SUMMARIES OF SELECTED STATEMENTS
The Ombudsman noted that ‒ with the concurrence of the Ministry of Finance ‒ the Agency for Digitisation is going to take measures so that the actual
options conform to the provision in section 8. The Agency had stated that it is
going to take steps to increase the receiving capacity and have the law amended.
2015-22. Public Digital Post must be configured in accordance
with general administrative law requirements
A university researcher who had co-written three reports on the digital mail
solution Public Digital Post contacted the Ombudsman, and on that basis the
Ombudsman took up a case on his own initiative with the responsible authorities: the Agency for Digitisation and the Ministry of Finance.
The Ombudsman found that Public Digital Post was configured in such a
way that it was not always possible to see which authority had sent a letter. In
the Ombudsman’s opinion, it would have been advisable if ‒ before it became
obligatory for citizens to use the digital mail solution ‒ the authorities had ensured that the mail solution had been configured in such a way that it supported
compliance with the basic requirement of administrative law that a message
from a public authority must show the correct identity of the sender.
The investigation also showed that some public authorities were listed by the
wrong name in the address book of Public Digital Post, for example by a previous name. However, as the Agency for Digitisation informed the Ombudsman
that the Agency now checked every quarter whether the authorities could actually be contacted and whether they were listed under their correct name in the
address book, the Ombudsman took no further action in relation to this matter.
Finally, the Ombudsman examined whether it was contrary to the Public Digital Post Act that ‒ besides Public Digital Post ‒ some municipalities had
established a local digital mail solution which they used for communication
with their citizens. He did not find that this was the case. However, the municipalities in question were obligated to provide clear guidance for their citizens
on the consequences of accepting to receive public communications via a local
digital mail solution, including that it did not free the citizens from checking
their Public Digital Post inbox. As the Agency for Digitisation stated that the
Agency would now implement a general guidance effort with a view to ensuring
that authorities using a local digital mail solution provide citizens with the necessary guidance, the Ombudsman took no further action regarding this issue.
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