Budget funds for "e-government" increase by 443% in 6 years

2025-01-03 13:36:00, Ekonomi CNA

The digital infrastructure under the heading "e-governance" is increasing the weight of financing from public funds. In the 2025 budget, about 12.5 billion ALL (125 million euros) are planned to be financed for this program. This amount is 40 percent higher than the fund programmed in the initial 2024 budget and 9% higher than the second normative act.

In 2018, funding for e-government was 2.3 billion ALL. In the last 6 years, the financing of digital public services has increased by 443 percent.

In the initial budget of this year, the funds for "e-governance" were programmed at the level of 8.6 billion ALL, while with the changes that were made with two normative acts, the funding for "e-governance" is currently 11.5 billion ALL.

Digital infrastructure is becoming as important and vital as physical infrastructure, roads, water and energy. Now that most government services are provided online and can be accessed from smart phones, the government on the other hand is increasing spending on these services.

Official data from the Ministry of Finance show that from 2016 to 2024, more than 42 billion lek, about 400 million euros, were financed for e-albania systems. Annual funding in e-albania infrastructure ranks fourth in line after public investments in road, maritime and water transport.

However, when a multitude of services are provided online, citizens remain exposed to corruption and non-receipt of service. The lack of interaction between institutions makes it impossible to receive documents on time, and services remain suspended for months. On the other hand, the general public still has limited knowledge about the use of these services, and on the other hand, transparency remains a problem because digital infrastructure products are less tangible.

The National Agency of the Information Society reports that 1245 electronic services are offered on the government portal e-albania, in which 63 electronic systems interact.

Our nation's public digital infrastructure has proven fragile as a series of cyber attacks have exposed citizens' confidential data several times in recent years, from identification documents to bank accounts.

A United Nations UNDP survey showed that in 2022, the vast majority of respondents over 90% reported that they were aware that the government provides electronic services through the e-albania portal. However, less than half of them about 47 reported that they can connect to the e-albania portal without the help of others. The percentage of respondents who described the services as functional, easy to use and efficient on time was lower in 2022 than in 2021./ Monitor Magazine