Fifty billion was not enough for digitalisation projects. The state promised fully digital services from 2025, but only 18% of them were successful
PRESS RELEASE – 15 January 2026
Although the Czech Republic invested more than CZK 50 billion in public administration digitalisation projects between 2020 and 2024, it failed to meet its original goal—that by February 2025, government services would be fully digitalised and citizens would have the right to communicate with the state digitally1. By this date, the state had only managed to fully digitalise 18% of its administrative services. The reason for this is a number of specific barriers that prevent the successful digital transformation of public administration – from poor project management and a lack of IT experts on the part of the state, to incomplete data and complex information flows, to the overall management of digitalisation without clear accountability for the money spent. This is according to the II Summary Report on the Digitalisation of Public Administration in the Czech Republic.
Currently, the state considers even a service in which only one of several dozen tasks has been digitised to be digitalised. However, this approach significantly distorts the actual state of digitalisation. An analysis conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) of data from the Public Administration Services Catalogue shows that in reality, approximately 1,621 services were fully digital—as required by the law on the right to digital services. This represents only 18% of the total 8,916 state services that were planned for digitalisation using self-service portals.
In practice, most services remain at the level of an electronic form which citizens fill out and submit via a data box, which merely initiates the entire process. However, the next steps taken by the authority processing the application are carried out manually, often without any connection to the authority's internal systems.
In its report, the SAO describes specific barriers that prevent the successful completion of digitalisation. It is based on the results of more than 50 audits conducted on this topic in recent years. Most often, it appears that projects have poor results and, despite significant investments, do not meet their goals and expectations. This often means that there is no significant reduction in the administrative burden for clients, and the performance of individual agendas cannot be streamlined either.
Incomplete or missing data is also a frequently identified problem, leading authorities to implement temporary or provisional solutions, which place an unnecessary burden on officials who, for example, have to manually transcribe or copy data from various information systems. Ad hoc decisions that are not based on analyses of the needs of citizens or the needs of the authorities' own employees still prevail in the context of digitalisation. Another issue worth mentioning is the persistent shortage of IT experts on the part of the state, which points to its inability to offer competitive salaries compared to the private sector. The state administration thus continues to increase its dependence on external service providers, without effective control over the quality of digital services.
Despite a number of problems, certain successes have been achieved. One of these is the introduction of bank identity in 2021. Thanks to this method of electronic identity verification, the number of citizens who can easily and securely log in to online government services has increased significantly. Citizens can now also apply online for a driver's license, which they can then pick up outside the office in a self-service box. Another example is the Czech Republic's participation in the Single Digital Gateway, which allows not only Czech citizens but also companies to handle life events online across EU Member States.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office
1] Act No 12/2020 Coll., on the right to digital services, which stipulated the obligation to digitalise services within five years, was extended to seven years by Amendment Act No 23/2025 Coll.