579 administrative services should actually be digitized by the end of the year – at least that is the goal formulated in the Online Access Act (OZG) of 2017. However, the state is failing, and the analogous route is still required for many administrative acts.
Of the 579 administrative services, only 101 can be used completely online, reports Der Spiegel, citing an analysis by the comparison portal Verivox. 143 services can be partially accessed online, while 326 still cannot be completed online.
The fact that administration has to become more digital has been one of the buzzwords that has been repeated regularly for years. But the progress is moderate. “The process towards a more efficient, citizen-friendly administration is making little progress,” says Jens-Uwe Theumer from Verivox in Spiegel. Germany also performs poorly in an EU comparison. According to figures from the EU Commission, the country only ranks 21st out of 35 when it comes to the digitization of public services, and the degree of digitization is below average at 63 percent.
Clumsy process
How cumbersome the processes are is symptomatically illustrated by the digitization of student loan applications. Bafög Digital is one of the OZG services; since September 2021, students have been able to apply online. Internally, however, the digitally submitted applications are printed out manually again, the radio group of ARD and ZDF recently reported. Special staff was hired for this purpose, and student unions are also reporting paper bottlenecks.
Bafög applications are complex, which requires queries and subsequent submissions that arise during the application process. According to the report, only one in 200 applications is submitted in full. But what is missing is a digital communication channel. The student unions that process the applications currently have to reply to digital submissions by post. “There is no platform to be able to communicate with the students in encrypted form,” says Matthias Anbuhl, General Secretary of the Deutsches Studentenwerk, the Funk Gruppe.
Due to the federal structures in In Germany, the federal states and local authorities are also responsible for implementation. Which services are available where therefore also depends on where you live. If you want to get an overview, you can try the OZG dashboard of the federal government.