The Effects of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Implementation on Process Improvements in Public Authorities: An Empirical Study of the PKI Implementation in Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The use of public key infrastructure in administration has great potential, given that a large number of services are performed in a traditional manner, including long waiting lines and the waste of time, human, and financial resources. This paper is aimed at investigating whether the PKI implementation in public institution such as the Federation BiH Tax Administration contributes to improving its process, enhancing performance and quality of public services, including the end-user satisfaction. The research focuses on the two most extensive and basic processes of Tax Administration (TA): the tax form submission and the issuance of tax payment certificates. The methodology includes comparison between the existing “AS IS model,” based on the manual authentication and the new “TO BE model,” which includes the PKI implementation. The research findings indicate that TO BE model has contributed to the process optimization, including a complete automation of the user authentication and authorization processes. Therefore, the filling of tax return process is carried out in 5, instead of previous 14 different processes, resulting in significant costs in savings and time. On the other hand, a successful PKI implementation depends on the understanding and commitment of staff, including their readiness to change. To that end, they were asked to respond to a questionnaire on their experiences with the PKI. The sample included 37 respondents, who work in different tax offices. It is encouraging that 89 % of them are convinced that the PKI implementation in their institution would significantly improve their tasks and processes, enabling them to develop partnerships with taxpayers.