MuNet, a new way to improve municipalities

Abstract

In this paper, we present the Efficient and Transparent Municipalities (MuNet) project, developed by the Organization of American States (OAS), with the sponsorship of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The aim of this project was to help Latin-American municipalities to use ICT tools to improve efficiency and transparency in its activities. The project was developed between 2005 and 2006 in 22 municipalities distributed in 11 countries, with the support of 5 experts of 5 different nationalities. The first phase followed a diagnostic of the general situation of the municipality, including technological aspects, and also transparency perceptions. Then a proposal of strategy to apply electronic government was developed with the collaboration of a Consultancy Team and the Task Force defined by the Major in each municipality. Furthermore, all the participants in the project received a virtual course about fundamentals in electronic government strategies. With the document approved by the society and the political ambit the Consultancy Team accompanied the Task Force in the implementation process, using in some cases the technological support of the project, specifically with software applications to develop the Web page of the municipality -MuniPortal, another software -MuniCompra; to improve the buying process and a last one to support the creation of a one stop window for the municipality services -MuniServi. Additionally, this paper also presents evidence of the implementation process and the general data about the diagnostics developed.