Digitalization of Public Administration Lags Behind.
According to an analysis by the comparison portal Verivox, reported by the Spiegel, the digitalization of public administration is making little progress. Seven years after the start of the project, only 101 of the 579 services required by the Online Access Act are fully available online. This is a mere 20 more than the previous year. 105 more services can be partially handled online, and 373 only analog.
The main problem, said Verivox expert Jörg Schamberg, is that the authorities have not developed uniform solutions based on standardized software. “Furthermore, there are significant gaps in the digital training of personnel.” The slow process is akin to a “surrender declaration.”
Among the already usable online services are applications for unemployment benefits, care benefits, or driver’s licenses. On the other hand, insolvency proceedings, entries in the land register, or services for people with disabilities are still completely offline. In total, more than 6,000 smaller bureaucratic tasks are bundled in the 579 services.
The “Personal ID” service, for example, is linked to 36 individual services. Citizens can already submit the application online. However, for the issuance and 30 other individual services, they still have to go to the office. No service has yet achieved the highest digitalization rate, where authorities are well networked and share data with each other.