Despite particular results achieved, there is place for improvements as to the stimulation of the process of technological modernization that limits the achievement of the expected impact of the government e-payment gateway MPay, the Court of Auditors says in an audit report on the performance of the service that was examined in a public meeting on July 31, IPN reports.
The audit covered the activities carried out in 2013-2017 by the State Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance, the Public Institution “Electronic Governance Center (E-Government)”, currently the Electronic Governance Agency, the Special Telecommunications Center and the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Center. Particular information was collected from beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries of the given service.
The audit report says the contracting of applicative implementation, maintenance and technical and operational support services from a business entity of private law can condition risks related to the appropriate management of the service. The externalization of the operational administration services of MPay wasn’t accompanied by the implementation of an efficient mechanism for monitoring and controlling the access to the given service so as to ensure the security and protection of the processed personal data.
Ignoring the legislation on the protection of personal data, the responsible bodies haven’t appropriately notified the National Center for Personal Data Protection so that this included the provider and the company as entities empowered by the operator in the kept State Register. This generates major risks. The advantages of MPay are not fully used also because the service is used fragmentarily by the authorities, public intuitions and citizens – the potential beneficiaries of the service. This limits the efficiency of the made investment.
The number of services that can be paid through MPay is insignificant. The entities that benefit from electronic services do not have all the capacities (technical, human and financial) needed to ensure the sustainability of the MPay service.
The Court of Auditors said the shortcomings are due to a series of systemic factors, such as the insufficient preparation of the process of introducing the service, MPay use monitoring and assessment dysfunctionality of the managerial system, deficiencies of the regulatory framework, lack of performance indicators related to the objective of MPay, insufficient management of risks to the implementation and functioning of the service, insufficient human and financial resources at public entities and others.
The Court recommended that the Government should monitor and support the service so as to make the players involved in the management and use of the MPay service more responsible and to ensure constructive, more efficient and transparent cooperation between these so that the expected impact is achieved.
The electronic payments service MPay was instituted in 2013 as part of the Governance e-Transformation Project to ensure a common mechanism for paying bills, fines and taxes into the national public budget through the treasury system of the Ministry of Finance. The service is designed to modernize the ICT management in the public sector, to facilitate the process of paying for public utilities, to discourage corruption and to increase the cost-efficiency of governmental operations.
