Prim Minister: Conference on public administration first step towards efficient administration

Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic on Friday opened a conference on the reform of public administration.

Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic said that it was the first step towards an efficient public administration that would ensure the consolidation of state agencies, a fair system in which the same competencies would be rewarded with the same pay and employees with outstanding performance promoted, and electronic access to services.

Oreskovic stressed that the reform of public administration was necessary for the implementation of policies that should result in economic and social progress.

He warned that changes in public administration were not easy, expressing confidence that a large number of planned reform measures would yield the first visible results in a few months' time.

Addressing the conference, Public Administration Minister Dubravka Jurlina Alibegovic said that the planned reforms were designed to remove problems in the system of public administration that had been identified by domestic and foreign institutions.

She said that the purpose of the reform was to improve the functioning and efficiency of public administration on the national, local and regional levels.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Croatian government and with the cooperation of the Dutch and French embassies and the European Commission. The head of the EC Representation, Branko Baricevic, said that a good public administration system was an important precondition for competitiveness.

He recalled that the EU had secured EUR 134 million through programmes assisting the improvement of public administration in the member states for the period until 2020.

The government plans to prepare an integral law on public administration by the autumn, it was said at the conference.

Assistant Public Administration Minister Mario Bebic said that the government would equalise the cost of labour in the entire public sector, define a wage policy and a system of remuneration.

A single law will equalise the value of jobs, Bebic said, recalling that until now people in public administration had left their jobs for better paid positions in agencies.

Since they are financed with public money, local self-government units and companies owned by them have been classified as public administration, Bebic said, adding that salaries in that sector would be harmonised as well.

"Public companies are not subject to the Salary Act but the state as their owner must define standards for the management of human resources," Bebic said, adding that "a minimal wage policy" had to exist in that sector as well.

He stressed that companies operating on the market would have free hands regarding the signing of collective agreements with trade unions.

However, if such companies are partly financed with public money, the government will have a certain degree of control. "The government will not control the content of collective agreements but it will control their financial effect," he said.

Assistant Public Administration Minister Marko Kovacic said that the number of public administration agencies would be reduced from 20 to seven. Some agencies will be merged, some will be joined with ministries and some will be transformed into companies, he said.

He also warned that there were more than 1,200 public administration regional offices and that their number would also be reduced, with some of their powers to be transferred to counties.

Kovacic also noted that voluntary mergers of local self-government units would be financially stimulated.

(Text and photo: Hina)

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