Public-private dialogue on public administration reform is underway, with the ultimate goal of raising the quality of the administration’s performance, increasing its efficiency and effectiveness as a professional service that should serve the needs of the private sector and citizens.
These days, the future implementation of the model for the transition of public administration employees to the private sector, announced by the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, is louder. This process, which requires a comprehensive analysis and serious negotiations, was started by the line ministry, which in the past year has shown a willingness to dialogue and co-operate with the business community, taking into account the integration of some of our remarks on legislative changes in its jurisdiction.
What has been the subject of recent discussion and which needs to be addressed is the announcement of the transfer of public-sector officials who will be judged to be no longer needed in the public administration. The question arises, how will the criteria be specified for these persons, whether the analyzes being made will precisely determine what education and skills do they possess, and how would they be attractive for transfer to the private sector. Given the continuing outflow of skilled labor it faces, the private sector is actively seeking people with scarce and specific occupations in the labor market, primarily technical and highly specialized occupations.
Important questions arise, how will the process of transitioning from the public sector to the private sector, which will be applied for the first time in the country, take place, will some qualification or retraining of these staff be enabled and who will do the same? It would take time for the process of adapting to a new job and what would be the expected degree of productivity after retraining for those jobs that the private sector needs.
The challenges that will have to be overcome in this process are numerous, such as the opinion of the young population in particular about the high degree of attractiveness for employment in the public administration, the general perception that public sector work offers greater security, but also that less effort is invested. from the private sector. At the same time, according to the analysis, with the exception of certain sectors such as IT and energy sector, public administration salaries are on average higher than private sector salaries, which creates a distortion in the perception of job attractiveness. So we might have to ask ourselves whether the model will succeed in terms of whether public administration employees will ever want to move to the private sector. A key role here will also be played by trade unions representing the rights of workers in the administration, who need to discuss in depth what their views on these important issues are.
The expectations are to openly discuss these points in the next period, especially after the analysis and the draft model of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration, after which there will be a number of dilemmas that have been answered in the past quarter.
Ensuring efficient and effective administration is a requirement of the private sector, which continuously requires the implementation of the necessary structural reforms, the launch and implementation of which is a priority for future integration into the European Union. For all measures independently of which they are proposed, it is necessary to demonstrate willingness and hearing for the needs of the stakeholders in the process, otherwise the desired epilogue will certainly not be achieved. A healthy, market-oriented, competitive, private sector economy that will be highly productive and generate new and higher paying jobs should be the ultimate goal of this process.
