Mr. Gregorian's opening speech at the PAR conference in Brcko.
Exellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A great pleasure to help open this event and I commend you for choosing to hold it here in Brcko. Since its inception, the District has been a leader in reform programs ina almost every major aspect of governance.
It was the first place to have judicial reform. The first place to have police reform. The first place to have fiscal reform. The first place to have education reform. Reforms enacted here have since been used as models or guides for reforms elsewhere in BiH as well as in the region. We are all justifably proud of that record.
We are similarly proud to be chosen as a pilot project for Public Administration Reform (PAR). PAR is valuable not just for its own intrinsic reasons or more efficient and professional government. It is also a critical step on BiH's path to integration into the European Union.
The European Commision's recent report on the EU's enlargement strategy makes clear that the implementation of public administration reform is now necessary to strengthen overall administrative capacity in BiH. Last month, the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board expressed its satisfaction that the State, Entity and Brcko governments had endorsed the National Public Administration Reform strategy, and called on Brcko and the incoming Entity and State governments to implement it without delay.
So PAR is a requirement. But why is it a requirement? The priorities set by the European Administrative Network foresee clear separation of politics from administration, and development of a professional, impartial, and citizens-friendly civil service with clear responsibilities, using clearly defined procedures, exerting firm management and control of public funds, and constituting a comprehensive capability of administrative and judicial systems in implementing obligations.
In the case of a transition state like BiH, too many recourses are tied up in government spending on itself, diverting and wasting resources that should be freed up in order to facilitate job growth in the private sector. So reform will inevitably mean the loss of some government jobs before significant numbers of new jobs in the private sector are created by the reallocation of labor and capital. This makes the human dimension of such a transition a significant challenge for governments.
You have been able to see just recently, in the government’s attempt to outsource cleaning services, how the absence of a planned transition, provision of timely information, and the lack of transition programs can jeopardize reform. I hope the lessons have been learned and will be applied in future cases.
Nevertheless, the Brcko District Government has embraced PAR fully, and being chosen for a pilot project is recognition of this commitment. But is also a heavy responsibility. Brcko’s success or failure in PAR may well come to affect the perception of BiH’s progress in PAR, and in so doing may eventually become a critical determinant of the speed by which BiH makes itself ready for EU candidacy and membership.
As Supervisor, I am required to ensure that Brcko District institutions are functioning ‘effectively and apparently permanently’ before I can recommend an end to the Supervisory regime. That is why PAR is so important to my office and why the Brcko Final Award Office and OHR so strongly support PAR in Brcko. My staff and I will therefore continue to encourage and assist Brcko authorities with respect to PAR.
I want to thank the donors to PAR – the EC, DFID, SIDA, and the Dutch Government in particular – for their financial and political support to the PAR program in BiH. I expect these benefactors and the U.S. to maintain their interest in and support to PAR long after the Supervisor is gone.
I wish all participants in this conference every success in your further work.