Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Transformation Sebastian Burduja said in Alba Iulia that from July the civil servants who ask citizens to produce hard copies of documents issued by Romanian state institutions or ring binders will face disciplinary investigation, according to Agerpres.

„The law that I initiated as a lawmaker and that has reached maturity, was voted on by the Parliament and promulgated by President Iohannis, set bans on central and local public administrations and on institutions of public law – universities, utility companies. What bans are we talking about? They are no longer allowed to request hard copies of documents issued by Romanian state institutions, they are not allowed to keep photocopiers on the premises of their institutions, (…), they are not allowed to request ring binders any longer or any other office supplies. You might say that it is a minor yet symbolic matter…,” Burduja told a news conference.

He added that there is a six-month implementation deadline.

„So, from July citizens who get such a request from officials can point to the provisions of the law, and the asking officials will be guilty of violating the law. So, they can face disciplinary investigation and, depending on how serious the offence is, whether or not intentional, further steps can be taken,” said Burduja.

To a journalist who said that at the moment it might be impossible to implement this law in some institutions as there may be no digital circuit between certain departments, the minister pointed out that public procurement procedures have been launched for the creation of a governmental cloud, which it will also include a national interoperability platform.

„The interoperability law, also passed by Parliament and promulgated, includes for the first time penalties to be faced by the institutions that do not interconnect their databases. It is true, it will not be possible in the short term. At the same time, the institutions that still keep physical archives instead of asking the citizens for hard copies, they will take the documents issued by the Romanian state, the original documents, and their officials will make the copies. (…) It is a small gain. But until we solve the technical side, the governmental cloud, the interoperability platform, life will be a little better for the citizens, in the sense that the state makes the copies according to the documents issued by the state itself (…),” said Burduja.

He added that 2026 is the deadline under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for the operationalisation of this governmental cloud, but that the first data centre and the first cloud applications are expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

„But in order for the Romanians to actually feel that they no longer have to chase counters, 2026 is a reasonable time horizon,” said Sebastian Burduja on working visit to Alba County on Friday.

Agerpres