Presentation of recommendations of the project: “Vulnerability to corruption assessment of the employment policies and procedures, with special focus on nepotism, cronyism and clientelism“24.09.2020 Legal solutions and bylaws that leave room for discretion in recruiting staff in the public sector, as well as in promoting and rewarding employees, unspecified procedure for selection, accountability and dismissal of directors and members of boards of directors, inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the control mechanisms in the employment procedures (issuance of approvals and consent, reasoned decisions, informing the public with the undertaken measures, i.e. the results of the conducted inspections) dispersion in the salaries of the public sector employees, disproportion in terms of number of employees, use of temporary employment as an opportunity to bypass the regular procedure for selection of candidates, inefficient and ineffective training of employees in the public sector, use of bylaws as an opportunity for employment of unskilled staff, announcement in the run-up to the elections, the formation of bodies for only one person, are only part of the noted weaknesses or vulnerabilities in the official system in Republic of North Macedonia.
Transparency International Macedonia, within the framework of the project: “Vulnerability to corruption assessment of the employment policies and procedures, with special focus on nepotism, cronyism and clientelism“, in cooperation with the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration and with the financial grant support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, conducted an analysis of the procedures for employment, promotion and placement of employees in the public sector. The aim of the project was to note the vulnerabilities in the legislation that leave room for corrupt practices in employment procedures, such as discretion, nepotism, clientelism and cronyism.
The project carried out a positive legal analysis, comparative analysis, conducted interviews with officials, employees and citizens, analysis of requests for free access to public information. In accordance with the triangulation of the obtained data, a Report was prepared and a total of 42 appropriate recommendations were given with 151 proposed activities to be undertaken to overcome the noted vulnerabilities in the procedures for employment, promotion and mobility of administrative staff. Of course this list is not final.
The recommendations arising from this analysis are finally defined in cooperation between TI-M, SCPC and MISA and all recommendations contain a clear definition of the problem and an identified way to overcome it. Also, the competent institutions are located that should take appropriate measures to overcome inconsistencies. A set of measures and authorizations have been proposed that could be used and deadlines for implementation.
The recommendations are grouped into four groups, of which the first group of recommendations refers to procedures for filling vacancies, through the procedure for employment, procedure for promotion and mobility of employees in the public sector; the second group of recommendations refers to the expertise and competence of the staff in the public administration; the third of the election and appointment of officials in public enterprises, public institutions, independent state bodies and regulatory bodies, as well as the election of members of the management boards. The fourth group of recommendations refers to strengthening the control mechanisms in the procedures for employment, promotion and mobility of administrative staff.
The goals of the recommendations in which activities are also encompassed to be taken, competent institutions to implement them and time period in which they should be implemented are: creation of a legal framework in which there will be no legal gaps, ambiguity, non-specification of procedures, discretionary powers that leave room for corruptive action; increasing the accountability and transparency of the bodies responsible for control and supervision, by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the control mechanisms at their disposal; strengthening the integrity of institutions; strengthening the integrity, expertise and competence of administrative staff; solving the problem with temporary employment and uneven number of employees; restoring citizens’ trust in institutions.
Among the key recommendations are: the need for amendments to the Law on Administrative Servants, the Law on Public Employees, the Law on Public Enterprises, the Law on Public Institutions, and other substantive regulations that address certain issues listed in the recommendations, harmonization of existing legislation; efficient and effective control over the bylaws, especially in relation to limiting the amendments to the Rulebooks on job systematization only on the basis of a detailed explanation; the acts for systematization of the workplaces to be harmonized with the Frascati classification and the type of education to correspond with the work tasks to be performed by the employee; standardization of rules for internal organization and systematization of jobs at the local level; institutional reorganization and optimization of the public sector; restriction of fixed-term employment through the Temporary Employment Agency; adoption of the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector, removal of discretionary decisions in the procedure for employee mobility and efficient functioning of the transfer list for possible takeovers; strengthening the control role of MISA; reducing the discretion and establishing clear criteria for announcing an internal announcement; to regulate and unify the procedure for election and appointment of a Director in public enterprises and public institutions, officials in independent state bodies and regulatory bodies; as well as for the election and appointment of the members of the management and supervisory boards; to strengthen the sectoral cooperation between institutions involved in job filling procedures – in order to overcome certain dilemmas, ambiguities and make recommendations about their competencies and harmonization of certain common competencies and achieving efficiency and effectiveness in their work.
“From the analysis of the vulnerability to corruption in employment we can conclude that cronyism, nepotism, clientelism, discretionary powers, politicization in employment in the public sector are the weakest link in achieving professional and efficient administration.” – the President of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption Biljana Ivanovska has announced.
These phenomena directly affect the increase in the number of employees in the public sector, the provision of the quality of public services and the poor selection of candidates in the employment procedure, promotion or mobility procedure, or in the appointment and election of directors and members of management and supervisory boards. These are phenomena that cannot be fully regulated by legal acts, much less ensure their consistent application. Therefore, in addition to their legal regulation and sanctioning, it is necessary to strengthen the application of the code of ethics of administrative officials, strengthen the integrity of officials, raise awareness of citizens about the need for their active role in controlling public administration, and constant monitoring by institutions responsible for control by the non-governmental (civil) sector.
“The state should ensure quality employment reform, and by taking action in the recommendations, it will affect the reduction of corruption in the public sector in a way that will reduce monopoly and discretion in decision-making, and will strengthen the accountability, integrity and transparency of institutions that are part of the public sector.” said the President of Transparency International Macedonia Slagjana Taseva.
The general conclusion is that the Republic of North Macedonia has so far taken a number of steps to harmonize official legislation with European principles and standards. The changes are both organizational and functional. Normative reforms have led to the introduction of a special official system that distinguishes between public sector employees and private sector employees, with special conditions for employment of public sector employees for promotion, mobility, responsibility, evaluation, professional development and alike. However, attention should continue to be taken to upgrade the national administrative system in such a way that it will not only incorporate European standards for the development of the service system adapted to the conditions in the RN. Macedonia, but concrete measures and mechanisms should be taken for consistent implementation of what is regulated in order to provide professional, efficient and effective staff, protected from political influences and other interests, which will be responsible but at the same time protected and free to perform the work transparently and impartially. In order to ensure that, care should be taken to achieve the principles of accountability, responsibility and transparency and, of course, the reduction of discretionary powers.
This means that they should explain in detail their decisions and their actions and state the reasons for making a decision, especially in the discretionary acts, control and responsibility mechanisms of both officials and public servants to be consistently applied in practice, which means that everyone will be responsible for their own actions and ultimately everything that public authorities do should be publicly available on the authorities’ websites (with the exception of information that would be detrimental to the public interest).
In this way, the integrity of the official system will be raised, which on the other hand will be reflected in strengthening the citizens’ trust in the institutions. Only by strengthening the integrity of institutions and employees, by reducing the discretionary powers and by affirming the mechanisms for reporting illegalities in recruitment procedures can we reduce the clientelism, nepotism and cronyism in the procedures for employment in the public sector.
In the end, what is good should not be changed, and what has not worked so far should be changed, supplemented or improved. In that direction are the recommendations from this project, which can help to overcome certain inconsistencies and improve the service system.
Note: According to the Annual Report from the Register of Public Employees for 2019 www.mioa.gov.mk, 1,324 institutions are active in the public sector of the Republic of North Macedonia, in which 132,900 people have been employed. Out of a total of 1,324 institutions, 10 have only a manager, while in 14 there is neither a manager nor employees. Accordingly, the number of public sector institutions with employees is 1,300. The data presented in the report refer to 1,295 public sector institutions (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Army of the Republic of North Macedonia, Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and Financial Police Directorate are not part of this report). Through the temporary employment agencies in the public sector institutions, a total of 3,222 people are employed and they do not have the status of public sector employees and do not enter the analyzes contained in this report.
