South Carolina state refreshes E-Govt Svcs

COLUMBIA, US: South Carolina is a state that uses the NIC self-funded solution to provide eGovernment services at no upfront cost to citizens and businesses.

In the past five years, South Carolina Interactive has worked with more than 87 state and local government entities to develop more than 24 customized interactive government services applications, 33 state and local government web sites and 87 online payment processing services, says a press note. More than 3,750,000 eGovernment transactions and nearly $80 million in payments were securely processed by http://www.SC.gov in 2008 and to date in 2009, it adds.

Now, the state of South Carolina has signed a new five-year contract with South Carolina Interactive, LLC, part of the NIC family of companies, to manage its official State Web Portal.

South Carolina Interactive signed its original multiyear contract with South Carolina in 2004. The state of South Carolina issued a competitive rebid for a Self-Funded Web Portal in March 2009 and the contract was awarded to South Carolina Interactive. The new contract was approved by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board and went into effect in July 2009. The agreement runs through July 2014. 

The portal covers services around hunting and fishing licenses; state forest trail permits; campaign finance reporting; state spending searches; school report card searches; court fines and fees payments etc.

During the last five years, the portal has received recognition like fourth rank in U.S. States eGovernance Survey 2008; best in Ethics Campaign Finance Reporting Online Disclosure; and Columbia Chamber of Commerce Palmetto Pillar Award for Technology in Government

SC.gov is the official Web site of the state of South Carolina and a collaborative effort between the state and South Carolina Interactive to Web-enable the state’s information services.

“South Carolina is committed to making it easier for citizens and businesses to interact with government by using technology to deliver tangible results,” said Barbara Teusink, Deputy Division Director, Division of State Information Technology, and Chair of the eGovernment Oversight Committee. "We see online services as a key to state productivity and improved public service. Through our partnership with South Carolina Interactive, we are able to offer this at no up-front cost to taxpayers.”



So, are states going state-of-art indeed the tech way?