Public administration

Advancement of democracy and good governance

Diagnosis

Th e existing public administration in the Republic of Moldova is not very diff erent from the one of the Soviet period as regards methods of administration, transparency of the decision-making process and manage-ment of the public service.

In addition to the subordination rela-tions, a modern public administration em-ploys also other types of relations – lateral, diagonal and others. Th ese are not clearly regulated in the legislation of the Republic of Moldova. For example, the Law on local public administration provides: “Between the central and local authorities, between the public authorities of fi rst level and those of second level there are no relations of sub-ordination…”¹³¹. Th at being said, the legisla-tor does not make it clear which are in fact the relations within the administrative pro-cess designed to ensure good governance.

Other areas related to administration are not regulated better, including those regarding the legal status of the public servants. Th e framework law in this area¹³² is to a large ex-tent obsolete. A new draft law in this area is discussed since 2003, but was never adopted.

Such examples can be found in many fi elds of the administrative activity. Given the frag-mented and uncertain regulation of the ad-ministrative process, it is very diffi cult for the administration to implement the legislation, take correct and effi cient decisions, and clar-ify who is in charge with the implementation thereof, or who and how is accountable for failures and errors of the governance.

Good functioning of the public admin-istration depends to a large extent on the quality of training of the professionals in this domain. Nowadays, the quality of train-ing of public servants cannot be designed, monitored or evaluated because there are no performance criteria for the professionals in public administration. Th e said criteria are part of the Academic (educational) Stan-dards for graduates in the public adminis-tration (administrative sciences) speciality, which for the time being are not offi cially ap-proved in the Republic of Moldova. Modern

governance can be successfully performed only by well-trained personnel, which means that knowledge and skills acquired during the university studies should correspond to the minimum requirements for performing public services. Th ese requirements should be part of the Standards (professional, edu-cational) for holding a public offi ce, which are not draft ed yet.

Despite the eff orts undertaken up to this moment, in the Republic of Moldova insuffi cient attention is paid to the training of personnel for the public administration.

Th us, only 4 state higher education institu-tions train specialists in the area of “Public administration”, namely the State University of Moldova, Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, State Universities of Balti and Cahul, the annual number of scholarships being 100. Moreover, if before 2006 the number of paid places for this speciality was limited only by the capacities of universities and the number of applicants, starting with 2006 this number is arbitrarily decreased on an annual basis by the Government. Start-ing with 2007, the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova was not allocated a single scholarship for this speciality, and in other universities the number was reduced by 50%. Th is will result in a shortage of the staff reserve able to implement the adminis-trative reforms needed in the process of Eu-ropean integration. Th e continuous training of public servants is managed exclusively by the Academy of Public Administration un-der the Offi ce of the President of Moldova (APA)¹³³, which precludes the establishment and development of alternative schools of public administration in Moldova. Th is situation impedes the formation of a quali-fi ed category of professional public servants, since APA established by the Government and later transferred into the President’s subordination is an education institution totally controlled by the current

Advancement of democracy and good governance

tion and a prototype of party schools of the Soviet era.

In the last 5-6 years, the government closed the branches of administrative sci-ences departments opened in 1998-1999 by Romanian universities at the Universities of Cahul and Balti, which creates an obstacle to educating qualifi ed specialists for the pub-lic administration. In 2005, the government refused to renew the educational exchange agreement with Romania, in the framework of which Moldovan students used to study in Romania. Blaming the lack of fi nances for education, the Moldovan universities do not invite foreign professors to teach adminis-trative science courses, and Moldovan fessors do not benefi t from exchange pro-grammes abroad. Th is brief analysis of the process of training professionals in the fi eld of public administration shows that the gov-ernment is not interested to develop schools of administrative science and train highly-qualifi ed professionals able to use modern administrative technologies.

Selection and promotion of the public servants constitute another problem for the operation of public administration. Nowa-days, the selection and promotion of public servants is carried out according to some old politicised rules inherited from the old re-gime and adjusted to the current realities¹³⁴. In addition, no distinction is made between public service positions (which should be fi lled based on merits) and political ones (which are fi lled based on the loyalty towards the political power). Th erefore, every time when the head of a public authority hold-ing a political mandate (e.g. a minister) is replaced, the career public servants who are not loyal to the new leadership are removed as well. Th is situation is due not to the po-litical pluralism, but to the lack of a merit-based system of selection and promotion of public servants. Only such a system can re-move the infl uence of favouritism practices from the staffi ng management policies, de-politicise public servants and put an end to the practices of employing and dismissing public servants on political grounds.

Th e current legislation admits but does not require the selection of public servants to be made through competition, and provides other modalities – employment, appoint-ment, election¹³⁵ – used more frequently by the administration. Besides the fact that competition is used very randomly, oft en it has only a formalistic nature. Public admin-istration authorities do not have their own rules regarding the competition procedure and follow the Regulation on employment of public servants through competition, ap-proved by the Government Decision no. 192 of 01.03.2004. Th is Regulation includes only general rules, based on which each public au-thority should draft own detailed rules spe-cifi c for their fi eld of activity. Th e situation is not better when it comes to the promotion of public servants, who normally should be promoted aft er taking an exam confi rming their qualifi cations. In this respect, the leg-islation provides that “promotion of a public servant, including on his/her own demand, to a higher rank is made successively, in cor-respondence with the professional qualifi ca-tions, work results and tests conducted ac-cording to the requirements set by law”¹³⁶. Th us, the conditions for promotion are as unclear as those for selection, and hence en-courage favouritism, nepotism and corrup-tion in the public administracorrup-tion.

Risks

Confusing regulations on the adminis-tration process, which are so frequent in the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, will lead to erroneous interpretation and arbi-trary implementation by the public servants to the detriment of good governance.

Another risk is the lack of a clear con-cept for the training of public servants and accordingly for the development of a national school of public administration.

Consequently, the objective of European integration could be missed, since one of the Copenhagen criteria stipulates that ac-cession of a country to the European Union is possible only if that country have enough administrative capacities to enact the Ac-quis Communautaire. Th e quality of gov-ernance, which essentially depends on the level of professional qualifi cation of the public servants, will at best stagnate or even

134 Included in art. 9 and 14 of the Law on public service no. 443 of 04.05.1995.

135 Art. 14 of the Law on public service, no. 443 of 04.05.1995.

136 Art. 9 (2) of the Law on public service, no. 443 of 04.05.1995.

Advancement of democracy and good governance degenerate, due to the decrease of the

num-ber of professionals trained in the fi eld of public administration, staff exodus, growth of corruption and nepotism in the adminis-tration. Th e living standards and the quality of services provided to the population are not going to improve either, for the reasons outlined above.

Th e excessive politicisation of the public service, employment and dismissal of public servants on political grounds, disregard of a merit-based system make the public offi ces less attractive for the highly-qualifi ed spe-cialists, as well as for young professionals.

Th e above-mentioned constitute serious risks for the development of democracy and good governance in the Republic of Moldova and, should the opportunity to join the EU emerge, the public administration is bound to get only “red cards” in all sectors.

Governmental policies

Th e Government manages the public administration staffi ng policy through the Personnel Directorate under its Staff , but the tools and policies used are not the most modern and democratic.

Th e newly-established Ministry of Lo-cal Public Administration (MLPA) took over a part of these tasks. According to the National Strategy for the Training of Pub-lic Servants and Local Elected Offi cials for 2007-2010¹³⁷, MLPA and APA are solely responsible for its implementation. Un-fortunately, the Strategy does not call for the development and approval of national qualifi cation standards in public adminis-tration. Section 3.2 “Improvement of train-ing standards for public servants and local elected offi cials” only mentions “monitor-ing of train“monitor-ing standards”, which in fact do not exist. Th erefore, policies in this fi eld are not draft ed in a consistent way, based on an analysis of the actual situation, forecasts and the experience of countries with con-solidated democracies. Consequently, less scholarships are sponsored each year by the government for “public administration” stu-dents (in a number of universities this spe-ciality is discontinued), in disregard of the fact that there is a high demand for this new speciality in the process of modernising the public administration.

Th e Government did not understand the necessity and importance of Occupa-tional (professional) and Academic (educa-tional) Standards in public administration.

Up to this moment, it did nothing to de-velop and approve them in accordance with the European Qualifi cations Framework.

None of the public authorities concluded bilateral agreements (partnerships) with educational institutions for the purpose of training personnel. Neither the mentioned Strategy, nor other normative acts provide cooperation relations with the specialised educational institutions from the European Union countries. Th us, it can be concluded that the governmental policies in the fi eld of training highly-qualifi ed public servants able to ensure good governance are incoher-ent and inconsistincoher-ent.

Another governmental policy concerns the reform of public administration, com-mitted to under the European Strategy of the Republic of Moldova and the European Union – Republic of Moldova Action Plan.

Such a reform cannot be achieved without an appropriate legal framework. It is well known that legal draft ing, in particular in the fi eld of public administration, is in the Government’s competence. Aft er ten years of adopting and implementing various strategies for LPA reform, some of the most important aspects related to the public ad-ministration are either not clearly regulated, or regulated by outdated rules, such as: the status of public servants, rules on training, selection and promotion of public servants, decentralisation of public services, relation between CPA and LPA, regional develop-ment.

Recommendations

First recommendation concerns the develop-ment and approval of both Occupational (pro-fessional) and Academic (educational) Stan-dards for the training of public administration professionals. Given that the SOROS Foundati-on – Moldova in the framework of the “Public Administration and Good Governance” Pro-gramme already draft ed both the Occupational Standards of the LPA Public Servant and the Academic and Professional Standards of the University-degree Specialist in public

adminis-137 Approved by the Government Decision no. 31 of 11.01.2007.

Advancement of democracy and good governance

tration, this recommendation can be implemen-ted by simply establishing a national authority responsible for approving the standards. Draf-ting of these Standards and of the National Qua-lifi cations Framework shall be coordinated with the European Qualifi cations Framework (EQF).

Another recommendation, on which the achie-vement of the previous one depends, is the deve-lopment of a network of administrative science departments in all educational institutions (both state and private) which have the infrastructure and competent teaching staff to train public ser-vants. It is known that it takes around 5-6 years to form teaching staff able to educate highly-qualifi ed professionals in public administration.

Th erefore, the development of a national school of public administration depends on stability and continuity of this type of departments, and decisions to close them must be, in every case, well reasoned. Since the private educational in-stitutions are certifi ed in the same conditions as the state ones, it is not fair to forbid them to train public servants.

Pending the full development of an authentic national school of public administration, it is necessary to collaborate with foreign schools of administrative science by concluding govern-mental agreements in this respect, encouraging young people to study abroad in public admi-nistration schools in the European Union and securing employment in public service for these graduates. Th is would accelerate the process of European integration of the Republic of Moldo-va and strengthen the national school of public administration.

Th e normative framework on the process of ad-ministration should be further improved. Firstly, it is necessary to require by law that the public authorities select staff only through competition (merit- and performance-based system), which would ensure employment to the most quali-fi ed professionals and prevent their departure abroad. Secondly, enforcement of a merit-based system would de-politicise the public service staff , make full use of their professional skills,

and rule out authoritarian style of management, corruption, nepotism and other phenomena of this kind.

Government should insist on the adoption of a new law on the status of public servants, which would include all the above recommendations.

Th e next recommendation concerns the reform and good functioning of the system of public ad-ministration. Currently there are too many acts regulating the activity of LPA (Law on Territori-al-Administrative Structure, Law on Local Public Administration, Law on Local Public Finances, Law on Administrative Decentralisation, Law on Public Property of Administrative-Territori-al Units, Law on Management and Privatisation of Public Property, etc.), the provisions of whi-ch sometimes contradict eawhi-ch other or overlap.

In order to eliminate these contradictions and gaps, it is recommended to adopt a single act – the Code of local communities – based on the French example, in which both public servants and citizens would fi nd answers to any questi-ons regarding the organisation and operation of LPA.

Currently, the relations between public authori-ties of diff erent levels, the decision-making pro-cedure, the enforcement terms and propro-cedure, are regulated insuffi ciently and selectively, cau-sing confusion and hostility between the autho-rities and leaving the decisions un-enforced. For an effi cient regulation of this process, we recom-mend the adoption of a Code on administrative procedure, following the Romanian model.

In the long run, the main priority is the esta-blishment of a national school of administra-tive science on the basis of the already existing specialities, adjusted to the European standards, which would yield results in 10-15 years. For this purpose, an effi cient programme is needed, ba-sed on Academic (educational) Standards for the training and continuous learning of personnel in public administration, which would also exclude monopoly and favouritism of any educational institution in this fi eld.

Advancement of democracy and good governance

Diagnosis

In the last years, a remarkable develop-ment of non-governdevelop-mental organisations can be noted, the number of offi cially reg-istered organisations rising to more than 7,000. Th us, today the ratio is of a little less than 2 non-governmental organisations per 1,000 inhabitants. Th is index places our country behind several Central European states (e.g. Hungary where the ratio is 4 NGOs per 1,000 inhabitants) but ahead of Ukraine, where the ratio is one organisa-tion per 2,000 inhabitants. Th e dynamics of the tertiary sector development reveals a sizeable increase of the locally-registered organisations. In 2006, the community-level NGOs matched the number of the national ones.

Th e existing NGOs cover various fi elds of activity, but around half of them are active in the social fi eld or in education¹³⁸. NGOs active in the social fi eld achieved impres-sive results and a consistent involvement in the process of designing public policies and services (see section SOCIAL PROTEC

TION POLICIES). But oft en NGOs do not focus on a single area. Most organisations are quite opportunistic, securing enough manoeuvre space and adjusting to the de-mands of the donors’ community. Th us, it is diffi cult to compile an activity-fi eld break-down. Analysis of the evolution of the ac-tivity areas shows that in the last 5 years the share of social area organisations increased, while the share of organisations operating in areas such as human rights, health, sports etc. diminished. Th e community develop-ment organisations recorded an outstand-ing evolution.

It is too early to speak about profes-sionalism of the services rendered by the NGOs. At the same time, organisations face the lack of knowledge and abilities to ensure fi nancial sustainability and support from the authorities and communities. Although compared to 2001, a progress was recorded, technical endowment of the organisations, especially of the community-based ones, is modest¹³⁹.

NGOs raise their fi nancial means from diff erent sources. Sponsorships from inter-national donors are the main source, while for the small local organisations the mem-bership fees are still very important. Th e de-gree of transparency of the NGOs is directly proportional to the amount of their budgets (large-budget organisations must conduct fi nancial audit), but generally speaking, transparency is low¹⁴⁰. Very few organisa-tions carry out external audit, while the in-ternal one is ineffi cient due to dysfunctions of the organisational control structures.

Although almost half of the NGOs have communication strategies, communication with both the domestic and foreign envi-ronments lacks consistency and the public information in media about their activities is irregular and ineffi cient. It is not surpris-ing that image of the NGOs and the level of people trust in this type of organisations is extremely low¹⁴¹.

Cooperation with state structures is not systematic and oft en incoherent. Such coop-eration proved to be more successful on the local level, because the community prob-lems aff ect in the same manner all members of the community. On the national level, the cooperation requires higher competence, as well as lobby and advocacy skills, and these are the most problematic issues of the asso-ciative sector in Moldova¹⁴². Although im-portant progress in this respect can be not-ed¹⁴³, participation of the