Belgium Web Site Helps Gov't Cut Red Tape
By Associated Press
July 1, 2005, 9:49 PM EDT
BRUSSELS, Belgium --
http://www.newsday.com/technology/business/wire/sns-ap-belgium-red-tape,0,1842389.story?coll=sns-ap-technology-headlines
Belgians suffering under a morass of contradictory, complicated or
just plain absurd regulations have for two years had a place to make
their complaints known: a Web site called Kafka set up by their
government.
The rare flash of bureacratic humor has had tangible results: a
savings of $281 million over two years, Belgian officials said Friday.
The site www.kafka.be was set up by the government in 2003,
encouraging individuals and businesses to come up with examples of
needless rules and regulations. It was named after Franz Kafka, the
late Czech-German author who hated irrational authority and whose work
defined the alienated modern world of the 20th century.
This multi-ethnic nation of 10 million has mind-numbingly complex
bureaucratic systems. The country is divided to 589 communes and run
by a national government and six other separate governments
representing the French, Dutch and German language groups and the
Brussels, Waloon and Flanders regions.
The man in charge of the Kafka initiative, Secretary of State for
Administrative Simplification Vincent Van Quickenborne, announced its
results on Friday.
Van Quickenborne said the millions in savings came from "alleviating
some of the administrative burden imposed on citizens and
entrepreneurs."
Based on thousands of complaints, the government eliminated some
outdated rules, such as one concerning the so-called "conform copies."
For two centuries, official documents submitted to authorities had to
be accompanied by a copy issued and stamped by an individual's local
district proving the authenticity of the original.
Another regulation to be abolished by the end of the year is the
obligation to validate a new driver's license with a fiscal stamp -- a
form of an administrative fee -- which can be only purchased at post
offices, Van Quickenborne said.
--
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