Ethics of MPs: from standard to practice
Recruitment and Promotion in the State Administration in 2014
Recruitment and promotion in State administration: Merits hardly achievable
The effect of the Law on Civil servants and State employees to establishing the merit based system in the state administration are limited due to inconsistent application of new regulations and weak competition during the recruitment, as assessed today at the press conference organized by Institute Alternative (IA).
The press conference was organized withing the project “State Administration in Montenegro – Equal for All”, supported by U.S. Embassy in Podgorica.
Its aim was to present the findings of the monitoring of recruitment and promotion in state administration in 2014.
“What we mean by the inconsistent application of the rules, is the broad interpretation of the discretion of Head of state authority not to select the best candidates assessed, superficial assessment of employees, and other formal, but also quite a severe flaws in the management of human resources,” said Milena Milošević, public policy researcher in IA.
She particularly pointed out the fact that a low number of candidates applying to the calls – on average, 2 candidates for last year, which imposes shortening the selection list, which currently makes five candidates with highest ranking among which the Head makes the final decision.
“The promotion at work of civil servants and state employees practically does not exist”, Milošević said, pointing out to the fact that according to the information available and the Central personnel register and the data to which the IA had access during monitoring in the past year there have been no decision on promotion.
“The legal provision according to which the promotion is made is on the basis of excellence at work which is only possible in a higher salary grade, is clearly not the right answer to the needs of motivating and retaining the most professional personnel,” she added.
Transparency procedures of the verification of abilities are at a high level. Human Resources Management Authority regularly publishes detailed reports on its website, it was assessed at the conference.
During the monitoring, in addition to the information available through the Human Resources Management Authority and The Appeal Commission, IA has focused on a total of 18 state bodies in order to map the key challenges in the implementation of the Law on Civil Servants, when it comes to recruitment and promotion procedures.
However, when it comes to the higher level of government bodies, it is more difficult to get information, because of the high cost of the procedure of access to information, for which IA had to pay more than 500 euros. Ministry of Defense refused to provide the names and surnames of employees, who have been recruited during 2014.
The Ministry of Health did not even respond to a request concerned the recruitment in the state organs for the second half of 2014, it was noted at the event.
Even when there is competition in recruitment, Heads often decide to exercise its discretion and not to choose the first-ranked candidate.
However, Milošević pointed out that the Heads often use this possibility very often, although it should be the case only exceptionally when they have precise explanation for that
In some cases, they often state the reasons that do not even have the foundation in the Law. For example, for the selection of candidates they use criteria that are directly in conflict with the principle of recruitment based on merit or criteria that have already been a part of the verification capabilities performed before the specially established commission.
Ana Đurnić, project associate in IA, announced the launching of Internet
website mojauprava.me.
This site, which will also be launched by the IA within the project “State Administration in Montenegro: Equal for All”, will contain, in addition to an interactive component that will allow citizens to report problems when it comes to employment in state bodies, a graphic representation of the key steps and mechanisms to protect the rights of candidates for a job in state bodies.
Panel Announcement: “Police Integrity in the Western Balkans”
POLICE INTEGRITY IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
Venue: Hotel Bosnia, Kulovica 9, Sarajevo
Time: Friday, 8th May from 9:30
Regional network of civil society organizations POINTPULSE is organizing a panel “Police Integrity in the Western Balkans” that will be held on Friday, 8 May from 9:30 in the Hotel Bosnia, Kulovica 9 in Sarajevo. The draft programme of the panel is below the invitation letter.
The discussion will be held in Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian and English language. Simultaneous translation will NOT be provided.
These questions will be address at the event:
- How can civil society encourage accountability and integrity in policing?
- What are main problems in developing accountable police in the region?
- What are the main risks of corruption in the police?
- In which parts of the police there is most danger of corruption?
- What should be the priorities of the police reform process in the region?
Introductory speech: Deputy Minister of Security in Bosnia and Herzegovina Miljo Krešić.
Panellists:
- Sasa Djordjevic, Researcher, Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP),
- Alma Kovacevic, Programme Coordinator, Centre for Security Studies (CSS) from Sarajevo,
- Dina Bajramspahić, Public Policy Researcher, Institute Alternative (IA) from Podgorica,
- Plator Avdiu, Researcher, Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) from Pristina.
Moderator: Hamza Visca from the Centre for Security Studies, Sarajevo
Please confirm your participation until Thursday 4th May by phone: +387 33 262 455 / 262 456 or email: alma@css.ba
Citizens without the possibility to report the violation of the Code of Ethics for MPs
Why the citizens are not able to report violations of the Code of Ethics for MPs, are the sanctions for violation of ethical standards sufficiently stringent and is the control of their application sufficiently effective – those were some of the key issues discussed at today’s panel discussion organized by the Institute alternative (IA).
Panel discussion “The Ethics of MPs: From the standard to the practice” was organized with the support of Open Society Foundation – Think Tank Fund from Budapest, with the aim to offer critical review of the content and application of the Code of Ethics for MPs, whose adoption was foreseen by the Action Plan for Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental rights
Our panelists were the representative of all MP groups in the Parliament, who agreed that the Montenegrin parliament is leading among the parliaments in the region when talking about mutual conduct and behavior of MPs.
One of the questions raised by the participants was the practical impossibility for citizens to report the violation of the Code, since this right is reserved solely for the Speaker of the Parliament, the Collegium, MPs and the President of the MP group.
Halil Duković, representative of the MP group of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms, a permanent working body in the Parliament, which is responsible for monitoring the application of the Code, said that so far no reports have been filed for the violation of the Code.
Ljiljana Đurašković, from the MP group of the Democratic Front, said that she was honored to be a member of the working group for drafting the Code, bearing in mind the importance of this document for raising ethical standards in the Parliament.
Responding to a question by Jovana Marović, research coordinator at the Institute alternative, posed at the very beginning of the discussion, Aleksandar Damjanović, the representative of the MP group of the Socialist People’s Party, said that he thought that the fines against MPs for violating ethical standards do not make any sense.
“Who can be competent to determine whether something could be assessed as the hate speech?”, asked Damjanović, emphasizing that there is not need to establish a special comittee which would monitor the compliance with the Code, since there are already too many members of the committee in total (over 180) having in mind that there are 81 seats in the Parliament.
Borislav Banović from the MP group of the Social Democratic Party said that he is not sure to what extent the Code would contribute to the appliance of the ethical standards, but it is still important to have it as a reminder for the adequate conduct of the MPs.
Since one of the topics was the responsibility for lack of work of MPs, i.e, for their absence from the plenary and committee meetings, Goran Tuponja, from the Positive Montenegro Party said that the lack of participation in the meeting may be considered as the political act.
“What is of a great importance is that the MP must not be in the conflict of interest or subjected to the corruption.”, he added.
Andrija Popović from the Liberal Party, has criticized the confusion in Montenegrin legal system and practice when it comes to the position of the MP.
“The Constitution gives the definition of the position of the MP in one way, the Law in another, and the practice in a third way”, he said while adding that he advocated introducing more severe sanctions which would be financial and humanitarian.
Namely, the amount of the fine paid by the MP who violated the Code should be donated to humanitarian purposes.
Mladen Bojanić, representing the MP group of independent MPs and Almer Kalač from the Bosniak party agreed with the most of their colleagues that fines are not the best solution, and that the moral condemnation, in that sense, is way more effective.
Jovana Marović, commenting on the panelists and participants in the discussion, said that IA supports the initiative to keep detailed records about contribution of MPs to parliamentary work, especially when it comes to presence to the plenary and committee meetings, since the absence of MPs from the meetings is considered to be a minor violation of the Code.
“That will also be one of the recommendations in the monitoring report on the control function of the Parliament, which IA is going to publish by the end of month”, she said.
“Moja uprava” (“My administration”) – for more transparent recruitment in the state organs
Institute Alternative (IA) will launch a new website by the end of the month, which will facilitate the process of reporting problems as well as sharing experiences acquired during application process for a job in state administration.
Website mojauprava.me will be launched within the project ”State Administration in Montenegro – Equal for All”, financially supported by the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica.
In addition to the interactive component that will allow citizens to report problems when it comes to employment in state administration, this website will contain a graphical presentation of the key steps in the application and verification capabilities for a specific job, as well as mechanisms to protect the rights of candidates for jobs in government authorities.
Its launch is part of the efforts of the Institute Alternative to contribute to transparent and consistent application of the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which started from 1 January 2013, and whose main aim was to establish a system of recruitment and promotion in state administration based on merit.
IA prepares an annual monitoring report, which will provide a summary of the key issues and challenges in the second year of implementation of the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, especially when it comes to methods of promotion and appointment to positions in the state administration.
Extremely broad interpretation of elders’ discretion right when it comes to selection of candidates to jobs, the practical impossibility of promotion of civil servants and employees, frequent formal omissions in the field of human resources management, according to the IA, are among the key obstacles to the professionalization of the Montenegrin state administration. At the same time, they are also the main factors limiting the scope of the Law on Civil Servants and State Employees, which imposes the necessity of redefining certain legal solutions.
Milena Milošević
Public Policy Researcher