Despite promises to downsize the public sector, North Macedonia\u2019s Government has continued to establish new public institutions.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Information Society and Administration announced on Monday that 74 new institutions have been established within eight years, including eight in 2023 alone.<\/p>\n
Among the eight new institutions founded this year, financed by the state budget, are \u201cTen Days of the Republic of Krushevo\u201d, \u201cArt Gallery in Gostivar\u201d, \u201cSmilevo Congress Event\u201d, and the \u201cCenter for Turkish Community Culture\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn North Macedonia, we have institutions that don\u2019t even know their competencies,\u201d said Azir Aliu, the Minister of Information Society and Administration.<\/p>\n
Reducing the number of civil servants is also an ongoing demand from the European Union, among the mandatory requirements that North Macedonia must fulfill to join the European family.<\/p>\n
A report by the European Commission published in July of this year stated, \u201creforms in administration are hindered by certain officials\u201d.<\/p>\n
Juliana Karai of the Institute for European Policy told Radio Free Europe that due to the \u201clack of rational organization of government bodies and the absence of clear lines of accountability\u201d in how budget money is spent, reforms in administration cannot be expected to meet EU requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost likely, the heads of institutions cannot agree, there is a kind of resistance from the leaders of these institutions because the process began two years ago during the pandemic, even we as civil society were involved in this process. But it seems that the whole process is stalled. They do not even inform us about how far this process has gone,\u201d Karai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical leaders are afraid to shrink the administration\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Political experts emphasize that administrative reforms are hindered by the political leaders\u2019 fear of losing voters if they reduce the administration.<\/p>\n \u201cHere we are dealing with individual and group interests. It is beyond doubt that the victory or defeat of political parties is reflected in their electorate through securing or losing jobs in state institutions,\u201d said Albert Musliu of the Institute for Democracy Development.<\/p>\n He stressed that \u201cevery job is converted into votes, plus or minus\u201d, adding that this hinders the reduction of civil servants, even though \u201cany reduction in institutions is for the general good\u201d.<\/p>\n Public administration reform was also included in the so-called \u201c3-6-9 emergency reform plan\u201d of 2017 and the \u201c18\u201d plan, which was published a year later.<\/p>\n The Government has not provided details on how far the implementation of this process has progressed in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite promises to downsize the public sector, North Macedonia\u2019s Government has continued to establish new public institutions. The Ministry of Information Society and Administration announced on Monday that 74 new institutions have been established within eight years, including eight in 2023 alone. Among the eight new institutions founded this year, financed by the state budget, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[4329,308,2796,402,243,151,298,2946],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n