Darko Kasap, coordinator for public administration reform, at today’s 7th meeting of the EU-BiH Stabilization and Association Committee in Brussels, presented key information on the progress achieved in the field of public administration reform.
“After the last meeting of the PAR Special Group, we received about 30 recommendations, a significant number of which we have not yet implemented, and it is clear that we will have to make additional efforts to improve the functioning of public administration in the country, at all levels, among other things, through increasing professionalism and depoliticization, but also ensuring a coordinated approach in creating policies, including the development of regulations at the state level on nationwide strategic planning,” said Kasap.
He added that progress has been made in the preparation of the revised Action plan for Public Administration Reform.
“A precise roadmap for revising the Action Plan was prepared with clear steps and deadlines, priorities were determined in consultation with SIGMA, consultations with civil society were organized through a separate and joint workshop of civil society and intergovernmental bodies, and the cost estimate of the revised Action plan was completed. The revised action plan was agreed at the professional level, ensuring full consensus on all its parts (activities, indicators, deadlines…). It is necessary to ensure its adoption as quickly as possible”, Kasap said.
Speaking about the progress achieved in the field of civil service and human resources management, Kasap emphasized that significant progress needs to be made in harmonizing the law on civil service with the principle of merit and mutual harmonization of laws in order to ensure a professional and depoliticized civil service.
When it comes to strategic planning, Kasap emphasized that “the dialogue on the development of regulations at the state level on nationwide strategic policy planning was opened through the IPA III project EU4PAR”.
According to him, certain advances have been made at the state level in the segment of freedom of access to information. However, additional work is needed to harmonize legislation in this area.
The European Commission praised the efforts of BiH in revising the Action Plan for Public Administration Reform and called on the governments in BiH/Council of Ministers of BiH to adopt the document as soon as possible. BiH authorities are invited to take a larger share in the ownership for Public Administration Reform in the future.
In addition to the coordinator for public administration reform and representatives of competent state, entity, cantonal and Brčko district institutions, the meeting was attended by: deputy coordinator for public administration reform Miloš Golijanin, coordinator for public administration reform in the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Škarica and deputy coordinator for reform public administration in the Government of Republika Srpska Mikan Davidović.
The meeting was co-chaired by Valentina Superti, director for the Western Balkans, DG NEAR on behalf of the European Commission and Elvira Habota, director of the Directorate for European Integration on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina.