The state administration is still in the “acting” condition

The Government of Serbia has continued to appoint acting officials this year, bringing by the end of May 2020 a total of 233 decions extending the acting status of 21 existing staff for six months and 212 for another three months.

Serbia ended the previous year with just over a third of the heads of state administration appointed by the government after the competition, while the rest are acting officials. Although this indicates a slight improvement (about 5%) compared to the situation at the end of 2018, it is evident that the government systematically applies the practice of appointing easily replaceable acting officials instead of professionals whose dismissal would require arguments.

At the end of 2018, out of 370 positions in the state administration, 107 officials were appointed based on previously conducted public and internal competitions, as stated in the report of the Negotiating Group for Chapter 23.^[1] In 2019, the government announced only 42 vacancies for assistant ministers, secretaries of Ministries, directors and other heads of government offices, administrations and special organisations. At the end of 2018, acting officials occupied 263 positions, which means that in 2019 government did not even try to fill these positions through competition in 221 cases.

Out of 42 competitions for positions, the Ministry of Finance announced 12, five ministries had two competitions each, and other state administration bodies announced the rest. Based on these 42 competitions and those conducted in previous years, only 21 employees were appointed in 2019. Thus, at the end of 2019, there were approximately 242 positions occupied by incumbents, i.e. 65.4% of the total. The data is approximate because there is a possibility that there were changes in the organisational structure of administrative bodies and a decrease or (more likely) an increase in the number of positions.

Beginning on 3 June, 2020,^[2] bearing in mind the provisions of Article 16, p. 3. and Article 17. P. 2 of the Law on Government^[3], the authority of the government to appoint civil servants to positions in the state administration, including acting ones, is also disputable, so it can be expected that many of these positions will remain vacant until the formation of a new government after elections.

During 2019 and 2020, the Negotiating Group for Chapter 23 EU Integration and other state bodies did not publish aggregate data on appointments. Transparency Serbia, based on numerous individual decisions on the appointment of acting officials made by the government last year, determined that about two-thirds of state administration bodies in the Republic of Serbia still do not have managers elected at the competition. Moreover, it is likely that many of them no longer have legal executives.

Therefore, the Government of Serbia is still deaf to the law passed in 2005 and the action plans and messages of the European Union on changing the practice of appointing acting officials. Because of these messages, the government set a deadline to resolve the illegal conditions with acting officials by 30 June 2019. Still, after that date, the government continued to appoint acting officials even more enthusiastically. Such a practice was accompanied by the Prime Minister statements indicating that harmonising the situation with the law was not a priority but that this type of political control over the public administration is considered a good practice.^[4]

In the second half of last year, almost twice as many decisions were made on the appointment of acting officials compared to the first six months of 2019. According to the law, until a civil servant is appointed, one or more acting officials can be appointed for a total period of up to 6 months without a competition (Article 67a), which the government applied, passing 211 decisions for six months, and 41 decisions for another three months. Such a large number of acting officials’ appointments is related to the fact that by the force of law, on 30 June 2019, the mandate of all those who held positions as acting officials at that time ended.

One acting official’s case (Secretary of the Ministry of Health) is particularly interesting. For this person,  five decisions were made for appointment to that position during 2019, each lasting three months, although three of them are “subsequent” and refer to that person’s appointment in 2018. (June, September and December).

At the beginning of July, the government passed a decision on the appointment of the Acting Director of the Government of Serbia’s Aviation Service and at the very last session in 2019, it decided to extend his status for another six months.

Transparency - Serbia points out that a major problem, in addition to all mentioned above, is the lack of data on fulfilling the government’s obligation. Namely, the single list of civil servants set by the government has not been published yet. We emphasise that Serbian citizens can obtain complete information only by a detailed search of data from each government session, announced vacancies and regulations on job systematisation or information on the work of each of several dozen state administration bodies, provided they are published and up to date. Our organisation did not receive such a list even after several requests for free access to information [6], although it is evident that it should exist.

At the same time, we recall that such a severe blow to the rule of law is unfortunately not an isolated case. Namely, the situation with acting officials, which facilitates direct control of public sector institutions by the political leadership, and contrary to legal provisions, exists in many state-owned enterprises.

Transparency Serbia published texts of all decisions on the appointment of acting officials^[5] and their classification^[6] according to the legal grounds for the appointments.

^[1]https://www.mpravde.gov.rs/files/08.02.%20Action%20plan%20for%20Chapter%2023%20with%20implementation%20status%20on%2031st%20December%202018-%20finalno.docx

^[2] https://www.istinomer.rs/analize/hoce-li-skupstina-srbije-biti-nelegalna-posle-3-juna/

^[3] https://www.legislationline.org/download/id/2994/file/Law%20on%20the%20Government.pdf

^[4] https://pescanik.net/u-srbiji-zakoni-ne-garantuju-nista/

^[5]https://transparentnost.org.rs/images/dokumenti_uz_vesti/TS_resenja_Vlade_o_postavljanju_sluzbenika_na_polozaje_u_drugoj_polovini_2019.docx

^[6]https://transparentnost.org.rs/images/dokumenti_uz_vesti/TS_postavljanje_vrsilaca_duznosti_na_polozaje_u_drzavnoj_upravi_2019.xlsx