TI BiH warns: Systematic destruction of civil service through political influences

Although the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on Civil Service in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been returned to the proposer for revision several times from Council of Ministers sessions, the Ministry of Justice has persisted with proposed changes that will tie key positions in the civil service to the mandate, thereby enabling additional political influences on hiring in the civil service.

The fact that the Law was sent for public consultation, and that the Ministry of Justice published the notice of consultations only 3 days before the deadline for consultations, is also absurd, announced TI BiH, reports the Patria news agency.

Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) has prepared comments on the proposed amendments and submitted them to the public debate, emphasizing that limiting the mandates of senior civil servants, as well as the mandates of directors, is not in line with the principles of a transparent and independent civil service, because in this way key positions are tied to political mandates.

This category even includes the chief inspector and the head of the internal audit unit, who should be completely independent of the mandates of so-called politically appointed positions in order to be able to carry out controls and audits impartially.

It is clear that this aims to ensure that persons responsible for controlling work and financial accountability in institutions are placed under the control of political parties, and senior civil servants, heads of administrative organizations, their deputies, secretaries, assistant ministers, etc., will increase the spoils of political parties and bring them new opportunities for placing party cadres.

TI BiH particularly deemed as problematic the fact that the Agency for Civil Service no longer has a role in the selection of senior civil servants. Regardless of the fact that they are still selected through a public competition, the commission for their selection is chosen by the head of the institution, who also has the option not to select the most successful candidate, but only has the obligation to select from the overall list of successful candidates.

This means that direct influence on the composition of the commission and arbitrary selection from the list will leave room for bias in hiring, and by omitting the opinion of the Agency for Civil Service, arbitrariness in the selection of candidates gains complete freedom.

The trend of constant attempts to undermine the independence, neutrality and professionalism of the civil service continues, all under the guise of reforms and rationalization of the civil service. The reform agenda is being abused - under its framework, solutions are proposed that are completely contrary to its goals, while further efforts are made to degrade the professionalism and political neutrality of public administration. Not only is greater efficiency not enabled, but rationalization is not guaranteed either, because tying an entire set of positions in the civil service to a four-year mandate does not mean a reduction of the state apparatus, but only its politicization.

TI BiH appeals that the comments submitted in the public debate be used to improve the offered solutions, and especially calls on representatives of the international community, primarily the EU, to send a decisive message to the authorities in BiH that such moves are not in line with the reform agenda and European principles of public administration, and that the politicization of the civil service cannot be subsumed under its rationalization, the statement reads.