I-W AYS, I-Ways Journal of E-Government Policy and Regulation 31 (2008) 147–152 147 IOS Press E-Government Developments Bulgaria Adopts Revolutionary E-Governance Act George Dimitrov Law Firm Dimitrov, Petrov and Co, Sofia, Bulgaria E-mail: george.dimitrov@dpc.bg On November 23, 2007 in the National Assem- bly of the Republic of Bulgaria was tabled the bill of the E-Governance Act (EGA) see website www.parliament.bg/bills/40/602-01-105rtf, which is intended to govern the activity of the administra- tive bodies when working with electronic documents, the provision of electronic administrative services and electronic documents exchange between administrative bodies. Aiming to provide high quality service to cit- izens the scope of the Act encompasses also the per- sons carrying out public functions and organizations providing public services unless otherwise specified in the Act. EGA entered into force on the June 13, 2008. The EGA is a revolutionary act, aiming at reforming substantially the activity of the administrative bodies through implementing information and communication technologies and at turning the public administration to better serving citizens. Such reform could be achieved by overall rearrangement of all business processes in Bulgaria and change of the basic principles, which gov- ern the work of the public administration. With reference to implementation of the reform EGA identifies three main groups of relations: 1. relations related to the provision of electronic ad- ministrative services to citizens; 2. relations related to internal exchange of informa- tion and documents and the workflow of paper and electronic documents; and 3. relations related to the automated exchange of electronic documents between administrative bodies. Principles Aiming to achieve its main goals EGA introduces three fundamental principles: Principle of one-time data collection and data creation This principle means that administrative bodies, per- sons carrying out public functions and organizations providing public services are not allowed to request from any person to present or produce evidence of al- ready collected or created data, respectively to present documents, being already collected or created by an- other administrative body. The principle of one-time data collection and data creation implies the obligation that these data, respectively documents be obtained ex officio from the body,which by virtue of law will collect or create such data for the first time and will thereafter amend or erase such data. Principle of ex-officio notification The second fundamental principle of EGA refers to the obligation of any administrative body that first cre- ates or collects data about a citizen (“primary admin- istrator”) to send these data ex officio to any adminis- trative body, person carrying out public functions and organization providing public services, which lawfully keep such data and have requested an update. ISSN 1084-4678/08/$17.00  2008 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved