The Doctoral School of Administration and Public Policy proudly announces the defense of a new thesis on Friday, May 26, 2024, by Daniela Cotoranu from the Faculty of Political, Administrative, and Communication Sciences, entitled: “Assessment of Digital Public Services as a Result of Administrative Simplification.” The thesis explored the current state of public service digitalization and administrative simplification, focusing on how process simplification can improve access to and efficiency of services for citizens, and to what extent the procedures for establishing a company, issuing identity documents, vehicle registration, and tax and duty payments have been simplified in the digitalization process.

The thesis highlights that despite efforts by central public authorities in Romania to modernize public administration, there is statistically a gap between the effects achieved and those in other European countries. This indicates that measures concerning digitalization and simplification of administrative procedures are carried out chaotically, fragmented without a real evaluation of what has already been undertaken. Before introducing other digital solutions, it is important to assess whether the already implemented digital platforms operate efficiently and effectively, whether they are used to their full potential, whether the current servers are adequate, whether data security is ensured for users, whether the language is easy to understand by citizens, and whether the platforms have a friendly and intuitive interface. Additionally, digitalization is not just a technical issue but also a cultural one. In Romania, there is not yet a strategy for digital skills even though it is ranked last in Europe in terms of citizens’ digital skills.

The research results showed that the need for developing digital skills among citizens is not perceived differently by age, but that it is imperative to implement and develop more digital literacy tools so that the level of use of digital public services can be improved, and that employed individuals more significantly believe that administrative simplification contributes to improving their quality of life, compared to those who are not in the workforce.

Among the main challenges faced in the process of administrative simplification and digital transformation of public services are the lack of interoperability, government Cloud, the mentality of public officials, resistance to change, citizens’ reluctance to use digital public services and their poor trust in data security, a cumbersome and continuously changing legislative framework, the lack or insufficiency of IT specialists, complacency, lack of ownership, initiative, and creativity among leaders, as well as the lack of ongoing monitoring and coordination of the implementation of measures concerning administrative simplification and digital transformation.

Based on the research objectives and results obtained, a system for monitoring and evaluating the process of administrative simplification was proposed. This system consists of 10 quantitative and qualitative indicators by which basic aspects of the administrative simplification process are measured: the number of simplified administrative procedures; the processing cost of requests; the perceived cost by citizens for undergoing the procedure; the processing time of requests after simplification; the response time to requests following the simplification of the procedure; the number of necessary documents; the number of steps required to complete a procedure; the number of institutions involved; the usage rate of public services whose procedure has been simplified; and the level of user satisfaction with the simplified administrative procedures. This set of indicators will allow public authorities and institutions to continuously monitor and evaluate the state of administrative simplification and the digitalization of public services.

The support and guidance provided by the doctoral coordinator, Conf. Univ. Dr. Raluca-Ioana Antonie, as well as the faculty were essential for the successful completion of the thesis. The doctoral school promotes an interdisciplinary approach and provides access to extensive resources for students, and the open atmosphere and community of passionate peers provided a conducive environment for the exchange of ideas.