German Federal Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner, together with the responsible civil servants, have announced the creation of a joint steering committee for digitalizing the federal administration. The task is in good hands. Dr. Markus Richter, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) and Federal Government Commissioner for Information Technology, and Werner Gatzer, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) responsible for the federal budget, are two highly experienced officials who share the unusual experience of working for ministers of various parties. With this new committee, the German federal government is continuing the vital modernization of administration set out in the coalition agreement. SVA’s public sector specialists are looking forward to continued collaboration.

The aim of the steering committee is to combine and coordinate the responsibilities of the interior and finance ministries, some of which are shared or complement one another. Previously, an organizational decree from the Chancellor gave the BMI strategic control of federal-level IT and the Federal IT Council. Prior to last year’s parliamentary elections, a series of initiatives by industry and interest associations in the digital economy, in which SVA is involved, called for the organization and control of the digitalization of the federal administration to be streamlined. Most recently, the Berlin Digital Initiative specified the relevant steps in benchmarks, together with the GSOED.

As a strong partner to the federal government, SVA is helping to modernize and consolidate IT through several framework agreements. It is hoped that modernizing IT at the federal level will also inspire similar projects at administrative authorities throughout Germany. Here too, SVA is involved in several pioneering projects. John Harde, Head of Consulting Public Sector at SVA, says: “The current steps toward improving governance provide an opportunity to combine the many positive examples and successful individual projects into a positive whole soon, and give new momentum to the digitalization of public administration in Germany.”

In addition, State Secretary Richter announced online that the steering committee will also serve to accelerate digitally sovereign infrastructure, including issues such as multi-cloud and open-source solutions. SVA has been actively cooperating with leading developers in this area for many years with its own contributions, and enjoys the highest partner status. It has successfully established several use cases in the public sector.