Maryna Bahrova: State in a smartphone: what should be expected from a single e-services portal?
Maryna Bahrova, a member of the board of the International Union “Institute of National Policy”, notes that the issue of creating a single portal is long overdue, and the key advantages of the idea are primarily in the convenience of using public services.
“All services provided by the state, from obtaining a passport of a citizen to the reorganization of a legal entity, can be ordered through a single portal. Citizens will not need to puzzle over where and in what departments they need to run to get certain documents, which portals they need to use for all this. However, I would like to note that the presence of a single portal does not always lead to the improvement of the efficiency of public authorities and local self-government.”
But Maryna Bahrova is convinced that government agencies will slow down the changes, resisting the transition to electronic mode.
“State agencies in Ukraine will resist the unification of information on the provision of electronic public services in one portal. Just look at the resistance of the officials against the merger of the databases of the customs and border guard services into a single base.”
Text by Dmytro Zhuravel