Capacity building of the Parliamentary service should be the subject of a long-term plan, grounded on real needs of the committees and parliamentarians. The analysis of Institute Alternative published in January this year, concludes that, although there is a will to increase the number of employees in the Parliamentary service, personnel policies and deployment of new employees do not equally meet the needs of all parties and committees.
Larger number of officers directly responsible for providing services to members of the committees on certain topics is essential for greater focus on parliamentary debate in the committees. This is particularly important in relation to the exercise of the Parliament’s control function.
Parliamentary service should be freed of personnel with inadequate capacities for meeting obligations in the process of EU integration. However, this has to be done in a planned and gradual manner.
Hiring new employees must be based on objective criteria of competence and knowledge, freed from the party affiliation criterion. There are serious objections that the hitherto admission of new employees has been based on biased, political criteria. This seriously impairs the long-term prospects of the Parliament building a professional and expert service.
Additionally, Parliamentary service cannot be predominantly based on trainees. It should develop mechanisms to attract experienced and qualified personnel from other institutions and sectors. In this sense, the Parliament has no excuse for the absence of funds for these needs, because it has the final say in adopting the state budget.
The possibility of committees to hire paid staff (secretary and a number of consultants), from its own party structures should not be a substitute for the professional Parliamentary service.
The whole human resource management should be placed in the jurisdiction of the Parliament. Full participation of all parties in monitoring of legality and objectivity of the process should be enabled.
In the process of establishing a more numerous, competent and more professional Parliamentary service, possibilities of cooperation with civil society organisations independent experts should be significantly more utilized.
