Information Technology Director at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities & Urban Planning Hisham Sater revealed that the number of users for the Ministry’s electronic services during the last quarter of 2014 reached 4366, while the total number of users throughout year 2014 amounted to 18992 users. The services can be accessed through both the Ministry’s portal http://www.works.gov.bh, and the eGovernment portalhttp://www.bahrain.bh.
According to Sater, December registered the highest number of users; with 1568 users, while April registered a usage rate of 53.2%. The statistics also revealed that the Materials Testing Results Services targeted the highest number of users; with 17476 users, after which came the Material/Product Assessment eService with 517 users, and then the Report of Road Fault with 469 users. The sanitary engineering complaints targeted 239 users, while both requesting permission for unusual loads and contractors qualification service registered 80 users for each.
Sater added that the Ministry seeks to provide high quality services to citizens and residents by providing the eServices, which contributed tremendously to saving time and effort for both the users and the directorates concerned with each service.
‘The rise in the number of users for the eServices indicates the awareness of the Bahraini society. Also, there was an evident decrease in the number of reports and complaints’ said Sater.
Sater also explained that the ‘Fix to Go’ application, which was launched last year, has contributed to expediting response and decision making related to urgent cases, as it allowed citizens and residents to raise road related complaints, traffic signal service reports and sanitary complaints.
Users can take photos of locations in need of repair and send the photos to the Ministry to take the necessary action. The application also allows users to follow-up their reports. Since its launch in April last year, the number of users amounted to 155 users (from April until December 2014).