UNMIK/FR/071/01

Government structure

The shape of tomorrow's government is lean

Party leaders will no doubt study UNMIK's latest regulation very closely. Promulgated yesterday, it defines the new structure of the government - strictly speaking, the executive arm of the government - that will take over from the Joint Administration after the election.

More to the point for those who will have their hands on the levers of power, regulation 2001/19 shows the contesting parties for the first time how the most senior political positions will be distributed. They can therefore begin to envisage who might fill particular ministerial posts.

They can also consider, if it comes to a coalition, which ministerial jobs they should try to keep for themselves and which to offer to potential coalition partners and the required minority representatives. And if they turn out to be opposition parties this time around, they might need to designate shadow ministers to debate the government's policy decisions and performance.

But equally important for Kosovo's future governance is what the new regulation has to say about definition of ministerial responsibilities, the organization of individual ministries and the rules to ensure a non-political Kosovo civil service. UNMIK's aim in drafting it was that both the Government and its supporting civil service should be lean, efficient and free from fraud and corruption.

Lean
One of the major changes from the present joint administration will be the nine Ministries that take over the work of the present twenty departments (see chart).The nine portfolios will cover all the responsibilities assigned to the institutions of self-government in chapter 5 of the Constitutional Framework. This includes those specifically added by Kosovar representatives such as technology alongside science in the Ministry responsible for education, and tourism, to be developed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

As in most governments these days, some of the new Ministries encompass some strange bedfellows. Culture went, not to Education as widely forecast, but to a catch-all Ministry along with Youth, Sports and Non-Resident Affairs. The Health Minister will look after the Environment and Spacial Planning.

Ministries may also expand their competences, provided that can the enabling legislation to set up Executive Agencies through the Assembly. Although responsible to their respective Ministers, such agencies will have independent budgets and terms of reference. Thus, regulation 2001/19 places several existing agencies under the authority of the appropriate Ministry. The Kosovo Statistical Office and the Kosovo Cadastral Agency are attached to the Ministry of Public Services).The Minister of Health, Environment and Spatial Planning will be responsible for the The Kosovo Drug Regulatory Authority, the Kosovo Food Control Agency, Licensing and Training Boards and a Healthcare Commissioning Agency.

Accountable
While, under the Constitutional Framework, the Assembly may only dismiss the whole Executive together, its Members will have the right to call individual Ministers to account for their policies and actions.

Regulation 2001/XX makes Ministers specifically responsible for formulating priorities for allocating their resources, ensuring proper use of funds, providing reliable services, developing human resources and addressing needs of vulnerable groups. Future Ministers are also charged with introducing anti?fraud/corruption measures, setting up management information systems.

But, as elsewhere also, the main person to deal with day-to-day will be a Permanent Secretary- the Ministry's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and holder of full authority over the Ministry's civil servants. In other words, he or she may not be bypassed. CEOs of any Executive Agencies are to have similar powers.

Community balance
Special to Kosovo, compared to other civil services, are the provisions to ensure competence on one hand and inter-community equity on the other.
Under the Constitutional Framework, two of the nine Ministers will be from non- Albanian communities, one of them a Kosovo Serb. The new regulation says that the share of minority communities throughout the entire civil service will reflect the proportion of those community's representatives in the Assembly.

At the same time, however, members of the civil service will have to be recruited from all the Kosovo communities on grounds of professional qualification, competence and merit after fair and open competition.

Not surprisingly given the extensive responsibilities assigned by the new regulation to the nine Permanent Secretaries, their recruitment and liability to dismissal are subject to special scrutiny. Along with the CEOs of the Executive Agencies they will be appointed by the Senior Public Appointments Committee. Its job: to ensure that such officials have all the necessary competence, experience and high personal integrity to manage the resources for which they are responsible.

Pivotal role
Fleshing out chapters 5 and 9 of the Constitutional Framework the new regulation assigns a key role to the Office of the Prime Minister (PM) the status of a Ministry and makes it responsible for liaison with the Kosovo Assembly on one hand and coordination of the work of all other Ministries on the other. It will review all draft legislation being submitted by the Government to the Assembly-ensuring its consistency with applicable law, the Constitutional Framework, applicable human rights standards and practices of good governance.

To do this, the Office of the PM will have, offices for political advisers, legal support services and public information, and the secretariat of a Senior Public Appointments Committee There will also be two other advisory offices-with respect to communities and for good governance, human rights, equal opportunity and gender. Thus many activities of the present Department for Democratic Governance and Civil Society will have the close attention of the highest member of the Executive, the Prime Minister.

Still to come
Many details are still to being finalized-for example, the procedures by which the Assembly can exercise its right to call Minister to account.
On the UNMIK side, arrangements are being worked out for a transition period that is likely to run into years rather than months. During that time, the SRSG will continue to exercise hands-on responsibility for many areas, either because of lack of local capacity, or because he retains exclusive responsibility under the Constitutional Framework and resolution 1244.

UNMIK itself will certainly shrink in size gradually at first, then at a fast rate after mid-2002 as local civil servants increasingly take charge. All four of its components will remain, diminishing their hands-or role progressively over time.

The Police and Justice pillar will continue to run law and order systems, relying on the Ministry for Public Services mainly for logistical support.
The Civil Administration pillar will have a supervisory, later a monitoring, role with the civil service supporting seven of the nine Ministries: Culture, Youth and Sport; Education, Science and Technology; Labour and Social Welfare; Health, Environment and Spacial Planning; Transport and Communications; Public Services; and Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development.

The Institution-Building Pillar (OSCE) together with the Civil Administration pillar, will forge appropriate relationships with the Office of the PM's advisory offices for Communities, and for Good Governance, Human Rights, Equal Opportunity and Gender.

The Reconstruction and Economic Development pillar (EU) will continue its influence on the Kosovo Consolidated Budget and the development of Kosovo's economy through the Ministries of Finance and Economy, and Trade and Industry.

Note for editors
The full document may be consulted online in English at http://www.unmik.org/. Albanian and Serbian versions can be provided.

For a selection of photographs, please contact Mr Ky Chung at 038 504-604 ext. 5467