QUO VADIS, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?

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1 Association Alumni of the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies Alumni (ACIPS) is a nongovernmental association of experts in the field of European integration processes, democracy, human rights, state management, humanitarian affairs, gender studies and religious studies. The Association was founded in February of 2003, as a result of activities of the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo. ACIPS is a product of aspiration to gather in one place intellectual and leadership potential of MA graduates of this educational institution. The members of the organization are active in the governmental and nongovernmental sectors, civil society and international organizations in B&H and the region. The primary interest of the organization is the awakening and development of public awareness on key topics in society and conducting research and policy studies. Besides being directly involved in policy creation and research, ACIPS also maintains communication on a regular basis with politicians, B&H citizens, NGO representatives and the media. The long-term strategic goals of the ACIPS are: Identifying the most relevant European integration issues and challenges that B&H is facing today; Achieving high standards of independent policy research applicable in the context of B&H; Disseminating policy research findings and views to relevant stakeholders and the general public and advocating for the implementation of these findings, Establishing dialogue and cooperation with other policy research institutions, governments and civil society organizations in B&H and the wider region. acips@acips.ba QUO VADIS, PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION? Evaluation of Progress Achieved in the Implementation of Public Administration Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina Table of Contents List of Abbreviations...2 Introduction About Public Administration Reform in BiH % Will, Knowledge and Money: Key Factors for the Success of Public Administration Reform Do We Have the Will? Do We Have the Knowledge? Do We Have the Money? How to Accelerate the Reform Process? Putting Pressure on the Leaders! Learn, Learn and Learn Some More! Making Secure Investments!...17 Conclusion...18 Bibliography...18 Summary Without consistent and appropriate political pressure, every reform attempt is condemned to failure. This is a notorious fact which all reform experiences in the region and the world point to. While analyzing the current public administration reform process in BiH, one of the key problems identified is the lack of political will for coordinated public administration reform in BiH. At different levels of public administration, we can talk about there being a higher or lower level of political will for the implementation of public administration reform. However, when examining the need for its actual coordination, we see the political will dissipate. Thus, the second important conclusion of this research is not surprising, and it relates to the fact that, looking at things holistically, the process of public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina is decelerating. Successful public administration reform requires adequate education in the field of public administration and a possession of administrative skills by at the least a critical mass of public officials who are expected to be or already are the main carriers and actors in reform efforts. In the period between 2006 and 2008, the BiH public administration at all administrative levels for the most part did not have the issue of administrative education and training systematically resolved. The existing institutional and legal framework does not have sufficient capacity to fulfill the actual needs for administrative education and training. Bearing in mind the general context of public administration reform, this is a strategic mistake. The BiH Public Administration Reform Strategy (PAR Strategy) and Action Plan 1 foresee different measures which deal with the advancement of administrative education and training. However, it is important to emphasize that those are the measures whose implementation is expected within the reform process and not prior to it, in the period of preparation for key reform activities. In other words, public administration reform has started without appropriate preparation when it comes to the education and training of its key actors. The current situation is additionally aggravated by the fact that the mentioned reform measures, and especially the key ones that would significantly improve the quality of administrative education and training, as is the establishment of the Public Administration Institute, have not been implemented yet. The public administration reform financial framework has not been spared from difficulties either. If we start from the understanding that the public budget is in fact a reflection of political priorities of those who create and adopt it, we cannot be satisfied with the position of public administration reform in this context. Bosnia and Herzegovina does not allocate sufficient resources to this reform process, nor does it spend those modest resources in a productive and economic manner in order to increase the tempo of the reform and adjust the administrative system to time requirements and to the needs of its economy and its citizens. 1

2 List of Abbreviations AP - Action Plan BD - Brčko District GDP - Gross Domestic Product CEFTA - Central European Free Trade Agreement CM - Council of Ministers CSA - Civil Service Agency CSA RS - Civil Service Agency of Republika Srpska DEI - Directorate for European FBiH - Federation of BiH HR - Human Resources HRM - Human resource management ITA -Indirect Taxation Authority M&E - Monitoring and Evaluation NGO - Nongovernmental Organizations PAR - Public Administration Reform PARCO - Public Administration Reform Coordinator Office PARF - Public Administration Reform Fund RS - Republika Srpska SAA - Stabilization and Association Agreement Introduction According to the last Quarterly Report of the Coordinator for the Public Administration Reform Office, progress in implementation of the Action Plan 1 of the Strategy for the Public Administration Reform is 37.69%. But a certain number of domestic and international reports continuously and mostly negative report on the work of public reform at all administrative levels. Public Administration is mostly described as bulky but fragmented apparatus burdened by unclear divisions of competence and strong influence of political elites to executive and administrative- technical functions of public administration. Public administration is also seen as slow and inaccessible mechanism without sufficient capacity to plan its work in coordination with the needs of the society but also without sufficient capability to implement what is managed to plan. In this context public administration reform is imposed as a key societal priority. The need to maintain, but also to increase, the process of monitoring of public administration reform progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina is obvious, which is actually a task of this monitoring. The subject for observance is the process of public administration reform, with focus on examination of the key factors of success: Whether the quantitative success in the public administration reform is accompanied by proportional qualitative progress? Is there a real political will for implementation of the public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Do key leaders of public administration reform possess the necessary knowledge and skills? Is there a realistic financial framework for public administration reform? The final goal of this document is to offer a contribution to the total efforts aimed at public administration reform, and through monitoring and analysis of the key factors of public administration reform create a foundation for formulation of a range of legal, political and citizen actions directed toward elimination of noticed problems which burden and stop the public administration reform process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2

3 1 According to Mid-Term Development Strategy BiH, Public administration reform is a process which needs to adapt administration to the societal needs. 2 Both documents are developed within Council of Ministers BiH. 3 EU membership request adopted by the EU Council. 4 Evropska komisija. Izvještaj o napretku Bosne i Hercegovine u godini. Available at ba/bih_i_eu/najvazniji_dokumenti/dokumenti_eu/?id= Ibid. 6 United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Available at undp.org/en/statistics/. 7 Foreign Policy. The Failed States Index Available at ticles/2009/06/22/2009_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings 8 This is the most representable world research on corruption implemented by Transparency International which included Bosnia and Herzegovina for seventh time. Index of corruption perception ranks the states from the one with the smallest degree of corruption to the countries in which corruption is most present, on the basis of evaluation for every individually (they range between 10- without corruption, to 1- absolutely corrupted country) and on the basis of relevant research that Index includes. 9 Transparency International. Corruption Perception Index Available at cpi_2009_table. 10 The World Bank Group. Doing Business Available at 11 For example, in the research of the Human Rights Center of the University of Sarajevo conducted in 2008, there was a question whether elected politicians represent interests they propagated during preelection campaigns and more than 60% of the interviewers believe that is not the case. The research is available at ljudskapravaubih2008.pdf 12 Center for Humane Politics. Izvještaj o praćenju procesa reforme javne uprave u prvoj polovini godine. Available at ba/literatura/chp%20-%20izvjestaj%20 za%20prvu%20polovinu% pdf 13 Impoliteness, rudeness, incompetence, inadequacy. 14 Slowness, complicated procedures, long waiting and crowdedness. 15 Corruption of officers in public administration. 16 Political eligibility as a condition for employment, work or achievement of certain rights or interests in public administration. 1. About Public Administration Reform in BiH The development of Bosnia and Herzegovina requires modern and efficient public administration. The only way to fulfill this requirement is public administration reform and that fact is recognized in almost all strategic development documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, such as Med-Term Development Strategy of BiH 1 and BiH EU accession strategy 2.Why is public administration reform important? All political forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina have, many times, emphasized their readiness to take the state toward full membership in the European Union. This key societal priority is and will be determined by a fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs more the European Union than the European Union needs Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, Bosnia and Herzegovina shall, undoubtedly, need administrative tool capable to really implement legal heritage of the EU- acquis communautaire-and to fulfill Copenhagen criteria 3. This requirement is additionally emphasized by signing Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), by which Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered into its firs contractual relation with the European Union. Article 8 of the SAA clearly relates the process of accession and administrative reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In accordance with the above mentioned is the fact that public administration is a subject of interest to all annual reports of the European Commission which evaluate Bosnia and Herzegovina progress. In the Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina Progress from 2008, apart from the whole range of positive moves, it was still concluded that administrative structures ( ) are still large, and in some cases fragmented and prone to duplication and unclear division of competences between the same level institutions but also vertically between different levels of government. 4 The same Report furthermore states that the civil service ( ) needs professionalization, transparent and efficient procedures of employment and modern way of promotion in service. It is necessary to undertake sustainable efforts in order to prevent political interference and limit the role which ethnic identity and belonging to a certain party has in the public administration. The administration would benefit from modernization of procedures and processes, as well from the cooperation with other parts of the country. 5 It is quite worrying that evaluations from 2008 appeared again in almost exact same wordings in the 2009 Progress Report. Along with this general, there is a whole range of specific factors which require continuous reform activities within public administration field. Of course, it is necessary to mention globalization. Widely understood, processes of globalization, firstly due to technological innovations, speed up time and reduce space, expand the specter of possibilities, but also bring in numerous new danger and challenges. Not public administration, and especially administration of small and poor countries, cannot afford luxury of not understanding globalization and ignoring technological progress. Regional context also imposes public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina as one of the key societal priorities. Process of liberalization of visa regime for the Western Balkans countries can serve as an excellent illustration. Namely, when in the mid 2009 the European Commission made a decision on liberalization of visa regime for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, that was only one step in a row of signals that Bosnia and Herzegovina lags behind the countries in the region. This conclusion is again confirmed by insight to the numerous indexes which deal with evaluation of countries and their capacities in certain fields. As an example, Bosnia and Herzegovina is at 75th place of the Human Development Index and it is the worst ranked country of the Western Balkans. 6 On the other hand, on the index list in which is the best to be last, and this is Failed States Index, Bosnia and Herzegovina is at 63rd place, accompanied by the countries which make category In danger. 7 Within Index corruption perception for , Bosnia and Herzegovina is again the worst (99th place) in comparison to the neighboring countries 9. Also, from all countries in the region, Bosnia and Herzegovina has the worst place in index Doing Business 2009 which evaluates easiness of doing business in 183 countries in the world. 10 Bad international perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a result of bad public management whose integral part is, as it is already stated, public administration as a totality of executive and administrative- technical function of management. Of course, it must not be forgotten that the political function, or utmost disordered political situation in the country is the main culprit for the existing situation 11, but that is still not sufficient to amnesty public administration. Actually, it has to be emphasized that lack of trust of citizens toward public administration is the basic internal factor which requires its reform. Citizens experiences in the contact with public administration, according to the Center for Human Politic report 12, are most often described with terms such as: unprofessional 13, inefficient 14, corrupt 15 and politicized. 16 All above mentioned speaks on behalf of the need to start a process of the efficient and effective public administration reform in BiH, which has been reflected by now in the following key steps and documents: 3

4 Table 1. BiH PAR chronology and documents PAR chronology 2000: Government of Republika Srpska and the Ministry for International Development of the Great Britain signed a memorandum on institutional support to the entity public administration reform. 2002: state laws on administration and service in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted; laws on ministries and administrative service in Republika Srpska were adopted; Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded; Civil Service Agency of Republika Srpska was founded. 2003: at the initiative of High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina document Public administration reform- our program was adopted; OSCE (but also USAID and SIDA) starts with realization of the program of local administration reform, which includes most of municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina; laws on ministries and civil service in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were adopted; Civil Service Agency of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded; 2004: Public Administration Reform Coordinators Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded, with a main role to coordinate reform activities between the Council of Ministers, entity and the Government of Brčko District, closely cooperating with Delegation of the European Commission in BiH. 2005: project of systematic overview of the institutions of public administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina was realized. 2006: Strategy of the Public Administration Reform with the First Action Plan was adopted; implementation of activities from the first phase of the Strategy for Public Administration Reform began. 2007: Public Administration Reform Fund was established; common platform on principles and implementation of the first Action Plan of the Strategy for the Public Administration Reform was adopted; only 5% of the activities from the first phase of the strategy for the public administration reform was completed. 2008: preparation of projects intended for financing from the PAR Fund; SAA was signed; BiH became a member of CEFTA. 2009: Implementation of AP I is at 37%; activities of development of AP II; no project which would be financed from PAR fund started with realization; signed agreement with IMF. PAR documents Public Administration Reform Strategy The Strategy was made by the Public Administration Reform Coordinator Office, with support of the European Commission team for technical support. It was preceded by a systematic overview of the public administration institutions of BiH and functional overview of the same. The first has encompassed general capacities in six fields of public administration: human resources, public finances, development of legal regulations, administrative procedure, information technologies, and institutional communication. The other included: division of responsibilities and functions, comparison with situation in other European countries and recommendations for rationalization and reorganization of functional competences of administrative institutions. In creation of the Strategy suggestions of wider public were used, collected through workshops, media gatherings and polls. Action plan 1 of the Public Administration Reform Strategy Action plan 1 is accompanying document of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform, adopted in the Council of Ministers of BiH, entity and the Government of Brčko District in 2006, simultaneously with the Strategy which marks beginning of implementation of its activities and measures. Memorandum of understanding for establishment of the Public Administration Reform Fund Memorandum o understanding for establishment of Public Administration Reform Fund is a document which defines conditions and procedures of financial support to reform measures and which represents framework for consultations between donors, Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH, Ministry of Finance and Treasury BiH, public administration reform coordinators in entities and Brčko District and supervisory teams for certain sectors. Joint platform on principles and manner of implementation of the Action Plan I of the Public Administration Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina Strategy Joint platform represent additional strategic document developed by the Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH, which determined principles, manners and mechanisms of implementation of Action Plan 1 of the PAR Strategy in BiH, and represents political and legal framework and foundation for cooperation of all level of government authorities. Apart from the mentioned documents, Coordinator s Office, within its responsibilities, creates and issues periodically three types of reports: quarterly or annual progress report on implementation of measures of the Action Plan 1, accompanying Annex with M&E table, with overview of individual measures and progress percentage and quarterly or annual report on Coordinator s Office work Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH Available at parco.gov.ba/latn/?page=364 (Accessed on ). 4

5 In the stated time frame and on the basis of the represented strategic documentation, the following administrative mechanism intended for public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its coordination was established (Image 1). Strategy for Public Administration Reform (PAR) in BiH Action plan 1 Implementation Chart (Mar/2007) BiH Public Administration Executive Level Structure BiH CoM Chairman FBiH Prime Minister RS Prime Minister Brcko District Mayor PAR working group (integrated into the Economic Development and European Coordination Board) Technical Assistance PAR Coordinator s Office PAR FUND RS PAR Coordinator FBiH PAR Coordinator BD PAR Coordinator Coordination SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM SUPERVISORY TEAM Reform area: Policy-Making and Coordination Capacity Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Public Finances Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Human Resource Management Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Administrative Decision-Making Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Institutional Communication Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Information Technologies Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Reform area: Improvement of Quality and Procedures of regulations drafting and enacting Implementation projects are executed on the basis of AP1 (Project ToRs are developed based on AP1 activities grouping) Implementation activities Implementation Coordination Implementation decisions Image 1. (source: Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office) 5

6 There is no single part of this mechanism intended for the implementation of the public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is not related to one or a few aggravating circumstances which slow down and aggravate the reform. For example, the PAR working group at the highest level has never met since signing of the Joint Platform to discuss the topic of public administration reform. Withing the very organizational structure of public administration in BiH, the Coordinator s Office, as a permanent body at the Council of Ministers, is pretty distanced from all actors with whom it should activly cooperate. FPAR is burdened with decision making procedures that require concezus of all PAR Steering Board members, but also of the supervisory teams on certain reform fields. For example, in order to be approved and financed by PARF resources, project proposal, mostly developed in the Coordinator s Office, has to get unianimous support of the supervisiory team for reform field it covers and the Steering Board. TOR of all actors foreseen by project proposal, tender documentation which opens a proces of public procurements, necessary human and material resources for implementation of projects have to go through the same procedure. According to Azra Branković, expert adviser in the Coordinator s Office the entire system is prone to blockades, devised in such manner not to implement the reform, and PACRO cannot do anything against that system 18. Also, keeping in mind the above chronology of public administration reform, and the list of key reform documents, one characteristic strategic maneuver undertaken during this process must be noticed, which especially presents the real (un)willingness to really implement the process. Namely, if the mentioned Common Platform established during April 2007, and confirmed in the firs half of the same year by the competent government authorities, determines principles, manners and mechanisms of implementation of Action Plan 1 and PAR Strategy measures, than we cannot avoid a conclusion that in the previously determined documents, meaning PAR Strategy and Action Plan 1, this was missed. This failure questions the quality of that strategic documentation, which had to be supplemented by a document like Common Platform already in a year time. The second possible explanation points to the lack of political will, where signing of Common Platform had as a goal to remind the government and ruling political leaders to commitments they have undertaken with adoption of the PAR Strategy and Action Plan 1. Regardless to which explanation we prefer, both warn about inborn weakness of the entire process of public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 18 Branković, Azra. Expert adviser for reform field of public finances, PARCO. Interview and

7 % In its last Quarterly progress report of public administration reform 19, Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH reports on 37.69% of implemented measures from the Action Plan 1 of the Strategy on Public administration Reform. Otherwise, progress in implementation of reform measures is monitored via so called progress indicators developed for this purpose by the Coordinator s Office and which represent a range of measurable individual parameters with which it is possible to monitor and evaluate implementation of the concrete reform measure. 20 As a source of information on the basis of which the estimation is made, Coordinator s Office, among all, uses: reports from the progress report provided by entity and coordinator for public administration reform of Brčko District BiH, as well as members of supervisory boards from the state levels, overviews of adopted regulations significant for the reform field, monitoring of donors projects implementation and initiatives which included the Coordinator s Office, external data obtained from donors, and information on activities and projects whose initiator and carrier is the Coordinator s Office. 21 Collective progress for all administrative levels of government together (BiH, FBiH, RS and BD BiH) according to reform fields is: Table 2. Progress in PAR fields Reform field Total progress achieved Progress achieved in relation to the previous reporting period Development of policies and coordination capacities 38,76 % 2,60 % Public finances 43,61 % 0,51 % Human Resource management 43,54 % 0,77 % Administrative procedure 31,96 % 0,45 % Institutional communication 39,55 % 2,14 % IT 28,72 % 0,88 % As relatively modest progress was made in all fields in relation to the previous quarter, or the second quarter of 2009, tendencies in the achieved progress between quarterly reports during 2008 and 2009 were examined in order to evaluate the speed of reform and to determine whether it is slowing down or accelerating. Image 2: Progress in reform fields (by quarters) 10,00% 9,00% 8,00% 19 Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Kvartalni izvještaj o napretku (praćenje provođenja Akcionog plana 1 Strategije reforme javne uprave u BiH) za period 1. juli 30. septembar godine Available at ba/latn/?page= Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH. Available at www. parco.gov.ba 21 Ibid. 7,00% 6,00% 5,00% 4,00% 3,00% 2,00% 1,00% 0,00% 1st quarter nd quarter rd quarter th quarter st quarter nd quarter rd quarter 2009 (Source: quarterly and annual report of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office) Production of politics and coordination capacities Public finances Human resources management Administrative procedure Institutional communication Informational technologies 7

8 It is obvious that the level of general progress from the first quarter of 2008 has not been achieved any more in the following period, and it is also visible continuous deceleration of the reform which starts with the first quarter of 2009, and it continues through second and third quarter, with an exception of the field public finances which progresses during the second quarter of 2009 by 6.53% in relation to the previous quarter. Apart from that, deceleration of reform progress is more than obvious. Significant part of the answer to the question why the public administration reform is slowing down is given in the mentioned reports of the Coordinator s Office which clearly state noticed problems and obstacles in conducting public administration reform. So in the last Quarterly progress report (for the period July 1- September 30, 2009) 22 particularly emphasized problems are listed to be: insufficient informedness of and insufficient inclusion of the Coordinator s Office in the process of amendments to legal and by-legal acts, which directly influence on fulfillment of agreed reform measures; untimely provision of information which Coordinator s Office needs for monitoring and reporting on reform processes; to the coordinators of public administration reform of the Government of FBiH and Government of RS this job represents additional engagement, which negatively influence on their efficiency 23 ; political coordination determined by the Common platform on principles and manner of implementation of the Action Plan 1 of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform in BiH is lacking. Coordination Board for economic development and European integration did not consider implementation of the PAR Strategy BiH even in third quarter of 2009; ; public procurement procedures, from the aspect of duration and finalization of the procedure have direct influence on further flow of project implementation for which resources are approved through FPAR; work of the supervisory teams members is not paid, work of the implementation teams members is not paid; civil servants, members of implementation teams, are often overburdened with their regular activities, which represents a problem for their quality work in implementation teams. But, the real problem is that the list of the above mentioned questions, in an almost unchanged content, is repeating since the very beginning of reporting methods introduced by the Coordinator s Office, or the first Annual Progress Report from This report, which with its content encompassed all activities from the second half of 2006, mentions all the problems noticed in 2009, and especially emphasizes the problem of reform dynamics, and individual and uncoordinated approach to the activities on individual administrative levels of government Will, Knowledge and Money: Key Factors for the Success of Public Administration Reform Insight in the content of the Strategy and Action Plan 1 leads to a conclusion that the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least on paper, have undertaken a very ambitious enterprise and reform in wider sense which requires essential changes in the work and understanding of public administration. Reform devised in such manner requires that all factors are seriously considered for which there is a possibility that they will seriously influence its final result. Theoretical frame differentiate a whole range of internal and external factors of administrative reform 25 : Table 3. Internal and external factors of public administration reform Internal factors political conditions; found legal, political, organizational and administrative structure; economical possibilities and needs; capacity for accepting changes (absorption power of personnel); innovative performances, courage, observation and capability for undertaking reasonable risks (managerial capabilities of key personnel); etc. External factors obligation on the basis of membership in international organizations; knowledge of modern organization, functioning, ambient and conditions of work of civil service and public services in other developed states; general acceptance of standards of effectiveness and efficiency which occur in European surrounding; usage of successful experiences of other countries in transition; etc. 23 From the unknown reason, Coordinator for Public Administration Reform BG BiH is missing, as he also executes which job as an additional engagement. 24 Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Available at parco.gov.ba/latn/?page=366. Accessed on Kavran, Dragoljub. Javna uprava: reforma, trening, efikasnost. Beograd: Savet za državnu upravu Vlade Republike Srbije; Udruženje za javnu upravu Srbije; Fakultet organizacionih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu, 2003, page

9 As the resources intended for production of this study do not enable detailed analysis of all mentioned factors, its focus shall be directed toward three key factors which determine success of every reform in public sector, including public administration reform: political will financial resources knowledge and skills It is well known that the output result of every activity is a product of factors of will, knowledge and financial support which can be represented by an equation: RESULT = I CAN x I KNOW x I WANT. This means that all three factors are needed simultaneously, or if only one of them is lacking the output result will also be missing. 2.1 Do We Have the Will? Although, on the basis of Coordinator s Office reports, as well as on the basis of the very chronology of the public administration reform, a lack of political will for implementation of coordinated public administration reform can be noticed, we intend to additionally research this question using simple media tool. 26 Namely, by monitoring reporting of print media during 2008 and 2009 on two topics- public administration reform and liberalization of visa regime 27 - we will try to prove significant difference in treatment of these topics by the key political figures. Here we start from an assumption that liberalization of visa regime, regardless to difficulties it faces, is still a good example of a goal behind which there is a political will of all the key actors in the country. Its comparison with treatment of public administration reform process by the same political actors will reveal clear image of their real interest in the process. Image 3: Print media reporting on public administration reform and visa liberalization during 2008 and For the needs of this research a digital archive of printed Bosnia-Herzegovinian media Infobiro ( developed within Mediacenter Sarajevo was used. 27 The search used the following key concepts: for the public administration reform- Public Administration Reform, Public Administration Reforms; for visa regime liberalization- Liberalization of Visa Regime, Visa Regime Liberalization, Liberalizations of Visa Regime, Visa Regime Liberalizations. 28 The number of texts in which some of the variations on the topic public administration reform is significantly smaller, as there are texts in which more key phrases show up according to which the search was made, so texts were reappearing in search results. It is the same case with a topic of liberalization of visa regime. 29 Katana, Gordana. Najbolje plaćeni radnici u BiH: istraživanje o reformi javne uprave. Oslobođenje , page Šestan, Samir. Šiljenje glogovog kolca: CHP analizirao stanje u javnoj upravi i njenu reformu. START , page Cenić, Svetlana. Sporazum o destabilizaciji i razdruživanju, Dani, , page 37. At the level of quantitative indicators alone, we see that in the given period, visa liberalization was covered almost five times more than public administration reform. On the other hand, the quantitative analysis of texts dedicated to these topics also points to a conclusion that texst reporting about the liberalization were far more seriously written, that is in a more specified manner wich in turn contributed to the atmosphere creating public pressure directed towards politicians. It is sufficient to look at some titles, such as Strategic plan for visa facilitation, Liberalization of visa regime- priority, Action plans to August, Špirić: liberalization of visa regime is start of road toward the EU etc. in order to notice the importance and understanding of the Public Administration Reform Visa regime liberalization given topic. Apart from that, great number of texts which had some other focus relatively often, at least partially, returned to the subject of liberalization of visa regime. Public administration reform, though, mostly takes secondary position in texts in which it is mentioned. From texts, only around 30 has public administration reform as a central topic. Analysing texts content, it has to be noticed that public administration reform is usually written about in a neutral tone, in cases of reporting about Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office reports, or in a negative tone, when the results of nongovernmental organizations 29 analyses are discusses, or in the text of column writers such are Samir Šestan in Start 30 or Svetlana Cenić in Dani. 31 9

10 In his text entirely dedicated to the public administration reform, incited by already mentioned report of the Center for Humane Politics, Šestan, among all, emphasizes the following: Public administration reform, no matter how boring mentioning of this topic sounds (at least to the author of this text until he scratched below the surface of public and own ignorance and realized what is that all about) is a key problem of this society. Huge, inefficient, unprofessional, corrupted and absurdly expensive bureaucratic apparatus, is a natural ally of incompetent, greedy and criminal authority in the war they are leading against their own citizens. 32 In printed media writings on public administration reform, it is visible its understanding of it as a resource which will enable significant savings of means, firstly financial, which would then be invested to other priority fields. A certain number of texts report on a negative influence of politics to the public administration reform process, so thus there is a report on the Government of West Herzegovinian Canton and its alleged efforts to establish cantonal civil service agency. 33 The same daily papers also present statement of Enver Išerić, director of the Civil Service Agency of FBiH, who complains about difficulties which authority organs in FBiH create to the process of public administration reform. 34.Vice President of the FBiH Government and minister of finances Vjekoslav Bevanda s statement in which he emphasizes that public administration reform in the following year cannot stay only at declarative level as so far 35 surely talks on behalf of our initial assumption that support to the reform process in the public administration field is only declarative but not essential enough. Of course there are those texts which look back at the public administration reform as the key segment of accession process to the European Union. Unfortunately, in the biggest number of cases those are only short conclusions that the membership in the European Union is conditioned by the public administration reform. But, the most worrying is that in the period of almost two years in the most sold print media, public administration reform was in a way mentioned in 255 articles and addendums, and only thirty of those really treated public administration reform as their central topic. Thus, public administration reform is not talked about in public space, which, if we keep in mind the definition of political will, sufficiently illustrates its mentioned lack. Additional realistic indicators of political will in this moment in Bosnia and Herzegovina are its key political leaders- top interpreters of political and ethno national interests. Table 4. Number of statements on visa liberalization and public administration reform made by BiH political leaders Political leaders Number of statements Visa regime liberalization Božo Ljubić 18 7 Dragan Čović Sulejman Tihić Haris Silajdžić 59 8 Milorad Dodik Nikola Špirić TOTAL Public administration reform When holistically reviewing the media content related to the key political figures and the public administration reform process we can conclude that a significant part is used for leading political debates on problem of ethnical origin of candidates to be nominated to leading positions of a range of state institutions, and emphasizing their ethnical balance. This is actually one of the rare topics which has nothing to do with a real vision, mission and aims of the Public Administration Reform Strategy and its Action Plan 1. It has to be emphasizes that a significant part of texts on public administration reform was incited by rare attempts of monitoring by civil society actors. The conclusion is simple: the greater engagement of civil society of such character will enable greater share of public space for public administration reform. 32 Šestan, Samir. Šiljenje glogovog kolca: CHP analizirao stanje u javnoj upravi i njenu reformu. START , page Vele, F. and H. Orahovac. Zapadnohercegovački kanton ruši ustavni poredak Federacije BiH.. Dnevni avaz , page Drnda, M. Federalno ministarstvo pravde bi da sruši sve što smo napravili dobro., Dnevni avaz, , page Rener, M. BiH tek očekuje pravi udar krize. Nezavisne novine , page 2. 10

11 36 Živanović, Miroslav. Reforma javne uprave u Bosni i Hercegovini: Procjena kapaciteta za obrazovanje i obuku u oblasti javne uprave. 2007, page Ibid., page Bosna i Hercegovina. Strategija reforme javne uprave. 2006, page Do We Have the Knowledge? The logic of answering the question of whether we have enough administrative knowledge and skills to successfully conduct public administration reform is following: (1) we cannot have knowledge and skills if we do not have operational and quality system of education and training within which the civil servants and future civil servants will obtain necessary knowledge and skills; (2) at the beginning of public administration reform we did not have optimally functional system of administrative education and training and thus no quality provision of administrative knowledge and skills; (3) PAR Strategy and Action Plan 1 foresees the activities and measures dedicated to administrative education and training; (4) if those activities and measures are not conducted or are only partially conducted, then we cannot talk about presence of necessary administrative knowledge and skills. Analysis of the PAR Strategy and its Action Plan 1, in already mentioned evaluation of the capacity of administrative education and training system points to the following: every reform field has a certain percentage of activities and actions which relate to education and training; education and training are equal elements of reform fields and are treated as an object of public administration reform. 36 These characteristics lead to key remark to the general reform model of education and training. Namely, by dividing the efforts in the field of education and training between reform fields, this model did not succeed in emphasizing the significance of education and training as preconditions of successful public administration reform. 37 Furthermore, on the basis of analysis of Progress report of the Coordinator s Office the following can be concluded: implementation of measures which relate to administrative education and training is late, its implementation is partial, and there is almost no measure which is completely conducted. The implementation of a certain number of reform measures which are a part of project proposals foreseen for financing from the Fund for public administration reform has not yet started, due to the slowness of procedures. Very often, it is obvious that in explanations on the basis of which progress in implementation of certain measures it can be determined that the activities undertaken or acts adopted actually diverge from what was the original intention of a proposed measure or activity. In other words, it is still unclear on what basis did Coordinator s Office determine progress in realization of certain fields. Furthermore, the Progress Report, as well as interviews conducted with civil servants, point to the absolute prevalence of formal training in the processes of education and training of personnel. Of course, this approach, if we keep in mind limited financial resources intended for training, is not surprising as this is the most economic method which can encompass a big number of participants. Workshops - a term mostly used in reports- are actually reduced to ex cathedra lectures, and in lesser degree introduce methods such as case studies, simulations and relaying on additional audio-visual materials (for example films, video materials etc.). Additional aggravating circumstance are present in the widely spread belief of the civil servants that the trainings they attend only have a formal significance, and that they have almost no influence on their position and advancement in service. This belief has significant implications to their motivation to actively participate in the training. The current situation is additionally aggravated by the fact that the mentioned reform measures, and especially the key ones that would significantly improve the quality of administrative education and training, as is the establishment of the Public Administration Institute, have not been implemented yet. An operational Public Administration Institute would take on the role of training provides as well as of curriculum creator. 38 It has to be emphasizes that a significant part of measures related to education and training are still realized through international projects of support to public administration, which as a rule, leave consequences to the feeling of ownership over what was executed. In other words, attention of the public administration bodies pointed toward concrete activities of education and training is present during project period and international support. With withdrawal of donor s resources, interest of the very institution for action in the mentioned field is withdrawing as well. It is not possible to conclude that the process of public administration reform has brought in significant changes in functioning and work of mechanisms which is competent for education and training of personnel in public administration. All lacks listed at the very beginning of this chapter are still present, and dynamics and quality of implementation of reform measures in this field does not offer a guarantee that they will be solved in some foreseeable time. Thus, the process of public administration reform is taking place without necessary knowledge and skills. 11

12 2.3 Do We Have the Money? In the aim of clearer overview and easier understanding, this part financial analysis of public administration reform is divided in two parts. The first one represents an overview of two types of expenditures: contributions for salaries and compensations for period from 2006 to The second part relates to the analysis of budget structure of key institutions responsible for training of civil servants in the system of public administration. The key goal is to find answer to the following questions: do we have money for public administration reform and how do we use that money? Expenditures Analysis for Salaries at all Administrative Levels in BiH Very often we hear from the top functionaries that governmental institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina chronically suffer from lack of money which disable modernization and represent an obstacle to introduction of completely new functions and roles which are characteristic for every reform. Something similar is happening when we talk about public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Arguments which are most often emphasized are: civil servants are not sufficiently paid for the existing scope of work they do; inexistence of material presumptions for more efficient work of civil servants; within public administration work insufficiently trained people, and the existing personnel who could bear reform burden are not adequately arranged. We can best see the truth in this when we compare the reform progress contained in PARCO public administration progress reports with the analysis of expenditure for salaries and compensations. Via this, we gain insight into the costs incurred by what has been accomplished so far. Only in this way are we able to fully assess the successfulness of the reform. Taking 2006 as the base year, we have compared the executed selected expenditures which followed with the same in the base period. In that way we get a clearer picture on movement dynamics of this type of expenditures in the observed period according to administrative levels, as an evaluation of how much public administration contributed to the creation of a reformed ambient which is closer to modern democratic societies that we aspire to, with the level of expenditures presented. Image 4: Salaries and Compensations Expenditures according to administrative levels for the * period * Source: competent finance and budget services State Brčko FBiH RS We can conclude that, despite of increased contributions for salaries and compensations of employees working in public administration, we did not reach the expected effect in the field of public administration reform. Apart from the fact that we have increased the number of employees in public administration with an aim to get to the necessary new knowledge and skills in that manner, and apart from * The figures for 2009 are based on an execution assesment for the observed types of expenditure, while for the other years, a final execution for the observed types of expenditure has been analyzed. 12

13 enormous increase of salaries and compensations as money stimulant for civil servants, we can conclude that desired result is absent. This conclusion is drawn from the previously analyzed reports of all relative domestic and international agencies who execute monitoring and evaluation of the public administration reform progress. If we compare increase contributions for salaries and compensation of public servants which did not obtain wanted results with huge decrease of societal gross product as measures of richness and newly created budget deficits and debt in 2009, which will additionally endanger stability of public finances in upcoming days, illogicality point to extreme need for more efficient usage of available resources. Image 5 illustrates movement of expenditures for salaries according to administrative levels in BiH. Here the Federation BiH is excelling in comparison to the other administrative levels according to the amount of expenditures. On the other hand, administrative level of FBiH does not diverge more significantly from the results of other administrative levels when considering progress in implementation of the Strategy of Public Administration. 39 We are prone to conclude that the registered progress could have been achieved with less investment to the massive administrative apparatus in FBiH. This means that all administrative levels, and especially FBiH, have to comprehensively analyze their existing level of expenditures and the effects that the very expensive administrative apparatus is achieving. Image 5: Expenditures on behalf of salaries and compesations at all 4 administrative levels, including cantons 1,200,000,000 1,000,000, ,000, ,000, ,000,000 State Brčko FBiH RS 200,000, * Source: competent finance and budget services 39 Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Kvartalni izvještaj o napretku (praćenje provođenja Akcionog plana 1 Strategije reforme javne uprave u BiH) za period 1. juli 30. septembar godine Available at ba/latn/?page= European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Transition Report EBRD: Ibid. 42 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Transition Report EBRD: * The figures for 2009 are based on an execution assesment for the observed types of expenditure, while for the other years, a final execution for the observed types of expenditure has been analyzed. It is a fact that economic system of Bosnia and Herzegovina had very good performances until IV quarter of The BiH gross domestic product (GDP), as a measure of successfulness of an economy, has been increasing on average according to the annual rate of almost 6% in the past 5-6 years. 40 Fiscal system reform, especially in the field of indirect taxes has resulted with enormous inflow of resources to the budgets of all administrative levels. This means that Bosnia and Herzegovina government had an opportunity to implement multiple reforms, including public administration reform. Results, which can best be seen from Report on implementation of measures from AP1, are very modest. Considering pessimistic results in the period of economic growth, a question can be asked to what can we expect in time in front of us, with 6.1% decrease of activities in 2009 (data is related to the region of South East Europe as a whole) 41, and then certain neutral growth in following years? All administrative levels are getting unto debt fast, which means that the burden of these moves shall be felt by current government fast and that the same shall last for many years to come. Transition Report 2009 of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development points out that a successful transition does not only include market mechanisms and private sector activities, but also effective interation of public and private sectors and high quality state institutions. 42 We missed our chance to reform the system of public administration with far less effort and in much better economic conditions from the ones that are in front of us. Fight for every konvertible mark 13

14 from the budget will be fierce, and if the public administration reform is not placed high on priority list, we will have a state with which we cannot be pleased. Analysis of contributions for the training of civil servants In this segment, a question is raised to what we can expect regarding additional investments to personnel in the following period, with aim of complete implementation of reform measures contained in Action Plan 1. Task of all civil service/administration agencies is to ensure a certain level of knowledge and skills of civil servants who are coming in the public administration. If this first filter fails, it will come to the situation in which it is needed many more additional investments in order to make up for the lacks which are not supposed to occur in the first place. That leads to omission of output results with satisfactory quality in the longer time period. If we add this to a fact of great fluctuation of civil servants, especially at leading places, we end up with a situation of chronic lack of necessary knowledge and skills which would systematically and continuously contribute to advancement of the system of public administration work, increased degree of integration of our country, as well as capabilities of adopting and implementing basic regulations of the EU (Acquis Communautaire) which represent the main condition to a membership in the EU. Thus it is obvious that investment in the education systems, firstly through the civil service agency, does not have an alternative. According to the adopted AP 1 BiH government has to allocate 3% of the gross amount allocated to the salaries of public servants towards the training needs, which parallels the European standards in this field. But the financial analysis shows that during 2008, around 20 times less than the amount foreseen has been allocated, and in 2009, this very modest amount was almost reduced by half. 43 Thus we have the existing situation in which donations are the main source for conducting this activity within CSA. If we add to that that CSA BiH does not dispose with the basic predispositions for conducting its function, as for example its own space in which the training would be held, and the fact that only a few people are in charge for all kinds of trainings of a big number of civil servants, inexistence of own lecturers who would be in charge for training or at least adopted standards and indicators of success of delivered trainings, we have unsatisfactory situation regarding investment to civil servants training and the results of the same. 3. How to Accelerate the Reform Process? (Key recommendations) Findings to which we came by examining the factors of political will, administrative knowledge and skills, and necessary financial resources do not offer a reason for optimism regarding the processes of public administration reform in BiH. The general conclusion can be reduced to one sentence which claims that there is no political will for coordinated public administration reform, as well as any necessary modern administrative knowledge and skills with the key reform forces responsible for implementation of reform measures and activities, while the main problem of finances is not their scarcity but inadequate procedures of allocation and their arrangement. 3.1 Putting Pressure on the Leaders! The key bearers of political will in Bosnia and Herzegovina are leaders of the biggest political parties. The quickest way which leads to creation of political will for public administration reform and its coordination is going through a pressure which will be put on the mentioned leaders. The question is who will be the main carrier of such pressure? In this moment it is possible to talk about the following actors as the pressure factors: opposing political parties, civil society actors, media, international community. Starting from a fact that public administration reform is the process of the highest social interest, they have at their disposal the following pressure tools. Legal actions are firstly related to strategic litigation, or conscious and planned leading of court procedures directed toward amendment of interpretation of the existing law or removal of bad legal stipulations from the legislative system of the given state (proving their unconstitutionality or incompliance with ratified international agreements) 44. Although the carriers of these activities could be individuals and organizations, the leading of process of strategic litigation is recommended to the civil society organizations or to political parties. This method seems to be the best means of pressure in reform area of human potential management, where there is a doubt in existence of discriminatory practices in recruiting procedures, advancement and similar. 43 If we know that expenditures on behalf of employees salaries in BiH institutions for 2008 were around 565 million KM, we can conclude that it was necessary to allocate around 17 million KM for training. Civil Service Agency of BiH which, apart from other tasks is the only one who is conducting training of civil servants for administrative level state represents only a bit more than 5% of this foreseen amount. In this way we come to indicator that the budget of the Agency totals to 1/20th part of resources which would have to be intended for training. We can find similar situation while analyzing the Civil Service Agency of Republic of Srpska and the Civil Service Agency FBiH.. 44 Marek Novicki. Monitoring ljudskih prava: nadzor nad poštovanjem ljudskih prava. Beograd: Građanske inicijative, udruženje građana za demokratiju i civilno obrazovanje, 2004, page

15 45 Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Available at parco.gov.ba/latn/?page=92. (Accessed on ). Apart from strategic litigation, intensive activities directed toward raising of legal consciousness of citizens, but also of the civil servants, about their rights and obligations, in interaction with public administration bodies are also recommended. In this sense, activities have to be devised and realized with a goal of strengthening the capacities of trade unions and other forms of associations of administrative workers, and all in the aim of clear articulation of their expectations in the context of public administration reform as well as strong advocacy of the important solutions foreseen in this context by the Action Plan 1 of PAR Strategy Without any doubt, the development of political will in this regard requires coordinated and strong civil society action. At this moment, this can be exclusively a result of the process of bringing the idea of the necessarily for public administration reform closer to the wider public, and especially to all forms of citizen associations and actions. The process itself would develop in a few phases: Public campaign of representing the process of public administration reform and its progress to civil society organizations; division of zones of responsibility or a program of consultations and determining separate spheres of interest (reform fields or measures) for each civil society organization which recognizes public administration reform as a priority for its actions, Program of support to the civil society organizations who wants to actively participate in the public administration reform process. Thus, the process would start with informing of civil society organizations, on public administration reform, and it would finish with its concrete public action which would have as its goal the high-quality of implementation of the foreseen reform activities and measures. In this case, concrete public action would include initiation of necessary legislative initiatives, development, proposal and advocacy of the necessary public policies, leading of public campaings with aim of mobilization of publics etc. Furthermore, the coordination of activities, the results achieved, but also the consistent communication between all actors has to be used for maintaining permanent pressure on key actors within the international community with the aim of positioning public administration reform as a condition whose fulfillment shall determine the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of European integration. Citizens action, as a manner of action which encompasses different forms of organized and collective pressure towards the government, of course without applying force, supplements political action. An initiative which is recommended here relates to the support and development of programs of citizen actions which will be an integral and complementary part of citizens-political movement and which will have for its goal to point out the problems in the functioning of public administration in an innovative and understandable manner to citizens. They will also highlight the fact that the solutions to those problems are located in the process of public administration reform itself. 3.2 Learn, Learn and Learn Some More! In the continuation of the public administration reform process, administrative education and training has to be paid additional attention, which can be achieved by redefining the strategic position of education and training within the existing strategic framework of public administration reform. In this sense, the present development of the Action Plan 2 of PAR Strategy seems as an appropriate, but also the only possible space for the implementation of this key reform within the PAR process. Action Plan 2 of the PAR Strategy has as its goal the reform of different sectors of public administration, and it will be made via programs or plans especially focusing on the improvement of sectoral capacities. 45 It is possible to determine a whole range of measures which would enable appropriate positioning of administrative education and training in the context of public administration reform. At the very beginning it is necessary to think about forming a working group for administrative education and training whose basic task would be the development of the strategy of education and training for public administration reform. Apart from production of the mentioned strategic document, the working group would have tasks to: (1) enable communication and cooperation between all institutions included in administrative education and training (civil service agencies, international agencies, universities and faculties, NGOs); (2) ensure communication and cooperation between all institutions who deal with administrative education and training within the government of BiH and Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Although the scope of this report does not allow detailed elaboration of possible content of the mentioned strategy of education and training for public administration reform, it is possible to mention a few measures which would most certainly occupy the central position within the strategy. In the first place, this implies the adoption and implementation of additional, or the amendment of the existing legislation and by-laws which treat education and training within public administration. The aim of 15

16 this effort is contribution to the establishment of sustainable system of administrative education and training in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would, amongst all, mean: legally determined recognition of principles and standards of training of civil servants; detailed development of system of financing education and training in public administration; legal formulation of obligatory educational and training courses and programs for all positions in civil service (from intern to the highest managerial positions) etc. The Strategy would also take care of more active participation of academic community to the process of public administration reform, firstly by starting an interdisciplinary postgraduate program in the field of public administration. It basic mandate would be to establish a central point within the system of higher education in BiH intended for academic study of public administration completely coordinated with the needs of the public administration reform process. A positive step in this direction is a new master study of 2nd cycle, initiated within the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of University of Sarajevo on the topic of State and Non-Governmental Organization Management. a wide specter of activities, from scholar- research work in the field of public administration, preparation and advocacy of appropriate public policies, to development and implementation of education and training programs intended for public administration and based on methods such as training at work, action training and process training. All resources, material and human, engaged through this form of citizens action would include in the moment of formation of the Public Administration Institute to the material and personnel foundation on the basis of which the Institute would act. In other words, keeping in mind the limitations imposed by the nongovernmental organization status, this organization would act as a replacement institution for the missing and urgently needed Institute. One of the most important topics within the strategy would be the one advocating implementation of a year long specialized action training in human resource management with a special focus on determining the real training needs in this regard. The concept of learning through work is in the background of this measure. Keeping in mind the size of public administration, the program should have an ambition to include personnel units of all institutions and agencies of all administrative levels encompassed by the reform. Also it has to be emphasizes that numerous nongovernmental organizations and associations of citizens posses knowledge and skills which are now of key importance for the success of public administration reform, as project management, public relations, management through results, evaluation of results, method of new public management etc. Establishment of a nongovernmental organization which would be called the Public Administration Center, Administrative Academy or similar, would enable an efficient concentration of knowledge and skills from the nongovernmental sector needed by the public sector, and it would help determine models of cooperation with the existing institutional framework of public administration reform. In order to enable quality communication, founding assembly of this organization would be made out of civil servants, key bearers of reform activities, governmental and nongovernmental experts and experts in the field of human resource management, representatives of academic community and representatives of international donor community. The organization would deal with 16

17 46 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Transition Report EBRD: Stojanka Ćulibrk (Deputy Minister for Administration and Local Self-Governance of RS- Administration Department) and Mikan Davidović (Head of Department for Public Administration Reform within Administrative Department of the Ministry for Administration and Local Self- Governance of RS), Interview Official who defines the need for resources, arrange them, award and punish executors and at the end are responsible for (not)achieved. 3.3 Making Secure Investments! Allocations for civil servants training is an indicator of seriousness of approach in finding solutions for advancement of administrative structures. Keeping in mind the above mentioned data, we cannot be surprised by the fact that reform is significantly slowed down and that public administration, with reason, continuously receives bad evaluations by domestic and foreign institutions that are monitoring the process of public administration reform. Expenditures on behalf of public salaries and compensations, as well as material and service expenses, should be seen as an investment and, if they do not give the desired effects, they should immediately be analyzed and redefined. Public administration expenditures should be coordinated with economic growth, i.e. do not allow that they keep growing, which means that tax burden of citizens is also relatively growing while economy suffers. 46 In the context of the currently decreasing GDP, it is of crucial importance to efficiently use the budget resources available for public administration reform- which means making secure investments. Government in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of public administration reform has to keep to agreed tasks and deadlines for their implementation. It is necessary to make additional investments to personnel able to carry out the burden of the reform, i.e. to allocate resources towards professional improvement and development of civil servants, as well as their motivation for efficient execution of entrusted public affairs. Work and work results have to become the only measure for awarding. This applies not only to the level of individuals but also to the level of organization unit and organization as a whole. Introduction of competitive spirit can be a manner of freeing sleeping working and creative potential in the public administration. After analysis of current work of the Public Administration Fund we cannot be completely satisfied. It is a fact that basic rules and procedures of work have been created but the truth is that they have not given results yet. Thus we have a situation that in less than three years of existence of this Fund not even one project has started with realization. Too much time is spent on agreement of all details which would be acceptable for all participants in decision making; supervisory teams of administrative levels according to reform fields, coordinators in the Coordinator s Office and representatives of donor community. Useful recommendation by the representative of administrative level of Republika Srpska is that at the time of project selection and obtaining means for its financing, real circumstances should be taken into consideration, such as the different starting positions in the context of public administration reform, as well as the current different degree of development, but also the existing and future needs, in order for this instrument to serve its purpose. 47 Considering different starting points of administrative levels, as well as the current different achieved level in the public administration reform we propose the allocation of one part of resources from the Public Administration Reform Fund which would be intended for administrative levels individually for the realization of selected activities. In this way they would move from dead spot and make small initial successes which would then induce implementation of commonly agreed reform measures. This could be described as an appeal for gradual convergence of all administrative levels, while respecting, in this transitional period, their different needs. Additionally, it is necessary to introduce methods of organizational memory which is in accordance with ISO standards relating to public administration, and deal with documentation of processes and procedures with clearly marked input and output information, carriers of activities and defined time frame for making foreseen decisions. Leaving written traces in form of memorandum on all important activities is a key issue for introduction of a system of organizational memory. Additionally, it is desirable that the new manager spends some time with a departing one in order to receive timely and adequate information on all important and urgent tasks which are in front of organization or organizational unit. Related to that, it would be a good idea to research the amount of costs in, now already multiannual nonappointment of managers to some of the most important institutions in the country. At the end, if we analyze in details the measures presented in the Action Plan 1, we will notice that their realization does not require significant material investments but is rather a product of human factor and political support in combination with adequate organizational support. If we accept this initial hypothesis, along with a fact that a great personnel potential already exists today within the system of public administration for which we allocate more money each year, thus we come to a conclusion that success of the system of public administration reform dominantly depends of managerial civil servants 48, with an existence of political support to a clear path along which social community as a whole should move. Only in that way can we improve the relation of investment and benefit from the civil service, which should be our ultimate goal. 17

18 Conclusion This work states only some of the numerous facts on behalf of the thesis that public administration does not match the current needs of the society, as well as the process of its reform is not developing with a planed dynamics and that it does not bring in expected changes. We must not have illusions that, if public attentions is still occupied by daily political themes and issues which do not have capacity to solve essential societal problems, such as a referendum issue, and even constitutional changes, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina can in nearby future count on the membership in the European Union, economic development, social and health security, good education and all other elements making a stabile society on its path of progress. If public administration reform, that key mechanism, is left only to political elites and insufficiently coordinated international factors, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not progress. Bibliography Ahmetović, Damir. Specialist for public administration reform, UNDP. Interview Bosna i Hercegovina. Strategija reforme javne uprave Branković, Azra. Expert adviser for reform field of public finances, PARCO. Interview and Centers for Civil Initiatives. Monitoring rada Vijeća ministara BiH za period godine Available at: Centar za humani razvoj. Izvještaj o praćenju procesa reforme javne uprave u prvoj polovini godine. Available at: Human Rights Center at University of Sarajevo. Ljudska prava u BiH 2008: Pravo, praksa i međunarodni standardi ljudskih prava sa ispitivanjem javnog mnijenja. Available at: Cenić, Svetlana. Sporazum o destabilizaciji i razdruživanju. BH DANI Ćulibrk, Stojanka (Deputy Minister for Administration and Local Self-Governance of RS- Administration Department) and Mikan Davidović (Head of Department for Public Administration Reform within Administrative Department of the Ministry for Administration and Local Self-Governance of RS), Interview Dimitrijević, Pavle. Organizacija i metodi rada javne uprave. Beograd: Savremena administracija, Drnda, M. Federalno ministarstvo pravde bi da sruši sve što smo napravili dobro. Dnevni avaz European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Transition Report EBRD: Evropska komisija. Izvještaj o napretku Bosne i Hercegovine u godini. Available at: bih_i_eu/najvazniji_dokumenti/dokumenti_eu/?id=2459. Evropska komisija. Izvještaj o napretku Bosne i Hercegovine u godini. Available at: bih_i_eu/najvazniji_dokumenti/dokumenti_eu/?id=3783 Foreign Policy. The Failed States Index Available at: failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings Hadžić, Damir. Specialist for public administration reform and a member of Steering Board of PAR Fund. Interview Kadić, Hazim. Assistant to a Director of CSA BiH and Zdravko Kujudžija, Head of Training Department. Interview and Karajica, Vladimir. Head of Department for Training and Analytical Affairs, CSA RS. Interview Katana, Gordana. Najbolje plaćeni radnici u BiH: istraživanje o reformi javne uprave. Oslobođenje Kavran, Dragoljub. Javna uprava: reforma, trening, efikasnost. Beograd: Savet za državnu upravu Vlade Republike Srbije; Udruženje za javnu upravu Srbije; Fakultet organizacionih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu, 2003 Marek Novicki. Monitoring ljudskih prava: nadzor nad poštovanjem ljudskih prava. Beograd: Građanske inicijative, udruženje građana za demokratiju i civilno obrazovanje, Musić, Suad. Deputy director of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office in BiH - PARCO. Interview Rener, M. BiH tek očekuje pravi udar krize. Nezavisne novine Sporazum o stabilizaciji i pridruživanju.. Available at: aspx?id=743&template_id=14&pageindex=1 18

19 Stojanović, Arlett. Specialist for public administration reform, UNDP. Interview Šegrt, R. Dodik: Neophodna reforma javne uprave. Nezavisne novine Šestan, Samir. Šiljenje glogovog kolca: CHP analizirao stanje u javnoj upravi i njenu reformu. START Transparency International. Corruption Perception Index Available at: Transparency International Bosna i Hercegovina. Otvoreno pismo članovima Parlamentarne skupštine BiH povodom zakonskih inicijativa koje su u suprotnosti sa demokratskim principima i interesima građana. Available at: UNDP. Statistics of the Human Development Report. Available at: Public Administration Reform Coordinator s Office. Kvartalni izvještaj o napretku (praćenje provođenja Akcionog plana 1 Strategije reforme javne uprave u BiH) za period 1. juli 30. septembar godine Available at parco.gov.ba/latn/?page=369 Audit Office of the Institutions of BiH. Izvještaj o reviziji Agencije za državnu službu BiH za godinu. Sarajevo, Available at: Vele, F. and H. Orahovac. Zapadnohercegovački kanton ruši ustavni poredak Federacije BiH.. Dnevni avaz World Bank. Doing Business Available at: Živanović, Miroslav. Reforma javne uprave u Bosni i Hercegovini: Procjena kapaciteta za obrazovanje i obuku u oblasti javne uprave Available at: ADU RS - Moderna uprava Agencija za državnu službu RS. January

20 AUTHoR S BIoGRAPHY* Aleksandar Eskić has been ACIPS partner from Banja Luka for many years. His interests are related to the system of public administration and analysis of public policies, public finances, fiscal policies, macro economy as well as relations between different levels of government. His current work experiences is related to work on projects of advancement of different aspects of public administration and economic development across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Currently he is employed in a Department for Macro Economic Analysis of the Steering Board at Indirect Tax Authority, where he works on analysis of fiscal position of all administrative levels, production of income projections and preparation of regulations in the field of indirect taxes in accordance with the EU directions. During academic , as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, he attended University of North Carolina School of Government and Duke University Public Policy Institute in the United States of America, where he focused on public administration issues and public policy analyses and their best practice in domain of budget development and multi annual capital planning. So far he has not been politically engaged. * Miroslav Živanović also actively participated in the development and the conducting of this research until November 2009, when he was assigned to the position of Deputy Mayor of the City of Sarajevo. QUo VADIS, PUBlIC ADMInISTRATIon? Evaluation of Progress Achieved in the Implementation of Public Administration Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina Publisher: For publisher: Researcher: Translation: Design and layout: Asocijacija Alumni Centra za interdisciplinarne postdiplomske studije (ACIPS), Zmaja od Bosne 8, Sarajevo Sanel Huskić Aleksandar Eskić Aleksandra Vlajković Enes Huseinčehajić Sarajevo, January