From Hildburg Bruns
Check the box, DONE! This is how the black and red Senate team presented themselves on Tuesday at their interim assessment after five months. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that!
Of all places, the citizens’ offices, which are permanently fully booked, are lacking in the promised turbo acceleration.
It was announced as a new online offer that Berliners would be able to fill out registration certificates automatically and download them free of charge from October onwards. That alone could make 130,000 visits to the citizens’ office unnecessary each year and significantly ease the appointment situation.
Electronic registration and re-registration of residence (currently 500,000 appointments per year) also takes more time – both will not come until 2024.
“I’m most annoyed that this won’t work in October,” said the government’s Kai Wegner (51, CDU) – the topic of digitalization has its own state secretary in his Senate Chancellery. Wegner now promises: “We are working at full speed.”
What’s wrong? The responsible State Secretary Martina Klement (43, CSU): “Due to the sensitive data, it must be ensured that the population register is not impaired by an appropriate application. It must also be ensured that the online components are available even with high access numbers.” That is why so-called penetration tests are currently being carried out.
Despite the delay, Wegner sticks to an important election promise – that an appointment can usually be booked within 14 days. Wegner: “I am very, very optimistic that this can be achieved by the end of the year.”
Further improvements still need to be made in advance: the twelve districts alone have to fill 100 additional positions in the citizens’ offices, and there should also be a spring pool with 20 employees. In addition, four new citizens’ offices will be opened in Marzahn-Hellersdorf and Spandau (2024) and in Pankow and Treptow-Köpenick (2025).