Today in Sarajevo, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) presented a digital solution for the use of e-signatures in public services to the officials of the Federation of BiH and cantonal ministries and institutions.
On this occasion, the Director of the USAID Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Courtney Chubb, pointed out that the use of electronic signatures will make life easier for all citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Just imagine a scenario where you are sitting in your home and with one click you can fill out your tax form, as well as take out your traffic or building permit, marriage certificate and all those documents for which you now have to go to different institutions. All this will be enabled with e-signature, which will bring about a change in the mentioned systems. Citizens have been waiting for this for a long time in order to avoid wasting time and standing in queues,” said Chubb.
In order for the use of e-signatures to work, she emphasized, the goodwill and participation of all levels of government, from cantonal to national, is needed.
“Today we welcome the initiative taken by the municipalities of Tešanj and Centar Sarajevo, which were the first to adopt the technology required for the application of e-signatures,” said Chubb.
The fact that steps were taken backward in the process of applying the e-signature system is seen in the moves by the BiH Council of Ministers which failed to pass all the necessary laws for the e-signature to enter into force. That, as she says, goes against the interests of BiH citizens.
“However, this will by no means discourage USAID from continuing to support the use of e-signature. I hope that we will wait to see success, which means that every citizen of this country gets the opportunity to get all official documents and submit requests from their home, car and in the place they want and at the time they want,” said Chubb.
Today’s event was organized as part of USAID’s E-Government project, the implementation of which intensively works on the development of the latest digital solutions in the areas of e-signatures, inspection services, building permits and public procurement processes, Fena news agency reports.
