site.btaOutgoing Government Proposes Significant Changes to e-Government Act

At an extraordinary meeting on Monday, the outgoing government adopted a bill introducing changes to the Electronic Government Act, the press service of the Council of Ministers said. The proposed changes address key issues of paramount importance for the introduction of real e-governance. The amendments are aimed at facilitating citizens and businesses, which will significantly reduce the administrative burden and speed up the services that the state and municipalities are obliged to provide by law.

There are several main proposals. Electronic services will be available without a qualified electronic signature to individuals, it will be sufficient to present electronic identification with an appropriate level of security and fill in an online form.

The certificates that the administration requires from citizens are abolished. The necessary information will be collected ex officio. Municipalities will be compensated by having the revenue from the dropped certificates refunded to them proportionally from the central budget.

If consent is given, the secure electronic delivery system will allow electronic delivery of acts, tickets and penalty notices. To this end, an amendment to the Administrative Violations and Sanctions Act is proposed, which regulates the procedure for the service of a slip, an electronic slip, an administrative offence certificate drawn up in the absence of the offender, or a penalty notice.

The requirement is removed to present any paper documents and other physical media to prove details of persons or objects that are entered in a register.

Fees for administrative services will be reduced when they are provided electronically. The institution of the intermediary in the provision of administrative services shall be regulated. This will make it easier for people who do not use information technology to request an administrative service without having to travel to a larger location. Such intermediaries could be Bulgarian Posts, libraries and anyone who has offices close to citizens.

The full computerisation of administrative processes is made possible by the inclusion of additional persons as primary administrators. An obligation to provide information ex officio about entities outside the public administration involved in administrative services will be introduced.

The amendments also introduce an obligation to keep records electronically, including through a centralised records management system. If adopted by the National Assembly, the norm will enter into force in a year and a half, by which time the system should be ready and the data migrated to it.