The way to the "digital office" is still a long way in Peiting

Created: 10/26/2022, 6:00 p.m

By: Christopher Peters

On its website, Markt Peiting lists all administrative procedures that can be completed online.

This does not save the way to the town hall in all cases.

© Municipality of Peiting

What about the digitization of the administration in Peiting?

The Junge Union recently wanted to find out with a request to the town hall.

The answer shows that even in 2022, going to the authorities will still be a very similar matter in many cases.

Peiting – The city of Schongau recently received an award that is intended to show that the administration takes digitization seriously.

It was awarded the “Digital Office” label by the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs.

Municipalities have to offer at least 50 online services for citizens in order to be able to decorate themselves with the plaque on the town hall.

In Peiting, you have so far looked in vain for such a sign, although in the market town citizens have long been able to "mouse into the town hall", as it says on the municipal website.

The Bayern portal, which serves as the central contact point for digital administrative procedures in Bavaria, lists 31 digital services.

However, this is significantly less than in Schongau, where more than 70 online procedures are now available.

JU asked questions about digitization

The local branch of the Junge Union in Peiting recently noticed that there is still plenty of room for improvement in the digitization of the administration.

The JU immediately sent the community a whole catalog of questions on the current status and future plans.

“Digitization is an indispensable topic for the future.

The municipal administration will also have to face the issue in order to unite citizen service and administration in the future," said JU local chairman Thomas Lothar Grauf (we reported).

Stefan Kort does not want to contradict that at all.

If it were up to the manager, one would have made much progress in terms of digital administrative procedures.

From Kort's point of view, there are many reasons why this is not the case, as he explains in his answer to the JU.

In the meantime, the federal government has also recognized that Germany urgently needs to catch up in this area and has enacted the Online Access Act.

This means that authorities must in principle also offer their services digitally by the end of 2022.

But as is so often the case, Kort criticizes that everything has not been thought through to the end.

"There is a lack of continuous processes"

On closer inspection, many of the offers that a municipality can buy from municipal software providers turned out to be digitized versions of an analogue form that, although sent to the administration online, still had to be processed manually there.

"There is a lack of end-to-end processes." Because the citizen can communicate with the municipality in this way, but not with him, there is only the postal way for a legally effective answer.

Then there would be the costs.

There is now a funding program with which the Free State supports the municipalities in the acquisition of digital service solutions.

After two years, however, the municipalities would have to pay for the license costs themselves.

Another big problem from Kort's point of view: To date, there is no possibility of a digital signature.

Which means that, for example, you can pre-register your move online with the municipality, but you can't avoid going to the town hall to get the necessary signature, says the manager.

Data protection makes everything very complicated in Germany.

Other countries like Austria or Estonia are much more advanced, says Kort.

Even the Ukrainian refugees were amazed at the German bureaucracy.

"They couldn't believe what we still do on paper."

The managing director also believes that there is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to user-friendliness.

This starts with the administrative language used on the portals, which often has a rather deterrent effect.

And anyone who has ever tried to set up a citizen account with all the relevant certificates knows that there is simply another way.

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Use of the online services is limited

It is therefore not surprising for Kort that the use of municipal online services has so far been limited.

In the past, the most frequently asked question was the possibility of applying for a polling card in this way.

Those who need a birth or death certificate are also increasingly choosing the digital route.

According to the managing director, the online registration for a day care center place has also proven itself.

This is an example of a well implemented solution.

"The employee can work with the data immediately."

Kort would therefore also wish for more such solutions in order to further expand the online offer of the market for the citizen.

It could therefore well be that one or the other online service will be added in the near future.

"But it also has to make sense and not just be about claiming funding."

You can find more current news from the region around Schongau at Merkur.de/Schongau.