The state has provided certain digital services that involve the use of an electronic identity card (eLK), but this requires a computer and a card reader, which is often a limiting factor. Instead, it should be enabled so that digital services can be used anytime and from anywhere, and this can be done with a smartphone. When he realized that there was no efficient way to use eLK, the 65-year-old Milan Markovic, a graduate in electrical engineering, Master of Science, with more than 38 years of professional career in the IT industry, began to develop similar solutions on his own and has so far developed several services, including mGovernment, mPost, mAdministration, mCadastre, mBank...
"The solution I implemented, called LkServisi (services that use an ID card), exactly compensates for the current lack of services offered by the state. LkServisi is intended to enable every citizen who has a newer generation Android smartphone (and according to statistics, over 70 percent of them) to use various electronic services, in a way that each created document is electronically signed with the certificate of the ID card owner," he said in an interview with "VIjesti".
This, adds Marković, means that a citizen is able to use their Android device and their ID card anytime, anywhere, and satisfy their need for certain public and/or private services:
"From home, from a cafe, at any time of the day, without having to leave his workplace and spend a few hours of work time to satisfy his objective need."
As he added, the state has provided certain electronic services, some of which involve the use of eLK.
"The limiting factor is that citizens need a computer, and an electronic card reader. At the moment, the number of services offered is modest, but it is expected to increase over time," said Marković.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) began issuing eLK in 2020. Compared to the old ID, the electronic one is “smart”. Both can be used for identification in the physical world. However, the electronic ID can be used to prove identity in the online and digital space, and it is also possible for citizens to digitally sign documents using it.
In order to use eLK certificates, it is necessary to install software, which is available on the Ministry of Interior portal, and in addition, a card reader is required or the certificate can be read using a mobile phone. In 2022, Crnogorski Telekom introduced the eTrust service, a web portal for digitally signing, verifying and time stamping documents. The service is, after a test period, commercial.
Marković called the solution he developed LkServices - services that use an ID card. All of them, he explains, are intended for users of newer generation Android smart devices, which, he adds, account for over 70 percent. His solution, like eTrust, involves electronic signing with the ID card owner's certificate.
"This means that a citizen is able to use their Android device and their ID card anytime, anywhere, and satisfy their need for certain public and/or private services. From home, from a cafe, at any time of the day, without having to leave their workplace and spend a few hours of working time to satisfy their objective need," he said.
He explains that his solution consists of an Android client application (this is what the citizen uses) and the server part of the solution (which is implemented in the service provider's environment).
"The LkServisi solution can be used on Android OS version 9 or higher. Statistical data shows that more than 90 percent of users use the required versions of Android OS. In addition, the Android device must have built-in NFC functionality in order to exchange information with the chip on the ID card. As for the server side of the solution, it enables the validation of all electronically signed documents, in accordance with the EU eIDAS regulation. The Ministry of Public Administration publishes the Trusted List at regular intervals, and this list contains the necessary information to validate each electronically signed document and determine whether the electronic signature is qualified or not," he said.
When asked who hasn't been ready all this time for the services he's been thinking about and developing, the state or the citizens, Marković says both:
"But it's not just about the state, if we look at only public entities. The same situation applies to certain private entities (banks, telecom operators, private healthcare institutions, ...), which offer a wide range of services to citizens. As for citizens, a significant number of them have not even activated the possibility of using the certificates, which are on the electronic ID card."
Projects like the one he is working on, says Marković, "require both time and finances, both for public and private entities."
Marković is open to cooperation with, as he says, a serious IT company from Montenegro, and that cooperation, he explains, would mean implementing the solution itself into the information system of the client (future service provider).
"At this point, the solution is fully developed, in a way that it can be adapted to any entity, public or private, in a quick and efficient manner," he says.
He posted about the services he developed on his YouTube channel (user marcony.montenegro).
After publishing a list of solutions on the YouTube platform, he says he also informed a number of ministries about it.
"Mainly those that offer a wider range of electronic services to the citizens of Montenegro. Also the city administration of Podgorica. I intend to send similar information in the coming days to certain private entities (banks, telecom operators, notary institutions, ...), as well as higher education (university) units, because they also offer certain services, which they could offer electronically in this way, in accordance with EU practice."
He does not expect anything special in terms of the solution he offers being immediately accepted.
"But, since this is a serious solution, which is fully compatible with the solutions currently in the EU, I believe that sooner or later, things will fall into place. Many years of work experience tell me that quality solutions always find their place," he says.
Difficult to obtain technical documentation
When he started developing the LkServisi project, Marković said he wanted to create something that would allow Montenegrin citizens to use modern services in a simple way, like citizens in the EU. After the first year, he realized that he had not come very far, “mostly due to the lack of proper documentation.”
"Since then, it has been more of a matter of spite, to finish something that was started, because I personally do not like unfinished business. The challenges were great, and most of the time was spent searching for the necessary information. The appropriate technical documentation is only partially available without payment, so almost two years passed in finding out what, in any case, exists in the official technical documentation, which is often very expensive. Unfortunately, there was not much help from the IT community either, because different ID card technologies are used in Europe, and most of them are significantly older than the technology used in Montenegro, so that even that information, measured in teaspoons, was often of modest use."
Personal challenge
Marković, he says, entered the development of the LkServisi project when he concluded that there was no efficient way to use the new electronic ID card.
"In my opinion, an efficient way is one in which you use your potential, anytime and anywhere. Today, this is only possible with smartphones, which fortunately almost every adult citizen of Montenegro owns. Joining the project was not reckless, but it was partly conditioned by my desire, at the end of my professional career, not to allow myself intellectual relaxation, but to set myself a challenge, so that I could use the time after official working hours in a better way than sitting in front of the TV, or similar."
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