The introduction of the famous electronic government has been discussed for years, and it continues to swallow new millions. Although there is no visible effect on citizens and businesses, administrations and municipalities already absorbed more than 100 million levs under the operational program Administrative Capacity. But apparently this is not enough, because a new solid amount has added another 1.7 million levs to it. The sum will go to maintain the system of e-governance and upgrading of some of the key registers needed for the electronic exchange of data and information. Ministry of Transport and Communications has announced a competition for a firm to do these tasks. However, if the department is satisfied with the performance of the company, it will pay the same contractor 5 million levs more for additional activities.
As often happens in Bulgaria, at the implementation of otherwise good intentions, the state always misses some important details to then have an excuse for adding additional costs. So it is in the present case – the tender documents show an aim to ensure the performance and management of the configurations already existing as well as improve what has already been built. In general, the issue of maintenance and exploitation of the infrastructure for e-government has been left somewhat in the background. Still there is no official strategy or plan to address this problem that can lead to significant costs when all systems are ready. In recent years, the administration has been investing colossal amounts into the creation of new platforms and the upgrade of existing modules, but they can not communicate with each other. Therefore, the transport ministry resorted to yet another upgrade as the latest IT trends require. The latter however are developing very quickly and possibly by the actual introduction of the new e-services, they will again have been outdated.
Against the said 1.7 million levs, and within a year, the contractor is committed to maintaining the single point of access to e-services and the environment for the exchange of documents. It should also provide operational support for e-government records which are crucial to the functioning of the entire system. The Contractor will be responsible for the functioning of the site www.egov.bg.
Along with these duties, the selected company will be expected to ensure the normal operation of hardware and communication between the Technical Control Centre eGovernment Boyana and eGovernment Technical Centre Euxinograd. These are the two hardware centres, whose construction began during the Cabinet of the tripartite coalition and were completed at the beginning of the mandate of GERB.
Despite the intentions of the former rulers web service already to be a fact, real progress has so far been seen only in the capital. There a platform for the provision of 50 services has already been built, although they are not yet implemented in the municipal administration. The first five of them – including the online issue of civil status documents, certificate of marital status and birth certificate, were supposed to go public in June, but still are not functioning. Now nobody commits to mention new deadlines.
The two other major projects started during the Cabinet of GERB are also in the middle of nowhere. Against the earmarked 12 million levs the country was supposed to already have a record of electronic identity of citizens. This is part of the improvement strategy of the national portal for e-governance, which provides more than 200 services for small and medium businesses, building on a single environment for the exchange of electronic documents and issuing the first 5 thousand electronic cards. Another 18 million levs went to the development of administrative services via electronic means, and in particular for the implementation of priority services for the central government, such as filing a tax return over the Internet and connecting the individual registers between sources.
The BANKER
