The E-Services portal at uslugi.gov.mk went down, then came back. The Ministry of Digital Transformation explained it was a "technical intervention and equipment upgrade." Citizens waiting for documents have a different name for it.

On April 21, some electronic services were unavailable - how long and which ones exactly, nobody clarified. The Ministry first said they were "working on resolving the issue," then announced the portal was functioning again. Between those two statements, citizens had neither service nor explanation.

And here's the problem: this isn't an ordinary website. Through this portal, citizens submit applications, pay fees, track procedures, and expect institutions to be accessible without a physical counter. When the system goes down, trust in the entire digital administration goes with it.

The state has been selling digitalization as its main administrative reform for years - e-identity, electronic payments, online applications, mobile solutions. But digitalization isn't measured by the number of published services, but by whether those services work when citizens need them.

The key question is how such interventions are planned. If the upgrade is known in advance, the public deserves to know when it will happen, how long it will last, and what those with urgent needs should do. If it's an unplanned problem, institutions must explain whether it's an infrastructure defect, security risk, or overload.

The portal is working now. But the question isn't about one day of downtime. If the state wants citizens to truly move from counters to screens, it has to offer more than a digital version of the old administration.