State Reform, Administrative Simplification and the Role of Technology.

State Reform: Simplification, Digitalization and the Role of Technology — A vision shared between the government and INCENTEA.

The modernization of the Portuguese State has again become the focus of public debate through a meeting organized by Executive Digest, where INCENTEA took part alongside the Secretary of State for Simplification, Paulo Magro da Luz. The topic focused on a challenge that has long marked national competitiveness: the urgent need to reduce bureaucracy and accelerate administrative digitalization.

A simpler State, with four strategic pillars.

During the session, the Secretary of State highlighted that the current government strategy for State Reform rests on four central pillars:

• Trust
• Inter-institutional coordination
• Accountability
• Transparency

These principles guide a simplification program that aims to reduce redundant procedures, improve the experience of citizens and businesses and strengthen the internal efficiency of Public Administration.
According to the official, the goal is not to create entirely new structures, but to reorganize and optimize processes based on the technological capabilities that already exist.

Legislative simplification and the fight against “gold-plating”.

Among the priority areas of intervention are several structuring legal regimes, including:

• Public Contracts Code
• Court of Auditors procedures
• Code of Administrative Procedure
• Licensing processes
• Corporate acts and stages of administrative and tax justice

The aim is to eliminate excess regulation, bring Portuguese legislation closer to European directives and ensure greater interoperability between State bodies — aspects often pointed to by the business sector as obstacles to investment and economic activity.

Reorganization of the Ministries and redesign of critical processes.

The State Reform is organized on two levels:

1. Organizational restructuring of the Ministries
This includes the restructuring already begun in areas such as Education, Science, Innovation, Labor, Social Solidarity and Energy, with the creation of new entities and governance models.

2. Review of the procedures with the greatest impact on the lives of citizens and businesses
The Government identified priority bodies whose operation will be redesigned to speed up responses, simplify processes and reduce decision times.

ARTE: the new Agency for the Technological Reform of the State.

Another recent milestone was the transformation of AMA into ARTE – Agência para a Reforma Tecnológica do Estado (Agency for the Technological Reform of the State), which will now have a State CTO with executive functions. This change aims to strengthen the technological leadership of Public Administration and accelerate the digital transition in critical services.

INCENTEA’s vision: technology at the service of people.

For INCENTEA, a group specializing in information technology, management consulting and product engineering, technology only fulfills its role when it improves people’s lives — a principle aligned with the government’s simplification strategy. João Antunes stressed that modernizing the public sector requires:

• Continuous cooperation between entities
• Knowledge sharing
• Joint responsibility
• Impact-oriented technology implementation

This vision reinforces INCENTEA’s positioning as a relevant partner in the digital transformation of public and private organizations.

Read the full article on the Executive Digest website.
🔗 State Reform, an action plan to reform the State and fight bureaucracy.