Bad Königshofen, excellent? The mayor doesn’t know anything about it yet, and the colleague in the anteroom hasn’t heard anything of the kind either. But Thomas Helbling (CSU) still seems pleased on the phone that his small town in Lower Franconia is to be recognized for its commitment to digitization. So far they have “managed well,” says Helbling. However, nowadays you can no longer avoid digitizing administrative processes and making them available on the Internet. “With the mouse into the town hall,” says Helbling: “a must.”
“Digital Office” is the title that Digital Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU) will award for the first time on Wednesday in Munich. In the future, municipalities that offer at least 50 administrative services online will be allowed to attach themselves to this, so that citizens can at best save themselves the trip to the office. As an example, seven cities are to be awarded at the start, one per administrative district: Nuremberg, Augsburg, Straubing, Amberg, Ingolstadt, Bamberg and Bad Königshofen in the Rhön-Grabfeld district; 6000 residents and a 55-year-old mayor who, by his own admission, did not grow up with computers, but “took all the funding programs with him”.
The city lists on its website what can be done in Bad Königshofen online instead of in the office. They are seemingly trifles. The dog tax can be registered and deregistered digitally, the application for a certificate of good conduct can be made online. The lost and found office is also online. The processing status of the identity card can at least be inquired, to apply you have to appear in person, also because of the fingerprint. Next, Helbling wants to digitize construction files and store the piles of paper in an archive. That takes time, but in the end there is “relief”.
It is intentional that only a few cities will initially receive the new seal. In the digital ministry, it is hoped that the title will give other municipalities an incentive to accelerate their digitization efforts as well. Because a lot in and with the administration is still running analogously, and many municipalities are having a hard time with the changeover. During the Corona crisis, people’s user behavior changed, says Gerlach, and many people “take it for granted” to take advantage of digital offers from the economy. They expected the same from the public administration. And: “Time is of the essence.”
In fact: by the end of 2022, the federal, state and local governments must also offer their administrative services digitally, according to the Online Access Act. Fulfilling this will be difficult. Small communities in particular often lack know-how and money. Bigger cities usually have more options. Of the seven cities that will be labeled as digitally-savvy on Wednesday, six are also district-free.
Not only the digital minister would like to see more speed in digitization. However, it has the problem of being able to exert little direct influence. On the one hand, the digitization of the administration is a communal task, and mayors and district administrators from Munich are as reluctant to let themselves be ruled in as the Prime Minister from Berlin. On the other hand, the digital ministry has comparatively limited competencies and budgets. Gerlach therefore relies, among other things, on “digital guides”: mentors who are supposed to assist the municipalities with digitization issues. The “Digital City Hall” funding program provides municipalities with up to 20,000 euros each for digital change. Checklists from the ministry should also give them more transparency and an overview: for example, which digital services can be obtained where. These are in turn bundled visibly for the citizens in the Bayern app and Bayern portal, the central platforms in the Free State for administrative services of all kinds.
Benjamin Adjei, spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament for digitization, the efforts do not go far enough. All in all, attempts are being made to implement a lot. The whole thing seems “uncoordinated” to him, the municipalities run the risk of being left alone. What bothers Adjei most of all is that digitization is often thought the wrong way round: For example, an application is made available to citizens as a PDF online – but in the administration the form is still printed out and processed in the same way. “That may even mean more work,” says Adjei. First of all, the internal administrative processes would have to be digitized – and the employees in the administration had to be given more advanced training.
Rethinking administrative processes instead of just uploading forms to the Internet: This is how Gerlach envisions the digitization of offices. But she also admits that the topic is not one “that is very sexy”. Her main concern is to provide the municipalities with the necessary fundamentals so that they can advance the digitization of their administrations on their own. Every political level must do its part, including the Free State. “In Bavaria we have the right to always march in front,” says Gerlach. The status quo could not be enough.