The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatization has abolished several types of certificates and statements and more will be added to them from December this year. Over thirteen months, the authorities have downloaded more than 473 000 certificates saving people nearly 7.3 million EUR. Introducing into the second amendment to the Bureaucracy Act, the Office proposed to abolish the obligation to submit eight additional certificates, which would save people over 18.4 million EUR per year.
Over the past thirteen months, officials have obtained nearly 500 000 statements themselves. Thus they saved 7 285 241.60 EUR in administrative fees and time.
“I am glad that we are systematically managing to reduce bureaucracy in Slovakia and not turning people into mail delivery staff among the authorities. This is also one of the reasons why we have prepared another amendment to the Act in order to continue reducing the administrative burden for citizens and entrepreneurs,” said Richard Raši.
It is now the third wave of the fight against bureaucracy effort prepared by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with the introduction on the list of additional certificates and statements, which people need to document very often at the authorities.
The third wave, helping both citizens and businesses
As part of further amendment to the Anti-bureaucracy Act, which has been undergoing the interministerial commenting procedure since 5 November, the Office of Deputy Prime Minister Raši plans to abolish the submission of eight extracts and certificates – copy of birth, marriage and death certificates, residence certificates, business registration number, certificate proving that a business is not undergoing restructuring, bankruptcy, liquidation and no bankruptcy proceedings is pending against such business, certificate of non-infringement of the prohibition of illegal employment, and an extract from the central livestock register, the so-called farm register.
Entrepreneurs will also benefit, especially in the area of public procurement. Certificate of company identification, its identification number and certificate proving that a business is not undergoing restructuring, bankruptcy, liquidation and no bankruptcy proceedings is pending against such business were the last certificates with an obligation to be submitted in paper format the abolishment of which will relieve the entrepreneurs. Thus, in public procurement, they will no longer be required to submit regular certificates they had submitted before.
“Citizens in Slovakia annually submit 1.5 million copies of birth certificates, 112 000 copies of marriage certificates, 87 400 copies of death certificates, and entrepreneurs 40 000 certificates proving that a business is not undergoing restructuring, bankruptcy, liquidation. The frequency of these statements and high frequency of their being requested by the authorities was the reason why we included them in the next amendment to the Act,” Raši explained.
By adopting the second amendment to the Anti-bureaucracy Act and putting it into practice, citizens and entrepreneurs will save 18 481 551 EUR per year in fees or time spent at authorities.
The first wave of the anti-bureaucracy effort launched in September last year relieved people from carrying paper statements from four different registers. As part of the second wave, the Deputy Prime Minister has already abolished the submission of further statements and certificates. The technological solution launched through the OverSi portal has been evaluated positively by experts and the general public and has won several awards, such as ITAPA or IT GALA.
Solution for commercial entities
Among the abolished certificates that parents and pupils no longer need to document in paper format, is a certificate of school attendance. Authorities can now download the certificate through the OverSi portal or through direct system integration. Commercial entities such as carriers, State Rail, banks or telecommunications operators may use the portal www.potvrdenieonavsteveskoly.sk to verify student status. The portal is already in pilot operation and will be in full operation from 1 November 2019. It is connected to the departmental information system of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and is capable of verifying by inputting birth registration number in an anonymous manner the attendance status of high school or university student.
