Seven separate IT departments are currently operating under different ministries. The next government wants to integrate them into a single entity and outsource as many support services as possible to the private sector.

IT entrepreneur and former Deputy Secretary General for IT at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taavi Kotka, told ERR that he is not familiar with the details of the plan but his first thoughts are not positive.

He said the topic was also discussed at the recent 25th-anniversary celebration of the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL). Union members shook their heads at the proposal.

"Our IT departments have already grown too large, and if everything is merged, the situation will become even more unmanageable. We need to carefully consider how to solve these problems," Kotka said.

He added that perhaps the Minister of Digital Affairs has a plan that no one has understood yet, but at first glance, the idea seems incomplete.

Taimar Peterkop, the former head of the Information System Authority (RIA) who stepped down as Secretary of State at the end of January, said past reorganizations have shown that state IT services vary in quality, which is a problem.

It would be reasonable for the state to have unified support services, such as a standardized workplace IT service, he said. However, this does not mean that merging all state IT houses into one large organization would be a good idea.

"Consolidation has already shown that services have become too distant from clients and more cumbersome. We also experienced this at the Government Office, where costs increased while quality deteriorated," the former official said.

Peterkop believes it would be wiser to keep services close to their clients, particularly those in development, so that content experts and those developing information systems remain as close as possible to the end users.

Merging all state IT houses would not necessarily lead to cost savings. "Instead, we should look into the substance of operations to avoid duplication. But this does not require consolidation, simply better cooperation would suffice," Peterkop pointed out.

Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Erkki Keldo (Reform) explained on Thursday that the creation of a single IT house would mean integrating various IT support systems for public services.

"Ministries and their subordinate agencies currently rely on different departments or organizations for IT support services. Our information and support systems are fragmented. To improve efficiency and get a clearer overall picture, there have been discussions that we should have a single IT house providing support services," he said.

ERR reported in January that approximately 1,765 people are employed in the seven public sector IT service agencies. Over the past ten years, the total budget for state IT houses has quadrupled, reaching €265.5 million across these agencies in the current year.

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