The next State reform is operational or it will fail

Portugal has already launched several reforms to modernize the State and increase the efficiency of Public Administration, but bureaucracy does not disappear — it merely migrates from physical counters to digital. The central question is whether real efficiency indicators have actually improved, meaning whether the measures have simplified the lives of those who produce and work.

The article warns that digitizing is not the same as modernizing. An online form can remain bureaucratic, a portal can reproduce slow processes, and platforms can remain disconnected from one another. When technology merely transports the same paper blockages to digital, the result is not transformation — it is bureaucracy with a better interface.

The next Public Administration reform needs to be operational and less declarative. Success cannot be measured by the millions invested or the projects launched, but rather by the time the citizen saves, the predictability a business gains, and the speed with which a license is issued. For this, systems that communicate with each other are needed, organisms that stop working as islands, and services designed from the citizen's experience.

The article also advocates that the way the State contracts technology must be reviewed, because buying at the lowest price can prove expensive when there is no implementation, maintenance, or accountability for results. Administrative modernization is not achieved by decree or PowerPoint, but daily in the processes that are simplified and in the deadlines that shorten. Portugal needs to turn execution capacity into a national priority.