FBiH Government Rejects Legislative Office Opinion: Law on Civil Servants Brings Chaos!

The Office of the FBiH Government for Legislation and EU Compliance is dissatisfied with the fact that the FBiH Government adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service on October 7, primarily because the ministers adopted it without the opinion of this Office, writes the Patria news agency.

As confirmed to us by Željko Silađi, director of the Office for Legislation, the proposal arrived at the Office only five minutes before the start of the session, and Silađi issued a warning that it was not possible to submit a professional opinion in written form. However, despite this, the FBiH Government, led by Prime Minister Fadil Novalić, adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service, thereby violating a number of legal provisions and procedural rules.

Subsequently, more precisely yesterday, the Office submitted its opinion, which is negative, but regardless, the law has been sent to the parliamentary procedure.

The Patria agency publishes some of the objections listed in the opinion.

- The Draft Law stipulates that all current civil servants, as well as the head of the cabinet, are not civil servants. The proposed solution completely derogates the principle of professional impartiality and political independence. With such a proposed solution, the question arises as to what status the current senior civil servants and the head of the cabinet will have, given that according to the said provision they are no longer civil servants, and their status is not regulated by further provisions of the Draft Law - say the Office for Legislation of FBiH.

Furthermore, the Office pointed out that Article 4 of the Draft Law, which, among other things, adds a new Article 11c, regulates who appoints the persons from that article, while Article 6 stipulates that the mandate of persons from Article 11c cannot be longer than the mandate of the head of the state service body.

- In this specific case, the question arises from whose mandate the mandate of the head of the state service body cannot be longer, given that, for example, the persons from point 3 of Article 11c are precisely the heads of the state service body - the opinion states.

In addition, it is not stipulated who appoints the heads of expert services of the FBiH Government. Also, in Article 23 of the Draft Law, which adds Article 75b, the proposed solution is unclear, i.e., whether in this specific case it means that none of the current senior civil servants will remain in their current positions nor can they be reappointed to the same position. If the intention is to retain someone in their current position, it remains unclear by what criteria the replacement or retention in that position will be carried out.

Furthermore, the mentioned article stipulates that current senior civil servants, after this law enters into force, will be assigned to appropriate positions within the state service body, in accordance with the internal organization regulations from Article 45c.

- In this regard, the question arises whether this means that, if there is no vacant position in the internal organization regulation, the current senior civil servants automatically lose their jobs, i.e., their employment relationship is terminated in this way, which, according to the Office's opinion, could not be accepted because the mentioned senior civil servants, under the current law, are in a permanent employment relationship, and due to the change in their status, in the above-mentioned case, their employment relationship could not be terminated - state the Office for Legislation.