Last year, Mayor Javier Degollado boasted that Chapala stood out as the “Cradle of Mexican Tourism.” Now he proudly claims it ranks as the country’s “Number One Ciudad Inteligente.”
The “smart city” designation stems from the May 19 unveiling of the municipal government’s revamped website. The extensive upgrade, valued at $US1.5 million, was carried out by the technology company E-City Software with technical support and licensing provided by Microsoft, at no cost to the local government.
At first glance the makeover of the government portal appears to be purely cosmetic – a glitzy new look with user-friendly bells and whistles. But, according to Juan Antonio Martinez Lopez, chief of Chapala’s computer and informatics department, the changes are much more profound.
The priority objectives were to assure greater compliance with obligatory transparency guidelines – one of Chapala´s consistent weak points – and to facilitate citizen access to numerous red tape procedures. The latter is considered to be the chief attribute of the new, improved portal … once the transition is completed.
As of this week, only 85 percent of the information contained in the existing webpage had been imported to the improved version. And a significant amount of that content was incomplete or deficient to begin with.
For example, official acts containing the minutes of city council meetings, payroll records and expense accounts are among the basic records that have not been kept up to date. The section displaying members of the current mayor’s cabinet still lists some officials who resigned or were reassigned to new posts many months ago.
However, Martinez estimates that the transfer of 26.21 GBs of data can be completed within a few days. The next step will be to organize, update and correct existing information, and verify proper functioning of links to other website sections.
Then he will tackle the important task of setting up automatic access and registry of government procedures that will range from permitting online payment of government taxes and fees, to soliciting building or business licenses, ordering a truckload of water or setting up an appointment with the mayor.
So far, none of the above can be accomplished except by appearing personally at a City Hall office. With a slightly embarrassed shrug, Martinez acknowledged that the new portal is not quite ready for prime time. “The software is all there. We just need to train the personnel in each respective department.”
But once the upgrade is finished, citizens will be able to handle 245 different payments and procedures from the comfort of their homes or at the touch of a mobile device. And that will put Chapala at the forefront of doing government business electronically, far ahead of Mexico City, which currently leads the nation with just 14 options for online tasks.