As of February 1, a new e-government web portal went into public beta. The new URL is portal.e-gov.bg.
For the time being, the new site offers 14 services, from filing a complaint with the Commission for the Protection of Consumers, to consultations with the National Agency for Vocational Training, and getting a statement of domicile.
The new site was expected to remain in public beta testing for three to four months, as new services were to be added. Bulgarian-language daily Sega quoted Transport Minister Alexandar Tsvetkov as saying that by March, a further 13 services would be added and the aim was to have 100 online services available by the end of 2010.
To use the new site, an electronic signature is required. About 60 000 electronic signatures, which cost between 30 and 50 leva, are in use in Bulgaria, though only 10 per cent of the signatures are owned by individuals.
Tsvetkov said that the new site was made to make the use of e-government services easier, as many of the 1300 services available on the old site did not work or were available only as a description.
According to Tsvetkov, it was not clear where the 28 million leva spent since 2007 had gone, but scheduled payments of a further 12 million leva to companies including Hewlett Packard, Siemens and consortium Storma, had been put on hold pending audit results, Sega said.
Until the end of first half 2011, 20 million leva had been earmarked for e-government under the European Union's operational programme Administrative Capacity.
The new portal does sport a language selection link, which includes English, but is available in Bulgarian only at the moment.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rene Beekman
Quelle/Source: The Sofia Echo, 02.02.2010
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