“Virtual administration” offering 24-hour services soon operational

In response to an oral question about the communes of Ouled Sellam (Batna) during a plenary session of the People’s National Assembly (Lower House) chaired by Mouad Bouchareb, Bedoui said that “a virtual administration offering 24h-services will be soon operational to meet citizens’ needs and bring them closer to the administration.”

It is an ambitious project whose means are mobilized, starting with the introduction of the national identity number on the national biometric identity card. A total of 11,400,000 biometric identity cards have already been issued given its importance in the implementation of E-Administration 2020. The cards can be used in many future services, notably the delivery of the electronic family register, said Bedoui.

As part of the implementation of the instructions given by President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the ministry made “structural reforms” that brought “new management modes characterized by celerity, effectiveness and transparency. The sector also took other measures to ease administrative procedures and improve reception conditions within administrations,” assured Bedoui.

On this occasion, Bedoui affirmed that “the reshuffle conducted recently by the president of the Republic among the senior executives of regional administration involved young executives and promoted the “role of women” as promotions affected 11 heads of sub-prefectures (women) to in addition to 38 already installed,” a rate “never equalled since independence.”

In response to another question on the concerns of some citizens, whose birth certificates bear the mention “BIS “, the minister stated “the BIS  numbering of civil status certificates is used by several municipalities countrywide. A total of 553,875 birth certificates registered in civil status registers bore the BIS numbering, including 417,592 in Oran only, and 332,577 of these birth certificates were registered from 1962 to 2017.”

“Generally, this numbering is used when there is an error in the serial number of birth certificates. The BIS numbering is therefore used to differentiate between two persons with the same birth certificate number. There are other cases related to “Algerian citizens born during French colonization, who came back to the country after independence and entered their information in the registers of birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates of the municipalities of Algiers, Oran and Constantine”.

This type of document “has always been issued for records to be provided to foreign authorities, in particular French authorities in proceedings relating to marriage, mixed marriage or legal residence and has never been refused until the last years when these documents were refused in certain administrations for non-compliance with Article 47 of the French Civil Code,” explained Bedoui.

The Interior Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, intervened to establish the authenticity of civil status documents bearing the BIS numbering in accordance with the provisions of the National Civil Status Code.

The Algerian authorities even notified the French authorities of this information, specifying that the mention BIS numbering does not raise any legal or organizational problems in the Algerian Civil Status Code”.

In response, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a note, dated 11 June 2018, which “recognizes” the authenticity of civil status documents issued by Algerian authorities with BIS numbers.