Digitalization of administrative services saves citizens time and money every day: this has saved Ukrainians 14.7 billion hryvnias in the last two years alone.
This is evidenced by the results of the analysis of the economic and anti-corruption impact of digitalization of public services conducted by experts from the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) for the Ministry of Digital Transformation with the support of the Swiss-Ukrainian EGAP Program implemented by the East Europe Foundation.
How much money and time did Ukrainians save by using online services? For 2 years:
UAH 14.7 billion in real savings
UAH 42 billion of potential savings*
*if 100% of public services were received online
58.6 thousand man-years time saved by Ukrainians
If 100% of public services were received online in the last two years, the potential economic effect could be almost UAH 42 billion.
Although the current level of use of online services does not allow to fully realize this potential, the real savings amounted to UAH 14.7 billion over the past 2 years. After all, citizens do not need to spend money on traveling costs, photocopies of documents, and more. And most importantly, it saves time.
At the same time, in absolute terms, the current time savings of citizens is about 58.6 thousand man-years. That is, it is the amount of time we save by converting administrative services to the online format, as there is no need to go from one office to the next and wait in lines.
Why is this important?
The list of available online services is dynamically increased, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation plans to convert 100% of public services online by 2024.
“The study confirmed that the digitalization of services has a significant economic and anti-corruption effect,” Oleksii Dorohan, CEO of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), said. “The benefits for businesses are obvious: simplifying and speeding up the receiving of various certificates and permits, as well as reducing the additional costs that usually accompany these offline procedures. Moreover, digitalization in the provision of administrative services increases the level of trust in government agencies and local self-government bodies, because automation of processes usually makes corruption that may occur in personal communication offline impossible.”
To assess the impact of the introduction of electronic administrative services in Ukraine, BRDO experts have developed an appropriate methodology. The effect was assessed in two main areas: reducing the corruption component and saving user resources. Data for analysis were obtained by surveying 1,817 respondents who used online and offline administrative services.
How to learn more about the results of the study?
The results of the study were partially presented today by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal during the Diia Summit conference. The full text of the study is currently being prepared for presentation and will be published on the websites of the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) in the spring.
Earlier, BRDO experts studied “The Anti-Corruption and Economic Potential of e-Services” with the support of the USAID/UK aid Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) project.
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