[ALBSA-Info] Albania Ends Politicization of Its Civil Service

[Iris Pilika]

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_____________________________________________________________
RFE/RL BALKAN REPORT
Vol. 4, No. 9, 1 February 2000

A Twice-Weekly Review of Politics, Media and Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty Broadcasts in the western Balkans.

*****EXCERPT ONLY*****


ALBANIA ENDS POLITICIZATION OF ITS CIVIL SERVICE.
Establishing a professional, non-political civil service is a
problem in many countries, and not only in the former
communist world. As one might suppose, the problem is
particularly acute in Albania, where the pre-communist and
communist past left little positive legacy on which to build.
        Between 19 and 20 January, the Albanian government, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
and the EU organized a conference in Tirana. The purpose was
to launch Albania's new civil service law, which parliament
passed on 11 November 1999. The law is intended to put an end
to the tradition of replacing political appointees throughout
the entire administration after every change of government.
        The new law marks a milestone in the efforts of the
government to reform the legal system and is the first
comprehensive law addressing the reform of Albania's public
administration. Francesco Cardona of the OECD's SIGMA
program--which supports the reform of government and
management in Central and Eastern Europe--noted the
fundamental importance of the move. He stressed that the law
is "primarily not a legal act to regulate the working
conditions of civil servants, like a labor code. Instead, a
civil service law should strike a balance between the duties
and accountabilities implied in a public job on the one hand,
and the rights in securing the professional status to carry
out the job on the other." Thus he stressed that the law is
designed both to protect civil servants from unjustified
interference, while at the same time to "upgrade and
safeguard the professional quality of the staff and the
service of state institutions."
        The focus of the law is accordingly to draw a clear line
between politics and administration. Recruitment and
promotion are based on merit and the professional qualities
of the person who wants to enter public administration--and
not on personal or political allegiances. The hiring of new
employees is in the hands of a central administrative body--
and thus out of the reach of the respective heads of
departments or ministries.
        Job security is guaranteed to competent people to
prevent politically-motivated intimidation of civil servants.
By stipulating that the primary allegiance of the civil
servant is to the legal order of the country, the law also
requires the civil servants to refuse compliance with
unlawful orders and demands from their superiors.
        At the same time, the law restricts some constitutional
rights of civil servants, such as the right to run for public
office on a partisan basis and the right to conduct certain
business activities. The law stipulates that civil servants
must inform the institution in which they work about every
private business activity that they undertake. Prime Minister
Ilir Meta argued that these rules have been included "in
particular to make sure that the employees serve the state
and not the party, the state and not their personal
interests."
        One of the main problems of Albania's administration is
the low level of wages in public jobs. While the law is in no
position to solve budgetary problems, it introduces a salary
system that is even-handed and transparent. Cardona stressed
that "salaries can be low and this can be understood by
society and civil servants alike. What is not acceptable,
however, is a lack of transparency, as well as unfairness and
arbitrariness in managing the salary structure. The law
attempts to tackle this problem by establishing a salary
system with clearly regulated components, which are aimed at
ensuring adequate levels of fairness and transparency."
        The main task for the government will now be to reform
the civil service on the basis of the new law. That includes
introducing the new salary system as well as integrating the
state employees into the new framework. The main instrument
in the process will be the Civil Service Commission, an
independent body made up of five members.
        Two of those individuals will be nominated by the
Council of Ministers, one by the State Control (an anti-
corruption agency), and two by a body elected by local
government officials. All five must then be confirmed by
parliament. The commission will receive complaints from
individuals about possible violations of the law by civil
servants. It can then intervene with the respective
institution and demand that things be set right.
        If the dispute cannot be settled within two months, it
will be passed on to a court to rule on the issue. But the
Commission is not all-powerful: state administrative bodies
have the right to go to an appeals court and challenge
rulings by the Commission that they think violate the law.
(Fabian Schmidt)


DID A VIDEO TAKE THE FIGHT OUT OF MILOSEVIC? The conventional
wisdom has it that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic made
peace in June 1999 out of fear that a NATO ground attack was
imminent. London's "Sunday Times" of 30 January suggests that
there may be a bit more to the story.
        According to the respected weekly, "friendly" foreign
diplomats brought the Yugoslav military an American video
showing the effects of the vacuum bomb, a video perhaps
produced by one of the U.S. psychological warfare units. An
unnamed source told the paper: "Up until then, Milosevic had
believed that the air strikes were a kind of saloon bar game.
But this video would have made him take a long, hard look at
what was in store. The vacuum bomb makes an almighty flash
and clears everything beneath it. There would have been
nothing left of his army." The bomb is made of phosphorus and
plasma, and generates intense heat and downward pressure, the
weekly continued.
        The "Sunday Times" concluded that Milosevic chose to
make peace rather than let the Kosova Liberation Army win a
military victory in Kosova and drive the Serbs out. (Patrick
Moore)


QUOTATIONS OF THE WEEK.

"I think one has to learn from the failures, because I think
one has to recognize that the Bosnian effort was--is--a
failure." -- U.S. Financier George Soros, to RFE/RL at Davos,
31 January.

"Milosevic has no future. He is either going to be liquidated
or commit suicide." -- Croatian presidential candidate Stipe
Mesic, to Brussels' "Le Soir" of 25 January.


*************************************************
Copyright (c) 2000. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved. The
RFE/RL Balkan Report is prepared by Patrick Moore based on
sources including reporting by RFE/RL's South Slavic Service.