News

The WS was hosted and organised by the Institute Alternative (IA), WeBER partner organisation from Podgorica, Montenegro. During both days of the WS, researchers intensively worked on finalising the monitoring process and fine-tuning of the results. One session of the event was dedicated to planning of the First WeBER Regional Conference to be held on 25 – 26 September in Belgrade, where the team effort was employed in order to produce the conference concept and draft agenda. The team concluded the WS by agreeing on detailed plan and schedule of the remaining work, to be implemented in subsequent months.

As stated in the Report, WeBER demonstrated:

• High relevance confirmed on the ground and by the EU’s decision to provide two-phased financial support;
• Very good visibility of CEP (European Policy Centre, project coordinator) and TEN (Think for Europe Network) upstream and the capacity to mobilise national partners, who in turn relay the action downstream with local partners (financial and non-financial support);
• Very interesting actions on defining civil society indicators for PAR, which WeBER shares with ReSPA and Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) and which is undertaken in cooperation with PAR line ministries in all Western Balkan countries.

The report stressed the importance of „multi-beneficiary projects such as WeBER, which represent long-haul efforts to bring in structural changes in an institutional environment that has recently become fairly acute and difficult (deterioration of the effectiveness of public administration, etc.). “

You can find the report here.

On 29 March 2018, Praxis held a conference to present the results of the project Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo, within the framework of the Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform (WeBER), financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The conference was attended by representatives of local administrative bodies, civil society organisations and the media. 

Marija Dražović from Praxis presented the project activities implemented in the period 1 June 2017 – 31 March 2018 and aimed at achieving the transparency of data on public administration reform at the local level, improving the service role of local administrative bodies and public awareness about it, improving the mechanisms of cooperation of the local self-government with citizens and civil society organisations and contributing to better embed the principles of public administration in local decisions and manner of providing services.

Based on the conducted research of the transparency of local self-government and the efficiency of local administrative bodies in Kraljevo, as well as monitoring of the application of the Law on General Administrative Procedure, Praxis has established that there is a significant  space for improving the work of local administrative bodies in all areas, as presented in the report Contributing to Public Administration Reform in Kraljevo. Despite the efforts made in recent years in the field of public administration reform, both at the national and local level, there is no visible progress in some areas. The most serious gaps have been identified in the area of transparency of the work of administrative bodies, in particular regarding public participation in decision- and policy-making processes, since the participation of citizens and civil society organisations in such processes is almost non-existent. Consequently, there is no proactive approach in terms of improving the conditions and creating a conducive environment for the development of civil society at the local level. 

The conference reiterated the role of civil society organisations and the media in raising awareness and knowledge of citizens about the progress of reforms and their significance for the European integration process through responsible and informed monitoring and reporting. On the other hand, the role of the local media in Kraljevo, as drivers of public debate, is not sufficiently developed in the area of public administration reform, due to both financial instability and insufficiently encouraging environment for the research of specific topics.

In the end, Praxis invited representatives of local self-government to invest additional efforts to ensure the respect for the principle of good governance. It was also stressed that the civil sector at the local level was a very important resource that should be used for achieving progress in the process of reform.

Media coverage: RTVKV
                           RTV Melos
                           Info Plus
                           Kraljevo Online

The 14th meeting of the Eastern Partnership Panel on Governance and Public Administration Reform (PAR), under the multilateral Platform on Strengthening Institutions and Good Governance, took place in Yerevan, Armenia on the 15^th and 16^th of March 2018, under the auspices of the national PAR coordination office of the Republic of Armenia.

The thematic focus of the meeting was strategic planning, which is in line with ongoing approach of the Eastern Partnership in discussing all core areas of PAR, and also part of the 20 Deliverables for 2020 that were adopted by the Eastern Partnership Summit of November 2017. In addition, the meeting was an occasion to discuss activities and share experience on achieved progress of participating countries across four areas of the Panel, and how they serve to fulfil the 2020 Deliverables:

1) civil service reform

2) transparency and e-government

3) PAR in local and regional governments

4) effective management of technical assistance.

WeBER Lead Researcher, Miloš Đinđić, took part in the panels on civil society – government dialogue, and on reinforcing transparency and accountability of public administration in the local and regional context.

Mr Đinđić spoke about WeBER experience in the Western Balkans when it comes to dialogue with civil society in public administration reform process and in the EU integration path..

The panel gathered representatives from Eastern Partnership countries, EU member states, Western Balkans, SIGMA/OECD representatives, and independent consultants.

This conference is organized by the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The focus of the workshop was on the implementation of the PAR Monitor Methodology, as well as on planning research and monitoring activities that will be employed in subsequent months.

Foreign Policy Initiative BH, in cooperation with SIGMA/OECD, organised a seminar for representatives of National Working Group within WeBER project in order to present the monitoring results of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in BiH by SIGMA as well as the first monitoring results of the WeBER project.

Representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs) from Bosnia and Herzegovina had the opportunity to hear the presentation and discuss with SIGMA experts Primož Vehar, Brian Finn and Marian Lemke about main challenges and recommendations regarding Public Financial Management, Policy Development and Co-ordination, Public Service and Human Resource management, Accountability and Service Delivery and Public Procurement.

Anida Šabanović, Researcher on WeBER project, presented WeBER monitoring first results. Also, WeBER Platform members (Transparency International and Center for Investigative Reporting) and WeBER grantees (6 CSOs from BiH) spoke about their monitoring and activities results regarding PAR.

Presentation of PAR activities in BiH with special emphasis on the state of play in preparing the new BiH Strategic Framework and overview of the next steps was held by Vedrana Faladžić, senior expert associate for Public Relations and Aneta Raić, head of Donor Coordination, Finance, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit.

The opening remarks were given by Chloe Berger, Head of Operations Section for Justice and Home Affairs, Public Administration Reform, EUD BiH. Primož Vehar, as a SIGMA Country Coordinator for BiH, gave an introductory speech about SIGMA.

Interactive discussion with the participants followed each presentation, giving the opportunity for CSO representatives to actively participate in the seminar.

The event was organised as part of the project Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform (WeBER), in cooperation with SIGMA.

The event was organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia (MPALSG), and it brought together senior officials from various Government bodies, independent institutions and civil society organisations (CSO) and donors, as well as representatives from the European Commission and EU Delegation to discuss the current challenges and priorities of PAR implementation in Serbia. The main findings and recommendations of the SIGMA 2017 Monitoring Report for Serbia were presented and discussed.

Introductory remarks about priorities and challenges of PAR implementation in Serbia and its importance in the EU enlargement were given by mr Branko Ružić, Minister of the Public Administration and Local Self-Government, ms Jelena Stojović, from the Ministry of Finance, H.E. Sem Fabrizi, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia.

Milos Đinđić, WeBER Lead Researcher, presented the first results and findings of the regional PAR monitoring being conducted within the WeBER Project. Presentation of the first findings of the monitoring took place within the panel on involvement of CSO in PAR in Serbia. Representatives of CSO members of the WeBER Platform and National PAR Working Group (NWG) in Serbia, as well as organisations grantees of the WeBER Project from Serbia, participated in the event.

First results of the WeBER PAR monitoring available here.

Although there are advanced service providers who are taking a lead in informing the users on services on their official websites, there is an overall lack of user friendliness of information, open data practice, while e-services are largely absent. 

The website analysis was done for a sample of five services: 1) property registration, 2) company (business) registration, 3) vehicle registration, 4) issuing passports and ID cards, and 5) paying value added tax (VAT) for companies. Information analysed for each of the services included clear contact information, basic procedural info to obtain them, rights and obligations of users, prices (of the in-person and e-services), citizen friendly guidance for accessing services, and open data availability. Moreover, the attention was paid to online accessibility of these information i.e. whether they can be found not more than three clicks from the homepage.

Regionally, the average score clearly denotes there is still a considerable room for improvement. And not only in making data available in open formats, which is missing in all countries, but in making several basic yet undoubtedly significant information easily available and accessible. All countries score well when it comes to publishing contact information for the provision of services, as on average only one service per country was lacking this information. Nevertheless, the countries fare worse when it comes to basic procedural information on how to obtain services. Namely, even though most of the websites contain description of the service and information on providers’ physical location or on procedure for obtaining e-service, necessary administrative forms are often not attached for download.

What is quite interesting is that apart from Macedonia, which is a frontrunner together with Albania, none of the other countries have available downloadable forms for vehicle registration, a service that usually provided by the ministries in charge for internal affairs and that is amongst the most frequent ones. As the good practice, ADISA agency in Albania produces informational cards on all services with all the necessary information in one place, which is regarded as citizen-friendly, although it does not contain audio-visual elements.

Apart from regionally unevenly distributed global scores, when it comes citizen friendly material for service seekers almost all countries score well for a specific service – VAT for companies, as tax administrations in Albania, BiH, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia offer guidance with audio-visual elements, with only exception of Macedonia as none of its service providers offer this type of guidance on services under analysis.

Albania, Macedonia and Serbia rank best in terms of informing users on their rights and obligations, having it clearly outlined on the website of all the service providers. Again, tax administrations in WB stand out as this information is provided across all countries.

Although majority of service providers publish information on the price of in-person services, scores are significantly lower when it comes to the prices of e-services, mainly because there is no such possibility and in cases where prices are published they do not differentiate between electronic and in-person services. Once more, tax administration websites are an exception as only e-services related to paying VAT for companies are fully available across all countries (however, for Bosnia it is only available at the entity level of FBIH). This e-service is free of charge in Albania, BiH, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. In Montenegro, even though the e-portal is advertised for this service, it fails to mention the requirement to obtain a digital certificate at a significant price for its basic package.

See the results by country here.

Moreover, both basic and advanced information on citizens’ feedback regarding administrative services is generally lacking across the region. In terms of individual country rankings, best overall score was measured for Kosovo, while Bosnia and Herzegovina got the lowest of points.

The assessment comprised of a public perception survey targeting Western Balkan citizens (aged 18 and older), and a review of official websites of public service providers across the region, including central bodies or portals on administrative services. The survey examined citizens’ views on the availability of official feedback mechanisms, as well as their involvement in providing user feedback. In addition, website review on a sample of 5 services determined whether and to what extent institutions publish information regarding citizens’ feedback on the quality of administrative services.

Survey results suggest that only 3 in 10 citizens across the Western Balkans think that they have the possibility to give their feedback on the quality of services they receive. Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania rank the highest, while Bosnia and Herzegovina lags significantly behind. However, the vast majority of those citizens that have actually given feedback on the services used in the past two years find the channels for providing feedback as generally easy to use.

Regarding the monitoring and evaluation of service delivery, only one-fourth of Western Balkans citizens perceive it as a process inclusive of citizens or civil society in the past two years. Across the region, the share is the highest in Albania and Kosovo and the lowest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nevertheless, out of those who have a positive stance on the topic, the vast majority share the view that administrative services have improved as a result of such monitoring.

Websites review revealed that both basic and advanced information on citizens’ feedback regarding administrative services is generally lacking across the region. In Kosovo and Serbia, only for two services from the sample basic information on citizen feedback is provided online. In Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, only tax administrations have some basic information about user feedback. In Albania and Macedonia, no basic information on citizen feedback is publicly available for any of the sample administrative services. With the exception of Kosovo, no other country has advanced information on citizens’ feedback.

See the results by country here.

Perceptions are explored using a survey targeting the general public (aged 18 and older) of 6 Western Balkan countries (WB). The assessment included analysis of public perception data which covered various aspects of awareness, efficiency, digitalization and feedback mechanisms of service delivery. Moreover, researchers analysed perception data on availability, awareness and usage of e-services. In addition, citizens’ knowledge about initiatives for simplification of administrative services was analysed together with the question of whether such initiatives have led to improvement of service delivery and an increase in efficiency.

Survey outcomes show a generally positive public perception towards administrative services with Kosovo and Serbia being front runners, whereas BiH falling back significantly. On average half of citizens across all countries are aware of government administrative simplification efforts, and the vast majority of which consider that such efforts have improved administrative service delivery.

As such, there is generally strong agreement among the citizens of WB that dealing with the administration has become easier and time needed to obtain administrative services has decreased; with Kosovo being ahead, whereas BiH scoring the lowest. At least half of the citizens recognize administrations’ efforts to move towards digital government, with Macedonia and Serbia being well ahead of other countries.

Almost half of region’s citizens are aware of the availability of e-services provided by their respective administrations. Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia mark the countries that rank the highest in this regard, while BiH is once again ranked significantly lower. Out of those citizens who are aware, the majority claim to be informed on the way to use these services, with the share being particularly high in Serbia. Yet, only a small share of citizens actually uses these services, the share being highest in Kosovo and Serbia particularly in comparison to BiH and Albania. Nevertheless, the vast majority of citizens who have used e-services perceive them as user-friendly.

Regardless the notable progress in terms of service delivery, the administrations in the WB lack strong cooperative relationship with citizens when it comes to availability for suggestions. With the exception of Albania, the share of citizens who claim to have been asked by the government for proposal on how to improve administrative services is relatively low. However, out of those who consider so, the vast majority agrees that their proposals have been used to improve services.

Finally, it should be noted that for many questions, the percentage of citizens who responded with "don't know/no opinion" across the region, and particularly in Montenegro, is relatively high, ranging from a quarter to more than a third of respondents.

See the results by country here.