Mild disciplinary measures for the civil servants in the Republic of Srpska weaken the institute of disciplinary liability

The amount and duration of fines for the civil servants who conduct severe or mild violation of official duties have been halved by the adoption of the proposal of the Republic of Srpska Government

The National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska has adopted under an urgent procedure the Amendments to the Law on Civil Servants which significantly weakened the existing disciplinary measures for the civil servants. The amount and duration of fines for the civil servants that perform severe or mild violation of official duties have been halved by the adoption of the proposal of the Republic of Srpska Government.

Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) believes that the institute of the disciplinary liability in the civil service is being additionally weakened in this way. The last amendments adopted in 2011 erased a disciplinary measure which banned the promotion of civil servants who  conducted a severe violation of official duty. The Government continuous the trend of weakening the penal policy by the newly proposed amendments to the civil service laws.

The Government of RS has submitted the proposal under an urgent procedure due to the alleged need to harmonize it with the Law on Labour. At the same time, the adopted amendments are used to make an inconsistent compliance with the labour legislation, introducing different provisions on employment which shall have effect on the violation of the open competition principle.

TI BiH points out that this is only one of many laws adopted under an urgent procedure which is now frequently used by the Government acting as the proponent, specifically in case of important and systemic laws, thus preventing public discussions and timely reaction of the interested public.

Press-rls-24 06 2016