about $1.6 billion in both the private and public sectors. Instrumental to this will be realizing the idea of “No Visit No Paper!" Applicants' visits to government offices will be minimized, and the accompanying documents including thousands of blueprints will be electronically posted and shared. The total cost savings was estimated based on analysis of cost reduction factors such as the annual number of applications, cycle time per step, and costs in 2003 when the master plan for online architectural administration was devised. (4) e-AIS, Korea's best innovation brand In the 2007 Government Innovation Brand Competition, the top brand award was bestowed on e-AIS, or Electronic Architectural Information System. The 2006 awardee was the Korea Immigration Smart Service (KISS) of the Ministry of Justice. Of all things, e-AIS was recognized for having substantially improved the efficiency and transparency of the building permit process. It marked a major break from 50 years of heavy-handed, bureaucratic practices and introduced the concept of 'customer service' by regarding applicants as customers.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
(1) A spark that starts a fire The informatization initiative for architectural administration originated at an autonomous district in Seoul in 1997. In response to an overwhelming volume of paperwork piling up every day and flood of complaints about red tape in the building permit process, a public servant of the Seoul city government set out to develop simple computer programs to streamline the system. She later offered her software to MOCT officials responsible for establishing building policies. The policymakers were inspired by the official's enthusiastic presentation on the software and could immediately see the possibilities for rectifying the serious problems that had long bedeviled the permit process and made both local governments and MOCT all-too-frequent targets of public complaints. Realizing the necessity for deploying the new system to other local governments as well, MOCT set up a task force on Architectural Administration Informatization, led by a director general in charge of the building permit process. The task force immediately undertook the e-Government establishment project by obtaining required funds and allocating appropriate human resources from all areas including legal experts and IT professionals. It was essential to get stakeholders from a wide range of fields involved. (2) A critical success factor: Active participation of various parties The Architecture Planning Team of MOCT was responsible for analyzing problems, designing the information system, and rolling it out to local governments. Given consistency of service quality and efficiency of project implementation, it was reasonable to put MOCT in charge of the entire project. It was also essential to get 248 local governments to take part in the project because it is they that render services directly to the public. MOCT helped ensure that the opinions of system users were heard throughout the entire process, from system development and installation to operation. Moreover, MOCT held responsible personnel from local governments accountable for system implementation. Equally important was to ensure the participation of about 20 entities involved in granting permits, including fire departments, offices of education, military bases, and representatives of petitioners such as qualified architects. They took part in dozens of working-level meetings and workshops to identify user needs, playing a pivotal role in integrating the needs into system. The architectural administration informatization project, which started as the brainchild of a public servant with an enterprising spirit, became a national undertaking through concerted efforts of numerous people who were willing to take ownership of it, a necessary condition for successful implementation of e-AIS.

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.
(a-1) Process innovation enabled by information technology Even though information technology in Korea is advanced in most respects, there was some doubt as to whether IT could be leveraged to provide high-quality adminstration services. Information system should be a means, not an end. Otherwise, our project would fail, like so many other e-Government projects. That's why MOCT put top priority on administrative process innovation with information technology serving as a means to the end. MOCT established a comprehensive information system for about 90 laws and regulations on buildings so that users could easily get access to information on them. The system encompasses a full spectrum of building laws, from central government laws and the Building Code to local governments' ordinances and regulations. To reduce the time and inconvenience of submitting about 40 documents, MOCT no longer required applicants to submit official papers, such as land-books and resident registrations, that could be retrieved from the shared information system implemented as a government-wide project. For instance, blueprints could be submitted over the Internet, saving a great deal of time and money for applicants. The consultation process involved about 20 consultative entities. It was an ordinary practice in which thousands of blueprints and other documents were exchanged offline. Far too many consultation sessions were conducted one after the other, and abuses of power and graft were all too common in such process of face-to-face administration. To resolve this problem, MOCT developed a joint system development process involving many different stakeholders. The consultation process was improved so that officials could electronically review blueprints and documents submitted online, reducing cycle time and allowing for greater transparency in administrative procedures. (a-2) Advancing innovation through branding MOCT employed a branding strategy to institutionalize the innovative accomplishments The objective was to improve customer satisfaction to the degree that customers are actually fascinated with the services, i.e. customer fascination. This required an emotional appeal to customers, which was possible only by means of an effective branding strategy. We first established the brand identity of architectural administration reforms, dubbing the brand Seumter* in Korean(*Seum means to establish, and ter means a foundation, altogether meaning the system will be the foundation for establishing efficient and reasonable architectural administration.) and e-AIS in English; devised the brand logo; and heavily publicized the system through various media outlets online and offline. Considering the fact that users' understanding and cooperation were the most critical factors for quick stabilization and high utilization of the system, such brand marketing was extremely effective. Ultimately, the system won the grand prize in the 2007 Government Innovation Brand Competition in recognition of the branding efforts.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
(b-1) Implementation of AIS (Architecture Information System)* (1997~2002) (AIS: A client-server based information system for the building permit application process; an initial version of e-AIS) - 1997: City of Seoul developed a pilot program for architectural administration - 1998-1999: MOCT expanded the pilot program and developed AIS - 2000-2002: MOCT rolled out AIS to 250 local governments nationwide - Mar 2000: Recognized as best practice by the Presidential Commission on Anti-Corruption (The chairperson of the Commission said, "The system is expected to do much to eradicate graft and corruption in architectural administration by maximizing efficiency in the business processes enabled by information systems and by allowing for electronic audits.") - Jun 2000: Won an award for excellence in the Public Sector Innovation Competition by the Ministry of Planning and Budget - Dec 2000: Won a chairperson award in the best practice briefing meeting by the National Commission for Rebuilding Korea (b-2) Evolution into e-AIS (2003-2007) (e-AIS is an enabling tool that expands the user community from internal users such as public officials of local governments to external users including the public and enterprises so as to allow the public to easily submit applications anytime, anywhere and check the progress over the Internet in a prompt and transparent manner.) - Jun-Dec 2003: MOCT established a master plan for architectural administration informatization (As Is ―> To Be) - Feb 2004: Implementation of e-AIS selected as one of the 31 strategic initiatives for the e-Government of Korea by the Special Commission on e-Government - Jul 2004-Jun 2005: MOCT developed the first version of the system and standardized drawings - Dec 2005-Nov 2006: MOCT developed the second version of the system and implemented interfaces between the system and other systems - Sep 2006-Aug 2007: MOCT developed the third version of the system and amended the applicable laws and regulations - Jun 2007: Reported at the state council as representative innovation of MOCT (*President Roh Moo-hyun said, "The right way to pursue regulatory reform is to realize benefits without actually reducing the number of regulations. e-AIS is a case in point.") - Jul 2007-Aug 2008: Pilot service launched in the city of Busan - Dec 2007: Rolled out to 45% of all 248 local governments nationwide - Apr 2008: Scheduled to be rolled out to all 248 local government offices nationwide (b-3) Innovation brand marketing (2006- ) - Mar 2006: MOCT solicits public opinions on brand name and slogan - May 2006: Collected opinions on the brand name from customers and experts - Aug 2006: Created the brand logo - Mar 2007: Improved the brand logo and developed the brand manual - Sep 2007: Won an excellence award at the e-Government performance briefing meeting - Oct 2007: Won the grand prize in the 2007 Government Innovation Brand Competition

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
(c-1) Reluctance by officials responsible for permits The most serious stumbling block in the implementation of the system was reluctance of city officials and personnel responsible for granting permits to use the system. Many of them were long accustomed to the old way of doing business. They pushed back hardest when they realized that e-AIS would minimize the number of visits by applicants to their offices. They even complained that on-line processing would reduce business efficiency. In addition, the implementation of e-AIS was also necessarily complicated by the great number of stakeholders involved, as opposed to other informatization projects which are mainly about developing a system for only one agency. In order to gain buy-in of the stakeholders and improve their understanding of the system, MOCT promoted the system by various means, including system demonstrations, workshops, and on-line/off-line training for the government agencies concerned. We also emphasized the public benefits of the system, urging that public servants would willingly make the effort to become accustomed to it in early stage by enduring any possible inconvenience, and that e-AIS would also make their daily duties easier. In cases where the resistance could not be overcome by training and PR, we applied top-down pressure through MOUs signed with the top officials or by disclosing performance evaluation scores. Owing to such efforts, we were finally able to begin pilot operation of the system in July 2007 and keep to the original schedule for nationwide roll-out. (As of Dec 2007, 80% of all the local governments have e-AIS up and running.) (c-2) Familiarizing the public with Internet environment The architectural administration was not an exception to the digital divide, the most serious issue of information society. Many registered architects and applicants were not readily able to use the system because of infamiliarity with online systems. MOCT responded by providing a wide range of intensive training courses. For those who still have difficulty using the system, we encouraged local governments to use idle human resources to submit the applications on their behalf.

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
(d-1) Financial resources MOCT spent about $28 million on the implementation of e-AIS over five years starting in 2003. Most of the funds were spent on developing standard programs for architectural administration and deploying hardware. Part of this amount went to the roll-out and distribution, which involved user training and system installation. Despite a budget crunch at the early phase of system development, MOCT was able to obtain the needed funds from the Ministry of Planning and Budget by demonstrating the tremendous costs savings. Not only would the system generate cost savings of $1.6 billion a year, but comprehensive and seamless system roll-out for the central government and the 248 local governments would be far more effective and cost-efficient than development of systems by each of these authorities independently, which would incur system duplication and, ultimately, waste of funds. (d-2) Technical resources As stated earlier, information technology is the most essential factor in innovation. In Korea, the highly effective network infrastructure and high broadband Internet penetration provided an optimal environment for realization of e-Government. Hence, every business related to the building permission could be handled through e-AIS, an upgraded version of AIS. The core technology to enable applicants to upload a massive number of blueprints for review by city officials can be utilized in other areas where cutting-edge technologies, including blueprint standardization, file compression, or encoding, are needed. (d-3) Human resources Human resources from MOCT are assigned as necessary to the task force on Architectural Adminstration Informatization Promotion Planning. The task force has seven full-time personnel including its director general and team leaders, and it is supported by external advisory commissions and consultative entities. For the System Implementation Team in charge of development and implementation of the system, around 70 developers and consultants from private systems integrators (SI) are assigned annually. While officials from the central government are changed on a regular basis as required according to job rotation rules, the System Implementation Team is managed by the same company working on program development and maintenance. This ensures consistency and continuity in system development and maintains the momentum of the initiative.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
(1) Sustainability MOCT has made extraordinary efforts to make the outcome of innovation sustainable and permanent. As part of these efforts, it has operated an organization fully responsible for sustainable implementation of the initiative and amended applicable laws and regulations according to the innovation results. In addition, MOCT used branding of the innovative achievements in order to maintain the innovative practices through system, rather than people. Designation of e-AIS as Korea's top brand did more than anything else to widen the public's access to architectural administration services. We plan to further develop e-AIS as a world-class premium brand. (2) Possibility for dissemination e-AIS can offer best practices for any civil application involving numerous laws and regulations, documents, and consultative agencies, like building permit applications, especially where technology makes the idea "No Visit No Paper" possible and allows for administrative process innovation. Japan, France, and Southeast Asian countries have already indicated keen interest in Korea's efforts to improve administrative transparency and maximize customer satisfaction. The practices of the innovative system have been spreading widely at home and abroad as it is an exemplary case of remarkably improved transparency and efficiency in public services. They are expected to begin spreading even more rapidly in 2008, when implementation of e-AIS is completed and the system is globally promoted in full scale.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
(1) Consensus is the most critical factor The biggest obstacle to innovation was ossification of the established system. The old practices had been in place for 50 years, with the natural result that resistance to the new system was very strong and entrenched. Overcoming this resistance required ceaseless persuasion through an on-going training and awareness campaign. It was all the more important to communicate the win-win outcome: that the new system would afford greater convenience to not only the public but also to public servants. (2) Success of e-Government lies in process innovation, not technology Too often, e-Government initiatives become hijacked by the drive to use the latest technology as a cure-all instead of examining administrative processes per se. System design and its technical implementation do not guarantee the success of e-Government. This is especially true of a project where multiple stakeholders are involved. Hence, the top priority of implementing e-Government should be on improving business processes, rather than developing information systems, which should be regarded as no more than means to support business processes. (3) e-Government is complete with branding of innovation No matter how successful the implementation of e-Government may be, it must continue to develop and evolve. It will eventually become outmoded and of no use otherwise. The branding of e-Government is a promising solution for this problem. If branding strategy covering brand identity and brand marketing is implemented by benchmarking success cases in the private sector, innovation performance will improve enormously.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Construction and Transportation
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Bae SungHo
Title:		Deputy Director, Architecture Planning Team
Telephone/ Fax:		82-2-2110-8545
Institution's / Project's Website:		82-2-503-7324
E-mail:		bsh@moct.go.kr
Address:		1, Joongang-Dong
Postal Code:		427-712
City:		Gwacheon-City
State/Province:		Gyonggi-Do
Country:

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