TALLINN, 19 September 2024 – Although the objective of bringing services directly to people when they get married, have a child or experience any other life event was set in 2017 and more than €11 million has already been spent, it has not been achieved so far. In a report published today, the National Audit Office finds that no operational, user-friendly and proactive digital event services have yet been created.

A proactive and user-centred public service is defined as a public service provided by an institution on its own initiative and on the basis of the presumed will of the individual and the data in the databases, which creates expected value for the user, is easy to find and use, and helps to save money and time. Information services represent the lowest and personalised services and proactive services the higher level of event services. Information services involve displaying aggregated information and references about event services and their sub-services in the eesti.ee state portal.

While seven operational proactive and user-centred event services were expected to be completed by 2020, only the information services for five life events have been finished to date – the information services related to marriage, the birth of a child, the loss of a loved one, compulsory military service and settling in Estonia.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications lacks information on how much it will cost to finish the development of the event services that are already being upgraded to make them proactive and user-centred. In addition, there is no assessment of how much it is reasonable to invest and spend on the further development of specific event services.

Operational event services have not been created because the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications did not initially foresee the full complexity of the process when planning said development, such as difficulties in coordinating multi-agency cooperation and aligning different development priorities. It also failed to anticipate and address the legal challenges that prevent the creation of proactive and user-centred event services, for example, which proactive services can be provided to users without asking for consent and which services require prior consent, and how to regulate the processing of different datasets in the state portal.

At the time of the audit, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications estimated that five business event services had been completed, but the audit showed that, in essence, not all of these services were ready for use for the intended purpose. These services involve displaying information on companies’ fixed-term liabilities and financing options, the authorisation management information system, an e-mail service for entrepreneurs and the entrepreneur’s data card.

There is currently little information on the grants offered and the obligations that arise when it comes to event services related to financing companies and fixed-term liabilities. In the case of the financing and fixed-term liabilities services, the informative value would increase along with the number of institutions that join the service and provide information to businesses on financing opportunities and emerging liabilities. Unfortunately, only Eesti Pank has joined the fixed-term liabilities service.

The National Audit Office recommends that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications establish a more precise objective for the development of event services, including the completion deadline and the life and business events in relation to which it plans to achieve a functioning user-centred and proactive event services, and the means and activities it intends to use to this end. In doing so, it should be analysed which event services are worth being developed to the highest level.

The National Audit Office finds that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications should identify the legal obstacles to the development of event services that can be resolved in order to enable further development and upgrading of services. There should also be specific, well-considered proposals to amend the legislation that currently does not allow for the creation of proactive event services and the processing of data in the state portal.

The National Audit Office recommends that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications find a better cooperation model for the development of proactive and user-centred event services in order to include all parties involved in the process, such as the owners of the individual services, to ensure that the end result is as user-centred and proactive as possible.

Background

The objective of the audit was to assess whether the process of developing event services has transformed direct public services into proactive and user-centred ones, as promised in 2017.

The main questions and criteria of the audit were as follows:

• Has the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications developed the necessary standards and rules, the environment and tools for institutions to use in the service development process?
• Are event services proactive and easy to use and do they avoid burdening users with unnecessary procedures?
• Are online service providers measuring and improving the quality of online services, including making services more proactive and user-centred?

The event services and institutions audited were:

• the birth of a child – Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Welfare Information Systems Centre;
• the loss of a loved one – Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities;
• marriage – Ministry of the Interior and IT and Development Centre thereof;
• divorce – Ministry of the Interior and IT and Development Centre thereof;
• retirement – Social Insurance Board;
• companies' fixed-term liabilities – Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications;
• financing of companies – Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

The audit covered the period from 1 January 2018 to 10 April 2024.

Priit Simson

Communication Manager of the National Audit Office

+372 640 0777

+372 5615 0280

[email protected]

[email protected]

http://www.riigikontroll.ee/

• Posted: 9/19/2024 11:00 AM
• Last Update: 9/19/2024 10:32 AM
• Last Review: 9/19/2024 10:32 AM