EFKA is changing: Electronic pensions, lump sums and certificates

According to information from Dnews, the digitization of all EFKA files and the creation of the Integrated Information System that will make the Agency’s 88 different databases interoperate with each other, as well as the KEAO systems to communicate with the other EFKA systems.

Among its main goals are the automation and digitization of citizen/employer transactions, interoperability with other government agencies in order to automatically retrieve and exchange information.

In this way, the need to submit documents in paper form is removed, the Agency’s procedures are simplified and homogenized, while the overall cost of operating and maintaining information technology infrastructures that support social security in Greece is reduced.

In particular, the OPS will cover the main, auxiliary insurance and lump sum benefits, and all functional areas (registry, contributions, benefits, pensions), all groups of insured (salaried, self-employed, farmers, public) as well as employers , the audit work (fighting tax evasion), the certification and settlement of debts through the KEAO and the interface with the KEPA system (disability certification). At the same time, a single and complete insurance history base will be gradually implemented, which will be the only source of information for the pension awarding process.

In practice, these are two projects that will transform e-EFKA and have already been included in the projects to be financed by the Recovery Fund and are expected to receive the relevant approvals. The contracting of the projects will proceed within schedule, with the aim not only to issue pensions quickly, with the least possible error, but also to serve the insured directly and without inconvenience.

According to the deputy director of e-EFKA, Alexandros Varveris, these are digital infrastructures – pillars for the smooth operation of the Agency in the coming years and whose absence over the years created a series of malfunctions and pathologies with a direct negative impact on citizens and businesses.

The goal is that, over the course of three years, e-EFKA will acquire the necessary digital weapons in order, as Mr. Varveris points out, to achieve better Organization, better service and greater flexibility in managing the insurance, pension and employment affairs of 6.5 million citizens.

The first project, “Development of the new Integrated Information System (IPS) of e-EFKA and the Upgrade of the ATLAS digital pension awarding system” has a budget of 48.3 million euros. Both the Ministry of Labor and the EFKA estimate that the development of a new OPS will fully cover the current operational needs of the fund and will be a cornerstone for the Agency’s digital transformation.

In particular, the OPS will cover the main, auxiliary insurance and lump sum benefits, and all functional areas (registry, contributions, benefits, pensions), all groups of insured (salaried, self-employed, farmers, public) as well as employers , the audit work (fighting tax evasion), the certification and settlement of debts through the KEAO and the interface with the KEPA system (disability certification). At the same time, a single and complete insurance history base will be gradually implemented, which will be the only source of information for the pension awarding process.

The operation of OPS EFKA will be the channel of interoperability with the information systems of other agencies, existing applications and registers of the Public Administration.

The second project concerns the “Digitization of the insurance history of e-EFKA” and has a budget of 33.2 million euros. The object of the project is the digitization of the paper file of all the funds that joined “forcibly” in 2016 under the EFKA umbrella, with the main objective of protecting the files and easy access to information from the e-EFKA systems, as well as providing support services of the pension awarding system to e-EFKA beneficiaries.

The goal of the project is the minimum possible manual entry of data, which will mainly concern the control and correction of possible errors, during the automated extraction of data.