AUTHOR’S APPROACH
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE EU ACCESSION
Marija Obradović,
Lady Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government
The Report on the Progress of the Republic of Serbia in the Process of EU Accession for 2020, says that our country is moderately prepared in the field of public administration reform, and that work has continued on the preparation of a new Public Administration Reform Strategy for the period 2021-2030, which will contribute to simplification of sectoral strategic framework, including a public financing management program and numerous strategic documents. It is also stated that there is strong political support for this process, through the Public Administration Reform Council. A public discussion of the new Strategy and Action Plan for Public Administration Reform for the next 10 years is underway. What are the key directions of reforms planned in the field of public administration?
Development of the new Public Administration Reform Strategy for the period from 2021 to 2030, began after the evaluation of the PAR Strategy from 2014, which was implemented by two Action Plans: for the period 2015-2017, and for the period 2018–2020. The new Strategy builds on the results achieved in the period from 2014 to 2020, while its objectives, measures and activities, identified in the thematic areas, should contribute to improving the legal and organizational framework, capacities of institutions and officials, as well as creation of a system that will be in the service of citizens.
The structure of the PAR Strategy follows thematic areas of the EU/ OECD Principles of Public Administration, with the additional area of local self-government reform, as priority areas in the next ten years. It contains three Action Plans used for developing measures and activities in the areas of human resource management, service delivery, accountability and transparency, and represents the umbrella document for three programs in the field of planning and coordination of public policies, public financial management and local self-government systems.
The new Strategy reflects a shift in focus from governance as a regulator to governance as a service to citizens and the other end users. In the next ten years, we will try to improve the efficiency of public administration, accountability and transparency, as well as to improve the quality and accessibility of services we provide to citizens. Our goal is to establish a depoliticized and professional state administration, as a carrier of changes and reforms in the society, whose work is based on the European values.
Part of the Public Administration Reform Process is the process of local self-government reform. Throughout this year, your Ministry has worked in cooperation with the SCTM and on the development of the Local Self-Government Reform Program, which is a part of the aforementioned Public Administration Reform Strategy. What are the activities you are planning in the future Local Self-Government Reform Program that you consider particularly important?
Recognizing the role and importance that the local level of government has for realization of citizens’ rights and the implementation of overall reform processes, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, in cooperation with the SCTM, initiated the process of preparing the program document for the reform of the local self-government system in the Republic of Serbia. This document is being prepared for the first time, because the task is that the analysis of the situation and proposed changes should cover all the most important areas of the local government system. In the next few days, the preparation of the Reform Program is coming to an end, after which a public debate will be held, within which we will invite all interested parties to give their suggestions and comments.
We can already point out several directions in which the reform will go:
* Improving the legal framework in which local self-government units operate, in order to perform competencies and tasks more efficiently and effectively. Within this direction of development is further implementation of the standards established by the European Charter of Local Self-Government, as the most important international act for local self-governments. Changes in sectoral laws regulating the competencies and affairs of local self-government units will, in addition to decentralization, go in the direction of clearer regulation of some doubts about the competences of the acting authorities, possible overlapping of competencies, to the establishment of new legal institutes or rules for performing the local self-government operations;
* Further development of the financing system, which on the one hand goes towards the development of the financing system stability, but it also strengthens responsible management of local finances, on the other hand. We will try, through the preparation of analyzes, to consider the financial resources needed to perform the local government operations. Of course, it is necessary to develop a special methodology that will be able to show all cost ranges, at least for the most frequent local government activities. Activities related to responsible management of local finances, support for budget planning and linking the program budget with medium-term planning documents for the development of local self-government are also planned;
* Strong incentive for the development of human resource management in local self-government units and the process of professional development of local officials. The general goals of the reform, which refer to professional, efficient and effective local self-government, are based on employees who have all these characteristics;
* New mechanisms of the previously started process of developing inter-municipal cooperation, as an increasingly important tool for better provision of services to citizens and the economy. Connection and cooperation of municipalities and towns in performing local self-government tasks can bridge the existing differences in capacities, and by use of cooperation it create a new quality in the provision of services.
In addition, we also expect proposals for strengthening the participation of citizens in local government operations, as well as stronger connection between citizens and their elected representatives, standardization of organizational forms established by municipalities and towns,
improvement of communication and relations between republican and local authorities, strengthening the role of local self-government units in Serbia’s EU Accession Process and stronger establishment of e-government and electronic administrative services at the local level.
The following activities stand out in the field of services:
* Administrative services through stronger establishment of e-services, further connection with state bodies, establishment of one-stop shop and other;
* Services of local institutions (in the fields of education, social security, culture, health, sports) will be also analyzed on the basis of service delivery capacity, as well as on the basis of functional organization for service provision, so that in the end we can create a Composite Index of Service Delivery;
* Public utilities are a special subject of analysis on the basis of which we should prepare a Plan of Measures for Changes related to local public utilities, but also to the mechanisms of connecting local self-governments in order to have successful and sustainable provision of public utilities. This approach in the communal system reform strongly relies on the Special Investment Plan “Serbia 2025”, which envisages serious state support to local self-government units in the field of water supply, construction of wastewater treatment plants, sewerage networks and other issues.
To assess the quality of local services, we shall ask their users, citizens who should give grades, but also requests for their improvement.
In addition to the mentioned cooperation of local self-governments at the district level, we will propose changes in terms of the function of administrative districts, and above all, changes in line ministries in order to perform a larger scope of work in the districts, and thus to bring them closer to citizens and the economy.
Numerous packages of support to local self-government units are planned for all changes that require strengthening of human or organizational capacities in the implementation of the Local Self-Government System Reform Program.
These are just some of the more important activities on the Local Government Reform Program, and until the end of the public debate we expect to be able to plan some more activities that are important for the development of local self-government and the citizens.
Good foundations for Program implementation lie in the preparation that we, together with the SCTM, have carried out in the past few years, by preparing the necessary analyzes for the Reform Program preparation.
The European Commission’s 2020 Progress Report on Serbia, within the Political Criteria and Activities Pertaining to Administration, states that the administrative capacity at the local level is still insufficient and that there are still inequalities between different local self-government units. It is also pointed out that competencies are still transferred without adequate analysis of capacities and human i.e. financial resources. Are these issues particularly recognized in the future Local Self-Government System Reform Program and what measures are planned in this regard?
Given that in Serbia, as in many other European countries, there are large capacity differences between the largest and smallest local self-government units, I expect that the Reform Program
shall envisage measures, activities and create tools to enable us to establish a system in which each municipality or any town can provide all the services provided to citizens and the economy in a uniform manner, regardless of whether it is considered to be a large or small local self-government.
Earlier, inter-municipal cooperation was mentioned, within which, in addition to further support for their establishment, we will propose other modalities, such as the establishment of cooperation at the level of administrative districts for significant local self-government affairs that are of district or regional importance.
It is true that the processes of decentralization, were in the previous few decades carried out linearly, ie. simultaneous and equal transfer of tasks to all municipalities and towns, regardless of whether all local self-government units are sufficiently prepared to take over and carry out these tasks. I expect that the Reform Program will envisage some new legal solutions that would enable further decentralization process. For future decentralization processes in which it is necessary to continue the transfer of tasks linearly, one option is to regulate the possibility of mandatory inter-municipal cooperation for those local self-governments that do not have the capacity to perform these tasks independently. In this way, all local self-governments could assume the performance of new tasks. For future processes of decentralizing the operations that do not have to be conducted linearly, we will propose the so-called “Conditional Decentralization”, where the sectoral laws would provide for jobs that can be performed by local self-government units, at the moment they provide the necessary staff and other capacity.
In addition to the above, it is planned to develop organizational models for local self-government units of different sizes (according to the number of inhabitants) that would organize the performance of administrative tasks in a more optimal and functional way. These models must take into account the dynamics and structure of operations, and thus the necessary staff structure in the local governments. Within the project of the Ministry with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation “Local Self-Government for the 21st Century”, support is also planned for local self-government units that decide to make organizational changes according to some of the appropriate models.
Strengthening the function of human resources management at the local level of government and strengthening human resources are recognized as primary directions in the further development of this area, primarily through the introduction of competency systems for employees in autonomous provinces and local self-government units, and that is primarily through the integration of the framework of competencies in the acts on systematization, and then in other areas of human resources management (tender procedure and evaluation, i.e. evaluation of work performance). It is expected that the process of full integration and introduction of competencies for employees in the bodies of the autonomous provinces and local self-government units will be carried out in the next period of 2 to 4 years.
The importance of these activities will be recognized in the Public Administration Reform Strategy in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2021 – 2030, i.e. in the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Public Administration Reform Strategy through activities related to changing the normative framework in order to integrate the competence framework (amendments to the existing law and relevant bylaws, and the adoption of new subordinate legal regulations), as well as through capacity building by development and implementation of staff training in human resources units
and of managers in the bodies of autonomous provinces and local self-government units for the Competence Framework implementation. The third issue of the SCTM e-bulletin -EU News