Simplification of administrative procedures: the Administrative Effort Index (AEI - IEB)

MINISTRYOF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS

SPAIN

1María Ángeles Martínez, Technical Advisor

Department of Better Regulation

AB Citizens Learning Group - EUPAN,

11 April 2008, Helsinki

1. Simplification Initiatives in Spain

2. AEI - Administrative Effort Index

CONTENT

Simplification Initiatives in Spain: Context

Plan MODERNIZA (2006 – 2008) to Improve the Public Administrations :

Fields: Organization, Civil Service & Relationship with the citizens:

- 24 hours Administration, with particular interest in the e-Administration.

- Simplification of administrative procedures for the citizensSimplification of administrative procedures for the citizens.

- Transparency & participation of the citizens.

Plan AVANZA (2006 – 2010) for the Development of the Information Society

Support of the changes in the rules & actions fostering development of the I.Society

One of its main guidelines: Digital Public ServicesDigital Public Services

Some iniciatives with origin in the abovementioned Plans for a more efficient Administration for the citizens & companies

060 Information Network: citizen-friendly & intercollaborative. Includes offices, telephone & eGovernment portal www.060.es (more than 560 services from all three levels of government reached)

Law 11/2007 on Citizens’ Electronic Access to Public Services. Deadline: 31 dic 2009. Developped by Action Plan; guidelines: Adapt & Simplificate administrative procedures.

Digitales Services with the e-NID: secure identification & authentication, allowing citizens to securely access transactional electronic services.

Reduction of Administrative Burdens. Target: 25% reduction in 20124

Project of the Ministry of Public Administrations:

Catalogue, Analysis & Administrative Simplification of the Procedures

Simplify, modernize & digitalise the administrative procedures more related to citizens & business.

Only one updated database of procedures that enables the interadministrative collaboration.

To measure and reduce the administrative effort that business and citizens make to comply with the rules applied to them.

WEBSITE: internal use only

MAIN TOOLS OF THE PROJECT (I)

SIA: Administrative Information System

• Catalogue of Administrative Procedures (Law 30/1992)

• Reports for each Ministry: using tools of analysis of information that provide feedback for their decission-making.

• IEB: Administrative Effort Index.

• Collaboration Tools: a space for exchanging experiences & best-practices regarding simplification & digitalisation of procedures.

MAIN TOOLS OF THE PROJECT (II)

ARIS: Redesign of Procedures

• Pre-selection of Hight-Impact procedures (about 120 out of the 2,300):

• Citizens & Enterprises

• Social & Economic Activity

• Jobs creation

• Focused on the automatization & modernization of the Administration: reingeneering methodology and common solutions (Law 11/2007). Fields:

- Technology (interoperability, channels, etc.)

- Functions (reduction of activities & bottlenecks, etc.)

- Organization (reduction of Units involved; resources for critical activities)

- Rules (proposals of regulations for a better efficiency of the procedures)

Administrative Effort Index (AEI - IEB)

Administrative Effort Index - AEIDefinition of AEI

A comparative scale that enables the identification of the procedures involving most opportunities for simplification, focusing on those intended for citizens and/or companies.

Provides baseline measures of the “administrative effort” of citizens & enterprises according to internal data of the Administration, in line with the SMC.

Provides different results (absolute/relative), depending on the volume of groups affected.

Selection of Indicators (I)The definition of the AEI is based on a series of indicators grouped into blocks and weighted according to their importance.Assessing the situations that contribute to generating an effort for the citizen / business, the following indicators have been identified:

Load Index Indicators

Volume of documentation to be submitted by the requester (citizen or business)

Average number of visits to the administration

Degree of automation, in terms of processing channels available; Based on e-Administration indicators (Targetisation, Transaction Two/one way interaction, Information, Others )

Number of administrative claims associated with the process compared to the total number of proceedings.

Processing percentage: assessed as the annual processing vs. potential annual processing (potential annual processing= group affected (citizens&businesses) multiplied by the frequency)

Frequency with which the procedure is processed (times per year)

Average time required to process the procedure

Processing time index: the relation between the average time required to process the procedure and the time established by regulation

Assistance available for the interested party - citizen/ business (continuous, during morning and afternoon, morning)

Volume

Group affected, for both citizens and businesses

Selection of Indicators (II): For each of the abovementioned factors, the following have been defined:

Description of the indicator

Responsible for it measurement

– Unit responsible: the information must be entered by the department or body responsible for the procedure

– Procedure information system (SIA): the value of the indicator is obtained based on the information entered in the procedure file

Assessment scale. A scale has been used to assess the indicators on the basis of the measurement range considered.

– Range of the scale: values from 1 (minimum effort) to 10 (maximum effort)– In general, values are assigned according to the scale 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10; that is, with a jump of 2

except for the maximum value, with a view to spacing them out.

Definition of AEI

Definition of AEI

Weighting

Each of these indicators is weighted by means of a definition of weights. Weights have been defined by block or group and individual or absolute weights.

The individual weightings have been defined by entering a new factor: the level of importance, with a range of between 1 and 5 (1 being the minimum and 5 the top level of importance).

IndicatorsWeighting

Level of importance Absolute weighting

Volume of documentation to be submitted by the requester (citizen or business) 5 16,1%

Average number of visits to the administration 5 16,1%

Degree of automation, in terms of processing channels available 5 16,1%

Number of administrative claims associated with the process compared to the total number of proceedings.

1 3,25%

Processing percentage 3 9,7%

Frequency with which the procedure is processed 5 16,1%

Average time required to process the procedure 3 9,7%

Processing time index 3 9,7%

Assistance available for the interested party (citizen or business) 1 3,25%

TOTAL 100%

Definition of AEI

Calculation Rule: Two AEI’s are defined that allow an assessment of the volume of groups affected to be included:

Assessment of individual indicators, without considering the volume of groups affected (Range 0 – 100)

Individual indicators, weighted with the volume of groups affected (Range 0 – 100)

Absolute AEI (AEIa)

Relative AEI (AEI)

CONCLUSSIONS

• This project improves simplification of procedures & administrative collaboration among Ministries, providing better transposition of the European iniciatives regarding eAdministration & modernisation.

• The assessment of the administrative effort is essential when assessing the impact on the economy, employment and society of a citizens’ relations with the Administration and the regulation of the procedures contained in the rules.

Therefore, big interest in exchanging knowledge, experience and good practices with other European countries.

THANK YOU

Any questions?

17

Mª Ángeles Martínez Mingueza

mariaangeles.martinez@map.es

http://www.map.es/iniciativas/reduccion_cargas