Cutting Red Tape

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Most OECD countries have made policies to reduce administrative burdens - cutting red tape - a political priority. Red tape is particularly burdensome to smaller companies and may inhibit entrepreneurship. These effects are more costly in global markets, where competitiveness can be affected by the efficiency of the domestic regulatory and administrative environment. But citizens and large firms also complain about unnecessary reporting requirements. Results are wanted.

What can governments do? Strategies include setting quantitative targets to reduce administrative burdens when new regulations are drafted and by reviewing older regulations; codification; better multi-level co-ordination; and rapid introduction of e-government services. Supported by taskforces and advisory committees, governments increasingly locate responsibility in a central administrative unit. This "whole-of-government" approach represents a major step in recent years, embedding administrative simplification in the overall regulatory quality system at the national level.

The OECD is undertaking a series of activities to assist governments in simplifying regulation and cutting red tape.

In December 2006, the OECD published the report Cutting Red Tape: National Strategies for Administrative Simplification. A Policy Brief is also available.

Administrative Simplification in the Netherlands

The OECD and the World Bank Group were invited to review the Dutch programme for administrative simplification which aimed to reduce administrative burdens on companies and citizens by 25% in the period 2003-2007. In October 2007, the OECD published its review, Cutting Red Tape: Administrative Simplification in the Netherlands which appraises the Netherlands as a leading country in the field, seeks to give explanations for this success in order to enable other countries to benefit from the Dutch experiences, and sets out recommendations on how the Netherlands can continue improving regulation by deepening and broadening the burden reduction programme.

On 1 March 2007, the Dutch Ministry of Finance organised an international conference called 'Challenges on Cutting Red Tape'. At this conference, Josef Konvitz of the OECD gave a keynote speech presenting the main findings and recommendations of the two organisations. You can download the slides for Mr. Konvitz' presentation and his speaking notes here. You can find further information on the conference, including presentations in three workshops, if you follow this link.

Administrative Simplification and e-Government in Portugal

Portugal has asked the OECD for a peer review of administrative simplification and e-government as part of its contiuned development of its SIMPLEX programme for public sector reform. The review will take place in the fall of 2007. Read more about the Portuguese SIMPLEX programme.

As a preparation for this review, and to launch the current phase of the programme (SIMPLEX 2007), the OECD assisted the Portuguese unit for co-ordination of public sector reform (UCMA) in arranging a workshop on administrative simplification and e-government in Lisbon on 22 February 2007. Programme for the event and slides for the presentations can be found below.