world bank document...juan navas-sabater roberto panzardi icr team leader: anat lewin icr primary...

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

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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

http://www.oecs.org/publications/cat_view/205-egrip-publications/206-oecs-harmonized-e-government-legislation

http://www.oecs.org/publications/cat_view/205-egrip-publications/206-oecs-harmonized-e-government-legislation

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

http://www.oecs.org/publications/cat_view/205-egrip-publications/207-oecs-regional-e-government-standards-enterprise-architecture-and-interoperability-framework



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




5 02/27/2011 Moderately Satisfactory Moderately Satisfactory 0.85




9 06/20/2013 Moderately Satisfactory Satisfactory 6.30


P117087

No. Date ISR

Archived DO IP

Actual

Disbursements

(USD millions)








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


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


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


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


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:


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.


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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Annex 12. Map of EGRIP-Supported Community Health Clinics in Saint Lucia