United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

○ The e-People system(www.epeople.go.kr) is an e-Government portal for communication with citizens, which handles complaints, proposals, and policy discussions by integrating all central government agencies, municipalities, public organizations and Korean missions overseas.

With the establishment of e-People system by the government, the main causes of dissatisfaction on civil petitions that had persisted for 60 years since the launch of the government were fundamentally improved, and the public's faith towards the government was restored based on the invigorated communication with citizens.

○ Problems encountered by the citizens before the establishment of e-People system
- In order to file civil petitions, people had to go through a cumbersome process in finding the right agency.
- It was difficult to rely on the government since each government agency presented different measures and responses for similar civil petitions.
- From the public perspective concerning the inconvenience people experienced, it was difficult to get information on similar cases of civil petitions, and relevant government policies and laws.
- There was no way to resolve the dissatisfaction about the procrastination of civil servants and the doubts and frustrations due to insincere responses to filed civil petitions.

○ Problems encountered by the government and civil servants before the establishment of the e-People System
- Due to each government agency's own development and management of civil petition handling system, etc., duplication and dissipation of administrative management occurred.
- When civil petitions were received by an irrelevant government agency, these petitions are then again had to be mailed to the right agencies that caused unnecessary costs.
- As similar civil petitions were received by several government agencies and handled according to the positions of each agency, administrative management dissipated.
- Due to lack of information on previous responses and solutions for similar civil petitions, there were difficulties in managing affairs.
- Despite the repetition of similar civil petitions, it did not lead to system improvements that fundamentally fixed the causes of civil petitions. This was because the information on civil petitions was difficult to share among agencies.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
○ First, the inconvenience of the public having to separately visit relevant government agencies in order to file civil petitions was solved, and the duty of handling civil petitions has improved. ▶ Due to the improved convenience in filing civil petitions via the e-People system, the number of petitions increased. ※ Number of petitions: 402,442 in 2006 → 623,434 in 2008 → 722,370 in November, 2010 ▶ If a complaint or proposal is requested on e-People system, according to the automatic classification system, it is sent immediately to the government agency that can best handle the complaint or proposal. ▶ The entire process in handling the complaint can be checked on e-People system, and the handling process is presented real-time via e-mail and SMS. ○ Second, the dissipation of administrative management caused by the duplication and repetition of civil petitions has been prevented, and consistent measures for the same civil petitions were promoted. ▶ Prevention was made in advance due to the amalgamation process after the identification of duplication and repetitive civil petitions. ※ Number of repetitive civil petitions merged: 21,491 cases merged to 7,276 in 2006 → 27,378 cases merged to 3,693 in 2008 → 30,647 cases merged to 8,034 in November, 2010 ▶ The people's reliability towards the government administration has developed due to the maintained consistency of responses for the same civil petitions. ※ Level of satisfaction increased in handling civil petitions: 45.9% in 2006 → 51.2% in 2008 → 54.9% in November, 2010 ▶ Prevention of civil petitions through automatic supply for similar civil petitions‧policies Q&A. ※ Withdrawal of 7,890 civil petition applications (June, 2009∼ November, 2010) ○ Third, the processing time was shortened by online transfers and the time delay has been prevented through the satisfaction evaluation of every complaint. ▶ Average processing time for general civil petitions: 12 days in 2005 ⇒ 6.1 days in 2010 ▶ Average processing time for complex civil petitions: 36.1 days in 2005 ⇒ 8.1 days in 2010 ▶ Occurrence of reduced administrative cost effects such as personnel expenses and postage. ※ Estimated amount of administrative cost reduced: KRW 1,580 × 616,155 online transfers (2006 – July, 2010) = KRW 973,524,900 (BPR/ISP for establishment of online public participation portal, 2004) ○ Fourth, beyond the level of simply solving the complaint according to legislations, promoting system improvements by discovering irrational systems related to civil petitions. ▶ Provided statistical data on laws causing frequent civil petitions to each government department every quarter since 2008 to November, 2011: 565 laws on the need for promoting civil complaint reduction measures discovered and provided → 255 law and system improvements, 113 distribution of promotion materials and hosting brief sessions, 207 FAQ posted and homepage announcements ▶ In 2010, the ‘Weekly Report on People's Voice' was presented to each vice-minister and minister, which resulted in finding 666 cases of irrational system as well as 230 (34.5%) items or ideas considerable for policy alternatives (46 cases of institutional change, 27 cases of system improvements, etc.)

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
○ First proposal by the President - In November 2003, the President of South Korea ordered to build an e-portal, saying "There is a need to build a system that can solve the duplication problem of civil complaints and manages civil petitions through an integrated window". ○ Integration and system improvement were led by the ACRC. - The ACRC is playing a leading role in the system improvement for the integrated management of civil petitions, the development of e-People System, the preparation and persuasion to expand agencies for integration, and the continuous efforts for developing new information services. ○ Active support of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security on the expansion of electronic government - Support for law amendments, support for information system development budget by selecting it as an electronic government project - The Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization finalized the establishment of e-People system with 31 e-governments as a roadmap task for the ‘expansion of public participation’ (July, 2003). ○ It overcame the early stage resistances from government departments subject to complaint system integration, public institutions, and civil servants. - For each agency, it was arguably impossible to give up its own establishment system, and its concerns for information protection. - The ACRC visited 49 organizations and explained the purpose of the project and also hosted workshops. Furthermore, it held 140 meetings to draw up a compromise plan while reflecting 700 improvement requests and opinions from heads of agencies (4 agencies, 2 times) using the E-government BP presentation material - Thereafter, it successfully drew up cooperation from each department with the help of the legislative office (e.g., Practical Law Q&A service). ○ Support for and cooperation with various organizations of the society - Civil petitions/policies Q&A private web portal link service (Private portal sites such as Naver, etc.) - Smart Phone service (Samsung Electronics) - Foreign embassies (Complaint services support for foreigners) : Embassy of Vietnam in Korea, Embassy of Mongolia, Embassy of Indonesia

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.
○ Scope expansion in phases and evolution of functions - Central government ⇒ Local government ⇒ Affiliated organizations of the central government in local areas ⇒ Scope of integration expansion in phases towards public institutions - Internal Korean language service ⇒ Internal and external Korean language service ⇒ Internal and external multilingual service ※ June, 2008, multilingual complaint service via e-People System - Integrated submission and allocation of civil petitions ⇒ Integrated complaint handling system ⇒ Evolution of e-People System's functions by system improvement based on complaint information analysis and new services. ○ Development towards an intelligent knowledge management system - Complaint information management ⇒ Knowledge management system integrated with work. - Complaint information analysis by people ⇒ Real-time analysis by the system. ※ In the case of 2009, case studies data on frequent civil petitions were analyzed by hand. (In 2009, 23% (about 200,000) of the 870,000 cases were analyzed) - New information technique methodologies such as data mining and semantics search were applied. ○ Partnership between private sectors and government agencies - Information sharing with other government agencies and horizontal cooperation (Legislative office, Practical Law Q&A) - Cooperation for system improvement through the voice of people (Promoting participation of deputy secretaries in each government department) - Cooperation with private companies (civil petitions/policies Q&A portal service, Smart Phone service) ※ Providing 75 thousand data, approximately 120 thousand hits per day (November, 2010) ○ Development from a management system to a prevention system - Discovering and providing issue civil petitions for anticipative measures and solutions - Policy ombudsman reinforcement through analyzing various voices of people and providing it to each government department, presenting the need for policy supplement and system improvement

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
○ Expansion and development of integrated complaint management system - November, 2003 - The President ordered, "There is a need to build a system that manages civil petitions through an integrated window". - June, 2004 - Launch of e-People System establishment project - July, 2006 - Integration of the central administrative agency's functions (civil petitions, proposals, policy discussions) - April, 2007 - Pilot operation of complaint system in 17 local governments and 3 public institutions - February, 2008 - Integrated management of complaint system in 43 central administrative agencies, 246 local autonomous bodies, 14 key public institutions ➡ Continual expansion in subjects for integration of e-People System which is across-agency complaint management system (Local education authorities which are affiliated organizations of the Ministry of Education, affiliated organizations of the Judiciary, affiliated organizations of the Ministry of Defense, etc.) ○ Evolution into an intelligent knowledge management system using integrated complaint information - May, 2008 - The President said the following, "If the same civil petitions are being repeated then it means that the system is a failure... in order to fundamentally solve the problem, the irrational system ought to be changed" - May, 2008 - Introduction of designation system for frequent civil petitions ※ Reinforcing effectiveness and correspondence of complaint management through designating frequent civil petitions and system improvement ※ June, 2008, multilingual complaint service via e-People System - February, 2009 - Publication of inter-agency off-line knowledge management network for the voice of people ※ About 10,000 civil petitions per day are analyzed and organized in ‘Weekly Report on People's Voice’ and are provided to 39 government agencies including the prime minister's office, promoting system improvement. - June, 2009 - Commencement of a service providing similar cases automatically when filing similar civil petitions. - September, 2009 - Complaint policies Q&A service provided through private portals. - July, 2009 - Information service provided linked to the legislation information system of legislative offices. - November, 2010 - Development of complaint information analysis system and intelligent service were provided. ※ real-time display of frequent civil petitions, multi-dimension complaint type analysis, trend analysis and report. ○ Development plans for the future - 2011: Expansion of the collection scope of complaint information, optimization of analysis models for government departments - 2012: Completion of complaint prediction model and public communication feedback system, establishment of early warning system on issue civil petitions

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
○ Opposition by complaint system integration subject organizations - Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Defense, etc. refusing to give up their own established complaint management system - Presenting doubts on effects and the need for integration among concerned agencies and civil servants ☞ Efforts to overcome obstacles: Functions reflected considering each agency's characteristics (700 improvements for government departments collected) + Individual and group contacts (3~4 visits and negotiations to 25 key agencies, discussions with the heads of agencies) ○ Concerns about the leak of private information and personal information - Opposition by the Public Prosecutors Office, National Police Agency, Korea Customs Service, etc. (Concerns about the leak of crime related information) - Ministry of Defense, Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption concerned about the leak of citizens' and responsible civil servants' personal information ☞ Efforts to overcome obstacles: Prevention of information leak by reinforcing security functions + operation of 24-hour monitoring system + reinforcement of reading records automatic logging function ○ Absence of systematic basis for system integration/operation - Absence of legislative basis for integrated management of civil petitions that are received by administrative agencies at all levels - Non-establishment of standard operation process for civil petitions that integrate and operate all administrative agencies ☞ Efforts to overcome obstacles: Constituting and operating promotion team for across agency operation (5 agencies including The Office of the President, The Ombudsman of Korea, The Ministry of Government and Home Affairs) + Public participation portal integration•operation basis improved (The Ombudsman Act was enacted)

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 integrated complaint management system developed since 2004 to 2008. At the same time, a total amount of 10.9 billion won was invested for system establishment. In actuality, applying the integrated complaint management system, opposition arose from government departments, local governments, etc. The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), overcoming the oppositions of public institutions subject to integration through multilateral communication and persuasion efforts, integrated and managed the complaint system of 43 central administrative agencies, 246 local autonomous bodies, and 14 key public institutions according to the year 2008. ○ From 2009 to the present, continuous functional improvements along with the development of complaint information analysis system was launched. The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) is promoting various system improvements by improving the process of managing affairs based on the designation system for frequent civil petitions, managing 'the voice of people' network, etc. Using different information here, such as already collected complaints (approximately 3.4 million cases), etc., classification and analysis standards for the types, characteristics, frequencies of complaints were made, and these are used as preliminary data for work improvements. From 2010, for a comprehensive analysis of vast materials such as new complaint information, already processed complaint information, externally collected information, etc., about 2.5 billion won are being invested as development costs in establishing a complaint information analysis system.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
○ Sustainability guaranteed through continuous improvements in the basis for systematic equipment - The Ombudsman Act (October, 2005) and Decree (October, 2005) enacted - Operational regulations of public participation portal (Instructions from the President, April, 2006) and detailed enforcement regulations (Instructions from the committee, November, 2006) enacted - Legislations concerning petition affairs amended (March, 2006), public proposal regulations enacted (June, 2006). - Active measures on environmental changes through continuous functional improvements and new services. ○ International awards and recognitions - October, 2006 Selected among Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics at the World e-Gov Forum held in France - October, 2006 Selected as representative case for Asian region by International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) - October, 2008 Selected as the Best Demonstration Stand of e-Challenges Conference and Exhibition (Europe's e-government and IT conference) hosted by the European Commission (2008) - 2009 Invited to ‘CeBIT Australia 2009’ (an international information communication exposition) and displayed e-People System pavilion ○ National awards - November, 2006 Received ‘International Official Brand’ prize at the Government Innovative Brand Competition - September, 2007 Selected as the Best Practice at the E-government Performance Contest, received Prime Minister’s prize ○ Research presentation on e-People System internally and externally - October, 2010 Presentation at IFIP (Argentina) - December, 2010 Presentation at a national symposium - March, 2011 Presentation at ASPA (U.S.A) ○ Global contribution performance and future plans - Provision of teaching methods to developing countries such as Southeast Asian countries ※ ADB "Regional Technical Assistance (RETA): Study Tour of Korea" - Training program for RETA developing countries' training teams (November, 2009) - Visit by executive civil servants of local administrations in developing countries (March, 2010), visit by Thailand's ombudsman (June, 2010) - With Korea joining DAC, we will expand support programs for developing countries by using the ODA funds.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
○ Need more creative work towards knowledge management system which is integrated with work process in each agency - Utilization of knowledge management system in the process of filing civil petitions (providing similar cases, private portal civil petitions•policies Q&A, automatic classification of complaint types) - Utilization of knowledge management system in the process of handling civil petitions (analyzing frequent civil petitions, providing the results of similar cases within the operation system, civil petitions•policies Q&A) - Utilizing the knowledge management system in the perspective of complaint measures (real-time analysis of complaint conditions and trend predictions through the voice of people, complaint information analysis system) ○ Maximizing utilization of system - Maximizing the utilization of system while minimizing oppositions against system by adopting pilot test operation and user survey ○ Creation of new policy service using IT - Adoption of Web 3.0 technologies - analysis of complaint types and similar cases through data mining technique, information estimation and detailed analysis through the introduction of ontology, reinforcement of relevancy analysis function using semantic search function, etc. - Heightening services and strengthening communication with Net-generation via Smart Phone ○ Sustainable administrative innovation through improvement of service quality and effectiveness - Securing the support foundation through improvement of service quality such as handling and preventing public inconveniences and civil petitions from the public perspective - Securing resource investment legitimacy by producing visible outcomes and improving effectiveness ○ Solving the problems through information sharing and partnership - Knowledge sharing across governments reflecting voices of people, civil petitions, and policies Q&A - Improvement of information service quality through horizontal linkage such as integrated information system ○ Strong drive for the e-People System - President's strong drive for e-People System (Special attention and orders by the former and current President) - Promotional will of the ACRC and innovative efforts of responsible civil servants


Institution Name:		Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Hyun Soo Baek
Title:		Assistant Director
Telephone/ Fax:
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		etabli21c@korea.kr
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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