Belgium saves big, thanks to Kafka site

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgians suffering under a morass of contradictory, complicated or just plain absurd regulations have for two years had a place to make their complaints known: a Web site called Kafka, set up by their government.

The rare flash of bureaucratic humor has had tangible results: a savings of $281 million over two years, Belgian officials said Friday.

The site www.kafka.be was set up by the government in 2003, encouraging individuals and businesses to come up with examples of needless rules and regulations. It was named after Franz Kafka, the late Czech-German author who hated irrational authority and whose work defined the alienated modern world of the 20th century.

This multi-ethnic nation of 10 million has mind-numbingly complex bureaucratic systems. The country is divided into 589 communes and run by a national government and six other separate governments representing the French, Dutch and German language groups and the Brussels, Walloon and Flanders regions.

The man in charge of the Kafka initiative, Secretary of State for Administrative Simplification Vincent Van Quickenborne, said the millions in savings came from "alleviating some of the administrative burden imposed on citizens and entrepreneurs."

Based on thousands of complaints, the government eliminated some outdated rules, such as one concerning the so-called "conform copies." For two centuries, official documents submitted to authorities had to be accompanied by a copy issued and stamped by an individual's local district proving the authenticity of the original.

Another regulation to be abolished by the end of the year is the obligation to validate a new driver's license with a fiscal stamp — a form of an administrative fee — which can be only purchased at post offices, Van Quickenborne said.