Egovernance Case Study: India's First Regulatory Compliance Monitoring System

Abstract

Often it is the government machinery, which is held responsible for everything bad about governance. In reality though, constraints and deficiencies in the administrative system are the actual causes behind such performance glitches. Timeliness, Efficiency, Security, Transparency, Equity, and Responsibility (TESTER) are attributes that more or less sum up the current concerns about the quality of governance. The challenge, however, is in putting good governance to work. Paper documents and files, which are still the mainstay of governance severely, impede the performance of governments.

The greatest advantage of egovernance is its capacity to equip the government functionaries with greater management control and efficient decision support systems. However, countries could get the best out of egovernance only by applying it to core areas of governance and ensuring that such ICT applications perform well on all counts of good governance.

Building efficient egovernance solutions is no mean challenge. In fact, there are hardly any software solutions in core areas of governance like regulatory compliance monitoring. Indian Mines Safety Information System (IMSIS) is India’s first regulatory compliance monitoring application. It is also a showcase of what egovernance could do for good governance. It provides compliance monitoring framework with respect to the Mines Act, 1952; Mines Rules, 1955; Coal Mines Regulations, 1957; Mines Rescue Rules, 1985 and Indian Electricity Rules, 1956.

IMSIS is currently in use at the Directorate General of Mines Safety (DGMS). It provides end to end solution for compiling all the data collected during the mandatory safety inspections of coalmines in to a structured database and automating the generation of statutory reports and violation letters and also tracking the initial and follow up actions taken against each violation.

IMSIS application replaces physical movement of files with electronic transmission of documents that contain data, drafts, notes, attachments, flags, etc. that usually form part of any conventional file used in government. IMSIS also provides database back ended mailbox for each user with facilities for opening forms, files, and documents received or sent.

The data model of IMSIS provides simple methods for capturing and processing complex data sets with the help of standardisation and automated generation of Unique Identification Codes. IMSIS is deployed as a web service operable over the Internet and Local Area Networks. It can be ported on to any of the popular RDBMS, Web Servers, Application Servers, and Operating Systems.

An important feature of IMSIS is the knowledgebase it creates by capturing all the complex entity and data relationships to the last detail and by employing extensive standardization and parameterization to generate effective decision support information and predictive intelligence.

This case study deals with both the conceptual framework and the database architecture of IMSIS with a view to assess the replication potential of this model. The concluding part of the study draws up a generic good governance checklist for egovernance applications based on the features, which are already built in to IMSIS.

INDIAN MINE SAFETY INFORMATION SYSTEM (IMSIS)

IMSIS is an outcome of the Coal Mine Safety and Health Project, a joint initiative of United States Department of Labor (US-DOL), and Ministry of Labour, Government of India. M/s Aurora Associates International Inc. was the implementing agency for US-DOL.

Aims and Objectives

IMSIS was conceived in response to a typical challenge that is common to most government organisations. Though coal production was going up significantly, the number officials available at DGMS for carrying out coal mine inspections remained almost static. IMSIS had a clear service objective of reducing the time taken in the generation of statutory inspection reports and tracking of violations. Information as well as inferences made from it were proposed to be standardised and parameterized and stored in a database for automating the process flows and creating a knowledge base capable of providing intelligent decision support for corrective and preventive actions.

Tendering and Vendor Selection

The implementing agency adopted the conventional two part tendering process consisting of technical and financial bids for selecting the vendor for developing IMSIS. The vendor selection process did involve detailed process of evaluating the technical bids because of the pioneering nature of the software application,

• The tender was accompanied by a process mapping study which clearly defined all the desired functionalities as deliverables

• The assessment criteria gave significant weightage to demonstrable capacities with specific reference to the desired functionalities. The vendors were required to spell out how they proposed to implement the functionalities technically.

• Vendors short listed on the basis of technical bid were given the opportunity make technical presentations before final selection

• Participation was truly open like for any national competition and there was no pre-qualification requirements either in terms of turn over or quality certification

• The process mapping study carried out before tendering actually helped in not only assessing the bids strictly in terms of the requirements of the project but also monitoring the implementation process effectively. The project was awarded to M/s Infotwins technologies, New Delhi in September 2002.

Development and Implementation

Technology is no more a barrier for building effective egovernance solutions. Yet, it does take considerable effort for first time applications to measure up to the expectations of users and pass the test of good governance. Interactive involvement of the different strata of users during development played a critical role in not only fine-tuning the IMSIS application, but also making it acceptable to all users. Expectations did vary widely from user to user depending on the role one played within IMSIS.

The IMSIS project took 45 months from start to finish. Though the implementation time for similar applications based on IMSIS could be cut to half, none of the development stages of IMSIS could be missed out. Testing the application at different stages of development is necessary to make it sustainable in the long run. Besides having a strategic plan for involving the users who would be often too busy and testing the applications against exceptional cases, which do not occur very frequently, it would be preferable also to provision for two or three revisions of the application as part of the software implementation process itself.

Egovernance and its unique needs: Some lessons from IMSIS

One of the important revelations of IMSIS is the fact egovernance in general do have a few unique requirements, which need to be taken in to account at the design stage itself.

• Need for action-based differentiation of access and usage rights: Government mechanisms do contain an elaborate system of accountability and checks and balances. Rules not only specify the competent authority for taking any particular action within a given jurisdiction but also allow a single person to be the competent authority in multiple jurisdictions. Such situations do call for detailed definition of access and usage rights based on the actions one performs within a given jurisdiction. Inside IMSIS for example, though users can enter inspection data only for the mines falling under their jurisdiction, they are given the right to read or copy data pertaining to any mine. While senior officials could read the information submitted by junior officials and add their own notes or comments, they are denied the right to alter the data submitted by junior officials.

• Need for replicating existing processes as much as possible: Rules also invariably spell out the procedures for taking any actions. It is better to ensure that egovernance applications emulate the existing process flows as far as possible keeping modifications within the bounds of extant laws for cutting down implementation delays and minimizing transition costs.
  
  IMSIS has been implemented without having to change any rule or add a single person. IMSIS has been able to automate the existing processes simply by creating the electronic alternatives to key components of governance process such as files, part files, flags, forms, note sheets, drafts, registers, attachments and the like. These generic components also make IMSIS easily replicable for any kind of egovernance application.

• Need for preserving the evidentiary nature of information: It is because every governance action can be subject to subsequent enquiries, records are required to be maintained in paper format with inked signatures to provide unassailable information about who wrote what and when.
  
  IMSIS model does offer a solution to cope with this issue. IMSIS stores all the data inside the database along with accurate date and time stamps and clear user identification. Since it is still a moot question whether information held inside databases would be admissible as evidence, IMSIS also includes the option of storing electronic documents in encrypted PDF format also.
  
  A common feature of the conventional governance processes is the distinction between a draft and official documents. It is necessary to retain this demarcation in egovernance applications too. IMSIS, besides separating out draft work, generates of editable word documents when user does only draft work.

• Need for seamless integration of public and internal interfaces: A key objective of egovernance applications is to reduce the difficulties faced by the citizens in dealing with governments. However, only end-to-end solutions that seamlessly integrate both the public and government interfaces could give citizens the full benefit of egovernance. In the case of law and order, for example the police station where the citizen goes to lodge the FIR is a public interface. The investigation that follows is the internal process that takes place in response to the FIR. The case filed in the court following FIR and investigation might actually involve multiple public interfaces involving the complainant, defendant, and the witnesses. We really cannot make the citizen happier by enabling e filing of FIR only. The egovernance service centres could be only as efficient as the level of automation achieved in the back end processes
  
  The IMSIS model clearly shows that automated internal processes could make service deliveries through public interfaces fast and convenient. IMSIS like architecture could also be the most cost effective for meeting the growing burden of work emanating from the Right to Information Act.

• Need for a data model to deal with complex sets of data: Apart from the fact that Governments deal with much more complex sets of data, there are also compelling reasons for egovernance applications to represent such data in all its complexity. There are two types of complexities. The first relates to the question of unique identification of any entity in its whole and parts. The challenge is not so much in dealing with extended hierarchical relationships going down to 9 to 10 levels, but the need to generate such unique identifications dynamically. The second relates to measurements of both quantitative and qualitative data. The challenge here is one of translating particularly the qualitative data in to decision support variables. This certainly calls for comprehensive parameterization and standardization of all data.
  
  IMSIS shows the way for not only dynamically generating unique identification codes (UIC) for every data that goes in to the database but also generating, storing and analyzing parameterized values. IMSIS also includes a procedure for associating multiple UIC codes with any data and creating structured relations among these. The hierarchy of mine entities goes down to seven levels with the mine at the top to the dip at the last level. In between are Unit, Seam, Sections, Panel, and Working Face. In addition, IMSIS also handles many other entity hierarchies and the data relationships that go with these.

• Need to cope with frequent changes in the laws and procedures: Governance is a continuous learning process. Both the rules and are procedures could always change in response to new needs. At the same time historical knowledge captured into databases will always be immense value for future decision-making. Egovernance applications must therefore adopt an architecture in which subsequent changes could be incorporated in the applications without missing past data.
  
  Apart from the UIC codes attached to each data that would help preserve the old data or map it or relate it to a new element, the forms used by IMSIS to capture data also allow for easy addition or deletion of fields. Without such facilities, egovernance applications might actually become a shackle.

• Need to predefine data population and migration strategies: Another major challenge is the management of historical data. Data migration would also become when changes are made in existing applications. A clear strategy must be defined from the beginning about managing past data and migrating the data in future. Facilities must be also provided for easy inter change of data through standard interfaces like XML together with a schema that uniquely identifies each element of data.
  
  IMSIS, while providing XML based data interfaces, also ensures unique identification of each data element. It was decided right from the beginning that IMSIS would use only new data. The entry of past data would be limited to the latest one year

Egovernance for Good Governance: The IMSIS Model

The raison d'etre for egovernance is good governance. Timeliness, Efficiency, Security, Transparency, Equity, and Responsibility (TESTER) are attributes that more or less sum up the current concerns about the quality of governance. Every egovernance application must therefore pass the test of good governance

Timeliness

Though responsiveness is a desirable attribute of good governance, timeliness is a better goal to strive for. Governments must respond not only to felt needs but also be able to anticipate emerging challenges and take advance actions. . The greatest advantage of egovernance is its capacity to create knowledge and provide effective decision support systems and predictive intelligence It is by ensuring that all the data by such systems are used or usable in the process of knowledge creation, a country can derive the full benefits of egovernance.

Information collected through unstructured paper forms and observations written in non-parameterized text do not lend themselves for meaningful aggregation and analysis. Added to this is the use of multiplicity of overlapping classifications and entity identification codes that severely limit the scope for correlating the data. IMSIS uses knowledge base architecture for storing all the data and other supporting information in easily retrievable and co relatable manner. It is designed to help DGMS guide the mines in taking preventive actions.

IMSIS also provides methods for reducing the lead-time needed for taking any action. It replaces physical movement of files with electronic transmission of documents that contain all the data, drafts, notes, attachments, flags, etc. that are necessary for taking decisions and actions. IMSIS also provides a mailbox for each user for each category of functions.

Efficiency

Efficiency in governance has the potential not only to accelerate economic progress but also add to social wellness. Egovernance is one of the important tools that can bring about such efficiency gains. It could help bring about greater resource efficiency in government operations, reduce the transaction costs in the economy, and engender significant increase in the productivity of people.

Time is what egovernance applications could save best. Governance is a domain where ICT applications can save time the most as it involves primarily information management. In order to achieve absolute time gains, egovernance alternatives must offer end-to-end process automation and save the time of every user.

IMSIS uses innovative process designs to reduce information processing time. These include:

• Preprocessing of the data before it is sent to the database
• Storing entity relationships along with the data
• Integrating data with information held in files in other formats

Now inspection work is focused more on making physical examination of mining operations. Once the data is entered, IMSIS produces inspection and violation reports and related communications automatically within a few minutes and updates all concerned registers simultaneously.

As a result, the documentation process, which used to span over 30 to 45 days is completed within a matter of few minutes. Even after taking in to account the time taken to collect and enter the data in to IMSIS, the total time taken for completing one inspection now ranges between 15 to 35 per cent of what it used to take under the paper based systems

Efforts are also on to bring down the data entry time, by increasing the ratio of selectable data entry values to 65% of the fields, through enhanced facilities for copying similar data across entities and use of selectable standardized texts for writing notes and communications. IMSIS also brings out a very important fact that so long as the system is open to handling exceptional cases, standardization could take place in most areas of governance.

Security

Anxiety over security is often a greater danger than actual threats to security. Citizens expect the governments not only to ensure that everyone complies with the laws but also have the necessary information to track down offenders. They also expect governments to take good care of the information at its disposal and make the best use of it.

Egovernance does pave way for more effective administration of laws and significant deepening the process of intelligence gathering. The resultant knowledgebase could provide better insights for preventing potential threats to security. While data security is an important issue, it should not overshadow the more important role of egovernance applications in assuring greater security to people.

The primary objective of IMSIS is to save life and property mining operations. It could be emulated in areas like environmental protection, industrial safety etc. Data security innovations IMSIS such as separation of data labels from data, and differentiated definition of access and usage permissions are also worth emulating.

Transparency

It is unrealistic to expect transparency where the laws are opaque. Egovernance systems therefore, should be to make the laws and rules transparent to both the administrators and citizens.

IMSIS accomplishes transparency in two ways. First, it makes the laws more easily administrable. Secondly, it also makes the legal implications clear and predictable to those who have to comply with these. IMSIS achieves both these objectives through amplification of the regulations with the help of objective parameters and integration of the regulatory information in to the compliance assessment process.

IMSIS provides both the relevant legal documentation objective conditions to be used in compliance assessment right where users need these. It also ensures unequivocal capturing of qualitative with the help of selectable parameters while providing space for users to notify the specific reasons behind such assessments. This process makes the entire legal process very to the inspectors and mines.

Equity

In egovernance, equity largely translates in to applying laws and regulations evenly and providing non-discriminatory access to e-services. It calls for bridging the digital divide and making standardized governance practices universally applicable.

IMSIS uses standardization as the main tool for ensuring even handed application. It ensures that legal provisions and procedures are interpreted and applied across the entire application without discrimination.

IMSIS adopts web service as the delivery model and distributed database architecture for making the services available through independent local networks. One of the innovations of IMSIS is also the facility for aggregating data in to central servers by receiving the data in media like CD. IMSIS model also has a provision to enable individual users to fill simple forms in offline mode and submit these in floppy or CD. These make the IMSIS model eminently suitable for delivery through common service centres.

Responsibility

Responsibility implies not only pinpointing errors but also making good the losses caused by such errors. In order for the governments to be responsible, it is important to create proper accountability systems and liability regimes. More often, the governments escape the burden of responsibility, simply because of the absence of well-defined accountability frameworks.

Accountability frameworks become complex when responsibilities are to be fixed for acts of both commission and omission. In fact, identifying inaction is bigger challenge. Though the right to information law makes it obligatory for the government to part with the information necessary for making its actions transparent, accountability could be traced only if the right type of information exists in official records.

IMSIS uses standardized forms and procedures with report generation facilities with only the filled data or together with the skipped data elements. This makes it easy to track areas or regulations overlooked by the user. In order to provide facilitate fixing of accountability it also provides all the information entered by the users with time stamps. The system does not also allow over writing of data by anyone other than the owner of the data and denial of permission for making changes in the finally submitted official data.

Conclusion

This case study clearly shows that good governance can be achieved better through egovernance applications that comply with the unique requirements governments and meet the specific needs of good governance. The issues identified by this case study can indeed form the basis of a checklist for evaluating egovernance applications. Surely, the scope of this checklist could be progressively expanded by adding lessons learnt while implementing other egovernance services.