The launch of the “Digital Government Review”, the country report produced by OECD and ADR regarding the state of digitization of the public environment in Romania

The Authority for the Digitization of Romania (ADR), the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) organized on December 18, the launch conference of the “Digital Government Review”, an essential deliverable of the “Development of administrative capacity” project in the field of public governance – a coordinated approach of the Government Center of Romania”, code PNP003, financed by the Norwegian Grants 2014-2021.

The document, which the three institutions have been working on for two years and which meant a considerable effort for most of the entities of the central state apparatus, includes evaluations and recommendations, which will be translated into a common vision, objectives and concrete actions for the future Romania’s national digital governance strategy.

The event was attended by Barbara UBALDI, deputy head of the Division, head of the OECD Digital Governance and Data Unit, Felipe GONZALES-ZAPATA, public policy analyst in the Digital Governance and Data Unit, Andrei NICULAE, ADR vice-president, Monica Chiffa, head service of the International Relations and European Affairs Service (SRIAE) of ADR and Larisa Panait, Information Technology and Digitalization Directorate within SGG.

The essential recommendations derived from the report refer to:

• Establishing a common vision and strategic approach to the design and delivery of public services; Promoting an omnichannel approach – a citizen-centric approach where all channels are integrated to generate a unified and consistent experience, whether they are at a counter, using an app or accessing a website;
• Ensuring the development and use of common guidelines and standards to support the design and delivery of public services;
• Promoting the development of a robust and sustainable digital governance infrastructure ecosystem.

The vice-president of ADR, Andrei NICULAE, emphasized, in his intervention, that “with the publication of this report and the acceptance of the recommendations made by the organization that brings together the 38 most developed economies of the world, the signal is clear: Romania is on the right track for accession. We have all the prerequisites to align ourselves with the standards of the most developed states in the world and to fulfill our objective: a state that works in the interest of the citizen, not the other way around, an efficient Romania, where decisions are made based on data, not by ear, a digital Romania”.

The OECD will develop in partnership with ADR, within the same project, a guide for the development and implementation of programs, which will include: the analysis of the best European practices in the field of IT project management for public administration, a guide to tools and mechanisms for the management of IT projects adapted to the Romanian administration, as well as the identification of coordination mechanisms between different administrative levels and collaborative approaches with the ecosystem of digital governance stakeholders.

Romania became a candidate country to the OECD in January 2022 and is currently in the technical stage of the evaluation process, which consists of the transmission of additional information, the organization of thematic missions and the support of presentations in the 26 OECD Sectoral Committees essential for this process .

On September 1, 2016, by Decision of the Prime Minister, the Interministerial Committee for the coordination of Romania’s relations with the OECD was created, made up of representatives of all institutions that participate in the activity of OECD structures or manage collaboration programs with the organization. Currently, the Committee is coordinated by the Prime Minister of Romania, and the General Secretariat of the Government provides the technical secretariat. During 2023, ADR, through SRIAE, participated in the work of the Interministerial Committee for the Coordination of Romania’s Relations with the OECD and also participated in the elaboration of the technical self-evaluation documents, contained in the Initial Memorandum, in order to prepare Romania’s accession to the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD).