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– Mr. Filipov, 24 Chasa recently reported on how Greece moved from near bankruptcy to becoming an EU success story – first by digitizing 1,500 public services, which makes life easier for citizens and businesses, reduces bureaucracy and corruption. When will e-government become a reality in Bulgaria as well, and what is the role of Information Services in this process?
- Information Services is a company with strong traditions and a rich history – its foundations date back to the early 1970s, and since then it has never stopped working to digitize government processes. Since 2019, we have been Bulgaria’s national systems integrator.
In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government tasked us with starting work on the digitalization of the healthcare sector. The first major success was that Bulgaria was the first country to integrate into the European Green Certificate system. The government built on this trust and tasked us with implementing the National Health Information System in August 2020. We are proud that where others failed, we succeeded, and in less than six years we have fully digitized the entire healthcare sector.
– People are really feeling this through electronic referrals and prescriptions, as well as children’s medical certificates. What other practical benefits does it bring?
- When you visit a doctor, anyone who has installed the eHealth mobile app immediately receives a notification about the consultation that has been performed, which doctor it was with, what advice was given, plus a prescription, a referral to a specialist, and so on. More than 350,000 Bulgarian citizens already use this service, and including children – since up to the age of 18 they are part of their parent’s medical record – over 550,000 people now have a digital health record on their mobile phones.
All the information from laboratories, doctors, pharmacies and hospitals – what has been prescribed to you and how you have been treated – is now on your phone. I urge all readers of 24 Hours and all Bulgarian citizens to take advantage of this. Those who do not have an electronic signature can visit our offices and link their phone to their patient record free of charge.
From the beginning of 2026, all pharmacies will no longer need to submit reports, because service delivery will be recorded in real time. Beyond being a major relief for pharmacists, this is also a very important foundation for further development, so that hospital care can be digitized in the same way – eliminating reporting requirements and reducing administrative burden. We have put in place controls, developed with our partners at the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund, and if a given hospital service passes all these checks, it means that the doctor, the lab technician and everyone involved in providing the service has done their job and will receive their remuneration, whilst patients have received high-quality care.
Since August 2020, with the exception of only one caretaker government, all health ministers from different political formations have significantly upgraded the system to the point where its processes and those of the National Health Insurance Fund are fully digitized and integrated in real time. We are partners with the Bulgarian Medical Association, the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union, the Bulgarian Dental Association, and other professional organizations. Together we have come this far! We continue to move forward together. We implemented software integration with 98 IT companies that serve various users, hospitals, and general practitioners. Information Services has implemented this project publicly and transparently, managed entirely through an online platform where the entire process of upgrading the health system with new functionalities was accessible. Everyone providing services to the healthcare sector was kept informed. And now, nearly 390 hospitals in Bulgaria, all pharmacies, laboratories, and around 4,000 general practitioners work online every day.
– What else are you currently working on?
- We are upgrading the sector’s healthcare information system, the ‘data warehouse’, through which we provide reports on the website completely free of charge to the entire public. In addition, we are working on an analytical system with risk indicators for the management of the National Health Insurance Fund, to minimize opportunities for corruption, and, in parallel, to enable analysis and management decisions – to identify where and which diseases are most prevalent, how they are being treated, the cost of medications, who supplied them, and what needs to be managed in the future.
The next module relates to long-term care and preventive healthcare by groups – men, women, the elderly, and others. Everything is integrated into the eHealth mobile application, providing users with information about which examinations and laboratory tests they should undergo in order to reduce the risk of falling ill.
This year, we will take another key step. The Ministry of Health is finalizing a project on medical imaging, and within seconds all data from imaging diagnostics will be collected in a National Imaging System. We will fully integrate this into the platform, so that when a patient undergoes an imaging examination, there will no longer be a need to carry it on a disc or as a printout. Everything will be stored in the patient’s record, accessible to specialists, with full traceability of the diagnostic process. I should also note that in the past two months we have launched access to patient records for medical professionals – through the eHealth mobile application, patients themselves decide which doctor, at what time and on which date can access their data, and can later revoke that access. This is how we understand digitalization – as a system where everything is in the hands of the patient, and where the patient actively partners with doctors. Here I would like to mention the initiative of 24 Hours, “Doctors We Trust.” We support very few initiatives, but we are firmly committed partners in this one, because we believe in the professionalism and integrity of the people who take care of our health. Healthcare, education and the rule of law are the foundations of any society – they are essential for its existence and progress.
– You emphasized that success has come through partnership. Are there areas where this is more difficult to achieve? For example, in the judicial system – what can be done to improve transparency there as well?
The success of digitalization in the judicial system is comparable to that in healthcare. We have built a centralized, unified information system for the courts. It covers all 151 courts (excluding administrative courts) and operates on exactly the same principle – in real time. Together with the Supreme Judicial Council, we have launched a unified justice portal. Through this portal, every Bulgarian citizen can check whether they have any cases, what stage they are at, and access all related documents. Communication with the judiciary is entirely digital. Following the healthcare model, we also developed a mobile application, so users can now receive notifications directly on their phones.
The unified court information system contains 15 million electronic documents, and 2.7 million court cases have been initiated. Everything is electronic! More than 10 million electronic court decisions have been issued. Around 96% of the applications to initiate proceedings are submitted entirely electronically. The time required for issuing an enforcement order has been reduced by over 60%, and for issuing a writ of execution by 45%. In 16% of cases involving enforcement orders, decisions are made on the same day.
Although the judicial system in Bulgaria has been heavily criticized, it has been fully digitized through a partnership between Information Services, the Supreme Judicial Council, and non-governmental organizations. In mid-2025, we implemented an additional module for enforcement order cases, which are the most common – involving mobile operators and utility companies. Thanks to this, the time required to issue an order has been reduced from 11 to 4 days – a threefold improvement. Today, 97% of cases are initiated and allocated electronically. As a member of EURITAS – the European organization of public IT providers – I can say that Bulgaria is significantly ahead in the digitalization of the judicial system. In Denmark, for example, it was only last year that our colleagues were commissioned to digitize their system in the same way.
We are not talking about merely electronic processes, but about genuinely transformed digital ones. It is one thing to digitize a paper-based workflow; it is another to redesign it in a way that improves both user experience and internal efficiency, whether in healthcare, the judiciary or public administration. The goal is to improve access to information and ensure fully electronic communication with citizens and businesses. Most importantly, it is about reducing opportunities for corruption to zero.
And last but not least, it is about presenting data in a way that allows every segment of society – including policymakers – to understand the real situation in each sector. Because this data directly influences governance, decisions about public and personal finances, and the lives of communities.
How are these massive datasets protected in such a complex cybersecurity environment and in times of hybrid attacks?
- We began investing in technological expertise and partnerships 8–9 years ago, when few people realized that cybersecurity isn’t simply a matter of buying an antivirus software and installing it on your computer. We are proud that the company has grown significantly and is now recognized among global leaders in cybersecurity and technology. We have a cybersecurity unit of 40 specialists, certified at the highest level by the SANS Institute. Eleven of them hold full-cycle certification, and five returned with medals. So, the team really is world-class. And we have access to technologies that no other company in Bulgaria has, and probably not in Eastern Europe either.
We provide real-time cybersecurity protection for more than 30 government institutions. We maintain and manage the infrastructure of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the entire healthcare system, as discussed earlier – with over 720 million unique health records in the National Health Information System, and hundreds of millions more in the systems of the National Health Insurance Fund. We also support the National Revenue Agency, which holds all state financial data, and we safeguard information within the judicial system. In addition, we have been a strategic partner of the Central Election Commission for 24 years, protecting its information systems during and between elections.
The Information Services team is the best-trained, most certified and the only one with access to certain cyber-security technologies in Bulgaria and beyond.
– Where does the buyback of shares from minority shareholders in Information Services stand? Will the company become 100% state-owned, and if not, is there a risk of infringement proceedings?
The minority shareholders are a consequence of the privatization law – they are former employees of the company, some of them still current employees, or their heirs. Information Services has already bought back 60% of these shares, and the state’s ownership stake has increased from 99.5% to 99.8%. The European Commission has sent a letter to the complainant – Bulgaria’s oldest IT association – informing it that all answers they sought from the Bulgarian government has been provided, and that it sees no issue with the activities of the national systems integrator or with the legislative framework governing it. I therefore expect that within the next month or two, or even this month, the European Commission will officially announce the closure of the infringement procedure.
The fact that there is no justification for such a view is also demonstrated by our membership in EURITAS – an organization bringing together 15 leading EU countries, all of which have accepted us as a member. Germany, for example, has three state-owned companies operating at federal and municipal level. Austria has a state-owned company, as do Croatia, Finland, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. At our last meeting in Dublin on 11–12 May, we voted to admit the Polish company, which, with 1,600 employees, is the largest state-owned IT organization and manages all registers, electronic identity, electronic wallets – essentially everything. In my view, there was a misrepresentation by part of the Bulgarian IT ecosystem or by so-called experts who sought to halt this process. However, this is a European model for implementing certain state policies.
– When will people stop carrying paper documents from one municipal counter to another, waiting in queues and paying fees for their issuance?
- The current civil registration system (GRAO) is over 20–30 years old, based on outdated technologies and processes. This year, the implementation of a brand-new registry is expected to be completed, built on modern technologies, architecture and processes. Let me give you an example. When a child is born, the event will be recorded automatically in real time in the National Health Information System. At present, parents must obtain a paper certificate from the maternity ward and take it to the municipality for registration and issuance of a personal identification number. We have already designed the system so that the National Health Information System (NHIS) will automatically send an electronic notification to GRAO. The same will apply in the case of death, with automatic notification of the event. I hope that policymakers in the National Assembly will amend the legislation so that paper documents are no longer physically transferred from one institution to another.
Let me give another example of digital transformation. Six years ago, in partnership with five companies, we implemented a centralised public procurement system, which is now managed by Information Services. It operates 24/7, and more than one-third of all submitted bids are made outside standard working hours. Moreover, there is no need to travel to Sofia or any other location – or even to be in Bulgaria – as bids can be submitted from anywhere in the world. Price decryption is performed remotely. Over six years, there has not been a single indication that data could be manipulated. The same applies to all our systems, because we have built in clear traceability of who did what, when, how, and from where, along with robust control mechanisms. Our experts who develop national systems are truly operating at world-class level!
We also succeeded in the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), where even international companies had failed. For 10 years now, there has been a centralized system allowing passengers to purchase tickets online. Tickets are issued with QR codes that are scanned by conductors on the train. However, this is somewhat similar to the judicial system – the prevailing negative public perception of certain institutions tends to obscure the fact that full digitalization has already been achieved. Bulgaria’s Unified Portal for Electronic Justice and its mobile application won first prize last year, in a secret ballot at the meeting of judicial councils from EU member states and the European Economic Area.
You can read the full text of the interview on the website of the newspaper ‘24 Hours’.