RIGA, April 22 (LETA) - The task force for cutting red tape presented its proposals to the government on Tuesday, which stipulate simplifying requirements for construction of buildings and registration of companies, as well as development of e-services.

The task force's report lists 21 priority measures in total.

The task force proposes that electronic services provided to businesses be not to be duplicated on paper. To this end, all ministries and agencies responsible to the ministries should identify services that are provided both electronically and in paper form, and take the necessary actions to ensure that such services be provided only electronically.

The task force also proposes that e-addresses be activated automatically for new legal entities upon their registration with the Latvian Register of Enterprises.

Another proposal deals with shortening time limits for processing applications and changing the practice of responding to applications. In particular, replies by public administration institutions will be shortened and simplified, which will facilitate replying to applications faster. To this end, all ministries and government agencies will have to review their practice of replying to applications to shorten their replies with a focus on the substance of the reply.

The task force also proposes accelerating work on administrative rulings and simplification of such rulings. To achieve this, all ministries and agencies will have to review their administrative processes and their timeframes, and accordingly decide on shortening the deadlines for issuing administrative rulings. In addition, the possibility of streamlining notification of a person of a favorable administrative ruling should be examined, believes the task force.

Measures to reduce bureaucracy will also concern road transport: the development of the use of e-services and less paperwork regarding customers' applications, receipt of driver's licenses, test drives of commercial vehicles, registration of new vehicles and others.

Furthermore, the task force proposes to introduce IT solutions in the management of employment measures. For example, the task force proposes abolishing the status of a "jobseeker" and to introduce a single status of "unemployed", thus ensuring equal support and services for all unemployed. According to the task force, this will reduce the time the State Employment Agency staff spends in administering various statuses of the unemployed.

The task force proposes to review the procedure for the organization and implementation of the Employment Agency's measures to make them as universal as possible in order to reduce the time it takes to change the measures in line with changes on the labor market.

It is also proposed to optimize information flows between healthcare institutions and the State Medical Commission for the Assessment of Health Condition and Working Ability, including by ensuring access to the E-Health system for members of the commission.

The report also proposes streamlining operations of the Welfare Ministry's Commission for Social Enterprises by providing that only those social enterprises that are found to be potentially non-compliant are assessed.

Another proposal by the task force for cutting red tape is that public administration institutions should request any information only once, and then disseminate it among themselves, including for tax administration and statistical purposes, in order to reduce the time and costs spent by businesses on submitting such information.

Currently companies have to submit their financial statement to both the Register of Enterprises and the State Revenue Service, and the task force proposes that financial statement be submitted to either the Register of Enterprises or the Revenue Service, and the institutions will exchange all relevant information.

The task force also proposes that apartment owners' associations may be registered as legal entities in order to accelerate renovation of apartment buildings.

Simplification of support provided by Development Finance Institution Altum is also desirable, said the task force. It proposes to simplify and standardize application forms for remote identification of businesses, to streamline due diligence procedures and to streamline requirements for allocation of funding up to EUR 100,000.

It is necessary to reduce the amount of information businesses have to submit by using data and information already available to public authorities, to reduce the frequency of reporting during project implementation, and to eliminate formal monitoring criteria by revising the Cabinet of Ministers' rules for implementation of programs, rather than drawing up new rules for each program to be implemented.

The task force also proposes that if an overpayment or an incorrect payment is ascertained by a state institution, the institution may transfer the amount to the account from which the payment was made, without having to receive a request from the person or company in question.

Another proposal is that persons may register an e-account alongside their official electronic address. At present, in order to receive various social benefits and other payments, a person has to write an application, the sole purpose of which is to inform about the current account to which the benefit is to be transferred.

Automatic transmission of electronic receipts by healthcare institutions to the Revenue Service has also been proposed.

The task force also proposes that all information on occupational safety and health be provided on one website.

In addition, the task force proposes revising, simplifying and digitizing company registration forms.

In order to improve access to new and modern housing, the administrative process for the construction of private houses with an internal area of 150 square meters or less is to be considerably simplified. The task force also proposes simplifying requirements for construction of small buildings of 25 square meters in area or less, as well as construction of residential and ancillary buildings with an internal floor area of 60 square meters or. The regulations will specify the cases when the simplified procedure does not apply, for example, in the historic center of a city, areas with special status, dune protection zones, areas prone to flooding.

The task force also proposes to use machine translation for translating foreign language reports into Latvian and to abolish the requirement for a certificate of accuracy of the machine translation, replacing it with a note that the translation was made using a machine translation tool.

As reported, Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) issued a decree this past March on the establishment of a task force to reduce bureaucracy. The task force is chaired by the State Chancellery Director Raivis Kronbergs, while the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Aigars Rostovskis is the task force's deputy chairman.