Wigemark receives letter: Stop the Government's law on civil service, parties will take over institutions

Several civil society organizations in BiH have sent an open letter to the EU Delegation in BiH regarding the new Government's proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service in the FBiH, which will be before federal parliamentarians on Friday, writes the Patria news agency.

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... - lose their status as civil servants.

Instead, cabinets will be formed by ministers, consisting of a chief of cabinet, ministry secretary, advisors and assistants, who will go home after the minister's term ends.
Analysts assess that the new Government Law will in no way make the civil service more efficient, nor will it lead to savings, which the Federation urgently needs. On the contrary, this move will lead to politics completely taking over the institutions of the Federation of BiH.

In the open letter to the Head of the EU Delegation in BiH, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, signed by Transparency International BiH, the Center for Investigative Journalism, Centers for Civic Initiatives, the Center for Advocacy of Citizens' Interests - CPI Foundation, the Open Society Fund BiH, and the NGO Why not?, it is stated that the Proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service in the Federation of BiH undermines the basic principles of modern administration.

The organizations remind Wigemark that the FBiH Government cited as reasons for adopting this Law the need to "harmonize provisions with the recently adopted Labor Law," as well as "the need for reorganization of public administration in the FBiH with the aim of making the civil service more rational." However, behind these explanations actually lies the intention to eliminate all categories of senior civil servants and to align these positions in the future with the mandate of heads of administrative bodies.

- Although civil society organizations condemned this attempt to amend the Law from the very beginning, and in an urgent procedure, and have repeatedly addressed the Government of the Federation of BiH and the Parliament of the FBiH, the ruling coalition and the proposers of the Law have shown that they are not at all interested in the voice of the public on this matter.

The ruling parties have clearly announced, both through the content of the proposed amendments and through the manner in which the Proposal of the Law was adopted and submitted to the parliamentary procedure, that their attention is only focused on more than 200 positions that they will have the opportunity to fill with their political appointees - states the letter from civil organizations, and further states:

- We are addressing you because the EU Delegation has in the past already intervened on earlier proposals for amendments to the law on civil service in the FBiH, and especially because this Law is presented as part of the Reform Agenda that will bring us closer to the EU, although its provisions are completely contrary to its principles and will cause harm to the citizens of BiH, as well as to the EU's efforts to implement reforms in BiH.

The proposed amendments to the Law on Civil Service in the FBiH 'amputate' the most important structure of positions in the civil service - those positions that were created precisely with the intention of being a 'barrier' to political influences, namely secretaries of institutions and assistant ministers (i.e., directors of administrative organizations).

We also recall the positions of SIGMA, as well as the positions of the European Commission, that the civil service should be professional, which means, among other things, that it should be competent and politically neutral. However, these amendments show that the ruling structures in the FBiH do not heed the positions of the European Commission, and even invoke the support that the EU Delegation gave to the Reform Agenda and, under the guise of public administration reform, offer a complete dismantling of public administration.

Instead of removing deficiencies in the existing system, the ruling coalition is dismantling the system, turning the civil service into a 'fair of political employment'.

Civil society organizations have in countless cases in the past pointed out the necessity of a more efficient and transparent public administration, but this process must not be abused in a way that, under the pretext of rationalization, introduces additional politicization. We believe that such moves by the authorities will distance BiH from the EU and will discourage all potential investors in BiH, who will get, instead of an efficient administration, an administration where the main individual competence will be political obedience.

We are also concerned that the eventual adoption of this Law will trigger an avalanche of similar moves at the cantonal, and then at the municipal level, which will deal an even greater blow to the functioning, but also increase the costs of the already oversized public administration.

Finally, we also recall the fact that civil service unions have also spoken out against this Proposal of the Law, who were also not consulted in the process of drafting the Law, and that the Office of the FBiH Government for Legislation and Compliance with European Union Regulations issued an opinion that the FBiH Government violated procedures in the process of establishing the Proposal of the Law, and that the proposed amendments are contrary to the principles of professional impartiality and political independence.

Based on all of the above, we want to believe that the EU Delegation will intensify its efforts and, through its statements, show greater determination to stop such dismantling of the civil service. We hope that the EU Delegation, after numerous statements about the necessity of depoliticizing the civil service in BiH, made by officials of the European Commission (including the annual Progress Reports), will not allow the most blatant form of politicization and the capture of the civil service by the interests of political parties to occur. Moreover, bearing in mind that the EU has so far invested enormous resources in public administration reform in BiH, it must not be allowed to set back the reform process by an entire decade.

We appeal to the EU Delegation to seriously consider the consequences of adopting the Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Service of the FBiH and to do everything to stop this process, and to return the Law for consideration in regular procedure and through public debate.