Reduction of Administrative Burden and Simplification
Simplification projects
Project of one-stop-shops (contact points, called Czech POINT), introduced in 2007; at the initial phase, they provide general information concerning public administration and issue abstracts (print-outs) of 4 registers, namely from commercial register, register of entrepreneurs, criminal record and land registry. The one-stop-shops operate at all municipal and regional offices, many post offices and also abroad, mostly at embassies or Czech centres (e. g. in Berlin). In the future, these Czech POINTs should function as a complex communication platform between citizens (or the public in a wider sense) and public administration; currently, more than 2.500 one-stop-shops are in operation.
Procedural audits of agendas in public administration from the point of view of all 6 components of so-called “Hexagon” are being prepared (Hexagon is a symbol of effective public administration and comprises 6 vertices entitled CITIZEN, FINANCE, ORGANISATION, LEGISLATION, TECHNOLOGY and OFFICIAL); the audits will involve “process maps” showing how burdensome are particular agendas for all subjects of public administration; moreover, the audits should ascertain how effective, efficiently and successfully each of the components plays its role in the system of public administration. The results of these audits will be followed by an analysis and subsequent measures focused on improving of the operation, including cutting the red tape.
The current Government also pays increasing attention to development and a wider use of information and communication technologies that significantly facilitates reduction of administrative burdens, mainly by connection of central registers, electronised agendas (e-Health, e-Justice, e-Tax, e-Culture etc.), fully functioning contact points of public administration and faultless communication infrastructure; pursuing this objective, the Czech Government has worked out two legislative proposals. The first one is a draft of so-called E-Government Act (Act on Electronic Operations, Personal Numbers and Authorised Conversion of Documents) that should, inter alia, introduce electronic tools into the main procedure regulations, especially into Administrative Procedure Code and Civil Procedure Code. This proposal has already been submitted to the Parliament and is prepared for second reading. Secondly, Draft Act on Basic Registers of Public Administration has been finalized, which should facilitate an effective interconnection among the register of inhabitants, register of legal and natural persons, register of right and duties and register of addresses, territorial identification and real estates. This will enable state institutions to extract data directly from these registers without requiring them from citizens or businesses.