Public administration is inefficient, cumbersome and politicized

Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) held a presentation of the analysis Efficiency and Efficiency in the Structures of State Public Administration Bodies in BiH, where the findings of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) on procedures for hiring civil servants and agency directors were presented.

The situation in public administration is unsustainable and the reforms are not giving the desired results, especially considering the funds that have been invested in public administration reform so far, TI BIH emphasized at the presentation. Inefficiency and cumbersome administration, unprofessionalism, lack of transparency, accountability and integrity in public administration, and corruption and irrational spending of public funds are just some of the problems that BiH authorities urgently need to face. “It is unacceptable for the state to borrow to cover the administrative costs of overcrowded public administration, with about a third of the budget going to salaries for public sector employees, while citizens pay too little for inefficient and inefficient public administration due to such a policy,” said Lejla Ibranovic. Executive Director of TI BiH.

The Ambassador of Sweden to BiH, N.E., also addressed the media at the presentation. Fredrik Schiller, and Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative in BiH, HE Lars-Gunnar Wigemark. The Swedish ambassador emphasized that political leaders and government institutions must take more seriously and take responsibility for the reform processes, and that we must not forget that the citizens should ultimately feel the results of the implementation of reform activities. The head of the EU Delegation reminded that public administration reform is high on the list of EU priorities in the enlargement process, and that BiH has too expensive an administrative apparatus and that the problem of corruption is one of the key challenges. “Without addressing this issue, a step forward in the entire public administration reform process will not be possible, and one of the preconditions for an effective fight against corruption is a transparent and open public administration,” Wigemark said.

For the first time after a decade of activities in the field of public administration reform, TI BiH opened the issue of efficiency in the work of administrative bodies, focusing in the analysis on issues of individual efficiency of public administration employees, but also efficiency and effectiveness at the institutional level.

During the presentation, CIN gave examples of abuses in the process of employment in public administration, but also the consumption of public funds, which are a direct consequence of the lack of adequate bylaws that would regulate employment and spending procedures in individual areas.

TI BiH announced that in the coming period it will insist on locating clear political responsibility for reforms in public administration structures, and the priorities that TI BiH will work on in the coming period include: adjusting admission to management positions to the needs of the civil service, tightening the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of management staff in the administration, transparency of employment in the administration, objectification of the criteria used by commissions when assessing candidates, and harmonization of testing practices for admission to the civil service.

However, as a precondition for all the above, TI BiH emphasizes that it is necessary to return to the agenda as soon as possible all difficult issues that have been removed from the agenda for years, and those are primarily eliminating politicization in the process of admission and promotion and rationalization of public administration.

Press rls – 13 July 2015 doc