Document of
The World Bank
Report No: ICR00002833
IMPLEMENTATION COMPLETION AND RESULTS REPORT
(IDA-44510; IDA-44520; IDA-44530; IDA-46500)
ON
CREDITS (4)
IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR6.00 MILLION
(US$9.60 MILLION EQUIVALENT)
TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA, GRENADA,
ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES (OECS)
E-GOVERNMENT FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION PROJECT
IN SUPPORT OF THE FIRST PHASE OF THE OECS E-GOVERNMENT FOR
REGIONAL INTEGRATION PROGRAM
December 29, 2014
ICT Sector Unit
Transport and ICT Global Practice
Caribbean Country Management Unit
Latin American and the Caribbean Region
Pub
lic D
iscl
osur
e A
utho
rized
Pub
lic D
iscl
osur
e A
utho
rized
Pub
lic D
iscl
osur
e A
utho
rized
Pub
lic D
iscl
osur
e A
utho
rized
CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
(Exchange Rate Effective April 16, 2014)
Currency Unit = EC$
1.00 = US$0.37
US$ 1.00 = EC$2.7
FISCAL YEAR
January 1 – December 31
Vice President: Jorge Familiar Calderon
Country Director: Sophie Sirtaine
Senior GP Director Pierre Guislain
Practice Manager: Randeep Sudan
Project Team Leaders: Doyle Gallegos/Anat Lewin
ICR Team Leader: Anat Lewin
ICR Main Author Maria Rosa Puech
n
Dominica, Grenada. Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
OECS E-GOVERNMENT FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION PROGRAM
Table of Contents Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................................................ iv Data Sheet ...................................................................................................................... vi A. Basic Information ..................................................................................................... vi B. Key Dates .................................................................................................................. vi C. Ratings Summary ..................................................................................................... vii
D. Sector and Theme Codes ......................................................................................... vii
E. Bank Staff ................................................................................................................ viii F. Results Framework Analysis ................................................................................... viii G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs ................................................................... xv
H. Restructuring (if any) ................................................................................................ xv I. Disbursement Profile ............................................................................................... xvi
1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design ............................................... 1 1.1 Context at Appraisal .......................................................................................... 1
1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators .................. 2
1.3 Revised PDO and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification ................................. 2
1.4 Main Beneficiaries ................................................................................................. 3
1.5 Original Components ............................................................................................. 3
1.6 Revised Components ............................................................................................. 4
1.7 Other significant changes ...................................................................................... 4
2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes ............................................... 5 2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry .................................................. 5
2.2 Implementation ...................................................................................................... 7
2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization ..... 11
2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance .................................................................. 12
2.5 Post-Completion Operation/Next Phase .............................................................. 13
3. Assessment of Outcomes ........................................................................................... 14 3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation ........................................ 14
3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives ............................................... 15
3.3 Efficiency ............................................................................................................. 23
4. Justification of Overall Outcome Rating ............................................................... 23
3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts ........................................... 24
3.6 Summary of Findings of Beneficiary Survey and/or Stakeholder Workshops .... 25
4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome ......................................................... 25
5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance ...................................................... 27 5.1 Bank Performance ............................................................................................... 27
5.2 Borrower Performance ......................................................................................... 28
6. Lessons Learned ........................................................................................................ 29 7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners ........... 32 Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing ........................................................................... 33 Annex 2. Outputs by Component .................................................................................. 34
Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis .................................................................. 44 Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes ............. 47 Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results ............................................................................ 49
Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results ................................................... 56 Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR ...................... 57 Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders ........................ 68
Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents ....................................................................... 69 Annex 10. Rating of Project Outcome ........................................................................... 70
Annex 11. PAD and Restructured M&E Indicators ...................................................... 71 Annex 12. Map of EGRIP-Supported Community Health Clinics in Saint Lucia ........ 72
Abbreviations and Acronyms
APL
ARV
Adaptable Program Loan
Antiretroviral
ASYCUDA Automated System for Customs Data
CARCIP Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Program
CARICOM Caribbean Community
CARTAC Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre
CAS Country Assistance Strategy
CBS Country-Based Specialist
CDB Caribbean Development Bank
CIDA Canadian International Development Agency
CTU Caribbean Telecommunications Union
DFID Department for International Development (UK)
ECCB Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
e-Government Electronic Government
EGRIP E-Government for Regional Integration Project /
Program
EPPS Electronic Pharmaceuticals Procurement System
e-Tax Electronic Taxation
EU European Union
FY Fiscal (Financial) Year
IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank)
ICB International Competitive Bidding
ICT Information and Communications Technologies
IDA International Development Association (World Bank)
IDB Inter-American Development Bank
IDR Inland Revenue Department
KPI Key Performance Indicator
MOH Ministry of Health
MPID Multi-Purpose Identification System
NCB National Competitive Bidding
NGO Non-governmental Organization
NSC National Steering Committee
OAS Organization of American States
OECS Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
PAD Project Appraisal Document
PDO Project Development Objective
PFM Public Financial Management
PPP Public Private Partnership
PPS OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Service
PRIMS Performance of Routine Information Management
System
RCIS Regional Customs Information System
REGU Regional E-Government Unit
RDDS Regional Digital Development Strategy
RHIS Regional Health Information System
RHMIS Regional Health Management Information System
RTC Regional Technical Committee
SDR Special Drawing Rights
SIGTAS Standard Integrated Government Tax Administration
System
SVG St. Vincent and the Grenadines
TA Technical Assistance
TAL Technical Assistance Loan
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
VAT Value-Added Tax
Data Sheet
A. Basic Information
Countries:
OECS Countries:
Dominica, Grenada, St
Lucia, St Vincent and
the Grenadines
Projects Name:
OECS E-Government
for Regional Integration
Project in support for
the EGRIP Program
(APL)
Projects ID: P100635
P117087 L/C/TF Number(s):
IDA-44510, IDA-
44520, IDA-44530,
IDA- 46500
ICR Date: 10/22/2014 ICR Type: Core ICR
Lending Instrument: Series of Projects Borrowers:
Governments of
Dominica, Grenada, St.
Lucia, St. Vincent and
the Grenadines
Original Total
Commitment:
SDR 6.00M
Disbursed Amount: SDR 6.00M
Revised Amount: N/A
Environmental Category: C
Implementing Agencies: At regional level: OECS Secretariat, Regional E-Government Unit
(REGU). At national level: ICT/E-Government Units in each country, acting as national focal
points.
Co-financiers and Other External Partners: Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)
B. Key Dates
Process Date Process Original Date Revised / Actual
Date(s)
Concept Review: 05/02/2007 Effectiveness: 09/01/2008
01/15/2010
06/18/2009
04/15/2010
Appraisal: 03/17/2008
04/27/2009 Restructuring(s):
04/19/2012
07/31/2013
Approval: 05/27/2008
12/09/2009 Mid-term Review: 10/10/2011 10/17/2011
Closing: 06/30/2012
08/31/2013 02/28/2014
C. Ratings Summary
C.1 Performance Rating by ICR
Outcomes: Moderately satisfactory
Risk to Development Outcome: Moderate
Bank Performance: Moderately satisfactory
Borrower Performance: Moderately satisfactory
C.2 Detailed Ratings of Bank and Borrower Performance (by ICR)
Bank Ratings Borrower Ratings
Quality at Entry: Moderately
unsatisfactory Government: Moderately satisfactory
Quality of Supervision: Moderately satisfactory Implementing
Agency/Agencies: Moderately satisfactory
Overall Bank
Performance: Moderately satisfactory
Overall Borrower
Performance: Moderately satisfactory
C.3 Quality at Entry and Implementation Performance Indicators
Implementation
Performance Indicators
QAG Assessments
(if any) Rating
Potential Problem Project
at any time (Yes/No): No
Quality at Entry
(QEA): None
Problem Project at any
time (Yes/No): No
Quality of
Supervision (QSA): None
DO rating before
Closing/Inactive status:
Moderately
satisfactory
D. Sector and Theme Codes
Original Actual
Sector Code (as % of total Bank financing)
Central government administration 100 100
Theme Code (as % of total Bank financing)
Administrative and civil service reform 25 25
Public expenditure, financial management and
procurement 24 24
Regional integration 25 24
Tax policy and administration 13 13
Trade facilitation and market access 13 13
E. Bank Staff
Positions At ICR At Approval
Vice President: Jorge Familiar Calderon Pamela Cox
Country Director: Sophie Sirtaine Yvonne M. Tsikata
Senior GP Director: Pierre Guislain
Practice/Sector Managers: Randeep Sudan Philippe Dongier
Nick Manning
Project Team Leaders: Doyle Gallegos
Anat Lewin
Juan Navas-Sabater
Roberto Panzardi
ICR Team Leader: Anat Lewin
ICR Primary Author: M Rosa Puech
F. Results Framework Analysis
Project Development Objective The overall development objective of the project was to promote the efficiency, quality,
and transparency of public services through the delivery of regionally integrated e-
government applications that apply economies of scale.
Revised Project Development Objectives The PDO remained unchanged while the key performance indicators (KPIs) were
modified twice during the life of the Project (see Annex 11 for a table of KPIs at the PAD,
the 2012 and 2013 restructurings).
(a) PDO Indicator(s)
Indicator Baseline Value
Original Target
Values (from
approval
documents)
Formally
Revised
Target
Values
Actual Value
Achieved at
Completion or
Target Years
Indicator 1 Average number of days to complete VAT tax filing.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
1 day
n/a n/a 20-30 minutes
Date achieved 2011/2012 06/30/2012
07/31/2013
02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was modified in the 2013 restructuring to
replace: “Average number of days to prepare the annual budget”. The
PAD did not include specific targets for the outcome indicators. These
were to be defined after effectiveness through a survey. The revised
targets were not formally included in the restructuring document.
Nevertheless, the M&E consultant hired by the Project and the Bank
agreed on a target of 20 percent.
Indicator 2 Average amount of time to process a Pharmaceutical procurement
requisition order.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
5 to 7 days n/a n/a Average of 30
minutes
Date achieved 2011/2012 06/30/2012 07/31/2013
02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was introduced in the 2013 restructuring. The
PAD did not include specific targets for the outcome indicators. These
were to be defined after effectiveness through a survey. The revised
targets were not formally included in the restructuring document.
Nevertheless, the M&E consultant hired by the Project and the Bank
agreed on a target of 20 percent.
Indicator 3 Number of new e-government applications offered or upgraded under the
Project
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 15 9 14
Date achieved 2010 06/30/2012 07/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Surpassed. The target for this indicator was modified during the 2013
restructuring. The systems are: 1 Multipurpose ID system in each
participating country; 1 E-Tax front end filing system in each
participating country; 1 regional E-Pharmaceutical Procurement Services
System; Upgrade to SmartStream in each country; Implementation of the
HIS system in Dominica.
Indicator 4 Quality measured through focus groups by end users of the following
three systems: Procurement System for PPS, Tax e-filing System and
Multipurpose Identification (MPID) System.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
N/A N/A N/A
EPPS – 9
E-Tax- 8
MPID- 8
Date achieved 2008 06/30/2012 07/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was modified during the 2013 restructuring to
replace: “Quality measured through focus groups by end users of the
following three systems: Public Financial Management System, Regional
Customs Information System and MPID System”. Focus groups carried
out before project closing. See Annex 5 for detailed description of
outcomes. Values are average based on a 10-point scale system with 1
Poor and 10 Excellent.
Indicator 5 Online publication of Pharmaceutical procurement awarded contracts.
Value
(qualitative or 0 n/a n/a 19
quantitative)
Date achieved 2011/2012 06/30/2012 07/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was introduced in the 2013 restructuring to
replace: “Creation of four national Public Finance Management websites
with open and transparent PFM data sets”. The outcome reflects 4
contracts from the antiretroviral (ARV) procurement cycle and 15
contracts from the general drugs medical supply cycle.
Indicator 6 Publication of an OECS e-government regionally harmonized legislation
bill by the first quarter of 2012 approved by the OECS Authority.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0
Publication of
the
harmonized
legislation.
Publication
of the
harmonized
legislation.
E-Government
harmonized
legislation
approved by the
OECS
Authority in
January 2012
and published
in the OECS
Secretariat
website.
Date achieved 2008 06/30/2012 07/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was introduced in the 2013 restructuring to
replace: Establishment of Regional E-Government Desk at the OECS
Secretariat, hiring of the Senior E-Government Specialist to staff the desk,
design a business plan for sustainability of the regional e-government
desk are completed”.
(b) Intermediate Outcome Indicator(s)
Indicator Baseline Value
Original Target
Values (from
approval
documents)
Formally
Revised
Target Values
Actual Value
Achieved at
Completion or
Target Years
Indicator 1
Regional consensus by OECS countries on a CARICOM e-Government
Strategy, to which OECS countries have contributed, is reached through
OECS country agreement to the strategy reports at CARICOM meetings.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 1 1
1
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. A regional eGovernment Strategy lead CARICOM, with the
partnership of CARICAD, and entitled “Improved Government... Better
Service: CARICOM eGovernment Strategy 2010-2014” was adopted by
EGRIP participating countries through OECS country agreement.
Indicator 2 Publication of OECD e-government regionally harmonized legislation by
first quarter of 2012 approved by the OECS Authority.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 1 1
Set of
legislation
approved by the
OECS
Authority (body
of Prime
Ministers and
Chief Ministers
for the OECS)
in January
2012.
Publication in
the OECS
Secretariat
website.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. The harmonized legislation can be found at
http://www.oecs.org/publications/cat_view/205-egrip-publications/206-
oecs-harmonized-e-government-legislation.
This indicator was included in the 2012 revision of Key Performance
Indicators as an intermediate indicator and included as an outcome
indicator in the 2013 restructuring.
Indicator 3 Definition and publication of regional e-government standards, enterprise
architecture, interoperability framework.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0
Consultancies
done and
published
Consultanci
es done and
published
Published in the
OECS Secretariat
website: (i) the e-
government
harmonized
legislation, (ii)
regional e-
government
standards, (iii)
enterprise
architecture,
interoperability framework and
(iv) total cost of
ownership
documents.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. These documents are available at:
http://www.oecs.org/publications/cat_view/205-egrip-publications/207-
oecs-regional-e-government-standards-enterprise-architecture-and-
interoperability-framework
Indicator 4 Regional consensus by EGRIP countries on the approval of the new
institutional framework is reached at an EGRIP meeting.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 Consensus
reached
Consensus
reached
Consensus
reached
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. A consultancy explored different options for the institutional
framework for e-government. Participating countries agreed on the
preference for a Regional e-Government Center of Excellence, creating an
interim e-Government desk that could evolve into the Center of
excellence. After Project completion, the OECS Secretariat was moving
forward to implement the ICT/E-Government Desk and had hired an e-
government specialist for three months.
Indicator 5 Detailed design and implementation of a multipurpose ID system (MPID)
linked to core user agencies, including issuance of ID numbers.
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 4 8
5
MPID system
successfully
designed,
delivered to and
installed in all 4
countries. The
systems started
to operate in all
four countries
with tests
groups of
population.
MPID system
linked to 2 core
agencies in
Dominica.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Partially Achieved. This indicator awards two points to each country
(giving a total of 8 points) that has successfully implemented the
multipurpose ID system (one point) and connected it to between two
core user agencies (e.g. Civil Registry and Electoral Office) (one point).
St. Lucia foresees to have carried out the interface with two agencies
by July 1, 2014; St. Vincent had successfully connected the MPID with the civil
registry and will connect in the electoral and health systems in the near
future. Grenada is working to complete interfaces with the civil registry
and the National Insurance System.
Indicator 6 Percentage of population in participating EGRIP countries covered in the
MPID
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 40%
regionally
10% per
country See below.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Not achieved. The MPID system had started to be rolled out in all for
countries between November 2013 and February 2014. This explains the
lower than agreed percentage of population enrolled in the system or that
the actual enrollment of citizens has not yet started but there has been
progress towards the roll out of the system by the time of this ICR.
Enrollment in the system is expected to continue and increase beyond the
ICR timeframe. Dominica: 7.82%; Grenada: 0.8%; St. Lucia: Roll out of
civil servants started by ICR end and St. Vincent and the Grenadines:
Enrolment has not yet been initiated, pending Cabinet approval.
Indicator 7 Completion of standard PFM reports and SmartStream operating
procedures in each country
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 n/a 4
3
Dominica, St
Lucia, Grenada.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Partially achieved. This indicator replaced “Completion of e-government
service upgrades to the Public Financial Management System, as well as
interfaces with other systems”. By the project closing date, Dominica,
Grenada and St Lucia were successfully applying the application upgrade,
implementing the SmartStream Reporting Module. In the case of SVG,
the reports for the HR Module were created, but data could not inputted
before Project completion. Caribbean Development Bank is providing
resources to buy equipment and to hire staff to upload the data that will
allow testing the HR module.
Indicator 8 Number of people trained in generating standard SmartStream reports
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 n/a 19
Dominica- 6
Grenada -4
St. Lucia-16
St. Vincent and
the Grenadines-
3
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Surpassed. This indicator was introduced during the 2013 restructuring.
Indicator 9 Tax declarations filed online through the tax e-filing system as a
percentage of total tax declarations filed (VAT)
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 10% 10%
St. Lucia:
15.47%
St. Vincent and
the Grenadines:
30%
Grenada: 140
VAT
declarations
submitted
online.
Dominica: 36
VAT filing
returns online.
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. Dominica and Grenada had not submitted information on the
percentages of VAT declarations online by the time of ICR completion.
Indicator 10 Number of new suppliers registered through Electronic Procurement for
Pharmaceutical System (EPPS)
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
0 N/A 10%
21 new
suppliers
registered
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator replaced “Increase in the volume of transactions
of OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Service E-tendering System” in the
2013 restructuring. New suppliers refer to those suppliers who registered
for the first time in the EPPS, though they could have participated
previously in PPS.
Indicator 11 Reduction of administrative cost of OECS Pharmaceuticals procurement
Value
(qualitative or
quantitative)
56 days n/a n/a 23 days saved
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator replaced “Reduction in the cost of
pharmaceuticals procured” in the 2013 restructuring. A target percentage
number was not included at restructuring. The PPS at the OECS
Secretariat estimated a reduction of costs by saving 23 days of
administrative work, through the use of the EPPS. It estimated a cost of
$75 per day (Unit-cost. See Annex 3).
Indicator 12 Implementation of an open source Health Information System (HIS) in
Dominica
Value
(qualitative or 0 n/a 1
1
quantitative)
Date achieved 05/28/2008 06/30/2012 08/31/2013 02/28/2014
Comments
(incl. %
achievement)
Achieved. This indicator was added during the 2013 restructuring.
G. Ratings of Project Performance in ISRs
No. Date ISR
Archived DO IP
Actual
Disbursements
(USD millions)
1 11/22/2008 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00
2 06/24/2009 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00
3 12/04/2009 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.54
4 06/29/2010 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.54
5 02/27/2011 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.85
6 07/05/2011 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 1.28
7 02/12/2012 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 1.85
8 09/30/2012 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 2.19
9 06/20/2013 Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.30
10 02/12/2014 Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.93
P117087
No. Date ISR
Archived DO IP
Actual
Disbursements
(USD millions)
1 03/06/2010 Satisfactory Satisfactory 0.00
2 02/27/2011 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.28
3 07/11/2011 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.41
4 02/12/2012 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.61
5 11/04/2012 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.97
6 08/06/2013 Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 1.75
7 02/12/2014 Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 2.31
H. Restructuring (if any)
Restructuring
Date(s)
Board
Approved
PDO Change
ISR Ratings at
Restructuring
Amount
Disbursed at
Restructuring
in USD
millions
Reason for Restructuring
& Key Changes Made DO IP
04/19/2012 No MS MS 2.40
(i) Modify the Project’s
indicators to align them
with the Project’s
outcomes and outputs; and
(ii) Extension of the
closing date of the Credit
Agreements for Dominica,
Grenada and St. Lucia to
August 31 2013 to align
them with St Vincent and
accommodate the closing
date to the completion of
activities for the two
projects.
07/31/2013 No MS S 4.68
The Project was
restructured to (i) extend
the closing date of all
credits by six months; (ii)
drop selected activities
and reallocate their
funding to other ongoing
activities under the
Project; and (iii) adjust
the M&E to reflect these
changes.
I. Disbursement Profile
1
1. Project Context, Development Objectives and Design
This ICR covers a horizontal APL program that is composed of two lending projects
(P100635 and P117087) of different start dates, covering four countries (St. Lucia,
Grenada, St. Vincent and Dominica; four IDA credit numbers) and two restructurings,
one of which included an extension of the first project to align its closing date with the
second project. The funding between the countries and projects varies slightly.
Facilitating the analysis in this ICR is that once the second project was approved, the two
projects were managed as one, with virtually all pooled procurement, one management
structure, one implementation process, one disbursement and FM process, and one
reporting structure, until project closing. This ICR follows a split evaluation before and
after restructurings, and the analysis for sequencing, financing, disbursement, ratings
and overall assessment are of the program as a whole.
1.1 Context at Appraisal
1. At the time of appraisal, OECS countries 1 were facing a number of common
challenges, in a context of increasing global competitiveness. They had high fiscal
imbalances and debt ratios, while being exposed to external shocks as small island
developing states. OECS countries were focusing on new sources of growth to reduce
vulnerability. Similar to small states in other regions, OECS countries embraced an
approach that emphasized improved governance, public sector modernization and
enhanced regional integration. The countries were looking into how to reinvigorate and
sustain growth, reduce high unemployment, lower the poverty rate, restore fiscal and debt
sustainability, diversify their economies and secure a sustainable external position.
2. Public sector modernization was identified as key to improving efficiency and
competitiveness in the region. Up to then, the public sector had focused on controlling
inputs and compliance of rules, rather than on quickly and effectively delivering expected
outputs2.
3. OECS countries’ public sector strategy at the time placed emphasis on using
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve internal efficiency,
delivery of public services, coordination among agencies and transparency and
accountability of the public sector, with the overall objective of contributing to regional
integration. Selected OECS countries (Grenada, Dominica and St. Lucia and St. Vincent)
1 The OECS has a membership of 9 states: Grenada, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The British Virgin
Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
2 OECS Institutional and Organizational Capacity Review of the Core Public Sector (IOCR). The public
sector was perceived as inefficient and poorly managed. Citizens deemed the quality of selected public
services as unsatisfactory. This was due to institutional deficiencies, weak accountability and ineffective
enforcement mechanisms.
2
had already been working in the direction of public sector reform with support from the
EU and CIDA.
4. The Electronic Government Regional Integration Project (EGRIP) consisted of two
projects: the first one, financed by three credits, included three OECS countries:
Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia. The second project was financed by a credit to St.
Vincent and the Grenadines. EGRIP was conceived as a horizontal and a vertical
Adaptable Program Loan (APL). On the horizontal axis, it started with three of the
countries, followed by St. Vincent. On the vertical or temporary axis, the program was
structured in two phases. The first one corresponded to the project evaluated in this ICR.
The second phase was expected to expand the regional e-Government program into other
sectors. EGRIP was an innovative project, the first regional ICT project supported by the
Bank for small island states.
1.2 Original Project Development Objectives (PDO) and Key Indicators
5. The PDO was to promote the efficiency, quality and transparency of public services
through the delivery of regionally integrated e-Government applications that would take
advantage of economies of scale.
6. The PAD included the following general key performance indicators (KPIs) to
measure the achievement of the PDO:
Government financial savings in areas such as public financial management, tax
administration, customs and procurement due to new e-Government systems;
Estimated users’ time and cost-savings;
Increase in the number of electronic transactions processed by regional e-
Government applications;
Increase in e-Government services offered or upgraded;
Improvement of ratings in areas of functionality, accuracy and usability of e-
Government services as reported by users through satisfaction surveys;
Improvement of ratings in areas of openness and access to relevant information,
as reported by users through satisfaction surveys;
New regional institutional framework is created with adequate capacity to provide
new regionally integrated e-Government services, in accordance with regionally
harmonized policies and regulations.
7. The PAD indicated that specific parameters of indicators and baseline values were to
be determined and collected shortly after Project effectiveness through a study funded by
the Project.
1.3 Revised PDO and Key Indicators, and reasons/justification
8. The PDO remained unchanged while the key performance indicators were modified
twice during the life of the Project. The key performance indicators were formally revised
in April 2012, after the mid-term review, to adjust a number of the original PAD
3
indicators that did not reflect the evolution of the Project. The revised KPIs were the
following:
Average number of days to prepare annual budget;
Regional health information system and regional customs information system are
installed and operational;
Number of new e-Government applications offered or upgraded under the Project;
Quality measured through focus groups by end users of the public financial
management, regional custom information and Multi-purpose ID systems;
Creation of 4 national PFM websites with open and transparent PFM data sets;
and
Establishment of Regional E-government desk at OECS Secretariat, hiring of the
senior E-government specialist, design the business plan for sustainability of the
E-government desk.
9. In June 2013, the Key Performance Indicators were revised as part of the Project’s
restructuring to reflect the changes to the Project’s scope (see section 1.7 below) and to
better assess the achievement of the PDO:
Average number of days to complete the VAT filing;
Average amount of time to process a Pharmaceuticals procurement requisition
order3;
Number of new e-Government applications offered or upgraded under the project;
Quality measured through focus groups by end users of the e-Tax, e-Procurement
and Multipurpose Identification Systems;
Online publication of Pharmaceutical procurement awarded contracts;
Publication of an OECD e-Government regionally harmonized legislation bill by
first quarter of 2012 and approved by the OECS authority.
1.4 Main Beneficiaries
10. The Project aimed to benefit citizens, businesses, consumers and the public sector as
a whole in the participating countries.
1.5 Original Components
11. The Projects had the following components:
Component 1-Horizontal E-Government Interventions (US$3.54 million). This
component aimed to strengthen and harmonize national and regional e-Government
processes, operational ICT platforms and frameworks; to promote more efficient
regionally-based ICT developments and strengthen capacity, and to provide an enabling
3 “The process quantified is the time from the requisition to be ordered by a country, to the successful
procurement under the system”
4
environment to achieve Public Administration objectives in a globally competitive
context to better serve citizens, business and consumers in the region. It had five
subcomponents: (i) Policy and Strategy Implementation; (ii) Legal and Regulatory
Framework Implementation; (iii) ICT standards and Total Cost of Ownership
Optimization; (iv) Regional E-Government Institutional Framework Strengthening; and
(v) Automated Registries and Multi-purpose Identification Systems.
Component 2-Vertical E-Government Interventions (US$4.93 million). This
component aimed to harmonize and improve key e-Government systems by focusing on
specific interventions in core areas of public finance. It had the following sub-
components: (i) E-Government in Public Financial Management; (ii) E-Government in
Tax Administration; (iii) E-Government in Customs; (iv) Electronic Government
Procurement; and (v) E-Government in Health and Other Social Productive Sectors.
Component 3-Project Management (US$650,000). This component would finance the
creation of the Regional E-Government Unit (REGU) directed by a Project Manager. The
REGU would include specialized staff located in the agencies identified in each country
as focal points for the project.
12. A total of US$480,000 (5 percent of total project cost) was unallocated to allow for
flexibility in complementing activities under the Project. This amount was later required
to offset the SDR exchange rate deficits.
1.6 Revised Components
13. The Project components were not modified, although some activities were
dropped as explained in section 1.7.
1.7 Other significant changes
14. In April 2012, there was a restructuring to: (i) extend the closing dates of the Credit
Agreements for Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia to August 31 2013, to align them with
the closing date of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Credit; and (ii) to revise the KPIs
deemed too broad, ambitious or difficult to attribute to the project. In June 2013, the two
Projects were restructured in order to achieve the PDO by: (i) extending the closing date
of all credits by six months; (ii) canceling some activities foreseen in the PAD and
reallocating funds to ongoing activities; and (iii) adjusting the KPIs to reflect these
changes. The cancellation of activities was due to:
The need to prioritize among the major e-Government systems to be financed by
the Project, due to costs being significantly higher than foreseen at appraisal. The e-
Government application for the preparation of the national budget was dropped due to its
high cost; the estimate had been US$300,000, while the lowest negotiated price resulting
from the procurement process was US$2.2 million. Further discussion of the disparity
between appraised and actual costing is in the ICR’s Implementation section.
5
Unsuccessful procurement processes due to the lack of bidders or inadequate
offers that did not meet the required criteria. The hiring of the e-Government specialist at
the OECS Secretariat was dropped due to the lack of candidates. The Customs
application was cancelled due to two unsuccessful procurement procedures and
inadequate time remaining to conduct another round.
Activities being carried out with alternative financing or expected to be financed
with alternative resources, such as the development of PFM websites and related
hardware (the countries had in the interim acquired those); the acquisition of software
additions to SmartStream 4 ; and activities related to harmonization of policies and
strategies under subcomponent 1.1.
Activities having been carried out by one of the countries, then shared the product
and its adaptation with the other countries. The interfaces between the main financial
system (SIGTAS) to SmartStream and from the main customs system - ASYCUDA
World - to SIGTAS, were developed by Dominica and shared with the other countries.
The development of a manual of the PFM system was dropped, as it could be subsumed
under another consultancy (for development of standard PFM reports and Smart Stream
Operating Procedures), also financed by the project.
Activities that the countries ultimately did not consider themselves ready to tackle
regionally, but decided to strengthen the national systems first, such as in the case of the
e-Government in Health application, for which the Project had envisaged a Regional
Health Integration System (RHIS).
The June 2013 restructuring was undertaken after it was decided at MTR, based
on a decision by the project’s Regional Steering Committee (with representatives at
Permanent Secretary level) to ascertain the true (not appraised) price of the components
by completing the procurement process of each component and enabling an informed
prioritization of the activities. The Bank received the last of the official requests for the
restructuring from the four countries in June 2013, at which point the restructuring had
been fully prepared, and could be formally processed. Had additional funds been
available under the project, a better approach may have been extend the project for a
longer timeframe, and allow it to benefit from another year, given its complexity,
regional nature and innovation.
2. Key Factors Affecting Implementation and Outcomes
2.1 Project Preparation, Design and Quality at Entry
4 SEMCAR (Supporting Economic Management in the Caribbean was a Canadian grant for Cdn$20
million to support reforms in Tax, Customs, Public Financial Management and related ICT areas in 12
Caribbean countries. IN 2012-2013, SEMCAR was providing support to the OECS countries in negotiating
a regional Enterprise for the SmartStream application.
6
15. Regional approach informed the overall design. Advancing regional integration
was at the top of the OECS agenda at the time of preparation in 2007. A regional
approach to e-Government was seen as a way to reap the benefits of economies of scale.
It was projected that the participating countries, which were participating in the formation
of an Economic Union in the Eastern Caribbean, would benefit from harmonizing
legislation and implementing common e-Government services. This was at the core of the
Project’s design as a horizontal APL and at the definition of regional implementation
arrangements, with a regional body - the OECS Secretariat - as the implementing agency.
The Bank used a regional IDA envelope to help finance the Project.
16. Lessons were taken into account at the time of preparation. The importance of
considering a gradual approach and the limited institutional capacity in small states were
considered at design. Recommendations from the Country Partnership (CPAR) for the
OECS States and the Public Sector Modernization project for Grenada informed design
regarding the main areas to be reformed. E-government experiences from other countries,
where available, were considered in the design5.
17. Preparation was participatory at national and regional levels. Two workshops in
February and May 2007 were carried out to inform the Project’s design. In advance of the
workshops, stakeholders at the national levels defined the priority areas of intervention
from their countries’ perspective. These priorities were discussed and matched during the
workshops. The preparation team consulted with the OECS Secretariat to gather
information on the regional priorities. Consultations with the private sector were carried
out to support efforts to cost the project. While estimating the cost of equipment was
feasible at the time of appraisal, it was a challenge to cost the systems, as there were no
precedents, comparisons and references for regional implementations. It was assumed
that there would be payment for one regional license (rather than four) and project design
assumed the OECS Secretariat as the buyer. Project credits, however, were given to the
countries per Bank standard practice.
18. The innovative nature of the Project combined with relatively short preparation
time, given the scope of the Project. At the time of preparation, EGRIP was a highly
innovative project, both in its subject matter in that it was a pioneering e-Government
project at the Bank, and in that no other e-Government lending project had been regional
before, or since. It included activities, such as the regional MPID system, for which there
were few international examples to draw on. This influenced the difficulties to accurately
cost the Project activities. The project would have benefitted from a longer preparation
time (a year from PCN approval to appraisal), given the broad scope and pioneering
nature of its activities. However, the Bank attempted to prepare the Project in time to be
able to access a regional envelope of IDA credit that otherwise would have expired. This
5 Operational experience in Grenada showed the importance of taking a strategic and incremental approach
to public sector modernization. The Project’s design focused on addressing primarily the core finance area
and attempting to achieve economies of scale through regional cooperation. Moreover, the Project was
conceived as a two-phase APL to allow for flexibility to coordinate with donors and allow for longer
adjustment periods.
7
led to a trade-off between the benefit of longer preparation time and that of leveraging
regional IDA credits for the project.
19. Assessment of risks was adequate. The PAD highlighted the Project’s complexity
and the capacity of the participating institutions to coordinate across countries and
agencies as substantial risks. Procurement and financial management were identified as
high risks as well. Mitigation measures were included in the design of the Project to
address these risks. These were overall adequate to manage the risks, in particular for
procurement and financial management.
20. In spite of the above, the Project’s quality at entry is rated as Moderately
Unsatisfactory. The main reason for this rating is that the Project was not fully prepared
at the time of approval. Project preparation was affected by a lack of adequate level of
funds for preparation. The Project did not benefit from a Project Preparation Facility
(PPF) to finance gap analyses, needs diagnoses and activity-defining consultancies during
preparation. This translated into broadly defined activities and selected M&E indicators
that did not have specific parameters, baselines or targets. As part of its first year
activities, the Project financed, after effectiveness, a significant number of consultancies
to better define the scope of the components and produce technical specifications. A PPF
could have undertaken some of these consultancies and brought the REGU team,
including the project manager, on board before effectiveness. The Project design was also
too ambitious in terms of the scope of activities included in the PAD, given the available
resources to finance activities. The costing of the major e-Government systems was
underestimated at appraisal. While accurate estimates of the cost of equipment were
feasible, it was a challenge to appraise the regional e-Government systems. The broad
project scope was carried out with the assumption that that there would be good potential
for economies of scale and that savings would be realized through a regional approach.
While these assumptions were partly realized, they turned out to have been optimistic.
2.2 Implementation
Factors that negatively affected implementation
21. Delays in starting the Project. The Project experienced a 13-month delay between
approval (May 2008) and effectiveness (June 2009) due to processes required to be
completed by each of the participating countries. During that time, the lack of a PPF
prevented proceeding with some activities, which would have otherwise allowed for a
faster implementation pace after effectiveness. The hiring of the Project Coordinator and
team by the OECS Secretariat formed part of these delays. The Regional e-Government
Unit (REGU)’s team was hired, trained and ready for implementation in June 2010.
22. Limited resources to finance all Project activities included in the PAD. Given the
broad scope of activities included in the PAD, the implementation team and the Bank
realized that there was a shortage of resources available to finance the full content of the
PAD. Early in implementation (2010), the Project management sought additional funds
from the CDB for all four countries, which per CDB guidelines also included St. Kitts
and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda. A CDB grant of US$2.5 million was approved in
8
2010 and started disbursement in 2012, supporting activities under Component 1: (a) 1.3
ICT standards and the Total Coast of Ownership Optimization and (b) 1.4 Regional e-
Government Institutional Framework Strengthening; and project management. In
addition to this initial shortfall, as the activities and systems were being procured in 2012,
the cost of the major e-Government systems was found to be significantly higher than
appraised and budgeted. After the mid-term review, priorities among Project activities
had to be defined (see section 1.7) and there was a need to restructure the Project to
reduce the number and scope of activities. Finally, the evolution of the exchange rate
SDR/$ negatively affected the availability of project resources, at times reducing the
budget by over half a million dollars.
23. Procurement was challenging. Procurement processes were challenging throughout
the life of the Project due to several factors: (i) limited capacity of local firms and
individual consultants; (ii) lack of attractiveness to international firms due to size, scope
and budget of activities in the Caribbean; (iii) lack of firms’ knowledge of the Bank’s
procurement rules and documents; (iv) delays in obtaining feedback and responses from
stakeholders for non-objections, comments and approvals; and (v) lack of specialized
procurement training and detailed proactive guidance from the Bank for the large IT
systems. The REGU invested significant time and efforts in resolving challenges and
driving the procurement processes forward, with Bank support. It split goods packages
into lots, based on the capacity of the local firms to enable their participation and to target
suppliers; the Bid security requirement was replaced by a security bid-declaration to
reduce the financial and logistical challenges on the firms and there was wide and
multiple advertisement in the region, at times directly to firms, to prevent the multi-
country procurement processes from being deserted. The Project Management team put
much work into the preparation of procurement processes, which was time consuming.
Despite the challenges, the procurement processes for all components were carried out, to
identify the costs of the systems. After the cost of all e-Government systems was known,
choices were made as to which systems to prioritize and finance.
24. Countries’ slow pace of response to REGU. It took long periods of time to obtain
responses, feedback and sign-offs from stakeholders in the participating countries. This
was due to the multiple institutions involved in the different areas of the Project across
four countries and the eagerness of countries to get e-Government systems with Project
support rather than consultancies, which were often viewed as not providing tangible
results. The Project financed a significant number of consultancies during its first years of
implementation (2010-2011), as foreseen in the PAD. These were key for: (i) providing
detailed diagnostics of the countries contexts and systems; (ii) carrying out consultations
with stakeholders; (iii) defining the systems and preparing technical specifications to
launch the procurement processes and ascertain the actual market cost of the systems; and
(v) creating consensus among the participating countries. For example, the MPID
consultancy included a consensus-building workshop for multiple agencies across the
four countries, including civil registries, electoral offices, police, and other agencies. The
countries were, at times, dismayed by the length of time needed to get the much-
anticipated systems.
9
25. Higher than estimated cost of e-Government systems. The procurement processes
carried out during 2012 showed that the cost of equipment was along the original PAD
estimates, while the cost of the systems was much higher than expected. Firms looked at
the relationship with each participating country as a separate one and cost each
implementation separately, rather than providing a volume discount for pooled
procurement. Offers proposed by vendors during contract negotiations exceeded the
estimated budget available for some of the larger e-Government systems. Pertinent
examples are provided in the table below.
e-Government Application Procurement Plan
Estimate at
Negotiation (US$)
Lowest Negotiated Price
after Competitive
Procurement Process (US$)
Multi-Purpose ID System $0.95 million $3.14 million
Software for National Budget
Preparation
$300,000 > $ 2.2 million
e-Tax Filing System $1.05 million $1.5 million
Electronic Procurement of
Pharmaceuticals System
$440,000 $526,000
26. Except for the EPPS, which was implemented as a single regional instance managed
by the OECS Secretariat, implementations and training for the e-Tax filing system and
the MPID system were undertaken at four country-levels. Firms perceived the systems as
four separate implementations, and this reduced the expected savings through economies
of scale. Given the size of these economies, there was little room for negotiation with the
private firms and the Bank could not influence this situation to a greater economic
advantage to the participant countries. This led to a restructuring in June 2013 that
canceled activities and reallocated funds among prioritized e-Government systems.
27. Challenges in the roll out and use of the MPID system: There were numerous
challenges to roll out the MPID system in the four countries before Project completion.
Once the system was installed and operational acceptance was granted (November 2013),
countries needed to define their strategies for deploying the system, introduce the ID
cards and decide on the systems with which it would interface. Several challenges
surfaced within each country. In St Lucia, there were problems in creating an MPID
vetting unit, to find a space to locate it, and staff it. A strategy for enrollment and
issuance of cards was developed shortly after Project closure, and kick-started the
system’s roll out. There were bottlenecks at the civil registry related to the reliable and
timely issuance of source documents that are critical to enrollment, such as the provision
of marriage and birth certificates. In the case of Grenada, the governance committee
created to provide guidance to the Ministry of ICT ceased to meet in June 2013, failing to
provide the guidance on rolling out and implementing the system. The focal point
switched from the Civil Registry to the ICT Ministry. This Ministry lacked previous
experience and trained staff to administer such a system. There were challenges to define
registration and issuance locations before Project closure. In St. Vincent, the vetting,
10
verification and reconciliation of identity were a challenge while the system was being
rolled out.
Factors that contributed positively to implementation
28. Implementation arrangements worked well and were key to achieving the PDO. At the regional level, two institutions were created to implement the Project. The
Regional e-Government Unit (REGU) was created at the OECS Secretariat to manage the
Project’s implementation. Additionally, a Regional Technical Committee (RTC) was
created to provide overall policy guidance to the REGU and to define priorities. The RTC
was comprised of country representatives at the level of Permanent Secretary and
representatives of the OECS Secretariat. At national level, Country Based Specialists
(CBSs) were hired as members of REGU to support implementation in each of the
participating countries. Each country had a focal point (an ICT or e-Government unit
representative), providing assistance to REGU to implement the Project. The
collaboration of the national and regional levels was successful, even if time consuming,
in implementing the project with a regional focus while integrating national priorities.
29. Strong Project Management consistently advanced Project implementation. The
REGU displayed strong leadership in implementing the Project. It worked closely with
the countries, through the CBSs, to obtain stakeholders’ responses and perspectives in an
effort to shorten feedback time. CBSs presented summaries of the consultancy reports to
stakeholders, and elicited feedback in these presentation meetings, rather than waiting for
feedback on the consultants’ at times lengthy analytical reports. The REGU implemented
a strategy to negotiate on contracts as part of the procurement process and secure more
value for money (i.e. by extending the systems guarantees for a year, after the systems
were given to the countries). The REGU showed strong resourcefulness to operationalize
the systems, in light of lack of or delays in passing the requisite e-Government
harmonized legislation (i.e. the REGU used consent forms from individuals in the
absence of passed legislation on fingerprints to start using the MPID system). The REGU
took the initiative to bring in CDB grants to complement the IDA credits to achieve the
PDO. The REGU, in the framework of the implementation arrangements, carried out
consensus building, fostered ownership of the Project in each participant country, while
being guided by the regional focus of the Project. For example, a workshop in September
2011 discussed and defined the concept and requirements of the MPID system across a
myriad of agencies in four countries, and found consensus before moving forward.
30. Scope of activities adapted to the countries’ priorities and needs (national
diversity within a regional project). While emphasizing the regional nature of EGRIP,
the Project sought to adapt to the countries’ realities and needs. In the case of the MPID
system, Dominica, use the MPID system to enhance the electoral registration, which
fostered greater acceptance of the system in this country. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
focused on the use of the MPID system for the modernization of the business and civil
registries, since the electoral office had been implementing a new ID card. Quick win
projects were introduced to achieve country-specific reforms and achieve: in St. Lucia,
the Project financed the Government’s online portal, and Dominica opted for the
11
implementation of an open source Health Information System (HIS), as a preparation for
its future participation in a regional HIS.
31. The Project adjusted to the changes in context after preparation. As mentioned in
section 1.7, selected activities were canceled to adjust to changes in the implementation
context. This was the case with the strategic review and update of national and regional
OECS e-Government strategies, which became unnecessary6. Countries had defined their
national ICT strategies, and CARICOM had carried out work to define the Regional
Digital Development Strategy (RDDS). Other activities were dropped to adjust to budget
shortfalls (i.e. activities related to PFM and e-customs). The institutional framework at
regional level favored by the countries (the Regional e-Government Center of Excellence
for which the countries agreed to establish the e-Government desk at the OECS
Secretariat) was not implemented due to the challenges of hiring an e-Government
specialist, after two unsuccessful rounds of bids and afterwards, to financial constraints.
The OECS Secretariat intends to set up the e-Government desk after Project completion.
2.3 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Design, Implementation and Utilization
Design
32. The Project’s original results framework was Moderately Unsatisfactory before
restructuring; and Moderately Satisfactory after both restructurings. A few of the original
PAD indicators didn’t include definition, baselines and targets, and it was indicated that
these would be clarified with the completion of analytical consultancies in the first year
of the project. A consultant was hired in mid-2010 to carry out a baseline exercise,
completed by August 2010, to gather information at the beginning of the Project. 7
Through this exercise, baseline values were defined, where possible, for the original PAD
indicators, through surveys and a desk review. The PAD mentions a budget for the M&E
results surveys, but resources were not allocated for this task and surveys could not be
undertaken.
33. The M&E framework evolved, as reflected in the 2012 and 2013 restructurings, to
introduce revised and new outcome indicators, to ensure the monitoring and evaluation of
the project and better monitor the Project’s achievements, and was finalized towards the
end of the Project’s implementation. While steps were carried out to successfully define
the M&E framework, the fact that the indicators were finalized and data collected at a
6 The countries no longer required it because of (i) the existence of National ICT Policy and Strategies (ii)
the 2010-2014 CARICOM E-government Strategy and (iii) the CARICOM regional Digital Strategy. Page
19 of the SLU CBS report. SVG completed its National ICT Policy, Strategy and Action Plan 2010-2015,
supported by the EU Special Framework of Assistance (SFA) 2005 and an E-Government Development
Strategy. The Draft CARICOM E-government 2010-2014 and the CARICOM Regional Development
Strategy 2011-2014 were completed as well.
7
12
later stage contributed to not using the M&E online dashboard developed under the
project.
Implementation
34. The REGU regularly carried out the monitoring and evaluation of the Project.
Progress monitoring reports were prepared quarterly, with financial and procurement
information to follow the physical and financial progress of the Project. Information to
update outcome and intermediate outcome indicators was regularly gathered, with
support of the CBSs, whenever it was available. Indicators were changed to better
measure the progress towards the PDO in light of the prioritization of activities within the
Project. An M&E online dashboard (a web-based M&E system) intended to be used to
monitor this Project was financed by the Project. The REGU and specifically the M&E
consultant provided initial information and participated in the acceptance of the system.
The system was given to each participant country and staff was trained on its use. The
system was tested and worked with several browsers, but it showed some limitations with
all of them except for one. Focus groups were carried out before Project completion to
gather information towards the achievement of outcomes. This exercise was led by
REGU, specifically by the M&E consultant. The focus groups gathered information on
quality, user satisfaction and functionality of the e-Government systems supported by the
Project (e-Procurement, MPID and e-Tax system). Participants included stakeholders
who had interaction with the systems, both internal and external users. Its key findings
are included in Annex 5.
Utilization
35. The M&E results framework was used to measure the progress towards the
achievement of outcomes and the PDO. It guided the efforts of the management team
during the last phase of implementation in supporting the countries to roll out all systems
and in particular the e-Tax filing and the MPID systems.
2.4 Safeguard and Fiduciary Compliance
36. Financial Management. No internal control issues were brought up in the external
audit reports, which were all unqualified. Disbursement rates reflected the Project’s
design and the nature of e-Government Projects, for which the first activities to be
financed are consultancies and the acquisition and implementation of systems follow. The
REGU adequately managed the financial uncertainty created by the SDR exchange rate
versus the dollar. The REGU closely monitored the evolution of the exchange rate to
ensure the availability of funds to meet the financial commitments under the Project, in
particular the MPID system, implemented towards the end of the Project.
37. Procurement. Procurement was an issue throughout the Project. REGU worked hard
and invested significant time to move the processes forward, through intense regional
advertisement, support from the Bank and creative actions. Some procurement processes
did not receive bids while others faced challenges to be successfully completed. This was
the case in the procurement of the e-Government specialist position after two
unsuccessful recruitment/procurement processes. In the case of the Public Financial
13
Management component, one of the procurement processes attracted no bidders, and the
second received one bid that did not meet the technical criteria. Lack of familiarity with
the Bank’s procurement processes and the size of the Caribbean economies adversely
affected procurement activities.
2.5 Post-Completion Operation/Next Phase
38. EGRIP was structured such that a second phase of the project could be conceived,
and this was requested by the OECS Secretariat at project closing. The Bank is currently
not considering a follow up operation to this Project due to the competing priorities
identified by the countries in the FY15-19 Regional Partnership Strategy process. The
Caribbean Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP, active in Grenada, St.
Lucia, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines) will address the countries’ priorities and
concerns regarding broadband capacity. However, this will not follow up on regional or
national e-Government activities.
39. By project completion, the OECS Secretariat intended to create a regional e-
Government desk and hire an e-Government specialist to staff it. Through this desk, the
OECS Secretariat plans to create an awareness of the Project’s achievements, in an effort
to enhance the use of the systems and achieve greater results. The OECS Secretariat
website published all of the reports produced during the life of the Project as well as
information on achievements.
40. By project completion, all three major systems financed by the Project had been
completed, transferred to the countries and were in use or in the early stages of roll out.
In the case of the EPPS, one procurement cycle for ARV was completed and the second
procurement cycle of a larger group of medical supplies was underway. The system is
expected to be used and maintained by the OECS Secretariat, specifically by the
Pharmaceutical Procurement Service (PPS). In the case of the e-Tax system, the
respective countries’ Inland Revenue Departments (IRD) have accepted the system and
citizens and firms are using it to file their taxes and make tax payments online. The
MPID is being rolled out in each country. Dominica was the furthest advanced of the four
countries, having enrolled the highest percentage of its target population by Project
completion. St. Lucia is focusing on removing bottlenecks in the civil registry,
establishing vetting arrangements and initiating the roll out starting with government
employees. By Project completion, it was waiting for Cabinet approval for the full roll
out and issuance of the cards. St. Lucia funded ID cards for its population under the
CARCIP project. In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a comprehensive document with the
strategy to roll out the MPID system and its role in the Identity Management and sharing
of ID data among the major government information systems has been prepared and
submitted by the MPID Governance Committee to Cabinet for its approval. In Grenada,
the system initiated its roll out by first registering public sector employees, and the
Government will take steps to register the general population after this phase is
completed.
14
41. The OECS Secretariat, the IRDs, the ICT Ministries and responsible agencies have
assumed maintenance of the systems. Warranties for the systems were assured for a year
post delivery to the countries. There were some concerns related to back up of systems
and replacement of equipment (in particular, computers) in the medium-term future.
42. The online M&E dashboard is expected to be used by the same countries in the OECS
for other projects, notably CARCIP. The regional partner of the CARCIP project, the
Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), will input its project-level M&E data into
the dashboard so that countries can follow results in real time. The OECS Secretariat also
plans to use it to monitor the OECS economic development strategy.
43. Some of the participating countries would like to scale up the ePPS system to develop
regional e-procurement for additional public goods. SVG and St. Lucia have requested
funds from the CDB to work on amending the regional legal framework in this respect.
3. Assessment of Outcomes
3.1 Relevance of Objectives, Design and Implementation
Rating: Substantial
44. Relevance of PDO: Pre-2012 restructuring: high. 2012 restructuring: high; 2013
restructuring: high. The PDO remains consistent with the regional and national ICT
strategies. It is in line with the 2010-2014 CARICOM e-regional strategy, the draft
Regional Digital Development Strategy (RDDS) developed by CARICOM and the
revised Basseterre Treaty establishing the OECS economic union in 2011. The treaty
seeks the free movement of citizens and goods across boundaries, and EGRIP supports
this goal, by contributing applications and setting up platforms for the free movement of
people and goods. The PDO remains in line with the OECS Development Strategy
approved in November 2013 8 . The Project’s PDO supports the OECS development
strategy regarding governance for the economic union.
PDO Element EGRIP Deliverables
Efficiency The e-Tax Filing System will deliver time efficiencies in filing taxes online
rather than manually/in person. The regional procurement of
pharmaceuticals will reduce time to complete a pharmaceuticals requisition
order in four countries.
Quality The Multi-purpose ID system will provide a unique personal identifier
where often 5+ different identifier numbers exist. End users of the e-Tax
Filing system and pharmaceuticals procurement system are expected to
experience an improved experience of government service delivery.
Transparency The e-Government system for pharmaceuticals will publish tender and
contractual information online. A web-based M&E system can be adapted
by the OECS Secretariat to monitor donor projects and progress towards the
economic union. The e-Government system serves as a pilot for larger
regional common electronic procurement systems that countries are
8 CARICOM E-Regional Strategy 2010-2014; Revised Basseterre Treaty 2011; OECS Development
Strategy, November 2013.
15
planning to pursue, e.g. for textbooks and other products.
Regional integration A suite of legislation for e-Government is harmonized across the region.
Harmonized technical standards for e-Government, interoperability
frameworks and Enterprise Architecture are established at a regional level.
The Multi-Purpose ID system generates unique personal identifiers across
participating countries. The e-Government system for pharmaceuticals
pools procurement across OECS. Government video conferencing facilities
were set up to improve connectivity among participating countries. These
systems support the economic union.
Economies of Scale The total cost of ownership of e-Government systems was clarified, with
the practice of pooled procurement of licenses across the region
implemented. The regional procurement of software systems produced
economies of scale, particularly where one implementation was undertaken
for several countries.
45. Relevance of Design: Pre-2012 restructuring: modest. 2012 restructuring:
substantial; 2013 restructuring: substantial. The project’s components and activities
proposed in the PAD were adequate to achieve the PDO. The Project put emphasis on
consensus building among the countries, following the Project’s regional approach.
While the Project design was conceived as broad and flexible, to retain agility to respond
to the innovative nature of the sector, there were significant shortcomings: (i) the scope
of the Project was ambitious, aiming to finance a broad range of e-Government systems
with limited budget and in a limited period of time; (ii) the Project lacked a PPF to
finance the initial background analyses to implement the systems early on in the project
and accomplish more implementation within the life of the Project (these analyses were
carried out later through consultancies under the project); (iii) the estimate of the e-
Government systems’ costs was optimistic and inaccurate. There was an assumption that
significant economies of scale could be realized through a regional implementation, not
foreseeing that the adaptations of the systems to each one of the countries would render
each commercial relationship separate and not provide the expected savings for the
countries; (iv) though the risk assessment included the complexity of the Project as one of
the risks, this did not translate into a narrower scope or sufficient time to implement the
Project. Though a regional Project, the fact that each country signed a credit translated in
reality into four projects and not enough time for accommodating consultations,
consensus building and accompanying of systems was available.
46. Relevance of implementation. Pre-2012 restructuring: modest. 2012 restructuring:
substantial; 2013 restructuring: substantial. The REGU and the Bank worked hard from
the beginning to move the project forward and overcome the challenges in design and
initial implementation. The mid-term review in 2012 was used to adjust the Project and
restructure it. The 2013 restructuring served to adapt to changes in context and priorities,
as explained in section 2.2, as some activities had been financed by other sources, had
already been carried out, were too costly for the available resources or could not be
implemented given the remaining timeline of the Project.
3.2 Achievement of Project Development Objectives
16
47. To assess the overall outcome of the Project, the ICR uses a split evaluation approach
following Appendix B of the ICR guidelines9. Separate outcome ratings for the three
dimensions of the PDO (quality, efficiency and transparency) are measured against the
original PAD indicators, the revised indicators in 2012 and the 2013 restructured KPIs.
Annex 10 includes tables of the outcome and intermediate outcomes in the PAD and after
the revision of KPIs in April 2012.
48. By Project completion, the Project interventions had directly contributed to the
promotion of greater quality, improvements in efficiency and transparency in the
provision of public services. These outcomes were measured by indicators that captured
the development and use of new and upgraded government applications in the areas of e-
Tax filing, e-procurement and harmonization of ID systems; the improvements in
efficiency through the reduction of the time to do transactions and the reliability of the
information provided by the e-Government systems supported by the Project; and the
enhancement of transparency in the provision of public services through greater access to
the results of the procurement processes in the public sector and the harmonization of
legislation related to e-Government systems.
Achievement of outcomes before the 2012 restructuring.
49. The achievement of the PDO for this period is rated as Moderately Unsatisfactory,
measured by the outcomes indicators proposed in the original PAD. The reasons are the
initial slow pace of implementation and the fact that the Project financed mostly
consultancies during its first years (2010-2011). The progress towards achievement of
outcomes during this period is difficult to measure with the original PAD indicators,
since several indicators had no baselines or targets. By April 2012, while none of the
original PAD outcome indicators had been achieved as most of them were expected to be
achieved further along in the Project life, there was progress towards the PDO, as the
Project financed specific consultancies that were geared towards improving quality,
efficiency and transparency in the delivery of public services. Intermediate outcome
indicators – 10 out of 28 - showed progress for each dimension of the PDO (see Annex
10).
Table 1: OECS EGRIP PAD Outcome Indicators
Outcome/Indicator Baseline10 End-target Actual Value
9 Appendix B of the ICR Guidelines: “For projects whose objectives (as encompassed by the stated PDOS
and the key associated outcome targets) have been formally revised – through approval by the Bank
authority that approved the original loans/credits/grants – project outcome will be assessed against both the
original and revised project objectives. To assist in arriving at an overall outcome rating following this
principle, separate outcome ratings (against original and revised project objectives) will be weighted in
proportion to the share of the actual loan/credit disbursements made in the periods before and after
approval of the revision.
10 The PAD stated that the baseline and target indicators were to be determined by a survey/study to be
launched shortly after effectiveness, to be completed during the first year of the Project. An M&E
consultant hired by REGU completed this task by August 2010. This exercise was challenging due to: (i)
the expectations set in the PAD; (ii) participating countries did not routinely collect and store the data
17
August 2010 April 2012
i Promote Quality of Public Services
Increase in the number of electronic transactions
processed by regional e-Government applications.
0 20% 0
Improvement of ratings in areas of functionality,
accuracy and usability of e-Government services as
reported by users through satisfaction surveys
n/a Activity due
before
completion
n/a
ii Promote Efficiency of Public Service
Government financial savings in areas such as
public financial management, tax administration,
customs and procurement due to new e-Government
systems
n/a n/a n/a
Estimated users’ time and cost-savings n/a n/a n/a
iii Promote Transparency of Public Services
Improvement of ratings in areas of openness and
access to relevant information, as reported by users
through satisfaction surveys
n/a Activity due
before
completion
n/a
New regional institutional framework is created
with adequate capacity to provide new regionally
integrated e-Government services, in accordance
with regionally harmonized policies and regulations
0 1 0
50. The following achievements were accomplished with support from the Project:
The legislation related to e-Government was developed and presented to the
OECS authority;
The design of a regional e-Government institutional framework was completed;
consultations held and the proposal for establishing an e-Government desk at the
OECS Secretariat had been agreed by the RTC;
Consultations and consensus on moving forward with the design for the MPID as
well as a detailed design and implementation plan for the MPID system had been
completed;
A PFM financial reporting module (Smartstream budget) had been prepared and
was ready to be implemented;
The e-Tax filing system and had been designed; an effort to procure it was
attempted and its requirements were simplified to be able to start with VAT filing,
with other tax types to follow;
The Regional Customs Information System (RCIS) had been designed; efforts had
been deployed to procure the implementation of a RCIS through procurement
process and negotiations;
Consultancies on a regional e-procurement system had been carried out and
procurement of a system was under preparation.
required by the PAD. The project did not allocate funds for surveys on customer satisfaction, efficiency and
quality, which were important outcome indicators. In-country visits were carried out between June-August
2010 and data were collected with the help of the CBSs.
18
Assessment of the existing health management information systems had been
carried out and training to national teams had been carried out to decide on how to
move forward on the RHMIS.
51. The Project succeeded in implementing quick win projects during this phase: namely,
an upgrading of web portal for the Government of St. Lucia, the provision of video-
conferencing equipment for St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica and a local
network for the Prime Minister’s office in Grenada. Procurement processes for goods and
equipment, which were critical for the implementation of the e-Government systems had
been launched. The fact that the first two and a half years of the project were
concentrated on financing consultancies, which were needed to define the applications
and systems was the reason for not showing stronger progress towards the achievement
of the three dimensions of the PDO, which could not be further seen at this stage.
Achievement of outcomes after the 2012 restructuring.
52. The progress towards the achievement of outcomes is rated as Moderately
Satisfactory for the period of April 2012- March 2013. While progress under the outcome
indicators was very low (progress in two out of five indicators), three intermediate
outcome indicators were achieved and five were partially achieved (out of sixteen
indicators): (i) a regional Electronic Pharmaceuticals Procurement System (EPPS) was
approved; (ii) harmonized legislation had been approved by the OECS Authority and
published; (iii) regional e-standards, total cost of ownership, enterprise architecture and
interoperability framework had been defined; (iv) regional consensus on the institutional
framework for e-Government had been achieved; (v) the design of the MPID had been
completed; and (vi) the conceptual design of the RHMIS had been completed (see Annex
10 ).
53. Critical work was carried out during this period (April 2013-June 2013) to find out
what systems could be afforded by the countries; to set priorities and to take steps to
implement the main systems to be in the end supported by the Project. These were: (i) a
jointly procured e-Tax filing system to allow citizens and business to file their taxes
online; (ii) the EEPS to automate the joint procurement of pharmaceuticals and (iii) the
MPID system to provide the citizens of the region with a unique identifier across
countries. By the end of this period, the contracts for the major e-Government
applications had been signed and were under implementation. The consultancies and the
procurement processes carried out in 2012 had shown the need to concentrate on a
smaller number of attainable systems. The PDO seemed achievable at the time.
Table 2: OECS EGRIP Outcome Indicators as per April 2012 restructuring
Outcome/Indicator Baseline
March 2008
End-target Value
March 2013
i Promote Quality of Public Services
New government applications offered or upgraded
under the Project
0 15 1
Quality measured through focus groups by end
users of the following systems:(i) public financial
0 1 0
Activity due
19
management system; (ii) regional custom
information system and (iii) MPID system*11.
before
completion
ii Promote Efficiency of Public Services
Average number of days to prepare annual budget 120 90 120
Regional health information system and regional
customs information system are installed and
operational
0 2 0
iii Promote Transparency of Public Services
Creation of 4 national PFM websites with open and
transparent PFM data sets
0 4 0
Establishment of Regional E-government desk at
OECS Secretariat; hiring of the senior E-
government specialist; design the business plan for
sustainability of the E-government desk completed
0 2 1
Achievement of outcomes after the 2013 restructuring.
54. The Project succeeded in achieving its PDO. The table below shows the Project’s
achievement for each of the PDO’s dimensions: quality, efficiency and transparency in
the provision of public services. A total of 9 out of 11 intermediate results indicators were
achieved or surpassed and 2 were more partially achieved.
Table 3: OECS EGRIP Outcome Indicators as per 2013 restructuring
Outcome/Indicator Baseline End-target Actual Value
i Promote Quality of Public Services
New government applications offered or upgraded
under the Project.
0 9 14
Improved quality as perceived by end-users for the
EPPS, the e-Tax filing system and the MPID
system, measured through focus groups to be
carried out before Project completion.
0 Quality of
services
provided
improved
Quality
improved for
two of the
three systems
ii Promote Efficiency of Public Services
Average numbers of days to complete VAT tax
filing
One day n/a 30 minutes
Average amount of time to process a
Pharmaceutical procurement requisition order
5 days n/a 20-30 minutes
iii Promote Transparency of Public Services
Publication of procurement awards online. 0 n/a 19
Publication of an OECS government regionally
harmonized legislation bill by first quarter of 2012,
approved by the OECS authority
0 Legislation
published
OECS
authority
approved it
and published
Promoting the Quality of Public Services
55. By Project completion, the scope of public services upgraded to e-Government
systems had been enlarged, promoting quality improvements in the delivery of these
services. Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines had received a
11 *This indicator was to be captured by Project completion.
20
total of 14 new or upgraded applications for e-Government systems: the e-Tax-filing
system and the MPID system for the four countries; one regional E-pharmaceutical
Procurement Services system12; a reporting facility for the SmartStream application in
each of the countries and the implementation of the Health Information System in
Dominica. All applications and systems were delivered to and received by the countries;
relevant staff had been trained on their use and maintenance. The systems and
applications were overall in use in all four countries by Project completion. Additionally,
by Project completion, all four countries had received additional tools to inform their
decisions regarding e-Government and help them improve the quality of public services
with regional harmonization: e-Government standards, enterprise architecture, inter-
operability framework and total cost of ownership. These tools were defined, made them
available and published by the OECS Secretariat.
56. The regional procurement of pharmaceuticals became fully automated13 through the
use of the EPPS. The EPPS was successfully used for the procurement of ARVs in 2013
and for a larger acquisition of medical supplies (July 2013- August 2014) that includes an
estimated six thousand items. As indicated by OECS staff and bidders through focus
groups and interviews, the automated process of the EPPS has enhanced the quality of the
acquisition of pharmaceuticals in several aspects: accuracy has improved (and quality as
a result) in the request for forecasts from the countries, in the collation of the forecast
from each country (the system does it automatically now); in objectivity during the
invitation to companies to bid has improved; in the possibility of waiting until the last
minute to close tenders, objectively closing the time to present the bids at the same time,
reducing the claims from bidders and risks of different treatment among them; and in the
qualitative preparation of the evaluation report. Quality has also improved in the process
as now all bidders receive the same responses to their questions.
57. Increased quality in tax administration was improved with the rollout and use of the
e-Tax system by the Inland Revenue Departments of all four countries providing citizens
and companies with the ability to file and eventually, pay taxes online. Except for
Grenada, the countries had not yet done much advertising of the e-Tax system. By Project
completion, the system was in full use in all countries. Grenada was the most advanced,
having managed to receive e-payment (collecting close to US$200,000) as well as tax
filing declarations for VAT, income and property taxes. The e-Tax filing system was
rated as high quality by the IRD departments in the four countries and by end users.
Annex 5 provides detailed information on the focus groups’ feedback on the quality of
the system.
12
The EPPS is a regional system which includes all OECS countries, including those not participating in
EGRIP, such as Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kiss and Nevis, and Monserrat.
13 All of the steps that can be automated have been automated. One approval from the respective Ministers
of Health is required, --the only manual step left in the EPPS process, and which could be divested in the
future through last procedural reforms.
21
58. Though the MPID system was developed and given to each of the countries by
Project completion (hardware, software, training and system guarantees), its roll out and
registration is ongoing in all four countries. The objective is to create harmonized ID
systems that can be used through other e-Government platforms, integrated with other
systems at national and regional levels. Dominica rolled out the system by project
completion and linked the MPID with the Electoral Office System to verify voters’ IDs,
and the Inland Revenue Department System to verify tax ID and driver’s licenses.
Dominica completed enrollment of public servants, statutory organizations and most
schools, registering close to 4,000 persons, with enrollment of the general public to
follow. St. Lucia is implementing the first roll out phase with the registration of
Government employees (5 percent of the total population). The MPID will interface with
the Electoral System and the National Insurance Corporation System as first
interoperable agencies. Grenada registered an estimated 800 civil servants in its initial
phase to roll out the system. Work is underway to interface the MPID with the Civil
Registry and the National Insurance System. St. Vincent and the Grenadines linked the
MPID to the Civil Registry and was tested by Project completion.
59. The Project supported these outcomes by financing the development of the e-
Government systems and their adaptation to the countries’ context, through the delivery
of training for each of the systems, providing hardware and software for their
implementation and the continuous support, encouragement and guidance to the countries
to implement them.
Promote efficiency of public services
60. Regarding e-Government in tax-administration, all four OECS countries had rolled
out and were implementing the e-Tax filing system. All four countries had achieved
improvements in efficiency measured by the average number of days needed to file the
VAT tax as well as other taxes, notably income taxes. All four countries had shortened
the period of time needed for filing taxes from 1 day to an average of 30 minutes.
Efficiency had improved as the e-Tax system allows taxpayers to file taxes any day at
any time. Furthermore, efficiency was realized as tax payers did not have to come to the
IRD offices, find parking in busy cities, and wait to fulfill this obligation. The IRD in
each country indicated that the e-Tax system has removed the need to renovate more
space and install cashiers during each tax-peak payment season. Annex 3 provides details
on the efficiency gains through the use of the e-Tax filing system.
61. Grenada had also succeeded in collecting also property tax payments, which does not
require filing as it is requested through an invoice. The public awareness campaign had
led citizens to channel these payments through the e-Tax system without being prompted
or guided to do so. Annex 2 includes information by country on the number of e-Tax
filings by type of tax.
62. Efficiency has improved with the implementation of the e-Procurement system,
measured by the “reduction in the average time to process a requisition to purchase
order”. The implementation of the EPPS has brought improved efficiency in other
moments of the procurement of medicines and medical supplies: at collate of the forecast,
22
at the bid evaluations, sending the invitation, closing in tenders and evaluation (see
Annex 3, table 1). The EPPS had been used by Project completion for the acquisition of
ARVs in 2013, a procurement process that successfully generated efficiency during
various procurement stages. A larger procurement process of pharmaceutical in the
OECS countries started in 2013 and will conclude in August 2014 with the arrival of the
pharmaceuticals in the countries.
63. The addition of a reporting module to the SmartStream system is allowing the
preparation of reports directly by users, which were previously unavailable, unless
prepared by IT staff. This upgrade to the Human Resources module, which involved data
entry funded under the Project, enables making informed decisions in these areas and
management of these resources. St. Vincent had uploaded 300 records to its database. St.
Lucia encountered challenges when trying to use this software and was working to
overcome them by Project completion. Grenada has been inserting information on
teachers, reaching an approximate 75 percent of records by Project completion.
64. Upgrades in the Health Information Systems (HIS) at national level contributed to the
promotion of efficiency under the Project. By Project completion, software for new
modules had been developed and tested in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for patient
registration and discharge data, billing, access and emergency department. These
modules were developed by consultants in close cooperation with the St. Vincent and the
Grenadines team. The modules work in an open source environment and store critical
information in a friendly format. The modules were piloted in one health center and one
clinic. In the case of SLU, the country made progress in the roll out of the national HIS
and supported 11 wellness centers around the country by installing hardware (computers,
generator bought and installed in Vieux Fort and Banonneau) for the national HIS14. A
map at the end of the PAD indicates the locations of the clinics supplied with required
hardware and software.
65. The Project contributed to this outcome through the financing of the e-Government
systems, the training and the follow up to the implementation and use of each of these
systems. The Project provided financing for the consultants’ work to prepare diagnostics
and assessments, software, hardware, and for consultations and consensus building,
monitoring through implementation.
Transparency in the delivery of public services
66. By Project completion, harmonized e-Government legislation had been approved by
the OECS Authority - the body of Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers for the OECS
member countries - in January 2012: Electronic transactions, electronic funds transfer,
electronic filing rules, electronic evidence bill, and electronic crimes and data protection.
The publication of the legislation bill took place in February 201415.
14 St. Lucia had established 11 wellness centers around the country with CDB support. By Project
completion, there were 22 facilities around the country, with 8 more to be established in the future.
15 http://www.oecs.org/our-work/projects/egrip
23
67. These bills served as the guidelines to each country to draft and pass their own
legislation. This achievement is a significant step in improving efficiency of public
services across the region. Of these, Grenada had enacted the electronic crimes bill,
which contributed to its gaining the EU status of visa free country; it had passed other
legislation, which had allowed the e-payment of taxes. Dominica had approved
legislation on E-filing, E-Evidence, E-fund transfers and E-transactions. St. Lucia is
waiting for Cabinet approval of these pieces of legislation. The e-Transaction law was in
Parliament by Project completion, expecting to be approved in 2014. In St Vincent and
the Grenadines, the legislation is with the office of the Attorney General and needs to be
approved by Cabinet, before going to Parliament.
68. The transition to an automated EPPS has contributed to promote transparency by: (i)
providing access to the same information to all potential suppliers and consistent answers
to questions asked on-line; and (ii) the publication of information of the results of the
procurement process. A total of 19 awarded contracts for procurement of pharmaceutical
were published online before Project completion.
69. The Project contributed to this outcome through the support of workshops and
preparatory work to carry out the draft e- legislation, training staff and financing the
acquisition of the necessary equipment to implement these pieces of legislation. It
provided equipment, training and the development, acquisition, and implementation of
the EPPS.
3.3 Efficiency
70. Efficiency is rated as Modest. The rating is based on the following: (i) though the
Project lasted longer than foreseen in the PAD, the actual time to procure and implement
the systems was two years (from January 2012 till completion in February 2014); and (ii)
some of the efficiency gains and savings through the Project’s achievements have not yet
been maximized or have not yet been quantified as it may be too early to measure them.
The true impact of efficiencies will become more apparent several years post project
closure. The evidence of the efficiency gains visible now are the access to public services
twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, as indicated by beneficiaries during the
focus groups. More time for implementation would have given the Project the
opportunity to realize efficiency gains. There were no cost overruns in this Project. The
costs for the systems were higher than foreseen, due to the challenges of costing at
appraisal. The REGU optimized the use of resources, negotiating hard and succeeding in
getting good value for the price of the systems, during the procurement process and
implementation of activities.
4. Justification of Overall Outcome Rating
Rating: Moderately Satisfactory
24
71. The overall achievement of outcome is rated as Moderately Satisfactory. The
relevance of the PDO remained high before and after restructuring, while the relevance of
design evolved from modest to substantial by Project completion. There were positive
achievements during implementation: (i) after two restructurings, the Project reflected a
reduced number of priority activities that were well implemented to achieve the PDO; (ii)
the results framework included updated relevant indicators, which provided evidence of
the progress towards the achievement of the PDOs; (iii) the three e-Government systems
prioritized under the Project had been developed and were in use in all four countries.
There were shortcomings: (i) the restructurings took place later on in the life of the
Project, maintaining a results framework that showed limited progress towards the PDO;
(ii) the Project was extended for six months on an exceptional basis to allow the
achievement of the PDO and may have benefited from a longer extension, had financial
resources to sustain it been available or requested by the countries; (iii) the e-Government
systems were implemented late in the life of the Project, also with an extension not
providing sufficient time to accompany their roll out for an extended period of time to
capture the potential efficiency gains.
3.5 Overarching Themes, Other Outcomes and Impacts
(a) Poverty Impacts, Gender Aspects, and Social Development N/A
(b) Institutional Change/Strengthening
72. The Project strengthened the regional aspect of e-Government through the analysis of
the regional and national legislation carried out with Project support, the continuing
consensus building and discussions that resulted in the approval at regional level by the
OECS Authority of a harmonized set of laws for e-Government, as well as on a regional
perspective to the design and adoption of e-Government systems.
73. The Project contributed to strengthening the institutional framework for e-
Government. It financed the analysis of the existing OECS institutional framework as
well as other possible frameworks. As a result of this analysis, several options were
proposed and considered by the countries. The Project financed the development of a
business plan to develop an e-Government desk to be absorbed by the OECS and staffed
by an e-Government specialist. By Project completion, an interim e-Government desk
within the OECS Secretariat was created and temporarily staffed.
74. The Project contributed to strengthening capacity through significant training of
beneficiaries in several areas. Training for the three main e-Government systems was
supported by the Project. Capacity was strengthened on M&E framework development,
data collection, training and reporting system. Around 99 participants benefited from the
training over 17 workshops, including stakeholders, public sector personnel and
beneficiaries, OECS and REGU staff. Staff was trained in all 4 countries under EGRIP on
the upgrade of SmartStream software, the user manuals on the upgrade of the system and
on the reports that can be produced now for daily use. Training took place on the HIS
25
management tools, at the time of preparation of regional HIS. Training was provided on a
regional HIS to personnel of the MOH of the different countries on assessment tools
(Health Metric Assessment (HMA) and the Performance of Routine Information
Management System (PRIMS) tools) and these tools were used with support from the
EGRIP’s consultants to prepare the diagnostic of each country’s HIS.
75. The implementation of the MPID system is contributing to the revision and
improvement of business processes. All countries were emphasizing cleaning out the
registries that are the source of information to feed the MPID system. In the case of St.
Lucia, the Civil Registry has carried out a revision of its processes to make them more
efficient, to support the cleaning up of records and improve the data provided to the
MPID system. By May 2014, records were being issued in one day, significantly
improving from the previous two weeks period.
(c) Other Unintended Outcomes and Impacts (positive or negative) N/A
3.6 Summary of Findings of Beneficiary Survey and/or Stakeholder Workshops
76. Before Project completion, a series of focus groups was carried out in order to capture
improvements in quality in the provision of services for the three major systems
supported by the Project. Overall, beneficiaries gave positive feedback and ratings to the
systems, providing insightful information on challenges, key changes and achievements.
In scale of 1 to 10 where 10 the top score, beneficiaries gave the e-Tax filing system an 8
for quality and satisfaction and a 7 for functionality. Beneficiaries gave the EPPS a 9 for
quality, satisfaction and functionality. Beneficiaries in Dominica gave the MPID an 8 for
quality and satisfaction and a 7 for functionality. A summary of the findings is included
in Annex 5.
4. Assessment of Risk to Development Outcome
Rating: Moderate
77. The development outcomes achieved with Project support are expected to be
sustained based on the following:
The enactment of the harmonized e-Government legislation is well underway in
each of the participating countries, which indicated enforcement would take place
in the near future. As a result of the approval of the electronic crime bill, Grenada
will benefit from a visa-free status for its citizens travelling to the EU. Such
measures are fostering further future efforts towards approving the e-legislation at
national level. While the process is slow, the legislation continues to be processed
and is expected to eventually be enacted in all four countries. While national legal
review processes may change the legislation somewhat so that it is not verbatim
identical, the contents of the legislation remain harmonized across the four
countries.
26
The EPPS has performed in a highly satisfactory manner and it will continue to be
used for regional procurement processes for medical supplies. The countries plan
to scale up the regional e-Procurement experience by expanding the system to
undertake pooled procurement for other products, such as textbooks;
The e-Tax system is being used not only for VAT but for other types of taxes and
has been welcomed by tax payers and Inland Revenue Departments. All countries
are working to achieve agreements with the appropriate financial institution to
allow for e-payments of filed taxes;
The MPID systems are being rolled out by all participating countries, which are
following their implementation strategies to complete their targets to enroll
groups of citizens, testing the enrollment process and overcoming the challenges
in interfacing with other systems. Roll-out and adoption of the systems will
require time to reach impact, as the countries register all citizens and finalize
cabinet approval of underlying legislation. Ongoing support to the countries under
other projects (CARCIP or TA) would support the countries as they maximize
EGRIP’s full potential over this time. Other countries in the region who are not
part of EGRIP are exploring joining the MPID formats for their electronic
identification;
System implementations were undertaken with maximum transfer of knowledge
to local IT managers, hands-on implementation and with creating a network
among the system managers across the countries, so they may assist each other
during the life cycle of the system. Continued training on the use and maintenance
of the different systems will contribute to their sustainability.
Contracts for the systems were designed to include maintenance and support from
the vendors for several years beyond project closure.
78. Nevertheless, there are challenges to be addressed in the future:
(i) Ensuring that local capacity to enforce the enacted e-legislations is built in the
participating countries in a timely manner;
(ii) Regarding the e-Tax system, which is a module that sits on top of the main tax
system, SIGTAS, it will be important to ensure that infrastructure and
hardware of the main tax system, does not prevent the systems from working
adequately. The main servers’ capacities to handle the systems are perceived
as a potential limitation to the sustainability of the system, as indicated by the
participating countries. The participating countries may receive an overall tax
system upgrade under the Canadian funded and World Bank implemented
SEMCAR Phase 2 Project that, if rolled out, will contribute to consolidate the
Project’s achievements. The e-Tax filing system has been designed to
interoperate with future systems that may replace the existing system,
SIGTAS.
27
(iii) Continued focus on strengthening the institutional and governance framework
for e-Government development at regional and national level is critical for the
sustainability of outcomes and for the realization of achievements that were
not yet fully reached (i.e. MPID).
(iv) Additional work is necessary to implement the recommendations and best
practices in the consultancies produced with Project support (regarding legal
and regulatory framework, policy and strategy and architecture standards and
total cost of ownership). The countries will need to continue to work on
EGRIP’S outcomes to realize the benefits of the Project.
5. Assessment of Bank and Borrower Performance
5.1 Bank Performance
(a) Bank Performance in Ensuring Quality at Entry Rating: Moderately Unsatisfactory
79. The performance of the Bank during preparation is rated as Moderately
Unsatisfactory. The Bank worked closely with the OECS Secretariat and the countries to
prepare the Project. It carried out well-staffed preparation missions, ensuring that
preparation was participatory and lessons from previous projects or other regions were
taken into account. There were contextual challenges to which the Bank had to adapt and
deliver the design more amenable within the circumstances at the time. There was a set of
constraints self-imposed by the Bank that the team accommodated to. There was also
strong interest by the countries to maximize the Project’s components within a relatively
small budget, due to the size of the regional envelope and the financial limits to borrow
by the countries. The main shortcomings were: (i) the ambitious Project design given the
relatively limited credits’ amount; (ii) the insufficient period of time and limited amount
of resources to adequately prepare an innovative project, the first regional e-Government
project prepared by the Bank. The team was under pressure to meet the deadline to be
able to use the IDA funds under the regional envelope; (iii) an M&E for the Project that
was vague and, though on purpose, left detailed definition to be done during the first
years of implementation; and (iv) the inaccurate costing and estimates for the Project’s
activities. This weighted heavy during implementation, though the REGU, the countries
and the Bank worked together to overcome these issues.
(b) Quality of Supervision Rating: Moderately Satisfactory
80. Once implementation started, the Bank worked hard to achieve the PDOs. The Bank
carried out regular well-staffed supervision missions a minimum of twice a year. The
Bank regularly monitored the Project, working with REGU and the M&E consultant to
gather information to better assess the Project’s achievements. During the mid-term
review, the Bank supported the REGU’s proposals to restructure the Project, once it was
clear that not all activities included in the PAD could be financed under EGRIP. The
Bank provided support in procurement and financial management to REGU when needed,
contributing to move the Project forward and overcoming issues during bids and
28
providing suggestions when some bids were deserted or did not succeed. There were
changes of TTL during implementation and the Bank made an effort to make this
transition smooth. The Bank also made efforts to work with the REGU since the Project
was innovative and both the Bank and the participating countries were new to an ICT
regional e-Government project. Though the Bank worked with the REGU to restructure
the Project twice, restructurings came late during implementation, affecting the overall
assessment of outcomes.
(c) Justification of Rating for Overall Bank Performance Rating: Moderately Satisfactory
81. The Bank performance is rated as Moderately Satisfactory, based on the Moderately
Unsatisfactory rating for its preparatory work, the Moderately Satisfactory quality of
supervision, in light of the Bank’s focused work, the flexibility to adapt to changes and to
overcome the shortcomings derived of the Project’s design and its implementation
context.
5.2 Borrower Performance
(a) Governments Performance Rating: Moderately Satisfactory.
82. The performance of the Governments of Dominica, St, Lucia, Grenada and St.
Vincent and the Grenadines during preparation is rated as Moderately Unsatisfactory, as
the responsibility for Project preparation was shared with the Bank. Their performance
during implementation is rated as Moderately Satisfactory. The governments showed
commitment to the Project’s PDO during implementation. The Governments, through the
RTC members, played a critical role in guiding implementation and working with REGU
to make strategic decisions on what the Project would focus on and finance. RTC
meetings took place regularly and attendance by the countries’ representatives was
satisfactory. Despite these positive actions, there were shortcomings during
implementation. The Governments often took a long time to provide feedback and
respond to the REGU, which delayed implementation. The country-by-country
institutional framework to implement the project was challenging, as there were several
departments working with ICT, dispersed in each country. In general, with support from
the CBSs, it was manageable. Ownership of the Project was weak, in some cases weaker
than others and particularly weak in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (during the
implementation period when a lot of consultancies were financed and the systems seemed
not to come as soon as the countries wanted; the MPID system was reviewed as not really
“owned” by the countries). There was a lack of knowledge of the Bank procurement rules
and lack of understanding of the role of the stakeholders. In St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, the horizontal coordination of the institutional framework was challenging
and undermined the ownership of the project. The ICT council and the steering
committee did not communicate well, which negatively affected implementation.
(b) Implementing Agency or Agencies Performance Rating: Moderately Satisfactory
29
83. The OECS Secretariat required time to hire the REGU coordinator and set the
conditions for launching the project’s implementation. The regional organization worked
to promote regional integration and synergies in e-Government, a pioneering field for the
participating countries when the project was launched. This task is not easy, and the
manifestations of success will require time and additional, sustained efforts on the part of
the Secretariat to become apparent. The overall implementing agency performance is
rated as Moderately Satisfactory. Within the Secretariat, the REGU’s performance is
rated as Satisfactory. Well-staffed, the REGU was led by a strong Project Coordinator
who, with support from her competent team, showed determination, leadership and
resourcefulness in overcoming obstacles to implement the project. It displayed strong
commitment and dedication to negotiate and accommodate each of the countries’ needs
and requests, while maintaining the regionalization as a guiding force for the project.
84. The CBSs performed a crucial role in linking the REGU at national level, reinforcing
ownership, providing critical information on the Project’s implementation to the national
teams, supporting and guiding national stakeholders and facilitating dialogue and
consensus building.
85. The CDB provided critical support to allow the Project to move forward, in a context
of shortage of resources, showing flexibility and contributing the strengthened the
regional dimension of the Project’s achievements, as Antigua and St. Kitts and Nevis
were included in the activities financed by CDB. Dialogue with the CDB team was
fruitful.
(c) Justification of Rating for Overall Borrower Performance Rating: Moderately Satisfactory
86. The overall Borrower performance is rated as Moderately Satisfactory based on the
combined performance of the participating Governments and the implementing agency.
6. Lessons Learned
Design
87. Too broad a design risks to diminish/distort the focus of a project during
implementation. While a broad design might have been chosen to allow for a flexible
scope of activities during implementation and to have room of maneuvering given the
innovative nature of the Project, it distracted implementation. It is important to carry out
extensive background work during preparation to know to the best extent possible the
sector context, the costs and to set priorities, given the budgets and the implementation
time. Though it might be necessary to postpone such work that should have been
undertaken during preparation and relegate it to the first years of project implementation,
this caused delays to launch the project implementation; it ultimately used resources that
were not utilized by the project (e.g. M&E dashboard) and then lose relevance if not used
by other donors or agencies or the Borrowers in the future (several consultancies).
30
88. Adequate project preparation time versus other considerations must be explicit. The
Project’s preparation was constrained by the existing timing to be able to use regional
IDA resources for the OECS region. While this was the decision at the time, it was not
clearly acknowledged that project readiness was affected by the limited preparation time.
While the team did the best possible in that context, taking up to three years to complete
the consultancies and procurement and leaving a two-year period to implement the
systems, it shortened the time to implement the e-Government systems, particularly the
MPID system. The Bank should avoid setting self-imposed deadlines to take projects to
the Board, which might prevent carrying out quality project preparation. Envelopes for
regional financing once identified and approved, should not be the deciding factor to set
Board dates.
89. A regional approach for ICT projects for small island states shows strengths and
weaknesses to be considered at the time of design. In the case of EGRIP, a regional
approach had advantages such as: (i) harmonizing the e- legislation and the design of the
e-Government systems by carrying out consultancies for all countries; (ii) carrying out
pooled procurement to the maximum extent possible for goods and systems, achieving
economies of scale, efficiencies and savings; and (iii) sharing knowledge among
participating countries, through a demonstration effect that fostered implementation (case
of Dominica in e-Taxes and MPID). Choosing a regional implementation institution can
be a strength if the PIU is effective in moving a project forward, as it was the case of
REGU for EGRIP. The OECS Secretariat’s capacity in e-Government needs to be
addressed by countries; Capacity needs to be strengthened in order to be more effective
and play a regional leadership role. A regional approach entails a slower pace of
implementation as more time and efforts are required for consensus building and
countries responses.
Implementation
90. Importance of establishing mechanisms to generate and maintain countries’
commitment to the Project, throughout the project. In a regional project like EGRIP, it
was important to ensure the commitment of the countries for a project that was to be
implemented by a regional body – OECS Secretariat. Ensuring that commitment and
ownership were maintained was crucial for the successful implementation of the project,
for its credibility, being the Project part of the regional effort it bowed to support. It
required serious work, consensus building, and intense follow up by REGU. These efforts
paid off. This hard work contributed to maintain the regional focus and regional interests
in the framework of the Project, versus the sometime short-term countries’ demands. The
Country Based Specialist system set up by EGRIP worked well and informed the design
of other projects in the region such as CARCIP.
91. Good project management is key. The Project’s management was a strength that
deserves to be highlighted, as it was key in all of the project’s achievements and in
driving the regional and consensus building process forward through the Project. Efforts
to realize outcomes and ensure implementation of the systems as much as possible must
continue for as long as possible, while the Project is still under implementation. Though
31
countries showed commitment throughout the lifetime of the Project, the PCU’s support,
monitoring and perseverance contributed greatly to enhanced implementation and
outcomes.
92. Importance of providing training to successfully achieve the PDO. Training of
stakeholders is key to ensure that Project activities are implemented and outcomes are
achieved during the life of the Project. In the case of the Project, some of the staff trained
have left the agencies. For future sustainability, encouraging some loyalty arrangements
so people trained remain in the public sector for a relevant period of time would be
helpful.
93. Continuous training and awareness building is crucial to successfully implement
legislation, after the Project’s completion. Training of key personnel in the police force,
the judiciary, registrars, and senior government officials will be needed to actually
implement these laws. Training on electronic forensics and investigations electronic
systems, networks and computers, electronic contracting, security issues and data
protection among other training areas will be critical to fully realize the Project’s
achievements.
94. Governance arrangements can significantly contribute to successful implementation:
Finding the appropriate institution to champion a reform or a new system can be critical
to its rapid success. The e-Tax system had a champion while the MPID system did not
have a clear one in each participating country. This made a difference in fostering
ownership of the system and embracing the changes its implementation would bring.
95. Need for implementation of the national ICT policies in order to support EGRIP’s
outcomes. The development and implementation of national ICT policies, which were not
under the scope of the EGRIP project, proceeded at different rhythms in the participating
countries and they were not necessarily sequenced with the progress of the Project.
Challenges related to coordination among institutions at national level, the need to
identify a champion or the leader capacity of a steering committee, affected the
implementation of these policies in the participating countries. Developing
implementation plans, specific deliverable and focusing on implementation of ICT
national strategy can contribute to further promoting the PDO.
96. Project coordination affects implementation. The existence of competing projects
required extensive consultations and slowed implementation down. This was the case of
HIPCAR ITU legal project and EGRIP OECS e-legislations, both supporting e-
legislation update and implementation. While efforts were put into using outputs from
HIPCAR as input for EGRIP, it was costly since both projects used different experts with
different opinions. In terms of coordination, the Project’s implementation showed the
importance of consolidation among ICT sectors within government, to use economies of
scale, synergies, clear delineation of duties and responsibilities and authority.
97. A programmatic approach should be considered to support ICT projects. In order to
work with countries in a fast-changing and innovative sector such as ICT, a
32
programmatic approach should be considered to frame the Bank’s commitment in a
consistent manner over the long term. In the case of this Project, a second phase was
foreseen to provide continuity and further support. Nevertheless, the consultancies
financed by the Project took almost two years of the Project’s life to be carried out and
little time was left for the actual implementation of the e-Government systems. Thus, by
completion time, the countries had not had enough time to reap the extent of the benefits
of the e-Government systems and opt for a second phase of this Project. This creates
uncertainties at completion and undermines the Bank’s investments in a country and
sector. There is a need for continued and strong push for the countries to further roll out
the systems. A follow up operation could provide the tools to do this.
7. Comments on Issues Raised by Borrower/Implementing Agencies/Partners
(a) Borrower/implementing agencies
98. The REGU and the countries’ contributions are included in Annex 7.
(b) Cofinanciers
N.A.
(c) Other partners and stakeholders
N.A.
33
Annex 1. Project Costs and Financing
(a) Project Cost by Component (in USD Million equivalent)
Components
Appraisal
Estimate (USD
millions)
Restruct.
(USD
millions)
Actual/Latest
Estimate (USD
millions)
Percentage of
Appraisal
Component 1
Horizontal e-Government intervention 3.54 4.88 4.78 135
Component 2
Vertical Government Interventions 4.93 3.33 3.31 67
Component 3
Project Management 0.65 0.86 0.95 146
Unallocated 0.48 0.53 0.38 79
Total Project Costs 9.60 9.60 9.45 98
Clarify that in SDR the Project spent SDR6 million (100 percent of the resources approved). The
appreciation of the SDR against the dollar negatively affected the availability of funds for the project.
(b) Financing
Source of Funds Type of Co-
financing
Appraisal
Estimate
(USD
millions)
Actual/
Latest Estimate
(USD millions)
Percent.
of Appraisal
Borrowers 0.00 0.00 n.a.
International Development
Association (IDA) 9.60
9.45
(confirm) 98%
CDB Parallel financing 0.00 1.77** n.a
Total 9.60 11.37 118%
*Country contributions were in-kind. They are estimated to have been US$0.95 million
**SDR exchange rate to the dollar explanation
***CDB contributed a total of US$2.5 million including the other OECS countries (St. Kitts and Nevis
and Antigua and Barbuda). The CDB Grants finances 3 consultancies, hardware and software for the
National E-government/ICT Units and Project Management. The grant will close in August 2014.
34
Annex 2. Outputs by Component
Component 1 – Horizontal E-Government Interventions.
1.1 Policy and strategy implementation.
This subcomponent aimed at assisting the countries in the implementation of their
national e-Government strategies; supporting the updating and harmonization of e-
Government policies and strategies and providing a framework for regional e-
Government cooperation activities. The scope and activities carried out under this
subcomponent was adjusted where planned activities related to defining the e-
Government and strategies had already been carried out at national or regional level.
This subcomponent financed the M&E activities of the Project: the assessment and
revision of the Project’s M&E framework, the definition of specific indicators to measure
the Project’s outputs and outcomes, the preparation of a manual on the Project’s M&E,
the definition of baselines and the first and following measurements to update indicators
and to assess the Project’s progress, and the revision of the M&E framework after the
mid-term review. It also financed the preparation of an M&E Manual and training for the
stakeholders to improve indicator collection at the national level.
This subcomponent also financed the design, development and implementation of the
Web-based M&E System. It financed training of REGU staff and stakeholders in the
participant countries and delivered final User’s and System Administration Manuals. The
system was conceived to monitor EGRIP’s implementation. Given that the system was
not designed in time to be used to monitor the project’s implementation, and that the
M&E framework was restructured (in April 2012 after the MTR and then, in 2013 after
restructuring), the M&E dashboard is a product for future project monitoring such as
CARCIP. The M&E online system was handed over to the OECS Secretariat and
countries when EGRIP ended. M&E System training was provided to countries.
1.2 Legal and regulatory implementation.
This sub-component contributed to the harmonization of the legal and regulatory
frameworks for electronic transactions, focusing on implementation and complementing
previously EU-supported efforts. It involved the provision of support for complementary
law drafting and provision of equipment, software and training for implementation of the
legislation. It achieved the approval of the OECS Harmonized E-Government Legislation
by the OECS Authority on January 2012. The main outputs were:
(i) Diagnosis (and gap analysis) and Report on Best Practices, Recommendations
and Action Plan for ICT legislation in OECS countries;
(ii) Report on the Institutional and ICT Infrastructure Requirements, which
detailed the training and equipment required to support the implementation of
the E-government Legislation.
(iii) Elaboration of the draft and final implementable versions of the OECS
Harmonized E-government Legislation, given the technical and financial
35
resources at the national level. The pieces of legislation were: the Data
Protection Bill; the Electronic Crimes Bill, the Electronic Filing Bill; the
Electronic Evidence Bill; the Electronic Filing Rules and Regulations; the
Electronic Funds Transfer Bill and the Electronic Transaction Bill.
(iv) Review meetings held with Chief Parliamentary Counsels and Attorney
Generals to provide support and explain the legislation, which facilitated
knowledge transfer for the enactment at the national level.
This subcomponent also financed the provision of hardware and software to support
implementation of the harmonized legislation, in particular the electronic signature. The
project financed the acquisition of hardware, software and training for the police force
(except in Dominica) and for the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP). In the case of
St Lucia, the Royal St Lucia Police Force received the following equipment to roll out its
Crime Management System: 20 desktop computers; 20 multifunction printers; 10
scanners; 20 signature pads; 10 color printers; 1 Digital SLR camera. In the case of St.
Vincent and the Grenadines: nine desktop computers and two multifunction printers were
received by the offices of the DPP and the Police.
The laws passed by each country were the following:
St. Lucia: During 2013, the Division of Public Sector Modernization (DPSM)
coordinated the consolidation of the harmonized EGRIP draft legislation with the existing
legislation 16 and with HIPCAR drafts to finalize the legislation. The amended e-
transaction legislation is in Parliament and it expected to be passed before the end of
2014. The other pieces of legislation will be sent to Parliament in 2014.
Grenada: Grenada has enacted in 2013 the Electronic Evidence Bill; the Data Protection
Bill; the Electronic Funds Transfer Bill; the Electronic Filing Bill and the E-Filing Rules
and Regulations Bill. In October 2013 the Electronic Transactions Act and the Electronic
Crimes Act were assented by the Governor General and officially published.
Dominica: The country revised existing draft laws to reflect the Regional Harmonized e-
Government legislation. The following four bills were passed into Law on November
2013: e-Transactions bill, the e-Evidence bill; the e-Funds Transfer bill; the e-Crimes and
e-Filing bills. Two bills are pending: the Data Protection Bill and e-Crimes Bill.
St Vincent and the Grenadines: The legislation has not yet been passed. All pieces are
being revised by the attorney general and the Cabinet before they are debated by
Parliament. Additionally, the country’s existing Electronic Transactions Act 2007 was
updated based on current best practices, to limit the cost of implementation (it required
the establishment of a Certification Authority).
16 In March 2011 three pieces of e-legislation were passed: (i) the Computer Misuse Act, related to crimes
committed by the use of any electronic devise and it includes cyber terrorism, identity theft and
unauthorized access to secure data; (ii) the Data Protection Act and (iii) the Electronic Transaction Act.
36
1.3 ICT standards and the cost of ownership optimization.
This subcomponent supported the improvement of the countries’ e-Government standards
and architectures and the public sector’s ICT management and investment practices. CDB
financed these activities for Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts ad Nevis.
The following outputs were produced:
(i) An assessment of the current E-government standards, enterprise architecture
and interoperability frameworks;
(ii) A report on the harmonized e-Government standards, interoperability
framework, enterprise architectures;
(iii) An assessment of ICT Management and Investment Practices;
(iv) Development of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis and
optimization;
(v) Identification of potential savings and strategy for pooled procurement of
software and licenses and assistance for pooled procurement of software
licenses on a pilot basis; and
(vi) Capacity Building workshops to provide training on standards, service
architecture, open source software and TCO optimization.
1.4 Regional E-government institutional framework strengthening.
This subcomponent provided assistance to strengthen the regional institutional
framework for e-Government among OECS countries. The PAD foresaw the creation of a
self-financing sustainable Regional e-Government Center of Excellence to provide
participating countries with policy advice and guidance and technical assistance in the
implementation of ICT system in government. However, at a regional consensus building
workshop, the countries decided to implement an e-Government desk at the OECS
Secretariat.
This subcomponent financed a consultancy to explore a regional e-Government
institutional framework. The main products of the consultancy were:
Report on Review of Regional E-government Institutional Framework;
Report on the Business Plan, Strategic Institutional Design and Implementation
Plan for the Regional Institutional Framework;
Report on the Strategic Institutional Design and Implementation Plan; and
Draft TOR for e-Government Specialist.
The business plan included different options for an institutional framework, including
creation of the Center of Excellence or of an interim e-Government Desk within the
OECS Secretariat, among other possibilities. The countries decided to reallocate the
funds for this activity to other activities due to: (i) two unsuccessful attempts to hire an e-
Government specialist, the preferred option by participating countries; and (ii) the
countries sentiment that there was no guarantee of finding a candidate who would satisfy
the requirement with the remaining project timeframe at the time. By Project completion,
37
the OECS Secretariat had established the position for an e-Government specialist and was
recruiting to fill it.
Quick Win Projects under this subcomponent
The Project supported the following: (i) Dominica: it financed the acquisition of video-
conferencing equipment; (ii) St Lucia: it financed video-conferencing equipment; the
upgrade of the Web Portal content for the Government of St Lucia and the elaboration of
manuals and training of stakeholders. The Project financed the acquisition of software
and hardware and training for DPSM and the Ministry of Public Service, Information and
Broadcasting. It financed: 17 laptop computers with accessories, 1 server, 7 tablets,
security software and appliances to support 900 users and one year license; 2 Windows
Server 2012 standard licenses and 25 client access licenses and 14 Microsoft Visio
Professional 2013 licenses; (iii) Grenada: it financed the acquisition of key computer and
accessory equipment for the Department of ICT to support Institutional Strengthening
and IT networking equipment for the office of the Prime Minister in Grenada; and (iv) St.
Vincent and the Grenadines: it provided support to the E-Government unit, financing the
acquisition of video conferencing equipment (software and hardware).
1.5 Automated registries and multi-purpose identification systems (MPID).
This subcomponent financed a harmonized multi-purpose e-identification system for the
four participating countries, as a shared service to be used throughout all e-Government
platforms and integrated with other key information systems at national and regional
level. The system provides a unique identifier for citizens across the four participating
countries, key for the free movement of people and goods in the OECS economic union.
The MPID systems were developed by 3M Innovates Properties Company and
implemented in countries by October 2013. The Project financed two key consultancies:
a review of the status of the existing key government registries and the development of
the system. The consultant provided technical support to link two core agencies with the
MPID System.
Significant in-country and cross-country consultations and consensus building took place
during implementation, with the Project’s support, for the design of the MPID systems.
By Project completion, the MPID system was rolled out in all four countries: (1)
Dominica rolled out the system and linked the MPID with the Electoral Office System to
verify voters’ IDs, and the Inland Revenue Department System to verify tax ID and
driver’s licenses. Dominica completed enrollment of public servants, statutory
organizations and most schools, enrolling close to 4,000 persons. Enrollment of the
general public will begin in June 2014. (2) St. Lucia is implementing the first roll out
phase with the registration of Government employees (5 percent of the total population)
to be completed by July 2014. Its MPID will interface with the Electoral System and the
National Insurance Corporation System; tests have been carried out and it will be
completed by the end of June 2014. Grenada enrolled an estimated 800 civil servants in
its initial phase to roll out the system. Work is underway to interface the MPID with the
Civil Registry and the National Insurance System. St. Vincent and the Grenadines linked
the MPID to the Civil Registry and was testing it by Project completion.
38
The main outputs of the first MPID consultancy were:
A Gap Analysis and needs assessment report;
A conceptual design, and business process reengineering Report;
A Detailed System Design for the MPID;
A risk assessment and action plan report for the implementation of the system.
A Stakeholder workshop with all participating countries (September 2011) in St.
Lucia to present and consider the detailed technical design for the MPID.
A Detailed specification document prepared after the decision to adopt the MPID
system by the OECS Heads in January 2012.
The main outputs of the second MPID consultancy were:
A Management Plan for the Development and Implementation of the MPID
system;
Supply, installation, system integration, training, support and maintenance of all
technologies, hardware, software and related components of the MPID System.
(Turnkey solution).
A standard Application Program Interface (API) for the MPID system to interface
with existing identity systems.
Technical support to interface the MPID system with the existing Civil Registry
and the Election systems / processes in each participating country, including
during the guarantee period.
Other outputs include:
Hardware and software procured for the MPID system.
Launch workshop in Grenada on January/February 2013. Training was divided in
three modules: Module A – System Administrator System; Module B –
User/Operator/Supervisor training; and Module C – Technical/Engineer/Data
Base Administrator.
Project Launch, Inception Workshop, Steering Committee Meeting and Site Visits
to the participating countries completed on 5 February 2013.
Component 2 – Vertical E-Government Interventions.
2.1 E-Government in Public Financial Management (PFM)
This subcomponent financed upgrades to the standard PFM reports and SmartStream
operating procedures in all four participating countries. This activity contributed to
promoting greater efficiency of public services by: (i) allowing the preparation of reports
directly by users and (ii) providing access to information human resources in the public
sector through the upgrade in the HR module, enabling better management through
informed decisions. The Department of Information Technology and E-Government
Services of Anguilla (DITES) designed the software for reports, based on each country
needs and requirements. It produced manuals and trained staff in their use. The main
outputs under this subcomponent are the following:
39
Regarding the Development of Standard PFM Reports
Assessment of PFM Systems: PFM Gap Analysis Report and PFM action Plan;
PFM Workshop which identified PFM activities to be funded under EGRIP and
workshop Report;
EOI and Specifications for Budget Module;
EOI and TOR for PFM standard reports and the SS standard operating procedures;
Evaluation of bids for PFM standard reports and the SS standard operating
procedures;
EOI and TOR PFM websites;
Evaluation of Bids, EOIs and Proposals.
Regarding the SmartStream (SS) Operating Procedures:
Inception Report;
SmartStream report software, the operating instructions and Operating Procedures
Manual;
Installation and testing of SmartStream report software, the operating instructions and
Operating Procedures Manual;
Four-hour seminar on SmartStream Standard Operating Procedures and Manual.
2.2 – E-Government in Tax Administration
This subcomponent financed the development and implementation of an on-line module
for tax filing for all participating countries. Through this activity, the Project promoted
greater efficiency of public services. By Project completion, citizens were able to file and
pay their taxes on line. The project focused on VAT declarations and payments, but saw
that in most countries, citizens and businesses filed for other tax types as well.
The main outputs financed by this sub-component were:
An initial report to assess the tax context in each country and to serve a background
materials to prepare the draft bidding documents for the e-Tax system;
A workshop to launch the front-end e-Tax filing system and summary report;
Design, Development, Installation and Training for a front-end e-Tax filing system:
o E-users Registration
o E-Registration of Taxpayers
o E-filing of Tax declarations
o E-payment
Development of the interface of the SIGTAS to e-Tax filing system, with
SmartStream and Asycuda World by Dominican officials, and shared with other
EGRIP participating countries.
Acquisition of software and hardware for each country;
Training of local IT staff involved in the development of the system and trained to
maintain the system in each of the participating countries.
40
The on-line front-end e-Tax filing system will interface, in principle, with any
underlying core tax administration system, and will allow for integration with the
banking system for payments and refunds.
St. Lucia
In St. Lucia both corporations and individuals had registered to file taxes online. By
Project completion, electronic filing of VAT taxes reached above 15 percent of the total
VAT declarations. Besides VAT e-filing, tax payers had started to file their income tax
online.
Registered taxpayers for e-Tax filing:
Corporations: 96
Individuals: 569
Online Declarations: St. Lucia VAT Tax Filing
Period Total
Declarations
Online
Declarations
Percentage
online
March 2014
(submitted in
April)
1173 158 13.47%
April 2014
(submitted in
May)
1183 183 15.47%
Personal Income Tax (2013): 215
Corporate Income Tax: 0
Grenada
The tables below show the number of tax payers who have filed and paid their taxes
electronically by Project completion. As shown below, in Grenada also tax-payers have
electronically filed and paid taxes other than the VAT.
Number of taxpayers who have paid electronically by tax type Tax TYPE Number of Tax Payers Totals
VAT 18 $444,460.22
Personal Income Tax 8 $18,184.14
Other License 2 $16,653.08
PAYE 4 $373201.93
Property Tax 20 $13,061.15
Corporate Income Tax 6 $173,225.18
Annual Stamp Tax 10 $25,869.35
Total 68 $1,064,835.05
Number of taxpayers who have filed electronically by tax type TAX TYPE Number Submitted Number Approved
41
Declarations Declarations
VAT 140 121
PIT 25 25
PAYE 2 2
CIT 3 3
AST 9 9
TOTALS 179 160
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
As it is the case of St Lucia and Grenada, tax-payers have filed taxes electronically for
several types of taxes. The figures below show the number of e-filing declarations,
compared to the total number of tax declarations by type of taxes.
Total Number of VAT Online Submissions: 836
Total Number of VAT Submissions (Online & paper based): 2768
Total Number of Personal Income Tax Online Submissions: 497
Total Number of Personal Income Tax Submissions (online & Paper based): 10,211
Total Number of Corporate Income Tax Online Submissions: 5
Total Number of Corporate Income Tax Submissions (Online & Paper based): 313
Total Number of PAYE Annual TD6 online Submissions: 2
Total Number of PAYE Annual TD6 Submissions (Online & paper based): 1958
2.3 E-Government in Customs.
Activities under this subcomponent were reduced, due to lack of resources and the need
to prioritize the Project’s activities. UNCTAD was the only agency presenting a proposal
for implementation of the Regional Customs Information System (RCIS). REGU and
UNCTAD were not able to reach an agreement on a contract for implementation. The
main outputs were:
Customs gap analysis report: this included an assessment of the existing custom
system, which included the requirements of capacity building;
Specifications for the RCIS and an implementation action Plan. This could be
used by the OECS countries in the future;
Draft TORs for the implementation of the RCIS and procurement work to seek
expressions of interest (EOI) to implement the RCIS.
2.4 - Electronic Government Procurement.
This subcomponent aimed at supporting the improvement of the OECS public
procurement systems as a key step towards regional integration. Though it could not
finance the breath and depth of the activities foreseen originally in the PAD, it
successfully financed the development of an e-procurement platform to which the OECS
42
Pharmaceutical Procurement Service (PPS) could connect. It financed the design and
implementation of an e-Tendering System for OECS PPS to improve the efficiency at
OECS PPS. The system went live on 1 July 2013. It financed an assessment of the current
procurement environment of the participating countries. This activity contributed to
improving the quality and efficiency of public services through the automation of the
regional procurement process for pharmaceuticals.
This subcomponent financed the following outputs:
Consultancy on e-procurement platform for OECS
Report on Assessment of the current procurement environment of the participating
countries;
Report on conceptual and technical design of the regional e-procurement platform;
Report on Assessing alternative implementation options, such as using a Public
Private Partnership framework for e-procurement;
Revised Detailed Action Plan for the implementation of a partial e-Tendering System
for OECS PPS (public procurement system) and specifications.
Consultancy for e-tendering system for OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Services
(e-PPS)
Initial workshop to launch the consultancy and report on the workshop;
Report on the design of the electronic procurement platform for the OECS;
Pharmaceutical Procurement Services (PPS) using an e-Tendering system (EPPS);
Implementation of the Electronic Tendering System to assist the OECS
Pharmaceutical Procurement Service (PPS) to carry out its pooled procurement
mandate. The consultant firm implemented the ePPS, providing training, and relevant
support / maintenance during a two-year warranty period. The Project financed the
hosting of the system for two years as well.
Provision of Training (June 2013) to users:
OECS PPS / Chief Medical Store Managers
Policy Makers
Suppliers
The content of the training concentrated on the e-PPS system including the core PPS
“pooled procurement” flow; the use of the system for other types of procurements and its
benefits.
Key documents produced: End-users Buyers, Suppliers and Administrators Manuals
and documents on support procedures.
2.5 - E-Government in Health and other Social Productive Sectors.
This subcomponent provided an assessment of the health information systems in the
participating countries, the requirements for the establishment of a regional HIS and the
requested support for each participating country to strengthen their national HIS. It
43
financed individual country projects, identified as quick wins by the national teams under
this subcomponent. The main outcome of this activity was to strengthen the national HIS
in each country as perceived by the Borrowers, as a key previous step to a future regional
HIS.
The Project financed the following outputs:
An Assessment and Conceptual Design of a Regional Health Management
Information System (RHMIS);
A Report on the Assessment of the Current and Proposed Systems in the four
countries and a Summary Assessment at the Regional level;
Report on Conceptual Design and Requirements Definition, with options for Free and
Open source system;
Detailed Technical Design of the RHMIS;
Technical Specifications for bidding documents for the acquisition and
implementation of the RHMIS.
Identification of resources to assist the national Health Information System (NHIS).
o For Dominica and Grenada: the implementation of an Open Source National
Health Information System (NHIS).
o For Saint Lucia: procurement of equipment to support the NHIS.
o For St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG): consultants for Policy
Development, Legal Framework Assessment and Regulations and training for
health staff.
Equipment
Upgrading the Infrastructure for Government’s Web Portal SVG -(Firewalls, Routers,
Servers and rack);
Expansion of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Government’s Intranet Backbone.
Equipment for Roads, Buildings and General Services Authority of St. Vincent & the
Grenadines (BRAGSA): networking equipment, computers and printers and
personnel training.
Equipment For National Health Management Information System (NHIS)-
GRENADA computers;
Equipment for National Health Management Information Systems (NHIS) – for St.
Lucia and Dominica (networking equipment and computers).
Network servers for Grenada and St. Lucia.
Networking equipment for the Ministry of Health of St. Lucia and Grenada.
Component 3 – Project Management.
This subcomponent financed: (i) renting office space, equipment (computers) and
furniture for the REGU; (ii) operating costs and salaries of REGU staff (Project Manager,
Country Based Specialists, FM and procurement specialists and secretary); (iii) annual
external audits; and (iv) communication and outreach activities.
44
Annex 3. Economic and Financial Analysis
The PAD did not include a calculation of the NVP, ERR or FRR for the program or the
project as a whole because it was not deemed pertinent for a program of this nature.
Instead, it focused on laying out the overall economic relevance of the program for the
region and carried out a selected cost-benefit analysis. The PAD focused on the broad
economic impact on the OECS region of this Project; on how EGRIP would contribute to
create the necessary conditions for broader economic reforms. The PAD mentioned that
the economic impacts would not be attributable exclusively to the Project and they would
be influenced by externalities.
Efficiency gains through the e-Tax filing system: The implementation of the e-Tax filing
system, in its first months of implementation, has shown the following benefits:
(i) Savings in time for tax payers to file the tax returns.
(ii) Reductions of costs for tax payers (physical filing of taxes and payments in person,
cost of transportation, looking for parking in busy cities, time spent in lines);
(iii) Savings for the Inland Revenue Departments, which will not need additional spaces
or hire staff around peak tax time;
(iv) Greater accuracy of tax data through the reduction of human error; and greater access
to accurate and standardized information requested by taxpayers that is readily available;
(v) Greater potential savings from redeployment of staff members who will not need to
work on tax paperwork (mentioned in St Lucia)
Participating countries had not yet quantified these expected savings by Project
completion. The IRDs in each country stated their interest in doing so, to allocate savings
to other tasks.
Reduction in Administrative Cost of OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement:
The use of the EPPS allowed a reduction in administrative costs (defined as the number
of days saved, multiplied by daily administrative cost). The PPS at the OECS Secretariat
provided an estimated cost of US$75.00 daily and a savings of 23 days. Also included is
an estimated US$800 for travel and per diem for countries participating in the evaluation
process, per procurement cycle. The PPS estimated that total savings by the reduction in
the administrative cost of procurement of pharmaceuticals by using the e-procurement
system would reach 66 percent of the previous administrative costs of this process.
Table 1: Reduction in Administrative cost of OECS Pharmaceuticals Procurement
Activity Without e-PPSS (days)
With e-PPSS
(days)
Difference (days)
Original Cost
(USD)
Cost Savings
(USD)
% Savings
Request/Collate Forecast 20 10 10 1500 750 50%
45
Collate- Bid Invitation 5 2 3 375 225 40%
Send Invitation-Close Tenders
5 1 4 375 300 20%
Open Tenders-TAC Meeting
1 0 1 875 75 91%
Evaluation 10 5 5 750 375 50%
Approval-Contract Award 15 15 0 1,125 0 100%
56 33 23 5,000 1,725 66%
Source OECS PPS (Feb 2014)
Efficiency gains from value for money: The REGU made great efforts to maximize the
outputs of the Project through the well-managed procurement of goods and services. It
negotiated systematically to attain the maximum possible in the services and goods
contracts. As an example, the REGU succeeded in obtaining guarantees and maintenance
services for the three main systems to be active, after they were installed and the Project
was completed. This was critical for the MPID system, given the completion of the
Project by the end of February 2014.
The Project most likely had a smaller impact than what was envisioned in the PAD, as
the number of systems that was feasible to finance was smaller than foreseen, due to the
systems’ cost, the available implementation time and the readiness and priorities of the
participating countries. Of the several overarching goals considered in the PAD, the
Project prioritized interventions that would support in the medium to long term the
regional goals of creating a common labor market, the development of the private sector
development and fiscal harmonization.
The Project contributed to advancing momentum towards the Economic Union for the
OECS countries. For the first time in the ICT sector, the OECS countries, with the Project
support, carried out pooled procurement for the development of the e-Government
systems and the equipment to implement them. This regional coordination allowed the
countries to realize savings in the acquisition of equipment. The Project backed a regional
approach to e-Government that was perceived as a meaningful support to the regional
economic integration. This perception was confirmed during the ICR mission interviews
with the leadership of the OECS Secretariat as well as with the members of the RTC and
key stakeholders.
46
Contributing to the goal of fiscal harmonization, the PAD highlighted that the OECS
Economic Union would benefit from the implementation of a joint system to monitor and
collect VAT. The PAD addressed a regional tax system to be supported by the project, to
reap advantages and avoid the multiplication of costs of national systems. By Project
completion, all countries were using a common on-line model for e-Tax filing system,
designed for all four countries with national adaptations.
Contributing to the goal of private sector development, the Project contributed to the
creation of a common legal environment, as foreseen in the PAD. With the simplification
and harmonization of legislative and regulatory framework at national and regional level,
the Project visibly contributed to a key dimension of the OECS political and economic
union. Harmonization of e-legislation was a key step to enable the implementation of e-
Government applications and to operationalize e-Government. Legislation was passed for
six areas: electronic transactions, electronic funds transfer, electronic filing rules,
electronic evidence bill, electronic crimes and data protection. The legislative
achievements are key steps for improvement of quality of the provision of public
services; of increased transparency; of increased regionalization; and a key step for
enabling regional economic development. Though adopted at regional level, the countries
need to complete the enactment and implementation of all pieces of the harmonized
legislation to reap the benefits for the public and private sectors.
Contributing to the goal of creating of a Common Labor Market, the Project supported
the development and implementation of the MPID system, which is providing a unique
personal identifier to citizens across the four countries. A national identification system is
considered key for the full free movement of people and goods and to enable a simplified
and more agile business environment in the region. Since the MPID system is still in the
stage of registration, the economic impact is yet to be realized.
47
Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes
(a) Task Team members
Names Title Unit Responsibility/
Specialty
Lending
Juan Navas-Sabater Task Manager TWICT
Roberto Panzardi Co-Team Leader LCSPS
Kashmira Daruwalla Senior Procurement Specialist CITPO
Tanya Gupta RM Officer LCSPS
Svetlana Klimenko FM Specialist LCSFM
Wolfgang Koehling Economist LCSPS
Enrique Fanta Sr. Public Sector Specialist LCSPS
Anat Lewin Operations Analyst CITPO
Daniel Cooper Junior Professional Associate LCC3C
Badrul Haque Sr. Country Officer LCC3C
Rachel McGolgan Communications Officer LCC3C
Rolande Pryce Country Lawyer LEGLA
Miguel-Santiago Oliveira Finance Officer LOAFC
Randeep Sudan e-Gov. Practice Leader CITPO
Snezana Mitrovic Lead Procurement Specialist LCSPT
Patricia Macgowan Sr. Procurement Specialist LCSPT
Cletus Bertin Consultant CITPO
Theodore Gering Consultant CITPO
Samia Melhem Peer Reviewer CITPO
David Gray Peer Reviewer LCSDE
Supervision/ICR
Juan Navas-Sabater Co-Task Manager, Sector Leader ECSST
Anat Lewin Co-Task Manager, ICT Policy
Specialist TWICT
Doyle Gallegos Co-Task Manager, Lead ICT
Policy Specialist TWICT
Alan Carroll Operations Advisor TWICT
Sandra Monica Tambucho Senior Financial Officer CTRLN
Gurchuran Singh Senior Procurement Specialist TWICT
Svetlana Klimenko Lead Financial Management
Specialist LCSFM
Kerry Crawford Financial Management Specialist LCSFM
Edith Ruguru Mwenda Senior Counsel LEGAM
48
Martiza Rodriguez De
Pichardo Financial Management Specialist LCSFM
Eva Clemente Miranda Junior Professional Officer TWICT
Julia Conter Ribeiro Senior Financial Assistant
LCSFM
Tatiana Cristina O. de
Abreu Souza Finance Analyst CTRLN
Tasneem Rais Program Assistant TWICT
Janina Flores Ramirez Program Assistant IFC
Batzul Dashdorj Program Assistant TWICT
Samia Benbouzid Program Assistant TWICT
(b) Staff Time and Cost
Stage of Project Cycle
Staff Time and Cost (Bank Budget Only)
No. of staff weeks USD Thousands (including
travel and consultant costs)
Lending
FY07 17.68
123,681.73
FY08 39.15 226,913.63
FY09 1.80 9,417.34
FY10 6.00 31,058.92
Total: 64.63 391,071.62
Supervision/ICR
FY09 20.85 114,301.42
FY10 24.40 129,389.36
FY11 19.70 110,004.54
FY12 20.94 107,741.35
FY13 22.68 95,652.96
FY14 11.63
65,447.72
Total: 121.12 622,537.35
49
Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results
The PAD foresaw carrying out surveys to collect results data as part of the M&E
framework. These could not be done due to resource constraints under the project.
Instead, results and outcomes were captured through focus groups meetings, held on
February 3rd, and 4th and 10th. The focus groups gathered data on the quality, user
satisfaction and functionality of existing e-Government systems in an effort to compare
the systems prior and post Project interventions.
The focus groups covered the three systems supported by the Project: the EPPS, the E-
Tax System and the MPID system. They included stakeholders in each country who had
had interactions with the systems. The focus groups included a sufficient number of
internal users. The number of external users was limited in the case of all three systems,
given the timing of implementation of the e-Government systems and the need to carry
out the focus groups before Project completion. In the case of MPID, the systems was in
the early stages of roll out; in the case of the EPPS, it was being used for the first larger
procurement of medical supplies and this process was not yet completed and in the case
of the e-Tax filing, the system was in the initial phases of implementation.
The focus groups concentrated on two themes: (i) a description of the service experience
prior to and after the implementation of a new system and (ii) the stakeholders concerns
and recommendations. The stakeholders’ concerns about technical issues raised in the
focus groups were communicated to and addressed to the maximum extent possible by
REGU.
Main Focus Groups Findings
E-Tax filing system
Participants unanimously agreed that the OECS and Norway Registers Development
(NRD) requested and considered all input for the development of the E-Tax system from
the inception of the design phase through to its development and testing phases. The
final end product met expectations, which gave countries the ability “to easily sell to staff
to encourage use.” Overall feedback of the system was positive. Participants rated
quality, satisfaction and functionality from 7-9 using a ten-point scale where zero is poor
and ten excellent. The Data Sheet and the Achievement of Outcome sections contain
information on the ratings of each aspect of the system.
The front-end e-Tax filing system was being rolled out in all four countries when the
focus group was conducted. Participants highlighted the following positive
experiences and advantages of the E-tax filing System:
Dramatic increase in the speed with which applications can be filed for both external
and internal user perspectives;
50
Ability to file 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it possible to receive a
filing date on days the IRD is officially closed and extending the time for filing on
any given day up until midnight;
Virtually instantaneous provision of filing receipt;
Flexibility in payment options: either credit/debit cards or account-to-account
transfers when this option becomes available. At the time of the focus group, only
Grenada offered on-line payment;
Money saving because electronic applications are created, reviewed and filed
electronically using the internet,
More accurate filing receipt information because it is transferred directly from the
database containing the information entered by the applicant, which is validated and
does not require manual reentry;
There is more efficient review of the applications because they are in a standard
format.
Increased productivity in some areas.
Across all focus groups in the four countries, participants reported satisfaction with the
system and positive feelings about its implementation. As noted by a respondent who
participated;
“Although I have not used the VAT to file online, I have used it to do my personal income
tax and it was really fast and easy. Cant’t wait to do the VAT.”
Similarly, another respondent who works at the IRD stated when asked if the system met
with expectations said:
“I do not miss the data entry, so yes it did meet my expectations!”
Participants were asked to rate the quality of the E-Tax filing system using a scale from
1-10 where zero is poor and ten is excellent. Of the seventeen participants, two chose to
abstain from the evaluation process on account of their limited interaction with the
system. This is the rounded average based of the scoring system by participants.
Main Issues and Concerns
In all focus groups, participants discussed a variety of factors that either fostered or
impeded the functioning or quality of the system in any way. The main ones are quoted
or reflected below:
Persons who do not conduct business any place or who do not have a fixed address for
the business, the system does not provide an option to file.
Quality Functionality Satisfaction
8 7 8
51
Seventy percent of participants commented that the “Validate” button was confusing and
a little ambiguous and “Calculate” would have been a better option. In some cases the
“register” and “validate” buttons are not seen.
I do not like the way the forms are validated. Only when you are finished it will point out
the mistakes.
Participants chose to highlight aspects of the system not being evaluated but are
important to emphasize. Six participants did share this respondent’s comment:
We have an increase in productivity with the VAT because we do not have to do the data
entry but the PAYE is terrible. It is easier for those on the front end and they can do it in
one day. But we on the back end are having the trouble because the system is not
accepting the uploads and we have to do the input manually because of some technical
problems.
Database administrators are very alarmed that IT and Office administrations are on an
equal level:
I have been in IT so long and I have never seen anything like this. I find it ridiculous that
an office administrator has the same rights as me. They can change passwords, assign
levels of security. If there is one thing I do not like it is this.
Participants highlighted that the system invalidates VAT after a certain date or calculates
late fees for personal income tax because a due date is not included on the form. Asked
whether changes can be made to the form the following was the response:
Of course changes can be made but the software used for the form development is very
heavy and in my opinion unnecessary… there should be red flags on user registration to
let me know if there are any forms pending. I always have to go into the system to see if
any are pending to validate.
One area of concern was the lack of succession plans for the newly acquired skill set of
technical staff and the probability that the trained staff will leave for other lucrative jobs.
Grenada in an attempt to address this has hired a local company to look at the different
aspects of the database and plan for code modifications if needed by the government.
The E-Pharmaceutical Procurement Services System (EPPS)
Before Project completion, the system was used for the Antiretroviral (ARV) Medicines
procurement cycle and the Pharmaceuticals and other Medical Products procurement
cycle, though this procurement cycle had not been completed. All users - the Chief
Medical Stores Managers and Pharmacists, the PPS and the pharmaceutical suppliers -
expressed extreme satisfaction with the system.
52
Positive System Experience as expressed by participants:
The collation and manipulation of spreadsheets from forecast requests is now
automatic;
The time taken to prepare requisition and purchase orders has been significantly
reduced;
Improved efficiency through automated contract awards;
There is a virtual elimination of paperwork and paper handling;
Significant reduction in errors and increased productivity;
The entire bidding process is completely transparent;
Disqualifications are automated.
The EPPS, in comparison to the e-Tax filing system and the MPID system generated the
most excitement among users. In addition to the many advantages of the system, Focus
group participants commented on how comfortable they were with the new system and its
ease of use. Suppliers in particular, expressed that all their concerns and fears over the
years have been fully resolved with the advent of the system. The EPPS has resolved the
Suppliers’ suspicion regarding PPS award of contracts:
What I really like about the system is that the bids are opened simultaneously and I can
see where I stand in relation to other suppliers.
I really like the fact that I do not have to travel any more.
I don’t even have a problem with the disqualification process because the system shows
me why I was disqualified.
The costs savings is beneficial to all stakeholders. The PPS no longer has to invite
selected countries to its head office to verify bids. Suppliers no longer need courier
services or travel to deliver bids. There is no longer any pressure on the PPS to accept
late bids from suppliers.
We had a big problem with suppliers sending their bids at the last moment ….. I think
that they thought that we tampered with the bids and sometimes like if there was a
problem with the weather or delays with the courier the bids will come in late and by law
we can only accept a late bid if the postal service goes on strike. ….now they have up to
midnight on the deadline to send their bids and have no one to blame but themselves if
they are late.
The steps involved in awarding contracts for ARV and Pharmaceutical and other medical
products are long and tedious. Preparation of requisition orders and purchase orders was
also very time consuming. One respondent related it to being:
“..An arduous nightmare that I never look forward to… but now I can click a button and
I am happy.”
53
The purchase orders are generated from requisition orders automatically once the
requisition is approved by the Ministry of Health. This can take as much as five to seven
working days based on country policy and procedural guidelines and falls outside the
purview of the system. The system has improved the quality of work, efficiency and
resulted in time-savings because some requisition orders have as many as two hundred
(200) items.
Overall participants indicated that they participated in the development of the system
from start to finish. It was very user friendly and the training provided was thorough with
very detailed manuals. The system met and in most cases surpassed expectations. Users
were “delighted” that the system provides ease of retrieval of information and data. There
were no supplier requests for information on tenders/bidding process/drugs during the
last procurement cycle to the PPS because the information is readily available on-line due
the transparent nature of the EPPS.
Issues and Concerns
The only issue for concern to all users is that the platform is based on Cost Insurance
Freight (CIF), which accommodates budgeting and does not allow for Free on Board
(FOB). FOB affects purchases of small quantities as the application of insurance and
freight will vary.
One supplier using an Apple Computer could not access the system switched to a PC to
gain access. Another supplier also using Apple computers reported no issues.
Participants were asked to rate the quality of the EPPS system using a scale from 1-10
where zero is poor and ten is excellent. This is the rounded average based of the scores
by Twenty-four (24) participants.
Multipurpose Identification Systems (MPID)
The focus groups on the MPID were carried out for all four countries though the
questions on the systems use focused on Dominica, which the only country with had
successfully linked the MPID System to the Electoral Office System and to the IRD
system.
Focus groups participants had been involved from the inception of the system
development and received training that was considered adequate and effective. One of the
most interesting aspects of the focus group meetings for the MPID system was the feeling
of the lack of ownership of the system from some countries. Participants gave the
following comments:
Quality Functionality Satisfaction
9 9 9
54
We know there is a target we have to reach for the bank of forty percent for data entry
and we will have to try to see what we can do to get there.
When asked when the system will be rolled out:
I do not know. I am not sure what is planned.
The station was set up in the office, but we have not used it yet for registration or made
any links. We intend to use it but I don’t know when.
The focus group meeting surfaced that there was some ambiguity with the objective of
the MPID system with a minority of participants:
My understanding was that the system was to be used to reform the Civil Registry, births,
deaths and so on and replace what is there now with something feasible so that we could
follow a person from the time of their birth on to death. So I must say that the system did
not meet my expectations.
Another respondent did provide the following:
I always viewed the system as a means to harmonize all other systems. It has met my
expectations in that I know what it can do because of the training we did, but I have not
used it since our training finished.
System Operations
Dominica’s focus group discussion focused on the MPID System implementation in the
country. Overall the system has met expectations.
“It is doing what it is supposed to do… helping the public and providing secure identities
through biometrics.”
The successful implementation of the MPID System has forced the office to seek larger
accommodation. This move will be to the new Electoral Office, which has the required
space to meet the demand.
The few systems bugs are most evident when the office is busy with enrollees. Issues
range from scanner hang ups, to camera not responding or the inability to save because of
general system failure (freezing). These issues are being addressed and should be
resolved within six to eight weeks. Have they been resolved? This is the one dislike from
Staff and users because reboots are time consuming.
I must say when the system is not working properly it is so embarrassing dealing with the
people that [are] there and I always have to call [IT personnel] for help.
55
The MPID system end users knew what was required to register in the system. There was
some understanding that it was important to do. However, just one of the nine
participants17 was able to truly describe the benefits of obtaining the ID and card:
Not too sure of the benefits to me.
Was asked to go because it was our ministry’s turn. Not sure what the benefits are right
now but I am sure there are… I know I will need one (card).
The national ID will allow me to facilitate travel in the region. It will keep me safe from
someone trying to use my ID …..
The focus group tried to measure the Quality of the MPID system measured through
focus groups.
Although not in use in three countries quality, functionality and satisfaction were still
ranked high. This is the rounded average based of the scores by nineteen (19)
participants.
17 The focus group report indicates that, despite its many advantages focus groups are not without
limitations. Findings from this discussion are not quantitative, nor can they be generalized to the target
population as a whole.
Quality Functionality Satisfaction
8 7 8
56
Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results
N.A.
57
Annex 7. Summary of Borrower's ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR
The Borrowers’ comments section includes inputs from REGU and three of the four
Borrowing countries. Comments by Grenada were not received.
REGU’S Comments
I - Main Challenges
Issue 1: Insufficient funds in Project Budget
Resolution 1: • CDB grants for the four IDA countries, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and
Nevis.
• Approval given by World Bank at the Mid-Term Review for the reallocation of
funds.
• Approval given by World Bank for restructuring of Project.
Issue 2: Costs of goods and services were based on industry prices determine during
design. Actual costs were higher than the budgeted costs.
Resolution 2: • Outputs /deliverables from similar ICT or E-government Projects were used
EGRIP input.
• Notices were circulated as widely as possible.
• BIDs Negotiated to get value for money.
• Activities were prioritized based on consultations with the stakeholders.
Issue 3:Delays in receiving timely responses from stakeholders.
Resolution 3: • Discussed impact of delays with stakeholders.
• CBSs followed-up and liaised directly with national representatives to get timely
responses.
• The REGU followed-up and liaised directly with the World Bank and the OECS
Secretariat to get timely responses.
• Workshops, meetings and consultations held at key decision points.
Issue 4: Lack of enactment of Legislation.
Resolution 4: • Provided support to operationalize systems:
– Grenada enacted all the legislation, except the Electronic Crimes Bill.
– Dominica enacted all the legislation, except the Data Protection Act.
– Use of existing tax legal framework and the User Agreement for the e-Tax
filing System.
– User Agreement developed for the Electronic Procurement System for
OECS PPS.
– Developed Consent forms for fingerprints.
58
II - Lessons learned
Consultations were held with all stakeholders to develop the strategic priorities,
implementation plan, procurement plan and budget. These initial consultations
were important to align the project activities to the national priorities and build
consensus and ownership with the stakeholders.
• On the job training and coaching were provided to the members of the REGU
team. This increased their technical skills and competencies to perform their
duties.
• Country representatives were required to participate in the procurement processes
(approval of specifications, bidding documents and contracts above specified
thresholds), which resulted in ownership of the activities.
• Focal teams were identified for each beneficiary institutions and meetings held at
decisions points. This increased the level of support and commitment at the
national and regional levels.
• The quarterly meetings of the RTC and the composition (one representative from
each participating country, the OECS Secretariat and the CDB as an Observer)
provided:
– Support for the removal of bottlenecks;
– Alignment of the project to the national priorities and policies;
– The resolution of issues; and
– The successful implementation of project activities.
• The Country Based Specialists (CBSs) played an important role in coordinating
activities at the national level and worked closely with the stakeholders to ensure
that the project activities were implemented on time and within scope. The use of
a CBS is recommended for other regional projects.
• The budget was managed to ensure that there were sufficient funds for the
implementation of the major e-Government systems. Therefore, the disbursement
rate was low during the implementation of the consultancies and then increased
during the implementation of the major e-Government systems.
• Targeted support was required for the implementation and utilization of all the
major e-Government systems. This included Monthly Senior Steering Committee
meetings, which were held via Cisco Web Ex for the MPID System, meetings of
the Tax Focal Team (Champion and technical staff) and meetings with the Team
for the Electronic Procurement Process for the EPPS (PPS and the Chief Medical
Stores Managers / Pharmacists).
• The OECS Secretariat provided significant technical support to the REGU in
terms of the utilization of the staff to review procurement documents, financial
reports / statements and provide legal / technical advice. It is recommended that
for future projects that this support is quantified so that it can be attributed to the
OECS Secretariat in terms counterpart resources for time spent on project
activities.
• The scope of future E-government / ICT projects, i.e. the number and complexity
of the activities, must be used to realistically determine budget and duration.
59
• The budget for future projects must be determine by conducting market research
on the cost of goods and services in the relevant region (example the OECS and
the Caribbean) and then adding ten to fifteen percent for future increases in
market prices given that the loan approval process is two to three years.
• All projects should have a Project Preparation Facility (PPF) to (i) establish the
Project Implementation Unit, (ii) achieve the conditions precedent to the project
and (iii) complete the also to develop the TORs / technical specifications for the
various activities.
• The project implementation duration should begin after the completion of all
activities under the PPF. This will enable the successful completion of the project
within the implementation duration.
• Future projects must include process re-engineering, change management and
public relations activities to facilitate a greater pace of utilization of the e-
Government systems.
• The calculation of the project duration must factor the election cycle of the
participating countries and the delay in project implementation when there is a
change in government and Senior Public Servants.
• Funds must be made available to hire additional resources (temporary staff so that
core beneficiary staff can be seconded on a full time basis) to assist at the
beneficiary institution to focus primarily on the implementation of the e-
Government / ICT solutions.
• The Loans and /or grants should be denominated in a stable currency (example
USD) to prevent adverse rate changes, which cause deficits in the budget.
Dominica’ Comments
I -Main project outcomes and achievements by project completion:
Policy and Strategy Implementation – the work undertaken in this area has contributed
to the strengthening of e-Government policies and processes. Dominica has been shifting
focus from public sector reform to public sector transformation, utilizing e-Government
and ICTs as the platform to foster and create the enabling environment for increased
growth and development. The policy formulation and development activities involved a
range of stakeholders who will play a key role in implementation of the recommendations
and guidelines.
Legal and Regulatory Framework Implementation – Dominica has received the suite
of E-Government Legislation and has passed in Parliament the Electronic Transaction
Act, Electronic Filing Act, Data Protection and Security Act,. In recent times, in addition
to the EGRIP systems, significant reorganizing and modernizing initiatives have been
undertaken, both sector-specific as well as cross-cutting public administration. The e-
Government legislation is critical to provide the legal and regulatory framework for
effective and sustained implementation. Currently, Government is working with the
Commonwealth Secretariat in advancing work in cyber security and the legislation will
support the efforts in identifying and combatting criminal activity within our networks.
60
ICT Standards and Total Cost of Ownership Optimization
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) has now provided the government with an understanding
of the factors that influence the costs of operating IT assets. Due to TCO, the
government can now see the avenues for cost saving as it relates to IT assets. In the past,
the Government of Dominica would purchase IT Infrastructure without giving
consideration to the full range of costs associated with operating or implementing that
particular infrastructure. The TCO model is allowing the government to move beyond a
straight line comparison of infrastructure cost i.e. comparing cost of infrastructure by
manufacturer or seller to a more realistic examination of all the cost (tangible and
intangible) associated with implementing and operating the infrastructure.
ICT Equipment
Procurement of the ICTs Equipment for use in the ICT Unit has provided tremendous
benefit to the work of the Unit. Through the new technologies of video-conferencing
system and CISCO WEBEX, communication with stakeholders internally and externally
has improved. There has been in a reduction in the cost of attending meetings overseas,
productivity has increased as the video conference system provides real time discussions
and decisions making opportunities. Systems are more secured with the procurement of
the hardware and software firewalls. The ICTU is better able to bring its e-Government
applications to the wider public with the use of the laptops and the multimedia projectors.
Multi-purpose Identification System (MPID) The MPID is viewed as an effective system for official national identification.
Registration commenced with Government workers and employees of Statutory Bodies.
The total to date is 2, 930. Registration for the private sector and the general public will
commence shortly. The financial institutions are in agreement that the MPID card would
now become the official identification card and it is anticipated that revenue could be
generated from verification of the card on-line. The Dominica Social Security has no
objection to utilizing the card for social security purposes. However, the Dominica
Social Security Act would have to be amended since the Act gives the Director the
authority to issue cards. The MPID card will also be used for electoral purposes. The
Government of Dominica had committed itself to the introduction of voting cards and
hence cost savings have been realized since Government did not have to expend new
resources to implement a separate system. Additional revenue collection measures to
sustain the system are being considered such as fees for replacement cards and for lost or
damaged cards. Amendment to the Elections Act is being finalized to allow the Electoral
Office to issue the cards.
E-Tax Filing System
To date, the system has recorded 391 users. Filing returns for VAT, Personal Income
Tax and Corporate Tax are 36, 163 and 3 respectively. Feedback from persons filing on
line indicates that the system is easy to use as well as significant reduction in completion
time and errors since the system is self-calculating. The greatest challenge now for
sustainability of the system is the introduction of the electronic payment component,
which has been delayed pending the finalization of the agreement with the bank.
61
Open MRS
The Open MRS has the functionality and interoperability standards to integrate with that
architecture. Ninety (90%) of the hardware has been deployed, including computers,
laptops, wireless routers and network equipment. The software application, Open MRS,
has been customized and is currently undergoing final review and testing in preparation
for complete deployment. Relevant departments are also reviewing Standard Operating
Systems (SOPs) and processes in preparation for complete roll-out of the system. A full
demonstration of the system was conducted in April 2014. Open MRS covers the basic
needs of the doctors and administrators with the added benefit of easy to customize to
suit the needs of health services in Dominica. Dominica has embarked on a plan to create
a national e-Health architecture.
Conclusion
The main challenge with implementation of the EGRIP had been coordinating with all
the stakeholders to ensure that timelines were met for the various activities. However,
the engagement of Country Based Specialists was critical in facilitating the timely
implementation of the project.
Saint Lucia’s Comments
I – Project Outcomes and Achievements
The overall development objective of the E-Government for Regional Integration Project
(EGRIP) was to promote the efficiency, quality, and transparency of public services
through the delivery of regionally integrated e-Government applications that apply
economies of scale. The Project focused on cross-sectorial e-Government issues and on
specific applications in the public finance area (including Public Financial Management
(PFM), tax, customs and procurement), as well as in health. At the national level, the
project was expected to assist in creating an enabling environment, which would facilitate
the leveraging of ICTs to improve Government service delivery and the ease of doing
business. This is in keeping with the current administration’s aim “to modernize our
economy and society and bring Saint Lucia fully into the international economy.”
Moreover, the project would relate directly with the vision of the Government of Saint
Lucia for ICT, captured in the draft National ICT Policy and Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015
as follows:
“Improve the quality of life in Saint Lucia by embracing ICT to promote
development, innovation and global competitiveness thereby enabling sustainable
social and economic growth.”
Despite the reduction in project scope, due primarily to the limitations in funds available,
the EGRIP is still being heralded as a success having completed and implemented the
more critical activities and systems. The key successes in Saint Lucia include:
Automated Systems:
62
Through the EGRIP, Saint Lucia was able to benefit from the implementation of three (4)
systems at the national and regional levels:
E-Tax Filing System – which revolutionized the way in which taxpayers
conducted business with the Inland Revenue Department commencing in the latter
part of 2013 with Value Added Tax (VAT) declarations and then with Income
Tax declarations early in 2014. By April 2014, the Department could boast of a
13.47% rate of taxpayers submitting VAT declarations via the online system.
Multipurpose Identification System – The system gained operational acceptance
in November 2013 and steps are being undertaken towards having the go live and
the issuance of MPID cards to replace the Electoral ID cards currently in
circulation. It is anticipated that this system, when adequately populated, will
become established as the authoritative system in terms of the identification of
persons in Saint Lucia.
PFM Reporting System – This reporting system interfaces with the currently used
Public Financial Management system, SmartStream, and provides the
convenience of easily produced reports for the purposes of accounting, budgeting,
and human resource management among others.
At the regional level there was the implementation of the e-Tendering system for
the OECS PPS which could be considered the region’s pilot e-tendering system.
The resulting benefits have already begun to accrue to Saint Lucia as one of the
participating countries in the pooled pharmaceutical procurement.
Equipment:
Besides the equipment associated with the systems implemented, the EGRIP provided
much needed equipment to the Ministry of Health, to facilitate the rollout of the National
Health Information System, and to the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force, to facilitate the
rollout of its Crime Management System. In both instances, the equipment provided has
been used to furnish wellness centers/stations around the island to expand the access to
the automated systems supporting the institutions and ultimately to improve their service
delivery.
Legal and Operational Frameworks:
EGIRP delivered draft legislation regulations necessary to create the ideal environment
for e-business. This legislation covered the areas of electronic transactions, data
protection, electronic crimes and electronic evidence, among others. In 2013, the
Division of Public Sector Modernization (DPSM), through additional assistance provided
by ITU, coordinated consolidation of the draft EGRIP legislation with existing and
HIPCAR drafts to finalize the legislation in preparation for tabling in Parliament. Thus
far, the Electronic Transactions Bill has been tabled while other legislation is expected to
be brought before the House later in 2014.
Saint Lucia also benefitted from the frameworks and reports developed and training
conducted. The areas of e-Government Institutional Framework, Government Enterprise
Architecture, Total Cost of ownership, Pooled Procurement and Monitoring and
63
Evaluation, as well as for the establishment of a Regional Customs Information System,
Regional Health Information System were covered among others. These tools are already
being used as input into the various ICT and e-Government policies and strategies being
developed by the DPSM through the e-Government Taskforce, ensuring that fundamental
principles, best practices and lessons learned are factored in.
II – Main Implementation Challenges
During EGRIP implementation, challenges faced by Saint Lucia were mainly at the
decision making level in terms of continuously re-prioritizing as the shortfalls in
financing became apparent. These shortfalls were primarily due to the underestimation of
the costs associated with the planned project activities and was compounded due to the
unfavorable fluctuation in the exchange rate of the SDR. In addition to forgoing some
project activities and reallocating funds to those identified as higher priority, the
Government of Saint Lucia would have contributed to reducing costs wherever possible.
In the case of the MPID implementation, assumptions were made regarding preparedness
of the Civil Status Registry. However, the modernization of the Registry is still a work in
progress with records being cleaned up and processes automated. Additionally, the is the
issue of staffing a Vetting Unit which requires an innovative response due to the current
economic situation in which the option of additional employees may not be feasible.
The need for the revision of business processes was a recurring issue being highlighted.
In some cases business processes are antiquated and do not lend themselves to the proper
implementation and efficient operation of the electronic systems. Unfortunately, process
reengineering was beyond the scope and budget of the EGRIP. However, the intention is
to review and address business processes issues as part of the DPSM work programme.
III – Lessons Learned The initial scope of the EGRIP had to be reduced quite a bit. Some systems and a few
project activities which were initially planned had to be forgone due to costs being
significantly underestimated and, as a result, the agreed financing being inadequate. This
experience highlights the need for more diligence and in-depth analyses in arriving at
cost estimates during the project appraisal stage of future projects. The result would be a
smoother and more efficient implementation and the greater likelihood of success in
achieving all project objectives.
The Project underscored the importance of coordination and the savings and benefits
which are possible through coordination, such as economies of scale or reduced
duplication of effort. For a small island state, such coordination at the regional level,
both with other countries and with regional agencies, and even more importantly at the
national level is critical to maximizing investment and efficiency.
One area in which the Project fell short was the absence of activities to address any
necessary revision of business processes. Future projects should factor in BPR/BPM
activities as this is critical to the adoption and satisfactory utilization of systems.
64
The EGRIP was quite a complex and ambitious project which not only included multiple
participating countries but also involved multiple government agencies within each
country and diverse groups of stakeholders. Nonetheless, it was successfully managed
and implemented and this can be attributed primarily to the implementation arrangements,
which involved coordination by a regional body (the OECS Secretariat) through the
establishment of a project implementation unit (the REGU), which reported to the
beneficiary countries and coordinated decisions through the RTC. Further, the
implementation unit maintained an in-country presence by way of the deployment of
Country Based Specialists to properly coordinate implementation at the national levels.
This model has been tried and proven through the EGRIP and may be considered a “best
practice” framework for future projects of similar nature.
IV – Sustainability of Project Achievements in the Future
Work at the national level is ongoing with respect to the full rollout and utilization of the
systems and the adoption and implementation of the delivered frameworks, legislation
and recommendations. Resource persons would have been made available for the
capacity building activities hosted by the EGRIP to minimize any costs associated with
future maintenance of the systems. In the case of the MPID system, the system will be
replacing the current Electoral System and the equipment for these two systems are quite
similar. It is therefore anticipated that costs for maintenance and consumables would be
similar. As such, budgetary allocations already made for the Electoral System should be
sufficient to maintain the MPIS system.
In terms of institutional arrangements and strengthening, the Division of Public Sector
Modernization (DPSM) was established in 2012 with its primary objectives including:
Providing support to ensure that appropriate systems and processes are in place to
optimize the use of the human resource capacity in transforming the operations
and improving the levels of the Public Sector service delivery.
The application of innovative solutions through the use of ICTs to improve
productivity, enhance efficiency and streamline Public Sector service delivery.
In December 2013, ICT personnel within the Public Service (with the exception of those
assigned to the Police, Correctional Facility, and the Inland Revenue and Customs
Departments) were reassigned so that they all fall under the purview of the Division of
Public Sector Modernization. In addition, the DPSM has been established as authority to
approve all Government investments in ICT. This has created an environment which
makes it much easier to coordinate ICT initiatives, implement policies and ensure that
standards are adhered to.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Comments
Main project outcomes and achievements by project completion The following are the major achievements and benefits for St. Vincent and the
Grenadines over the period of implementation:
The delivery, installation and use of a Video Conferencing System.
65
The delivery of hardware to support the Government’s web portal which allowed
for the provision of increased internet bandwidth
The extension of the Government Fibre Optic backbone to several other
government departments allowing for reduction in recurrent cost for individual
internet services
The delivery of hardware and training to BRAGSA for the integration of their
information systems
The delivery of a Web-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Information System and
the provision of an operation manual and training delivered to stakeholders in
monitoring & evaluation and the use of the system.
The delivery of OECS ratified harmonised draft e-Government legislations and
hardware support to the Office of the DPP and Criminal Investigations
Department of the RSVGPF to support cybercrime investigation and prosecution.
The delivery of Gap Analysis, Assessment Reports, Recommendations and
Capacity Building for E-Government Standards, General Enterprise Architecture
and Total Cost of Ownership Optimization.
The Strengthening of the E-Government framework through the delivery of a
Business Plan, Strategic Institutional Design and Implementation plan for an E-
Government Desk at the OECS to serve the member states.
The provision of hardware, software and other ICT management tools through the
support of the World Bank and the CDB to strengthen the institutional capacity of
the ITSD and Government in general – for example, 5-year Enterprise Antivirus
for 500 users
The delivery of hardware to support and enhance human resource management in
the Public Service
The delivery of Standard Operating Procedures and the installation of a online
PFM Reporting System which interfaces SmartStream to provide general and
departmental reports.
The delivery of PFM Gap Analysis Assessment reports, SmartStream Enterprise
Agreement document and Specifications document for a Budget Preparation
Software.
The delivery of a Multipurpose Identification System for the purpose of vetting
and verification of identity with the ability to interface other e-Government
systems.
The installation of a front-end e-Tax filing System with an E-Payments Gateway
for the electronic filing payment of taxes.
The delivery of Gap Analysis, Assessment Reports and recommendations for
strengthening the procurement environment at the national and sub-regional levels
especially as it relates to e-procurement.
The delivery of an Electronic Tendering System for the OECS Pharmaceutical
Procurement Service (E-PPS) currently being used for the Central Medical Stores
The delivery of a Business Plan for the customization of the E-PPS to be applied
to the electronic procurement of other goods and services at the national and
regional levels.
The delivery of Draft HIS Policy and Legal and Regulatory Framework to support
66
the Health Information System in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Main Challenges Faced during Implementation
In spite of the successful implementation of the sub-components of the project, several
challenges existed during the implementation at the national level. These challenges
included but were not limited to the following:
Inadequate institutional framework for the implementation of the project
Late responses and feedback to comments on the reports
Information sharing has at times been difficult to acquire between
ministries/departments hindering progress.
Lack of understanding of the World Bank procurement guidelines and policies.
Most stakeholders did not feel that they own the project but that of the
implementig ministry.
Difficulty at times to get requesitions signed off after tasks/activities have been
completed.
Key Lessons Learned
An assessment of the National ICT policy, strategy and action plan outlined
several e-Government initiatives being implemented to improve and
modernize the delivery of Government services; however these initiatives
while in themselves essential seemed to be detached from the broader
goal/programme of public sector reform, modernisation and transformation.
Stakeholders were not fully aware of the National ICT Policy, Strategy and
Action Plan and any accompanying implementation plan.
While activities stated in the plan have been and are being implemented, there
is no structured monitoring and evaluation framework in place to assess
outcome and impact
The National ICT policy, strategy and action plan was further reviewed and
assessed by the Mr. Anthony Minn – Commonwealth Secretariat and Miss.
Bernadette Lewis – Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in July and
September 2011 respectively. Both recognized the role of a Champion to
deliver successful E-Government interventions and recommended that the
Prime Minister champions the implementation of the overall E-government
agenda given its centrality to the efficient and effective delivery of
government services. In addition, the following were identified as critical for
the successful implementation of the strategy:
1. Initiatives and activities must contribute to a coherent whole
2. Manpower planning in terms of the quality and quantity of Human
67
Resources
3. Review of business processes before systems are implemented or
upgraded
4. Road map or implementation plan
The National (EGRIP) E-Government Steering Committee also noted the need
for a “whole of government” approach to the implementation of E-
Government initiatives and activities. The Governance framework (National
ICT Forum), was not in place to guide, support and monitor the
implementation of the policy and strategy.
Monies borrowed must be in a single currency so as to mitigate loss of funds
while transferring from SDR to USD.
When activities are assessed, more National Input is required.
Agencies promoting projects needs to be realistic in the budgetary allocations
with respect to projected implementation practices and costs.
Change management must be included where necessary in any project
proposed.
More open-source applications/solutions should be promoted in future project
proposals
Sustainability of the project's Achievements in the future There are a number of activities that are necessary for the sustainability of the project's
achievements, these include:
1. Continuous training of the TCO and GEA throughout the government service for
decision makers for ICT implementation.
2. Recommend and institute proper ICT governance framework government wide.
Ensure Cabinet formed committee meets regularly to continuously monitor and
recommend changes as deemed necessary.
3. Closer collaboration with each island's personnel who may have specialized skills.
68
Annex 8. Comments of Cofinanciers and Other Partners/Stakeholders
CDB comments to the draft ICR to be included in this section.
69
Annex 9. List of Supporting Documents
Project Appraisal Document for Projects P100635 and P117087
Aide Memoires 2007-2014
Implementation Status Reports 2007-2014
Credit Agreements IDA-44510, IDA-44520; IDA-44530; and IDA-46500
Amendments to the Credit Agreements
Restructuring paper (June 2013)
“EGRIP Monitoring and Evaluation End of Project Report”. Milva Edmunds-
Jerome. February 2014.
“EGRIP Grenada End of Project Report.” Alice Naola Bain. January 2014.
“EGRIP Commonwealth of Dominica Final Project Report”. Geneta Williams.
January 2014.
“EGRIP St. Lucia End of Project Report”. Kervyn Tobias. January 2014
“EGRIP St. Vincent and The Grenadines End of Project Report”. Winston George.
January 2014.
Power Point Presentations by REGU management and accountant. January 2014.
70
Annex 10. Rating of Project Outcome
The PDO was not modified during the life of the Project while KPIs were formally
modified twice, in April 2012 and in June 2013. The decision to revise the KPIs was
agreed upon during the mid-term review mission in November 2011, to adapt the
indicators to the Project changes during implementation and better assess the progress
towards the PDO. Several indicators were dropped because they were deemed too broad
and not adequate to measure outcomes attributable to the Project. A second restructuring
formally took place on June 2013, after carrying out the procurement process of some of
the key systems in 2012, once the participating countries reached an agreement of the
systems to be financed under the Project, in light of their cost and the remaining
implementation time.
The achievement of PDOs is rated overall as Moderately Satisfactory, as shown in the
table below, weighting the ratings for each period. The M&E Framework with the 2013
restructured indicators are included in the data sheet.
Against
Original
PDOs/KPIs
Against
Revised
PDOs/KPIs
2012
Against Revised
PDOs/KPIs
2013
Overall
Rating Moderately
Unsatisfactory
Moderately
Satisfactory
Moderately
Satisfactory
Moderately
Satisfactory
Rating value 3 4 4
Weight (% disbursed )
26% 40% 34% 100%
Weight value 0.80 1.60 1.36 3.78
Final rating
71
Annex 11. PAD and Restructured M&E Indicators
Outcome Indicators PAD Indicators 2012 Restructuring 2013 Restructuring
Government financial savings in
areas such as public financial
management, tax administration,
customs and procurement due to
new e-Government systems
Dropped
Estimated users’ time and cost-
savings
Revised. Average number of
days to prepare annual budget.
Revised. Average number of
days to complete the VAT filing.
New. Average amount of time to
process a Pharmaceuticals
procurement requisition order.
Increase in the number of
electronic transactions processed
by regional e-Government
applications
Revised. Regional health
information system and regional
customs information system are
installed and operational.
Dropped.
Number of new e-Government
applications offered or upgraded
under the project
Increase in e-Government
services offered or upgraded
Revised. Number of new e-
Government applications offered
or upgraded under the Project*
Total: 15.
Revised. Target: 9.
Improvement of ratings in areas
of functionality, accuracy and
usability of e-Government
services as reported by users
through satisfaction surveys
Revised. Quality measured
through focus groups by end
users of the: (i) public financial
management system; (ii) regional
custom information system and
(iii) MPID system.
Revised. Quality measured
through focus groups by end
users of the MPID, e-Tax filing
and EPPS systems.
Improvement of ratings in areas
of openness and access to
relevant information, as reported
by users through satisfaction
surveys
Revised. Creation of 4 national
PFM websites with open and
transparent PFM data sets.
Revised. Online publication of
Pharmaceutical procurement
awarded contracts.
New regional institutional
framework is created with
adequate capacity to provide new
regionally integrated e-
Government services, in
accordance with regionally
harmonized policies and
regulations
Revised. Establishment of
Regional E-government desk at
OECS Secretariat; hiring of the
senior E-government specialist;
design the business plan for
sustainability of the E-
government desk completed.
Revised. Publication of an OECD
e-Government regionally
harmonized legislation bill by
first quarter of 2012 approved by
the OECS authority.
72
Annex 12. Map of EGRIP-Supported Community Health Clinics in Saint Lucia