Taxpayers may consult the Department of Taxation by email using digital signatures.
To make inquiries the taxpayer must first certify his/her digital signature as established by the Law on Certificates, Digital Signatures and Electronic Documents.
Francisco Villalobos, director general of the General Directorate of Direct Taxation (DGTD), said the new arrangement will increase response times and is in line with new policies to simplify procedures.
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.
The Minister of Finance, William Chong Wong said that this year’s system includes six products and more will be added progressively.
The Panamanian Public Registry has put out to tender the implementation of new computer registry system.
According to the specifications the tender is for, supply of services, installation, training, configuration, consulting, support and
implementation of hardware, software, processes, reengineering, policy adjustments, inputs and licensing for the technology and systems infrastructure for
The Public Registry Office has put out a tender to implement the first phase of the National Program for Electronic Digital Signatures.
According to the specifications the tender includes:
Supply of services, installation, training, configuration, consulting, support and implementation of hardware, software, supplies and licenses for technological and operational infrastructure for the
The Costa Rican government is looking for suppliers of digital information and control systems for public safety.
The executive director of the Technical Secretariat of Digital Government, Alicia Avendaño said that they are at the analysis and research stage to determine the solution that will meet all requirements.
The official announced that they hope to have the right project within three months.
President Chinchilla introduced the "Digital Social Agreement", which promises broadband "solidarity", connectivity and digital technologies for education and the strengthening of the Digital Government.
The plan will be financed with funds from FONATEL, which has recently been enlarged by payments made for frequency rights by new cell phone companies entering the market.
As part of the "Paperless Panama" scheme, the National Authority for Government Innovation is putting out to tender a system that will optimize the performance of governmental functions.
According to the specifications of the tender, the contract is for the supply, implementation and operation of:
A) Platform Interoperability
B) A Procedures Management System that supports analysis, design and development of an electronic application process with an initial 100 government procedures and the approval of five (5) processes
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.
Also there are 14 state enterprises participating in the system, which can share information about providers participating in the bidding for tenders.
The company Huawei, from the telecommunication sector, together with authorities from the government have signed a cooperation agreement to accelerate Panama's modernization.
The agreement includes items seeking to provide training and technical skills in areas such as data networks, digital switching systems and optical access networks. This will help modernize public management of the country.
Scheduled to launch in 2012, the program will enable electronic exchange of information among state institutions and improve services for users.
According to Eduardo Jaen, administrator of the Government Innovation Authority, there is an analysis being made at institutions with most transactions, the Comptroller General's Office and the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Social Development, Education and Health.
The Ministry of Economy and the Authority for Digital Innovation signed an agreement to promote the project.
The agreement provides for the MEF to execute initiatives to enable digitization of processes and electronic exchange of information between state institutions, in order to increase productivity, improve quality of service to users, reduce bureaucracy, provide total governance transparency and reduce administrative costs.
The current government has decide to resume the initiative begun by previous administrations and has set 2014 as its objective.
The director of El Salvador's Institute for Technology and Information Innovation (ITIGES), Norwin Herrera, announced the decision saying that some of the projects definitely going ahead include a virtual front desk to enable import permits to be obtained, online issuing of birth certificates, electronic creditworthiness reports for state procurement, e-payment and a transparency platform," reports ElSalvador.com.
The government announced it will invest the sum in the next four years to digitalize state procedures, to make Panama ‘paperless’.
Eudoro Jaén, administrator of the National Authority for Government Innovation, reported that the program comprises digitalizing over 2.800 procedures in State entities.
“The idea is to digitally store any documentation provided by the users of the government’s systems.
Costa Rica's new state procurement website is scheduled for February 2010.
Grupo ICE, together with the Technical Secretary for Digital Government and the State Procurement System of Korea will implement the system, so-called Mer-Link.
Krissia Morris writes at Prensa Libre's website: "The first module includes providers registration and product catalog.