Digitization and shared treatment for public subsidy requests (NetSubsidy)

The French State has set up a new online service targeting associations: an online one-stop-shop in order to process all associations’ subsidy requests. Outlook : simplification of the procedures and interactivity. The digitization of subsidy requests aims to facilitate the submission of the dossier to all public actors, one part of the subscription form is common, and a second is customizable by each public financer. The process offers a specific space for each financing organisation in order to keep their supporting documents. This enables all public actors to share their positions and comments on-line.

Policy Context

The online subsidy request is a project compiling both issues from both e-government and state modernization as well as administrative simplification, which concern all the public actors. • A project necessary for the modernisation of public intervention for the associative sector, by simplification of the users' life thanks to the on-line one-stop shop. With this mechanism, a structure has to be in a position to ask these subsidies on only one single website from a common state/communities dossier, and to inform each potential financial partner. The development of the websites dealing with subsidy requests issued by the State, such as the communities, carries indeed a great risk of jeopardizing on-line services which work however on the same territories, for the same public, for the financing of identical projects. • An innovative project, because it implements an original step, which of sharing information between project managers and public partners, around the shared request dossiers. This involves facilitating access and the examination of the on-line applications, from the transparency point of view between the services and the user, between public services, in compliance with competence of each one, insofar as the site does not constitute the management tool, but the tool of publication of the decisions taken. In this connection, it fits perfectly with the policy of public intervention which governs the European intervention mechanisms. • A federative project, because it makes it possible to coordinate a number of initiatives that the public authorities implement, whether concerning the on-line filling in of the subsidy requests (38 counties implement an on-line input), or regarding the services to association.

Description of target users and groups

This request is carried out today by using a downloadable normalized Cerfa subscription form (http://www.service-public.frhttp://www.service-public.fr/). Before, the applicant had to send a subsidy request dossier to each service he/she applies to. A file is made up of the duly filled in subsidy application form, to which supporting documents are enclosed (accounts of the carrier, justification of the existence of the legal entity, etc.). The methods of intervention of the State and of the communities are multiple, both by the diversity of the relevant services and by the number of procedures available. Moreover, very often the State does not intervene alone in support of the structures, and numbers of public policies are led through partnerships. In 80% of the files, co-financing is the rule. If 300,000 files are lodged per annum within State services, more than 1,200,000 subsidy requests are addressed to the financial partners. This results in operational mechanisms and complex instruction processes, particularly binding for the associations, and public services. The absence of current standardisation of the files, but also of the information requested and documents make these steps particularly time consuming for public services, under obligation of doing multiple captures within management tools which do not offer interoperable follow-up.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The management of such an organization can only be built upon a strong partnership. This partnership is built on two different levels: A national partnership comprising various ministries, as well as groups representing civil society and associations. This partnership began in 2003 with the creation of various working groups on the national level, bringing together central and decentralized administrations, local authorities and users. These working groups have defined the specificities of the system, the type of support tool used and the analysis of the impact on the different organizations. The second level takes place on a local scale and concerns the organization of the partnership with representatives of local authorities and associations. In order to do so, during a year, the Rhones Alpes region experimented a pilot group bringing together local actors, which would meet once every two months. This model has been implemented throughout different regions (Region Rhone Alpes- Côte d’Azur, Midi Pyrénées…). It is also at the local level that all associations’ communities are developed, in particular regarding the creation of local support in order to facilitate access to Internet and hence to the Online Subsidy request application. Multi-channel issues: A helpdesk for users is organised in partnership with the national support service implemented within the framework of the national portal "services public.fr". Thanks to this mechanism, users can formulate their questions through an on-line form, and answers are dealt with by a network of public actors, in order to supply the adapted and personalised solutions. Furthermore, the mechanism enables a public agent to help a user on-line, while seeing, without being able to amend the information it contains, the dossier in the process of its capture. This on-line accompaniment also benefits from a system of exchange of comments (on the method of a blog) specific to each dossier. To which the competent users, and the public services concerned can take part. In addition, a personalised support is ensured by the DGME to the public actors, through a dedicated functional box. Lastly, within the framework of the mechanism, the ministry of health will implement a telephone support for users of the health sphere, which, as indicated in here above, it will be able to carry out a personalised accompaniment of the users.

Main results, benefits and impacts

The project, launched in February 2007, will be deployed over three years as from October 2007; in 2008, it aims at dealing with 30,000 dossiers; in 2009,100,000 dossiers, and 2010, 150,000 dossiers. In the long term, it should concern between 8,000 - 12,000 public agents and 200,000 bodies receiving subsidies. The Online subsidy request rests on a substantial experience conducted in 28 counties for four years, since several ministries initiated digitization actions of the subsidy requests, according to the principle of the shared dossier. It is particularly the case within the framework of the policy of the city, with the mechanism POLIVILLE WEB and a process implemented in the Region Midi Pyrenees with the BRIQUES mechanism within the framework of the public health policies. In 2007, 16.000 online subsidy request files are already digitization and are dealt with on-line by more than 400 public bodies. The advantages of the digitization of this procedure prove particularly important; as it contributes to the quality of the dossiers, the transparency of aid, the strengthening of local partnerships. The direct integration of data within the dossiers is an important productivity gain (processing is up to four times faster, number of agents assigned to the input reduced by half, eg. Prefecture of Val d’OISE, Val de Marne, and the cities of Grenoble, Toulouse, Sarcelles, Caen, etc.) However, these experiments present certain disadvantages, the important thing of which was their local character, and their limitation to the adoption of only one public policy. Defining a new operating mode, by suggesting a generic approach, while making changes by allowing the customisation of the forms, the online sudsidy request mechanism has come to a new stage and capacity to federate and extend the development of the digitization to all the public actors. Moreover, important work was carried out around the data standard used by the project. Work was therefore undertaken with the software package editors, particularly well established within the local authorities, in order to diffuse these new standards. One of the major actors involved in the market, in October, the GFI group will propose an update of its management tool to incorporate all information into the accounting applications of the local authorities. Innovation: The "Online subsidy request" mechanism offers a large number of functional innovations, both to the users, and to service officials. • The creation of a one-stop shop on the Internet, for the subsidy requests formulated to the public authorities: only one place to submit requests for subsidy, their management and the assessment of the project. • Original management of the users' personal accounts, since the mechanism enables a citizen to have a personal account, and from its single access by login and password, can access a dashboard presentation of the various organisations, private or public in which a role which will have been defined to it by the legal representative of this organism. • The creation of the permanent on-line dossier for the organization/association allowing it to keep all the documents necessary for the examination of the applications, and to have access to the information of its structure as available to the administration (statutes, national company register SIRENE). • The use of a unified subsidy request: a common subscription form as well as a an additional information grid defined by public services themselves, according to the procedures requested by the applicant. • The creation of a register of government subsidies, which will be completed directly by the services. So that the applicants can call them when creating their financing plan. Each mechanism will define fields of information complementary to the common file, which will be filled in by the applicant. • The exchanges between public actors are facilitated thanks to the standardisation of the data used, (re-using similar elements as defined by the UN CEFACT standardization body), thus facilitating their integration into the management applications deployed in the State and local authorities

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The implementation of online subsidy requests made it possible to promote three main work principles: The shared data concept: Within the framework of the mechanism, the organisational method approaches a GRC mechanism. Indeed, in the same work space on the Internet, the State services, which manage aid mechanisms as well as applicants, are connected. To this end, the French State has privileged an approach based on data sharing between the actors concerned, rather than on data flow management between those involved. This rationalises the process, but also ensures better transparency and legibility of the action of each partner. Furthermore, this system offers automatic exchanges during the crucial phases of the demand. Online subsidy request is the first national device implementing the new exchange protocol PRESTO, which normalizes dematerialized exchanges between public administrations. The second main principle is the management of eID. The device proposes indeed a method of management which enables a physical person, with simply a password and login, to act on the behalf of several organisms. It is the first time in France that an online procedure aiming at the general public uses this method of identity management on such a scale, to manage both users and agents. This model will evolve towards a federation of circles of trust for civil servants / agents according to the guidelines of the “interops” scenario. The third main principle concerns how the device operates, which is based on the principle of self administration. Indeed, in order to benefit from digitization requests, a public administration has to publish on-line the aid and support documents. Indirectly, France implements therefore a register of government aid, a new strongly structuring step. Also, the mechanism found a local variation within the framework of the creation of the Region e-Bourgogne service platform.

Lessons learnt

The three most important lessons: - Piloting a strong partnership: Insofar as it falls under a dimension of both front-office and back-office for the communities, it concerns a large number of actors: civil servants, associations and users. - The Interoperability of information at the heart of strategy: Implementing an online service is to make sure that there is "not a break in the chain of the data". The aim of the State in this process is not to carry out a simple on-line form, but it is also to take the expected rationalisation steps into account in the treatment of the requests. To this end, work on common and shared standards is one of the keys of the adhesion of the public partners, local authorities and private partners. - Accompanying change at the heart of the modernization of the functioning of public services 1/3 of the budget (1M€) allocated to the implementation of the support for both users and agents, in order to set up efficient and decentralized support for the different stakeholders. Scope: International, Local (city or municipality), National, Regional (sub-national)