digitalization
Debate about federal funds for digital administration
An employee of the Frankfurt district court reaches for a court file on a shelf. The digital change in the Hessian judiciary has made further progress with the introduction of the e-file. photo
© Arne Dedert/dpa
The digitization of the authorities is urgently needed. But instead of the previous 377 million euros, only 3.3 million euros are earmarked for this in the current federal budget. Is criticism justified?
According to the draft for the federal budget approved by the cabinet at the beginning of July, only 3.3 million euros instead of the previous 377 million euros are planned for the coming year for the area “digitization of administration and administrative services” of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. With a reform of the Online Access Act (OZG), the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP is now making a new attempt so that citizens can use more government services online in the future.
The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” had reported displeasure in the state chancellery in Schleswig-Holstein, among others. The state should therefore be in charge of developing the online application for housing benefit for all federal states in consultation with the federal government and has now terminated these agreements.
Financial booster was limited in time
In order to promote the OZG implementation, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has massively supported the federal states and federal departments financially and in terms of content from 2020 to 2023, the federal states alone with 1.35 billion euros, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the German Press Agency in Berlin. “Everyone involved was aware from the start that this central financial booster was limited in time.” This explains the significantly lower funds in the current draft budget, which also corresponds to the original financial plan.
“In addition, however, unspent funds from previous years are to be made available, which are expected to be at the level of the target figure for 2023, i.e. around EUR 300 million,” explained the spokeswoman. The draft law for the new OZG also stipulates that the ongoing additional expenditure for the federal government through the OZG should in future be financed from the budgets of the respective ministries – i.e. no longer centrally by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). “The Federal Ministry of the Interior cannot answer centrally how this is implemented in the departments.”
The “constructive cooperation” between the federal and state governments and local authorities should continue, but in future the funds should not only be allocated to different federal ministries, but also to the budgets of the federal states, which the latter were also informed about last year, according to the spokeswoman. In addition, there are other financial pots for digitization, some of which should grow significantly.