On July 17 and 18 of this year in Sarajevo at the workshop the members of the supervisory teams for public administration reform of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Government of Republika Srpska and the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina mostly agreed on the text of the draft of the revised Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform until 2027.
On the first day, the workshop was attended by three representatives of the non-governmental sector in BiH, and they announced that they will submit their comments during the e-consultation, which is planned to be organized by the end of July this year. Some of them indicated, among other things, the need to regulate internal and external advancements in the civil service with the aim of motivating civil servants, and that the Revised Action Plan for the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Strategy should be harmonized with the Judiciary Strategy.
“The workshop also discussed the cost estimation of reform measures, and the most money will be needed for the digitization of services”, stated Darko Kasap, coordinator for public administration reform in BiH and added that, despite the call from the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office, only a small number of representatives of the non-governmental sector responded to participate in the workshop.
According to the draft of the revised Action plan, by the end of 2027, the administration institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina should digitalize some of the priority services provided by the public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina to citizens. Digitization of the registers of these services is also foreseen. Also, it was requested to form administrative bodies that will deal with digitalization of public administration, at the state level, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in Republika Srpska there is already an Agency for Information and Communication Technologies.
This is one of the recommendations of the SIGMA organization, which helps potential candidate countries and candidates for the EU to reform their administrations faster, as a key aspect of the success of activities from the Action plan in the area of digitization. The lack of institutional capacity proved to be a significant obstacle to the development and sustainability of the electronic government system.
The European Union expects Bosnia and Herzegovina, as was the recommendation of the Special PAR Group for Public Administration Reform between BiH and the EU, to revise the existing Action Plan and adjust the deadlines for previously proposed activities.
The European Commission has started work on screening (analytical review and assessment of compliance of BiH legislation with the EU acquis), and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of public administration reform, in addition to a strategic document, must also have a credible Action plan.
Davor Šolaja, coordinator for public administration reform of the Government of Brčko District BiH, Aleksandar Šuvak, coordinator for public administration reform of the Government of Republika Srpska and Željko Škarica, coordinator for public administration reform of the Government of the Federation of BiH thanked the civil servants for their work and harmonization of the text of the revised Action Plan.
It was agreed that by July 29, 2024 the supervisory teams will formally declare the final text of the document.
In Sarajevo, the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office organized the workshop in cooperation with the coordinators for public administration reform of the Government of Republika Srpska, the Government of the Federation, the Government of Brčko District of BiH, and with the technical support of the EU4PAR project, which is financed by the EU.