Public administration reform is an administrative challenge that requires strong political support and cooperation from all institutions, said the relevant Minister Maraš Dukaj.
As announced by the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA), Dukaj today opened a roundtable on the development of the 2025-2026 action plan for the Public Administration Reform Strategy.
He said that the action document was created in an inclusive environment and with a high degree of involvement of the competent institutions, as well as the interested public.
"This document represents a significant step towards improving the work of our institutions, accelerating digital transformation, but also decentralizing local self-government, establishing a professional and depoliticized public administration, all with the aim of providing citizens with an efficient, open and accessible public administration system," Dukaj said.
He said that public administration reform is an administrative challenge that requires strong political support and cooperation from all institutions, which is why it is classified in Cluster I - fundamental rights in the process of Montenegro's accession to the European Union (EU).
According to Dukaj, this is a process that is important not only for citizens and the economy, but also for employees in public administration, because without quality administrative capacities, there can be no progress in other negotiation chapters.
"We are faced with many challenges, because, as you know, for years now, the European Commission Report has indicated that there has been no progress in the area of public administration reform," said Dukaj.
As he stated, a series of activities have been undertaken in the previous period to accelerate the reform processes in public administration reform.
Dukaj recalled that last week, the Draft Law on Civil Servants and Employees was established, which, as he said, is in line with EU standards when it comes to the professionalization of civil servants.
"A huge process related to the decentralization of local governments has begun, intensive work is underway to establish new e-services for citizens, a Draft Law on the Government has been prepared, and for the first time, data on the number of employees in public administration have been publicly and transparently published, which are updated quarterly," said Dukaj.
He emphasized that there is still a lot of work and challenges that must be addressed in order to fulfill all obligations by the end of 2026.
"The inclusion of new technologies, digitalization, strengthening the capacities of state administration and improving the professionalization of employees are just some of the steps we will take to create a modern, fast and responsible public administration," said Dukaj.
As he stated, what is particularly important to them is the openness of the action plan development process.
"The reform must be open to all relevant stakeholders, and that is why we included institutions, citizens, the academic community, the business IT community, and the non-governmental sector in the development of the document, who had the opportunity to directly participate in its shaping and implementation and provide proposals and suggestions," Dukaj emphasized.
He added that international partners, the EU Delegation, SIGMA, RESPA and the World Bank, also participated in the preparation.
The MPA stated that the roundtable was organized as part of a public discussion on the Draft Action Plan 2025-2026 for the Public Administration Reform Strategy for the period from 2022 to next year.
The public debate, as stated by that government department, began on February 7th, with the publication of the draft document on the eGovernment portal and the MPA website.
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