site.btaInterior Ministry Denies E-governance Minister Access to Electronic Identification System

During quick question time in Parliament’s Digitalization, E-government and Information Technology Committee on Thursday, Electronic Governance Minister Alexander Yolovski said that he had sent two letters to the Interior Minister asking for access to the source code of the electronic identification system and to be more involved in the process itself since part of the system is to be managed by the Electronic Governance Ministry. "Both responses were categorical: there is no need for the Electronic Governance Minister to be made aware because the procedure under which the system is being developed is restricted under the Public Procurement Act, that is, the information is classified," Yolovski said. According to the Electronic Government Act (EGA), systems that process classified information are outside the scope of electronic governance, he explained. The condition for passing the Cybersecurity Act was to have some departments left out of the scope of the EGA, the Minister said. 

"Despite my two letters, we cannot access the system, nor have we agreed on the technical specifications," Yolovski said. The Chair of the Digitalization, E-government and Information Technology Committee, Bozhidar Bozhanov of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, noted that the Interior Ministry is the body that builds the system, adding that there are delays in the process.

Electronic governance and cybersecurity continue to be developed in a largely decentralized manner. "This approach results in too much recurrent expenditure that is either inappropriate or inefficient," Yolovski said. There is a significant number of online services in the e-governance portal (2,115), he added. The Minister noted that, despite this, there are many portals of the administration that duplicate the e-governance portal. As to cybersecurity, Yolovski considers it a problem that European resources will be exhausted and national funding is "extremely limited". No tradition has been established over the years of individual authorities investing resources in cybersecurity because even their main activities are chronically underfunded, he noted.