An online sign-off system is expected to be extended to governmental agencies at all levels nationwide starting next year to reduce paper waste, an official with the government’s IT management department said yesterday.
“Our goal is for each unit to replace at least 60 percent of its printed correspondence with electronic documents within a year,” said Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮), deputy director of the technology department of the Cabinet’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC).
REDUCED EMISSIONS
If some 8,000 units all manage to make the goal, the cut in printed documents would save the country 640 million pieces of A4-size paper, or about 64,000 fully grown trees that could absorb approximately 128,000kg carbon dioxide, the commission said.
The system is currently implemented in just a few central government agencies — the RDEC, the National Communication Commission (NCC) and the National Science Council.
Taking the RDEC as an example, Su said that the implementation of the online sign-off system not only reduced paper consumption but also increased working efficiency.
“With the implementation of the system, public servants can avoid the hassle of faxing documents and don’t need to worry about whether the documents are received by all parties,” Su said.
EXPANDED SERVICE
The RDEC is now able to process interpellations filed by lawmakers with governmental officials, e-mails sent from the public to Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), people’s petition cases and applications for all kinds of governmental certificates without using paper.
“About 21.7 percent of the commission’s documents are signed off online, and that makes us save numerous steps involved in signing off documents and reduces the number of days needed to process a document from 3.41 days to 2.84 days on average, increasing efficiency by 16.7 percent,” Su said.
INCREASED EFFICIENCY
The NCC, which started the online sign-off system in December, had an even better performance, with 97 percent of its documents signed off online and the number of days needed to process a document cut from 2.74 days to 1.6 days, an increase of 41 percent in terms of working efficiency, Su said.
Su said the government should speed up the application of the system to create a paper free environment because the related laws regulating the online sign-off system — the Electronic Signature Law (電子簽章法) and Government Documents’ Formalities — are already in existence.
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