In current very difficult situation when the whole country fights the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Slovak citizens more than ever appreciates immediate state financial aid within its support schemes. Management of financial aid schemes is not a trivial mechanism and requires support of an information system.
We developed such a system called “Information system for registration and monitoring of assistance (IS SEMP)” in 2014 for the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic. Currently, the entire agenda is managed by the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic. Thanks to the IS SEMP, individual state administration bodies as well as public have the tools necessary for provision of state aid.
Since the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic is an aid coordinator according to law, the work with the IS SEMP information system is an integral part of its employees´ everyday agenda. Thanks to the fact that the solution fully supports digital transformation, the process of processing minimum aid requests is now much more effective. The solution reduced the paper administration what significantly eliminated manual work of the Antimonopoly Office´s employees.
IS SEMP serves as a central register according to the State aid law. It contains data on provided state aid and minimum aid in the Slovak Republic. Besides the aid coordinators, the access to the system was given also to aid providers, or scheme administrators and public.
According to the Law on state aid, the minimum aid provider is obligated to record data on provided minimum aid and data on aid receivers into the register. IS SEMP enables aid providers to make corrections, deactivate or cancel minimum aid cases as they are responsible for correctness of data. The Antimonopoly Office´s employees got rid of these activities so they can fully focus on their primary work tasks.
User and functional development of the IS SEMP solution has offered:
Thanks to the delivered solution, the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic is in compliance with the legislative requirements imposed by the European Union regulation, according which a state has been obligated to administer the register of state aid and minimum aid and make the information from the register available to the public via Internet since 2016.
This fact is all the more valuable because the situation regarding the coronavirus strongly appeals on speed, directness and legislative correctness of the state aid. The state is already in possession of this tool and can focus on practicalities which can help Slovak citizens use the state aid to the maximum extent.
