Digital Agenda Hijacked by Corporatism

While there is a clear need for a long term, consistent and sustained policy in Costa Rica, corporate and business interests are staging a war which is impeding the development of the Digital Government.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Editorial

An article on Crhoy.com highlights the main concepts dealt with in a recent eLAC forum (Building inclusive and innovative digital societies in Latin America and the Caribbean), and reviews the current status of Costa Rica's digital agenda, which currently has as its central theme a long conflict between state agencies over which Government procurement system should prevail, and which of these departments should rule on the issue.

In Costa Rica there is still a battle to define the governing body for the digital agenda, amid internal divisions in government offices, while experts in the field say that "... it is vital to unify and coordinate policy actions."

"... The Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (Micitt) is making progress with its announced intention to rule on the subject. Minister Gisela Kopper said the draft is ready, but it is under consultation, as they must eliminate other advance directives affecting other institutions. "

¿Busca soluciones de inteligencia comercial para su empresa?



More on this topic

Costa Rica: 'Dutch Auction'

August 2011

Using an electronic procurement system, Mer-Link, the government will promote a 'Dutch auction' or auction to buy at the lowest price.


Alicia Avendaño, director of the Technical Secretariat of Digital Government, told La Prensa Libre, that they will start with an online auction after the first week of September. This procedure has not been previously applied at the level of state purchases.

Honduran Government Launches Virtual Shopping System

August 2011

A new government procurement system will improve acquisition times, eliminate bureaucracy and save resources.


The system of "electronic catalog shopping", will also provide a solution to the problem of overpricing in government procurement and provide greater transparency to the process.

Rica: Mer-link System Can Now Perform 14 Procedures

May 2011

The system for performing government transactions online now allows data about procurement processes to be exchanged between institutions.

There are now 14 procedures that can be done online through the Mer-Link system which has been implemented by the Technical Secretariat of Digital Government.

Costa Rica: New Public Purchase Model

March 2009

The country will adopt the South Korean online purchase system which allows all the paperwork to be completed electronically.

The Nacion.com website published: "By being a fully digital process, it ensures greater transparency, increases supplier participation and achieves better prices."

ok