A manual to guide Montenegro’s public administrators to Europe
Even those who believe that less government is better government will agree that there can be no good government without an effective public administration staffed by qualified and dedicated people. When communism began to crumble in European countries, forward thinking individuals and groups understood that it was time for them to explore other governance systems and structures in order to create new paradigms in those countries.
After conducting cost/benefit analyses, many of those countries decided to build new societies based on the concepts of electoral democracy, market economics and the rule of law. The decisions to embrace Western models and seek membership in the European Union (EU) meant an incredible shifting of the tectonic plates underneath national governments.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) established a small liaison office in Montenegro in 2002, while it was still a part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2003, UNDP, at the request of the Government of Montenegro and in partnership with the Open Societies Institute, established the Capacity Development Programme (CDP). The programme, which is managed at the operational level by UNDP, contributes to the development of institutional and administrative capacities of the Government of Montenegro in support of its attempt to become a member of the European Union.
Given the sometimes bewildering complexities of sophisticated modern day public administration theories and practices, it is understandable that a tiny country like Montenegro - which had just recently emerged from a debilitating decade of regional wars and trade sanctions; which had no empirical understanding of Western governance models; and which has a population of approximately 620,000 - would find itself faced with a drastic shortage of the human capital needed for such an enormous reform effort. Indeed, there can be no good government without an effective public administration staffed by qualified and dedicated people and one of the duties accepted by UNDP’s CDP was to aid the government in its efforts to identify and train government employees.
In 2004, the Government of Montenegro established the Human Resources Management Authority (HRMA) which was tasked with the, “improvement and development of the human resources management system within state institutions, as well as the improvement of professional competencies of personnel hired by these institutions.”
All new hired public servants in Montenegro have to pass an exam after their first year of employment but that exam was based, in part, on knowledge of the constitution and laws of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro. Having dissolved that state union following a successful independence referendum in 2006, government employees needed to be trained in the new constitution of Montenegro, which was passed into law in the autumn of 2007. Because of Montenegro’s aspirations to join the EU, it was decided that public servants would also have to possess knowledge of the EU integration process and EU laws. To address the challenging knowledge deficit, the government turned to UNDP for support.
In conjunction with the Ministry of Justice and HRMA, UNDP’s CDP formed an expert panel which was charged with formulating the contents of a manual that would endow prospective and already employed public administrators who hold degrees from post secondary schools with the requisite information to pass the exam. Similar efforts had been undertaken in other prospective EU countries and UNDP Montenegro consulted with their counterparts in those countries regarding the most efficient and expeditious ways to produce a manual for the Montenegrin government.
CDP staff were delegated to provide strategic advice and administrative support and were also authorized to monitor, control and report on the project.
The manual was completed in 2008 and more than 100 public servants have made use of it since. The manual has had a direct positive impact on the capacities and skills of individuals who work in state administration and government institutions will function more efficiently for the effort. The manual has six booklets, covering relevant areas including administrative procedure, state administration and local self governance, European integration, the constitution, human rights, public finances, labour relations and basics of commercial law.
Prior to production and distribution of the manual, examinees were, by necessity, forced to scour the Internet and Montenegro’s libraries for the websites, books, manuals and periodicals which contained the information needed to pass the exam. Even after they had done so, it was not necessarily the case that they had found the necessary materials. Needless to say, that was an arduous and ineffective process which was not helpful in the effort to build a modern and effective state bureaucracy.
Plans are now being made to prepare a manual for employees and applicants who do not hold degrees from post secondary schools.
Peter Drucker, the western world’s most famous and respected management guru, once said, “Leadership is doing the right things, management is doing things right.” The composition of Montenegro’s political leadership is now decided by the people of Montenegro, through open and fair democratic elections. UNDP’s role in Montenegro, as it is in all countries it operates in, is to offer the best professional advice to political leaders, so they can do the right things. Once a country’s political leaders decide to do the right things, it is then UNDP’s responsibility to help the country’s public administration (management) to do things right. The manual is already making a big difference in that effort.
