Monitoring of Public Administration Reform Results in Areas of Transparency, Accountability and Integrity

Besides the determined differences between institutions on different levels of government, the key findings of monitoring reflect very modest results of public administration in relation to standards application in areas of transparency, integrity and accountability, and accordingly:

• The determined large number of requests for access to information at all levels of government implies that reactive paradigm is still dominant in the area of transparency in BiH, i.e. information of public importance are accessed through requests for access. Monitoring determined that the very notion of proactive transparency is not known to institutions, and that there are modest efforts to improve the access to information owned by public bodies;
• It was found that analyzed institutions do not have a routine of selecting and publishing budget data and data on budget realization on their websites, which is significant flaw, for it contributes to inaccessibility and lower visibility of those data and that in turn speaks of financial irresponsibility and lack of transparency in work of the analyzed institutions.
• The discrepancy between staffing plan and actual number of employees was found in all analyzed institutions at the state level and level of Federation BiH, implying no respect for staffing plan regulations and also arbitrary employments.
• Out of the total number of twenty (20) institutions, only two institutions (one from the state level and one from federal level) have adopted Integrity Plans. In Republika Srpska, only one institution knows the notion of Integrity Plan;
• Irregularities in application of the Law on Freedom of Access to Information were found at all levels, and in Republika Srpska the most often recorded irregularity was failure to act on requests for access to information, and the most often used practice was for the head of the authority to immediately decide on requests;
• Very small number of initiated disciplinary proceedings was found at all levels, and if considered in relation to other results, it seems to be the consequence of not giving the adequate attention to the area of disciplinary liability and to monitoring of respecting work and official duties.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In accordance with the Article 19 of the Freedom of Access to Information Act, the information officer should act on the request for information. Also, institutions should analyze received requests, present the frequently asked questions in order to decrease the total number of requests for access to information.

Legal obligation of creating and publishing of Indexed Register should be imposed on institutions at all levels of government in BiH. Indexed Register should contain types of information owned by the public authority, the form in which the information is available, and also the data on where to access the information.

It is advisable to standardize the existence of independent institution of Ethical Commission, which would be separate in organization, with wide monitoring authorizations over public administration bodies and whose decisions would be obligatory, with the right to impose penalty in cases of ethical duty breach. Competence of Ethical Commission would also cover educational role, and special attention should be paid to member selection and discretionary authorities.

A stronger legal framework should be created in order to initiate creating of more functional and more transparent staffing plans and to encourage employing of quality staff with the aim of decreasing the number of inefficient and unproductive positions. Schematic display of staffing plan should be available on websites of institutions, as well as Staffing Plan Rulebook.

It is very much recommended for institutions to publish on their websites audit reports and public procurement plans, as well as all budget data and data on budget realization, although such type of announcements is not presently stipulated by the law. Proactive announcements would encourage institutions to behave in a more responsible manner towards the public and to act in accordance with recommendations from audit reports, while separate publishing of budget data by each institution would contribute to more financial responsibility.

Transparency, Accountability and Integrity 2015