Despite the declared intentions to optimize the state administration, reduce costs and replace it with electronic services, the number of civil servants is increasing. This is according to the 2022 State of the Administration Report, writes the Institute for Market Economy.
The report shows that the number of employees of the Bulgarian administration is 143,815, of which 36,736 are in the territorial administration. The increase compared to the previous year was 0.3%, but since 2016, the administration has increased by more than 8%. Even more interesting is the comparison with the population. In 2022, there will be 2,230 clerks per 100,000 people, or nearly 20% (363) more than six years earlier.
The report includes data on administrative structures, human resources, the conditions for carrying out the activities of the administration and access to public information. The analysis of the considered indicators includes a number of interesting conclusions.
Mandatory training is not widely implemented and the law is not respected. In 2022, less than 10% of senior administration officials have completed the mandatory annual training. The trainings covered less than half of the newly hired employees and those in managerial positions. Another curious case – according to the Civil Servant Law, if the civil servant has undergone training lasting more than 20 days, he is obliged to work in the relevant administration for at least one year. However, over 42% of those who trained left within this period and none of them recovered the training funds. A positive trend in terms of training is that the number of those in the field of information systems and digital skills is increasing.
In the administration, large differences in pay continue to be observed both for employees of the same position within a given administrative structure and between separate administrations of the same type.
There is still a tendency for high-end computers to be concentrated in central administration, despite the fact that the main provider of administrative services is municipal administrations.
Despite the increase in the possibilities for electronic services, compared to 2021, the number of provided electronic services is decreasing (by nearly 20%), and the capacity of shared e-government resources is still not intensively used by administrative bodies. The data are in unison with study of the National Center for Parliamentary Research on e-Government in Bulgaria, from which it is clear that at the beginning of 2023, almost every second interviewee (46%) indicates that they do not search for information and do not use electronic administrative services. The main reasons for not using the electronic services of the administration are: I do not trust electronic services/prefer direct contact (24.1%), I do not need to use the Internet to get what I need (23.5%) and I do not have the necessary computer skills (19.4%).
Almost 7 years after the introduction of a legal requirement for the adoption of internal rules for work under the GDPR, there are still administrative structures that have not fulfilled this obligation and there are no consequences for its non-fulfillment.
Evaluating the performance of duties according to the position held does not correspond to reality. In recent years, it is noticeable that high evaluations prevail, which, according to this year’s report, raises the question of devaluation of evaluation, which stems from subjective premises in its application, despite the existence of a certain standard.
The administrative structures report that over 2,000 of the actually employed employees are entitled to a pension at the end of the year.
In general, higher accountability, continued development and opportunities for the provision of electronic services, wider provision of access to public information is noticeable.
At the same time, the report continues to note the same old problems and once again omits important topics such as the implementation of anti-corruption measures, limiting administrative regulation, the implementation of impact assessments, the outsourcing of activities outside the administration, etc.
For the impact assessment, for example, it was days ago published report, describing the administration’s activities in carrying out impact assessments, from which it is clear that in 2022 there were 5 comprehensive ex ante impact assessments and 6 ex post impact assessments carried out, and 22 are in the process of being carried out. It should be noted that the information is only quantitative and not qualitative, which makes it difficult to judge how far these efforts actually support the policy-making process or are formal compliance with a requirement.
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2023-05-07 00:01:10
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