State Secretary Markus Richter to make public authorities more digital

When it comes to digitalization, optimism rarely sets in in Germany. Markus Richter has to spread it by virtue of his office, he is Germany's "Chief Information Officer", CIO for short. And since this position does not officially exist, the 46-year-old lawyer still bears the somewhat more ordinary title of State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. His task: to free the administration in Germany from faxes and make them more digital.

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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In this area, he may soon be able to record a stage victory: According to the current state of planning, the federal government will pass the newly issued "Online Access Act" (OZG) at the end of May, which is intended to bring new momentum to administrative digitization. Pure legislation should not be the end of the story, a lot also has to change operationally: the federal, state, local and all ministries are called upon to actually implement the digital solutions. The Cabinet also wants to deal with this practical approach.

Which would outline the biggest problem: If it were only up to Richter himself, the German administration would have been digitized long ago. The federal government, however, is not responsible for many areas: identity cards, driver's licenses, vehicle registration, the allocation of daycare places – the municipalities have to take care of that. And unlike in other countries, there is not just one office in Germany, but 5000 registration authorities, all of which store their own data. "We are not failing to create digital offerings, we are failing at the processes and structures in this country." This is the view of Ann Cathrin Riedel, member of the Federal Government's Digital Council and Managing Director of Next e.V., a network of experts for the digital transformation of administration. The association was co-founded by Richter in 2018.

Failed at the first attempt

Cutting a digital swath through this thicket is not an easy task. The first attempt has already failed: By the end of 2022, 575 federal, state and local services should also be available online in Germany. Since then, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has been working on a new edition of the legal requirement, i.e. on an OZG 2.0. Internally, some details are still being fine-tuned, but soon it will take the usual course of the legislative process.

For Richter, this would be a good opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief. The fact that the state is failing to achieve its own goals was also unpleasant for him. At the end of the year, it fueled speculation as to whether Richter would also have to vacate his chair with the tearing of the targets. The fact that he has lasted so long at all is at least unusual in the political circus. After all, he came into office in mid-2020, not only at the beginning of the Corona pandemic, but also during the time of the black-red government. At that time, the CSU politician Horst Seehofer was still his boss, and the coalition's digital strategy was very different from today. When the traffic light coalition took over the reins of government in the fall of 2021, one could have imagined other people in this post. The new Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser (SPD), however, held on to him. An unusual vote of confidence and a sign that Richter is appreciated by many different sides with his uncomplicated manner.