Basanta Thapa: Construction sites of administrative digitisation

About Basanta Thapa

Basanta Thapa researches, networks, and communicates as the managing director of the National E-Government Competence Center in Berlin, focusing on public administration digitalization. His research specialty is data-driven administration.

He studied social and economic sciences at the universities of Münster and Potsdam and has conducted research at the Public IT Competence Center of Fraunhofer FOKUS, the Hertie School of Governance, the European Research Center for Information Systems, and Tallinn University of Technology.

Mr. Thapa, what are the responsibilities of the NEGZ, and why is your work important?

The NEGZ (Visit Website) connects key players in German administrative digitalization across sectors – business, government, academia, and civil society – on neutral ground to foster dialogue. This is extremely valuable in a field where no one can act alone, but where political and business interests often dominate the conversation. We organize various formats, from traditional conferences to virtual brown-bag meetings and self-organized working groups.

Through workshops and short studies funded by our membership contributions, we also aim to provide thought and action-oriented impulses to decision-makers. We’ve found that understanding problems and solution options fully requires combining many different perspectives.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 = very poor, 10 = excellent), how would you rate the status of digital transformation in German administration?

I’d give us a 4. In recent years – compared to the previous decades – a lot has moved forward with the OZG (Online Access Act). Given the huge sums mobilized, though, I see much room for improvement in implementation efficiency. Too often, standards and platforms are lacking, and the same problem is solved from scratch across the country in time-consuming, manual processes.

What are the three biggest challenges in administrative digitalization that you encounter in your work?

Registry modernization, standards, and political management.

Digitalization becomes exciting when data flows seamlessly through processes – even across organizational boundaries. For this, we need registry modernization in administration. Digitalization becomes disruptive when solutions built once can be used millions of times. Scaling requires standards, particularly concerning data and process interfaces. There is a lot of inconsistency in Germany, which massively multiplies implementation effort.

Registry modernization and standard-setting ultimately depend on political management: Can we reach agreement within federal structures? Can we mobilize enough political capital for this? This is the Gordian knot that needs to be untied.

What are the biggest obstacles blocking digital innovation in public administration?

Established structures and diffused responsibilities. No matter what digital innovations we want in German administration, we encounter existing systems and the legacy of past decisions. The immense challenge is how to transition into sustainable structures without system failures or exorbitant renovation costs. Responsibility diffusion affects us in multiple ways: when it’s unclear who needs to be involved, I include as many actors as possible.

This not only massively increases governance effort but also leads to diluted decisions. Conversely, little is learned from bad decisions because no one is really accountable for the consequences. Taken together, the most rational approach is often to delay necessary changes as long as possible – to the detriment of everyone.

What advice would you give decision-makers to advance innovation despite these obstacles?

Innovation doesn’t come from buzzwords. AI, blockchain – none of it matters. Use simple solutions that fit the problem. Use standards. Copy rather than reinvent. Learn from others and network, for example, through the NEGZ.

Where do you see the future of administrative digitalization?

I hope we find a platform-based approach with competition and innovation within agreed, interoperable standards, with clear decision-making and implementation structures so that translating political decisions into digital administrative action becomes a matter of days rather than months.

Dystopian scenario: What happens if we fail in administrative digitalization? Describe your personal nightmare scenario and how we can avoid it.

My nightmare scenario is a standstill and decline in administrative digitalization, with various political-economic interests and technical debt becoming intertwined. Instead of new developments, we end up keeping decades-old software running with hasty patches, and missing interfaces are shakily bridged by RPA robots. Everything works somehow, but neither civil servants nor citizens have a positive user experience. The only way to avoid this is through a reorganization of governance structures with a greater drive toward decision-making, as constructive collaboration in the federal system has unfortunately always been finite.