Commitment: Increasing access to public services through introduction of UAS
Commitment Description: To increase the availability of public services, the openness of information, and simplification of access to it, OGP Georgia Action Plan for 2018-2019 envisions LEPL - Public Service Development Agency's commitment to introduce a Unified Authentication System (UAS) in the country.

Implementation of the above implies the existence of a reliable and protected system of online authentication which will enable any public (and in a long-term perspective to a private) agency with a wide choice of online personal identification tools. In addition, service-providing organizations will be able to direct their resources towards the development of services and spare the resources required for individual development and management of the identification systems. 

The introduction of a UAS will significantly simplify citizens’ access to online services. They will be able to use the same information (username and password) during the authentication to receive services on all official web pages of public service-providing agencies. Thus, the citizens will receive the services remotely, in an online mode, which had only been possible through identification by a video call. As a result, the users will no longer have to register on several websites to receive the service, as the information required for their identification in all switched systems (be it public or private organization) will be automatically reflected. Outcome: A UAS is developed in the country
Timeline: Start date - June 2018, End date - December 2019
OGP Thematic Areas: Transparency, Access to Services, Accountability, Innovation and Technology
Reporting Period: 2019, Annual
Lead Agency: LEPL - Public Service Development Agency
In the reporting period, in order to provide legal compliance of the Unified Authentication mechanism, Public Service Development Agency studied the European countries' practice, which included the translation of Regulation 910/2014/EC (eIDAS Regulation). The above implies harmonizing the legislation related to electronic identification and reliable services required for electronic transactions with the European Union standards.

In the reporting period, to make it simple for the interested agencies to integrate a UAS into their business processes, consultations were held with service-providing agencies. As a result, the UAS was based on two internationally spread authentication standards – SAML and OATH, making it possible to conduct authentication through both username/password and ID card.

In the reporting period, Public Service Development Agency activated a UAS in a production mode. To test the system, it was integrated with the portal my.gov.ge and a test Sharepoint (internal user portal and knowledge base system) system of the Agency. The Agency also integrated the UAS into remote services of the Agency, specifically, into the software of the electronic signature portal, which is launched in a pilot mode on the Agency web page. The above system enables citizens to upload the electronic documents that need to be signed on the web portal and to share them with others to sign or to view, to extend the term of short-term signatures up to “archive” formats and to check the authenticity of the signatures on the document.

According to the Action Plan, one of the most important milestones of the commitment is the preparation and initiation of legislative changes to provide the UAS to other agencies. Several factors caused the need to prepare the above legislative changes:

• Validation of authentication
• Drawing a line between the qualified electronic signature and the authentication
• Enabling compliance with eIDAS regulation.

In the reporting period, no legislative changes have been prepared and initiated. 

According to the Secretariat’s assessment, the commitment is partially implemented within the planned timeframe. A UAS was launched in the production mode and integrated with the Public Service Development Agency's Sharepoint system. However, no legislative changes have been prepared to provide the UAS to the other agencies. The system has not been integrated into the systems of other organizations.
Contact point: Ekaterine Mrulishvili - Head of Research and Projects Development Unit