Some Reflections Concerning the Digitalization of Public Administration in Romania

Abstract

The digitalization of public administration is a prominent issue for governments worldwide. there several benefits of this approach, ranging from the improvement of the state-citizen relationship to the low financial implications of the digitalization process. in this issue we summarize several considerations on the developments of the public administration framework of Romania, but especially, a few assessment benchmarks needed to achieve digitalization and an effective public service.

Headnote

Abstract: The digitalization of public administration is a prominent issue for governments worldwide. there several benefits of this approach, ranging from the improvement of the state-citizen relationship to the low financial implications of the digitalization process. in this issue we summarize several considerations on the developments of the public administration framework of Romania, but especially, a few assessment benchmarks needed to achieve digitalization and an effective public service.

Keywords: public administration, public services, digitalization

Introduction

In a reductive approach, public administration can be summarized in theory as citizen-state interaction and the method by which this interaction is achieved. The needs of citizens to interact and work with the state and the ways in which the state serves citizens, have shaped the whole spectrum of public administration.

The development of public administration services has been determined by several important issues that have impacted on the availability and subsequent quality of services. Among the most significant of these factors are historical factors, economic factors, the influence of various interest groups, institutional and organizational development and hierarchy, decentralization and, finally, freedom of decision.

1. The Historical Framework of the Public Administration Services Growth in Romania

Socially and historically, over the last 30 years, Romania has reached several phases in the reform and modernization of public administration. These phases have appeared and developed according to the socio-political and economic progress that has brought about a strong administrative infrastructure. A description of the development path of public administration in Romania, avoiding a deep sociological analysis, could be gathered in 4 main milestones.

First stage, between 1989 and the early 2000s, was the initial stage in which profound social changes took place, involving a significant change in the relationship between the citizen and the state through the public administration and the services it offered. At this point, the picture is dominated on the one hand by the inaction of the administration in reforming and renewing itself, a scenario based on two assumptions: significant structural transformations in society gave arise to new services, but the protagonists of the administrative structure - public service workers - found it difficult to adapt to the new demands and to adjust to the changes, and, on the other hand there has not been a clear pattern of administrative reform. For these considerations, the citizen-state relationship continues to be a difficult one, marked by a lack of trust, with many uncertainties that make it more difficult.

The second stage - covering the years 2000 to 2006 - is known as the pre-accession to the European Union. This phase is distinguished by two significant characteristics: the dynamism and mobility of Romanian citizens, which has brought them into contact with public administration services in other countries, most of which are members of the European Union, thus the public's requirements and demands on the public administration have significantly changed, and on the other side the central and local public administration has been in direct contacts through projects and pre-accession grants with public services in other EU member countries. This direct experience has helped both to identify a model for the future development of administration and services and to establish minimum standards for the operation of these services, which has led to considerable improvements in public administration. In other terms, in the pre-accession period, Romania, including its public administration, has been forced to reform itself in such a manner as to guarantee the quality standards required by EU membership, and to create and reform a range of administrative services to match those of the EU.

The third phase may cover the years 2007-2020. Romania is now a member of the European Union, and a significant proportion of its public services are already formally aligned with those of the other Member States, providing a corresponding benchmark for action. During this period, there has been a strengthening of the public services delivered by central and local authorities. The staff in public institutions benefits from more learning and training opportunities - further education and training in the field in which they work, and they are more specialized in various services that provide a broader framework for the relationship between citizens and the state. It has been a time of upward and strengthening evolution in public administration, following the strong climb of the previous period. At the meantime, innovative public agenda reforms are being attempted at both European and national level, and new topics are also being introduced, such as the digitization of public services and e-government, which are intended to acquaint the public, both public administration staff and ordinary citizens, who benefit from direct contact with public services, with these new trends. Also, considering citizens' experience, the paradigm is changing regarding public administration. Whereas in the preceding phases the state's main emphasis was on the creation and development of different public services and the minimum standards for their functioning, with public institutions mainly intended to "provide" services and products for citizens, in this phase the social demands on public administration are increasingly focused on "satisfying" the requirements and demands of citizens at a higher level. [1] This means that the manner in how the administrative act is performed has a significant influence on citizens, and it becomes more important the method by which these services are delivered, their efficiency and the way in enabling equal access to public services for all citizens.

The final phase can be considered to have begun in 2020 and goes up to the present time, being a period characterized by other deep societal transformations, which have brought the steady upward evolution of public services from the previous phase to a sudden end with a fulminating ascension of a new framework for the functioning of public administration. The coronavirus pandemic, for example, has triggered a rapid growth in the digitization of administration, with citizen-state interaction undergoing a major shift from a direct relationship to one brokered by technology. The grand expectations of citizens remained but adjusted to the new social context. So, in this period it is the availability of services that counts, but the public is also interested in how public administration can transfer the whole relationship process from direct to mediated interaction. Citizens are now concerned about if they can and how they are able to gain access to certain public services within a click of a mouse, in such a way that the waiting time for access and settlement is as short as reasonably possible, while respecting the health conditions required. Although we are currently observing a reduction in the social restrictions caused by the spread of the Sars-Cov2 virus, the new paradigm of working with public administration and citizens' access to public services is becoming digitalized. It is also necessary to mention that, although the issues of e-government have been introduced in the public agenda a long time earlier, Romania has made very small steps to achieve this goal and to reach the standards imposed by the European Commission's 2014-2020 Strategy on e-government and digitization, ranking the last place in the European Union in 2018 according to the DESI Report - Digital Economy and Society Composite Index. [2] The emergence of the compelling need to preserve the connection between citizen and state at a time when this bond has been disrupted for health security reasons has caused considerable developments in the citizen-state interaction through technology. Thus, the Authority for the Digitization of Romania was established, an institution responsible for implementing the digital strategy. The national legislation has also suffered major changes through a series of amendments and improvements, one of them being the emergence of Law 208 of 2021 for the approval of Government Emergency Ordinance No. 36/2021 on the use of advanced electronic signature or qualified electronic signature.[3]

2. Certain Benchmarks for Digitization

Romania's digitization priorities also include the development of digital identity, a concept that has already emerged on public agendas and for which challenging timelines have been proposed.

For the development of digitization and e-government platforms to respond to citizens' needs and to improve the quality of services provided by increasing institutional accountability, preventing allegations of fraud and discrimination, making verification work more efficient and effective, and ensuring better management of own time, regular assessments are needed, using a wide range of evaluation models. These assessment models have indicators covering everything from simple online institutional presence to state-citizen interface and integrated governance platforms. [4] There are governance arrangements that include both integrating all public services within e-government platforms and ensuring interoperability.

In assessing the state of development of e-government platforms, a series of parameters are defined for each indicator and a weighted average score is applied to measure the level of sophistication of e-government platforms. Within these scales the presence of interaction fields with the beneficiary of the digital service used is also monitored. [5] Of course, the evaluation models also consider the level of satisfaction of citizens accessing the digital platforms through indicators.

As previously pointed out, in international practice, the development of e-government platforms is assessed through a wide set of e-government benchmarks. The objective of such assessments is to highlight the state of development of national e-government platforms and thus to establish a ranking and hierarchy of countries in terms of their digital development. Some of the most important assessment indices include:

* The e-government index proposed by the United Nations and the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) which is based on 3 parameters:

* online presence of public authorities,

* telecommunications infrastructure, and

* degree of human resources development.

* The e-government index proposed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (e-Readiness Ranking), which uses the following indicators:

* quality of Internet connections,

* percentage of GDP spent on ICT,

* financial support for technology projects, and

* the number of Internet connections.[6]

Conclusions

Under the requirements of the European Digital Services Framework, all EU Member States must currently reach at least Level 3 (considered standard) for each digital service. Furthermore, it seems from the most recent data that the transactional level, also referred to as the fully electronic processing of the case, has recently become a standard for public online services.

The efforts to achieve effective e-government platforms are intended to achieve and implement measures to create the framework for ensuring interoperability at national level and increase the number of public services provided online; accelerate e-inclusion and e-participation processes; incorporate the latest software technologies into e-government platforms; encourage various categories of stakeholders to access e-government platforms and use online public services etc.

References

References

[1] Roboca M., H., Lazăr I., Lazăr P., S., Zagan-Zelter D., (2010) An exploratory analysis of the management capacity within the local public administration from Romania, in Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, Nr. 31E/ 2010, p. 133-146.

[2] National Strategy for Research, Innovation and Digital Specialization 2022-2027, https://www.research.gov.ro/uploads/comunicate/2022/strategia-na-ional-de-cercetare-inovare-i-specializareinteligent-2022-2027.pdf

[3] Law No 208 of 21 July 2021 approving Government Emergency Ordinance No 36/2021 concerning the use of advanced electronic signature or qualified electronic signature, accompanied by the electronic timestamp or qualified electronic timestamp and the qualified electronic seal of the employer in the field of work relations, and amending and supplementing some normative acts, https://legislatie.just.ro/ Public/ Details Document Afis/244843

[4] European Commission - Public Services Online, Digital by Default or by Detour? Assessing User Centric eGovernment performance in Europe - eGovernment Benchmark 2012, Digital Agenda for Europe, European Union 2013, http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-enabled-benefits-eu-society-analysis-and-data

[5] United Nations - E-government Survey 2012. E-government for the people, Economic and Social Affairs, United Nation, New York, 2012, web: www.unpan.org/e-gorvernment

[6] Hamilton M., R., (2000) The role of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in improving teaching and practice in Public Administration, Congreso Internacional del CLAD, Santo Domingo; https://www.academia.edu/865554/The_Role_ of_the_American_Society_for_Public_Administration_ASPA_In_Improving_Teaching_and_Practice_in_Pu blic_Administration

Supplementary recommended readings

Collins P.D., (2003) Public Administration Modernisation and Decentralization: a comparative and European Perspective, in Rosenbaum A. Gajdosova L. State modernization and decentralization - implications for education and training in public administration: selected central European and global perspective, United Nations

Common - Gheroghe I., (2011) The impact of EU accession on Public Administration in Romania: The Role of Strategic Policy Transfer, Paper prepared for 33rd Annual Conference EGPA, Bucharest

European Commission - Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, i2010 European Initiative for e-Inclusion: Participation in the Information Society, Brussels, 8.11.2007, COM(2007) web: ec.europa.eu/i2010_initiative/comm_native_com_ 2007_0694_f_ro_a

Digital Agenda for Romania, web: www.digitalagenda.ro

European Commission - Digital Agenda for Europe. A Europe 2020 Initiative web: http://ec.europa. eu/digitalagenda

European Commission - Measurement framework final version: e-Government economics project, Retrieved June vol. 20, 2009 web: http://www.epractice.eu/files/ media/media1299.pdf

European Commission - Public Services Online „Digital by Default or by Detour? Assessing User Centric eGovernment performance in Europe - eGovernment Benchmark 2012, Digital Agenda for Europe, European Union 2013. web: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-enabled-benefits-eu-society-analysis-and-data.

European Commission - Smarter, Faster, Better eGovernment, 8th Benchmark Measurement, 2009

United Nations - World public sector report 2003: e-Government at cross road, Global e-government survey, Retrieved July 10, 2003, web: http://unpan1.un.org/ intradoc/groups/pub lic/documents/un/unpan01273 3.pdf.

United Nations - E-government survey 2008: from e-government to connected governance, New York, 2008