Public administration reform is stagnating and not working

TI BiH announced results of the second monitoring of the public administration reform which show the failure to achieve significant results in previous year, and even a decline in some fields, especially in matters related to the employment of public officials and the lack of transparency in creating and implementing reform processes conducted by the government

Sarajevo, 14th March 2016 – Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented today results of the second monitoring of the public administration reform in three fields: Human Resources Management, Public Finances, and Transparency, Accountability and Integrity.

Compared to the previous year there were no significant changes in the observed fields, and the worst decline was noticed in regard to the employment with civil service at the Federation of BiH level, due to the recent amendments to the Law on Civil Service of FBiH, which introduced additional politicatization and jeopardize the independence and impartiality of the civil service. In other segments of the human resources management the situation is still as bad as it was in the previous period:
– the planning of human resources does not take into account the profile of necessary personnel, it is based on the quantity;
– evaluation of the work effects of the civil servants has not started yet and the managers still fail to understand the essential meaning and benefits of this process;
– the lack of managerial capacities of institutions reflects in the overall efficiency of employees and institutions.

Employment with public administration is highly non-transparent and politicized, and the practice of arbitrary and unplanned employment is still continued, in spite of the declaration of the Reform Agenda on the limitation of the employment with public administration. On the other hand, it is determined that there is a high number of vacancies which questions the existing personnel policies and reliance on existing resources. In addition, costs at all levels of government regarding the temporary service contracts are extremely high and there is no consistent planning of services on this basis.

Challenges in implementation of reforms in the field of public finances management are represented by high level of public debt and constant increase in external debt in the period 2008 – 2015, still significant reliance upon donor funds, insufficient development of the capacities for the internal audit, financial management and internal control, as well as poor fiscal discipline. These problems are additionally aggravated by a long lack of responsibility and complete non-transparency in in the management of public funds, which can be proved by the recommendations in audit reports which are the same every year.
Situation in the field of transparency, accountability and integrity is also unsatisfactory. Monitoring showed that more than two-thirds of institutions do not announce information on work, such as budget data or information on classification of jobs. There were 30 institutions monitored, but only 5 of them have a practice of proactive disclosure of budget data, and none of them publishes information on the execution of the budget. Public procurement plans are not announced in many institutions, and even when they are, institutions implement procurements outside the given plans.

Lejla Ibranovic, Acting Executive Director of TI BiH, said during the presentation of results:“Reform activities in the monitored fields take place very slowly and they are not proportional to the invested resources. Besides, there is still a trend of adopting key policies and laws that influence the process of public administration reform beyond the sight of public and under an urgent procedure, resulting in adoption of catastrophic decisions which are against all proclaimed principles of reform. This trend must be stopped – reforms must be accelerated, but at the same time, all segments of society must be included into the reform processes in order to prevent the privatization of reforms by those who are not interested in more transparent or more responsible public administration.“

Press rls – 14 3 2016 doc eng