Language:
Search
 
'Clean Seoul, Clean Finance'
Information System Planning Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government

The Problem

There had been overall three problems, which have been motives for the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) to adopt an initiative named ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance.’

First of all, in spite of the SMG’s continuous efforts in battling against possible corruptions of public officials, the citizens’ negative perception on the SMG’s governance hadn’t changed dramatically. In particular, the city needed to transform the people’s perception on its financial management the most, and as a result, the SMG came up with an idea that would enhance work efficiency and bring administrative transparency into its financial department: utilising IT.

As our society has become more and more knowledge-based, another issue was to deliver information on the city finance to officials concerned more effectively and quickly so that they could make appropriate decisions faster.

Lastly, although the SMG has opened information about significant parts of their budgets before the public as it is defined by law, it was still hard for Seoul citizens to find information they need due to complex procedures involved. Thus, it was required to provide comprehensive information on the city finance with the people in order to win citizen confidence.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In order to measure the effect of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance,’ the SMG drew up three schemes, which focus on better management of the city finance, namely the enhancement of transparency and work efficiency in project management, the improvement of transparency and work efficiency in financial practice, and the expansion of the scope of information for the public. In other words, the three schemes were set up to monitor the city finance and to open relevant information as the framework of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance.’

With the inception of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance,’ a number of benefits for both the citizens and the SMG are expected, including enhancement in work efficiency for the SMG employees and reduced number of corruptions and mistakes. Moreover, ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ will not only help the government to manage various financial projects better but will it enhance transparency because this initiative will let the SMG monitor those projects more efficiently as well as establish an internal control system. In addition to that, the SMG will be able to deliver more innovative public service by offering more comprehensive financial information. Altogether, the city estimates that the quantitative effect of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ will be approximately KW two billion (equivalent to around USD two million).

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The mayor of Seoul is the one who has come up with the very idea of adopting ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ to accomplish transparency in managing the city finance by giving instructions to set up a scheme to improve work efficiency and to enhance administrative transparency. Accordingly, the Information System Planning Bureau (ISPB) of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) took the instructions as the body in charge of executing related works of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance,’ establishing fundamental framework of the initiative and overall structure of ethical management by utilising IT.

(a) Strategies

 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 Information System Planning Bureau (ISPB) has adopted the Business Process Management (BPM), a mechanism that a number of advanced companies have chosen as a means to achieve innovation recently, as a basic model to process each step of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance.’ In doing so, the Bureau has been able to standardise and systemise individual stages involved in implementing relevant policy issues, offering Seoul citizens general information on the city finance.

What’s more, the ISPB has formed a task force team, which plays a key role in establishing informatisation strategies for ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ in cooperation with expert groups. Major functions of the team include analysing current data on five fields, namely budget, finance, audit, evaluation, and other financial affairs of the city as well as creating improved models for the most important issues found in the analysis. In order to adopt the improved models to ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ successfully, the team has undertaken detailed tasks, which will be implemented next two years in phases.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
From May through July 2007, the Information System Planning Bureau (ISPB) had worked on designing each phase of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ according to the Seoul Development Methodology (SDM) after spending a total of seven months in preparing fundamental works for the initiative. The whole system for ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ was structured in two phases: firstly, a stage building up an information opening system and for the second step, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) opened the system to the citizens on a pilot basis in November. In December 2007, the system for ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ was completed, and eventually, the SMG has started a full-operation of the initiative since January 2008.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The whole process of building up the system for ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ was not a very easy task since this initiative, of which structure is the most important thing when it comes to deliver integrated information based on the current system, has required to integrate current systems connecting existent works with the new system consistently. To this end, the Information System Planning Bureau (ISPB) has created a system that links with the current system, and has reorganised the standard information system, which supports the local government finance system, including Seoul.

(d) Use of Resources

 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
The construction of the system for ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ has been undertaken by the Information System Planning Bureau (ISPB) under the leadership of Director of the Bureau, while the Planning and Evaluation Office of the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has been playing a role as a project coordinator.
In addition, the ISPB formed a task force team, which is in charge of setting up the system, and organised a consultative group, which is made of officials from different divisions concerned of the SMG in order for smooth communication in the course of the construction. On top of that, a company specialised in developing finance related contents has also been selected for the system construction.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Since the purpose of ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ is to build up a framework that enhances work efficiency and to produce a system that enables monitoring and evaluating work performance as well as to provide comprehensive information with Seoul citizens. In this light, ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ is regarded as the initiative that other divisions of the SMG, including Taxation, Welfare, Audit and Inspection, and Human Resources, can adopt to their works.

With the catchphrase ‘A Clean Seoul’ aiming at providing transparent administration with the citizens, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has already adapted ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ to its fire fighting project, and now the government tries to expand the system to the above mentioned divisions. In this respect, ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ seems to be applicable to public institutes/agencies overseas as well, let alone the other government agencies in Korea.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The most important part in implementing ‘Clean Seoul, Clean Finance’ is to understand a combined function between daily work and IT. However, it was quite challenging when it comes to integrate whole system of a single large organisation like the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) because such organisation has divided into a number of divisions delivering varied public service.

Admittedly, it was also tough assignment for Seoul, but the city has been able to accomplish the integration thanks to its Information System Planning Bureau’s close relationship with different groups with different expertise.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Information System Planning Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government
Institution Type:   Government Department  
Contact Person:   Jeeyoung Kim
Title:   Liaison Officer  
Telephone/ Fax:   82 2 6361 3116
Institution's / Project's Website:   82 2 3707 9189
E-mail:   info@seoul.go.kr  
Address:   Information System Planning Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government, 31, Taepyung-Ro 1 Ga, Chung-Gu
Postal Code:   100-744
City:   Seoul
State/Province:  
Country:  

          Go Back
Print friendly Page