The Issue of Human Resources Management in the Serbian Public Administration 1

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1 The Issue of Human Resources Management in the Serbian Public Administration 1 I. The current state of affairs in the public administration system in Serbia After the new democratic government took office in Serbia in January 2001, the reform of the public administration system appeared to become as one of its strategic tasks. Two government agencies were immediately created with the ambition to streamline administrative reforms: the Agency for Public Administration Development (APAD) and the Civil Service Council (CSC). The former was in charge of the implementation of reforms, whereas the latter was envisioned to be a strategic advisory body to the government. In addition to APAD and CSC, a Government Committee on the Judiciary and State Institutions (CJSI) was commissioned with the task to scan the entire public administration reform effort. The Ministry in charge of public administration reform (PAR) used to be the Ministry of Justice and Local Self-Government in previous times, but in the Summer of 2002 the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government (MSALSG) was created, which took over the task of administrative reform. In spite of the establishment of these bodies, with a view of the apparent initial willingness of the Government and the Prime Minister to undertake serious administrative reforms, as well as a number of comprehensive measures in other policy domains, the public administration reform proceeded in a rather sluggish fashion in practice. Some useful projects were administered by APAD, a functional review of the Ministry of Health was conducted and a number of civil servants have been trained in a variety of skills, but the overall public administration system still resembled the one inherited from the period of state-socialism. The structure of the ministries remained more or less unchanged, whereas the inflow of new civil servants into the system was limited. The initial enthusiasm of the Government appeared to subside as well, with the chance of radical administrative reforms taking place during its first mandate becoming slim. The primary reasons for the relatively slow pace of public administration reform should be sought in the following: The tasks of the previously mentioned agents of public administration reform were either not clearly defined or not clearly understood; the functions of the CSC and the CJSI, the CSC and APAD, as well as of APAD and the MSALSGshowed significant overlap in the practice of their work; There was no strategic body under the Prime Minister s Office in charge of public administration reform; 1 The article is based on the project Strengthening Central Support Functions in serbian Ministries 1/2//2003 South-East Europe Review S

2 There was no real champion of public administration reform in the most senior leadership in Serbia (the PM, the Deputy PMs or the President); and, The Serbian Government was a coalition of 17 (previously 18) parties, whose leaders frequentlywere members of the Cabinet, sometimes more inclined to follow the interests of their parties than the policy of the Government. Nevertheless, the chances for future successful administrative reforms are not to be underestimated: A number of significant systematic or spontaneous preparatory activities for radical public administration reform have taken place; The educational level of the professional(including political) elite in Serbia is high, with many professionals who left the country during the Milosevic era returning home with degrees from a variety of Western universities; a number of these people are engaged in public administration reform; and, The chances of the parties of the previous regime to regain power are insignificant and it is likely that the reforms will continue at some pace. Previous projects In this section we will concentrate on our first assumption of our relative optimism concerning future public administration reform., i.e. on the fact that the system is to some degree prepared for administrative reform. In that regard, we would like to highlight the following projects that were undertaken since 2001: A diagnostic study of the central Government machinery in Serbia, conducted in 2001 by a Norwegian expert team; the study recommended that priority should be given to the strengthening of the support functions of the Prime Minister, especially through a reform of the General Secretariat of the Government (Holland and Eriksen, 2002); the recommendations have not been implemented yet; A diagnostic study on the system of governance and human resources development in Serbian public administration, conducted in 2002 by a Danish expert team; the team recommended the establishment of human resources management units at a variety of levels in the public administration system (Moeller, 2002); the recommendations are currently in the implementation phase; A functional review of the Serbian Ministry of Health, conducted in 2002 by a local expert team, assisted by foreign consultants; although the review was a pilot effort, the Minister of Health accepted the recommendations, which are in the implementation phase by now (Rakic, 2002). These three studies are directly related to the CSF project: the Norwegian study as an effort to diagnose the central machinery of government, the Danish analysis as an effort to give recommendations to set up a HRM system in Serbian public administration and the review of the Ministry of Health as the first functional review in the country. 180 South-East Europe Review 1/2//2003

3 The Issue of Human Resources Management in the Serbian Public Administration In addition to these three projects, a large number of training events for civil servants ought to be mentioned as significant contributions to public administration reform in Serbia. These events were primarily administered by APAD, the UNDP and the CSC, and were aimed at developing a variety of skills, such as project management or report writing, but also at developing comparative insights into other public administration systems. A specific education and training centre for civil servants, however, has not been established yet. Legal reforms were neither widespread nor radical. No new law on public administration or civil servants has been adopted (although draft versions are circulating in Government institutions). Since 2001, two new laws on Ministries have been adopted by Parliament. These two laws introduce a number of specific changes (the abolishment of some Ministries and the creation of new Ministries), but no systemic, overall changes of the institutional set-up of ministries were envisioned. The fact that legal changes are slow may turn out to be an advantage if organizational analyses of state institutions are conducted first. Efforts in transitional countries to facilitate public administration reform (PAR) through isolated changes in the legal framework proved to be unsuccessful. The popularity of functional reviews in those countries is to some degree a consequence of this insight. Serbia can learn from these experiences and perform thorough functional reviews (and other types of organizational analyses) as another preparation for PAR and their enactment in new laws. The CSF project is an example of such a functional review. II. The Concept and Organisation of the Project The CSF project began in November 2002 and is expected to be finalized in September Its objective is to review the relations between the Secretariats of Ministries and the Cabinets of the respective Ministers. Secretariats are considered as the backbones of Ministries and generally include civil servants in charge of legal issues, financial issues and personnel issues. They are headed by a Secretary, who is appointed by the government and who is frequently being replaced by another Secretary when the Minister changes. Nevertheless, the Secretary is usually a career civil servant. Minister s Cabinets usually consist of his or her closest staff: the Chief of Cabinet (who heads the Cabinet), the Minister s advisers, a personal secretary, a PR person, a driver, and in some Ministries of someone in charge of public administration reform in the Ministry. In the legal sense however, Minister s Cabinets do not exist in the Serbian public administration. They are a creation of the new Government and a consequence of the intention of new Ministers to have a reform oriented and reliable staff around them. On the other hand, Secretariats are generally dominated by career civil servants, which is considered as paramount to the old guard. It is obvious that the dualism between the political and career role of Secretaries, the dualism between political and non-political staff in general (frequently congruent with the dualism between the old guard and the new guard ), the legally undefined role of Cabinets and their staff, as well as tensions between the Secretariats and the Cabinets, is a huge problem and something that is addressed by the CSF project. 1/2//2003 South-East Europe Review 181

4 The recommendations of the project s expert team regarding these issues are crucial, but still need to be formulated. This article will focus on the aspect of HRM, which is less controversial and easier to deal with. Nevertheless, the general frame of the relationship between the Secretariats and the Cabinets, as described in the foregoing paragraphs, needs constantly to be kept in mind. With regard to the project s specific objectives, the following activities had to be delivered: A functional review (analysis) of the central, shared services in Ministries. This review is being conducted by a local team, supported by international experts; Recommendations on how to reorganise Secretariats and place the current Cabinet staff into an institutional framework; with specific attention in that regard to be devoted to human resources management; Recommendations concerning the legal framework; Policy advice regarding the relations among central public administration bodies; Policy advice on strengthening the communication and coordination within Ministerial units; and, Strengthening the capacity of Ministries in managing and coordinating the training and education of civil servants. The systemic analysis of the Secretariats of the four Ministries was conducted by four Work Groups, their Coordinator, the UNDP Special Adviser to the Serbian Government in functional review, one Senior National Consultant and a Project Manager. The methods of investigation were semi-structured interviews, desk analyses and participant observation.the interviews consisted of a total of approximately 170 hours of work with all the employees in the Secretariats of the four Ministries, as well as with Ministers, Deputy Ministers, advisors, and other staff members. The institutions were analysed through the application of both qualitative and quantitative methods. It is expected that a sound empirical basis will be created in order to make recommendations at three levels: to the individual participating ministries, to the four selected ministries as a whole, as well as to the Government of Serbia. A questionnaire, as a primary tool of investigation, was specifically developed for this particular project by the local experts and it framed the interviews into three-hour sessions (on average) with each interviewee. The involvement of the staff from the four Ministries in the working groups facilitated their understanding of the nuances of the work processes, work environment, communication flows and the organizational culture of each Ministry. Having involved peer civil servants in the interviewing process, the project is multiplying its effects by contributing to the raising of awareness among Ministerial staff and is increasing their capacity through functional reviews. Two international consulting firms are supporting the project with their expertise through training in programming, strategy formulation, project management, monitoring, as well as in the training of Work Groups in report writing and presentation skills. 182 South-East Europe Review 1/2//2003

5 The Issue of Human Resources Management in the Serbian Public Administration The Dutch Royal Institute for Governance (ROI) already completed four missions. The second consulting firm on the project is Bannock Consulting, contracted to train and provide support to the Work Groups in functional review and in the development of policy advice and recommendations. The Project Task Force (UNDP Special Adviser to the Government, Project Manager and Senior National Consultant) selected the Work Group members. The four Ministries involved in the project were selected in this period, as well. The selection criteria for targeting the Ministries were the following: integration into existing projects of functional review, reform-mindedness of the Ministers and their support to functional reviews. According to these criteria, the following Ministries were selected: the Ministry of Mining and Energy, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development, the Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management. This was followed by the collection and review of relevant documentation regarding the Secretariats, Cabinets and the employees in the four Ministries. Factor analysis (with categorized answers) was introduced as a tool for data comparison. The method was meant to provide supplemental information for making the recommendations. By the end of June, the Work Groups will have the recommendations to each of the four Ministries nearly ready. It is planned that a draft of these recommendations will be distributed and that the feedback from the Ministries be received by the end of July, when a round table discussion with all relevant stakeholders will take place. Another round table session with top-level officials is planned for September, after the recommendations have taken the shape of final proposals.it will be followed by the issuing of a publication, which will contain recommendations as its final outputs. III.Study Tours to Slovakia and Slovenia Study tours to Slovakia and Slovenia were organized with the aim to provide the Work Group members with relevant comparative experiences. The main reason for selecting Slovakiawas the fact that the Meciar Government left office only a few years before the Milosevic regime in Serbia, and that since then Slovakia made some useful moves in PAR that could be relevant for Serbia. Slovenia was included in the tour, because its public administration originates from the same system as the Serbian one (the Yugoslav system), while its reforms in the field can be considered as successful. The study tour took place during the first week of June The participants included Work Group members and the management team of the project. There was full cooperation from both the Slovak and Slovenian side and the offered program of meetings in both countries wasexcellent.the study tour was successful and fruitful for the purposes of the team s work, because it fulfilled its primary goal:to enable the participants to learn more aboutpublic administration reforms in these countries during the transition period, and to provide them with a basis for applying some of these experiences to Serbia. The group received useful information for its basic task of preparing recommendations for a better organization and functioning of the four Serbian Ministries. Besides, useful insights into the organisation of government institutions in 1/2//2003 South-East Europe Review 183

6 these two countries might also be reflected in the participants everyday practices in their own ministries. The participants have learned that public administration reform in Slovakia began in 1990 with the fall of communist regime, when a new Law on Local Government was adopted. Public administration reform, however, was interrupted in 1996 with the Meciar Government. It continued only in 1999 with the adoption ofthe Strategy for Public Administration Reform in Slovakia and with the July 2001 Law on Public Administration. This law established the Civil Service Office, the central office for carrying out PAR. One of its crucial tasks is do develop human resource management strategies for civil servants. As the tour participants were informed, several types of PAR are currently taking place in Slovakia:decentralization of political power, competencies, properties, and finances, technological modernisation (IT and foreign languages), institutional reforms and changes of territorial arrangements.the process is still ongoing, a fiscal decentralization will start in January 2004, while a new system of financing public administration (mostly based on performance appraisal, merit pay and functional analysis) was introduced in March A new Civil Servants Act was adopted in 2001 and was based on similar laws in other European countries.this document regulates the codex, competencies and relationship of civil servants towards the state. Its major goal is to support the development of efficient, ethical and apolitical public servants. Drastic changes in public administration structures after new elections and layoffs of existing employees are planned to be avoided. As we learned, in the jurisdiction of the new law the following main items are planned: education of civil servants, employment processes for civil servants, the systematisation of jobs in public administration and the unification of all regulations for agencies in charge of public administration in Slovakia.The results of the reforms appear to be improving with the passing of time. Besides, a serious effort is made to streamline reforms with the laws and regulations of the EU. The visit to Slovenia showed that the public administration system, but also the public sector in general are much larger in (relative) comparison with Serbia.As the participants of this study tour have been updated, since 1990 a tendency of enlargement of public administration was to be noticed due to the creation of the independent Slovenian state and its integration process into the European Union. This required both horizontal and vertical reforms in the public administration system. The current tendency, however, is to reduce the size of state administration, as well as to modernise it in line with EU standards. The key stages of modernization during the period have been the creation of a public administration system for the newly independent Slovenian state (in the early 1990s), the integration process into the EU (since 1997), and the application of the principles of New Public Management.As we were informed, one of the largest shortcomings was a lack of adequate solutions regarding human resources management. One effort to deal with this problem was the establishment of the Academy of Administration in 1996.Its main objectives are the education of civil servants and the 184 South-East Europe Review 1/2//2003

7 The Issue of Human Resources Management in the Serbian Public Administration change of administrative culture through training programs, the organization of state proficiency exams, and the preparation of technical and organizational support in the field. One of the most important and interesting examples for Serbia is the Fast Stream program: its mission is to train those civil servants who are planned to work in EU institutions. One of the most impressive developments within the public administration in Slovenia was the introduction and development of e-government. In the last two years the interest in functional analysis also rose. The substance of both developments were presented in detail to the study tour participants. IV. Recommendations On the basis of the interviews, desk analyses and participant observation, using the results of the study tour, the project team is currently investigating major problems in the area of human resources management in the four Serbian Ministries. These problems turn out to be quite representative of the entire Serbian public administration system in that domain and can be summarized as follows: A lack of a clear strategy in the field; An underdeveloped concept of public servants; A lack of evaluation procedures; Inadequate databases for civil servants; The non-existence of a central office which would deal with HRM; A lack of continuity in the follow-up of the entire process of HRM within the Ministries (from the hiring process up to the firing or retirement of public servants). Drawing consequences from the previous diagnosis, the project team developed the following preliminary recommendations: The creation of a Central Office/Agency for HRM (either independently organised, part of the existing Agency for Public Administration Development or as a section within the Ministry for State Administration and Local Self-Government); The creation of HRM units within the Secretariat of each Ministry; The establishment of an education and training centre for civil servants; The redefinition and reorganization of procedures into modern, computerized, efficient and effective mechanisms; The development of adequate evaluation procedures; The above recommendations apply to the highest level of generality, i.e. to the entire public administration system. The relevant issues of HRM turn out to cut across all four analysed Ministries equally, but apparently also to the other Serbian Ministries. Hence, the recommendations apply to the entire system. The crucial aspect of the recommendations is the creation of a central HRM Office, which would deal with a variety of issues, such as the strategy development in HRM, employment procedures of civil servants, the administration of state exams, ranks, salaries and evaluation procedures. These tasks would be similar to the ones performed by the Slovakian Civil Service Office. Some of the more specific aspects 1/2//2003 South-East Europe Review 185

8 of these tasks would be delegated to the HRM units within the Ministries. An education and training centre for civil servants would be the other central institution dealing with HRM. V. Conclusions If created, the two above mentioned institutions will address almost all problems summarized in the previous sections. The only exception might be the second problem, defined as the lack of a clear concept of civil servants. A solution to this problem must be found at a level even higher than the central HRM Office, since it requires a conceptual, strategic Government decision concerning the issue of developing a career or non-career system in Serbian public administration. Other issues and recommendations concerning HRM relating to what was mentioned in section II regarding the dualism between the political and career role of Secretaries, the dualism between political and non-political staff in general, and the legally undefined role of Cabinets and their staff, will be dealt separately. Recommendations regarding these issues will be formulated soon by the project staff and submitted to decision-makers for approval. Only if these crucial problems concerning the central support functions of Ministries (the relation between Secretariats and Cabinets in particular) are solved, is it possible to expect a successful implementation of the recommendations concerning HRM. It is therefore essential that the project staff is supported by a critical mass of Ministers (in the absence of a champion of PAR in the person of a top-official of the Government), both regarding its recommendations concerning HRM, as well as the other recommendations. The next months will be decisive for the success of the project, depending on the results of lobbying efforts at different Ministers. VI. Literature Holland, Kaspar and Svein Eriksen The Serbian Government Administration. Moeller, Jens Challenges of HRM. Belgrade: Agency for Public Administration Development. Belgrade: Agency for Public Administration Development. Rakic, Vojin Functional Review of the Serbian Ministry of Health. Belgrade: United Nations Development Program. 186 South-East Europe Review 1/2//2003