Today’s conference with a title, “Public Administration Reform: Meritocracy Instead of Partitocracy,” was organized by the Centers for Civic Initiatives (CCI) as a part of the campaign Competent but not Eligible with a goal to contribute to depoliticize and partification of the public sector in BiH.

“We believe that this enormous problem of politicization and partification of managerial positions within public sector, and of the overall public recruitment process for that matter, which has become a captive of political parties, individuals and their interests, has escalated to maximum levels. Recruitment and appointment along political lines leads to extreme inefficiency, lack of work, absence of accountability, politicization of service etc. At the same time, internal stability of institutions is severely undermined, which causes shifts in the hierarchy of responsibility, because employment along political lines means responsibility towards a political party not towards an institution, law or public. Employing the eligible rather than the best candidates permanently weakens the institutions and reduces the chances of social prosperity”, said Adis Arapovic, CCI’s Program Manager at the conference today.

“The recent ruling of the Constitutional Court of Federation of BiH to suspend the provisions on the appointment of senior civil servants is a strong signal that the reforms need to be conducted differently. The course of the reforms must promote meritocracy and independence of the public administration in order to reduce the political influence. The Reform Agenda precisely defines this process, and the enforcement must comply. The time is now for the reforms of the public administration in order to ensure de-politicization and employment of the most capable candidates, and this is one of the goals of the Reform Agenda. We must continue to insist on professionalism, integrity and efficiency of the public administration and public services. This can only be ensured by reforming and enforcing new legislation. The first step is the Law on Public Servants in order to give the same status to all public officials, and not only those in the public administration but also those employed in the healthcare, education, police and military”, concluded Arapovic.

The conference was an opportunity to show the current status of the reform process of public administration in BiH, which received negative rating by the European Commission, SIGMA, and World Banks last reports. The lack of reforms was especially pronounced in areas of politicization and the problem of appointing and employing along political lines in both public administration and state owned companies. This remains as one of the biggest challenges which stand in the way of successful reforms. According, to CCI’s analysis BiH has around 5 840 formal political posts at all government levels, and around 19 930 managerial positions within public sector which are the unofficial election prey.

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