15 measures to simplify relations between citizens and companies with the State

"Digital red tape" is one of the risks of the digital transition, said Prime Minister Luís Montenegro at the end of the first Council of Ministers on digitalisation, simplification, and fighting bureaucracy held in Almada.

Luís Montenegro stated that "in many of the areas where we tried to streamline procedures, we ended up causing greater difficulty in access by citizens and organisations in their relations with Public Administration".

"With these measures we intend to have greater levels of inclusion, that is, for all citizens to have the possibility of enjoying digital processes and have these make their life easier, with gains in efficiency, time, and not a multiplication of interactions", he added. 

The Prime Minister said that "one of the things that most confounds citizens and companies is having to give administration the same information over and over, the same documents and, on top of it, these are already in the administration’s hands!".

Claiming that "our action aims at making [life] easier for those who have the digital tools and know how to use them, but also help those who don’t have those tools and can have assistance", he added that "citizen bureaux will offer the opportunity for many citizens, who interact less digitally, to have someone who helps them and will make their relations with the administration easier".

15 measures to make life easier

The 15 measures package "bridges the Public Administration sectors" that "must communicate more and better between themselves to make life easier for citizens and organisations" and cannot "operate in isolated compartments".

"If I, as a citizen or leader of an institution grant the administration bodies permission to access certain information, then those bodies must interact with each other" automatically.

"Our intention is for citizens and institutions to have a single gateway in their relations with the administration bodies and that after they get in, the way in which they interact with the various services is a standardised as possible", he further added. 

No repetition

Stating that "we cannot maintain a logic where we head over to one State department and follow a given digital path and then we head over to another one with a completely different path, where the tools are different, the way in which we introduce, request or receive information is different", he added that "we wish to standardise things so that it is a lot easier and a lot more accessible and, accordingly, a lot more effective". 

"It is also important for all areas of public administration to have access to the history of a certain person or institution, so that it is not repeated with every request". Access to this history "is a fundamental aid to make the response quicker and more efficient", he added.

A single gateway

The Minister of Youth and Modernisation Margarida Balseiro Lopes said that "the main concern is to use digital tools whenever they simplify life, whenever they imply an improvement in the way in which citizens or companies interact with the State".

It is about "making the way in which citizens and companies interact with the Administration more flexible. That is why we moved forward with the brand gov.pt, which is the contact channel for Public Administration" that "intends to follow international best practice, as well as concentrating all the services for citizens and companies".

"We will have a citizen gateway on gov.pt to be launched in September" that will enable "citizens to access gov.pt and, without realising it, as we will follow the same design, they will also have access to the tax authorities, without service interruptions" and following a simple and accessible language" that allows citizens to reach the intended service" and whose name they can ignore.

Restricted area

Margarida Balseiro Lopes noted that "citizens will have a restricted area where they can view the history of their interactions with the State, whether on the website, whether on the app (to be launched in the first quarter of 2025), whether through in-person assistance, with the aim of "ensuring all the steps are equal whether in the shop or citizen space, the phone line, or the website".

The Council of Ministers approved "a decree-law that limits the creation of more portals and apps for Public Administration" because the ones that exist will become progressively concentrated as of September 2024 on gov.pt, "the single portal for digital services" that will open with some included services.

The bill also sets that the Citizen’s Card and digital mobile key will be the "only means of authentication so citizens don’t require multiple passwords to access public administration".

Simplex 

The Minister also said that the 15 measures simplification and lessening red tape represent a paradigm shift in the Simplex programme, as "we do not wish to have a third of the measures unimplemented". 

"The measures we presented are not centred on Public Administration efficiency, they are centred on the impact they will have on citizens and companies", "they have been previously articulated with the bodies in charge of their implementation" and "will be executed by 2025" she said, adding that "we received around 320 measures from the government areas, yet the ones we picked are the ones that can make it to the people during 2024 and 2025".