4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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CGM indulged in a one to one mapping of each service it was providing into a corresponding e-service module accessible from a web portal to service users.
1. Royalty payment was mapped into E-Payment – Royalty payments and pending dues were transferred via electronic fund transfer to government bank accounts by lease holders from their remote location. The records of the payments made were also captured which made reconciliation and reporting easier. This module was capable of supporting 9 types of payments.
2. Royalty pass stamping was mapped into All Time Royalty Pass – Royalty passes were issued real time with barcodes and accessible at the lease site. This not only reduced the effort for the lease holders and department but also helped in identification of royalty passes. These passes were integrated with weighing bridge to ensure that the quantity of mineral actually mined and transported matched the claims of the lease holders. The passes store information such as mineral category, destination, weight, vehicle details etc.
3. Monthly return filing was mapped into E-Return – This allowed lease holders to submit e-returns in a timely fashion online where the required information for filing returns was captured and used for MIS reporting and record keeping.
4. Demand Register maintenance was mapped into E-Demand Register - This module picked up the necessary information from the E-return module enabling department officials to manage and keep track of royalty paid, pending dues, overdue amount etc. It also made easy the process of carrying over the account status to the next month which was previously done manually.
5. Manual lease application was mapped into Online Lease application – Lease holders were able to submit applications for mining leases online and also track the status of the same online instead of doing the same through the district offices.
6. Delivery receipt was mapped into an e-delivery receipt module -
7. Weigh bridge module was mapped into Online weigh bridge – Instead of half monthly reconciliation of royalty differences, auto deduction of pending royalty dues was set up for each e-Royalty pass.
To go ahead with implementation, a 3 pronged approach was adopted:
1. Phased rollout: The CGM did not adopt the big bang approach. Instead it rolled out the modules in a phased manner. This allowed all stake holders to adapt to the changes. An all out approach would be anyways difficult to implement with limited staff availability.
2. Implementation: (n) Code Solutions, a division of Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Company Ltd., was roped in as a technology partner for end to end implementation of the solution.
Apart from the web based solution, the CGM introduced the use of hand held devices to field support staff and lease holders which would help them stay connected on the move to the Integrated Lease Management System. Real time checks during transportation could be done by tracking the royalty pass which would show all the information related to that pass for verification.
3. Training – The success of such an ambitious program largely depended on the quality of training provided to all stakeholders and the number of stakeholders covered.
The lease holders involved as stakeholders varied from small time contractors to sector giants. Hence, it was important to understand the level of response that each stakeholder would have to the new system and plan a comprehensive training schedule to meet these requirements accordingly.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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For a complete transformation of any system such as this, it was extremely important to identify the stakeholders in order to assess the impact that this change would have on each of them. Further, it was essential to lay down well defined roles and responsibilities for each stakeholder so that all factors could be considered in development and modification of the ILMS.
At the time of kick off, close to 7400 core stakeholders were identified, each of which had a significant role to play in this transformation.
1. Commissioner of Geology & Mining
• Responsible for driving overall implementation of initiatives
• Policy formulation as per feedback from stakeholders and promoting the use of ILMS
2. District Geologist
• Grass root level implementation of ILMS
• Ensuring an easy switch from existing procedure to use of ILMS for a smooth rollout
• Providing feedback based on experience with ILMS
3. Lease holders
• Put forward challenges faced while using ILMS or while transitioning from conventional method to ILMS
4. Weigh Bridge holders
• Responsible for providing thorough feedback on challenges faced in ILMS
5. Mineral Stockiest
• Responsible for providing feedback on delivery receipt modules and on challenges faced
6. Partner Bank
• Provide full implementation support to enable lease holders to make all payments online to government accounts
7. (n)Code Solutions
• Understanding requirements based on feedback
• Implement and support various software modules as per requirements of stakeholders
To move forward in collaboration with close to 7400 direct stakeholders and consider each feedback for continuous improvement was in no way an easy task. However, this was much needed to ensure that all requirements are sufficiently met.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Being a state government initiative, the capital expenditure on the implementation was made by the State Government entirely from the IT budget. The costs included implementation, network & infrastructure management and hardware procurement.
Recurring expenses made on IT infrastructure and support personnel was also borne by the State Government. The approximate cost of implementation was $ 483,000 inclusive of capital expenditure, post implementation hand holding expenses and routine maintenance of hardware & software used.
The lease holders/mineral stockists/weigh bridge owners were responsible for setting up necessary hardware and network infrastructure at their end such as computers, printers, internet connectivity etc. However, this was a onetime expenditure and a pretty good one considering the amount of time and effort that the ILMS would save them in the future.
The human resource costs associated with the project were bare minimum and included in the total cost of the project. The project monitoring committee comprised of officials from the Department of Industries and Mining and representatives from the Commissionerate of Geology and Mining.
The project management committee consisted of representatives from the Technology Partner handling various aspects such as business analysis, network administration, software development, web designers etc. The costs for the same were included in the cost of implementation.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Participation:
1. Around 14000 lease/permit owners have initiated 237,980 online transactions.
2. 7600 lease owners are using the e-royalty system generating 25 million online transactions.
3. 3800 mineral stockist are registered in the system generating 5 million online delivery passes.
4. Out of 1500 registered weigh bridges, currently more than 250 have been integrated for real time royalty deductions.
Growth:
Since the establishment of this system, the state has witnessed a considerable growth in mining activities. The ILMS operations were started in 2010.
1. CGM has witnessed a close to 320% increase in e-royalty pass transactions until now.
2. E-payments have increased by close to 60 %
3. 800 % increase in monthly e-return has been observed.
4. E-delivery pass transactions have increased by 750 %
5. There has been a 210% increase in weighment transactions since 2010.
Stakeholder participation has also seen a manifold increase since 2010 from 1670 online participants to 5630 online participants. The number of online mineral stockist has gone up to 835 from none in 2010.
Benefits:
While the statistics above purely show how participation of stakeholders has gone up over the years, the statistics below clearly show why participation has gone up and why investors were attracted towards this business.
Variable costs associated with travelling to district offices reduced significantly because of the following:
1. Facility for online payment.
2. Facility to apply for lease, procure royalty pass, delivery receipt etc was made available online.
3. Monthly returns could be filed online from remote locations instead of visiting district offices.
All of the above were covered by onetime initial costs of setting up basic hardware such as computers, internet connections etc at mining sites.
While reduction in monthly costs and hassles was a big enough incentive for small time players, an even bigger incentive for all stakeholders was a reduction in direct contact with government points of service in district offices.
Each visit could last for more than a day for any procedure. One does not intend to blame the government for this but the sheer volume of transactions and paper work involved was enough to keep officials busy throughout the day. The ILMS has helped all requests to be channeled in an extremely systematic fashion which allows the department to function promptly and reduce turnaround times by a significant amount.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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Regular monitoring and evaluation is important to move towards perfection. The best way of evaluating the system was to collect feedback from all the people involved in mineral administration on a regular basis. This helped in identifying challenges and further requirements at an early stage.
• A periodic review of e-system modules and progress report was present at the end of each month
• To ensure that the services made available online were used by all involved in the workflow, appropriate government orders were issued in the department
• Regular feedback was taken from all stakeholders involved such as lease holders, mineral stockists, weigh bridge owners and district officials. This helped to bring everyone’s views on the table and select the best possible option.
The CGM also hired external agencies to evaluate and monitor the project:
1. The qualitative study on “use of e-Governance in Mineral Administration” was done by Technocrat Consultants.
2. The impact of this initiative was reviewed by a third party agency viz. Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The biggest challenge in implementation of such a system was to bring together the opinions and requirements of more than 7600 stakeholders to ensure that a near perfect system is put in place. Improving the acceptability of this system amongst small time players and those not so well educated was also a major challenge.
Then came the question of availability of service. In remote areas where mining activities are carried out, internet connectivity is difficult to obtain. Moreover, with frequent possible power cuts, ILMS may not be available at times causing operational hurdles or complete shutdown of mining activity. This urged the department to introduce hand held devices with GPRS connection so that even in remote areas without electricity and internet connection, ILMS would be accessible at all times.
A common challenge which is faced in most government transformation activities is that of capacity building and training. This hurdle was overcome by extensive training programs educating everyone involved on the usage of ILMS and the facilities available. Operational manuals were designed and micro level training programs were introduced. Further, demo case studies were designed and used for training.
A significant bit of government process re-engineering was also required to completely utilize the system’s potential to improve operational efficiency and ensure seamless delivery of service. One must understand that the transformation process is even more complex when dealing with an organization that has had the same way of operating for years and is not used to change. A drastic change must be brought in well to ensure that there are no question marks regarding change of roles & responsibilities, change in importance of each role and most importantly the future. This transformation was managed well.
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