Estonia, Financial Services, Internet, Legislation, Technology

It was revealed during the submission of the IT budget needs of the ministries for the next four years that funding needed in addition to the sum planned so far is 240 million euros, or 60 million euros per year.

The deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for communications and national information systems, Siim Sikkut, said that the maintenance of information system and the ICT infrastructure and partly also critical information systems, on which public services rely, has been underfunded already for years in the public sector budget.

"Estonia has had and continues to have money from the structural funds for purchasing new devices and developing new systems, but the things purchased and developed so far need constant maintenance, updating and development to be reliable and keep up with the times," Sikkut said.

According to Lauri Lugna, secretary general of the Interior Ministry, the internal analysis indicates that the software that is the basis for Estonia's internal security has by now been fully depreciated to the extent of 44% and is working several years over the stipulated deadline.

"We have not satisfied basic needs, we are literally living on a ticking bomb," Lugna said. He referred to the fact that all of the state's information systems have been bound together into a one entity of vital importance and that one's crash may prove fatal to the entire system.

Sikkut added that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Finance have reviewed all ICT strategies and additional funding applications of all areas of government and have reached the conclusion that it is absolutely vital to increase the state's IT budget by 30 million euros per year. A total of 113 million euros for the years 2019-2022 in addition to the existing.

As has been said, the ministries themselves have assessed the full deficit of IT funding to be approximately 60 million euros per year. "But we must take into account all areas of saving and also the capability of the application of money -- this kind of leap would not be doable at once. Approximately 30 million euros per year is the sum that would ensure the lasting and development of Estonia's e-state," Sikkut said.