Research Coordinator Jovana Marović participated in the Belgrade Security Forum, at the special side event Visegrad Experience for the Western Balkans: NGO Support for Key Reforms.
Jovana spoke about the challenges of participation of NGOs in the negotiation process, with special emphasis on the limitations in the work of NGO representatives within working groups. The focus of her presentation was also on the current reforms in the area of fight against corruption.
The publication “Civil Society in the European Integration Process in the Western Balkans”, dedicated to the framework for CSOs’ participation in the negotiation process, was presented at the panel as well. The report is co-authored by 20 experts from the civil society in the Western Balkans, directly involved in the negotiation process.
Besides Jovana, the panelists were:
Marko Savković, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence;
Goce Kocevski, Macedonian Young Lawyers Association;
Tomasz Żornaczuk, Polish Institute for International Affairs (Moderator).
More information on the panel can be found at the BSF website.
Our researcher, Marko Sošić, took part in the Belgrade Security Forum at the special side event on civilian capacities for peace support operations.
The panel was an opportunity to publicly present the results of the first phase of the regional project “Civilian Capacities for Peace Operations – Case of the Western Balkans”, which we implemented in cooperation with the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). The project is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The issue of civilian contribution to peacekeeping missions involves sending non-military personnel in international missions, which could include police officers, medical personnel, judicial experts, civil servants in general, and members of civil society and experts outside the public administration, with the mediation of the state.
Panelists emphasized the advantages of contribution to peacekeeping missions for the countries of the region, but also for the areas that are subject of the missions. They highlighted the problems and underutilization of this type of contribution in all countries of the region, of which some have done more than others (such as Croatia), while others are at the very beginning of formulating public policy in this area (Montenegro).
Besides Marko, the panelists were:
Gordan Bosanac‚ Centre for Peace Studies, Zagreb
Emsad Dizdarević‚ Centre for Security Studies, Sarajevo
Foto Duro‚ Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), Tirana
Andreja Bogdanovski‚ Analytica, Skopje
John Karlsrud‚ Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
Marko Milošević, Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (Moderator)
At the following links you can read short reports on the state of affairs in the countries that are the subject of this project: Serbia,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, while our report on the review of the situation in Montenegro is available here.
Fourth Belgrade Security Forum was organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, the European Movement in Serbia, and Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence. It was held from 30 September to 2 October 2014, under the working title “Closure and/or New Beginning?”.
The reform of local self-government in Montenegro does not progress as fast as envisaged. The problems of insufficient transferring of responsibilities to the local level, as well as the accompanying fiscal decentralization, which have been recognized as central in strategic framework for the reform of public administration, are still crucial in this process.
When civil service system is concerned, municipalities are (not) adapting to the provisions of the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees from 2011, since even eighteen months after the beginning of its implementation, they still have not met formal preconditions for its implementation at the local level. Draft Law on Amendments and Changes of the Law on Local Self-Government from July 2013, refers to the procedures governing employment at the local level, but these provisions have not been adopted yet, do not regulate this field in a precise way and do not provide explanation of what is implied by appropriate application of these solutions. Additionally, draft Strategy for Professional Development of Local Civil Servants and Employees in Montenegro indicates an inability to adequately apply numerous solutions from the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees at the local level.
Most of the local self-government units in Montenegro have a surplus of employees, and the exceptions are municipalities of Mojkovac, Plužine and Tivat where is “estimated” that the current number of employees is optimal. Rationalization does not give significant results, in spite of the need for reduction of pressure on local budgets, i.e. disproportion between the scope of competencies and number of employees. Surplus of employees affects the increase of expenditures, and in the first quarter of 2014 expenditures were close to 70 million EUR. Public Sector Internal Reorganization Plan gives a projection according to which by 2016 in local self-governments there will be 1024 employees less, which would make a saving of up to 10 million EUR. During the first year of implementation of the Public Sector Reorganization Plan certain rationalization of the number of employees in the municipalities has been carried out, but none of the municipalities have adopted the plan to reduce the number of employees or performed the analysis necessary to determine the qualified personnel that needs to be kept in the local government, so the question arises which criteria was used in the rationalization process.
Apart from the fact that there is a large number of „redundant” employees, municipalities are faced with inadequate age structure of employees and lack of highly professional staff. The inability to make a realistic estimate of the necessary number of employees and their educational profile indicates that there is a widespread problem of inadequate planning, whereas the surplus of employees is directly linked with party based employment. Public administration in Montenegro is still highly politicized although this topic is in the focus of attention of the European Commission, and its de-politization is a precondition in further progress of the negotiation process.
The impossibility to determine the optimal number of employees in municipalities is an indicator of poor human resources planning. Public Sector Internal Reorganization Plan did not manage to contribute to the improvement of the planning process, as it has foreseen drafting of necessary analysis of the optimal number of employees only a year after the adoption of the document which provides a projection of rationalization.
Municipalities do not have developed capacities for human resources management in the form of special services tasked with planning, formulating of training plans and conducting of recruitment procedures and adequate appliance of the new solutions from the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees which came into effect in January 2013. Currently, human resources are managed by Secretariats for General Administration, Local Self-Government and Chief Administrator.
Local self-governments covered by this research have recruited 90 employees on the basis of 64 public and internal announcements and competitions in 2013. Municipalities Danilovgrad and Kolašin did not advertise open vacancies, and Municipality Herceg Novi only allows access into decisions on employment in the premises of the municipality. Public enterprises and institutions recruit employees not using personnel policies of the local administration.
Personnel record of the employees are not updated regularly, nor do they exist in all local self-governments, so this makes it difficult to monitor their performance, which would allow for a realistic assessment. Application of the new performance appraisal system is encountering difficulties in application at the local level, and in 2013 performance appraisals have not been conducted in Bar, Kotor, Mojkovac, Nikšić, Pljevlja and Šavnik. Insufficient motivation of local civil servants and employees is also affected by the low salaries. In 2012, a total of 13 local self-governments (out of 21) had lower average net earnings as compared to the state level.
Text is originally published in the Electronic Monthly Magazine for European Integration “European Pulse“, published by the Centre for Civic Education
Preliminary findings of Institute Alternative (IA) suggest the possibility of abuse of service contracts from the side of the state authorities with an aim of circumventing recruitment procedures defined by the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees – Milena Milošević, public policy researcher at Institute Alternative, has said at the conference held in Sarajevo.
Conference on free access to information, with particular emphasis on availability of service contracts in public administration, was organized by Transparency International Bosnia i Herzegovina and Open Society Fund.
Milena Milošević, public policy researcher at IA, presented the preliminary findings of our research on the service contracting in Montenegrin public administration, which our organization conducts within the regular monitoring of recruitment and promotion in state authorities.
She pinpointed that formally recruitment based on service contracts is not possible in Montenegro, because this contracting is regulated neither by the Labour Law nor by the Law on civil servants and state employees.
“Findings, however, indicate that the practice of undermining Government’s efforts on delimiting public spending and introducing merit-based system in the state administration has continued, because some people are practically being recruited by service contracts although formally this is neither possible nor it is in line with the laws”, she added.
In other words, by paying taxes and social contributions to people hired upon the service contracts, and by making these contracts on a long term basis, people are practically being recruited in state authorities, but not following the relatively strictly procedures prescribed by the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees.
Additionally, very often people are being contracted for services which should be regular activities of certain state authority.
Milošević also recalled earlier findings of State Audit Institution, which suggested that service contracts were being abused by state authorities, which, in some cases, even paid for “official” trips of persons with whom they had signed service contracts.
She has thus highlighted importance of monitoring public administration’s service contracts, as well as contracts with agencies for employment mediation, which are one more potential mechanism for circumvention of qualification assessment of prospective candidates and other procedures defined by the Law on civil servants and state employees.
Representatives of civil sectors of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia also spoke at the conference, which was organized to mark the 28th September, International day of free access to information. One panel was dedicated to the international initiative Open Government Partnership.
The announced revision of the Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24 should not include mere changes of the deadlines, but also provide substantial improvement of measures, activities and indicators. Regardless of the scope of the revision, the Government should put drafts of the revised Plans on public hearing.
Following the publication of this year’s Progress Report by the European Commission, Working Groups for Chapters 23 and 24 will begin the process of revision of Action Plans for these Chapters. It remains uncertain whether these changes will only include setting of new deadlines or involve substantial improvements. The first year of implementation of Action Plans in the area of judiciary, fight against corruption, human rights, and security is characterized by numerous challenges that are reflected in inability of “measuring” progress in certain fields due to poorly defined indicators, as well as a high level of unrealized measures, poor coordination and reporting. Furthermore, solutions and measures are significantly modified during implementation, and this does not generate significant progress in the reform process in practice. Due to all these problems, it is necessary to significantly improve the Action Plans for key chapters in the negotiation process, as well as determine precise responsibilities and performance indicators.
However, regardless of the extent of revision of Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24, it is necessary to enable stakeholders to influence their improvement in a transparent process within the framework of public hearings. It is necessary to organize consultations with civil society representatives within the time frame envisaged by the relevant regulations, and not just for six days, as was the case when drafts of the Plans were put on “public hearing”. Although significant amendments to the Action Plans need to obtain approval of the member states of the European Union, this should not cause slowdown in the negotiation process, because there are no obstacles to proceed with the implementation of activities under existing Plans.
President of the Managing Board of Institute Alternative, Stevo Muk, participated at the roundtable on the Draft Law on Administrative Inspection, organized by the Ministry of Interior on September 11, 2014. On this occasion, he presented a series of comments and suggestions to the Draft Law and pointed out to some of the questions that remain open in regulation of this matter.
The central issue is the status of Administrative Inspection in the organization of administration and the scope of its competences, especially when it comes to relationship between Administrative Inspection and other branches of government and local government. It is necessary to define more closely the records kept by the Administrative Inspection, which is the basis for preparation of quality performance reports. However, drafting of these reports was not foreseen by this Law. Modeled on the Croatian legal solutions, the obligation of cooperation between Administrative Inspection and other authorities needs to be defined and for us especially important is the cooperation between Administrative Inspection and the State Audit Institution.
Our comments can be accessed here (in Montenegrin only).
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Research Coordinator Jovana Marović participated in the Belgrade Security Forum, at the special side event Visegrad Experience for the Western Balkans: NGO Support for Key Reforms.
The announced revision of the Action Plans for Chapters 23 and 24 should not include mere changes of the deadlines, but also provide substantial improvement of measures, activities and indicators. Regardless of the scope of the revision, the Government should put drafts of the revised Plans on public hearing.
President of the Managing Board of Institute Alternative, Stevo Muk, participated at the