Estonia is formally switching over to modern ways of administrative procedure which will result in public e-services that will predominantly function invisibly - in other words, once only or completely automatically. The Estonian Government approved a ground principle today, that requires public institutions to create data-based compound services such as pre-filled income declarations or health insurance that is given to newborns automatically.
Estonia is amongst the first countries to give up on paper files and is replacing the state’s interaction with the citizen and the entrepreneur with smart services. „In Estonia we are in the process of real transformation where the old ways of doing things is replaced with a modern approach“, said the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, Urve Palo.
„During the last five years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has carried out studies and pilot projects, put together guides, trained and notified public authorities. However, these soft measures have not been enough to achieve a higher quality of public services and a noticeable increase in the effectiveness of these authorities“, the minister commented.
„Services such as buying and selling a car, changing a driver’s license and declaring income already function almost automatically. However, starting a business, having a child or changing your name after getting married still requires a person to turn to various authorities separately. These events in a person’s life can be tied together into one invisibly functioning unit, making it easier for the citizens and entrepreneurs to interact with the state, as things will be solved automatically or with maximum one contact“, the minister explained. „The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications will be the driving force for change and cooperation between the various authorities“, she added.
The level of service provision differs between authorities, the opportunities of state information systems are not used enough and there is still a lot of bureaucracy that could be solved with IT solutions. Therefore, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications has put together a regulation, approved at today’s Government hearing, which puts in place the principles of service management and information governance that will become compulsory to follow.
The “Principles of Service Management and Information Governance” regulation puts in place the principles of provision, development and quality of direct public services. The regulation focuses especially on services where there is an interaction between the citizen or entrepreneur and the state – applications, reports, notices etc. Authorities are required to use the existing information about the person or the entrepreneur to create services that function automatically based on the existing data.
/25.05.2017/