Public Policy Proposal:

The Complete Development and Integration of an

e-Governance system in the Romanian Public Sector
Șerban N. SIMION
Consultancy, Design and Evaluation of Programmes for the Public Sector
12/2/14
Public Sector Management Șerban N. SIMION SNSPA

It is imperative for the state to take care of its citizens in a democracy. A modern and
European Union member as Romania, who aims to prove the effects of europeanization, steady
development and show Europe a story of success in public administration reform.
The interactions between citizens and state entities are plentiful and varied and even though
the public administration is trying its best to meet the demand of the public in terms of
performance, the cluttered and overwhelmingly bureaucratized operations pose the great challenge
that it’s high time the public sector lives up to in Romania.

The status quo

It is a known fact that the state keeps track of citizens’ activity through public records. To
better portray we will take into account the main documents that an individual uses in daily civil
life. From the beginning of life, at birth they issue this such record, a birth certificate that certifies
the individual as part of a society, a subject of a government’s authority and his obligations as a
citizens to abide by the law. Later on, as time passes and life goes through certain stages another
document is added to the record, from medical certificate and healthcare records to insurance. Of
course, insurance is part of the same file of the individual. Education is not to be taken amiss, or
perhaps a passport is needed to travel, and you need also the criminal record, driving license, bank
account, labor, taxes, phone number, contacts and affiliations, basically everything that you could
possibly imagine, as the entanglement of connections sketch a web of knowledge.
However, as an individual, in order to progress in your norm regulated life you need to take
care to inform the public entities of your activity in order to level up you life’s game. May be it
waiting for a diploma to be issued in order to move it to another entity, as in education. It does not
matter. What actually matters is that the state has failed to optimize its processes through a
normative framework that enables a unified system of information that are digitally stored securely
and offered to citizens to have access to all information and interact with the entities in the same
platform.
In order to get some public records, that of course you need to do something else and then
something else in a bureaucratic loop that leads to large waste of resources, especially time, for all
the waiting in queues and moving documents from one place to another and so on, a double impact
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in both ecological point of view as waste paper needed to print the documents and also pecuniary,
as you have to pay to print the documents, stamps and approvals, photos and the lot.
On the other side of the coin, the state misses out a lot from letting this slip. They waste a
lot of human resources, while they could actually create modern jobs for a performing
administrative process, with better optimized workflows covered by modern solutions that have
already been used for a while in the private sector and in the public sector more recently in the
public sector of modern democracies from the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, but also
important examples from outer-Europe, such as the United States of America and the BRICS
countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and other G8 countries.
They also waste a lot of paper, reflecting in the ecological impact and also space and money
to pay for storage. All this could be handled with a different approach to public administration,
with private management principles applied in the public sector and of course, everything does not
end here.
Perhaps the worst part of all and the source behind all these time-consuming processes is
given to the fact that data fragmentation is inevitable, as public entities do not use the same
software nor the same workflows to deal with civil interactions. Such a situation may make it more
difficult to access certain files, given the different approaches to managing data and could escalate
in more serious errors, usually human, as physical records have to be managed, sorted and archived
manually by civil servants. Missing files and incorrect completion of documents are just a few
instances of what happens without proper digital assistance.
By this point it is safe to say that data fragmentation poses a threat to the integrity of data
and burdens the citizens’ access to their personal information, which leads to mistrust in public
affairs, given the fact that transparency is only part of the bigger picture.
On top of that, there is also another effect that this problem has and it affects both the
citizens and the civil servants involved in front-desk operations, as frustration peaks for individual
that need to obtain certain documents, a stress level is transferred to the civil servant and from this
point on is to be kept in a vicious spiral of stress transfer, from one citizen to the other to the civil
servant and then for it to reach new heights in another individual.
Even though a lot of relief was given to public entities to conform to standards in terms of
computer driving, technology has put its mark on the bureaucratic process but somehow the public
manager forgot to adapt and update the system. It is high time modern management techniques
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and tools are used more often to manage state-individual relations and therefore put its mark on
improving public administration.
The policy for public administration reform will enable public entities to optimize their
workflows and become an efficient and performing service through a less bureaucratically
cluttered process and a platform through a CRM and ERP platform that has data and document
management capabilities and even allows for e-payment of taxes and is integrated with digital
signatures. Such a solution enables state entities to have a coherent overview of the citizens’
records in a safe, organized manner that is proportional to the needs of the entity while carrying
out daily operations.
On the civil side of things, the citizens will appreciate the transparency, which will lead to
enhanced trust in public affairs, enhanced civil participation, enhanced reliability of the
information, as notices and announcements can be delivered through the platform, reduced
bureaucracy and plenty of precious time saved.
At the same time, the state can save a lot of resources while being an advocate for
development, by creating real and modern jobs in the public sector for younger generations that
perhaps are already familiar with the technology and ensuring full and immediate access to all
records of the individual fast and from the comfort of the citizen’s home, on a pc or portable device.
Of course, beyond the legal framework that needs to adapt in order for such a solution to be
according to law, such a solution will have a lot of implications on public affairs and how thing
are done in public administration for the time being. Approvals will only take 1 second and
electronically sending a document takes far less than working with physical documents.
All in all, it is amazing how such a simple thing such as stopping fragmentation and
ensuring a modern e-governance platform could touch so many aspects of both civil life and public
administration processes contributing in many aspects to improving the citizen’s experience in
viewing, analyzing and dealing with state entities as all interactions between these actors require
and would benefit immensely from an upgrade.
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The Public Policy Proposal

1. The originator/ the Ministerul Afacerilor Interne (Ministry of Internal Affairs) +

initiating institution Ministerul pentru Societatea Informationala (Ministry for the
Informational Society)
2. Formulation of the The problem could be identified as the lack of a unified, coherent
problem database comprising of data which translate to personal records of
individuals, as well as an overwhelmingly cluttered workflow in
public administration and modest if lacking individual – state
interaction in the digital world.

The problem itself is not unidimensional, as it ripples effects both

for the public sector and society as well.

Negative externalities are:

 Waste – resources (time, human, funds, space, et al);

 Costs;
 Stress;
 Public entities face obstacles that prevents them from being
efficient or from achieving their goals.

On the citizen side we can see that given the fact that in order to
access his personal documents the citizen goes through a series of
inefficient and hampered processes of public administration, the
same negative externalities apply snowballing in distrust in public
affairs.

On the public sector side we find that fragmentation is perhaps the

most dangerous, if we are to leave aside an inefficient administrative
process with unclear or overwhelmingly bureaucratic workflows that
all add up in poor civil service and bad management of public
affairs.

3. Title of policy The Complete Development and Integration of an e-Governance

system in the Romanian Public Sector
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Public Sector Management Șerban N. SIMION SNSPA

4. Purpose Creating a complete system of e-Governance which will lead to

effects such as consolidated civil records, eased access to
information, enhanced transparency, the elimination of the above
negative externalities, creating new jobs for the public sector and
better public affairs management and better civil service.
5. General objectives /  Optimizing public administration workflows and activity to
specific objectives efficiency,
 Keeping the integrity of sensitive information consisting of
personal records of individuals
 Providing citizens with a platform that enhances transparency
and trust in public affairs.
6. Beneficiares  Public entities
 Citizens
 Indirect beneficiaries: Hardware and Software IT providers, other
stakeholders such as insurance companies, banks, etc.
7. Options to solve Option 1: Unisphere Economical Impact Estimated
Unisphere is a complex Expenses in terms of budget
platform that unifies all investment from the state’s
databases of public national budge – as 10 000 000
entities that keep distributed according to the €
records on citizens and principles of law to each
offers the citizen the public entity’s budget that
ability to view their interacts with the platform
personal information at proportionally; for
all times, based on creating, managing and
permissions and fees, administering the platform,
that include approvals as well as costs for the
from the entities implementation of
themselves, creating a Unisphere.
performant e-
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government tool, and Economic benefits consist

the epitome of e-gov of elimination of the
itself, taking modern already mentioned
bureaucracy in the agile negative externalities,
digital age. reduced costs for the
On the State side, they bureaucratic processes
have full CRM and ERP needed to obtain personal
capabilities, together information, reduced costs
with data and document for storage and regulating
solutions and cloud the labor market, by
computing, with the creating modern jobs in the
potential of public sector.
implementing AI Social Impact
assistants that can Enhanced transparency and
gradually take over the trust in the public sector,
simple front end enhanced civil satisfaction
operations. by saving time by
It will also create eliminating most front-end
hundreds if not interactions.
thousands of new jobs Ecological impact
throughout Reduced dependency on
implementation and paper for documents,
forms, et al.
afterwards
operationally, modern
jobs adapted to the
times we are living.

Option 2 Economical Impact Estimated

Each public entity to The economic impact will budget
provide unique access to be reflected in the expense
of developing distinct
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personal information platforms for accessing the 15 000 000

through a profile account. specific documents and €
ensuring log-in access to
users.

Social Impact
Trust in public affairs
enhanced, at the expense of
data fragmentation and
confusion in terms of log-
in credentials.
8. The consultation Organizations / Outcome of the consultation
process institutions to be  Creating a special module for the
consulted indirect stakeholders
 Representatives of  Stimulating the labor market by
the central and local creating modern positions in the
public public sector;
administration
 Stimulating the hardware and
 Representatives of software in the private sector;
state-owned
 Agreements with electricity
companies
distributors to not charge a high price.
 Representatives of
 Extending the same principles to the
the civil society
private sector, providing a coherent
 Representatives of and similar experience to enterprises
the private sector as well.
 Representatives of
indirect stakeholders
(banks, insurance
companies)
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Public Sector Management Șerban N. SIMION SNSPA

Presentation Terms expected to Estimated

Recommended option
Advantages be achieved budget
Option 1
Unisphere can help the
public sector through  48 months for  10 000 000 €
technology by enabling implementing the
public entities to use solution and  5 000 000 € to
modern solutions to continuously ensure the
optimize their processes populating the infrastructure
through digital data database necessary;
management, document
management, CRM and  2015-2017:  2 000 000 € to
ERP solutions, while at Creating the built and to
the same time platform, opperate the
enhancing transparency implementing it, system
and offering citizens a creating the
powerful tool that CRM and ERP  1 000 000 € to
enables them to interact module and manage the
with public entities in adapting it to the system
the cyberspace and from needs of entities,
the comfort of their own training the civil  1 500 000 € to
houses or on portable servants and train and
devices. migrating the market the

Disadvantages data in the new system to the

Security is a serious platform, starting citizens.
concern, but to diminish the transition to
the chances of Unisphere  500 000 € to
train the civil
occurrence the latest  2017-2018:
and most advanced servants.
making the
standards of security platform
will be implemented. available to
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Ways and terms of citizens and

monitoring / promoting its use
evaluation  2018-2019:
Monitoring –
Extending
continuous during the
Unisphere to
creation and after the
third parties and
implementation of the
developing the
system in all entities
module for
that work with
private sector
Unispehere, and
entities,
periodically as an
 Migrating data
electronic survey to all
and launching the
users in order to
module
improve the platform
 Completion of
and the service.
the project:
Performance as all public
Indicators
records will
 Daily task completion
rate of civil servants switch to
 Usage of the platform Unisphere.
 Operational costs –
even though the initial
investment is high, it
is easy amortized in
time.
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