The assessment of the public administration and the capacity of the administration, which is regularly carried out by SIGMA and which the European Commission uses in its assessments of Serbia’s progress to EU, is limited to state administration. The methodology for monitoring public administration carried out by think tank organizations in the countries of the Western Balkans within the framework of WeBER projects also focuses on the work of central institutions. On the other hand, the fact that over 70% of EU legislation is implemented by local self-government units indicates the need to shift the focus, if not completely from the central to the local level, then at least extend it to improving the work and strengthening the capacity of local governments. Through the application of methodological tools, therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of local civil society organizations to deal with the monitoring of public administration reform at the local level, and to influence the improvement of local regulations, policies, procedures and services through cooperation with local authorities.

Insufficient engagement with the local level of government in the context of public administration reform was recognized, so the project Public administration Monitoring for better local Governance – Pratim JA was initiated in 2020, which focuses on the assessment of administration and administrative procedures at the local level of government. One of the tasks of this project was to develop a methodology for monitoring and evaluating the public administration reform at the local level of government, which would be complementary to previously developed methodologies, used by SIGMA and WeBER, and enable a true picture of the state and capacities of the entire public administration to implement EU legislation. Identifying the shortcomings and then overcoming them would enable Serbia to become a credible and capable EU member state with a professional and efficient administration. A pilot research on the monitoring and assessment of the public administration reform in local administration was conducted within the Pratim JA project in 17 local self-government units (hereinafter: LGUs) in the period from December 2021 to August 2022. The monitoring covered six areas and 14 principles of public administration, and the situation was assessed through 12 indicators that monitor those areas and principles. The research was conducted in seven cities (Niš, Subotica, Prokuplje, Vršac, Užice, Novi Pazar and Valjevo), nine municipalities (Aleksinac, Vlasotince, Bečej, Odžaci, Arandjelovac, Despotovac, Ivanjica, Tutin and Koceljeva) and one urban municipality (Zvezdara).

Članak Local PAR monitor se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Within the framework of two projects dedicated to the public administration reforms (PAR) at the local and state level, European Policy Centre (CEP) initiated the campaigns through which the experiences of citizens and their impressions of functioning of public administration are collected.

During 2021, as part of the project Public administration Monitoring for better local Governance – Pratim JA, a campaign carried out focused on issues of PAR at the local level. The campaign consisted of 85 street actions carried out in 17 cities and municipalities where citizens directly participated in a survey. Additionally, the campaign was carried out online, through the Pratim JA portal, so as to give the opportunity to all citizens in Serbia to share their experiences.

Moreover, within in the frame of the project Western Balkan Civil Society Empowerment for a Reformed Public Administration, the WeBER 2.0, CEP has been collecting citizens’ experiences since 2020 through an online platform2, but also in direct communication with citizens in the field. While the Pratim JA project collected the experiences of citizens who were in contact with municipal / city administrations, WeBER 2.0 gave them the opportunity to share their experiences about different types of services provided to them by public authorities.

Convinced that it is not essential for the citizens whether the service was provided by a local self-government unit, state administration or public service, and that it is the most important for citizens that public services are accessible to them and provided in an efficient and professional manner, researchers of the European Policy Centre created a Book of Citizens’ Impressions in order to inform decision-makers about the problems that citizens experience often, but also offered concrete recommendations for improving the functioning of public administration in Serbia.

Članak Book of citizens’ impressions se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

A reliable and accountable public administration, able to quickly reorganise its work and adjust to new circumstances is what citizens need. Senior civil servants, as public managers placed directly under politically elected officials, play a crucial role in this regard. Considering the top managerial role of senior civil servants, in times of crisis it is even more important that they are highly competent, autonomous in their work, and experienced in managing and co-ordinating people and processes in administration. However, Serbia was led through the crisis by an administration in which half of the senior civil servants’ positions were occupied by managers in acting status, poorly suited for the task at hand. This is because in many cases acting managers have little managerial and organisational skill. Moreover, as a result of the high uncertainty of their jobs, they are highly susceptible to political pressure, with minimal autonomy regarding political leadership.

The role of public managers in the new circumstances

Recognising physical distancing as one of the key tools for the fight against the coronavirus, the Serbian government introduced several measures to decrease interaction between people. One of them was the adoption of the Regulation on the Organisation of Work During the State of Emergency, which strongly advised companies to introduce teleworking as much as possible. Public administration bodies also introduced this way of organising work. With a large number of civil servants working from home and using different tools to communicate with colleagues and stakeholders (including citizens), new skills were required for managers and particularly senior civil servants who are in charge of managing the work of other civil servants and who also played a crucial role in the re-organisation of work amid recent extraordinary circumstances. This includes ensuring that civil servants continue to perform their tasks through remote work, and that public administration bodies continue to deliver services to citizens.

Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence from the early period of the state of emergency confirmed findings from previously conducted research that senior civil servants generally lack managerial skills, as they are,  primarily, experts in relevant fields and not managers.^[1] Highly experienced managers had more success in quickly reorganising the work of their employees, while those lacking managerial experience, especially those in the acting positions, struggled to cope with this situation in terms of the daily management of human resources and the organisation of work. Experienced ones, for instance, introduced new routines in the work of their teams such as morning calls and daily briefings via online communication platforms, or even bought software for project and team management and better communication, while less experienced ones, mostly acting managers, took longer to adjust to the new circumstances. This is to say that in times of abrupt change in how work is done, managerial accountability, and especially autonomy, traditionally at low levels in Serbia, come to the fore.[2] The high proliferation of acting managers among senior positions systematically devalues managerial autonomy and competence in the Serbian public administration, as those with acting status are not sufficiently accountable and often lack managerial skills. For this reason, the issue of (ab)using the option of appointing acting managers has to be brought forward once again in the light of the recent extraordinary situation.

Acting positions resistant to changes in the legal framework

The latest amendments to the Law on Civil Servants (CSL) in December 2018 were supposed to breathe new life into civil service policy. One of the most important aspects of this reform process was to regulate anew the positions and statuses of acting senior civil servants and to prevent the politicisation of senior posts in administration. As indicated not only in several CEP publications[3] but also in SIGMA monitoring reports and European Commission country reports, the excessive use of acting senior personnel in the public administration has become widespread. Acting status is only temporary for a legally set period (of six months, with a possible three-month extension) until the completion of competition procedures to fill their positions, however, a number of these acting managers retained temporary statuses long after the expiration of the maximum period, corroding not only PAR but also rule of law.[4] To prevent this phenomenon from occurring, these amendments have specified, among other changes, that only existing civil servants, formerly recruited through competition and on merit-based principles, can be appointed to acting senior posts.

Number of acting managers in SCS positions (December 2019)

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The amended CSL has been applied since 1 January 2019 and allowed a “grace period” until 1 July 2019 for all acting senior civil servants appointed based on previous norms to remain in their positions. Close examination of personnel solutions adopted in 2019’s government sessions, however, shows that the application of the new CSL solutions in its first year was cumbersome and suggests persisting politicisation regarding the appointment of acting managers. For example, in the period from 25 April to end of June 2019,[5] there were 141 of these appointments.[6] Out of the that number, 136 were given an additional three months on their terms, meaning that senior civil servants appointed in 2018 or even later were reappointed for additional periods, contrary to the newly imagined CSL solutions.

Outside of simply looking at the numbers, there are clear examples of acting managers such as heads of institutions retaining their positions, despite the renewed CSL, for longer than the legally permitted maximum term of six months, with an additional three (some examples include heads of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the Public Investment Management Office). Moreover, a monthly breakdown shows that in June 2019 alone (the last month of the “grace period”), the government appointed 75 acting managers. This trend continued after June as well – with the highest number of appointments (78), taking place in July. This has led to a situation in which 207 acting managers occupied senior civil service positions at the end of 2019 (out of the total number of 379 senior civil service positions as envisaged by the rulebooks on systematisation).[7] Given that the number of acting managers in March 2019 was 209,[8] functionally no progress was made in this regard. In fact, this data provides evidence of the continued circumvention of the law in the appointment of acting senior civil servants despite the application of the amended CSL.

Old habits die hard even during the state of emergency

Although the start of 2020 showed slowing down of this negative trend, as the number of acting managers decreased from 207 in December 2019 to 189 in March of this year,[9] during the state of emergency instituted due to the coronavirus outbreak the habit of appointing acting managers continued.

Number of acting managers in SCS positions (March 2020)

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Data available on the website of the Government of Serbia shows that between 19 March and 16 April (i.e. during the state of emergency), the government appointed an additional 76 managers in the “acting” status. Out of these appointments, 73 were appointed to an additional three months on their terms, suggesting that this breach of the law continues.

A breakdown by institution informs that some bodies resorted more frequently than others to appointing acting managers in this period. The Ministry of Finance clearly takes first place with 18 appointments, while the Office for Kosovo and Metohija ranks second with 11 acting appointments. Other noteworthy mentions are the Ministry of Culture and Information with 5 appointments, the Statistical Office with 4, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Water Management, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of European Integration, and the Ministry of Economy with 3 acting appointments each. Altogether the coronavirus caused disruptions it did not seem to seriously reduce this ingrained, harmful practice within the civil service. On the other hand, the pandemic seems to have worked in the opposite manner, allowing the government to continue in its undisguised practice of politicising the civil service.

Acting manager appointements by institution in the period from 19 March to 16 April

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The takeaway message remains the same as before

The amended CSL seems unable to free public services from the binds of politicisation, as senior civil service positions are not filled by competition procedures based on principles of merit. In actuality, many senior managers’ posts (around 50%) are still occupied by acting managers. Moreover, there is no change in the pace of appointing new ones, even after the end of the coronavirus crisis and the state of emergency. Most recent data shows that 17 acting managers were appointed at three government sessions between the 7^th to the 21^st of May.[10] It is apparent that success in reforming civil service policy so far is irrespective of changes to the CSL and is, rather, dependent on a shift in the political culture and the behaviour of politicians and policymakers, a shift which would render the abuse of acting positions simply unacceptable, an attitude plainly lacking at the moment.

Numerous studies, analyses and reports, including those by the European Commission, SIGMA/OECD and CEP, have insisted on the seriousness of the problem of the persistent politicisation of the senior civil service, providing detailed recommendations on how to overcome this problem.^[11] The key recommendation for the government is to fully enforce the articles of the CLS related to acting managers in the immediate term. The acting managers who do not meet the requirements for their positions should be replaced by competent civil servants appointed based on competitive, competence-based procedures. Moreover, in the mid-term, the CSL itself should be amended in order to decrease the role and influence of politically elected officials in recruitment processes. In addition to the legal aspect of this problem, in the upcoming period focus should be given to changing the political culture among politicians and policymakers in order to create a better understanding of the benefits of a professional civil service. Political leadership can greatly benefit from public managers competent enough to manage the administration in regular times, and, even more importantly, in times of crisis. If the government once again fails to deliver on this issue, it will be a clear message of its intention to indefinitely perpetuate window-dressing reform.

[1] See: Vladimir Mihajlović,  Dušan Protić, A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018.

[2] See: Klas Klaas, Lech Marcinkowski, Milena Lazarević, Managerial accountability in the Western Balkans, A comparative analysis of the barriers and opportunities faced by senior managers in delivering policy objectives, SIGMA Paper No. 58, 2018.

[3] Vladimir Mihajlović, Dušan Protić, A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018; Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018; Vladimir Mihajlović, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019; Vladimir Mihajlovic, Serbia Scores a Weak Two in Professionalisation of Public Administration, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018.

[4] Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018 p. 80-84. Vladimir Mihajlovic, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019.

[5] The reference period observed starts after the deadline for the adoption of new rulebooks on internal organisation and job systematisation and ends with expiration of the grace period, in accordance with the amended CSL.

[6] Based on data available from the website of the Government of Serbia, available at: https://bit.ly/2LJWtEZ.

[7] Data provided by the Government Human Resource Management Service (HRM).

[8] SIGMA monitoring report 2019, p. 19.

[9] Data provided by the HRMS.

[10] Based on data available from the website of the Government of Serbia, available at: https://bit.ly/2LJWtEZ.

[11] For detailed recommendations how to improve civil service system in Serbia see: Vladimir Mihajlović, Dušan Protić, “A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?”, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018, p. 33-37; Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018, p. 90.93; Vladimir Mihajlović, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019;  OECD (2019), “The Principles of Public Administration Monitoring Report Serbia 2019”, SIGMA, Paris: OECD Publishing, p. 19, European Commission (2019), “Commission working document Serbia 2019 report”, Brussels: European Commission, p. 9.

Članak The COVID-19 Crisis in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

A reliable and accountable public administration, able to quickly reorganise its work and adjust to new circumstances is what citizens need. Senior civil servants, as public managers placed directly under politically elected officials, play a crucial role in this regard. Considering the top managerial role of senior civil servants, in times of crisis it is even more important that they are highly competent, autonomous in their work, and experienced in managing and co-ordinating people and processes in administration. However, Serbia was led through the crisis by an administration in which half of the senior civil servants’ positions were occupied by managers in acting status, poorly suited for the task at hand. This is because in many cases acting managers have little managerial and organisational skill. Moreover, as a result of the high uncertainty of their jobs, they are highly susceptible to political pressure, with minimal autonomy regarding political leadership.

The role of public managers in the new circumstances

Recognising physical distancing as one of the key tools for the fight against the coronavirus, the Serbian government introduced several measures to decrease interaction between people. One of them was the adoption of the Regulation on the Organisation of Work During the State of Emergency, which strongly advised companies to introduce teleworking as much as possible. Public administration bodies also introduced this way of organising work. With a large number of civil servants working from home and using different tools to communicate with colleagues and stakeholders (including citizens), new skills were required for managers and particularly senior civil servants who are in charge of managing the work of other civil servants and who also played a crucial role in the re-organisation of work amid recent extraordinary circumstances. This includes ensuring that civil servants continue to perform their tasks through remote work, and that public administration bodies continue to deliver services to citizens.

Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence from the early period of the state of emergency confirmed findings from previously conducted research that senior civil servants generally lack managerial skills, as they are,  primarily, experts in relevant fields and not managers.^[1] Highly experienced managers had more success in quickly reorganising the work of their employees, while those lacking managerial experience, especially those in the acting positions, struggled to cope with this situation in terms of the daily management of human resources and the organisation of work. Experienced ones, for instance, introduced new routines in the work of their teams such as morning calls and daily briefings via online communication platforms, or even bought software for project and team management and better communication, while less experienced ones, mostly acting managers, took longer to adjust to the new circumstances. This is to say that in times of abrupt change in how work is done, managerial accountability, and especially autonomy, traditionally at low levels in Serbia, come to the fore.[2] The high proliferation of acting managers among senior positions systematically devalues managerial autonomy and competence in the Serbian public administration, as those with acting status are not sufficiently accountable and often lack managerial skills. For this reason, the issue of (ab)using the option of appointing acting managers has to be brought forward once again in the light of the recent extraordinary situation.

Acting positions resistant to changes in the legal framework

The latest amendments to the Law on Civil Servants (CSL) in December 2018 were supposed to breathe new life into civil service policy. One of the most important aspects of this reform process was to regulate anew the positions and statuses of acting senior civil servants and to prevent the politicisation of senior posts in administration. As indicated not only in several CEP publications[3] but also in SIGMA monitoring reports and European Commission country reports, the excessive use of acting senior personnel in the public administration has become widespread. Acting status is only temporary for a legally set period (of six months, with a possible three-month extension) until the completion of competition procedures to fill their positions, however, a number of these acting managers retained temporary statuses long after the expiration of the maximum period, corroding not only PAR but also rule of law.[4] To prevent this phenomenon from occurring, these amendments have specified, among other changes, that only existing civil servants, formerly recruited through competition and on merit-based principles, can be appointed to acting senior posts.

Number of acting managers in SCS positions (December 2019)

The amended CSL has been applied since 1 January 2019 and allowed a “grace period” until 1 July 2019 for all acting senior civil servants appointed based on previous norms to remain in their positions. Close examination of personnel solutions adopted in 2019’s government sessions, however, shows that the application of the new CSL solutions in its first year was cumbersome and suggests persisting politicisation regarding the appointment of acting managers. For example, in the period from 25 April to end of June 2019,[5] there were 141 of these appointments.[6] Out of the that number, 136 were given an additional three months on their terms, meaning that senior civil servants appointed in 2018 or even later were reappointed for additional periods, contrary to the newly imagined CSL solutions.

Outside of simply looking at the numbers, there are clear examples of acting managers such as heads of institutions retaining their positions, despite the renewed CSL, for longer than the legally permitted maximum term of six months, with an additional three (some examples include heads of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the Public Investment Management Office). Moreover, a monthly breakdown shows that in June 2019 alone (the last month of the “grace period”), the government appointed 75 acting managers. This trend continued after June as well – with the highest number of appointments (78), taking place in July. This has led to a situation in which 207 acting managers occupied senior civil service positions at the end of 2019 (out of the total number of 379 senior civil service positions as envisaged by the rulebooks on systematisation).[7] Given that the number of acting managers in March 2019 was 209,[8] functionally no progress was made in this regard. In fact, this data provides evidence of the continued circumvention of the law in the appointment of acting senior civil servants despite the application of the amended CSL.

Old habits die hard even during the state of emergency

Although the start of 2020 showed slowing down of this negative trend, as the number of acting managers decreased from 207 in December 2019 to 189 in March of this year,[9] during the state of emergency instituted due to the coronavirus outbreak the habit of appointing acting managers continued.

Number of acting managers in SCS positions (March 2020)

Data available on the website of the Government of Serbia shows that between 19 March and 16 April (i.e. during the state of emergency), the government appointed an additional 76 managers in the “acting” status. Out of these appointments, 73 were appointed to an additional three months on their terms, suggesting that this breach of the law continues.

A breakdown by institution informs that some bodies resorted more frequently than others to appointing acting managers in this period. The Ministry of Finance clearly takes first place with 18 appointments, while the Office for Kosovo and Metohija ranks second with 11 acting appointments. Other noteworthy mentions are the Ministry of Culture and Information with 5 appointments, the Statistical Office with 4, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Water Management, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of European Integration, and the Ministry of Economy with 3 acting appointments each. Altogether the coronavirus caused disruptions it did not seem to seriously reduce this ingrained, harmful practice within the civil service. On the other hand, the pandemic seems to have worked in the opposite manner, allowing the government to continue in its undisguised practice of politicising the civil service.

Acting manager appointements by institution in the period from 19 March to 16 April

The takeaway message remains the same as before

The amended CSL seems unable to free public services from the binds of politicisation, as senior civil service positions are not filled by competition procedures based on principles of merit. In actuality, many senior managers’ posts (around 50%) are still occupied by acting managers. Moreover, there is no change in the pace of appointing new ones, even after the end of the coronavirus crisis and the state of emergency. Most recent data shows that 17 acting managers were appointed at three government sessions between the 7^th to the 21^st of May.[10] It is apparent that success in reforming civil service policy so far is irrespective of changes to the CSL and is, rather, dependent on a shift in the political culture and the behaviour of politicians and policymakers, a shift which would render the abuse of acting positions simply unacceptable, an attitude plainly lacking at the moment.

Numerous studies, analyses and reports, including those by the European Commission, SIGMA/OECD and CEP, have insisted on the seriousness of the problem of the persistent politicisation of the senior civil service, providing detailed recommendations on how to overcome this problem.^[11] The key recommendation for the government is to fully enforce the articles of the CLS related to acting managers in the immediate term. The acting managers who do not meet the requirements for their positions should be replaced by competent civil servants appointed based on competitive, competence-based procedures. Moreover, in the mid-term, the CSL itself should be amended in order to decrease the role and influence of politically elected officials in recruitment processes. In addition to the legal aspect of this problem, in the upcoming period focus should be given to changing the political culture among politicians and policymakers in order to create a better understanding of the benefits of a professional civil service. Political leadership can greatly benefit from public managers competent enough to manage the administration in regular times, and, even more importantly, in times of crisis. If the government once again fails to deliver on this issue, it will be a clear message of its intention to indefinitely perpetuate window-dressing reform.

[1] See: Vladimir Mihajlović,  Dušan Protić, A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018.

[2] See: Klas Klaas, Lech Marcinkowski, Milena Lazarević, Managerial accountability in the Western Balkans, A comparative analysis of the barriers and opportunities faced by senior managers in delivering policy objectives, SIGMA Paper No. 58, 2018.

[3] Vladimir Mihajlović, Dušan Protić, A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018; Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018; Vladimir Mihajlović, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019; Vladimir Mihajlovic, Serbia Scores a Weak Two in Professionalisation of Public Administration, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018.

[4] Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018 p. 80-84. Vladimir Mihajlovic, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019.

[5] The reference period observed starts after the deadline for the adoption of new rulebooks on internal organisation and job systematisation and ends with expiration of the grace period, in accordance with the amended CSL.

[6] Based on data available from the website of the Government of Serbia, available at: https://bit.ly/2LJWtEZ.

[7] Data provided by the Government Human Resource Management Service (HRM).

[8] SIGMA monitoring report 2019, p. 19.

[9] Data provided by the HRMS.

[10] Based on data available from the website of the Government of Serbia, available at: https://bit.ly/2LJWtEZ.

[11] For detailed recommendations how to improve civil service system in Serbia see: Vladimir Mihajlović, Dušan Protić, “A Good Public Manager – Which Profile of Senior Civil Servant Does Serbia Need?”, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018, p. 33-37; Milos Đinđić, Dragana Bajić, National PAR Monitor Serbia 2017/2018, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2018, p. 90.93; Vladimir Mihajlović, The Senior Civil Service System in Serbia – 12 Years of Simulated Depoliticisation, European Policy Centre, Belgrade, 2019;  OECD (2019), “The Principles of Public Administration Monitoring Report Serbia 2019”, SIGMA, Paris: OECD Publishing, p. 19, European Commission (2019), “Commission working document Serbia 2019 report”, Brussels: European Commission, p. 9.

Članak The COVID-19 Crisis in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Public administration – a key actor in managing and resolving this crisis – can and should therefore learn some lessons from this major disruption. In Serbia, this crisis can have a positive impact on the work of the public administration by accelerating modernisation and changing established practices in the work of civil servants. For such organisations that are slow and difficult to change by nature, this is truly a unique opportunity to reform for the better.

Work from home during the pandemic and the adaptation of the public administration

After the introduction of a state of emergency in Serbia due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s government has taken a number of measures to control the spread of the virus. Recognising physical distance as the key instrument in preventing the spread of contagion, all measures taken have been essentially based on reducing the movement and mutual contact of citizens. This has had direct consequences on everyone’s life. Employers and employees have also found themselves in a completely new situation, as the government’s Regulation on the organisation of employer’s work during the state of emergency stipulates that employers are obliged to allow employees to perform work outside the employer’s premises, to work remotely or from home, whenever possible.

These measures also apply to public administration bodies. Thus, along with the basic problem of fighting the virus, the state is also faced with another: protecting the health of its employees while ensuring the smooth operation and functioning of the work of public administration bodies. Many institutions, in accordance with the previously mentioned regulation, introduced work from home as the default way of working in these circumstances. This posed a major challenge to state bodies and civil servants, who found themselves in completely uncharted territory. Numerous questions have been raised regarding how to conduct administrative procedures, the signing of documents, and the provision of basic public services, while respecting the statutory requirements of administrative procedures. Moreover, public authorities have had to make specific decisions for each employee (although collective decisions were made in some bodies) to formally allow civil servants not to come to work and to be able to work from home.

As civil servants encounter this new workspace for the first time, everyone – especially those in managing roles – is faced with new challenges. A few such issues include a lack of face-to-face communication and availability of colleagues (especially superiors, to sign a document for instance), poor internet connections, and a lack of office supplies and equipment (such as scanners and printers, to name a few). In addition to these problems that would be faced when working from home in any circumstances, the current crisis has brought about other disturbances as well, such as the care of children and their schooling at home, supplying groceries (which must be done during working hours), and the general psychological pressure of the lockdowns and lack of physical activity.

However, based on informal discussions with civil servants, it seems that the latter group of problems is much more pronounced. Civil servants often use the working part of the day to make phone calls and meetings, do household chores and perform commitments regarding children, and then devote their evenings to work responsibilities that require greater concentration, such as preparing opinions, drafting decisions and solving cases. An additional problem, especially present in the first days after the introduction of the new mode of working, was the organisation of meetings and time management. This was partly a result of the aforementioned problem of performing private duties during working hours and partly due to the lack of managerial skill in government bodies, since, unlike in large private firms, modern tools for managing processes and teams are not generally used in the public administration. The existing system for controlling and monitoring the organisation of work and employees is based on established practices of personnel management in the public administration, while modern tools for project and human resources management are in very early stages of development.

Learning from the crisis: towards more flexible arrangements for the work of civil servants

It is likely that the current crisis will work to accelerate and encourage changes already discussed in the past, though previously unpopular with decisionmakers. These changes include introducing more flexible work arrangements for civil servants. The public administration, like any employer, could implement new conditions for its employees, including remote work (work from home), flexible or sliding time, reduced working time, part-time engagement, compressed workweeks, and others. Some of these options have already been defined and envisaged by the domestic Labour Law.

Until this crisis, deviations from conventional work routines were rare in the Serbian public administration, partially used only for specific categories of officials, such as inspectors who spend most of their working time in the field. The main reason for this rigidity is the fact that the details of employment of civil servants are regulated in a fairly traditional manner by the Law on State Administration, the Law on Civil Servants, and accompanying bylaws. The basic format for employees is an eight-hour workday, from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm, with a mandatory “check-in” and “check-out”. However, the COVID-19 crisis has forced state authorities to find creative solutions for reorganising their work, including introducing telework, thereby opening space for more innovation in addressing challenges.

Despite the difficulties created by the pandemic, the new circumstances have also introduced many benefits for civil servants. They have helped to improve work-life balance and have promoted employee welfare, for example, by eliminating the stress of the commute to and from work, of getting lunch in the office, and of spending long hours in the office, away from family. Spending time at home allows employees to relax more, positively affecting their work satisfaction. Advantages can be particularly pronounced if management processes and methods are well-established, and staff are provided with adequate software and technology solutions to work from home. While managerial capacities and the hardware-related aspects of the administration’s technological preparedness are questionable and require deeper analysis, software solutions that can allow seamless process management and remote meetings are already available; Microsoft Office and all its functions that serve these purposes are already in wide use in the administration, for instance.

In addition, benefits from such change are not only reserved for employees, but also extend to the employer – in this case the state. The most obvious of these benefits for the state are the accelerated digitisation of processes and the modernisation of the work of officials, which reduce the costs of maintaining offices and office supplies, as well as increase the attractiveness of the public administration as an employer. This last advantage is especially important when considering the inability of the public administration to match private-sector wages, which causes the administration to lose its highest quality and often most-needed personnel. Developing policy to retain priority staff has been a persistent topic in public administration reform over the past two years, and the discussion of flexible working conditions for officials can be integrated into that discussion.

Next steps

Given that a large number of civil servants are currently working from home, the opportunity has arisen to explore the potential of implementing new models for the work of civil servants, giving them greater flexibility in organising their time and completing tasks. In order to find the best solutions, it is necessary to carry out detailed analysis to determine how civil servants adapt and, in terms of work from home, what works and what does not. Prior to the institutionalisation of these new elements of HRM, it will also be necessary to address the security issues of the communications networks and data handled by civil servants, further highlighting the need for comprehensive study. The answers to all these questions may be relevant for potential future COVID-19 outbreaks, but their greatest importance is precisely in the possible long-term improvement of the flexibility of work and the attractiveness of the civil service as a modern employer in Serbia.

As is usually the case with change, it is likely that this one will be met with some resistance. Civil servants themselves, along with political-level management, may push back due to fears that increased work flexibility will lead to a reduction in employee control and discipline or simply slacking off. For this reason, therefore, it is important that future solutions be designed based on thorough study of the current state, the problems and benefits posed by the coronavirus crisis, as well as the fears and expectations that both managers and ordinary civil servants have in relation to such change.

Članak Work from home during the pandemic se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

This stand-alone policy brief deals with lack of real progress in professionalisation and depoliticisation of senior civil service in Serbia.

The country has wrestled with this issue since the early days of its democratic transition, which started in 2000. This effort is one of the key preconditions of Serbia’s admission to the European Union (EU). Also, the depoliticisation of the public administration is important for citizens, as the public interest is best served by professional, politically independent, and competent civil servants.

Following the adoption of amendments to the Civil Service Law (CSL) in December 2018, the Serbian Government has put the goal of depoliticisation on its 2019 agenda of priorities. On 1 July 2019, the deadline for the implementation of the recently introduced CSL amendments related to the appointment of senior civil servants will expire. Open, transparent and fair recruitment procedures are among the most important tools for the depoliticisation and professionalisation of the public administration. Thus, if the government ensures full implementation of those legal provisions, 1 July 2019 will be considered as a milestone for the depoliticisation of the Serbian public administration, especially in terms of its senior civil service.

It remains to be seen what will happen on 1 July – will it mark the end of the politicisation of Serbia’s public administration or not?

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Recognizing the importance of expertise and characteristics of servants (qualifications, competencies, motivations and values) for establishing an effective administration, one of the areas in the Principles concerns public service and human resource management (HRM). The baseline values for Serbia in this area are presented in detail in the 2015 Baseline measurement report while the first overview was made a year after. Besides presenting the state of play, the mentioned reports pointed to key problems of civil service and contained measures which should be implemented with the goal of removing them. Accordingly, in the previous period, Serbia began certain reform processes in this area. However, the new Report, which SIGMA published in December of 2017, highlights the fact that some key problems are still present.

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Public administration reform in Serbia, having entered a new stage with the endorsement of the Public Administration Reform Strategy and its Action Plan for implementation, aims, inter alia, at establishing a harmonised and merit-based civil service system and at improving human resource management.

With endorsement of the PAR Strategy, Serbia defined its strategic framework and direction of a broader public administration reform, which encompasses all levels of governance. The Strategy defines the principles of the reform process emphasising decentralisation, depoliticisation, professionalisation, rationalisation and modernisation of public administration.

This is third Policy Brief that has been made within Partnership for Public Administration Reform and Public Services in Serbia – PARtnerships, two-year project implemented by two main partners – European Policy Centre (CEP) and European Movement in Serbia (EMinS). 

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However, a more detailed reading of the report reveals certain deficiencies of the system, especially regarding depoliticisation and professionalisation of public administration, the introduction of a merit-based recruitment system, improvement of public policy making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, et cetera. In the new issue of CEP Insight, we analyse the EC’s assessment of Serbia’s results in the field of public administration reform – one of the pillars of the Enlargement Strategy alongside the rule of law and economic governance.

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