70% of Romanias take day-long leave to handle government paperwork, official says

Seven out of ten Romanians spend a day of their annual leave standing in queues at government offices, and eight out of these ten people are unable to solve their issue on their first attempt, said Bogdan Mihai Dumea, state secretary at the Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digitalization (MCID) during a specialized debate.

"In Romania, seven out of ten people spend a day of their annual leave standing in queues at government offices, and eight out of these ten people are unable to resolve their issue on their first attempt. We need to look at the time people waste and the resources lost, both for the state and the citizens, and find solutions to improve this situation,” he said, cited by Digi24.

The Romanian official pointed to the success of ghişeul.ro as proof of the benefits brought on by digitalization. “We need to consider increasing citizens' trust in the services offered by the state, improving the quality of life, and, in the end, hopefully ending bureaucracy and queues, which is where we started. Of course, there are many things that can be done in this regard,” he said.

Dumea also argued that all government services should be integrated into the government cloud, and a single app developed so that citizens could interact with the authorities.“[...] a single application through which they can state their needs, make the respective request, and not be interested in which institutions are working in the background and how they communicate with each other. All these concepts are currently in research and development within the ministry as part of a project I initiated and coordinate, the creation of a digitalization manual or guide," he said.

Representatives of authorities, along with companies, consultants, and financial institutions, are participating in the 8th edition of the "Smart Transformation Forum" conference in 2023.

(Photo source: Constantin Opris | Dreamstime.com)