State Secretary in the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Maja Mačužić Puzić, has participated today, on behalf of minister Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, in the 15th meeting of the Governing Board of the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) at the ministerial level, held in an online environment.
In her address at the ministerial panel, Mačužić Puzić has pointed out, as one of the most significant results of the Public Administration Reform in the Republic of Serbia, that the PAR Strategy for the period 2021-2030 introduced an umbrella policy of providing services, bearing in mind that this is the most important area of reform from the perspective of citizens and the economy. According to her, thanks to digitization, citizens are enabled to communicate electronically with the administration bodies through the eGovernment Portal, which currently has 340 services for users, covering various areas of life and business.
Mačužić Puzić has emphasized that the development of digital administration in Serbia has saved citizens more than 350 million hours of waiting, and that digitization has a positive impact on the preservation of the environment. She also recalled that the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government has thus far invested a total of RSD 345 million in the establishment of One-Stop-Shops in cities and municipalities throughout Serbia, which is another important result of the reform process.
The ministerial panel has emphasized the crucial need to attract young experts to the public administration sector, as well as the necessity of modernizing public institutions in order to become a desirable employer for young talents. Mačužić Puzić has stated that MDULS recognized in its strategic documents the need to attract quality personnel, and that it recently organized the third Student Professional Practice in Public Administration Fair. As she pointed out, this process commenced in 2021, and is based on close cooperation with five state universities and the then modest 18 public administration bodies which were the first to join this initiative, while it now numbers 73 bodies from 33 local self-governments in Serbia and nearly 900 positions for attending professional practice in public administration bodies.
Endorsing the Joint Statement on the occasion of High-Level Policy Dialogue on Public Administration Reform “Attractive and Skilled Public Service Fit for Future”, the representatives of the ReSPA member countries have made a commitment to invest additional efforts in designing and implementing actions and policies that will make the work at Western Balkans public administrations a career of choice. They also have committed to supporting the development and implementation of mobility programmes, undertaking regional initiatives for capacity building, exchanging knowledge and experiences, participating in policy creation and service provision, as well as many others in the areas of PAR as one of the fundamentals of the European integration process, and in the light of the new EU Growth plan for the Western Balkans.
At the 15th meeting of the ReSPA Governing Board, inter alia, the Annual Report of this organization and the budget for 2024-2025 has been unanimously adopted.
Photo gallery – source: ReSPA and MDULS
