Solution: Until recently, the process of assigning state social aid to people in need in Azerbaijan was carried out through special local commissions consisting of up to seven people and incited many complaints from citizens about corruption and non-transparency.
Goals and objectives: In 2015, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population developed and introduced a Unified Subsystem for Electronic Application and Assignment of targeted state social aid (VEMTAS) in its centralized information system, aimed to improve public service delivery.
Implementation: VEMTAS ensures automated handling processes of applications for targeted state social aid and consideration of life conditions of families, which are estimated by special software. The decision of assigning the benefit is also made by the system, thus avoiding contacts between applicants and officials. The targeted social aid is paid in non-cash form, also ensuring transparency and anti-corruption.
Now low-income families can access VEMTAS electronically through computers, mobile telephones and such, special e-government info-kiosks or via post offices. To provide technical assistance to applicants, post office employees held a relevant training.
Since February 2016, the solution has been implemented countrywide. Over 271,000 submissions were made during the first two months of the system’s functioning.
Achievements: The solution has led to the following changes:
- Applicants no longer need to collect documents from different organizations to submit them to the ministry, and the use of paper is completely restricted. The ministry collects the necessary documentation on its own through access to databases of relevant government institutions in the unified
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Accepted electronic applications shall be considered within 15 working days.
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Citizens receive an SMS informing them whether targeted social assistance has been awarded and its amount.
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The system makes it impossible for officials to intervene in the process to benefit from assigning the aid, thus ensuring a transparent and corrupt-free process.
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The system orders bank plastic cards to receive the state targeted social aid, assigned for a period of two years.
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The system sends an sms informing the applicant about the address of the bank office, where he can get his plastic card and the date
when the card can be collected.
Replication: The solutions can be considered for replication in countries in need to reform the old manual system of assigning the social aid.
Partners:
Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice; Taxes Ministry of Agriculture; Ministry of Education; Ministry of Communications and High Technologies; State Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Deals of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons; State Statistical Committee; State Committee on Property Issues; State Migration Service; State Service for Mobilization and Conscription; Central Bank; State Examination Centre; “Azərişıq” OJSC; “Azərsu” OJSC; AzeriGaz Production Union of the State Oil Company.
Contact Information:
Azerbaijan
Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Address: Salatin Askerov str, 85, Baku
Contact person: Ms. Irada Usubova
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: (+99412) 596 60 96