Podcast 🎧 & blog: Coping with bureaucracy takes continuous practice

By Federico Plantera

Bureaucracy – everybody’s favourite colleague. A structure that ensures governance, compliance, and stability, however, at the cost of efficiency and agility.  

Is bureaucracy a necessary evil? No need to wonder anymore, in this episode of the Podcast with Margus Sarapuu, Senior Expert at e-Governance Academy. Seasoned in public sector innovation, he comes from the recent experience with Estonia’s Zero Bureaucracy initiative, within a wider framework of real-time economy plans taking place across the EU. 

Here, we shed light on how digital transformation can help governments cut red tape, enhance efficiency, and drive economic growth by addressing the details that matter. However, this also highlights the differences across the globe in how this is done. 

Why Bureaucracy Exists – And Why It Needs Reform 

Bureaucracy plays an essential role in structuring governments and ensuring accountability, but its rigid processes often create unnecessary administrative burdens.  

“Bureaucracy is often perceived negatively, but it exists for a reason. It provides order, legal certainty, and ensures checks and balances in government operations,” Sarapuu begins with. “However, over time, layers of rules and reporting requirements accumulate, leading to inefficiencies.” 

Historically, governments have swung between expanding and contracting bureaucracy – what Sarapuu calls the “pendulum effect.” In times of economic or political shifts, governments may introduce new regulations and oversight mechanisms, which later become obsolete but remain in place. This continuous layering of regulations creates inefficiencies, making it harder for businesses and citizens to navigate government processes. 

However, many of these inefficiencies stem from a failure to regularly assess whether regulations remain relevant in a rapidly evolving technological and economic landscape. With digital transformation, governments have an opportunity to reassess and restructure bureaucratic processes, removing outdated layers while ensuring that essential regulatory oversight remains intact. 

“Digitalisation should not aim to eliminate bureaucracy entirely but rather to make it smarter and less intrusive,” Sarapuu says. 

The Zero Bureaucracy Initiative 

Estonia’s Zero Bureacracy initiative represents, in this sense, a progressive approach to reforming government operations. The initiative takes, in fact, a “rethink and redesign” approach.  

“One of the key lessons from Estonia is that digital transformation should not just mean moving existing processes online. We asked: What can we remove? What reports do businesses submit that no one reads? What approvals exist that add no real value? Zero Bureaucracy is about questioning the necessity of every administrative process and eliminating unnecessary steps.” 

A major success of this initiative has been automating routine reporting for businesses and reducing redundant data submissions. An intuitive, yet extremely impactful change, set to save businesses millions of euros annually in compliance costs. 

All of this happens while, across Europe, a Real-Time Economy framework is being put in place, seeking to eliminate delays in government data processing. Instead of relying on periodic reports, businesses and public institutions should exchange data in real time, enabling proactive decision-making and faster service delivery. The result is a more responsive, adaptive government that aligns its operations with economic activities as they unfold. 

But the initiative also highlights the importance of standardising data formats and ensuring that different government departments and private sector entities can seamlessly exchange information. By adopting interoperable systems and building capacity among technical personnel – both essential to achieving this goal, countries can streamline administrative processes, reduce errors, and improve overall efficiency. 

Data-Driven Decision-Making and Cross-Border Impact 

Looking ahead, Sarapuu sees data governance and automation as the next frontiers in reducing bureaucracy. The future of efficient governance lies in risk-based enforcement, where AI and predictive analytics help governments identify potential compliance risks without burdening businesses with excessive reporting requirements. 

“Governments should move towards intelligent regulation – using data to identify where risks exist, rather than imposing blanket reporting requirements on everyone. If data-sharing can replace unnecessary forms, then citizens and businesses will experience a much lighter administrative burden,” Sarapuu points out. 

And beyond domestic efficiency, digital tools can also enable cross-border interoperability, allowing businesses and citizens to interact more seamlessly across national boundaries. Data-sharing frameworks must be developed in this direction to facilitate regional cooperation. 

“Interoperability means that different IT systems and institutions can communicate effortlessly. If a business in one country expands to another, it should not have to go through redundant bureaucratic hurdles – its digital records should be automatically recognised. The EU’s work on the Digital Single Market is a step in this direction, but there is still progress to be made,” he notes. 

One example of successful interoperability is e-invoicing between businesses and governments, which has simplified VAT reporting and financial compliance. By standardising data formats (as above) and enabling cross-border recognition of digital identities, countries can reduce the bureaucratic burden on businesses and promote economic growth. 

Rethinking Bureaucracy as a Continuous Practice 

The lesson here is that bureaucracy must be dynamic – adapting to changing technological capabilities and economic realities. Instead of waiting for crises to trigger reforms, governments should adopt continuous evaluation mechanisms to assess and streamline their processes. 

“If left unchecked, bureaucracy expands. Then, at some point, governments realise they need to cut back, often through efficiency programmes. The key challenge is maintaining a balance: keeping necessary oversight without stifling innovation and efficiency,” Sarapuu concludes. 

In the form of takeaways, we see that: 

• Bureaucracy should not be eliminated but optimised
  Digital transformation should focus on reducing unnecessary administrative burdens while maintaining accountability. 
• The “Zero Bureaucracy” approach works
  Estonia’s success shows that systematically questioning and removing redundant processes leads to significant efficiency gains. 
• Interoperability is essential
  Cross-border recognition of digital identities and business records streamlines economic activities and fosters growth. 
• The pendulum effect is real
  Governments must proactively review regulations to avoid excessive complexity and inefficiencies. 
• Data-driven decision-making is the future
  AI and automation can help governments enforce regulations without excessive red tape. 

As digital tools continue to reshape governance, governments must remain adaptive and willing to rethink their administrative frameworks. So that with the right policies, governments can cut red tape without cutting corners, ensuring a more efficient, transparent, and responsive public sector for businesses and citizens alike. 

Interested in more?  

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