BRATISLAVA, August 24, (WEBNOVINY) — The Cabinet of Robert Fico is moving to Parliament a draft bill, which envisages the cancellation of 64 specialized regional state administration offices. At an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Friday, ministers approved the draft bill on measures in local state administration, which is the first stage of state administration reform known under the name ESO (abbreviation for Effective, Reliable, Open in Slovak).
The proposed legislation will abolish a total of ninety budget-subsidized organizations.
Canceled should be regional school offices, regional building offices, area military administration, regional environmental offices, regional land offices, regional forestry offices, regional offices for road transport and roads, and cadastral offices.
Competencies of the first three offices, which do not have a corresponding equivalent at the lower area level, should be taken over by the district offices in the county capital. In other cases, powers will be devolved to the of the district offices in the county capital. For example, the agenda of the regional environmental offices will move to the district environmental office in the county capital.
According to the new rules, these authorities will not have the position of budget subsidized organizations. They will be financed from the budget of the Ministry of Interior on an advance basis. Similarly as so far, the Cabinet will appoint the chiefs of district offices at the proposal of the Minister of Interior. Ninety budgetary organizations will lose this status under the new legislation, including fifty district offices, eight regional directorates of the Police Corps, and eight regional directorates of the fire and rescue service.
The law also envisages that the district offices of the general government will have restricted legal personality and personal competencies. That will be concentrated according to the new rules at the Ministry of the Interior. „In this way, we aim to limit the number of entities that now handle state property, carry out public procurement, and have personnel powers. These measures have anti-corruption character, improve transparency of management and control of public funds,“ says an explanatory memorandum to the draft bill. Abolishing the stated local-level state administration offices also cancels service offices, administrators of state assets, public procurers, accounting units, which, according to the Interior Ministry, will eliminate duplicity and save money.
Effectiveness of the bill is proposed from January 1, 2013, and some provisions from December of this year.
The Cabinet suspended talks about the draft bill on Wednesday. According to Robert Fico, they did so because it was necessary to add certain provisions into the draft and specify some arrangements. These would guarantee that respective departments would continue to manage in terms of methodology their dedicated services after transition of regional state administration to district offices. „So that the impression does not arise that the Interior Ministry will manage schools,“ Prime Minister Fico clarified. The Interior Ministry will only be in charge of administrative overhead in functioning of the authorities. The bill was submitted to parliament on Friday so that it can be debated in the first reading at the September session.
As a result of the new legislation, 199 people employed at specialized regional offices would lose their jobs. The state budget next year should save approximately 3.2 million euros. This is the first phase of a major reform of the state administration named ESO. „Today we approved three percent of ESO,“ said Fico. In the second stage of reform, all the responsibilities of the state government at the local level should be integrated from January 1, 2014, into a single state administration office. Until 2016, Fico said the government plans to save 700 million euros in this way. „This project will really be painful,“ he said. If the government manages to pass what they have planned, it will be the most fundamental reform of functioning of the state since 1989. Fico Slovakia likened Slovakia in the area of the state administration to a rotten pond where not even fishermen go to any longer.
SITA
