Theoretical and legal bases of providing public electronic services

Abstract

Given the existing problems in developing the electronic public services in Ukraine, we have conducted an analysis of regulatory and legal bases. From a theoretical point of view, the author’s definition of electronic public service has been offered. In our opinion, the electronic public services are the set of public services (administrative, social, technical, state, municipal, etc.) that can be provided / received electronically by means of information and communication technologies. From the legal point of view, it was established that the adopted legislative initiatives are the one of the most important steps towards simplification and digitalization of public services, as the legislation regulates the procedure of providing public electronic services and defines the features of the provided public electronic services registration. The article presents the main features of electronic public services and supplements the existing classification (by content, by scope, by subject, by consumers, by place of receiving) by a number of classification features, namely: by receiving form of electronic public service, by payment type for the provision of electronic public service and by the form of result expression of the electronic public service provision. The Provision on the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services and the peculiarities of its use in the provision of electronic administrative services in the country have been considered. As part of our research, it was found that the local governments may create opportunities for the provision of additional electronic administrative services within their competences taking into account the local characteristics and needs. In order to measure an access to the electronic public services, the main criteria and indicators have been identified. This assessment, in our opinion, should be carried out by the level of content of the power authority official website, the level of implementation and use of the electronic document management system and the level of use of electronic participation and interaction tools between the public authority and other entities. The formula for determining a comprehensive indicator of the level of access to public services in electronic form has been presented. This indicator will serve as a guide for improving the service provider activity towards digitalization. Based on the research, the article highlights the key benefits for the applicants of public services in electronic format and the main benefits of electronic public services implementation for the service provider.