Effective e-Government Process
Monitoring and Interoperation: A Case
Study on the Removal of Unauthorized
Building Works in Hong Kong
Dickson K. W. CHIU
Senior Member, IEEE
Jenny Y.Y. Wong
Kai Pan Mark
Dickson Computer Systems
Hong Kong
Dept. of Computing
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
kwchiu@acm.org,
dicksonchiu@ieee.org
jwong61020@yahoo.com.hk
csmarkkp@comp.polyu.edu.hk
Introduction
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Governments are looking for ICT to facilitate process coordination to improve service delivery
Typical characteristics
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Case study: Removal of unauthorized building works in HK
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Complaints
Urgency
Monitoring of process
serious problem
requires much resources and monitoring effort
Technical solution
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Event-driven process collaboration (HICSS36)
Alerts (HICSS37)
Web services
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 2
Background
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Building Ordinance
- all building works require prior approval of plans and consent
to commence works from Building Department (BD)
- without approval => unauthorized building works (UBW)
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As at 2003, more than 700,000 UBW
BD determines to remove UBW to safeguard public
interest
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 3
Typical Workflows
Procedures for enforcing s.24 orders
Identify buildings with UBW
from complaints, large-scale
operations and walking surveys
Issue s.24 order
Conduct
compliance
inspection
BD may consider
prosecution
action at the same
time
Any serious
defects?
BD certifies and makes payments to GC
DN settled?
No
Has the s.24
order been
complied with?
Yes
Refer the case to the default
works consultant (DWC)
Issue advisory
letter or no further
action
Issue compliance
letter
Yes
BD refers a case (with unpaid balance >=
pre-defined limit) to Department of Justice
(DoJ) for recovery. DoJ will consider , where
appropriate, legal proceedings for the cases
Debt settled?
BD issues and registers
with the LR a
Memorial of
Satisfaction
Yes
No
BD requires LR to notify it of any future
dealings on the subject property
DWC supervises the
government contrctor
to carry out the removal works
BD/DoJ issues final warning letter before
expiry of time limits for legal action
BD to recover costs from
owners
BD issues a
compliance letter
No
BD serves an s.33 certificate to the debtor
and registers the s.33 certificate with
the Land Registry (LR)
DWC submits his supervision
proposal to BD
BD issues compliance letter to
discharge the s.24 order
eGovt-UBW
Government contractor (GC)
completes the removal works
BD issues Demand Notes (DN) to owners
for cost recovery
Conduct site inspection
Yes
Procedures for cost recovery from owners
BD/DoJ conducts final review 1 year before
expiry of time limits for leagla action
BD proceeds to write off the debts
HICSS40 - 4
Requirements Overview
Blitz
contractors
Site
inspection
team
Collect
information on
UBW & provide
inspection
result
Buildings
Department
Monitor
progress and
workflow of
UBW removal
Collect
information on
UBW & provide
survey/inspection
reports
Interne
t
Collect debt details
Provide ownership
details
Department of
Justice
eGovt-UBW
The Land
Registry
Default Works
Contractor
Collect information
on UBW & provide
supervision proposal
Confirm
compliance
with s.24
order
Provide
basic
information
of UBW
Building owners
and their
contractors
Complainants
HICSS40 - 5
Existing problems
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Monitoring process is very resources consuming and
human intensive.
Records are kept on different paper-based files.
Exchange of data/information are mainly in paper
format.
Cannot keep track of the necessary actions and
generate reminders / alerts.
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 6
System Architecture & Design
Land Registry
Employees
Department of Justice
Internet
Building Records
Information
System
Inspection Record
System
Contractor
Monitoring
System
eGovt-UBW
Alert
Management
System
Status
Monitor
Web Services Interface
Building
Condition
Information
System
Contractor
Collaboration
Process
Enactor
Event
Adapter
ECA Rules,
Scheduling Rules,
Event Repository,
Event Subsciption
List
Timer
Requirement
Enforcer
HICSS40 - 7
Event-driven process collaboration
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Event-Condition-Action Rules
On event if condition then action
An event occurs, it triggers some rules. The condition
parts of the rules will be evaluated. If condition is
satisfied, the action part, which is a workflow, will be
executed.
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 8
Enactment requirements (1)
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Fulfill the workflow functions:
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assign tasks to agents (people/systems)
retrieve information needed to complete a task
remind agents about their parts
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 9
Enactment requirements (2)
Example
upon input of a complaint case, retrieve an approved
building plan from BD’s legacy system, then notify the
unit head.
Event
received(CASE)
Condition true
Action
eGovt-UBW
finish(building plan(CASE))
true
retrieve(building_plan(CASE)) notify(unit_head(CASE))
HICSS40 - 10
Enforcement Requirements (1)
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Facilitates exception detection and handling
Monitor becomes active only when an exception
occurs
Exceptions: failure to find an agent for a task,
failure to get information, missed deadlines, etc.
Temporal events, generated by timer, to detect nonfulfillment of action by a deadline
Event
onDay(deadline(BAO))
Condition
NOT occurred(BAO)
Action
raise (exception(BAO))
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 11
Enforcement Requirements (2)
Example:
Within N days after the expiry of S.24 order, a
compliance inspection has to be performed.
Event
onDay(after(expirydate(S24order), N)
Condition
NOT occurred(COMPLIANCE_INSPECT)
Action
raise (exception(COMPLIANCE_INSPECT)
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 12
Alert Management System
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Responsible for sending alert messages, receiving reply,
maintain alert status and logging information
Urgency of alert is a function of time
Urgency level
Action
Near due
Reminder
Due
Send an alert to the same action party, notifying that the
task is due
Overdue
Send a second alert to the action party
Long overdue
Send a very urgent alert to the action party as well as the
concerned supervisor/officer in charge
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 13
Web Services
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Example
Retrieve ownership details of the UBW from Land Registry
checkOwner Web Service
Input: OwnerRequest
Request source
Request ID
Search Option
Account
- Account No.
- Account Name
Address
- Lot
- Development Name
- Block
eGovt-UBW
-
Floor
Flat No.
House No.
Street Name
Area Code
Output: OwnerResponse
Memorial No.
Nature of Instrument
Date of Instrument
Name
HKIC No.
Share
HICSS40 - 14
Process integration: Identification of UBW
to issue of S.24 order
Hotline Center
UBWMS
Unit head
Record a compliant
Retrieve approved
building plan, S.24
orders, etc.
Yes
Inspection Team
Conduct
preliminary review
Works
approved?
No
Yes
No
Removal
action being
taken?
No
Issue advisory letter
Endorse the
recommendation for
removal
Conduct site inspection
and complete
insepction report
Existence of
UBW?
Yes
Retrieve ownership
details from Land
Registry
Notify the result to
the complainant
eGovt-UBW
Generate Removal
Order (s.24 order)
HICSS40 - 15
Summary
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Web services enables collaboration among service
partners
ECA Rules in workflow process to fulfill enactment and
enforcement requirements
AMS to monitor urgent and important tasks
Benefits to users, management and system developers
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 16
Future Work
 Defining and allocating new responsibilities of different
stakeholders – who handle what at different urgency
levels
 Capturing the engineering expertise for classifying
urgency from the existing human process to the
automation
 Integrate disparate channels for reporting UBW in a call
center portal
 Applicability to other e-government and public
administration applications
 Workforce management
 Security and privacy issues
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 17
Question and Answer
Thank you!
eGovt-UBW
HICSS40 - 18