Maltese e-government services are highly available, of good quality and support the government’s openness and accessibility to standards well above the EU27 average. In certain areas these services stand out as good practice, according to the eGovernment Benchmark 2012 report.

The report, now in its 10th edition, was published by the European Commission last week. It surveyed 28,000 internet users across 32 countries, including EU candidate and non-EU countries.

Malta ranked among the top three in terms of user satisfaction, the availability of services and the integration of key enablers of e-government (such as e-ID, e-documents, e-safety etc.). Services for finding a job and studying were found to be among the most user-centric in Europe.

“Malta sees high maturity of online services, mostly centralised in one-stop-shop portals,” according to the report.

This means Malta has managed to retain the rankings it earned in previous editions of the regular report.

The background report accompanying the main one takes Malta’s one-stop shop for businesses – “Business First” by Malta Enterprise – as an example of good practice.

However, Malta was just above the EU27 average when it came to the percentage of citizens that used the online channel for contact with government. Actual usage of e-government services seems to be the weak spot compared to other countries, especially Northern European ones.

The main reasons given by Maltese interviewees for not using e-government services are that personal contact is preferred and that the service requires personal contact or the submission of papers anyway. Few mentioned security and data protection risks, difficulties in using the service or technical problems.

On a European level, almost half of EU citizens (46 per cent) now go online to look for a job, use the public library, file a tax return, register a birth, apply for a passport or use other e-government services. Four out of every five say online public services save them time, over three-quarters like the flexibility and 62 per cent say they save money. But these users are more satisfied with online banking (8.5 satisfaction rating on a scale of 0 to 10), and online shopping (7.6) than with public services online (6.5).

The most popular services were declaring income taxes (73 per cent of users declare taxes online), moving or changing address (57 per cent) and enrolling in higher education and/or applying for student grants (56 per cent).

While 54 per cent of those surveyed still prefer face-to face contact or other traditional channels, at least 30 per cent of them indicated they could also be regular e-government users if more relevant services were provided.

The Digital Agenda for Europe aims to increase the use of e-government services to 50 per cent of EU citizens by 2015.

The report also signals that improvements are needed to online services for important life events like losing or finding a job, setting up a company and registering for studying.

For people living in their own country, on average more than half of the administrative steps related to these key life events can be carried out online. Websites give information about the remaining steps. However, more transparency and interaction with users are needed to better empower citizens.

The picture is less bright for almost two million people who move or commute between EU member states. While the majority of member states provide some information about studying or starting a company from abroad, online registration is less common.

The report talks of the need of a “fundamental transformation” in the way government services are constructed, now that the digital society is a reality.

“With the increased expectations and influence of the public we can no longer continue to deliver administration-centric services. Services must be designed and delivered in a customer-centric manner: ‘outside-in’. Services must be far more integ-rated across government entities, and indeed across borders. This represents a fundamental transformation in the way services are constructed.

“The benefits are, however, substantial: better quality services; more reliable deli-very; far swifter; with less effort. Proof points are increasingly emerging – yet we need many more! Information and technology (ICT) play an increasingly vital role in transforming public service delivery.

“We must learn fast, and share our knowledge openly, to help keep Europe most relevant,” the eGovernment Benchmark 2012 report concluded.