iNird
04-07-2012, 02:48 AM
Macedonia Still Lags on Employing Minorities
The recently published 2011 report by the Ombudsman has shown that the employment of new minority public servants is going slowly.
As part of the 2001 Peace Accord, Macedonia was required to increase the number of minority civil servants in an effort to reflect their actual numbers in the country.
This mainly affects the country’s largest minority, the ethnic Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the population and have been under-represented in the public sector for years.
The Ohrid Accord was signed after a six-month armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the security forces.
Last year’s percentage of Albanians employed in the civil service was 17.2 per cent, far from the goal of 25 per cent, which represents the percentage of Albanians in Macedonia's population. The increase from 2010 to 2011 was only 0.3 per cent.
This still represents significant progress from the last decade. It is estimated that the percentage of Albanian public servants in 2001 was around 7 per cent.
According to the report the problem is even more pronounced when it comes to smaller ethnic minorities like Turks, Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks and others.
“The representation of smaller ethnic groups is still far from the desired level and only a small portion of them actually work in executive posts,” Uranija Pirovska, the spokesperson for the Ombudsman’s office, told Balkan Insight.
For example, in 2011 the number of Serbs in public office remained the same as the year before, at 1.6 per cent, although this community represents 2.7 per cent of Macedonia’s population.
The percentage of Turks in the civil service last year reached 1.7 per cent, an 0.1 per cent increase from the previous year. But they make up 4 per cent of the population.
The report notes that there are no Roma civil servants in the ministries of environment, transport, economy and local government and that Bosniaks are nowhere to be found in the ministries of interior, transport and local government.
On the other hand, the number of Albanians in some ministries has peaked, data show, as 46 per cent of public servants in the Ministry of Local Government are Albanian. The Ministry of Culture has a staff that is 40.5 per cent Albanian.
Ejup Alimi, State Secretary in the Government Directorate for Implementation of the Ohrid Accord, says this year they have increased the budget for minority employment from 11 to more than 14 million euro.
However, he was not able to pinpoint the exact number of minority civil servants that they plan to employ this year.
Meanwhile, institutions continue to give very different figures concerning the total number of civil servants in Macedonia, ranging from 90,000 to 180,000 according to the source.
The confusion should end with a new centralized register in the making at the newly formed Ministry for Administration. The ministry has postponed publication of the register several times since last year.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-lags-with-minority-workers-employment
Macedonian Mystery Over Bureaucracy's Size Unsolved
The new register lists 25,500 public administration workers in 161 offices.
But bureaucrats in the public health sector and culture as well as in municipal offices and companies were excluded.
The Ministry of Administration also excluded 742 public institutions that were initially planned for inclusion.
The ministry took this step after in mid-February the Constitutional Court decided that the above mentioned employees should not be called public servants.
“We must strictly follow the Constitutional Court’s decision”, one source from the ministry told Balkan Insight.
The register, whose release has been delayed several times since last year, was supposed to put an end to a decade of confusion about the number of people working in the state administration.
Institutions and officials have continued to give very different figures. In October 2011, the Minister of Administration, Ivo Ivanovski, said the country had 115,000 civil servants. But Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski in November gave a figure of 90,000.
To add to the confusion, Stavreski’s predecessor, Fatmir Besimi, spoke of some 180,000 public servants, shortly before stepping down after the June 2011 general elections to become Defence Minister.
Most observers agree the country’s administration is too large and cumbersome. Each government, instead of cutting red tape, has added to the total number of bureaucrats by employing party members.
Dragan Tevdovski, economic analyst and professor at Skopje's Faculty of Economy, says the government remains secretive about the issue.
“Despite various inquiries we still do not know many employees they have taken on in the last few years,” he said.
Despite the small number of servants on paper, the cost of their red tape is dear. In last year’s strate budget of €2.5 billion, over €400 million went on wages for public servants.
The European Commission in its annual reports on the country also mentions cumbersome administration as a shortcoming.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-puts-bureaucracy-under-the-rug
The recently published 2011 report by the Ombudsman has shown that the employment of new minority public servants is going slowly.
As part of the 2001 Peace Accord, Macedonia was required to increase the number of minority civil servants in an effort to reflect their actual numbers in the country.
This mainly affects the country’s largest minority, the ethnic Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the population and have been under-represented in the public sector for years.
The Ohrid Accord was signed after a six-month armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and the security forces.
Last year’s percentage of Albanians employed in the civil service was 17.2 per cent, far from the goal of 25 per cent, which represents the percentage of Albanians in Macedonia's population. The increase from 2010 to 2011 was only 0.3 per cent.
This still represents significant progress from the last decade. It is estimated that the percentage of Albanian public servants in 2001 was around 7 per cent.
According to the report the problem is even more pronounced when it comes to smaller ethnic minorities like Turks, Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks and others.
“The representation of smaller ethnic groups is still far from the desired level and only a small portion of them actually work in executive posts,” Uranija Pirovska, the spokesperson for the Ombudsman’s office, told Balkan Insight.
For example, in 2011 the number of Serbs in public office remained the same as the year before, at 1.6 per cent, although this community represents 2.7 per cent of Macedonia’s population.
The percentage of Turks in the civil service last year reached 1.7 per cent, an 0.1 per cent increase from the previous year. But they make up 4 per cent of the population.
The report notes that there are no Roma civil servants in the ministries of environment, transport, economy and local government and that Bosniaks are nowhere to be found in the ministries of interior, transport and local government.
On the other hand, the number of Albanians in some ministries has peaked, data show, as 46 per cent of public servants in the Ministry of Local Government are Albanian. The Ministry of Culture has a staff that is 40.5 per cent Albanian.
Ejup Alimi, State Secretary in the Government Directorate for Implementation of the Ohrid Accord, says this year they have increased the budget for minority employment from 11 to more than 14 million euro.
However, he was not able to pinpoint the exact number of minority civil servants that they plan to employ this year.
Meanwhile, institutions continue to give very different figures concerning the total number of civil servants in Macedonia, ranging from 90,000 to 180,000 according to the source.
The confusion should end with a new centralized register in the making at the newly formed Ministry for Administration. The ministry has postponed publication of the register several times since last year.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-lags-with-minority-workers-employment
Macedonian Mystery Over Bureaucracy's Size Unsolved
The new register lists 25,500 public administration workers in 161 offices.
But bureaucrats in the public health sector and culture as well as in municipal offices and companies were excluded.
The Ministry of Administration also excluded 742 public institutions that were initially planned for inclusion.
The ministry took this step after in mid-February the Constitutional Court decided that the above mentioned employees should not be called public servants.
“We must strictly follow the Constitutional Court’s decision”, one source from the ministry told Balkan Insight.
The register, whose release has been delayed several times since last year, was supposed to put an end to a decade of confusion about the number of people working in the state administration.
Institutions and officials have continued to give very different figures. In October 2011, the Minister of Administration, Ivo Ivanovski, said the country had 115,000 civil servants. But Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski in November gave a figure of 90,000.
To add to the confusion, Stavreski’s predecessor, Fatmir Besimi, spoke of some 180,000 public servants, shortly before stepping down after the June 2011 general elections to become Defence Minister.
Most observers agree the country’s administration is too large and cumbersome. Each government, instead of cutting red tape, has added to the total number of bureaucrats by employing party members.
Dragan Tevdovski, economic analyst and professor at Skopje's Faculty of Economy, says the government remains secretive about the issue.
“Despite various inquiries we still do not know many employees they have taken on in the last few years,” he said.
Despite the small number of servants on paper, the cost of their red tape is dear. In last year’s strate budget of €2.5 billion, over €400 million went on wages for public servants.
The European Commission in its annual reports on the country also mentions cumbersome administration as a shortcoming.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-puts-bureaucracy-under-the-rug