site.btaEC Approves Programme for Modernizing Public Administration and Judiciary in Bulgaria

EC Approves Programme for Modernizing Public Administration and Judiciary in Bulgaria

Brussels, February 19 (BTA) - The European Commission announced
Thursday that it has approved Bulgaria's Operational Programme
Good Governance (OPGG) for the period 2014-2020. The programme
outlines the priorities and objectives to invest nearly 336
million euro (of which 286 million euro from the EU budget) to
help modernize the public administration and improve
transparency in the judiciary.

Investments will address challenges related to the efficiency of
the administrations in providing quality, fast and affordable
services for all groups of society.

Around 118 million euro will be spent to reduce administrative
and regulatory burden on citizens and business. This programme
is the key funding instrument to support the improvement of the
overall transparency and accountability of civil service and the
functioning of public procurement systems.

The programme also focuses on e-government as an instrument to
enhance administrative processes and reduce costs. Improving
services will contribute significantly to social cohesion
through targeted measures aimed at increasing the digital
competences of the population and overcoming the digital divide,
the Commision said.

In addition to horizontal e-government systems, particular
attention will be paid to implement sectoral systems such as
e-procurement, e-health and e-customs.

Another 30 million euro will fund measures to increase
transparency and accelerate judicial proceedings through
structural, procedural and organisational reforms in the
judiciary; to improve the accessibility and the accountability
of the judiciary through the introduction of e-justice, and to
extend the scope and improve the quality of training in the
judicial system.

A dedicated funding of 62 million euro will finance the
horizontal structures responsible for the management and
implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds
and the improvement of beneficiaries' capacity, as well as the
effective functioning of Unified Management Information System.

Over the funding period, around 100 administrations will be
supported to introduce complex administrative service delivery
and 144 administrations will introduce quality management
systems. The programme is expected to train some 175 000 state
administration employees and 25 000 magistrates, court
officials, officials of the investigating authorities. 20
municipal services will be supported for standardization and
some 850 e-services will be developed at the level of
transaction. Around 250 000 judicial cases are expected to be
managed electronically.