One of the key measures of the Budget Speech 2019 – 2020 and the Digital Government Transformation Strategy 2018 – 2022 calls for improved cooperation among government institutions to ensure that businesses and individuals have to communicate their data only once to public institutions and that in consequence government will no longer make multiple requests for the same information when they can re-use the information they already have.
The main objective of the once-only principle is to reduce the administrative burden of citizens and businesses by re-organizing public sector internal processes. It is based on the fact that collecting information is more expensive and burdensome than sharing already collected information. Hence this principle proposes to collect information only once and then share this information, respecting other constraints, such as regulations.
Additionally, this new principle has provided the following benefits:
 Improving the work processes and business operations of public institutions;
 Improving administrative efficiency and quality of service delivery;
 Reducing administrative burden on citizens and businesses;
 Increasing customer satisfaction and better image of public authorities;
 Better functioning digital economy of the country;
 More efficient and lower-cost government administration;
 Fraud prevention.

https://ih.govmu.org

• Mauritius

• Older persons
• Women
• Indigenous and nomadic peoples
• People with disabilities
• The unemployed
• The poor
• Migrants
• Refugees and internally displaced people
• Remote and rural communities

A key element for the adoption of the once-only principle for a digital economy is to allow the exchange of data among competent authorities in a harmonised, proportional and non-discriminatory way, in full compliance with data protection and other relevant regulations.
To this end, public institutions have to take the necessary actions to internally share data while at the same time respecting data protection rules. Indeed, the implementation of the once-only principle requires definition and application of technical and procedural solutions and strategies to make it possible to transfer and re-use data relating to individuals or businesses for more efficient delivery of public sector services. The aim of this initiative is to eliminate or at least reduce unnecessary administrative burdens caused by multiple submissions of the same data and information.

The main objective of the once-only principle project is to explore, demonstrate and eventually enforce the once-only principle in government whereby citizens and businesses provide information only once to authorities and the same information is re-used for delivering services through a few sustainable pilots or quick-wins using the ”Publish and Subscribe” model of the InfoHighway platform across ministries and department on a collaborative scale in order to identify drivers and barriers and to provide a basis for future implementations and wider use across the whole of government.

The problems that the once-only principle seeks to resolve are indirect consequences of a range of connected developments in practice and policy and are sometimes deeply rooted in local historical developments, including: o The growing intensity of information flows between government on one side and businesses and individuals on the other; o The greatly varying costs, burdens and other potentially adverse impacts on different institutions that are connected with the need to provide this information in authoritative and consistent ways; o Differences among the rules governing the processing of data that may be regarded as personal, sensitive or standardised; o Increased information-intensiveness and complexity of individual and business interactions with government associated with more personalised and effective service provision; and o Increasing cross ministries and department personal and business mobility and activity within the country, which creates an increased demand for access to public services and government systems. A key element for the adoption of the once-only principle for a digital economy is to allow the exchange of data among competent authorities in a harmonised, proportional and non-discriminatory way, in full compliance with data protection and other relevant regulations.