Dragan Ćuzulan, coordinator for public administration reform, warned today that the institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are slow to implement the measures from the Action Plan for Public Administration Reform and that, if this practice continues, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina will have to wait a long time to receive quality and fast services of public administration.
Ćuzulan bases his position on data from the draft of the Annual Report on the Implementation of the Action Plan Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform for 2023. According to these data, in 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina made some progress in public administration reform. Measuring progress in the implementation of the Action Plan for Public Administration Reform shows that by the end of 2023, 15.79% of the Action Plan’s activities have been implemented. The progress in 2023 is only 1.48% higher compared to the measured progress in the first half of 2023, and 1.79% higher compared to the measured progress at the end of 2022. It is about relative progress, which is calculated as the average of the achieved progress of the administrative levels (BiH, FBiH, RS and BDBiH).
“Even though a little less than 16 percent of the activities were carried out by the end of 2023, as examples of success I would single out the introduction of the regulatory impact assessment and by-laws in the RS, and the improved process of public consultations at the state level,” said Ćuzulan and called on the institutions to give contribution to the public administration reform through the implementation of reform measures.
The regulatory impact assessment (RIA) system was improved in the Republic of Srpska during 2023 with the adoption of a new law that expanded the scope of acts for which there is an obligation to carry out an impact assessment (including by-laws). The decision defined the regulatory impact assessment which is harmonized with the legal acquis of the European Union, and introduced provisions that foresee the obligation to carry out a cost-benefit analysis, the introduction of standard cost models and ex post analysis. This established a control mechanism for new formalities (for citizens and companies) that are introduced by secondary legal acts. The process of public consultation was improved at the state level in 2023. Bosnia and Herzegovina, by amending the Rules for consultations in the drafting of public regulations, among other things, obligates institutions after the end of public consultations on the eKonsultacije web application to publish a report on the conducted consultations and the final text of a draft or proposal of a regulation or other act. In this way, the criterion from the SIGMA methodology, which assesses the existence of the obligation to make the report on the outcome of public consultations available to the public, is fulfilled.
In addition to the slow implementation of reform measures for the implementation of which individual institutions in BiH are responsible, the biggest risk for the implementation of public administration reform in BiH is still the failure to establish structures for the implementation of measures and activities contained in the strategic document and the accompanying Action Plan for public administration reform. The absence of donors, the absence of intergovernmental bodies for the implementation of the reform, as well as the blockage of the Public Administration Reform Fund remain challenges in the coming period.
“It is necessary to hold a session of the Coordinating Committee for Public Administration Reform, which, as a political body is composed of the Prime Minister and the respective ministers, would support the further continuation of the public administration reform. Unblocking the Public Administration Reform Fund, which contains unused money for the implementation of reform activities, is also important, as well as ‘attracting’ new donors for the purpose of securing additional funds for the continuation of the reform,” said Ćuzulan.
The draft of the Annual Report on the implementation of the Strategic Framework Action Plan for Public Administration Reform for 2023 is available on the website of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office as well as on the e-consultation portal of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina.