Date Published: July 26, 2017, 9:56 p.m.
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n 2013, the GCAM launched an initiative to digitize procedures and services’ registration. All procedures performed both by the State Government and the political bureaus were collected and registered in an electronic system to simplify and to remove duplicated procedures with no added value for the public. To do so, it created an Electronic register system (Registro CDMX) and the Procedures website (Trámites CDMX). The project benefited from a $25,000 USD contribution by the British government to the association, “PIDES - Innovación Social”, who developed the website and effected the training of local officials. The GCAM set up a team to map all the existing procedures and services conducted by the 91 different local government bodies. The team identified 2.385 procedures. Each one was thoroughly revised, simplified and electronically registered. The web platform was launched in March 2015, and now provides accurate, reliable and updated information to the citizen regarding all the procedures and services registered in the Registro CDMX system.The Procedures Website (Trámites CDMX) is a tool developed by the General Coordination of Administrative Modernization of Mexico City, aiming to disseminate complete and detailed information of all procedures performed by agencies, public bodies, organizations and delegations of Mexico City. The project should help to strengthen transparency and offer legal certainty to the population and economic sectors in the management of their procedures and services. In 2013, the project team identified 2,385 procedures, and has thoroughly been revising them, in order to get a legal registration in an Electronic Register System and to publish the information of each procedure on the website. The website should also allow for online payments and the automation of procedures.
Mexico City (Federal District) has a population of 8,851,080 inhabitants (2010) connected to a metropolitan area of 20 million inhabitants. Every day, the capital receives an influx transit of around 4 million people who come to the city for their daily activities. The annual budget of Mexico City is approximately 9 billion USD. Mexico City was an administrative bureau of the national government until 1997, when, for the first time, citizens were able to elect their mayor and the heads of sixteen “political bureaus” (Delegaciones Políticas) which depend administratively but not politically on the local government. At the end of 2015, the National Congress approved a constitutional reform creating the 32ndstate of the Federation, called “Ciudad de México”, which has now its own local powers (legislative, executive and judiciary).
The General Coordination of Administrative Modernization (GCAM) of Mexico City is responsible for designing, managing and coordinating strategies for innovation, government modernization and performance, and legal framework improvement. It was created in 1990 to answer to the urgent need to improve public management, but it only became a strategic actor in 2013 when it expanded its competence to the entire local government and the sixteen “political bureaus”. Both the State Government and the Political Bureaus are responsible for delivering transactional services to citizens. However, until 2012, procedures and services were registered manually in a paper book that gathered 290 of them. As a result, the procedures management system was characterized by a lack of standardization, the duplication of information, the lack of updated schemes and the complexity and bureaucracy, which resulted in distrust and uncertainty among citizens regarding governmental services.
In 2013, the GCAM launched an initiative to digitize procedures and services’ registration. All procedures performed both by the State Government and the political bureaus were collected and registered in an electronic system to simplify and to remove duplicated procedures with no added value for the public. To do so, it created an Electronic register system (Registro CDMX) and the Procedures website (Trámites CDMX). The project benefited from a $25,000 USD contribution by the British government to the association, “PIDES - Innovación Social”, who developed the website and effected the training of local officials. The GCAM set up a team to map all the existing procedures and services conducted by the 91 different local government bodies. The team identified 2.385 procedures. Each one was thoroughly revised, simplified and electronically registered. The web platform was launched in March 2015, and now provides accurate, reliable and updated information to the citizen regarding all the procedures and services registered in the Registro CDMX system.
The website offers a variety of services to citizens. It provides information about procedures and services, which are classified by topics and geo-referenced, being easily accessed from computers or mobile devices. The system allows citizens to submit formal complains reporting any act of corruption or unlawful behaviour by the city officials. It contains an Electronic repository for laws, regulations, decrees, and other legal documents was created to facilitate access to information. In the future, the portal will automate certain procedures to allow citizens to get electronic documents, communicate with the appropriate service, get a birth certificate, start a business, deal with construction permits, register property, etc. As Mexico City residents are increasingly choosing online payment mechanisms to pay their bills and taxes (23,4% in 2015), the Trámites CDMX website will soon offer the possibility for citizens to pay taxes and other fees through it, this modality will also be possible through a mobile application “Treasury CDMX” is being tested since January 2016.
By September 2016, out of the 2.385 existing procedures, the GCAM team had reviewed 982 procedures (519 from the Local Government and 463 from the political bureaus) and had reduced them to 758 procedures registered in Registro CDMX and published in Trámites CDMX, corresponding to a reduction of 23%. The implementation of a unique registration system and information portal helps the local government to improve the quality of services thanks to standardized and detailed information regarding procedures and services. It also offers legal certainty to the population and business sector. The initiative should also reduce management expenses and help fight corruption in public services.
