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Cutting French red tape
Can it really be done?
Foreign residents in France often complain bitterly about how complicated the administrative system is here – and so do the French!
Well, for some there may be light at the end of the tunnel. The government is in the process of simplifying the whole public services internet system to make it more user-friendly.
Budget minister François Baroin announced last month that he intends to cut down the number of websites the public needs to visit when making declarations of changes in situation. ‘I have decided on a programme of 100 procedures by 2012 to make it possible to inform several administrations at one time of a change of address or to make only one declaration for the loss of your papers,’ the minister declared.
His aim is to to divide the number of existing administration sites by ten.
The spearhead of this reform is the government website www.mon.service-public.fr which already has more than 700,000 users a mere eighteen months after it started.
If you visit the site and choose a user name and a password you can access the services currently available, such as ACOSS (Agence centrale des organismes de Sécurité sociale), CNAF (Caisses d’Allocations Familiales), CNAMTS (Assurance maladie), CDC (Caisse des dépôts), CNAV (Assurance retraite) and MSA (santé du monde agricole).
You can also store copies of identity and other papers securely here, and already you have direct access to the site where you fill in your tax return by internet – 9.7 million people used it in 2009. We are promised that all of the public online services will be linked up by the end of 2011, although some of them will be operational by this autumn.
Previously, when changing your address upon moving house, you had to inform all the services involved like phone, gas and electricity – giving each one the same information. The idea is that you will be able do it all through one web site. In other words, the first administration to be contacted will share the information with others needing the same information.
The objectives of the three year plan are to enable a user or citinaute (citoyen-internaute):
1 to inform several authorities at the same time of changes in their personal information by visiting only one website, and to have fewer but more identifiable and more efficacious websites
2 to apply for housing grants online
3 to simplify procedures when changing schools following a house move
4 to be guided through the procedures of making a formal complaint
5 to create, modify and dissolve an association
6 to declare progress on building permit work being carried out
7 to simplify the tax declaration required when someone dies
8 to have secure online payment facilities for health bills
9 So that businesses or individuals can renew their paperwork online – such as the ‘déclaration d’embauche’ - ten new procedures will be given priority to get this working before the end of 2011
10 to provide a calendar to remind users for example when benefits are likely to be paid, when bills are due, when modifications are made to their situation, and a system whereby users can be notified by SMS or text message when their passports need to be renewed or tax declaration sent in.
11 to be able to use same identifying code and password for all the official websites, which should do away with the nightmare of trying to remember all those passwords. This reform will be called IDéNum for ‘identifiant électronique unique et sécurisé’
12 to make sure consistent service is given and that a different answer is not given every time a user tries a different source for information (and we all have stories to tell about that one!)
13 to provide a way for users to give their opinion of the services they have received
14 to provide a community section where users can ask questions and receive answers from fellow users and from identifiable public service employees.
A full version of this article appeared in the August edition of theFrenchPaper