What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Citizens and the economy face high costs of providing services and often complicated procedures in exercising their rights and fulfilling their obligations to public administration bodies, as well as problems in finding all the information needed to perform certain procedures smoothly, leading to less legal safety through poor predictability of business conditions, insufficient information about changes, and high administrative costs of business, which especially affects the economy.

What is the commitment? Improving the quality of public service delivery is a multi-year reform process that takes place, among other things, through the simplification of administrative procedures (the elimination of redundancy and the simplification of other administrative procedures), as well as the establishment of a single public register of administrative procedures and other business conditions (hereinafter: Register) with a portal that provides all the necessary information.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The register will be a publicly available electronic database of all administrative procedures and other business conditions conducted by public administration bodies and organizations. Business entities and citizens will receive all the necessary information for the implementation of a specific procedure in one place through the Register Portal: whether there is a form for submitting a request (to download it); to which the request is submitted and whether there is a possibility to submit it electronically; what other documentation is needed, in what form and whether it is necessary to finish something beforehand (notarization, etc.); what are the financial expenses (fees, charges, etc.); what is the deadline for resolving the request; the time of validity of the issued act and the envisioned right to appeal. Such publicly available information will save the resources of economic entities and enable them to dedicate more time to performing their own activities. It will provide legal safety for citizens and certitude in proceedings before public administration branches. The simplification of procedures will lead to a reduction of the administrative burden, by removing obstacles to the simple fulfillment of the obligations of economic entities and citizens. In the previous period, efforts were focused on the list of 2,600 procedures related to economic entities, and their optimization and digitalization is currently underway. In the following period, the cycle count, optimization and digitalization of administrative procedures related to citizens will be conducted, and a publicly accessible register with a portal containing all the necessary information on the procedures conducted before public administration bodies and organizations will be established. 38

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The introduction of the register and portal will contribute to: increasing transparency in the conduct of public administration, reducing the possibility of abuse and corruption, raising the level of public accountability, public availability of all relevant information for action, as well as facilitating daily business operations and exercising citizens' rights and obligations.

Additional information The commitment is recognized as one of the Government’s main priorities, and is defined in numerous public policy documents: Program for simplification of administrative procedures and regulations "ePapir" for 2019-2021; eGovernment development program for 2020-2022; Public Administration Reform Strategy in the Republic of Serbia for 2021-2030 (under preparation).

Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date: End date: 1. Adoption of laws and bylaws for the establishment of the Register In progress I quarter of 2021. 2. Adoption of bylaws for the establishment of the Register In progress II quarter of 2021 3. List of administrative procedures for citizens II quarter of 2021 IV quarter of 2022 4. Collecting economic and citizens’ initiatives that should be changed, improving or abolishing procedures or ineffective regulations In progress It is carried out continuously

Action Plan Review

Commitment 6: Digitizing Administrative Procedures using E-Paper Portal

Results Report

Commitment 6. Establish a single public register of administrative procedures and a single platform with all information on procedures / services – ePAPER

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

● Completion: Substantial

● Did it open government? Major

Commitment 6: Establish a single public register of administrative procedures and a single platform with all information on procedures / services – ePAPER (Public Policy Secretariat)

Context and Objectives:

Under this commitment, the Public Policy Secretariat (PPS) aimed to establish a single public register of administrative procedures and other business requirements, along with a portal with all necessary information on administrative procedures (“ePaper”). The goals of this commitment included simplifying and (if necessary) abolishing administrative procedures. The government recognized this commitment as a priority in several policy documents, including the program for simplification of administrative procedures and regulations “ePaper” for 2019-2021, the eGovernment development program for 2020-2022, and the Public Administration Reform Strategy in the Republic of Serbia for 2021-2030.

Serbia continued this commitment from the past two action plans (2016-2018 [13] and 2018-2020 [14]). During the 2016-2018 action plan, the PPS inventoried state-level administrative procedures and launched an online portal to collect inputs from citizens and businesses on administrative simplification, resulting in three procedures abolished. The 2018-2020 action plan resulted in an additional four procedures abolished, 133 simplified, and 27 moved online. However, by the end of that action plan, the register was not created because the relevant law was not adopted.

Did It Open Government? Major

The commitment saw substantial implementation. The PPS facilitated the adoption of the law for establishing the register, [15] and the additional bylaws were adopted in July 2022. [16] The PPS has, as of March 2023, listed over 3240 administrative procedures for digitalization on the registry, with the majority available on the ePaper portal (either completely or partly), and some of them being simplified. [17] According to the PPS, ePaper contains more than 2588 government-to-business (G2B) and government-citizen (G2C) services within the competency of 101 public institutions. All information can be searched by four filters: key work, institution, field of activity or business episodes. [18] Work on listing administrative procedures for digitizing and simplification is ongoing, but there has been substantial progress. In addition, the collection of initiatives by citizens and businesses for change, improvement, and abolishment of procedures, is ongoing. The PPS is collecting initiatives through its website and through the register. So far, only one initiative has been submitted. [19]

This commitment has opened government in a major way, as citizens and businesses can now do many administrative procedures online, and some partially online. As a result of this commitment, 21 procedures have already been abolished, 393 simplified, 64 services of public administration have been digitalized. [20] This represents a significant increase compared to the achievements from the previous action plan. An example of an abolished procedure is the M4 application form to register employees, which employers previously submitted to the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund annually. After the termination of this procedure, the Fund registration automatically registers employees by gathering data ex officio from tax declarations. The same is true for the so-called MUN form, which was used to register employees outside of typical employment relationships (e.g., temporary work contracts) monthly. The abolition of these two procedures saved EUR 27 million for businesses. [21]

All administrative procedures are now listed in one register, which has made it considerably easier to find information compared to the state of play after the previous action plan. Currently, over 2588 government-to-business (G2B) and government-to-citizen (G2C) services are available on the register from 101 public institutions. [22] The register offers businesses and citizens a one-stop shop for administrative procedures from different agencies, commissions, directorates, ministries, public enterprises, state and provincial bodies, and joint-stock companies where the state has a share in ownership. [23] Users can search procedures by categories, key words, activity, and “business episodes.” [24] There has been significant progress in inventorying procedures of relevance for citizens. From early 2023, citizens can also access information on administrative procedures through ePaper. [25] The register is a game changer as no similar solution for citizens to navigate the administrative procedures of state bodies online existed before in Serbia. CSOs have noted the success of this commitment as well, confirming its effect on opening the government. [26] This commitment won second place in Europe in the OGP Global Impact Award as the reform with highest influence on citizens and businesses. [27]

Looking Ahead:

Although this commitment continued work from previous action plans, it was expanded to establish a single public register of administrative procedures and a single platform. It has made administrative procedures for citizens and businesses more transparent, user friendly and easily accessible, and there is substantial potential for long-term outcomes. The PPS will likely continue this initiative in the upcoming fifth action plan with the aim to expand ePaper to local self-government units and compiling the inventory of administrative requests. [28] The PPS could first expand ePaper to a few pilot local self-government units before encouraging its uptake by more units.

Annex I. Commitment Data

[13] Open Government Partnership, Serbia, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/serbia/commitments/RS0027/

[14] Open Government Partnership, Serbia, ePaper, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/serbia/commitments/RS0036/

[15] Law on the Register of Administrative Procedures, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, (44/2021-9), http://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/skupstina/zakon/2021/44/6/reg

[16] Regulation on management, functioning and determination of data entered in the Register of Administrative Procedures, Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, (84/2022-3), https://www.pravno-informacioni-sistem.rs/SlGlasnikPortal/eli/rep/sgrs/vlada/uredba/2022/84/1/reg

[17] Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia representatives, interview by the IRM, 13 October 2022.

[18] Information provided to the IRM by the PPS during the pre-publication review of this report, 24 April 2023. See https://rap.euprava.gov.rs/privreda/home

[19] Serbia End-of-Term Self-Assessment Draft Report 2020-2022, https://ekonsultacije.gov.rs/ogpPage/1. According to the PPS, in 2022, 12 pieces of inefficient legislation were submitted for amendment via these channels and processed by the PPS and competent public authorities (information provided to the IRM by the PPS during the pre-publication review of this report, 24 April 2023).

[20] Data shared by the representative of the Public Policy Secretariat, correspondence with the IRM, 30 January 2023. According to the PPS, the data will be publicly available in early May 2023 on its website.

[21] Data shared by the representative of the Public Policy Secretariat, correspondence with the IRM, 30 January 2023.

[22] See also https://rap.euprava.gov.rs/privreda/home

[23] See also https://rap.euprava.gov.rs/privreda/home

[24] A business episode represents a complete business cycle for business entities, such as starting a business, and it includes all the steps and procedures that a business entity should take to be able to perform a certain activity.

[25] Serbia End-of-Term Self-Assessment Draft Report 2020-2022, https://ekonsultacije.gov.rs/ogpPage/1

[26] Argument representatives, interview by the IRM, 15 November 2022. Representatives of AEPA, contacted regarding this matter on 27 March 2023, agreed with the IRM’s assessment.

[27] Open Government Partnership, Open Government Awards 2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/open-government-awards/

[28] Serbia End-of-Term Self-Assessment Draft Report 2020-2022, https://ekonsultacije.gov.rs/ogpPage/1