TI BiH monitoring showed: Public administration reform without results, citizens dissatisfied with the services provided

The findings from the Perception of Public Administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2017 show that the majority of citizens believe that the quality of public administration services is the same as five years ago, ie more than 50% of citizens are still not satisfied with the services provided.

Sarajevo, May 17, 2018– Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH), in cooperation with the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), organized a conference on Public Administration Reform Perspective in BiH, to present the results of the research on public perception of public work as well as key findings and recommendations in the area of ​​human resources management, public finances, and transparency, accountability and integrity.

Findings from the Perceptions of Public Administration Plenary in BiH for 2017 show that the majority of citizens believe that the quality of public administration services is at the same level as five years ago, ie more than 50% of citizens are still not satisfied with the services provided. Citizens mostly point out that they are dissatisfied with the length of the procedure, as well as that the proceedings are complicated by the institutions, while those who are satisfied state that the officials are kind, informative and professional.

It concerns that a large number of respondents believe that politics will influence on reform proceses. More than two thirds of citizens do not know anything about the public administration reform or are a bit familiar with its range. Interestingly, in 2017, as same as in 2014, most of the respondents noted that they knew examples of having heard of someone who got a job in the public administration in a non-transparent way. There is a visible increase in the number of the respondents who feel that clientelism and nepotism are key criteria in public administration recruitments (from 53% to 64.5%).

Findings in the area of ​​human resources management, public finances, transparency, accountability and integrity, which analyze various reform aspects, show that in 2017 there was no significant progress. Where certain moves are existing, these are sporadic results, which are not the expression of strategic reformist aspirations. At the conference, it is particularly emphasized that BiH has no Public Administration Reform Strategy since the end of 2014, as well as it is urgently needed to adopt a new strategic framework. In addition, TI BiH and after four years of monitoring reform activities indicate that key institutions are still not fully capable of implementing planned reforms. Public administration is still bulky, ineffective, and its work is untransparent and under the crucial influence of current political opportunities.

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