Digitalisation, Automation and Data Protection: What Will Polish Public Offices Look Like in a Few Years’ Time

What should a 21st-century Polish public office look like? This was the central question posed to participants in the debate entitled "Digital Public Administration: Which Direction Should We Take?" held as part of the 24th Local Government Capital and Finance Forum. One of the participants was Konrad Komornicki, Deputy President of the Personal Data Protection Office.

• Is a digital civil servant simply a person equipped with technology, or does this represent an entirely new model of public administration?
• Does automation really reduce staffing levels, or does it primarily free civil servants from tasks they should not be performing? Where does automation end and the need for a human decision-maker begin?
• What happens to a public office when the digital state stops working? A cyberattack, a data centre failure, ransomware… Do Polish public offices have effective business continuity procedures in place, and can they operate without their core systems for, say, 24 hours?

These questions formed the basis of Monday's discussion, held on 5 October at the International Congress Centre in Katowice.

The debate, "Digital Public Administration: Which Direction Should We Take?", addressed why Poland continues to lag behind other European countries in the digitalisation of public administration, the data protection risks associated with digitalising public offices, how to ensure business continuity in the event of system failures, and whether implementing EZD RP, the Polish public administration electronic document management system, represents a lifeline or a threat to local government authorities.

The panel discussion featured Konrad Komornicki, Deputy President of the Personal Data Protection Office. The other participants were Piotr Ślęzak, a robotics expert and President of the Management Board of ForProgress; Arkadiusz Kowalewski, President of the Management Board of e-Instytucja.pl; Adam Grytner, President of the Management Board of ABC PRO; and Karol Dudzin, Director of the E-Services Department at the Central IT Centre.

The panel was part of the 24th Local Government Capital and Finance Forum. For years, this event has brought together practitioners, experts and decision-makers to seek effective solutions for the public sector.

According to the organisers, more than 3,800 speakers travelled to Katowice this year to take part in nearly 1,200 debates and lectures.