Public administration reform coordinator Dragan Ćuzulan told Faktor that the fact is that some institutions are stagnating in terms of transparency in the publication of 38 types of information, including financial, organizational, strategic and operational information, public procurement, public consultations and freedom of access to information.
-These are the Regulatory Board of Railways of BiH, the Board of State Complaints Service, the Institute for Accreditation of BiH, the Council for State Aid of BiH, the Office for Legislation of BiH, the Border Police of BiH and the Service for Joint Affairs of the Institutions of BiH. However, some of these institutions had, for example, more than 60 percent of published standards in 2021, but this year that number decreased – said Ćuzulan.
He added that, looking at the years, when they conducted the first research in 2019 and until today, many institutions started to publish data that users could not find on their websites before. Although these institutions did not meet 100 percent of the standards, they have been working on improving their own transparency for the last five years, and that should be praised. When it comes to public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ćuzulan says that the country is still in the early stages of reform.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, he pointed out, is particularly stagnant in the digitization segment.
And while most countries, especially after the pandemic, are rapidly adapting to the demands of the new digital age, Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens are still forced to stand in front of counters to gain their rights. That is something we will have to change.
We recently published a report on progress in the implementation of the Action Plan for public administration reform, and according to data, 14 percent of the activities from this plan were implemented in the period 2020-2022. year.
We cannot say that we are satisfied with the percentage of fulfillment and it is clear that we will have to work harder on the implementation of agreed activities in all segments, especially, as I said, in ensuring better, digital services for citizens. For years, international reports have shown that the digitization segment of public administration has either stagnated or regressed, and that trend must be changed. After all, this is what the European Commission is asking us to do – said the coordinator for public administration reform.
Our country still does not have a register of employees in BiH institutions. According to Ćuzulan, they have been working on the register for a long time, but not all the necessary legal prerequisites for their full functioning in the entities have been provided.
-At the state level, the civil service law was amended, but it was not adopted in the parliamentary procedure.
Taking into account that we were asked to harmonize the civil service law with the European principles of public administration and with each other, we hope that this issue will also be resolved through these changes – said Ćuzulan.