e-Mexico connectivity tender to close in 2mths

Mexico's government expects to announce the winners of its second and third e-Mexico connectivity contracts in two months, according to Abraham Sotelo, head of the government's IT policy and e-government unit. Existing e-Mexico connectivity provider Interdirec is a likely candidate, but Sotelo said there has also been interest from Telmex, Avantel and Nextel. This year the government has budgeted 500mn pesos (US$44.6mn) for two e-Mexico connectivity programs, to build on the US$9mn contract awarded to Interdirec last year. The two contracts are for satellite and fiber connectivity for public buildings such as schools and hospitals, with greater bandwidth than existing e-Mexico connectivity, but Sotelo said there is also a budget of about US$15mn for linking up government agencies. The federal government has budgeted an additional US$1mn for its internal IT and communications needs, most of which is for third party operating costs and maintenance. The e-government unit's main goals this year are to integrate banks into the system for online payment of government fees, and to allow online registration of legal entities such as corporations. The Mexican banking association ABM is working with the finance ministry to integrate its systems with the government's payment platform, which means all Mexican banks should automatically be incorporated, he said, adding this should be ready in September. The tax office SAT used a different approach, integrating each bank separately, which Sotelo's team hopes to avoid. The legal entity registration program will start as a pilot program later this month, and all government institutions should be integrated with the system by December. DIGITAL SIGNATURES The tax office SAT, the central bank and the public administration (anti-corruption) ministry are scheduled to sign an agreement on April 19, whereby they will accept each other's digital signatures. This means in effect that one digital signature will do for all three entities, and will be the working model for an advanced digital signature. The economy ministry will also sign the agreement later on this year. Sotelo's unit aims to have 800 administrative operations and services online by the end of this year, compared to 523 procedures at present. The state procurement site Compranet handled 30% of public tenders in 2003, equivalent to 8,000 tenders, and now has 2,029 supppliers registered. Fifty three percent of taxpayers submitted their tax declarations online in 2003.