The notion of an independent, apolitical and efficient public administration is a driving force behind the processes of democratization and a fully functioning market economy. In summary, an ineffective public administration leads to a vicious circle of bad practices for (a democratic) state.
The research "Who employs, the municipality or the party?", done by the
ZIP Institute in the project Network 23+, indicates that there are politically motivated employments at the local level. This should not come as a surprise, taking into account the general politicization of the public administration in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the high unemployment rate.
The most frequent situations in which the hiring process in the local government is corrupt are:
- In the case when the process is politicized from the beginning, when a call is being opened for a person who is already pre-selected;
- When a open call is made for multiple positions, so party members are motivated to compete and apply. They are privileged in the interviewing process, thus appointed more points.
- When the Law for Employment in the Public Sector is being used for the technical and assisting personnel, thus the process of employment is more prone to corruption.
Although the greater role of the Agency for Administration is a positive step towards fighting corruption in the process of hiring, party and politically motivated employments continue to exist at local level.
Based on the findings of its research, the ZIP Institute proposes several steps towards improving the hiring processes at the local level, aimed at countering politically motivated employments:
- Reform of the employment procedure – although certain steps in this directions have been undertaken, there is a dire need for the reform of the employment processes, releasing the strains of the bureaucratic process and the lengthy 3 level procedure that is currently in place.
- Putting valuable emphasis on work experience, education, certified extracurricular activities, foreign languages and informal education – in line of the previous point, we are suggesting these subject areas to be emphasized in the procedure of combatting politically motivated employment.
- Greater institutional involvement in the processes of combatting politically motivated employment – the Agency for Administration, Ministry of Information Technology and Administration and the municipalities themselves shall be involved in the processes of combatting the corruptive practices and have a joint action plan to ensure a better, more effective employment procedure.
- Greater transparency in the processes of publication of the calls.
- Outreach to rejected applicants – the persons whose applications have been rejected shall receive appropriate outreach and be made aware as to why their applications have been rejected; in appropriate form and format with information about the appropriate appeal procedures.
- Actualization of the mechanisms for appeal – the appropriate appeal procedures shall be made publicly available and easily available, and there shall be appropriate follow up mechanisms.
- Actualization of the mechanisms for reporting politically motivated employments – similarly to the point above, the appeal mechanisms shall be made publicly available and easily available, and there shall be appropriate follow up mechanisms.
- Further drawing attention to the problem via media and involving all relevant stakeholders in the solutions.
The research is made as a part of the Network 23+ project, financed by the European Union.