Electronic Governance is not an aim in itself, but a tool to a comprehensive reform to institutions and the underlying processes within them

The State e-Government Agency team had a meeting with President Rumen Radev

The electronic governance is a strategic priority to Bulgaria, whereas the digital transformation of the administration is an irreversible process, constituting a precondition to achieving efficiency, transparency and accountability of administrative structures to the best interest of public and the business. The e-governance does not simply mean digitizing the administrative processes, but calls for a comprehensive change of the model the administrative services are based on. This is what President Rumen Radev and the Chairperson of the State e-Government Agency (SEGA) Rossen Jeliazkov remarked upon during the working meeting at 2 “Dondukov” Blvd. in Sofia.

The Agency team and President Rumen Radev shared opinions in relation to the priorities, the objectives as well as the underlying activities and challenges to the development of the e-governance in Bulgaria. They touched on issues related to transformations regarding the certification process of internal administrative services, exercising control on the budget spending and the projects and activities of administrative bodies in the field of e-governance, as well as the activities in the field of network information security at national and European level.

“Electronic Governance is not an aim in itself, but a tool to a comprehensive reform to institutions and the underlying processes within them. It would be time and cost-saving to both the public and the business in using the administrative services, not acting as intermediaries between the individual administrative structures any more”, commented the Chairperson of SEGA, Rossen Jeliazkov. He emphasized, that standardization and shared resources of administrative bodies constitute key precondition to a comprehensive optimization of budget and resource spending in the field of information and communication technologies and e-governance.
“Introducing the digital services and e-governance should not be conceived of as something abstract. This is a deep-diving and a comprehensive topic, requiring considerable expertise, active participation and empathy to each and any institution and department on the territory of Bulgaria”, declared the Head of State, Rumen Radev, during the talks. The President expressed readiness to support each and any initiative, which might facilitate and speed up the process of digital transformation of the Bulgarian administration to the benefit of the public and the business.

Rumen Radev and Rossen Jeliazkov shared the view, that e-governance should constitute a priority not only to the State Agency alone, but to all institutions, whereas all administrative bodies should consistently work towards optimizing the use and supporting the ICT resources already available to them, including the information systems in all sectors, including their interoperability and standardization. During the discussion it was also emphasized that the automated data exchange among the information systems of individual administrations and the national electronic identification scheme should constitute the backbone to an efficient e-governance in Bulgaria.