DOI: https://doi.org/10.62204/2336-498X-2023-2-10

DIGITALIZATION OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CENTER

FOR THE PROVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES ON

THE EXAMPLE OF DISTRICT STATE ADMINISTRATIONS IN THE CITY OF KYIV

Anastasia Tadlia,

State University of Trade and Economics, Kyiv, Ukraine,

nastya.tadlya@gmail.com; ORCID: 0009-0003-8963-3807

Annotation. The article is devoted to the study of the current state and prospects for the development of digitization of administrative services in Ukraine as one of the main components of the formation of a service state. The article defines that the main idea of digitization of public services is to provide the population with high-quality administrative services in electronic form. In the process of research, the views of various scientists on the current state of integration of administrative services in the digital environment were considered and analyzed. Emphasis is placed on the factors that actualize the process of improving the level of digitalization of administrative services on the example of district state administrations in the city of Kyiv.

Keywords: digitalization, administrative service, electronic administrative service, service state, center for providing administrative services, Internet technologies.

Formulation of the problem. The implementation of digitalization of administrative services in the system of public administration is the embodiment of the process of electronic governance, the necessity and relevance of which does not cause any doubt, because it is a requirement of today, the next more perfect gradual step in the development of public relations. However, during the analysis, a number of procedural and technological shortcomings, as well as gaps in the regulatory and legal regulation of this issue, were revealed. It is impossible to increase the efficiency indicators of the provision of this type of services, unless the problem of their applied functioning and regulatory and legal support, which regulates this process of activity, is investigated in detail. Based on this and in view of the growing demand for receiving administrative services online, we note that the digitalization of the activity of centers providing administrative services is an actual direction of research and important in the conditions of the formation of modern society.

This topic is relatively new, but there are already scientific developments in this field and those related to it among Ukrainian researchers. The process of providing administrative services using Internet technologies was studied by: G. Pysarenko (2006), O. Yemelyanenko (2008), K. Afanasyev (2010), O. Malikina, V. Furatov (2014), I. Klymenko (2014). , K. Fuglevich (2015), O. Bukhanevich (2015), I. Tyschenkova (2017), B. Teteryatnik (2017), V. Kuybida, O. Karpenko, V. Namestnik (2018), I. Strutynska (2019) , Yu. Solomko (2020), I. Kravchuk (2021), T. Kovalova, O. Gunbina (2021) and others.

Thus, the relevance of the study is determined by the presence of a problem, the essence of which boils down to the existing contradiction, on the one hand, between the need to increase the efficiency of the activity of administrative service centers in the conditions of the formation of an information society, which is possible on the basis of the digitalization of these services, and, on the other hand, the lack of proper scientificapplied and methodical-technological support of the specified activity.

The aim of the study. The purpose of the work is to analyze the features of digitization of the activity of administrative service centers on the example of district state administrations in the city of Kyiv, search for gaps in regulatory and legal regulation, procedural deficiencies that arise in the course of providing this type of service, as well as formulating systemic administrative decisions to identify and problem solving.

To realize the goal of the research, the following tasks were defined: to analyze and summarize the organizational and legal principles of the provision of administrative services in Ukraine; to investigate the current state and features of digitization of the activity of centers providing administrative services; justify the approach regarding the availability and quality of the provision of administrative services (on the example of the activity of the Office (Center) for the provision of administrative services of the Desnyan District State Administration in the city of Kyiv).

Presenting main material. Services provided by the state and its bodies, municipal and other structures are public services. The official definition of the sphere of public services, and therefore of this type of services, is given in the Concept of Development of the System of Provision of Administrative Services by Executive Power Bodies, approved by the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated February 15, 2006 No. 90. “Services provided by state authorities, local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions, and organizations under their management, as emphasized in the Concept, constitute the sphere of public services.” Clarification regarding the interpretation of the concept of “public services” is provided by the legislator, which states that the sphere of public services consists of services provided by state authorities, local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions, and organizations under their management.

The opinion of O. Malikina and V. Furatov (2014) is valid in this context, which notes that services do not fundamentally coincide with the actual actions (performance of activities) of the performer, but exist as a separate phenomenon – a certain intangible good [1, p. 57].

Thus, the service must necessarily have a certain beneficial effect, and not only be oriented towards achieving a remote result. Orientation as the essence of the target basis of activity, although it is an essential characteristic of it, still does not describe the content of this activity with sufficient completeness and specificity. Therefore, the administrative service, although it has a special legal nature, which is considered inextricably linked with the legal status of the service user, should be characterized by its own socio-legal significance.

By classifying public services by the entity providing public services, it is possible to single out administrative services that have all the characteristics of public services.

Accordingly, administrative services and public services can be related as a part and a whole. In the scientific literature, a single interpretation of the definition of “administrative services” has not been developed.

The point of view of K. Fuglevych (2015), which defines the concept of “administrative service” as a public-authority activity, seems valid , which is carried out in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law and consists in the creation by the public administration body of individualized organizational and legal conditions for physical and legal entities to exercise their rights, freedoms, and legal interests at their request on a paid or free basis [2, p. 16]. According to K. Afanasyev (2010), administrative services are public (that is, state and municipal) services provided by executive bodies, executive bodies of local self-government and other authorized entities, and the provision of which is related to the exercise of power [3, p. 28]. G. Pysarenko (2006) proposes to consider the administrative service as a legal relationship arising from the realization of the subjective rights of a natural or legal person (at their request) in the process of publicauthority activity of an administrative body to obtain a certain result [4, p. 47].

Having summarized the scientific approaches to the definition of the concept of “administrative service” and aligning them with the normative consolidation of this concept, it seems appropriate to define administrative services as the activity of subjects of public administration to ensure the rights of individuals or legal entities, which is aimed, on the one hand, at ensuring public interest, and on the other hand – to ensure the private interest of persons who applied to the subject of public administration for the purpose of obtaining an administrative service.

At the same time, it should be noted that the rather rapid development of electronic administrative services has been implemented or significantly improved during the quarantine regime. Regarding the definition of the concept of “electronic administrative service”, it can be interpreted (O. Yemelyanenko, 2008) as: the process of creating and implementing management services by public authorities using information and telecommunication technologies within the framework of electronic interaction between society and the state [5, p. 20–22]; a legally established service provided by state authorities to citizens, enterprises, organizations and other state bodies (I. Klymenko, 2014) [6]; a service provided to citizens and organizations in electronic form using information and communication technologies.

Summarizing the opinions of scientists, it is worth concluding that the significant disadvantages that slow down the process of digital transformation in the field of administrative services are: 1) complexity, which makes it difficult to convert them into electronic form (Y. Solomko, 2020) [7]; 2) lack of electronic unified register; 3) lack of a list of priority administrative services for their conversion into electronic form; 4) imperfect legal framework regulating the provision of electronic administrative services; 5) the legal conditions for the protection of personal data are not defined; 6) lack of uniform principles, norms and rules ensuring the process of providing electronic administrative services; 7) lack of a unified strategy for the implementation of electronic administrative services at the national, local and local levels (O. Bukhanevich, 2015) [8, p. 60]. In order to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings, it is considered necessary to improve the regulatory and legal mechanism for ensuring the service activities of public administration entities in Ukraine.

Thus, it is worth noting that the digital transformation of the sphere of administrative services is provided through the creation of legal and material support for the provision of certain administrative services in electronic form.

A single approach to understanding the concept of “digital transformation” has not yet been developed. According to the researchers of the I-Scoop company, digital transformation should be understood as a fundamental transformation of business and organizational activities, processes, competencies and models to ensure changes and the possibility of combining digital technologies and their strategic (priority) acceleration in society, taking into account the current state and the future of development [9].

1. Kuibida, O. Karpenko and V. Namestnik (2018) defined digital transformation as changes in the nature of a person, his thinking, life and management caused by the use of digital technologies) [10, p. 6]. The term “digitalization” comes from English and means “digitization”, “digitization”, or “digitalization”.

As B. Teteryatnik (2017) notes, the term “digitalization” covers a wider range of meanings than its synonym “digitalization”. This is due to the fact that it is in the European and American research traditions that the consequences of the transition from analog to digital coding of information began to be studied not just as technological, but also as social, cultural and anthropological processes) [11, p. 21–23].

Analyzing the term “digital transformation”, it is considered appropriate to state that: 1) there is no single meaningful definition of this concept, and 2) this term is used mainly in the field of business (entrepreneurship).

However, based on the positions of individual researchers (I. Strutynska , 2019) , we come to the conclusion that under “digital transformation” it is necessary to understand the process of implementing information and communication technologies in the most important spheres of social life to ensure the proper functioning of a person, society, and the state and their interaction with each other) [12, p. 94]. These technologies, as already mentioned, are the processes of informatization, computerization, robotization, and digitization, which form the specifics of social relations in the digital sphere of Ukraine.

Thus, digital transformation as an object of public administration is understood as a system of measures to transform and improve various spheres of social life through the integration of information and telecommunication technologies into such spheres of social relations for the development of an open information society, increasing productivity, economic growth, job creation, as well as improving the quality of life of Ukrainian citizens.

The main goal of digitalization of administrative services is to facilitate communication with state authorities and local governments. However, in the process of implementation, the problem of the so-called “digital inequality” arose. The use of Internet technologies requires a person to have relevant knowledge and skills, but due to the low level of digital literacy, not all citizens can use the new way of obtaining administrative services.

At this stage, the implementation of digitization of administrative services in our country is also accompanied by such a problem as the limitation of the procedure for obtaining certain services in electronic form only at its initial stage. I. Tyschenkova (2017) notes that such processes as submitting electronic documents, monitoring the process of receiving a service are not available to some users. So, for example, many TsNAPs currently do not provide an opportunity for individuals to receive electronic administrative services of an appropriate level. They only publish general information about the service, as well as post electronic forms and statements ) [13, p. 126]. Today, there are two options for filling out the electronic application form – downloading the application, filling it out and sending it using an electronic digital signature, as well as by filling out the on-screen application form directly on the WEB page. And it is the second option that needs legal regulation. Currently, there is no mechanism that should regulate the issue of the signature or its analogue in the form of a screen, which is necessary to confirm the will of the parties, as a result of which there is no possibility of identifying the subject of receiving the service (I. Kravchuk, 2021) [14]. The next, but no less important and currently relevant legal problem of the digitization of administrative services is related to such a stage of providing electronic administrative services as the work of the service provider on received applications and documents.

The consequence of the specified problem is the impossibility at this stage of receiving an administrative service to determine the entity responsible for non-provision or improper provision of the service. It is also possible to state the fact of the presence of shortcomings in the regulation of the process of transition directly to electronic interaction between the participants of the process. Improvements in legal regulation also require certain technical aspects of the process of providing administrative services using Internet technologies.

Summarizing, it should be noted that the digitalization of administrative services in Ukraine is a process designed to simplify the procedure for providing administrative services, using Internet technologies. In order to solve these problems, we offer a number of recommendations that directly relate to the procedure for providing and receiving administrative services using Internet technologies, as well as legal aspects of their settlement.

The practical implementation of the proposal will have a positive effect on the digitization procedure.

The first group of recommendations includes: ensuring access to high-speed Internet throughout Ukraine, as well as conducting campaigns to improve citizens’ digital literacy; creation of an effective document management system for the purpose of free access to electronic documents of subjects providing administrative services; improvement of the technical equipment of TsNAPs and ensuring the functioning of official WEB-pages, through which citizens will have access to receiving services in electronic mode.

The second group of recommendations includes: approval at the legislative level of an effective algorithm of interaction between entities providing administrative services online; approval of a special form of electronic signature or its analogue for applications and documents of a screen form, which are filled out directly on the WEB page in the process of receiving the service.

Summing up, it should be noted that Ukraine has all the opportunities to build an effective system of digitized administrative services. The strengthening of the influence of digital transformation on the implementation of activities by subjects of public administration is associated with several factors: 1) the general trend towards digitalization; 2) in conducting quarantine and other restrictive measures. As of now, it is an integral element of public administration, with the help of which the functional purpose of state executive bodies and those subjects to which their powers can be delegated is reflected.

The above-mentioned provisions also characterize executive and administrative activities in the field of digital transformation. It is appropriate to single out the following features of executive and administrative activity in the field of digital transformation:

1. has the power and administrative nature of powers delegated by the state;
2. has a sub-legal nature, that is, activities in the field of digital transformation are aimed at fulfilling the requirements of laws, because the most important goals, areas, forms and methods of influence are established at the legislative level, since all executive and administrative activity is based on the norms of law, which determines the limits of its direction ;
3. scale, which is manifested in the managerial influence on the economy, socio-cultural and administrative-political spheres within the state and individual administrative-territorial units;
4. has a systemic character that cannot acquire signs of fragmentation;
5. provides for the subordination of higher and lower functional units with a clear subordination and hierarchy in the system of bodies that carry out executive and administrative activities;
6. availability of a system of administrative coercion in cases of violation of current legislation;
7. controlled nature of the activity caused by the presence of bodies that control and supervise the implementation of public administration functions;
8. the directly organizational nature of managerial activity, which consists in the fact that in the process of execution and ordering at different levels, the joint activity of people is organized.

The system of executive authorities includes: 1) the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; 2) central bodies of executive power; 3) local bodies of executive power: a) local state administrations; b) territorial bodies of the central executive body, which structurally do not belong to local state administrations. A similar system of state executive bodies is empowered in the field of digital transformation.

In the Center for the provision of administrative services of the Desnyan district, which is located in the premises of the Desnyan District State Administration at 29 Mayakovsky Avenue, work continues to improve the level of the provision of administrative services and transfer the maximum amount of them to the electronic format, introducing the latest technologies.

  On May 24, 2016, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klychko took part in the opening of the branch of the Center for the Provision of Administrative Services on the Forest Massif and talked with residents. The opening of the first branch of the Administrative Services Center among the capital’s districts was also visited by Deputy Chairman of the KMDA Mykola Povoroznyk, Director of the Department (Center) of Administrative Services of the KMDA Nataliya Shamrai, Acting. Viktor Krokhmalyuk, head of the Desnyan District State Administration, deputies of the Kyiv City Council of the 8th convocation, Vadym Onufriychuk and Mykhailo Ishchenko. “Despite the difficult economic situation, we are doing everything to make people feel that Kyiv is changing,” the mayor emphasized. – Today we are opening a branch of the National Center for National Health and Welfare. I am sure that each of you will spend less time on processing documents, because you do not need to go to the district administration, where the National Center for National Health and Welfare is located, but come to your neighborhood and quickly and conveniently issue the necessary documents.”

The requested services will be provided at the branch of the National Center for National Health and Welfare: 1) registration of the place of residence/residence of individuals; 2) deregistration of the place of residence of individuals; 3) affixing a photo card to the passport of a citizen of Ukraine upon reaching the age of 25 and 45; 4) replacement of a passport of a citizen of Ukraine in connection with loss, damage, change of surname (name, patronymic); 5) state registration of property rights to immovable property; 6) issuance of a certificate of participation in the privatization of housing of the state housing fund; 7) issuance of a certificate/duplicate of housing ownership; 8) issuance of certificates of parents and a child from a large family, extension of the validity period of the certificate.

In fulfillment of a separate mandate of the head of the State Administration of Desnyansk District in the city of Kyiv, Dmytro Ratnikov, dated 20.01.2022 No. 102/479 regarding the preparation of information for the public report on the work of the State Administration of Desnyansk District in the city of Kyiv for 2021, the Administration (Center) for the provision of administrative services provides the following information .

In the Desnyan district of Kyiv, the Office (Center) for the provision of administrative services of the Desnyan District State Administration in the city of Kyiv (hereinafter referred to as the State Administration) operates with two territorial divisions (in the premises of the Desnyan District State Administration in the city of Kyiv at the address: 29 Volodymyr Mayakovsky Ave. and a branch at the address: 39A Lisovyi avenue), where more than 151 administrative services are provided.

The full-time number of TsNAP is 47 people, the actual number is 46 people (of which 40 people are administrators). For 2020 84,097 applications (cases) were accepted for the provision of administrative services, in 2021, 26,292 more applications were accepted, amounting to 110,389 applications. The Desnyansk district administrative center is the leader in terms of the number of accepted applications in 2021 in the city of Kyiv.

The greatest demand among the population in 2021 was services for registering the place of residence of individuals – 60,407 services were provided or 54.7% of the total number of accepted applications (in 2021, the number of applications increased by 9,357), the State Migration Service (issuance of a passport of a citizen of Ukraine in the form of an ID card, passport for traveling abroad, etc.) – 26,414 services or 23.9% (10,801 services were provided more than in 2020), in the field of activity of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs – 9,954 services or 9% (by 2,187 more services), services of the Department for Registration of the Executive Body of the Kyiv City Council (KMDA) – 2,569 services or 2% (by 1,185 more services), services of the Children and Family Service – 2,252 or 2% (895 more services).

Administrators of the National Center of the Desnian district are involved in the work of the single call center of administrative services in the city of Kyiv. In the reporting period, administrators provided more than 57,000 high-quality telephone consultations, as evidenced by citizen feedback.

Citizens are also consulted through social pages on the Internet (Facebook, Google, 2gis.ua) and e-mail.

In order to popularize activities and attract young people to the work of providing administrative services, TsNP successfully cooperates with Kyiv University named after Borys Grinchenko and Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics (KNTEU). In 2021, 16 students completed internships on the basis of TsNAP and branches.

During the period of quarantine measures due to the corona virus pandemic, the administrators of TsNP continued to work to meet the needs of the population. Administrative services were provided taking into account epidemiological restrictions in accordance with the decisions of the Standing Commission on Technological and Environmental Safety and Emergency Situations of the Executive Body of the Kyiv City Council (KMDA) and in compliance with sanitary requirements.

All the efforts of the administrators of the National Center for National Health and Welfare are aimed at providing high-quality services to citizens and minimizing the time it takes to receive administrative services. For this purpose, the administrators took part in online seminars, trainings, courses, tests for professional development and received 752 certificates.

In 2021, the list of administrative services was expanded. Services have been introduced for registration and issuance of a temporary residence permit, assignment of the sports category “Candidate for Master of Sports of Ukraine”, “First category” in sports, registration of representative offices of foreign economic entities in Ukraine, confirmation of information about the ultimate beneficial owner of a legal entity and construction services.

Visitors to TsNAP can use the mobile for the “Action” relationship not only for personal identification, but also for transferring copies of digital documents. Also, for the convenience of applicants, there are self-service places with a computer, Internet access and the ability to print documents. This allows many visitors to receive services on their own online. If necessary, administrators provide assistance.

TsNAP constantly improves its work, expands the list of services and ensures a comfortable stay for visitors. The work of the team is aimed at providing high-quality service to visitors and improving the professional level. Despite the active work on the digital transformation of the sphere of administrative services provision, the construction of an information society, and the implementation of state policy in this sphere, it seems necessary to highlight the shortcomings that are present in the modern system of providing electronic administrative services.

On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of theoretical developments, the provisions of the current legislation of Ukraine and the practice of its implementation, a theoretical generalization was made and substantiated conclusions and practical recommendations were formulated, which solve the task of increasing the effectiveness of the digitalization of the activities of the Central National Agency for Development, using the example of district state administrations in the city of Kyiv.

Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions were formulated:

1. An analysis of the provisions of public administration in the field of digital transformation in Ukraine was carried out in correlation with the processes of practical implementation.
2. Public administration in the field of digital transformation should be considered as an activity of public administration subjects regulated by laws and other regulatory legal acts.
3. The digital transformation of public administration should be understood as a system of measures for transformation, improvement through the integration of information and telecommunication technologies of the activities of public administration subjects.
4. The approaches to defining the concept of “electronic administrative service” are singled out, namely: the process of creating and implementing management services by public authorities using information and telecommunication technologies.
5. Formulated This is the definition of a regulatory act as a tool of public administration in the field of digital transformation.
6. Attention is focused on the fact that a branch feature of individual acts of public administration in the field of digital transformation is their purpose – the implementation of the competence of the public administration body in the field of digital transformation.
7. It was established that the conclusion of administrative contracts as an external reflection of the instrumental mechanism of public administration in the field of digital transformation is characterized by the following specific features: it is an intermediate link between public administration of the primary type and public administration determined by the processes of digital transformation; the parties to administrative contracts in the specified area are mainly public organizations and subjects of power; substantively, administrative contracts in the specified area are aimed at forming strategic directions for the introduction of information and telecommunication means into the practical activities of public administration subjects.
8. It is proposed to adopt the Concept of the development of public administration in the field of digital transformation, which should define: the problems of applying information and telecommunication technologies.

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