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Reform Support
Supporting Public Administration Reform in Bulgaria

Supporting reforms to reinforce efficient and high quality public administrations

Funding Programme
Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP)
Year
2019

Supporting Public Administration Reform in Bulgaria 

The Commission supported the Administration of the Council of Ministers for the administrative reform with three specific actions. A functional review led to recommendations for better organisation, coordination and accountability of the central administration. A redesign of five life events and respective draft legal amendments helped their digitalisation. The design of performance indicators will enable the monitoring of the reform.  

Context 

The project contributed to the implementation of the national strategy for administrative modernisation. It addressed the public administration challenges flagged in the European Semester, such as high administrative burden, weakness in the coordination and the policy making process. The project helped overcome some difficulties and delays with the digitisation of administrative services. This will allow the country to advance with the implementation of the Digital Agenda, and the European Interoperability framework, as well as with meeting its obligations for the Digital Single Gateway. 

Support delivered 

The experts carried out a comprehensive review of the central administration organisation, looking into the compliance of the allocated functions and competencies with the model, defined in the Administration Act. The team carried out an extensive review of the national strategic documents and indicators to propose a relevant performance framework (5 focus area, 17 focus sub-areas, and 73 indicators). In collaboration with the beneficiary, the team collected data for 2018-2020. It organised two capacity-building events. For the redesign of life events, the project team mapped the “as-is” state of the administrative services and through a series of workshops with the beneficiary and stakeholders, prepared a list of optimisations.  

Results achieved 

The functional review provided evidence about the current organisation of the central administration and highlighted the deviations from the general model. The project team identified options for a more coherent functional distribution and proposed the introduction of an “institutional test” to guide the future organisational decisions. The performance framework allows the Administration of the Council of Ministers to illustrate the difference aspects on its open data portal (link below). The proposed “to-be” state of the life events was complemented by draft legal amendments and a high-level implementation plan.  

More about the project 

You can read the official report in Bulgarian here: