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The E-era and Bulgarian Administration

Maria Nikolova 

Asst. Prof., Center for Public Administration, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract

Bulgarian State administration will have the possibility for transmitting e-documents with building Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The infrastructure problems in Bulgaria for building PKI and their technical, legal, organizational, cultural obstacles are discussed. 
Current projects and initiatives improving services and communications for citizens are presented. Big project for building PKI is an initiative of Information Services Corporation, Bulgaria and GlobalSign.
An important part of bureaucracy in Bulgaria is banking system. Delphi System is an information system with a large database for information about Bulgarian firms. Sofia Health Insurance Fund and National Health Insurance Fund have established the first stage of the project for information system in the field of health services of citizens. National Insurance Institute presents in the World Wide Web and offers on-line some services to citizens. Tax information system is introduced in test period. A project for improving administrative services for citizens in 36 Bulgarian districts is initiated. The aim of the project is the citizens to be served from one desk. Many administrative organizations in Bulgaria have public presentations with their web pages. Call Center technology gives new opportunity for Sofia citizens.

1. Infrastructure problems in Bulgaria
The Act for E-Document and E-Signature (AEDES) is passed already from 8^th of October 2001. It gives the possibility for placing new services and optimizing the current operations in administrative area. The ability e-signatures to present official and law-based way of signing will change many of mechanisms in action for the government. The potential strength that e-signatures give is the opportunity for building Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). 

1.1. Developing PKI infrastructure.
PKI is rather organizational than technological problem in Bulgaria. From a technological point of view PKI is a system, integrating software, encryption technologies and services enabling to secure business transactions and data transmission of e-documents. Software equipment used in Bulgarian State administration offices is developed increasingly. The building of Council of Minister’s is equipped with 380 PC with installed system software Windows and application software MS Office, browsers for Internet accesses. There are 11 severs with Windows NT4.0 operating system.

Kaltchev, D. (2001). "E-government will be reality for all soon." In IDG (Eds.), ComputerWorld. Sofia: Vol.34, part II: 4.

The PKI system integrates digital certificates (digital signatures) and certification system for issuing these signatures. That way the e-signature is guaranteed from two parts -–the author of the signature and the organization (named Certificate Authority - CA) issuing the certificates. That way the CA “signs” the e-document and verifies the e-document sender authority. An agreement is achieved about the used security tools. Various security tools are theme of discussion between the members in exchange of e-documents.

The main application of e-signature for Bulgarian State administration is the possibility for transmitting e-documents. The obstacles of the wide application of e-signatures in Bulgaria are technical, legal, cultural and organizational.

From the organizational view the governmental agencies have not yet the needed structure for providing the signed e-documents. One example is municipalities in which the organizational structure does not permit undoubted definition for responsibilities in transmitting documents with e-signature. On the other side - the citizens have no yet public access for sending and receiving e-documents.

The cultural obstacles for using e-signature are fact in Bulgaria. The insufficient knowledge of citizens on the problems of electronic transmission of documents is a barrier needed to overcome step by step. A national characteristic is the mistrust on the paperless ways of transmission. A verification of the electronic transaction by phone is used now in business transactions.

The main technical and legal obstacles in front of the wide application of e-signatures in Bulgaria are:

1.2. The lack of general standards 
in Bulgaria in defining the format of digital certificates. The need is for providing public sector organisations with a simple, standardised way of procuring and contracting a wide range of approved information technologies related consulting and services.  

By virtue of the law in Bulgaria e-documents can be signed with common, improved or universal e-signature. The common e-signature is co-ordinated between the author of the e-document and the receiver. The improved e-signature is based on a certificate issued from a vendor of a certificate document (CA). The universal e-signature is based on a certificate issued from a vendor of a certificate document (CA), registered in the State Commission of Telecommunications. The common and universal e-signature is valid as an authentic signature with exception when the e-document is issued or received from a state body or self-government body. Issuing an e-document needs an author - a physical person, and a titular. Titular means the part on behalf of which is signed the document. Author and titular are one and the same when it is a physical person. When the titular is a juridical part or when the author is the representative of the titular there is no equivalence between author and titular. That way the e-signature issued from a state body, which is a juridical part, is not accepted as an authentic signature. The Council of Ministry defines the subordinate bodies, which could receive documents with e-signature. State bodies not dependant to the Council of Ministry (President, Parliament, Constitution Court) need to regularize the using of e-documents with special acts.

The partners using common signature in electronic data exchange are agreed for the concrete signature that they’ll use in the transactions between their organisations. The applied technology for the improved signature users is defined from the State and the State guarantees the signature holder. The universal e-signature is valid like an authentic signature for all cases. 

The AEDES includes these tree types of e-signatures. The organisation would make its choice on the base of the security level. 

The second obstacle is 

1.3. The incompatibility in data exchange.
This is characteristic for systems using different digital certificates and establishing a certificate security level. Questions on electronic data transfer are staying here. In AEDES are discussed manners of sending, receiving and knowing about the messages. A good solution is VPN (Virtual Private Network) enabling the organization to determine reliability of connections with its branches or with other organizations, using routed infrastructure of Internet. The data security in VPN is provided of tunneling (encryption of sent information, transferring via Internet and decryption of received information).

The state administrative bodies are needed of regulations for defining the subordinated bodies, obliged to receive e-documents with e-signature. Special acts define the regulations in some cases like local self-government bodies, legal system, and bank system.

1.4. The establishment of certificate security level
is a problem in terms of lack of measures in Bulgarian Criminal Law against violators of AEDES. 

The Bulgarian Act (AEDES) involves elements of the idea to build PKI - establishing organizations for volunteer accreditation; defining universal e-signature nature of State Commission for Telecommunications; organizing a register of verifying organizations. The instruction in AEDES clause 16/3 for requirements about the algorithms for generation the couple of keys will help in achieving standardization.

AEDES is not really applicable yet because of the lack of a regulation set for developing the arrangements in the Act.

2. Current projects and initiatives improving services and communications for citizens
The view of the current situation in Bulgaria is optimistic.

Big project for building PKI is an initiative of Information Services Corporation, Bulgaria and GlobalSign. The project will give opportunity to the state administration in Bulgaria for improving relationships and correspondence with citizens. It will lead to the possibility to issue electronic signature certificates. The messages signed with these certificates will be considered and accepted valid. And vise versa - the state administration will use universal e-signature in issuing licenses and in correspondence with people.

A year ago in Bulgaria as a Certificate Authority (CA) was assigned Bulgarian Industry Chambre. It issues certificates of the Belgian company GlobalSign. The lack of clients of CA is not of the lack of CA but of the problem that the certificates have not yet a wide application because of the poor usage of e-signature.

2.1. Bank services in Bulgaria
An important part of bureaucracy in Bulgaria is banking system. All payments in different directions are made through it. Bulgarian bank system was fully oriented to paper documentation and paper exchange. After careful and long preparation was realized a change in the standard on 1^st of September 2000. The paper document exchange between banks now is changed with electronic exchange intermediated of the Bulgarian inter bank system Bisera. 

E-banking services now are adapted to different technological tools for communication with clients like GSM, digital phones, PC, Internet. The e-signature may be saved and used on various technical carriers – diskette, smart card, and CD ROM e.t.c. Bulgarian banks need to invest for applying the e-services. The main application of e-services in banking sector will be between banks and clients - physical persons or companies. The process for dealing with capital and money market now is possible to be made with e-documents, transmitted by e-mail.

Financial institutions in Bulgaria were using most e-services before the AEDES. The citizens have the possibility to use e-services like information for the balance, account movements, status of bank operations, rate of exchange, codes of Bulgarian banks. The active e-operations include currency transfer, budget transfer, and encashment processing e.t.c. 

Figure 1: Bank transactions according communication channels in 2001

Georgiev, A. (2001). "Financial e-services - various and flexible." In IDG (Eds.), Accounting & Computers. Sofia: Vol 115: 41.

Figure 2: Money Amounts according communication channels in 2001

Georgiev, A. (2001). "Financial e-services - various and flexible." In IDG (Eds.), Accounting & Computers. Sofia: Vol 115: 41.

Figure 3: Number of issued debit cards in Bulgaria, 1998 - 2001

From the beginning of 2001 many Bulgarian banks - Bulbank, Biochim, Eurobank, UBB, FIB, Unionbank, CCB suggest better services to their clients with remote e-banking.

A big percentage of e-payment for Bulgarian citizen is payment of public services - central heating, electricity, telephone, GSM. 11 Bulgarian banks are using the system E-Pay for payments with debit cards via Internet. 18 Bulgarian banks suggest smart card payments using system Borika. Bulgarian citizens use debit cards mainly for cash. They use e-banking services via 434 ATM terminals in 81 towns and 1119 POS terminals (January 2001). Credit cards are not practically used - 2443 cards are issued till January 2001.

2.2 Examples of existing e-services for Bulgarian citizens.
E-government solutions include yet citizen relationship management (CRM), enabling technologies such as data warehousing and document management, and a comprehensive suite of systems integration services.

Delphi System is an information system (IS) with a large database for information about Bulgarian firms, running from 1989. Computer Centers in regional courts and Sofia Court are source of input data for Delphi. At the moment Delphi provides information for more than 850000 Bulgarian firms and 3 millions employees. Delphi System is developed and supported from Information Services Corporation, exploiting 17 mainframes, more than 300 PC, 40 communication processors with local and remote processing. Delphi System provides periodically updated information about firm registers. 

State institutions have access to Delphi with terminal connection via telephone line. The main Delphi users are state and government organizations, local government offices, banks, and privatization funds. Citizens may also use the system with intermediation of National Statistical Institute or with previously paid registration fee, communicating with PC via Internet.

Delphi system is an example of e-government service, improving administrative control, tax payment and observing current firm status. The system gives to every citizen the opportunity for public access to the business activity of firms or well known public people. The system gives citizens and journalists public access to information like participation of well known people in company boards, share holding, their various business activity (legal or not legal). The processed with Delphi data help to improve the administrative control on paying taxes and insurance.  That way Delphi is concerned  with and is a factor in reducing corruption in Bulgaria, widespread in the transition period.

Sofia Health Insurance Fund and National Health Insurance Fund have established the first stage of the project for information system in the field of health services of citizens. The buildings of these funds are connected with optic cable. That way the data traffic between them is fast and secure. Local area networks (LAN's) are built and now are functioning in every building. The future development plans are to establish connections among all offices exchanging information with the Funds. In the future the information system of the Funds will involve on-line connection with general-purpose doctors, building a centralized data base and connection with pharmacies. The high volume of processed documents in these institutions (more than 40 millions per year) demands the application of e-documents. That way the health services in Bulgaria will be part of e-government.

National Insurance Institute presents in the World Wide Web and offers on-line some services to citizens. A useful e-service in the site is the program for calculating the individual pension coefficient for every person in Bulgaria. The only needed data are input parameters and the program calculates the optimal pension coefficient.

www.nssi.bg

Tax information system is introduced in test period. The system gives the opportunity to the citizens to send via Internet their income-tax return and the registers according VAT law, using e-signature. The users of the system are State Tax Administration, taxpayers, state organizations, banks. A part of the information system is the subsystem question-answer. Using the subsystem, the taxpayers may ask tax administration staff questions. The future development of the system will establish a web-based national tax register.

A project for improving administrative services for citizens in 36 Bulgarian districts is initiated. The aim of the project is the citizens to be served from one desk. At this moment the pilot adoption of the project is running in 5 districts. An example is district Dobritch, where in September 2002 all checking services will be made from one desk. For example citizens may pay their taxes, may receive various documents concerning their property or civil status, and may submit various requests to the municipality. The project involves publishing web pages of the Bulgarian municipalities. These pages will help citizens with information for various local services or for receiving and printing tax forms. Because of the high level of unemployment in Bulgaria in such municipalities (like Zlatograd) the Internet access is not a real possibility for all citizens. The project will help for improvement of local services in municipalities with high degree of unemployment.

Interview with the President of the American Agency of the International Development, Bulgaria, Bulgarian TV, 3 February 2002.

Many administrative organizations in Bulgaria have public presentations with their web pages. Some municipalities have already their own pages - examples are www.domino.bg - site of the National Community of Bulgarian Municipalities; www.tzarevo.com - site of the Tzarevo municipality; www.chirpan.com - site of the Chirpan municipality; www.vratsa.com - site of the Vratsa municipality; www.pernik.net - site of the Pernik municipality. The address of Sofia municipality www.sofia.bg is visited by more than 300-400 visitors every day, 25% of them are from abroad. The site provides information for town Sofia, for members of the Sofia municipality, gives access to laws, informs for public services in Sofia area.

www.sofia.bg

The President's site www.president.bg has been updated some weeks ago after the president's elections in Bulgaria. The future perspectives for development of the site are establishing functions for electronic communications president - citizens. Additionally an electronic key will be set for providing to citizens a direct access to the President's Bureau. These e-government services will improve the contact of the President with the people and will lead to development of the democracy.

Call Center technology presents already in Bulgaria. The new opportunity for Sofia citizens for improved services is the Call Center of Bulgarian Telecommunication Company. More than 650000 telephones in Sofia will be served for failures. The e-service is available from November 2001 for all citizens, dialing telephone number 130.

The State Administration Minister Dimitar Kalchev discusses a project as a part of e-government initiative in Bulgaria. The project expects on-line connection between Council of Ministry in Sofia and regional Centers. An optic cable is lying between Sofia and regional centers. The perspective is the regional centers to become front offices with bi-directional connection providing services from one point. The citizens can get various reports, print documents, like custom permissions from that front office. The project will end in 2004.

3. Some obstacles in spreading e-services for Bulgarian citizens.

3.1.The lack of legal documents for sanctions on violation of AEDES.
The lack of punitive measures for computer crimes like discovering personal data and using them for other purposes is an obstruction of the grought of the e-government services.

3.2. Insufficient firm culture in Bulgarian firms.
The computer and financial literacy is law for the average Bulgarian citizen.

3.3. Bad communication infrastructure.
The improvement of the communication infrastructure will increase the number of clients of e-government services. The law quality of Internet access decreases the attractive services and increases their costs. Many Bulgarian organizations have no yet web sites and that way they are not ready for competitive play. The example is for Bulgarian banks (35 banks), 18 of them haven't web sites (January 2001).

The future requirements for state administration bodies are connected with the Council of Ministry - to define the subordinated bodies that are obliget to receive electronic announcement signed electronically and accordingly to apply the e-signature for communication with citizens. For judicial system, banking system, bodies of local government the rules are established by internal regulations.

Timid attempts in Bulgaria are made in some e-government services for people. The existing Bulgarian portals offer finding job, property, school or university. The citizens of Sofia can find in the web-site the form of tax declaration and print it. Nowadays they can't send the form electronically.

4. Administration and e-services.
The positive effects of e-services for administration is reducing the time for services, reducing the paper documents, public view of on-line transactions and respectively limiting the possibility for corruption and intentionally making longer procedures.

The possible application areas of e-government services in short period for Bulgarians are customs - the custom staff may sign electronically checked custom declarations, using smart cards; the tax administration may use e-services for VAT tax declarations and for more than 40 other tax documents.

The progress of information technologies leads to the absolute transition to electronic exchange of documents in the field of government, administration and state organizations. Some critical enablers are the need of increased authority and leadership leading the transition to e-government; enterprise information technology infrastructure; dedicated resources and dependable security products that must be integrated into any e-government plan; government workers with IT and increased project management skills.

References:

Alexandrov, A. (2001). "The Act for e-document and e-signature and banks." .In IDG (Eds.), Banking Information Technologies. Sofia: Vol. Autumn 2001: 36-40.

Georgiev, A. (2001). "Financial e-services - various and flexible." In IDG (Eds.), Accounting & Computers. Sofia: Vol 115: 41.

Gramatikov, M. (2001). "Infrastructure of Public keys in banks." In IDG (Eds.), Banking Information Technologies. Sofia: Vol. Spring 2001: 20-25.

Kaltchev, D. (2001). "E-government will be reality for all soon." In IDG (Eds.), ComputerWorld. Sofia: Vol.34, part II: 4.

Nikolova, M. (2001). "Financial e-services - various and convenient." In IDG (Eds.), Banking Information Technologies. Sofia: Vol. Spring 2001: 27-32.

Vladkov, V. (2002). "Call Center of BTC is removing failures in more than 650000 telephones in Sofia." In IDG (Eds.), ComputerWorld, Sofia: Vol 1: 8.

www.president.bg.