1. What is the primary task of the BiH Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office?
– The public administration reform (PAR) is an obligation and a political condition of the European parliament. The PARCO has been established to coordinate the process of public administration reform at the state, entity and the level of the Brčko District at the same time and to the same extent, and the institutions are those who implement that reform. That means that this Office is not alone. The great role belongs also to the entity coordinators, Mirsada Jahić from the FBiH and Stojanka Ćulibrk from the RS, and Brano Jovičić from the Brčko District, who diligently and professionally perform the job of coordination of public administration reform in the territories of the entities and the Brčko District of BiH. Without that joint coordination, there would be no successful reform.
The basic role of the PARCO is coordination of the reform activities from the Strategy of the Public Administration Reform and the action plans that stem from it. The reform is supposed to approximate and introduce the BiH administrative space in the European one, by all the standards and criteria related to a professional administration, transparent public administration, greater efficiency in work and effectiveness. This reform helps the administration in relation to the expertise, abilities and quality of work, which is necessarily reflected in the quality of services that citizens and business subjects expect. That is also a precondition for economic sustainability and development.
2. How far the public administration reform went, to what extent or percentage it has been implemented and what concretely has been done?
– According to the latest percentage overview of July this year, the biggest progress was noted in the reform area of Institutional Communication (69.15 per cent) and the smallest, in the area of Information Technologies (38.97 per cent). The new data will be known in the early 2012. The administration in BiH is on half way to achieve the PAR Strategy, whose implementation is the measure of success of the reform.
The Council of Ministers of BiH, and the Governments of the Republic of Srpska and the Brčko District of BiH adopted the new programme, which stipulates amendments to the Law on Administrative Procedure, by which we intend to enable the citizens to exercise their rights more easily and quickly. We expect the same to be done by the Government of the FBiH.
In the previous period, we were focused on preparation and implementation of the projects financed by the Public Administration Reform Fund, which gathers the donor funds. Precisely through these projects the common measures are being implemented, related to acquiring knowledge and skills of management of reform processes, policy making, drafting of work programmes, coordination. These projects directly involve the civil servants in the secretariats general of the governments and secretaries of the ministries as well as civil servants from the ministries and other officers involved in public policy making. Without the knowledge that requires management of the process, we cannot talk about the vision or successfulness of work of respective ministries.
This year, we have revised the Action Plan 1, which was adopted by the governments in BiH. So, it is necessary to implement the Revised Action Plan 1 to the end, as well as prepare and implement the Action Plan 2, related to the organisation of administration regarding its functionality. The project “Training of Civil Servants for Application of Information Technologies and Work on Computers” is being successfully implemented, whose objective was greater digital literacy of the civil servants. The training was attended by 1,600 employees of the administration bodies. Four hundred civil servants was educated on the manners, types and techniques of harmonisation of the BiH legislation with the EU legislation through the project “Transposing EU Legislation in the Legal System of BiH”. Within the project “Development of Performance Management System in the Structures of the Civil Service in BiH”, the training was attended by 591 civil servants, and 61 civil servants acquired the title of trainer in this area. Through the project “Strategic Planning and Public Policy Development”, the training was attended by 128 civil servants.
Within the project “Improvement of Rules and Procedures for Legal, Other Regulation and General Acts Drafting in BiH”, which is ongoing, the nomotechnical rules have been drafted, which improve the legal, other regulations and general acts drafting, adjusted to the European standards. Establishment of the number of attendees of the training, who work directly on legal drafting, is pending. Also, ongoing is implementation of the projects “Blueprint of Development of Central Bodies of Governments in BiH”, “Design and Establishment of Interoperability Framework and Standards for Data Exchange” and “Budget Management Information System (BMIS”, which aim at improving the structure, capacities and work of the secretariats of the governments, creation of the bases for establishment of the standards for data exchange, as well as establishment of more efficient, more accurate and more transparent budget management with the help of the information system.
We are aware how many laws have been adopted without good estimates, not only on the matter of finances, but also on the matter on whom the laws have a direct and indirect influence. Rules of legal drafting need to be improved in this area so these things would not happen in the future. That would be one of the indicators of successful work of administration. The bigger the number of civil servants involved in educations for work, the greater the success. Therefore, the programme of the reform is an expensive process. It is our good fortune that BiH receives the funds for the reform from foreign donors. That is a great support; because that means that they want us in the European Union. As of this year, it has been introduced that the governments as well are involved in financing of the reform, with the amount of 0.01 per cent of the annual budget, although we are aware that it is hard for them at this moment.
3. What kind of benefit the reform brings to the institutions and citizens of BiH?
– Consistent implementation of the Revised AP 1 will bring the public administration, such as the one of the European countries, closer to the citizens of BiH. E.g. it has already been established that the institutions are the ones who gather data officially, and not the citizens, as it was so far. In order to implement that principle, it is necessary to invest significant funds in the information technologies, link all the data and provide for unhindered flow of information. The project "Interoperability", which is ongoing, will set the bases for such data exchange.
In any case, saving time and effort the citizens of BiH invest in receiving certain service is born in mind. It has been proposed to simplify administrative procedures, introduce e-services, such as e-taxes to the total income of citizens, e-registration of vehicles… The plan stipulates also introduction of a single database of all the laws and bylaws, which would be free for access of the citizens, as well as adjustment of office hours to the citizens and introduction of regular measurement of satisfaction of the users of administrative services where those services are provided.
Also some of our measures are related to greater accountability of administration. The path to fulfilment of objectives is long, and it is preceded by many activities. E.g. in order to register a vehicle over the internet the preconditions for that have to be fulfilled: from amendment to the legal legislation to establishment of the information that would enable this service. But, you have to bear in mind that the process of public administration reform would not be over even then. This reform does not imply only fulfilment of the set objectives, but also change in consciousness of the administration as well as of the users of the services.
4. What are the next steps of the PARCO at the state level?
– The report of the European Commission has determined the activities for the next year. All that has been emphasized as a shortcoming has showed up in our work programme, and the Council of Ministers of BiH has already announced that in the public administration reform area the biggest attention will be paid to the Action Plan 2, which relates to the reform of administration bodies in a sense of organization itself and functionality of the bodies. Also, we must review the manner of functioning of the public administration in BiH and work on reducing the fragmentation of public administration because the European Commission is expecting that from us as well. We must fit into the modern organization of administration according to which the administration bodies are based on clear types and standards, necessary for efficient functioning.
Of course, there is also continuation of implementation of the Revised AP1 (RAP1), and we have already determined the priority projects for 2012, among which is the project “Capacity Building for Combat against Corruption in the Structures of Civil Service of BiH”, which will be financed by funds of the PAR Fund. Implementation of this project will raise the level of awareness of the problem of corruption in public administration, increase transparency and awareness of the public and the citizens on the work of the administration bodies, the civil servants and employees in administration bodies would be enabled to apply anticorruption measures and action mechanisms in corruption cases.
There are also the projects from the public administration reform area which will be financed by funds of the IPA 2010 and IPA 2011, which are also directed towards implementation of priority objectives and measures from the AP1 / RAP1 of the PAR Strategy. We would like to emphasize the project from the IPA 2010 programme: “Blueprint of Development of Central Bodies of Governments in BiH (state, entities and the Brčko District) – Phase II”, which represents a continuation of the previous project with the same name that was financed by funds of the PAR Fund, and which is expected to improve the process of annual work planning and monitoring at the level of the Council of Ministers of BiH / the governments at other levels and ensure strengthening of cooperation between the four secretariats that should be institutionalized in a sense of policy planning and coordination.
Certainly no less important is also the project in the area of the civil service and human resources management (HRM) reform, “Modernization of HRM systems in the Civil Service Structures in BiH”, whose financing has been approved from the IPA 2011 programme. Implementation of this project will contribute to improvement of the existing human resources management system in a sense of more effective human resources planning, improvement of employment procedures in civil service and analysis and classification of work positions in the civil service with the objective of improving the quality of job descriptions of the employees, in order to ensure harmonization of existing personnel resources with the real needs and requirements of the job.
Even though we have applied for the IPA funds with the projects from the Information Technologies (IT) area, unfortunately, we have not passed, although we deem that to be the one of the key reform conditions, which requires huge funds. We have not passed because those projects are not at the present time a priority for the European Commission.
All of the above is supposed to provide for the better ambience both for the work of the administration bodies and for the services beneficiaries. That is only a part of the overall picture of the public administration reform, which will contribute to achievement of better results of work of administration in BiH.
5. Does the public administration reform imply savings of money from the state budget?
– Absolutely! That is exactly one of the public administration reform objectives. Allocation of less money for administration will begin as soon as the number of workers for each position in the civil service has been determined.