With its aftermath digitization of transactions of citizens with the state be already visible, Minister of Public and Digital Governance Kyriakos Pierrakakis together with co-competent ministers seeks to move to the next “track” of the project. In other words, reduce the number of procedures required to complete a transaction in order to saving valuable resources. It is significant that approximately 1.2 billion transactions with Public conducted in 2022 in digital format, allowed every citizen to avoid 100 reciprocal visits. It is also estimated that more than 13,200 vehicle transfers made since July 14, 2022 through gov.gr entail savings of approximately 20 euros and two hours of travel and waiting time per transaction.

In order to further reduce bureaucracy, yesterday at a special event, Secretary General of Digital Governance and Process Simplification Leonidas Christopoulos introduced the platform www.diadikasies.gov.gr which is the product of a national policy of administrative procedures. It is intended to function as an information portal on actions taken to reduce bureaucracy, and through it citizens and businesses will be able to suggest procedures that they think should be simplified.

Through the platform www.diadikasies.gov.gr, citizens and businesses will be able to propose procedures that they think should be simplified.

For example, as it became known through the platform, 44 procedures are currently being simplified, such as the issuance of special operational signals and the location of tourist ports. For some, such as the creation of an individual enterprise, which is possible through it app atomiki.gov.gr, simplification completed. As Mr. Pierrakakis noted yesterday, it took more than five visits to set up the individual business, including to EFKA and GEMI.

“You had to go through a series of stalls to get certain certifications in order to be able to start a sole proprietorship. Five visits take five minutes and the visit is now digital via gov.gr,” said the Minister of State and Digital Management. Another shortened procedure involves the issuance of a single certificate of legal solvency of an individual or legal entity, which required 25 documents, and was reduced to one. It is estimated that from April 2020 to date, more than 1 million applications for this certificate have reduced the administrative burden by 89% for citizens and 18% for the state, or approximately 8 million euros. “At the end of the next four years, the goal is that, with a few minimal exceptions, all of our interactions with the government will be digital,” Mr. Pierrakakis said.

In addition to the national facilitation program through which administrative procedures are being redesigned, the Metos National Register of Administrative Procedures and the Observatory of Bureaucracy complete the “weapon” against bureaucracy. Through Metos, the steps and supporting documents required to complete a deal with the state are recorded in detail, and citizens and businesses will soon be able to receive notifications (for example, by e-mail) about changes that are made in the process (for example, the elimination of certain steps). The Observatory measures the impact of simplification of procedures on costs and time.

Car service cost

The work of auto repair shops is one of the simplified procedures for which the Bureaucratic Observatory has carried out a study to measure the administrative burden. In other words, based on the previous regime, the interested party had to submit an application for the announcement of the start of activities and operation of the business to the local competent department of transport and communication in order to obtain the appropriate certificate of compliance with the legal conditions of operation.

Five days after the completion of the formal verification of the completeness of the file, the service either informed the person concerned in writing to correct any deficiencies, or issued him a certificate of filing an announcement of the start of the operation. Then, within one month, the competent authority proceeded to a thorough check of the submitted supporting documents and examined the compliance with the legal conditions for the start of operation. Finally, if all conditions were met, he issued a certificate of legal exploitation. After the adoption of article 9 of Law 4796/2021, the work of car workshops was included in the notification mode, which is carried out through the portal gov.gr (notifybusiness.gov.gr), until the integrated information system for events is activated and controlled (OPS-ADE). The previous six steps have been reduced to one, resulting in a 32.5% reduction in the annual administrative burden, to €155,400. This corresponds to approximately 7,400 staff hours at an average hourly rate of 21 euros.