Skopje, 31 July 2024 (MIA) – The bills on public administration are expected to be sent back to Parliament by October. The three bills of the former ministry of information society and administration, withdrawn by the new public administration ministry from Parliament, have been published on the electronic register of regulations (ENER) in order to be improved through a series of debates and to result in quality legislation. These include the bill on public sector employees, the bill on civil servants and the bill on training of civil servants.

To that end, the Ministry for Public Administration and the Center for Change Management with support of the Embassy of the United Kingdom organized Wednesday the first debate “Future commitments to good governance and public administration reform”, taking place as part of the “All Together for Professional and Quality Public Administration” campaign.

The goal, said Minister Goran Minchev, is quality public administration based on sound legislation and the campaign will include a series of debates and workshops, organized to include all interested parties until October.

“The first debate took place today, which included several ministries, on reforms in the public administration, which is one of the main priorities of the government. We hope this process will be concluded successfully and will produce legislation that will be systemic, quality and applicable, because it is the first condition leading to the second step – well educated, trained and systematically positioned public administration,” said Minchev.

The proposed laws, he added, were withdrawn as a result of “reactions from literally all sides” in order to draft “practically new laws” in an inclusive process and in partnership with all parties, including the unions and local self-governments.

In the first in the series of debates, British Ambassador Matthew Lawson talked about the experiences in his country, stressing that that a clear goal should be set and resources to be allocated.

It’s important, he said, to have a timeframe and an overview of the costs and the most optimal period is three years, which is enough to deliver concrete changes.

Deputy Prime Minister for Good Governance Arben Fetai said that a quality public administration is of key importance for building and maintaining trust in the government and in the public sector.

“Uncompromising fight against corruption, reorganized and integrated institutions and reformed and, most notably, a professional public administration is a precondition for a transparent, efficient and democratic governance,” said Fetai noting that in the coming period the institutions will face challenges when demonstrating awareness for changes so as to create conditions for the country to implement the EU standards and principles.

For a quality public administration that will be truly of service of the citizens, digitization of the services offered by the institutions is also crucial. Stefan Andonovski, Minister for Digital Transformation, said the process of offering digital services should be changed. So far, the process was unsystematic.

“Only six percent of the administrative services offered in the catalogue of services are in fact digitized. It’s no wonder that less than 150,000 people in Macedonia have registered in the portal for services, while each of them has used less than one service in the portal that is in use for five years already. Are they digital services if they are not available to the citizens,” said Andonovski.

According to him, priorities for building a resilient, efficient and available digital infrastructure include increase in the number of services for the citizens and the companies as well as interoperability and communication of the institutions.

Photo: MIA