The deadline for implementing the OZG by 31 December 2022 has passed, whilst the majority of the services to be digitised have not yet been implemented. The follow-up legislation is now undergoing inter-ministerial consultation.

To accelerate tangible progress, the key ‘OZG Booster’ services were defined last year; these are designed to meet the most urgent needs from the perspective of citizens and the business community, with a focus on user-centred design. These must be made fully available nationwide, right down to local authority level, without delay. The 35 prioritised digital administrative services include, for example: online applications for naturalisation, electronic registration of residence (eWA), applications for identity cards, registration or re-registration of a motor vehicle, and digital parental allowance. The ‘BaföG Digital’ service has already been rolled out in all 16 federal states.

Reusable solutions based on the ‘one for all’ (EfA) principle have already made significant progress in the digitalisation of public administration. However, challenges remain due to the lack of agreement on universally applicable standards and architectures.

It remains essential to think of citizen services from the applicants’ perspective on an end-to-end basis, designing the subsequent processes within the authorities seamlessly – starting from communication with the applicants – and continuing communication across authorities and administrative levels. The administrative level underpinning the digital services will also be the main focus of the OZG 2.0. Public authorities must examine how the experience and technical foundations already established under the OZG can be utilised and create the technical and organisational prerequisites for all ‘back-end’ processes. Holistic digitalisation, extending right into internal administrative processes, primarily concerns the integration of specialist procedures and the modernisation of registers. This is the next important step in further advancing digitalisation within public administration.

The Register Modernisation Act (RegMoG) on the introduction and use of an identification number stipulates that administrative data can be assigned to the correct person using the tax identification number (tax ID). It provides the framework for secure, data-protection-compliant identity management across registers and for straightforward applications based on the ‘once-only’ principle; in other words, citizens need only submit their data once and retain control over its further use. Only with their consent can other authorities then access this data, if necessary, without any red tape.

The modernisation of registers – and thus the use of the tax ID as a cross-register identifier for natural persons – therefore not only benefits citizens, but also interlinks the register landscape and streamlines administrative work. You can find out more about the implementation of register modernisation in public administration here on the blog in the near future.