prijava
SARAJEVO, July 16 (FENA) - State Coordinator for the Public Administration Reform in BiH Dragan Ćuzulan said today at a press conference in Sarajevo that Bosnia and Herzegovina is failing to fulfill one of the key preconditions for joining the European Union, because the entity government of RS is still willfully blocking the process of public administration reform.
He recalled that the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform 2018-2020 was adopted in March last year at the technical level, and the RS government has been refusing to adopt it for quite some time and "thereby it is preventing BiH from fulfilling one of the European Commission's requests from earlier recommendations, namely the adoption of a comprehensive state-level strategic framework for public administration reform".
Ćuzulan points out that the indifferent attitude of the RS authorities towards the demands of the European Commission, as well as towards the citizens of all of BiH who seek the reform of the government in order to make it more efficient and transparent, is reflected in the fact that the government of RS does not want synchronized public administration reform in the entire territory of BiH, but what it does is, it adopts a separate program for the reform of public administration, of which the Office of the Coordinator has not even been even informed, or what is the content of that document, and what is the purpose of such a program.
He noted that the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform was adopted by the Council of Ministers of BiH, the Government of FBiH and the Brčko District Government last year, and due to the rejection of the government of RS to adopt it, it has been impossible to approve the preparation of the accompanying joint action plan, a document that carries the concrete measures for the institutions.
“Recently, the EU Delegation, upon request and initiative of the Coordinator's Office, accepted the drafting of an action plan and we initiated this process,” said Ćuzulan.
He said that in parallel with the rejection of the adoption of a harmonized strategic framework, the RS government also blocked the Public Administration Reform Fund, in which the donors invested money in the last 12-13 years and supported certain projects through which the public administration was gradually reformed and harmonized throughout BiH.
The European Commission said Ćuzulan, when submitting its opinion on progress, looks at the country as a whole and if one part or administrative level fails to fulfill a certain obligation, it then entails a negative assessment for all levels. He says that it will be worth nothing if the progress is achieved in one part of the country or at one level of government, and if it is not implemented in the entire country.
“According to the latest information we have, it is clear that the funds from IPA III, pre-accession assistance and support to the institutions in the EU accession process will mainly be directed to those countries that have made concrete progress,” said Ćuzulan.
He emphasized that in parallel with the rejection of the adoption of a harmonized strategic framework, the RS government has also blocked the Fund by rejecting to sign the Annex of the Memorandum of Understanding, as a key document based on which the Fund functions and thus it has prevented further payments from donors and local authorities and it has endangered the entire purpose of the Fund.
Ćuzulan says that the real reasons for refusing to sign the Annex of the Memorandum were never mentioned, but that they learned that RS has a problem and finds the method of distributing money from the Fund unacceptable, and that in fact the actual goal is to dismantle the Fund and redistribute the remaining money from the Public Administration Reform Fund to the lower levels of government, so that they could individually managed those funds.
Therefore, he added, this is all completely contrary to the principles and the idea that the donors had when they invested in the Public Administration Reform Fund, because they were aiming for the harmonized development of public administration throughout BiH.
“As a result of the rejection of the Annex of the Memorandum and the delays in the work of the Fund, we received requests from the donors, Sweden and Denmark, for the payback of unspent money,” Ćuzulan said.
He recalled that the Public Administration Reform Fund so far has funded 26 projects, of which 25 have been completed, and one is currently being implemented.
He says that as much as 21 projects have been developed for all levels of government. In line with their goals and needs, the state level did not participate in five projects, the Federation of BiH in three projects, and the Brčko District in two projects. The government of RS participated in all 26 projects, Ćuzulan noted.
He pointed out that the Public Administration Reform Fund in the past years has been a key driver of the public administration reform, thanks to which, despite the long-term procedures and conditioned by complex political environment, significant progress has been made in the process of public administration reform.
Ćuzulan urged the governments in BiH, the Council of Ministers, to find a political agreement regarding the continuation of the functioning of the Public Administration Reform Fund.
“Otherwise, BiH will be known in European circles as the only country unable to spend money from the donor funds,” concluded Ćuzulan.
(FENA) S. R.
