“Some ePayment services have been added through the center such as online payment of Electricity and Water Bills, along with ePayment of Traffic Contraventions,” eGovernment Authority (eGA) Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Ali Al Qaed in a statement said.
“On a yearly basis, we are planning to add 20 more services to our list and this will give an opportunity for nationals to carryout transactions as a whole by a phone call through the National Contact Center,” he said,
Statistics indicate that there has been an increase in the volume of incoming calls to the center at 68% during the period from January to October 2013. The NCC has received over 418,705 calls, compared to 249,217 calls during the same period in 2012. Calls are divided as follows: Enquiries (78, 11%), Services (19.30%), Complaints (2.56%) and Feedback (0.03%).
The eGA CEO also announced the launch of a package of public services to the list of eServices presently launched through the National Contact Center (NCC) on 8000 8001 one of the delivery channels of eGovernment services. The number of services reached up to 47 available to be carried out fully via the telephone on a 24×7 basis.
Al Qaed stated that the center is looking at expanding the base of its services and increasing the number of governmental entities which provide services through the center.
The 7 newly-added eServices are Schools Directory (provided by the Ministry of Education); Accredited Missions in the Kingdom of Bahrain (Ministry of Foreign Affairs); Shipping Costs (Ministry of Transportation – represented by Bahrain Post); Government Agencies (by the eGovernment Authority); Hotel Directory (Ministry of Culture); Tender Awards and Tender Notices (by the Tender Board); and other services will be launched in conjunction with the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.
Al Qaed highlighted the importance that the government entities should benefit from outsourcing services provided by Silah Gulf; aiming at providing first-class services for our customers attained at less cost with over 70%, a core focus on maximizing quality and customer satisfaction, staffed with Bahraini employees who constitute 100% of the personnel.
The NCC has recently launched video calling service for the mute community at the center; supervised by competent employees and professionals in the area of sign language, and run by Silah Gulf. The 24×7 basis center operates with higher levels of quality and running the customer experience in an efficient approach to ensure that customer activities are smoothly carried-out since its inception in 2010.
As part of the strategic objectives of the eGovernment programs in the delivery of eServices through a unified national center, it provides a full range of services for all segments of the society along with the concerned authorities – with the view towards maximizing the utmost degree of transparency and inclusiveness.
NCC came as an additional channel to all other channels that are designed to the delivery of eGovernment services such as the eGovernment portal (Bahrain.bh), Mobile Gateway (www.bahrain.bh/mobile), in addition to the eService Centers, eKiosks and the smartphone apps.