United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

(1) Building administration is one of the most complex work areas, dealing with information backbone of the country.

Building administration is a branch of public administration that relates to shelter, one of the three necessities of life along with clothing and food, and has close connections with property rights, environment, safety and other aspects of the public life.

The building of any structure requires such processes as planning, design, construction, and permits, and can take months to years to complete. Throughout these processes, a vast range of considerations must be made, under ninety-some applicable laws including: the impact of the structure on its surroundings, safety from fire, flooding, and other disasters, and the provision of utility services. One of the most complex and demanding areas of administration, building administration includes more than 1,400,000 applications per year, representing approximately 60% of all applications filed with government offices.

On the other hand, the information on permits and buildings generated and maintained in building administration is used in virtually all areas of public administration, including taxation, safety, disaster control, traffic control, and environment management. Approximately 12,000,000 building registry extracts are either issued or accessed per year. This vital information is also used as the source information in a policy decision, academic research, and market demand forecasts for land use and real estate.

(2) Nevertheless, building administration has become the single most significant obstacle to the enhancement of government productivity and public service quality.

The complexity of building administration has caused inconvenience to the public and deteriorated the efficiency of public administration. In order to obtain building permits, the customer – a member of the public – was required to submit more than forty documents for application together with a huge volume of building design blueprints and frequent the offices of competent authorities. A forty five -story building with floor space of 170,841 m2, for example, requires approximately 5,000 sheets worth of application documentation, while even the smallest of buildings requires five visits to government offices at the very least. The number of authorities involved, including such coordinating offices as fire departments and waterworks offices, exceeds twenty, and the application processes can take more than thirty days on average.

(3) Building administration has also proven detrimental to the perception of transparency in government work.

The complexity and inefficiency of building administration also served to prevent administrative procedures from being disclosed to the public, which, in turn, resulted in it being perceived as a realm of questionable integrity. A 2002 publication by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea indicated that the construction sector was rife with corruption, while a 2001 Transparency International report pointed out that the Bribe Payers Index, or BPI, for construction-related government services was the highest virtually anywhere in the world. As a matter of fact, accidents caused by defective structures are often reported in Korea as well as in many other parts of the world.

Legislation for the building of structures and administration guidelines is coordinated by the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs (MLTM), a central government agency. The public distrust in the entire sphere of building administration is directed toward the central government at large, leading to plummeting confidence in the government itself.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
(1) No visits, no paper A public service user was once required to make personal visits to a number of government offices to file design documents and applications, which numbered in the region from dozens to thousands and tens of thousands, whereas e-AIS allows a user to readily file documents on the Internet with no restrictions in time or space. It also allows fire departments, town gas providers, waterworks offices, and other authorities to review the documents filed on the internet without the applicant making actual physical visits. These changes substantially cut: the waste of resources that would otherwise be used in the design documents and required filings to be filed with the authorities, and the time and expenses incurred in frequent visits to the government offices due to changes, omissions, and errors in the documents. The paper and automotive fuel saved by the use of e-AIS for application procedures are equivalent to 33,941 metric tons of CO2 in terms of carbon emissions , or, in monetary terms, approximately 944 million US dollars per year. The enhanced convenience for applicants may be verified in hard figures as well: e-AIS, which has been in operation since July 2007, showed a system processing rate of 92.01% by November 2008. The survey of user satisfaction with the building administration system site service also indicated that cases in which duplicate paper documents were submitted after Internet applications were first filed were plummeting: from 52.1% in April 2008 to 49.6% in June and 16% in December. According to the a survey results of A Performance Analysis of the Building Administration Informatization Project published by the Korea Information Society Development Institute in December 2008, 80.4% of respondents answered that the e-AIS system supported the features they required, and 79.6% found the system useful in sharing administrative information among different government organizations. (2) Faster and more accurate administrative processes The introduction of e-AIS substantially cut the processing time for building permits. Prior to digitalizing the building administration, it took more than sixty days to go though the processes, which, with the operation of the building administration information system (AIS), has decreased to thirty-five days. The operation of e-AIS further reduced this to nineteen days on average. This time saving was made possible due to the more efficient workflow resulting from the use of an online coordination system as well as the use of a number of review tools provided by the system. Furthermore, e-AIS facilitated the storage and management of data. When paper applications were filed, it was necessary to have and continually expand separate stack rooms to store the received documents, and access to past data required manual browsing through these stack rooms. The storage and management of data translated into substantial investments in time and effort. The processing of applications on the Internet, however, provides easy and instant access to past data, saving the time, space, and effort required to manage data. The real-time access to the information on the status of the application process and the personnel responsible for its handling greatly enhanced transparency in building administration, which had been commonly associated with cronyism and corruption. The survey of the level of integrity for building administration as requested by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and conducted by a surveying firm indicated that the ratio of those who provided bribe or entertainment was 6.4% in 2002, the first year of operation of the system, and 6.9% in 2003, which plummeted to 3.0% in 2004, when the operation of the system began in a fully-fledged manner, and to 1.5% in 2005.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
(1) The key to the solution is to build IT-based information systems The information systems project for building administration underwent a review in 1997 by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation in charge of the Building Act, currently the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs (MLTM). Strenuous efforts were made to find answers question of how to address the seemingly constant public distrust in government employees, most of who are honest servants spending countless days and nights grappling with enormous volumes of documents, due to the news of corrupt building administration officials repeatedly making headlines. In results, the officials in charge and the professionals in private sector reached a conclusion that nothing but implementing IT-based information systems may be the ultimate solution and worked together to put it into action. (2) Formation and operation of the task force team is critical to secure the sustainability in driving the project Being in charge of applicable laws and programs, the MLTM launched the Building Administration Informatization Planning Task Force, which was led by one of its director generals and the Architecture Planning Manager (sic), and which comprised of three teams: Program Revamping, Administrative Details, and External Advisory. The task force team secured applicable funds, and committed legal experts, administration experts, computing experts, and other professionals. This was the beginning of the Building Administration System Project. (3) A wide range of stakeholders’ participation essential to the success of the project. Uniform service quality and efficient implementation of the project required a top-down approach to the project. The analysis of issues, the design of the system, and the deployment of the completed system to local governments were assigned to the Architecture Planning Division of the MLTM, the competent authority. The MLTM, a central government agency, was selected as the supervising organization to ensure the effectiveness of the project. In order to encourage citizens as applicants and government employeeswho had exclusively used paper documentation to apply for and process application formalitiesto make actual use of the system, it was essential to induce them to participate in the entire processes of development, deployment, and operation of the system and have their frontline voices incorporated therein. From the early phases of the development, a working group of architects, representing public service users, and permit-issuing officials, were organized, producing user requirements at dozens of conferences and workshops. These were then incorporated in the design of the system. An endless stream of requirements generated in the operation phase was also eagerly accepted, resulting in the ongoing evolution of the system. Interoperability with related systems for the purpose of simpler application documentation as well as the sharing of administrative information also required cooperation with related organizations. To this end, a panel of working level personnel from related offices held meetings on a regular basis, resulting in a win-win collaborative relationship among these offices. Consequently, the system (e-AIS) has been linked to and interoperable with forty systems across sixteen organizations as of December 2008. Lastly, the online coordination system, one of the most distinguishing features of e-AIS, would never have been operable without the participation of twenty-plus coordinating agencies, including fire departments, town gas providers, and waterworks offices. In order to encourage their participation, a broad array of strategies were used: bottom-up persuasive efforts including project briefing sessions and training visits; as well as top-down pressure including the signing of inter-organization MOUs and the disclosure of performance evaluation criteria.

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.
(1) Development strategy: Implementing thoroughly user-oriented systems The first strategy was to conduct a thorough analysis of the target task from a user’s perspective, so that the information systems framework would enhance job efficiency. Efforts were made to identify and address any inconveniences and unreasonableness faced in applying for and undergoing administrative procedures from the customer’s perspective. These efforts resulted in inter-office collaboration, allowing applicants to omit the filing of cadastral records, resident register transcripts, and other documents that would otherwise need to be obtained from respective issuing offices and submitted to the building permit authority by the applicant. A group of user convenience features involving collaboration and coordination were provided to effectively process the registration of vast volumes of application information and attachments. Another added feature allowed the applicant to update and reuse previously entered data. An online coordination system was also developed to process coordination work with a number of coordinating offices, which would otherwise reduce the working efficiency of government personnel. This significantly enhanced efficiency and accuracy. Together with these user convenience features, other activities were pursued to encourage the use of the system, including the revamping of applicable laws allowing for the Internet submission of design documents and attachments. (2) Dissemination strategy: Promotion and training to do away with conventionalities The second strategy is sufficient user training and promotion. For 6,961 service users and 26,960 government employees during the deployment phase of e-AIS, training visits to offices, collective training, and the provision of user manuals, video clips, and various other training materials were intended to help users familiarize themselves with the system in a prompt and effortless manner. Brochures, posters, leaflets, and other promotional materials were also distributed and a wide range of media, including newspapers, magazines, and websites were used. A nationwide tour was conducted to hold twelve project briefing sessions. We participated in the Korea Architecture Fair & Festival and other large exhibitions to enhance the recognition of the system among users and the general public. The Building Administration Systems, e-AIS was named “Seumteo” in Korean standing for the fundamental source of making something possible. This band name was designed for the system to appear easy and more approachable for the users. (3) Operation strategy: Continuity and consistency in the maintenance of the system The last strategy was the constant and consistent improvement of the system. Eagerly accepting a growing list of user requirements that were also becoming more demanding, the MLTM pursued a wide range of policies to evolve and advance the system. It operated a call center so that users could obtain instant solutions to any difficulties they faced while using the system. Users were able to have phone conversations with service personnel, getting instructions and creating requirements for the next system upgrade. Online Q&A and FAQ message boards were also operated to diversify the range of channels through which the users might ask questions about the use of the system and voice their requirements. A maintenance center was also operated to provide software maintenance services for requirements and regulatory updates as well as hardware maintenance covering servers, networks, and other infrastructure components. Together with these user support measures, the Ministry is also engaged in a wide range of efforts to encourage the use of the system, including the constant provision of guidelines and training for local government employees and user award programs for those government agencies and government employees.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
(1) Building of AIS (Architecture Information System) (1997 ∼ 2002) - 1997 : The Enpyeong-gu District Office of Seoul produced a building administration pilot program. - 1998 ∼ 1999 : The Ministry of Construction and Transportation expanded the pilot program and developed AIS. - 2000 ∼ 2002 : The Ministry of Construction and Transportation deployed AIS to 250 local governments across the country. - Mar. 2000 : Cited by the Anti-Corruption Special Committee as a best practice. (The chairman commented, “Allowing for efficient processing and computer-based auditing, the computerization of job processes is expected to significantly eliminate corruption in the construction sector.”) - June 2000 : Awarded in the Public Sector Innovation Competition of the Ministry of Planning and Budget. - Dec. 2000 : Received the Chairman’s Prize in the Best Practice Reporting Competition of the Second National Foundation Committee. (2) Evolution into e-AIS (2003 - 2008) - June 2003 ∼ Dec. 2003 : The Ministry of Construction and Transportation formulated the Building Administration Informatization and Development Plan. - Feb. 2004 : The Electronic Government Special Committee selected e-AIS as one of the Thirty One Strategic Projects for the Electronic Government of the Republic of Korea. - An e-AIS implementation was built over three phases. - June 2007 : Reported as an innovative practice by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation at a cabinet conference. (President Roh’s comment: “Achieving better results without reducing the number of regulations is the right direction for deregulation, and e-AIS is a tell-tale example.”) - July 2007 ∼ Aug. 2008: A pilot service was operated by the Municipal Government of Busan. - Sep. 2007 : Received the Prime Ministerial Award as a Best Practice for Electronic Government. - Oct. 2007 : Received the Presidential Award in the Government Innovation Brand Competition. - May 2008 : The system was fully deployed to, and operated by, 248 local governments across the country.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
(1) Administrative work must involve paper, no matter what! During an earlier phase of the AIS operation, the biggest obstacle was the resistance by permit-issuing officers to the migration from paper-based work to the use of computer systems. The government employees, who were more familiar with the conventional task of reviewing paper applications and attachments prepared by applicants and manually processing them, often voiced complaints that the computerization process increased their workload or that the use of the system prevented the accurate review of documentation. To address these issues, the MLTM operated a call center to which users were able to make instant phone calls to obtain solutions to whatever problem he/she came across when using the system. The MLTM also prepared various user support systems, including on-going user training programs, to enhance the users’ ability to use the system and process the tasks required. These processes served to create changes in the perception of the system among government employees, as they could experience the usefulness of the system firsthand: the building cadastral entry task for a large condominium complex, which had previously taken one month or more, was completed within a matter of minutes; and a number of statistics were aggregated in real time. Centered around internal tasks in this manner, the building administration system began to see its excellence recognized both within and outside of government organizations. However, applicants still needed to compile CDs of applications and attachments and make frequent visits to the permit-issuing authorities and coordinating authorities. Government personnel were also having difficulties due to the manual coordination work. In order to address these issues, the MLTM developed and deployed e-AIS, a new Internet-based version of the system. (2) Computer-based applications are too difficult for me! The introduction of e-AIS was a shift from the production and submission of a CD by the applicant to the entry of application information on the Internet. This also transferred the task of data entry from the government employee to the applicant. As this required the applicant to additionally conduct data verification or personal authentication processes to ensure data conformity and personal identification accuracy, measures were required to prevent applicants who found those processes onerous from refusing to use the system. Determining that the early establishment of the system required the completeness of the system as a bare minimum and prompt responses to user inconveniences as key, the MLTM expanded staffing levels at the maintenance center and the call center. The Ministry also operated substantial and active training programs, including the operation of permanent training centers and training visits to larger architectural firms and regional architectural associations. Each applicable government employee has also been provided with a dual-monitor system consisting of two twenty-two inchers so he/she can electronically review documentation, allowing for the early establishment of paperless permit-issuing processes, the ultimate goal of e-AIS. Indeed, the level of satisfaction among the service users was greatly enhanced from 37.3, on a scale of 100, in April ’08 to 70.1 by December ’08. (3) Doing my best won’t cut it! The participation by coordinating departments and organizations was essential to enhance the efficiency of coordinating the work, which was by far the biggest efficiency bottleneck. System user training programs for the coordination work as well as manuals, video clips and various training contents were provided. In order to encourage coordinating officers to use the building administration system, organized approaches were made, including the signing of MOUs with their supervising organizations and the disclosure of evaluation criteria.

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
(1) Financial resources In connection with the computerization of building administration, the MLTM committed a total of 11.6 million US dollars to the e-AIS project in a sequential manner for five years from 2003. Most of the budget was committed to the development of the standard building administration programs, the building of the hardware infrastructure, user training, and system installation. Although the MLTM experienced substantial difficulties in securing funds in the initial phase of the development, the ministry successfully persuaded budgeting authorities to earmark sufficient amounts of capital, based on an analysis that the economic benefits of the system would reach 944 million US dollars per year. The fact that the waste of funds would be enormous in the case of the individual development of local governments was a pressing reason for the establishment of standard programs at the state level. (2) Technical resources Korea’s advanced network infrastructure and high level of Internet penetration provided an optimal environment for e-AIS, in essence, an Internet-based application. This underlying infrastructure formed a framework allowing anyone to use the Internet to file an application and have it processed from anywhere in the country. As discussed above, however, building administration work accompanies the handling of very important information, such as building information and personal information, as well as the transfer of large volumes of information. The storage and transfer of such information requires the incorporation of encryption, compression, authentication, and other cutting-edge information technologies, as well as efforts to ensure the absolute stability of these technologies due to the inherently sensitive nature of public administration services. In order to satisfy these system requirements, we developed and used a design document management tool that supports the filing and reviewing of electronic documents and uses its own encryption and compression technologies. These technologies were selected according to the information technology guidelines of the National Information Society Agency, the information technology standards organization of Korea. (3) Human resources The commitment of human resources was focused on the Building Administration Informatization Planning Task Force. The task force consisted of seven full-time members, whose activities were supported by an external advisory committee and a panel including local government representatives. Developing and operating the system under the direction of this task force, the project group consisted primarily of private system integration firms, committing approximately seventy persons to system development and consulting tasks throughout the year. In particular, the same SI firm that participated in the Building Administration Informatization Planning Task Force is also participating in the development and operation of applications on an ongoing basis. This addressed any problems relating to potential inconsistency in, or waning momentum for, the project, which would span more than a decade.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
(1) Likelihood of far-reaching effects on other services It is safe to assume that e-AIS has become firmly established as a national infrastructural system with its diversifying user base. The migration from a system for permit-issuing officials and architects – representatives of applicants – only to an Internet-based version accompanied the expansion of its user base to construction project owners and coordinating officials, An increasing number of government and research organizations are requiring permit information, building information, and other accumulated building statistics. An applicant is no longer required to make physical visits to government offices carrying paper documents and CDs. They can now use the Internet 248 to access local government sites and prepare and transfer application documents. It is no longer necessary to meet the permit-issuing officials in person to speed things up. It is possible to verify the progress of an application in real time and instantly deal with any necessary corrections or updates, if any, on the Internet. With an increasing level of interest in e-AIS at the international level, an MOU on the facility management area of e-AIS with the municipal government of Tumen, China was entered into in November 2008 and an export contract was under negotiation as of December 2008. (2) Likelihood of continuity in terms of efficiency Government personnel may now use e-AIS to efficiently handle coordination and application work. While coordination was required to photocopy and mail each and every page of documents and manually aggregate responses, it is now only necessary to use the system transfer documents and aggregate responses in batches. Although the review of drawings once entailed physical printouts on paper, it is now possible to use various tools provided by the system to review the drawings in a convenient and prompt manner. This manifestly changed work environment has led to enhanced public service quality and, in turn, to the ameliorated transparency of public administration. This accomplishment resulted in a comment made in a cabinet conference in June 2007: “Achieving better results without reducing the number of regulations is the right direction for deregulation, and e-AIS is a tell-tale example.” These achievements were also demonstrated by the 2008 Presidential Award received in the Government Innovation Brand Competition, considered the Korean equivalent of the Public Service Awards. Despite the recognition of its excellence and performance, e-AIS is not settling for where it is, but preparing for an even better future. Although e-AIS has to date been focused on permit-issuing processes, it will be expanded to cover the advance review process for permits and the follow-up monitoring phase for buildings, effectively addressing their entire life cycles and extending from the two-dimensional spheres of buildings to the three-dimensional spheres of landscaping and urban space. In order to formulate an action plan for this sustained advancement, the MLTM is now pursuing, as of December 2008, a project to draft a plan for a more advanced version of e-AIS.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
(1) A consistent development philosophy and an implementation system maintained for a decade From the development and deployment by the MLTM of a standard application to computerize the work processes of local governments in ’98 until its advancement into a new system based on the Internet in ’07, the philosophy we initially had“convenience for public service users and efficiency for administrative organizations”was adhered to in a consistent manner. The list of user needs and requirements was well maintained and faithfully incorporated into the system. Another factor for our success was that the Architecture Planning Division, a government-wide control tower for building administration, has been continually studying and giving thought to applicable work processes and laws and maintaining a consistent implementation system. This may not be omitted in any such project. Centered around this organization, training, maintenance, promotion, and other similar activities necessary to encourage the use of the system, were pursued. Another major factor in the consistency of the system and its steady and stable evolution was that the contractor who developed the system has not been replaced in a full decade. (2) Consensus among participants The biggest obstacle to innovation was resistance to the introduction of a new system due to conventional practice that was maintained for more than five decades. Vigorous training and promotion and tremendous persuasion activities to overcome this obstacle, however, helped begin developing a consensus among the stakeholders. As a consensus on improved public welfare and increased efficiency in public administration started to form, the use of the system suddenly gained momentum. Over and above all other factors, users’ trust in the information system was crucial to its success. (3) The key to the success is not technology but process innovation. A major pitfall that most public computerization projects may fall into is the cult of technology. The design of systems and their technical implementation do not, alone, ensure the success of a public informatization project. This is especially true in cases involving a multiplicity of stakeholders, as is the case of building administration. In a public informatization project, therefore, the improvement of administrative procedures comes before technical implementation, and the latter must serve to support the former. (4) A thorough customer-oriented philosophy An information system may sustain its life if the customer’s voice for improvement is continually incorporated within it. In other words, disregarding the customer’s voice would result in a lifeless system. In the early phases of the development of e-AIS, customers were encouraged to directly participate in the project to have their opinions incorporated, while an unending list of requirements from them generated in the operational phase has been valued and incorporated in the system. Other than the importance of customer voices, a great variety of problems facing the different infrastructural environments across 248 local governments may also serve to deter any momentum of a system or even undermine its implementation entirely. Risk factors were only resolved by making personal visits to local government offices experiencing anticipated or actual problems so as to identify the causes of any problems and actively cooperate with the stakeholders. This process was only made possible because customers were given consideration over the interests among stakeholders.


Institution Name:		Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Woonjong Yeo
Title:		Deputy Director
Telephone/ Fax:		82-2-2110-6205
Institution's / Project's Website:		82-2-503-7324
E-mail:		wjyeo@mltm.go.kr
Address:		1 Jungang-Dong
Postal Code:		427-712
City:		Gwacheon-City
State/Province:		Gyeonggi-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