Organized by the Technical Assistance Team of the European Union Delegation in BiH to the Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office, today at a workshop held in Sarajevo a draft of the revised Action Plan 1 of the Strategy of the Public Administration Reform in BiH was presented to the Entity Coordinators and the Public Administration Reform Coordinator of the Brčko District and to the members of the Supervisory Teams.
By the revised Action Plan 1, and by the new measures and activities that the institutions of administration in BiH should implement by 2014, the public administration in our country will be strengthened, as well as closer to both citizens and the business community.
Semiha Borovac, the Coordinator for Public Administration Reform in BiH, said that the revision of the Action Plan 1 was preceded by extensive analyses of the situation in all six reform areas that were done by the experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the assistance of the PARCO and the members of the Supervisory Teams.
“Analyses have shown that some of the measures in the Action Plan 1 are unenforceable, obsolete or outdated. We have proposed new measures, which will benefit citizens, businesses and the very administration that needs to be strengthened in order to be ready to respond to European requirements. Public administration reform requires a strong coordination of activities at all four administrative levels. We approached revision of this plan in extremely serious and responsible manner so the reform activities could take place simultaneously and evenly on all four levels of government”, stressed Ms. Borovac.
Gregor Virant, an expert of the technical assistance team and former Minister of Administration in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia said that many goals in the Action Plan 1 have already been achieved, some have been set too ambitiously or in a manner that does not guarantee that it will bring additional value in terms of benefits to citizens, businesses and society as a whole.
“Cantons in the Federation of BiH and Municipalities in the RS and the FBiH are not directly involved in division of responsibilities and coordination structure of the Public Administration Reform Strategy and the Action Plan 1. But, it should be mentioned that without cooperation of municipalities and their indirect involvement, implementation of the public administration reform is incomprehensible. Most of the direct services for citizens and companies are provided at a municipal level, although it is implementation of the laws from cantonal and entity (and even BiH) competency. Because of that, in some places of the revised Action Plan 1, the role of municipalities is included, but not as directly responsible institutions”, said, among other things, Mr. Virant.
According to him, public administration reform in BiH requires even stronger political support.
Revised Action Plan 1 of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform in BiH, will be, in the following months, in front of the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Governments of the Republic of Srpska, the Federation of BiH and the Brčko District of BiH, who obligated themselves to modernise public administration in BiH.
Workshop was attended by the public administration reform coordinators of the FBiH, the RS and the Brčko District of BiH, as well as more than 40 members of the supervisory teams, who are responsible for supervision and implementation of the reform activities.