Hundreds of civil servants to lose status on Friday, parties to bring in their cadres to institutions?

The House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will discuss the Government's Bill on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service in FBiH on Friday.

According to what the government of Fadil Novalić has proposed with the new Law, hundreds of civil servants – assistants, secretaries, chief federal inspectors, heads of cabinets of federal civil service bodies... – will lose their status as civil servants.
Instead, ministers will form cabinets, consisting of a head of cabinet, ministry secretary, advisors, and assistants, who will be dismissed after the minister's mandate ends.

The Government states that one of the reasons for adopting the amendments to this law is the need to reorganize public administration in FBiH in order to make civil service more rational, while increasing efficiency and expediency, which is in line with the Reform Agenda for the period 2015-2018.

On the other hand, analysts assess that the new Government Law will in no way make civil services more efficient, nor will it lead to savings of money, which the Federation desperately needs. On the contrary, hundreds of people who were previously civil servants will simply lose that status, they will be assigned new jobs in state institutions, and their jobs will be taken over by new people brought in by the ruling parties, thus allowing politics to completely take over the institutions of the Federation of BiH.

Adis Arapović from the Center for Civil Initiatives previously warned that the Law, which will be before the federal deputies on Friday, must be refined to lead to better, not politically-driven, civil service.

- The Government provides no firm basis that the new solution will result in a more modern, competent, transparent, efficient, and responsible administration. The Government's solution means moving several hundred people from management positions down the hierarchy, and hiring new staff in their place, who generate new budget costs. Where is the rationalization and efficiency in that – asks Arapović, adding that such an important Law must go through the regular procedure, as a Draft, so that public debate and the confrontation of arguments lead to the best solutions and support from the wider public, and that it should in no way be adopted under an urgent procedure, as planned by Novalić's Government.

The Director of the Office for Legislation, Željko Silađi, also previously warned in a comment for Patria that the Government's bill on amendments to the Law on Civil Service in FBiH received a negative opinion from the Office, but the Government, despite these warnings, sent the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service in FBiH to the parliamentary procedure, writes NAP.