Public Administration as a Service to Citizens

The Government of the Republic of Macedonia will work on creation of competent and efficient, accountable and transparent administration that will provide quality services for the citizens and the business – sector and protect their rights. Applying the principles of fairness and competency in employment and objectivity in advancement and rewarding of public servants, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia will set up an administration free of parties’ couplings and devoted to solution of the citizens’ and legal entities’ problems, thus respecting the principles of legality and impartiality. 

The Government of the Republic of Macedonia will propose a new public administration reform strategy and establish Center for Excellence tasked with undertaking realistic and independent analysis and evaluation of public policies and advancing new methods and approaches for improvement of PA functioning.

The Government of the Republic of Macedonia will be dedicated to accomplishing the fundamental values of the constitutional order – proper and equitable representation of citizens belonging to all ethnic communities in state bodies and other public institutions at all levels, including public enterprises and state-owned companies.

The Government will urgently solve the problem of the civil servants that have been taking salary for long time, but have not been assigned to specific working posts. There is justified discontent on their side, but also on the side of the public. Our public administration will be devoted to working in the service of citizens and will be rewarded for its work for the benefit of the citizens, not for the benefit of a partisan or any other affiliation. Therefore, the Government will immediately publish the data on the number of unassigned civil servants and adopt a plan for their urgent assignment on working posts and professional engagement.

In the framework of public administration reforms, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia foresees the following measures: 
-    publish and make publicly-acessible a Public Administration Registry to reveal the total number of full – time and temporary employed persons in the public administration. The registry will be publicly accessible and regularly updated. Citizens will have an insight of all the employees in the public administration and in every institution. 
-    guarantee employment without unnecessary costs. We will table legislative amendments so that the necessary documents for participation in a public employment advertisement are acquired ex officio by the institution that is implementing the procedure. For the same reasons, we will suggest annulment of the test of person (psychological test) as an employment condition.
-    introduce flexible working hours in public institutions – starting between 7:30 and 8:30 hrs in the morning and ending between 15:30 and 16:30 hrs in the afternoon, accordingly. Additionally, we will chose an institution for a 6-hour workday pilot project in view of assessing its effects on work productivity.
-    institutions with considerable workloads providing key services to citizens will work in two shifts, i.e. until 20:00 hrs, so citizens can obtain timely service.
-    start a broad consultation process with all interested parties in order to establish a new grading system in the public sector. The grading will be made according to visible and measurable parameters, such as regularity in work, effectiveness, efficiency, professionalism and competence in conducting working duties. 
-    increase public sector salaries to match the growth of the Macedonian economy.  Public servants will be rewarded for their excellence and dedication to their work.
-    revise the existing training system and introduce training for elected and appointed individuals.
-    introduce a single electronic system that will connect all public institutions. This electronic system will provide all applications for public services that the state offer to citizens. Thus, each citizen will be granted a unique digital signature in order to use these applications, following best practices in Scandinavian countries. Hence, we will enable simple control of service provision to citizens, and in the same time put an end to long waiting lines and bribing of administrative servants. This solution will be fully operational by the third year of mandate. In the meantime, in the first 180 days of its mandate, the Government will eliminate all unnecessary documents required by institutions in administrative procedures that will decrease additional costs. The total cost of services will be clearly indicated. Moreover, we will secure electronic issues of the 50 most required certificates or documents, and every six months, the number of e-services provided to citizens will increase by 10 %. 
-    table legal changes for provision of short and efficient administrative procedures. The State Administrative Inspectorate will open a hotline where citizens and companies can report their suspicions of violations in administrative procedures.