The eVERA is a web application developed for the Malta Transport Authority (ADT). The service provides the Maltese citizens the facility to renew their vehicle road licences on-line, to pay any outstanding contraventions, to upgrade the road licence to a Valletta licence and to check their next Vehicle Roadworthiness Test (VRT) from any place with an Internet connection. Furthermore, the web application allows the VRT stations to submit the VRT details and update the ADT database (hence update VRT results). Insurance Agencies/Brokers also have the facility to update the ADT database with insurance policy details and to renew and issue the road licence. The Local Enforcement System is also integrated with the eVERA system. Thus, the eVERA is kept updated with any outstanding traffic contraventions. Vehicle road licences are only renewed once any outstanding traffic contraventions are paid.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The eVera had a number of positive impacts of various stakeholders. These include: - A substantial reduction in queues at the central office of the Malta Transport Authority. Queuing time was reduced to an average of 15 minutes resulting in a better service to the clients opting to renew their road licence in the conventional way. - The requirement for the Insurances to send renewed policy details to ADT was eliminated by the use of the web service. Insurance companies can update insurance policies online. This eliminated two steps from the previous process (elimination of the issuance of insurance renewal certificate copy to ADT and data capturing) - Since vehicle licences cannot be issued until traffic fines are settled, a higher level of enforcement and compliance was attained. The renewal of the road license cannot be completed unless the client settles all his contraventions. The settlement of contraventions is completed thought the online Local Enforcement System which has been integrated with the eVera. A client has to enter the contravention number and the vehicle registration number and pay by credit card. Furthermore, if one decides to contest the charge, one can also check online when the tribunal sitting is going to be held. - The quality of data related to Vehicle Licences increased as the data is inputted at source, thereby minimizing human intervention. - Since the Insurance Brokers can issue the licences and insurance policies to their clients through the eVERA system, they are no longer the need to send their staff to renew road licences on behalf of their clients. This was previously done as part of their attempt to provide a one stop shop service. This has reduced the queues at the central office of the Malta Transport Authority even further. - The majority of the VRT stations and insurance agencies are using the system. This has resulted in the better usage of human resources and the reengineering of their operations.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

1. The management of stakeholders: In most e-Government initiatives, normally the department targeted to deliver the service, reviews its own business processes in order to provide the service through an eGovernment framework. In the case of the eVERA project, the implementing team faced the following challenges: - the political champion was not the owner of the project; - the essential players in the process formed part of the private sector, so Government had limited influence on the implementation roadmap; - the insurance brokers were represented by an association while the operators of the VRT stations were represented by a trade union. In order to handle this above set of challenges, the implementation team followed a cycle of planning, listening, coordinating, consulting, roll-out and review for each step in the project. Though process was arduous and susceptible to show-stoppers at various junctures, the overall IT solution provided was well integrated in the business processes. 2. Integration of front-end and back-end IT systems eVera was linked with the online Local Enforcement System (LES). Thus, the system is an end-to-end solution which links together the system which manages the whole enforcement process and another system that handles the renewal of vehicle licenses. The online LES is a good practice example where technology is used in order to streamline the handling of contraventions and reduces the possibilities of abuse since the whole process is fully automated. 3. Planning with the citizen in mind Renewing a license in Malta was very time-consuming. The project planning process started with a report by a Business Reengineering agency that had a very simple brief: to develop a process through which is citizen-centric rather than government-centric and through which citizens can renew licences from the comfort of their homes. 4. Flexibility The various stakeholders made a number of suggestions during the implementation process which greatly contributed to enhancing the original solution outlined in the original report. The solution provider had to be flexible enough to integrate the suggestions in the overall plan to ensure project success. 5. Political will The project would not have been possible if there was not the Ministry for Investment, Industry and Information Technology as the political champion of e-Government. This is due to the fact that the project faced several hurdles. Political championing was crucial in difficult phases of the project. These included: - The change in the leadership of the Department delivering the service during the implementation process - The change in the project owner from a Government Department to a Directorate within a newly setup Transport Authority - The change in the project leaders within the technology provider - Various shifts in positions taken by the Association of Insurance Agencies and the Union representing the VRT garages Scope: National