Reporter: According to the last information, by the end of March this year the institutions of administration in BiH have fulfilled 34.55% of measures from the Action plan 1 of the Strategy of the Public Administration Reform.
The biggest progress in implementation of the Action plan 1 measures has been recorded in the area of Human Resources Management (41.93%), and the smallest one was in the area of Information Technologies (27.19%). Even though it is about the small percents, these are still the success for the reform of this volume, by considering the complexity of administrative levels and long-lasting reform process of each big system, as the administration is.
“We constantly emphasize that the Strategy of the Public Administration Reform is the only strategy, which has exactly described monitoring of progress. This means that this document is not, nor it will stay a “dead letter on paper” because monitoring implies a documented argumentation of progress and analysis of fulfilling of measures of the Strategy and the AP 1. When speaking of the fulfilled measures, I will mention some. In the area of Public Finances, the Law on Fiscal Council of BiH has been adopted, and the Secretariat of the Fiscal Council has been established, while in the area of Administrative Procedure 70% of measures, which deal with administrative inspection, have been fulfilled. In the area of Information Technologies, the Government of the RS has established the Information Society Agency, and the eBoard (electronic leading of sessions of the RS Government system) has been qualitatively implemented. Also, at the level of the Brčko District of BiH, strategic documents related to development of information society, have been adopted”, has been said in the interview for “Novi Reporter” by the National Coordinator for Public Administration Reform, Nevenka Savić.
What has all been done in the area of Human Resources Management?
At all levels, adequate bylaw acts, which in detail regulate the legal solutions and some issues from the domain of existing laws on civil service/administration, have been adopted. There have been initiated and at some levels (in the RS) finished the initiatives for drafting new laws on civil service, as well as the changes and amendments of existing laws (levels of BiH and the FBiH). There are also the regulations on salaries in the authorities of administration/civil service. In a larger or smaller measure, the trend is that by preparations of new legal solutions we should tend to address some of the reform preferences from the PAR Strategy, even though there are still visible resistances to changes and a level of coordination (horizontal and vertical), in revising of legal solutions is not at the satisfying level. Several international organizations and donors in previous period were included in providing of technical and advisory assistance to the authorities of administration and the institutions competent for implementation of reforms in the area of Human Resources Management, UNDP BiH, DfID and the European Commission Delegation. Specifically important is the project “Human Resources Management Information System” (HRMIS), which is being financed by the European Commission by the Delegation in BiH. The system should ensure a modern tool for monitoring of evidences on employed in civil service and a support to many other functions of the modern HRM, for individual institutions, but for the employed in civil service as well.
The Coordinator’s office has prepared several projects, which are being financed by funds of the PAR Fund, among which are: “Training of civil servants for application of information technologies and work at computers”, “Establishment of modern departments for human resources management in the authorities of administration in BiH”. The biggest progress has been achieved on a plan of building of capacities for HRM and in a segment, which contains the reform measures directed to training and specialization of the employed in civil service. So, the activities directed to simplifying of contest procedure have also been partially realized.
The Coordinator’s office also coordinates the PAR Fund. How much money has been given by donors for Fund, and who are they?
By the Memorandum on understanding on establishing the Fund, donors have obligated themselves to invest per 1.5 million Euros in the period from 2006 to 2009. Donors; the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, the Department for International Development of the UK, and SIDA have given by now 1.787.425 KM. Since the financial regulations forbid the European Commission Delegation to unify financing, it has obligated itself that it will ensure the direct technical support for the Coordinator’s office, with the goal of providing the support to establishing the Coordinator’s office and creating and developing the Strategy, also in the amount of 1.5 million Euros.
The Management board of the Fund has approved at the end of the year the total of eleven projects in the amount of 7.574.278 KM. Projects include all four administrative levels of the Council of Ministers of BiH, the Government of the FBiH, the Government of the RS and the Government of the Brčko District of BiH, while encompassing all six reform areas from the Action plan 1.
Which projects have been financed from the PAR Fund and did realization of any of them start?
The Public administration reform coordinator’s office has began implementation of the first project and it is about the “Establishment of the info desk network”, while the other 10 projects are in procedure of public procurement, in preparation phase or approving of tender documentation.
The goal of mentioned project is the exchange of informative material of the centers of executive government in BiH and informing of citizens on competencies and services of those centers. Prepared have also been the projects, which should result by the budget, which would enable an informative coordination, points at which the citizens will receive their services for which they now have to go to the institution of administration, by improved procedures for drafting of laws, by civil servants trained for the application of information technologies in their work, by performance management of civil servants or creating of frames of the standards of the future e-service of administration.
Are some other countries interested in investing their money in the Fund?
By now, from the list of donors of the PAR Fund, the DfID has invested a million Euros in the Fund. We now have 5.5 million Euros in Fund.
At the Donor Coordination Forum, which has been held recently in Sarajevo, the Coordinator’s office has presented to donors the PAR Fund, by emphasizing that it is the first institution in BiH, which has got entrusted the coordination by donor funds, and that the Fund represents the source for financing of technical and professional assistance in implementation of projects, defined on the basis of activities from the Action plan 1 of the Strategy of the Public Administration Reform in BiH. It has also been pointed out that for a full implementation of the AP 1 the additional financial investments are needed for the projects planned for the upcoming period, and on whose development the Coordinator’s office constantly works. We have sent a call to donors to include themselves in the Fund, in order to give their own contribution to the public administration reform in BiH.
What has been done by now on drafting of the Action plan 2 of the PAR Strategy?
The European Commission has financed drafting of functional overviews in eight key sectors, recognized as the sectors in which the reforms are necessary. Results of those overviews in the areas of agriculture, environment, health care, education, jurisdiction, refugee return, work and employment, and police is a set of recommendations related to building of capacities necessary for adopting and implementing of the acquis legal regulations of the European Community. The Coordinator’s office did not have sufficient capacities for a further development of that document and in the meantime we have been working on so called horizontal reforms from the AP 1. Since it has been awhile since functional overviews have been drafted, there was a need to make an intersection of condition in sectors and to review it in a light of new documents, which have got adopted, as are the SAA or the European Partnership. The Coordinator’s office currently works on it, and in a month or two we should get a technical assistance of the EC, which will, besides others, assist us in creating the Draft Action plan 2. This is one of the priorities of the European Partnership and it is the time to seriously work on fulfilling of it.
Do you agree with a grade that the bureaucratic apparatus in BiH is huge, inefficient and expensive? Will the AP 2 have the measures for reducing the administration volume?
We talk about inefficiency of the BiH administration for a long time already. There is no doubt that it can be more rational and better organized. But, functional overviews have shown that, let us say in the sector of agriculture that BiH has much less of employed in relation to Slovenia or five times less in relation to Austria. Establishing of agencies for food security, vegetation protection, the Veterinary office and other authorities is a consequence of overtaking the European legislation in these areas as their direct requirement. In some sectors, again, we have unnecessary overlapping. It is hard to say in this moment what kind of solutions, in a sense of volume and organization of administration, will be offered. I believe that we are all aware that the reorganization and rationalization, as well as the reduction of fragments at one level and between them, will be necessary. We should not forget that the final goal of BiH is a membership in the EU, and one of the criterions for that is building of administrative capacities, which will be able to respond to challenges and obligations of the Union. So, our administration will have to be more efficient, effective and coherent.
Do you think that the Institutions of BiH are able to overtake the acquis communautaire?
The Institutions of BiH have the capacities for overtaking the acquis. Of course, the whole process must be well coordinated, where it is needed, and civil servants additionally trained. The Council of Ministers of BiH has by the Decision on forming the working groups for harmonizing the legal regulations of BiH with the acquis communautaire created the legal and institutional assumptions for implementing of this important task in the process of getting closer to the EU. Eight working groups have been formed, and they are all operational. Also, the Sector for promotion of the European Integrations of the DEI (Directorate for European Integrations) has prepared, and the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Plan and program of education and specialization of civil servants in BiH on the process of European integrations, which stipulates the harmonization of legislation as one of thematic portions, as well as the civil servants at the state and entity levels as the target group, especially the members of the working groups for harmonization of legislation.