The main services that government service kiosks provide to people are matters related to the Sana system, SEKA, Sejam, mobile operators, subsidies and birth certificates, but the service people most often visit kiosks for relates to national ID cards and commodity coupons.
Hamid Pasandideh - manager of one of the government service kiosks - in an interview with ISNA, describing the main activities of these kiosks, said: In recent weeks the biggest problem people have faced is the commodity coupon issue. Some people can register easily and have no problem, but a number who are, for example, abroad, face problems when their families go to register. Others also, due to having multiple bank accounts or a business or leisure trip abroad, have encountered problems and their commodity coupons have been cut off.
Applicants for commodity coupons left in limbo due to system outages
The manager of this government kiosk in Tehran added: We followed up the matter through the Kiosk Association, but there are a number of bugs that cause clients to encounter problems. For example, some people have had their commodity coupon blocked because they took a business trip abroad. We tried to resolve this issue through the Ministry of Welfare, but the ministry’s cooperation is mostly verbal and they promise it will be done.
He continued: Unfortunately the system is down or does not load and this practically leaves clients in limbo. We also do not have problems with the deceased’s Justice Shares and mostly system bugs cause trouble for us.
Pasandideh described kiosks as the government's executive arms and said: Although kiosks play a role in delivering services to the people, infrastructure problems, system disruptions, slow and interrupted internet and lack of coordination between systems have made our work difficult and challenging.
He continued: A client comes to receive electronic services, for example registering for commodity coupons or subsidies, but when they face system outages and their work cannot be done, dissatisfaction arises and lack of responsiveness to people causes both their discomfort and long waiting hours in queues and a reduction in kiosk staff productivity.
Severe damage to kiosks from internet outages
This government kiosk manager emphasized: A client spends time and money to have their work done faster, but power or internet outages mean they wait for hours or must return another day. It's not only the people who are affected; kiosks also struggle with these problems. With heavy rents and taxes and bills for water, electricity, insurance and staff salaries, if we do not have internet for one day, we suffer greatly.
Pasandideh continued: We are also facing problems in data processing and this issue has become a major dilemma for kiosks, while we have updated all our systems with the best monitors and computers, due to lack of coordination between systems and frequent outages, especially systems that have bugs, we have problems with data processing speed and we are not supported.
In another part of his remarks he reported delays in issuing smart national ID cards and said: Unfortunately some of those who registered and applied for smart national ID cards have still not been able to receive their cards and now they are issuing registrations from the years 1400 and 1401. The number I can report for our own kiosk is about 10,000 national ID cards that we are owed by the Registry of Births and Deaths and must deliver.
Replacing chipsets with QR codes in new national ID cards
This government kiosk manager continued: Delay in issuing national ID cards has become problematic for clients because when they go to do a bank transaction with the ID card receipt, the bank does not accept the receipt as sufficient and requests a birth certificate or passport, and the person must have those documents in hand.
Pasandideh identified the Registry of Births and Deaths as responsible for issuing smart national ID cards and explained the reason for the delay in issuing these cards: The chips for the previous national ID cards were imported from China but they were stopped. The Registry announced at the end of last year that after the New Year 9 million national ID cards would be delivered to clients across the country, but wartime conditions and security issues prevented the cards from being issued on time. However, according to the Registry, in the new process anyone who registers for a smart national ID card will receive their card within 20 days, with the difference that these cards do not have chipsets and have QR codes.
Effective role of kiosks in reducing public visits, fuel consumption and air pollution
He stated that kiosks play a significant role in reducing public visits to institutions, organizations and offices, and said: The activity of government kiosks reduces a large share of city traffic. It also prevents traffic accidents, increased fuel consumption and air pollution.
Pasandideh identified power outages as another dilemma for kiosks and said: Electronic kiosks whose work depends on the internet suffer more from power outages. Of course, we have tried to manage better by announcing power outage hours so that clients’ work is not disrupted.
The manager of this government kiosk concluded: Kiosks originated from the Ministry of Communications and obtain their activity license from this ministry. When the address of a kiosk changes and it relocates elsewhere, to reestablish access and telecommunication coverage it must refer to various organizations and companies, among which are the Communications Regulatory Authority, the Registry of Births and Deaths and Telecommunications.