The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Public Administration and 20 local self-governments included in the EU project “Human resources management in local self-government“ was held at the reception hall of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade.
The Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport noted that public administration was one of the pillars of the EU and was thus given priority within the EU enlargement policy. He added that public servants should be aware of their responsibility towards citizens.
“Public administration, coupled with the rule of law and the advancement of economic reform, is one of the three interrelated pillars,” he said.
Davenport said the setting up of a legal framework which would enable efficient public administration was only the beginning, adding that good administration requires “a merit-based recruitment system, and not a system based on party affiliation.”
The EUR2 million-worth project was funded by the EU and the CoE whose Head of Mission to Serbia Tim Cartwright commended the enthusiasm and engagement shown by municipalities selected from among 93 applications.
As he put it, local self-governments and civil servants play a key role in public administration reform as they are the ones making decisions for and providing everyday services to citizens. It is therefore necessary for the administration to act professionally and for its employees to act responsibly, he said.
According to him, the goal of the project is to make local self-governments more aware of their citizens’ needs, to appoint the most qualified people to the most important positions, award those who perform well and identify those who don’t.
By the end of March, Serbian Government will have made a new decision on the number of public servants for the current year. The new decision introduces a novelty – abandonment of the principle of linear downsizing, said the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Ana Brnabic.
Said principle caused the most damage to the best performing local self-governments. So from now on, they will be allowed to recruit new people should it turn out that the number of their employees stands below the optimum, or even minimum, prescribed, Brnabic said at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with 20 towns and municipalities.
The Ministry has offered to assist certain towns and municipalities in downsizing their workforce and even requested them to do so. Those who have failed to cut the number of their civil servants will now be forced to act on those recommendations, Brnabic said.
She announced the setting up of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent institution under the control of the Ministry, where civil servants would be educated and trained.
Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities Djordje Stanicic said that the SCTM would make sure the remaining towns and municipalities receive enough information and advice about the project in order to apply for participation and receive funding.
