Public Sector

The mediation procedure for the OZG has been decided and we finally have a settlement proposal. The digitalisation of public administration in Germany must now be driven forward quickly. However, a law alone is not enough. We need the genuine political will to adapt our state and its administration to the challenges of our time.

The LMUDigiTax conference on the digitisation of tax law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich took place in mid-March for the third year in a row. This year, the focus was on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in taxation, improvements in digital tax enforcement and the fully automated taxation of employees. As experts in the fields of tax digitisation and digitisation of legislation, mgm was there as a conference participant.

The Zukunftskongress Staat und Verwaltung will take place from June 24-26. At the leading event for digital Germany, which deals with the challenges and opportunities of digitalization and technological innovations in public administration, mgm is once again represented this year with three contributions on the topics of low code, OZG and register modernization.

We are delighted to have once again been nominated for the eGovernment Readers' Choice Award in the Consultant category. Having already been honoured with the Platinum Award three times in a row, we naturally want to defend the title again this year. You can easily help us by voting for mgm in the Consultant category.

The digitalisation of public administration is rapidly gaining momentum in Schleswig-Holstein. With the OZG Cloud, the federal state has not only implemented an efficient tool for processing online applications without media discontinuity, but has also taken on a pioneering role in the nationwide digitalisation landscape.

In order to be fail-safe, easy to maintain and flexibly expandable, the OZG application portal of the chambers of tax consultants relies on a microservice architecture and operation in a Kubernetes cluster. We take a look at the technical implementation of the software.

Despite recognisable progress, the digitalisation of administrative services in Germany is lagging behind the expectations of the population. By the end of 2023, only 81 out of 581 services had been implemented online. More than two-thirds (404) have not been digitalised – Digitale Verwaltung not found, one might say. The OZG Amendment Act was passed to kickstart the digitalisation process.

Dealing with the authorities at the click of a mouse - the implementation of the OZG should make this easier. However, the digital reorganisation of public administration has not only stalled with the expiry of the OZG deadline. With the "OZG Amendment Act", we are lagging behind in sporting terms - and already in injury time. What is needed above all is a radical rethink at state level, a review of tasks in the provision of services for the municipal level and a technical basis as a foundation.

The OZG-Cloud is a pioneering project to advance the digitalization of administration in Germany. The platform, which was commissioned by the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the IT-Verbund Schleswig-Holstein (ITV.SH) and developed under an open source license, offers local authorities the opportunity to process applications from online services. The advantages: Reduction of workload, collaboration option between individual municipalities and forwarding of digital applications to specialist processes. The connection to the OZG cloud also means less work for IT specialists.

The OZG programme management coordinates the implementation of the OZG and directs the various activities and resources to ensure that authorities work together efficiently and that digital services are provided to citizens. To ensure that this is realised in the best possible way, mgm is supporting the responsible ministry of a northern German federal state in managing the state's OZG programme and thus implementing the Online Access Act.