Within the project on regulatory reform and digital transformation, Croatia, as part of its Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), aimed to reduce regulatory burdens and improve the efficiency of public administration through digitalisation.
We helped optimise and digitalise administrative processes to alleviate administrative burdens, building on four prior Croatian Action Plans, and provided an accurate estimate of the potential savings in line with the objectives of the fifth Croatian Action Plan.
The innovative methodology adopted for the project was based on the use of the Standard Cost Model (SCM), a model developed to calculate and reduce administrative burdens stemming from regulation. The SCM allows for the quantitative measurement of the information obligations that businesses and citizens must fulfil to comply with regulations. The model is used to quantify these burdens by mapping the obligations that require the submission or management of information.
Our work involved coordinating IT operations and designing an estimation tool adjusted to the Croatian context – a targeted calculation model for the implementation of the SCM. This included estimating administrative burdens both ex-ante and ex-post, comparing the costs before and after the implementation of proposed regulatory simplifications. Through data collection and the use of standardised models, a significant reduction in burdens was estimated. The estimation process was based on standardised cost tables, adapted to the complexity of activities required by the information obligations, to accurately assess the impact of the proposed measures on reducing regulatory burdens.
Project: Supporting implementation of regulatory areas in Croatia (2022-2024)
Beneficiary: Government of Croatia
Project developed by: Ernst & Young