The electronic citizen service 'Maerker Brandenburg', initiated by the Ministry of the Interior and Brandenburg's Association of Towns and Municipalities, is this year's "most innovative eGovernment project for social solutions" nationwide. Those responsible for the project were honoured in Berlin on 10 September 2010 for the victory of 'Maerker' in the corresponding category of the 10th eGovernment competition for federal, state and local administrations. For a year now, citizens have been able to use 'Maerker' to draw attention to and track the rectification of irregularities in the 26 participating municipalities in Brandenburg at the click of a mouse. So far, over 2,300 Maerker reports have been received by the participating local authorities via the Internet.
Minister of the Interior Rainer Speer congratulated the creators of Maerker on their idea and its committed realisation: "Not every Internet step taken by administrations deserves to be labelled 'e-government'. Maerker is exemplary proof of what is important: contact with citizens must become simpler, administrative work more transparent, but also more reliable and the results more visible for everyone. Maerker offers all of this to a pleasing degree." Here, the municipality shows that it really cares about the local annoyances of citizens and at the same time acts as an unbureaucratic mediator when someone else is responsible.
The Maerker Brandenburg participation platform was initially trialled in summer 2009 with three pilot municipalities and quickly found more users. The background: Even particularly committed public order offices cannot be omnipresent. Information from citizens is important. Whether it is about a pothole, defective street lighting or forgotten rubbish, it is posted on the Internet portal with a picture if necessary. The mayor of the municipality undertakes to have the problem checked by his administration within three working days and forwarded to theresponsibleauthority. Every citizen also receives a response to their report, which is usually visible to all users on the Internet. A traffic light also visually indicates thestatus of the problem solution.
The award for Maerker marks the third time that Brandenburg has won first prize in the nationwide e-government competition, following successes in 2007 and 2009. Speer spoke of a "hat-trick" , which makes it clear that ideas and potential for even more speed are increasingly being utilised in the Internet services provided by public authorities in Brandenburg. As part of a joint initiative, the state and local authorities had agreed to work closely together in the field of e-government and to realise joint model projects. Maerker also serves as a model nationwide, as evidenced by enquiries from other federal states that want to introduce similar solutions for their area.
Maerker' is the first nationwide instrument for active, electronic participation by citizens in the area of infrastructure problems, according to Karl-Ludwig Böttcher, Managing Director of the Association of Towns and Municipalities. For Brandenburg, Managing Director Böttcher expects a further increase in interest in the still young Internet service. Today's award is an incentive for further activities. The next Maerker information event will take place on 6 October 2010 in Senftenberg town hall. Here, experienced and interested local authorities can exchange ideas in workshops.
Text: Ministry of the Interior Brandenburg
Image source: BearingPoint GmbH