TI BiH Warning: Politicization of Civil Service Under the Guise of Rationalization

The Bill on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service of the Federation of BiH, which was sent to Parliament under an urgent procedure, threatens to completely undermine the civil service by tying management civil servants to their mandates. This will open the door wide for ruling parties to bring in their cadres for these positions, reports the Patria News Agency, as stated by TI BiH.  

- Behind the explanation of the FBiH Government that this way "the provisions are harmonized with the recently adopted Labor Law", and that one of the reasons for adopting the amendments is "the need for reorganization of public administration in FBiH with the aim of making the civil service more rational", lies the intention to eliminate all categories of management civil servants and to fill these positions in the future with the mandate of heads of administrative bodies.

This is particularly problematic due to the fact that one of the basic tasks of the civil service is to ensure the smooth functioning of public administration, especially in situations of power changes, i.e., in conditions where problems arise in the process of forming a government.

Public administration that changes its entire management structure every four years (and without a public competition!) cannot contribute to the efficiency and expediency of the administration in any way. Do citizens have any guarantee that the current management civil servants, who, regardless of their possible political background, were still hired through a public competition, will be replaced by better cadres, if it is known that the selection of these cadres will be the exclusive jurisdiction of the minister?

It is also unclear how this move will contribute to reducing the Federation's budget expenditures. If we consider that this Bill covers some 250 – 300 civil servants, for whom FBiH Government representatives have promised employment in other positions within the civil service, it follows that this move actually increases the administration by about 300 people.

Considering their average monthly compensation, it can be concluded that citizens of FBiH are being served a newly created multi-million cost on an annual level as 'rationalization'. It is very likely that cantons and municipalities will adopt a similar principle, which would make additional budget allocations much larger.  

The proposed amendments are therefore also in conflict with the recommendations of the EU, which constantly states in its BiH Progress Report that there is no progress in employment procedures that would ensure the application of objective and merit-based criteria, nor transparency or swift filling of vacant positions. By giving ministers and other managers the authority to freely bring key people into the administration, any connection with transparency and meritocracy is broken, and the submission of the draft for adoption under an urgent procedure, without the possibility of public debate, confirms the intention of political parties to, under the guise of rationalization, allow for an even greater number of party appointments through the back door.

TI BiH emphasizes that the issue of efficiency in the work of civil servants at all levels of government in BiH must be given due attention, but the problems of poor efficiency must be resolved through better administration management, not through undermining the very purpose of the civil service by its further politicization, according to the TI BiH statement.