“Office of an Uzhgorod resident”: from e-democracy to “Smart city”

Features and operation of the digital ecosystem "Office of an Uzhgorod resident" developed under trilateral cooperation of the EU / UNDP project "Community-based Approach to Local Development" by Uzhgorod city council and the NGO "Vholos" was presented today in Uzhhorod city council.

The mayor of Uzhgorod Bohdan Andriyiv, opening the meeting, thanked representatives of the EU / UNDP project "Community-based Approach to Local Development", NGO "VHOLOS" and IT professionals headed by Vladislav Panin, who implemented an innovative idea. He said that our city had become the first in Transcarpathia to offers its residents access to electronic services, introducing elements of e-democracy. 

"Office of an Uzhgorod resident" will allow employees of the City Council to establish better cooperation and communication with residents, to respond more quickly to urgent problems. And for Uzhgorod residents, it will simplify access to administrative services, allow to track the progress of their submitted applications, complaints and suggestions, pay utility bills, register an entity, enroll a child to kindergarten and more.

International Manager of the project "Community-based Approach to Local Development" Hendrik van Zil said that the main objective of the project is implementation of quality changes for local communities, decentralized processes at the local level, limitation of human factor, direct interaction of citizens with public officials, and therefore – corruption.

Uzhgorod residents will also be able to pay for utilities in the "Office". In addition, there is a function "Rating of public services", through which citizens will be able to complain, express their opinions and add pictures. "Office of an Uzhgorod residents" provides access to transport services, users will be able to look up bus schedules; there is also the "Open Budget" function, which allows to see all expenditures from the city budget, including by categories.