A Government decision on October 28 revived the importance of providing e-government services into Bulgaria’s business. This was accompanied by a response from one branch association demanding urgent action.

The new Government long ago described itself as business-savvy. On October 28 it set out to prove its credentials by aiming to expedite work on introducing e-government services.

The Cabinet decided to prepare a draft bill called the law on activities related to providing services. This is designed to establish and regulate "one contact point" between service providers and the state administration. Hopefully, the role of this "one contact point" body will be fulfilled by the e-government’s national portal for providing administrative services to people and business as regulated by the Electronic Government Act.

The aim is for service providers to extract all the information they need pertaining to administrative services so that clients can be catered to as quickly as possible. For example, public registers will be administered through the portal where people can apply for permits or other services, so decreasing the burden on administration, improving its efficiency and, most of all, restricting opportunities for corruption.

Legally, the Government’s decision was essential because it undertakes the first steps required to build e-government services. It stemmed from the restructuring Prime Minister Boiko Borissov undertook when he took office in July and shut down the autonomous State Agency for Information Technology and Communication (SAITC) and replaced it with the executive agency Electronic Communication Networks and Information Systems which operated under the wing of the Transport, IT and Communications Ministry. The latter is the body that will administer the e-government portal too. The idea was to have one body working on the issue with a centralised approach. 

The new Government will have to follow through its decisions and turn them into reality. The previous administration’s record shows that this is far from easy. Despite the fact that e-government was a pet issue of former state administration minister Nikolai Vassilev, its implementation did not go much further than the inauguration of the e-government website egov.bg in October 2007.

Two years later, the website provides information on a wide number of administrative services but, unfortunately, it only offers information on how the process works, where to apply and how long you will be expected to wait - in effect a compilation of regulations but nowhere close to the online service implied by e-government. 

The Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) held a news conference on November 2 calling for action to launch the e-government service. According to the BIA, it was a major step in helping Bulgaria get through the economic crisis because it could save 10 per cent of public costs, which, in 2009, is expected to total 1.4 billion leva. E-government, BIA said, would also ensure transparency of public tender procedures and reduce corruption as well as stimulate people to use online administration services.

These are currently used by just six per cent of Bulgarians, fewer than in Romania and Macedonia. The cost of e-government throughout (which could happen within two years) could cost several hundred million leva, the BIA said. This would come from European Union funding programmes and public-private partnerships.