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Yesterday the fourth and last FIFO Digital Encounters debate tackled the theme of new inferred relations between the general public and administration with the advent of digital.

Philippe Machenaud, Government Secretary-General, Patricia Lincoln, Cabinet Director of the Ministry for the Development of the Louis Frébault Archipelagos, Eric Spitz, High Commissioner Secretary-General, Tearii Alpha, Minister of Land Affairs, Development, Housing and Equipment, responsible for town-planning, Eugène Sanford, Head of the Computer Department, Marc Debene, Professor at UPF, Irmine Tehei and Christophe Psychogios, respectively Treasurer and Vice-Chairman of the Te Tia Ara Association for Consumer Defence, Marcel Desvergne, debate leader and Michel Paoletti, Chairman of Digital Encounters, were gathered around the table for an inventory and report of the situation in French Polynesia and to discuss ways of facilitating the way forward in particular for the most isolated users.

« Electronic administration is not a whim or a fashion but notably an economic must,” assured Eric Spitz. “In a budget situation under strain, administration must inevitably work more and more efficiently, when a certain number of measures are put in place and electronic administration progresses, there is an economy of paper, time…Very simply because administration must improve its services in a context of globalization, new budgetary requirements and an increase in client expectation, there is no choice.”  “Administration in Metropolitan France,” he pursued, “carried out some research on users, from the strong points in our lives and highlighted some of the painful moments when, in fact, administration and the increase in the number of administrative processes adds to this pain (bereavement, divorce…). A website is up and running and allows each user to resolve a certain number of steps, without having to go anywhere.” If French Polynesia is not yet at the same level as Metropolitan France today, there are nevertheless a certain number of procedures electronically accessible from now on to public service users. But to guarantee the success of the introduction of electronic administration, Eric Spitz lay down three essential conditions. First of all, there must be a strong vision and political will. Then, electronic administration, not being an end in itself, cannot be an isolated process – it must be integrated into a wider framework, notably one with fixed objectives regarding the management of the public .Lastly, you need to put yourself in the place of the user and have a certain number of follow-up methods and a process of evaluation. “We should not content ourselves with self-satisfaction.”

Teari Alpha confirmed her political will to accelerate the setting up of an administration: “Polynesia is going to and must participate in this digital evolution and obviously wants to participate in any technological advance. The administration needs to be updated, to restructure and to be closer to its users.” When Michel Paoletti stressed the subject of land affairs, which constitutes a large problem in the country for a good number of citizens, the Minister continued “200,000 documents are produced annually by the Management of Land Affairs. Digital could allow us to bring together this database of the villages. We are in discussions with the OPT to create specific work networks, digital work environments, notably for the villages and administration. Of course several legal constraints regarding the confidentiality of certain access needs to be removed, but I think that the political will of the country today is to be able to achieve this type of research and that it will be very well received by the users. […] There is notably a tool that we should create at all costs, it is the system of geographical information that we should be able to pool and share with businesses, private individuals and users. There are three levels of use: the village user, far away from Tahiti, whose presence in offices in Papeete could be avoided to obtain information; manufacturers, businesses and research departments, with whom we could work more easily by digital connection; and the political decision-makers.”

With this mention of the islanders, who don’t have easy access to information, the notion of digital rupture was evoked by Marc Debene. “This rupture may be territorial but also social. And alongside the principle of equality, there is also continuity: it is necessary that the public service functions in a continuous way,” he detailed, “now at the present time, when looking at public service sites, I noticed that many sites were under maintenance which is not really compatible with the principle of continuity.” As for Christophe Psychogios he recalled that, “The problem of user access to these new resources will be problematic, first of all in terms of content (the problem of the visibility of information), but also in terms of accessibility, acquisition of means and product use, which doesn’t say much to these users for whom oral communication is used in particular. […] 65% of homes have a computer, which then leaves 35% of households for whom a computer is an unknown domain. The main thing which concerns the island citizens is anything to do with land and I wish to stress the fact that as soon as there is a step to be made, it is a real battle ground. I would like to point the finger at the Registry Office Service. It would seem that the previous prosecutor closed access to the Court Registry Office and sent the users to each village to establish their genealogy and find the certificates. This does not facilitate the tasks of users when trying to assert their rights in land matters. To remedy this could we have a unique digital counter where the citizens would have use of all the Land and Registry Office information? An effort really must be made.

Eric Spitz underlined the fact that the situation wasn’t at all satisfying, specifying “We have a lot of work to get to where we want to, to work with all the administrative authorities that give shape to Polynesian life.” In the public sector, Karl Reguron responded to the idea of a digital counter suggesting that free internet access terminals are put in OPT offices at the disposal of users, “To at least allow them to consult the territory sites, to look for information.” “The objective that we set ourselves regarding land matters,” detailed Tearii Alpha, “is to relocate the expertise of the representatives, through whom families often go about these land problems, on a village level.”

“E-administration is in the process of being set up but it has not yet been accomplished. It needs to evolve,” ascertained a confident Philippe Machenaud. Michel Paoletti concludes, sharing his frustration at not having obtained provisional dates as an answer to the question, “When will the villages be ready to help the users of the different municipalities?”

Manon Hericher