Despite improvements, the first six months of the implementation of the new Law on Civil Servants and State Employees (LCSSE) with regard to the recruitment and promotion in state authorities was marked by the lack of preconditions and tardiness in the responses of state authorities about filling their vacancies.
Institute Alternative (IA) continuously follows implementation of the new law, with focus on the provisions regulating recruitment and promotion of civil servants and state employees, which are expected to introduce a merit-based system into Montenegrin state administration.
Since January 1, 2013, when it started implementing, this act had certain positive effects.
Internet presentation of the Human Resources Management Authority (HRMA) offers a detailed insight into the reports about testing abilities and subsequent evaluation of candidates for the job positions in state authorities.
Also, filling of vacancies in cases analyzed by the IA in terms of the time period between launching of the filling the vacancies and selection of the candidates can be assessed as efficient.
However, until July 1, 2013, not all the institutional and legal preconditions for the implementation of the law were met.
Six out of thirteen envisaged by-laws, which were supposed to further elaborate the implementation of the law, have not entered into force during the reporting period.
Although there is an increase in submission of information about civil servants and state employees into the Central Human Resources Record, this information system of the HRMA, which is a key to the human resource planning in the state administration, is still only partially updated.
By July 1, data for 7 out of almost 13 thousand servants and employees, who fall under the scope of the law, were not submitted to the system.
Capacities of institutions for the implementation of the new LCSSE and related by-laws are also insufficient.
All the envisaged job positions in the Administrative Inspection and in the HRMA were not entirely filled, but only around fifty per cent of them.
Delays in responses to the freedom of information requests, incomplete answers to these requests, as well as failures of authorities to publish the lists of their employees, hinder monitoring of the law’s implementation.
Also, there is a need for efficient oversight of the application of the act, with an aim of preventing the abuses, such as hiring people via agencies for employment mediation, which can make the obligation of testing abilities of candidates for job in state authority pointless.
Milena Milošević
Policy Analyst
