All levels of government have long promoted a move toward paperless processes -- transitioning information to the Web, offering e-government collaborative tools, and marketing their own initiatives -- which theoretically reduce the number of trees sacrificed. The Office of Management and Budget, for example, made a point to publicize fiscal 2009 as the first time the federal budget was delivered to Congress completely digitally. Given the document was about 170 pages, this was no small feat.
And the progress made at the state and local level also receives kudos. Just this week the Center for Digital Government released results from its Digital Counties Survey. Six Washington area jurisdictions made it onto a list of "top digital" counties. As reported by The Washington Post, Fairfax County, Va., earned the accolade as a result of an innovative e-government program that offers 24-hour access through the Internet, kiosks in county buildings, voice-response systems on touch-tone phones and its cable TV channel. A do-it-yourself model also allows citizens to pay taxes, search for government facilities, access court information, and register for parks and recreation activities -- all from home. That might even put the federal government’s e-government efforts to shame. Loudoun County and Prince William County in Virginia also earned honors from the survey, as did Maryland’s Montgomery, Prince George's, and Frederick counties.
Such reports make a recent experience I had with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles all the more perplexing. I called to find out what documents would be needed to get a new driver’s license. I easily checked off those needed for proof of identity and name (which I had expected to be the most challenging, having just gotten married), but found proof of residency to be a far greater challenge. Because I receive all utility bills, bank statements and pay stubs electronically -- albeit printable as .pdf documents -- there was a very good chance, the DMV employee told me, that they would not be accepted. That was policy, apparently, and exception to policy was made at the discretion of my local DMV office -- which, ironically, is in Fairfax County. So, go with printed copies of the online version and risk being turned away after waiting in the inevitable line, or do what I decided to do: Change my bank account preferences to begin receiving my bank statements by mail, then once one is received, go back into my preferences and change them back.
Is this the convenience factor that digital government is supposed to provide?
I can appreciate the threat of identity theft and the need for all agencies to be on high alert, but with so many citizens transitioning to online options for banking, isn’t it government’s responsibility to keep up? And how does a rule prohibiting acceptance of documents printed from online sources protect me from fraud? I do not begrudge Fairfax or the other area counties their honors. But I do wonder how they might respond to my own frustrating experience. Then again, perhaps my gripe is just with the DMV. That certainly wouldn’t be anything new.
COMMENTS
Isn't this nice. Now, nothing will be read, it will just be stored in a computer somewhere. Paperless, and forgotten.
frank 08/21/08 07:19 am ET
The Fact that anything that is submitted online is open to theft. That is a fact of Life in the world of paperless documents. For most city departments and company,s Who are still behind in I.D theft due to the lack of updated training to workers who are asked to have online help network for those who need it. this itself defeats the security of paperless documents and promotes I.D theft. For the ones who work online help have no clue who they are talking with. so info can be picked up from them. And you can see a great need for a new type of security measures that should arise from the mistakes at hand.
John Donaldson jr 08/19/08 08:29 am ET
Imagine my surprise when filling out a Beneficiary Designation form that OPM has in PDF and being told by my agency HR office that they didn't accept that OPM form, they were using the previous incarnation, complete with carbon paper!
RW 08/15/08 11:05 am ET