Media: Kafka anti-bureaucracy Website yields Streamline Government

In a stunning display of user-centredness, the Belgian Government has saved $281M and sorted out some absurd regulations.

For two years, Belgians have had a place to complain about the worst officialdom of their Government's practices, set up by the offendor itself. Belgian officials have now announced that the initiative has saved $281M as well.

'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.'

Franz Kafka, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, published stories mocking the extremes of mysterious government practice, captured most famously in his novel "The Trial" in which a man is hounded and executed for a crime that he doesn't know he has committed and whose nature he can't ascertain.

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

Associated Link: ABC News: Belgium Web Site helps Gov't cut Red Tape

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