Bulgarians Slow to Take Up eGovernment

Microsoft helps government fight corruption, but the price is high
[by our correspondent in Sofia, Peter Panyatov]
Article published in britishpublishers.com /eStrategies , June 2004

The driving force behind eGov in Bulgaria is not the agreement the government signed with the European Union, but rather the belief that the project will help in the fight against corruption and bureaucracy. All preceding governments have failed in achieving significant improvements in the level of corruption and any positive development in this direction will receive a warm welcome from the people in the context of upcoming elections.
According to he minister of state administration Dimitar Kalchev Dimitar Kalchev, by 2005 Bulgarians will benefit from more than 20 electronic services ranging from change of address to participation in elections.
The databases of the municipal, regional, and state administration will be integrated into one mega-database, facilitating communication between all the state organizations.
For now, Bulgarian eGovernment offers four basic services to citizens and legal entities. Citizens can obtain information about their social-security status and inquire about the legal status of all the entities operating in the country. Companies can only check their dues to the social security funds.
The eGovernment will soon add few more services that will facilitate the submission of tax and statistical forms.
But the first reactions to the programme were far from positive. Only one company was licensed to issue electronic certificates (eSignatures) to the public. Obtaining such a certificate currently costs a bit more than 60 euro. In a country where the average monthly salary hardly exceeds 200 euro, spending 60 euro on an e-signature is considered a major investment by citizens and businesses alike.
The first 20,000 early adopters are reportedly unsatisfied with the value they receive for the money. The number of users is expanding at a very low pace, despite the recent countrywide eGovernment advertising campaign.
And the eSignature fee is not the only obstacle to the popularization of the initiative. More than 50 percent of the Bulgarian population does not have access to the Internet or is computer-illiterate. The majority of those people are retired, workers, and unemployed – all social groups that heavily interact with the state administration. A similar issue arises for the other important eGovernment target group – corporate users. Only a small percentage of the SME are technologically ready to exchange information with the state administration online.
The eGovernment plans date back to 2001, when Bulgaria signed an agreement with the European Union to develop a user-friendly administration. The agreement calls for delivery of services to residents and businesses in an efficient and easily accessible way. The proper function is to be supported by the development of transparent organizational, communication and informational environment that is in line with the best practices of the European Union.
The responsibility to develop and implement the eGovernment technology was given to Microsoft. The company tried hard to win this project by series of charity initiatives. It has been donating software and computers to local schools for the past few years. Government officials received free of charge notebooks with localized software installed on them. Bill Gates himself paid a visit to the country a couple of years ago.
The eGovernment project itself is very sound and the state seems to be committed to putting it into practice. The government secured financing mostly from the state budget. Just a small part of the funds come from several EU pre-accession programs. Last year the parliament gave its contribution to the project by passing the long expected eSignature law.
The programme is being run by the Coordination Center for Information, Communication and Management Technologies (www.ccit.government.bg).
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