WeBER Policy Briefs

Despite being a central part of the executive bodies, policy-making is often undervalued and misunderstood. Public policy regulates the type and level of services that will be provided to the residents, influences developments that occur in the community and shapes the future of democratic changes. However, to respond to occurring challenges in governance and representation, government-citizen relations must be strengthened. Decision-making procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are multilevel and inefficient, as ethnically based political parties exercise high levels of control on decision-making and the media at the local level, while the rights of minorities remain violated. Furthermore, civil society organisations (CSOs), despite their active role in bridging the gap between government and citizens, often remain overlooked by the authorities. By identifying strengths and challenges to local democracy, including evidence-based practices and implementing agreed reforms, BiH can pursue a continued and enhanced cooperation with authorities in the European Union (EU) and the Western Balkans. Download the Brief here (English) and here (BHS).

Open data refers to public sector information or government data that can be readily and widely accessed and reused. This data must be available at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, mainly available for download over the internet, in a convenient and modifiable form. The main reason behind this is interoperability - the ability of diverse systems and organisations to work together, allowing for different components to intermix. The opening of public data represents a phase in the development of an idea of public administration transparency, an idea that contributes to society as a whole. Publishing public data contributes to the transparency of public institutions, the work efficiency of public administration, as well as to higher involvement of citizens in decision-making processes. By making governments more transparent, open data can provide clear information on how public money is being spent and how different policies are being implemented. Publicly available data can contribute to informing individuals on relevant state matters and contribute to opinion forming. With that, it can boost citizen participation in political life and promote the significance of public consultations. Furthermore, open data allows citizens to obtain necessary information without needing to directly contact public administration, resulting [...]

In North Macedonia, the public has to be informed about official data and reports on the civil service and employees in the central state administration. This is a legal obligation deriving from the Law on Administrative Servants (LAS) and the Law on Public Sector Employees (LPSE). In the context of properly designing and implementing human resource management (HRM) policy, it is of the foremost importance that in-line authorities possess complete and reliable data about their human resources. This does not mean that all HRM information should be made publicly available, since there are certain types of information that may not be provided publicly, such as personal data. However, the lack of effort for the promotion and dissemination of data on civil service may suggest that governments either do not recognise the importance of accountability or that they are concerned about potential public reactions to what can be seen as oversized and inadequately efficient administrations Find the Policy Brief here (in English) and here (in Macedonian).

In the public administration context, as set forth under the SIGMA Principles, it is extremely important for the State Audit Office (SAO) to apply standards in a neutral and objective way in order to ensure high quality audits, which subsequently will have a positive impact on the public sector functioning. The documents presenting the outcomes of audits should be guided by three principles, i.e., they should be aimed at strengthening the responsibility, transparency, and integrity of the Government and of public sector entities (protection of the public interest); then they should emphasize the importance of such principles to citizens, to the Parliament and to other stakeholders; and finally, they should demonstrate what it means to lead by a role model. The SAO is one of the key institutions in identifying and disclosing irregularities, cases of illegal actions and possible cases of corruption and abuse of office. In this regard, the latest European Commission (EC) Report explicitly states that it is necessary to allocate adequate resources for this institution that has competences in the fight against corruption in order to be able to pursue high-profile cases. Find the Policy Brief here (in English) and here (in Macedonian). [...]

Accountability is a precondition for public authorities in order that they could be liable for the results or lack thereof while operating with resources entrusted to them as part of the mandate/competence conferred upon them. It ensures that public officials’ actions and decisions are subject to oversight, which on its part ensures that government initiatives achieve envisaged objectives and address needs of citizens they are intended to serve. In general, accountability arises when the Government’s performance is subject to oversight or requests by other persons or organizations for the Government to provide information justifying its actions. Accountability and proactivity of public authorities have significantly advanced in the past two years. North Macedonia has progressed in most areas covered by the accountability principle and is now a top performer in the Region, albeit some important weaknesses still persist. The new Law on Free Access to Public Information (LFAPI) has significantly improved the legal grounds for the implementation of this right. However, proactivity in the disclosure of information and datasets on official websites remain very low, which indicates a significant gap in the implementation of the LFAPI. Find the Policy Brief here (in English) and here (in Macedonian). [...]

The professional integrity of the civil service remains a key challenge for the public administration reform effort in Albania. Integrity challenges have profound negative policy effects as they enable corruption by facilitating political patronage networks and policies that favour private interests by abusing the taxpayers’ trust and money. Such corrupt structures, which burden the state and inflict serious long-term damage to the country, are sustained through the politicisation of the country’s public administration and – more specifically – its civil service. In this policy brief, the politicisation of the civil service is discussed in terms of the exemptions from the scope of the standing civil service legislation and the shortcomings of the senior civil servant recruitment and appointment system. The paper builds on the findings of the 2019/2020 PAR Monitor1 report by expanding the examination of these two issues. Find the Policy Brief here (in English) and here (in Albanian).