Redundancy in the public administration of 14,4 workers

The number of employees in public administration at the state and local level at the end of last year was 62,5 thousand, which is 14,4 thousand more than the required number from the optimization plan that was supposed to be implemented in 2020, according to the data "News" received from the Ministry of Public Administration.

If we take into account that these 14,4 thousand workers receive an average net salary of 820 euros, their payments represent an annual cost of 141 million euros for state and local budgets. For example, for the sake of comparison, the annual installment for the first section of the highway is 60 million euros.

Excess is no longer in focus

The Ministry of Public Administration now states that the focus will not be on reducing the number of employees but on increasing their knowledge and skills.

Bearing in mind that past experience has shown that the focus of this process should not be exclusively on reducing the number of employees, the establishment of optimal administration is aimed at through better personnel planning and connection with the budget program, as well as improving the knowledge, skills and competencies of employees at the central and at the local level, with the aim of creating professional staff who will work on improving the efficiency of providing quality public administration services", the Ministry stated when asked by "Vijesti" whether they think there is a surplus of employees in the public administration and how they plan to rationalize that number.

Marković's Government did not respect its plan either

Public administration optimization plan for 2018-2020. year, which was adopted by the then Government Duško Marković (DPS), it became an obligation to reduce by the end of 2020, compared to 2017, the number of employees in public administration at the public level by five percent, and at the local level, including employees in municipal institutions and companies, by 10 percent.

According to that plan, the optimal number of employees in the public administration at the state level should have been 37 thousand by the end of 2020, i.e. 1,9 thousand less than in 2017. At the local level, the optimal number of employees should have been 10,9 thousand, i.e. 1,3 thousand less than in 2017. That is, the then Government should have reduced the total number of employees in the public administration by 2020 thousand employees by 3,2.

However, the Marković cabinet did not respect its plan and the number of employees in the public administration was not reduced by 3,2 thousand, but it was additionally increased by 4,2 thousand euros. So that the total number of employees in the public administration at the end of the mandate of this Government in December 2020 was 7,4 thousand higher compared to the optimization plan that it itself adopted.

"Changes" brought a new seven thousand

The three new governments that came after the changes in 2020 did not deal with the optimization of public administration, but on the contrary increased the number of employees who receive salaries from the state and municipal budgets. The total number of employees at both levels of public administration at the end of last year was 62,5 thousand, i.e. by seven thousand more than at the end of 2020, and by 14,4 thousand more than the optimal number planned by the optimization plan.

The number of employees at the state level is now 46,6 thousand and is 9,5 thousand more than the optimization plan, and at the local level, including employees in municipal institutions and companies, the number of employees is 15,8 thousand and 4,9. XNUMX thousand is higher compared to the optimal number calculated by the plan.

In the Report on the implementation of the Public Administration Optimization Plan 2018-2020, which was prepared by the new Ministry of Public Administration in June 2021, it is recognized that the goals of this plan have not been met.

"The Public Administration Reform Strategy 2016-2020 and the Public Administration Optimization Plan 2018-2020 envisage a reduction in the number of employees at the central level by 5%, and at the local level by 10% by the end of 2020 compared to the initial value defined in December 2017. . This goal was not met, and instead of the planned reduction, there was an increase in the number of employees by 8%, both at the central and local levels. A bulky administration that is dysfunctional represents a large burden on state and local budgets, and the efficiency of work is not at a satisfactory level," this information from June 2021 stated.

Surplus and performance measurement announced in 2021

The then Government Zdravka Krivokapića, states in the report that one of the first measures he will take to improve the situation in public administration will be the adoption of the Law on Government, which is planned for the end of 2021. However, that law has not been adopted to date.

"The purpose of passing this law is to create an appropriate legal system that enables more effective institutional coordination, more efficient public spending and increased responsibility of the work of the public administration. In the coming period, the Government will work dedicatedly on the optimization of public administration, through increasing its efficiency and improving work processes. Through the implementation of functional analysis, work processes and competencies in institutions will be clearly mapped, the number of employees and workload at the level of authorities, organizational units and at the individual level of employees will be considered, based on which acts on systematization will be prepared in accordance with the real needs of the authorities. Employees who represent a surplus will be sent to the internal labor market or declared technologically redundant in accordance with the regulations governing this issue, while for other employees in the public administration, appropriate mechanisms will be created for measuring work performance, and in accordance with this, mechanisms for rewarding the best and promoting them. knowledge and skills of all employees", it was stated in the report of the then Government.

Forgotten "maximum number" law

The Public Administration Optimization Plan 2018-2020 also envisaged the adoption of the Law on the method of determining the maximum number of employees in the public sector, but the last DPS Government did not fulfill even that part of its plan. Neither the Government in the past three years, nor the current one, mentioned such a law.

"Vijesti" asked the current Ministry of Public Administration whether they are now planning to pass that or a similar law or another regulation, which would limit or define the number of employees in public administration bodies or local governments, as well as whether a plan to optimize public administration at the state and local governments is being prepared. at the local level and whether there is an estimate of the required number of employees.

They answered that the focus of public administration optimization "should not be exclusively on reducing the number of employees, the establishment of optimal administration is sought through better personnel planning and connection with the budget program, as well as improving the knowledge, skills and competencies of employees".

They stated that according to data from the Ministry of Finance, the total number of employees at the central level in March 2024 was 46.727, while at the local level there were 7.103 employees, not including the number of employees at state and municipal enterprises.

Now introduced a new indicator

Now, in the evaluation of the optimization of the public authorities, they are introducing a new indicator that "includes the participation of the total number of employees at the central and local level in the total number of employees in Montenegro, which enables monitoring and analysis of the number of employees in the public administration in a wider context."

"Relying on the data of the Directorate for Statistics - Monstat on the total number of employees in Montenegro, as well as the data of the Ministry of Finance on the total number of employees in the public administration, the trend of fulfillment of this indicator, whose initial value for 2021 was 26%, in 2022 , it was 23%, and in 2023 - 21,7%", stated the Ministry.

The reduction of this indicator (percentage of the number of employees in the public administration in relation to the total number of employees) in the past three years was not due to a decrease in the number of employees in the public administration, because it has increased, but due to an increase in the total number of employees.

Municipalities increase the number of employees even though they do not have new responsibilities

Marko Sošića from the Institute of Alternatives, which analyzed the number of employees in local self-governments in relation to the number of inhabitants of those municipalities, says that such a standard does not exist, and that there are no large fluctuations, considering that the municipalities differ in whether they are primarily tourists who experience large changes in the number of people in their territory during the year, or they have just been established.

"There is no standard when it comes to the number of employees at the local level, due to the fact that each state has its own specific system of division of responsibilities - in some states, even in the region, when we say local administration, we also mean kindergartens, primary education, some level of health care , even security. On the other hand, Montenegro is the least decentralized country in the region, and in Europe it is on par with Luxembourg, Ireland or Portugal, which are at the bottom of the decentralization index. This means that our municipalities have the least competencies that were transferred to them from the central level", said Sošić.

He states that at the local level, the number of employees increased by more than one third in ten years, although there were no new responsibilities that the municipalities received.

"What would happen with this figure if we were to go on the path of decentralization, which the Ministry of Public Administration, despite the obvious problems in the work of municipalities, took a safe step. Of the 15.869 employees, more than half of them are in local public enterprises, which is a figure that the Ministry of Public Administration does not publish in its list of employees in the public sector. Freedom House has just lowered the rating of Montenegro in its 'Nations in transit' report precisely because of the dysfunctionality of the local level of administration. "Despite this, the Ministry of Public Administration is blindly working on decentralization, wanting municipalities to improve their frameworks of functions without reform, to give them more money and more responsibilities," said Sošić.