Vidin, Bulgaria

In this section we conclude with a discussion of the prospects for e-government in transitional democracies like Bulgaria. We will focus on the potential for transformation, and the obstacles to the implementation of systems like OPEN for promoting efficiency, transparency, trust, and political participation in one city, Vidin, Bulgaria.

Vidin, Bulgaria, is located on the Danube River in northwestern Bulgaria, and has a population of approximately 58,000 (with 78,000 people living in the municipality). Like all municipalities in Bulgaria, the city is governed by a Municipal Council and mayor, who have responsibility for education, health, economic development, the environment, as well as social and cultural issues. Currently, the city has a high rate of unemployment and face serious problems with respect to social payments.

In response to these problems, the municipal government is looking for new investments abroad, and it has been seeking contacts with cities in the United States and the European Union. Through the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA) International Resource Cities Program, Vidin has established a sister city relationship with the City of West Carrollton, Ohio (http://www.westcarrollton.org/vidinwelc.htm). This city program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development, and administered by the International City/County Management Association (http://www.icma.org/go.cfm).

E-Government in Vidin. Vidin can be classified at the first stage in the development of e-government initiatives, presence, the establishment of a placeholder for delivering information in the future. Currently, all municipal staff members in Vidin have access to the Office System, where all documents for the municipality are logged and stored. In addition, the staff have Internet access for part of the day, and they have full access to a system that allows them to look at all Bulgarian laws, APIS. The city has a new Web site in both Bulgarian and English (http://www.district.vidin.net/indexen.htm), which was developed by a commerical firm in Sofia. It is a "formula" Web site and provides only basic information about the municipality.

Problems of Transparency and Their Solution. In an effort to transform its political and economic system, Vidin has been actively promoting greater transparency. The municipality has established an Information Centre, where citizens can obtain information about city services, and report instances of corruption. To attract outside investment, the city is attempting to update its Web site. West Carrollton, Vidin's sister city, is helping Vidin to make its Web site more informative and user-friendly, and to provide business information, so that private investors can learn more about the city, its workforce, available building sites, and transportation (including a new one-mile bridge over the Danube that will connect to a major highway in Romania. The municipality has also taken measures to make the government more open and fight corruption, including competitive recruitment of municipal administrative staff and the adoption of fixed-term labor contracts for municipal employees (http://flgr.bg/site/99_13.htm). While there seems to be support for government transparency and anticorruption campaigns among the citizenry and the mass media, some government departments of the municipal administration and the Municipal Council may be less enthusiastic.

Transformational Potential. Although Vidin, with the help of its sister city, may be able to provide greater presence on the Web, the municipality and its citizens will have to overcome major obstacles in order to move from stage one to higher stages in the development of e-government initiatives, such as transaction and transformation. At the practical level, few of Vidin's citizens own computers, the older population lacks computer skills, there is too little competition among Internet service providers (ISPs), and local metered phone service is expensive. People have access to the Internet at cafes and post offices, but these services are also expensive. With additional funding, however, Vidin could equip its Information Centre with computers to access services on their Web site.

Additional problems include funding for the cost of the information technology infrastructure. Because of competing demands, there is little support in Vidin for building an infrastructure to support the interaction stage of e-government. Even cities in Western Europe have difficulty funding IT infrastructure.²

As a European city in a transitional democracy, Vidin has received funding from outside sources, such as USAID. Other sources of funding for the implementation of e-government initiatives include the European Union. In addition, the central government in Bulgaria is a possible source of support. . For example, an e-signature law has been adopted in Bulgaria and citizens have already received smart cards with e-signatures for electronic transactions.

Political Leadership in Vidin. The motivation for e-government initiatives in Vidin may be largely local, but the support and funding has its origins in the international community. The Mayor of Vidin, Ivan Cenkov, who is a medical doctor, was elected for a four-year term in October 1999. Like Mayor Goh Kun of Seoul, Dr. Cenkov was committed to promoting transparency and reducing corruption in local government. Unlike Mayor Goh Kun, however, Dr. Cenkov and his colleagues did not have access to sufficient local resources to help accomplish this goal, so he sought support from organizations outside of Bulgaria. Less than a year after he was elected, Dr. Cenkov visited the offices of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) in Washington, DC. Together with the support of the ICMA and the Foundation for Local Government Reform (FLGR) , which is funded by USAID, he developed a twin cities program with West Carrollton, Ohio, a program that provides technical assistance for developing Vidin's municipal Web site.

Another IT initiative, the Login Project, which is an information network that links local government authorities in Bulgaria, will be funded by the Open Society Institute and USAID. Other support for Vidin has been through various organizations of the European Union, such as the Delegation of the European Commission in Bulgaria; the PHARE Programme, one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of central Europe in their preparations for joining the EU; and the Stability Pact, a framework agreement on international co-operation to develop a "shared strategy for stability and growth in South Eastern Europe." Without the support of these external organizations, the Mayor of Vidin would have been unable to take any major initiatives in the area of e-government.