The electricity bill, which comes from month to month at Nemanjina 11 in Belgrade, could be quite high. In the building from the period between the two world wars, now, for the summer heat, air conditioners work everywhere. Although, at the same time, in many offices the windows are open: some partially, some completely: negligence is expensive for taxpayers in Serbia, because this building houses the seat of the Serbian government.
In room 83, on the second floor, where in about 100 square meters of space Serbian heads of government have always had their office, the air conditioner is also humming, but at least the windows are closed. Current Serbian model Ana Brnabić is famous for her thrift.
"We ended the last fiscal year with a primary surplus, and our state debt is slowly decreasing. At the end of 2017, Serbian national debts were at the level of 72,9% of our annual economic product. In the meantime, they are only 65,7%", Brnabić praised the frugality of his government in an interview with FAZ. In recent years, the Serbian government has really managed to rehabilitate the state budget through decisive structural reforms of the state sector. The inspiration behind the reforms was Brnabić's predecessor, Aleksandar Vučić, who in April was elected by an absolute majority to the more or less ceremonial position of president. But he still kept all the strings of power in his hands.
Now Brnabićka should continue the work under Vučić's supervision. She herself defines her cabinet as a "government of continuity". Now it's about building on what has been achieved.
"Until a few years ago, we had public administration, which was quite expensive. Therefore, the goal of the first phase of our administrative reform was to reduce the size of the apparatus itself. We have been doing this since the end of 2013," says Brnabić.
The number of employees has been reduced by around 40.000 employees, which corresponds to almost a tenth of the former personnel composition. This reduction was realized primarily through retirements, whereby the jobs of newly retired people were extinguished. But also by paying severance pay in not very modest amounts. In addition, the government prescribed a maximum number of employees for all ministries, services and even local administration, which must not be exceeded without the approval of the special government commission for employment.
"It is about establishing order, limiting new employment in the civil service and approving them only if they are absolutely necessary. In the meantime, our public administration, compared to European ones, is also small," says Brnabić. The IMF, with which the government in Belgrade cooperates closely, also confirmed that this Balkan country, at least as far as the consolidation of the state budget is concerned, is on the right track. Almost 3% of the estimated growth, which Serbia could achieve this year, is another confirmation of the presiding officer's words.
The next step is to modernize the reduced but insufficiently efficient administration. Still, not all employees in the civil service are placed in those positions, where the state really needs them and where they could be of the greatest use. In order to achieve a more efficient provision of services with the existing resources, the government, with the support of the EU and the World Bank, organized a team of experts, responsible for the reorganization of government services.
A comprehensive analysis of work processes in services should be the basis of reforms. In two to three years, says Brnabićka, this work should be completed.
"After that, you will no longer be able to recognize the public administration. It will be completely focused on citizens, efficient, transparent, with no room for corruption," the head of government claims. Corruption should be minimized through the complete redirection of the administration to the so-called "E-Government". Brnabićka, a native of Belgrade who is reputed to be a capable technocrat, was the director of a company specializing in wind energy before Vučić discovered it. She says that "personal contacts increase the danger of corruption." E-Government, on the other hand, leads to the standardization of procedures, which reduces this danger to a minimum. One official in Novi Sad will not be able to make a different decision than the one in southern Serbia."
Documents, such as extracts from birth, marriage or death registers, have meanwhile all been archived in electronic form. "We are now connecting different databases to each other, so that citizens no longer have to run from one office to another with a pile of papers."
With this, of course, the government wants to increase its own popularity: "How the services behave towards the citizens decides how they perceive the government and their own country."
In order to increase the quality of management education, the government also wants to establish the "National Academy for Civil Servants", which should be opened in 2018. In addition, financial incentives should increase the motivation of civil servants. The proposal for the corresponding law has already passed three rounds of consultation with civil servants' unions, and improvements are currently being made. In the fall, the text of the law will then be submitted to the parliament for adoption.
The modernization of the administration is not a completely new file for Brnabićka: she was already the minister of public administration for ten months before her political father Vučić elevated her to her current position. That she is a paratrooper in politics is still noticeable to the former manager. As soon as the story about the technical details of its reform is brought up, Brnabićka can eloquently and convincingly refer: what needs to be done in Serbia and how to achieve it. She, like Vučić, has a strategic idea of where she should take Serbia: towards the west, into the EU. However, as soon as one gets into "difficult" internal political topics, one immediately notices that politics is not her playground and that all important decisions are made by the president of the state - which his representative, who was born in 1975, does not try to deny at all. She is "realistically speaking a technocrat", Brnabićka describes herself.
She did not choose the ministers of her cabinet herself, but simply took them over from her predecessor. Changing this team would be a complete waste of time for her, she has known him since she was a minister, and then she had good cooperation with all the ministers, she explains. Which may be true, but also, on the other hand, it would be unthinkable for Brnabić to appoint ministers arbitrarily or even against Vučić's express will. The Serbian constitution would of course allow it, but the constitutional reality definitely does not.
And what if a minister blocks her reforms? "Then I would think about replacing him," replies Brnabić, but immediately adds that she must of course coordinate that step with Vučić, because he is not only the head of state but also the head of the SNS, on whose parliamentary majority the government rests. Brnabić is not connected to SNS, she is not even an ordinary member. If there is ever a power struggle between the head of the party and the state, Vučić, and the representative Brnabić, it is quite clear how the fight will end.
But the likelihood of any open conflict is minimal, not least because of the power imbalance. With Brnabićka, one notices that she simply adores Vučić. She is satisfied with the role assigned to her as a technocratic reformer, but she also sets her own accents.
It is especially important for her to strengthen the IT sector in Serbia. To this end, she, who studied at the University of Hull in Great Britain, does not only want to encourage innovative companies and technology parks, but above all education, starting from elementary school. With the beginning of the new school year, informatics will be introduced as a compulsory subject from the fifth grade. The lesson plans will be adjusted accordingly.
And no matter how convincing Brnabićka is in her role as an economic reformer and modernizer of state administration, the question remains whether she will advocate for the strengthening of the rule of law in Serbia with the same ferocity.
The awareness that the existence of an independent judiciary is necessary for a modern European state is very rare among many powerful people in Belgrade. And while there is almost no doubt that Vučić really wants to thoroughly reform Serbia's economy, this only conditionally applies to his determination to strengthen the rule of law.
An exemplary example of this is the still unsolved incident in the Belgrade neighborhood of Savamala, which can be considered possible within the framework of a Despotia, but not at all in the capital of the country, which is a candidate for EU membership: in April 2016, in the middle of the night - somewhere around 2 o'clock in the morning - three dozen masked criminals, armed with baseball bats, blocked the entire street in the part of Belgrade towards Sava until they bulldozed several sheds and other buildings. This illegal operation lasted three hours. Passers-by alarmed by the noise were chased away, and the night watchman of a nearby company was tied up.
Crowds of people called the police, but they didn't show up. Three long hours. Recordings of calls to the police, which were leaked to the public, and other indications suggest that the police were instructed not to react. But who is the orderer? It is worth reminding that one of the largest construction projects in the Balkans is being built in the Savamala neighborhood, otherwise an industrial ruin in the best part of the city: investors from the United Arab Emirates plan to build a new city center here under the name "Belgrade on the Water". For Belgrade, the project is a real blessing - but the methods by which this project is pushed and realized are certainly not. More than a year after the incident, the state prosecutor's office and the police are shifting responsibility to each other, without any strong will to clear up this case.
When asked if she agrees with the statement that the judicial clarification of the Svamala case is a conditio sine qua non for progress on Serbia's path to the EU, Brnabićka does not answer with the clarity that usually adorns her answers: "Svamala is a complex topic, which is too politicized. Without discussion: the judicial system must function, the police and the judiciary must fulfill their obligations in the case of Savamal. But no matter what the judiciary decides in the end - someone will say that the decision is not good enough."
But can that be a justification for not deciding anything at all? Of course, the judiciary has to make a decision and will make it, there is no way around it, answers Brnabićka to our additional question. "I'm just worried because this case is so politicized that eventually any verdict will be criticized."
As a citizen of Serbia, isn't she afraid that the police are being called to help stop an open and public crime - and the police simply don't come? Answer: “The whole way it was done was a grave mistake – whoever did it. That shouldn't have happened."
In the end, only a few udzeraks were demolished in Savamala, "most of which were built illegally." Why wasn't a court decision simply made and the area blocked and the huts demolished during the day? I have absolutely no idea how someone could come up with an idea and do it like that, how it happened."
In the end, however, Brnabićka agreed with the statement that the judicial clearing of the Sava Scandal is a decisive prerequisite for Serbia's EU perspective. Whoever is behind the gangsters, who on that April night in Belgrade, in the manner of the Wild West, established a state of fait accompli - he did not do the EU perspective of Serbia a favor. The case could still amuse the country with misery. And when the state budget has long since been repaired.
Translation: Mirko Vuletić
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