Is cooperation possible between public administration?

Transcription

1 Reengineering of Business Statistics Is cooperation possible between public administration? Instituto Nacional de Estatística October 2007

2 Innovative Projects Government considers that public services should be at the service of citizens and companies, who must not be burdened with bureaucratic requirements with no added value to the quality of the service (Programme of the 17th Portuguese Government). Ministry of Justice has endeavoured to develop innovative projects for citizens and companies, integrated in the larger Simplex Program (National Governmental Program for Administrative and Legislative Simplification).

3 Empresa na Hora (On the Spot Firm) Launched on July 14, 2005, On the Spot Firms were created until the end of September. The On the Spot Firms represents approximately 62% of the commercial companies monthly incorporated in Portugal. For those who form an On the Spot Firm there is already a domain address for the website and for the . Since July 2006, those who create an On the Spot Firm may immediately join an arbitration centre.

4 On-line publication of company s acts Since January 1, 2006, the acts referring to companies no longer have to be published in the National Gazette ( Diário da República ). Today, the company acts are published on the Ministry of Justice s website The publications are quicker and cheaper. The companies save up to 15 to 17 Millions /year.

5 Empresa on-line (Online company incorporation) Launched in mid-2006, the incorporation of companies over the Internet is possible thanks to the use of digital authentication and signature certificates. Empresa on-line can currently be used by lawyers and solicitors and by all Portuguese citizens who hold a Citizen's Card with a digital certificate. Up to the end of September 2007, 605 companies had been incorporated using this system.

6 Certidão permanente (Permanent certificate) Companies using this service cannot be required by any public or private body to present a paper certificate when this certificate is already online. Permanent Certificates can be requested over the internet ( / or at a registry office and subscribers are provided with a code that permits access to registry information which they can give to whoever they choose. Since December 2006, Permanent Certificates have been issued.

7 Marca on-line (Online Trademark Service) On December 22, 2006, the Marca Online service was launched, offering any citizen, company or institution the opportunity to request the registration of a trademark, apply for certification of a trademark and pay to renew the registration of a trademark via the Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Intelectual website. Until the end of September, online requests for trademark were made. These numbers mean that 76% of all requests were made online.

8 Cartão de Cidadão (Citizen s Card) A new ID card: incorporates a person's civil ID number, tax payer number, health service number and social security number all in one. A true certificate of citizenship: physical document (to identify a person visually) and a digital document (to identify and authenticate someone electronically when dealing with public and private agencies via the use of digital certification). Launched in February 2007, was first issued in the Autonomous Region of the Azores. The introduction of the process into continental Portugal and Madeira should be completed by the middle of

9 Casa Pronta (Fast-Track Home Buying Scheme) The main aims of Casa Pronta (Fast-Track Home Buying Scheme) are: To eliminate formalities and bureaucracy during the transfer and assignment of real estate; To complete all the necessary procedures in a one stop shop (celebrating a contract, paying taxes, registering property, etc). Casa Pronta was launched in June 2007 in 5 municipalities. After an experimental phase, which should be concluded by the end of 2007, the scheme will be rolled out nationwide.

10 Cooperation between public administration These projects were performed by public services: - Justice Departments: Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN, IP); Institute of the Information Technology of the Ministry of Justice (ITIJ, IP), Legal Policy and Planning Office (DGPJ). And users: - On July 2005, the Commission for the Simplification of registry and notary acts was established. The Commission integrates employers confederation, companies association, Trade-Unions association, DECO (Consumers association), public associations.

11

12 Informação Empresarial Simplificada IES Informação Empresarial Simplificada IES (Simplified Business Information) was launched on April 30, 2007.

13 What is IES? IES is a new way of reporting information in which enterprises can submit compulsory accounting, fiscal and statistical data online and entirely paper free. IES permits the fulfilment of 4 different legal obligations in one single moment and before one body only. Decree-Law No. 8/2007, of January 17 Executive Order No. 208/2007, of February 16

14 Up until now, companies and sole enterpreneurs were obliged to provide the same information about their annual accounts to different government agencies and public services, by using different procedures: 1) Filling and registering annual accounts at a commercial registry office; 2) Submitting an annual accounting and fiscal declaration to the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration; 3) Submitting annual accounting information to the Statistics Portugal (INE) for statistical purposes; 4 legal obligations, 1 electronic submission 4) Submitting information relating to annual accounting data to the Portuguese Central Bank for statistical treatment.

15 4 legal obligations, 1 electronic submission With the creation of IES, all the accounting data that companies and sole entrepreneurs need to provide for fiscal, statistical and annual accounting register is submitted in one single moment and before one body only, using electronic means and a totally dematerialized procedure. Four obligations can now be fulfilled with the electronic submission of web forms and using the Internet ( and

16 Benefits of IES: greater simplicity for companies By submitting the web forms electronically, companies comply, at once, with four different legal obligations. - Documents no longer need to be presented in person or in paper format. Compulsory accounting, fiscal and statistical information is submitted online, entirely paper free. - Companies save on travel costs and on the creation of documents in different formats to report the same information to four separate government agencies / public services.

17 Benefits of IES: cheaper and simpler deposit of annual accounts One of the obligations fulfilled with the submission IES is the register of annual accounts at a commercial registry office. - Up until IES, several documents had to be presented in person and in paper format to register annual accounts at a commercial registry office. - With IES, the entire process runs automatically. The webforms submitted online collect all the relevant information concerning the documents that need to be deposited at the commercial registry office.

18 Additionally: Benefits of IES: cheaper and simpler deposit of annual accounts - The text for the publication of the commercial registry act is generated automatically and is immediately published on the Ministry of Justice s website - All companies that register the deposit of their annual accounts with IES are attributed an access code to the Permanent Certificate, valid for 1 year. This means that these companies will not need to request any paper certificates during 2007.

19 Benefits of IES: a more competitive and transparent economy More information about Portuguese companies is available with IES, increasing transparency in the Portugues market. -Itissimpler to obtain data regarding the Portuguese market, as information is available online and is obtainable by requesting an annual account certificate about any enterprise that has submitted IES. - The information is more up-to-date, as it is promptly available to whoever needs to find out about a business enterprise, evaluate its results and the risks associated with its business.

20 Benefits of IES: statistical information IES provides a more realiable and complete perspective of the development of Portuguese economy. - The compilation of company data in digital format means it can be handled automatically and used for statistical ends. - Instead of being based on a sample, statistics can be produced from the universe of the enterprises acting in Portugal. - The immediate transmission of the collected data to Statistics Portugal and the Portuguese Central Bank means that statistics can be produced and provided earlier in the year.

21 Results of IES The deadline for the submission of IES ended on September 16: * IES files have been submitted by companies and sole entrepeneurs * register of annual accounts have been filed, paid and published (in 2006, only enterprises registered the deposit of their annual accounts, which represents an increase of 390,86%). Around annual account certificates were requested online. Provisional numbers.

22 How was it possible? - Political commitment - IES was one of the measures announced by the Prime Minister at the Portuguese Parliament on January 27, 2006, when the Simplex Program was presented. - IES became the Number 01 measure of the Simplex Program. - It was publicly assumed that IES was going to be implemented in 2007 for the report of information regarding the 2006 accounts. From that moment on, an announced and scheduled measure had to be executed.

23 How was it possible? - Seizing public expertise - The basic technical principles of IES, the main guidelines of the project and its workflow were established by political staff and public servants. - The development of IES, the details of the workflow and the day-to-day follow up were delivered to a working group. - There was no need to deliver neither the definition of basic issues of IES, nor its main technical development to private companies.

24 How was it possible? - Working Group - A Working Group was established, with representatives of departments of the Ministry of Justice (Institute of Registries and Notaries and Institute of the Information Technology of the Ministry of Justice), Ministry of Finance (Directorate General for Taxes and Customs and Revenues IT Unit), Statistics Portugal and Portuguese Central Bank. - The Group worked together for one year until the implementation of IES, going through every step of the process. And is still working together, monitoring the evolution of IES and already preparing the next year. - The group worked at a technical level but directly coordinated by a member of the political staff of the Secretary of State for Justice.

25 How was it possible? - Use of existing infrastructures - The dematerialized system of IES is based on pre existing platforms: - Webforms are delivered to the Ministry of Finance using the same platform used to deliver tax declarations (Declarações Electrónicas). - The automatic register of annual accounts uses the existing electronic system of the Commercial Registry. There was no need to build new platforms. Just to adapt and develop the existing ones.

26 How was it possible? - Working with the Chartered Accountants - IES has to be submitted by Chartered Accounts. - There are around Chartered Accountants in Portugal who use the Internet to submit declarations for tax purposes. The model of IES was built together with the Chartered Accountants Chamber. - Alongside with the Chartered Accountants, software houses were also involved early in the project, in order to provide the market with the electronic tools that would permit an automatic production of the IES file.

27