Rossen Jeliazkov: Over the next couple of years, we should be able to achieve a real and irreversible digital transformation of the administration

The Chairperson of S.E.G.A highlighted the main directions of the e-Government Agency’s work as well as the leading national priorities for e-Government development before representatives of the academic community, the business and the experts present.

Over the next couple of years, we should be able to achieve a real and irreversible digital transformation of the administration, assuring its complete digitization, whereby this shall be the commitment of all public institutions. This was announced by the Chair of the State e-Government Agency (S.E.G.A), Rossen Jeliazkov, at a kick off round table meeting in Sofia on the national priorities in e-government development in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian citizens and the business shall be guaranteed access to electronic administrative services through a connectivity across the board, providing security and sustainability of the infrastructure and the systems, as well as a comprehensive implementation of the open data policy. The citizens and the business shall have their electronic identities, use services and exercise their public rights electronically, including remote electronic voting under rigorous security requirements, emphasized Rossen Jeliazkov.

The Chairperson of S.E.G.A highlighted the main directions of the e-Government Agency’s work as well as the leading national priorities for e-Government development before representatives of the academic community, the business and the experts present.

One of the strategic priorities to be implemented in the following five years, in the field of e-Governance, shall bring the focus on the users of administrative services and shall mark a transition to Life-event and Business-event based services, such as launching a new business, purchasing a new car or changing jobs. “The first priority regarding the development of e-Government shall be to put an end to engaging the citizens and the business in certification services and forcing them “run courier errands” between the administrations”, announced the Chairperson of the Agency.

All services shall be created as electronic services by default and not making existing processes electronic. Currently, a number of processes are involved in rendering each and any administrative service, whereas each process is being digitized. This, on its part, “digitizes” the administrative burden, remarked Rossen Jeliazkov.

Introducing the principle of a one-off data collection at the input and reuse of data is an underlying principle, requiring additional changes to the legislation, which constitutes the third strategic priority to the e-Governance in Bulgaria, specified the Chairperson of State e-Government Agency.

The remaining strategic directions, within which the e-Governance is to evolve further, shall include standardization and open data, coordination and control.
Following the upgrade of registers of key importance, kept with the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the Ministry of Interior, standardization as well as open and machine-readable data formats shall facilitate the exchange of documents and data between the administrations, rendering the process automatic. Thus the need of using a number of certification services shall be considerably limited.

It has been envisaged in the respective legislation acts for the State e-Government Agency to exercise control on expenditures related to ICT assets and on calls for project proposals, the technical specifications under public procurements of all administrations aiming at acquiring assets in the field of information and communication technologies. These control functions are already being implemented by the State e-Government Agency.

Another strategic direction in the field of e-Government includes development and upgrade of shared e-Government resources, i.e. Integrated electronic communication network and creating the State Hybrid Private Cloud. “All administrative structures shall share the responsibility, including on a budget level, in relation to the implementation of this priority” announced the Chairperson of S.E.G.A. “In addition to the budget control, exercised by the State Agency, the shared e-Government resources would result in significant savings in relation to the scale and resources required” remarked Rossen Jeliazkov before the participants in the discussion.

The Chairperson of S.E.G.A also emphasized some of the main challenges already into existence before the e-Government in Bulgaria. The existence of “paper” processes in legislation is among those. “The existence of dedicated laws and acts does not justify the administration in relation to non-performance of basic principles, laid out by the Electronic Governance Act. This involves the one-off data collection and digitization of services of priority”, specified Rosen Zhelyazkov.

The lack of coordination in setting up information systems in the respective administrations is still a problem, including the lack of a national plan on the electronic identification, as well as the insufficient digital skills of the administration officers.

“The role of the State e-Government Agency does not consist in introducing the e-Governance. This role shall be implemented by each individual administrative structure, by each public official and organization providing public services”, emphasized Rosen Zhelyazkov before the round table participants.