On Monday, February 14, was held “Salon in Municipalities” with the topic: Needs for digital services in the Municipality of Podujeva: What are they?
Part of the panel in this salon were: Bahri Selimi, Director of Public Services in the Municipality of Podujeva, Arjant Topanica, Assembly Member of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and Rexhep Zeka, Executive Director of the Rule of Democracy in Kosovo (SDK). While moderated by Shemsi Jashari, Executive Director of Democracy Starts Here (DFK), in which case the editorial was written.
In the Municipality of Podujeva, several steps have been taken regarding the aspect of digitalization, an opportunity that the leaders of this municipality have seen as an opportunity that brings them closer to the citizen.
Bahri Selimi, Director of Public Services has shown that there have been some small initiatives where a platform has been created which has performed many services within a year, while seeing the great demand of citizens for facilitation of services is being worked on a another project called, “One stup-shop”. In this municipality, according to the director, the number of e-kiosks should be increased in some areas in depth because in many places there is a lack of information.
Whereas, Arjant Topanica, assembly member of this municipality has emphasized that the E-kiosk is one of the best projects that has been done, because it facilitates the services to the citizens as much as possible, also in terms of businesses it would have been easier if application documentation to be done online and it would be a system that filters applications and would facilitate the work more so we need to take examples from practice from other cities such as Estonia which is known as a digital state.
In addition, it was stated that there should be an online filter for various applications so as not to create congestion and in terms of online it would not be a problem for subsidies to be carried out faster and there to be no queues. Scholarships for students could also be made online.
As for Rexhep Zeka from the civil society, he mentioned that the Pandemic has made him reflect more about the digitalization process. The municipality of Podujeva has had many setbacks, so much so that even the sessions of the municipal assembly do not have access to them online without seeing how they represent an assembly member.
He proposed that it is good to enrich the website of the municipality and introduce platforms to facilitate services to citizens. Knowing that the territory of Podujva is very large, the need for digitalization will be great because it would increase transparency.
Also public hearings to be done online through a platform where it is memorized and this would help the municipality to form a budget. It is very interesting to be informed about these digital services. The lack of village councils is very necessary as there would be a link between the municipality and these village councils because this would make the work easier for the municipality.
This salon is organized in support of Increasing Civic Engagment in the Digital Agenda (ICEDA).