Page 63 - U4SSC Blockchain for smart sustainable cities

Case 8. Transparency in building applications for cell towers

Lack of trust, excessive bureaucracy, and They initiated the project KIS (“Kommunikation,
corruption have undermined trust in public Infrastruktur, Software”) to explore how
administration. As a result, in some countries blockchain can be used to build transparent and
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supervision of public officials has increased to an efficient government processes.
extent that renders many processes ineffective As an example, they worked on the processes
and personal liability has become a pressing surrounding the building or modifying of cell
topic for state officials. Consequently, there is towers. Roughly 600 applications are submitted
a need for new governance and administrative each year that concern the building or
approaches to increase efficiency and new modification of cell towers. The aim was to model
public accountability mechanisms.
this process, unify the underlying technologies
Public administration in Italy struggles to and allow the community to vote on the location
offer high-quality services efficiently. This is of cell towers. The solution had to interface with
complicated by complex legacy processes and legacy systems and be cloud-based. There were
legislation. In Italy, the level of trust in public also problems with digitalization. For example,
administration has declined to the point that, only a digital document is a valid legal document
in 2015, 93 per cent of Italians do not trust for the public administration in Italy. Analogue
parliament. Despite the introduction of documents, after being digitized and certified,
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reforms driven by the New Public Management can therefore, be destroyed, however, this
(NPM) approach, public administration in Italy process was labour-intensive and complex.
still follows a bureaucratic model with strongly The workflow was complicated and involved
standardized activities.
three parties: the phone company, the owner of
In South Tyrol, the pressure is increasing from the land where the mast is to be built, and the
the SIAG (Südtiroler Informatik AG), politicians owners of neighbouring properties. The process
and the public to simplify processes, unify the includes an environmental impact assessment
underlying technologies and improve inter- (performed by the provincial administration)
agency efficiency. Furthermore, due to regulatory and consultations with the community that is
changes, demand for end-to-end workflows has affected by the cell tower. Additional pressure
increased. This especially pertains to processes is created by an Italian rule that if the public
in which residents are involved and should administration does not respond within 30
be able to check, for example, the state of the days, the construction project is approved. The
request and name of the entity currently working community and the provincial administration
on it. SIAG is a private company jointly owned want to keep their authority and hence must
by the South Tyrolean State Administration, ensure fast processing times.
the South Tyrolean Municipalities Association
and the Trentino-Alto Adige region, providing
e-government solutions.

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