Minister Mancevski: No new framework jobs next year

If Macedonia doesn’t deliver results in order to get a date for accession talks with the EU in June, and a key condition for this is the reform in the public administration, the decision to raise the salaries of the administration workers will be revised

No funds are foreseen for new framework employments with the budget for next year, which will pass in the sign of reforms for the administration, in accordance with the criteria of the European Commission.

Yesterday, Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Mancevski, presenting the budget of MISA for 2019, pointed out that there will be no new employments according to the framework principle, but that, however, the equitable representation in the administration will be taken into account. For that, where is the redistribution of the employees who had been paid for years and never showed up to work, he said that they should look for answers from the Secretariat for the Framework Agreement, which is headed by Minister Hazbi Lika from DUI.

– There was no such interest in this situation before. Now it turns out that it is a problem that solves the long-standing problem we inherited. There is a lot more noise than before when the situation was a status quo, and some of those people still got paid and did not go to work, even ten years later. You need to give us some time to solve the situation in accordance with the law, said Mancevski.

According to the information, Deputy Prime Minister Lika began to show up at work in the past few weeks and also attended the recent government sessions, after the public reopened the issue of his inaction in the government. Therefore, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced possible personnel changes in the cabinet, although, according to the latest information from government sources, no change is planned for ministers.

Mancevski informed that the MISA budget for the upcoming year will weigh a total of 1.55 billion denars, which is a slight increase from last year, and the bulk of the funds, 1.2 billion, are intended for financing MRT, Macedonian Broadcasting and AVMU. By the end of this year, as announced, the new law on audio and audiovisual services will be finalized, which foresees reform in MRT and AVMU, and which has been locked up for months in the Parliamentary Commission for Transport and Communications, headed by is a MP of VMRO-DPMNE. Mancevski informed that consideration is being given to the possibility of the law being released again in a parliamentary procedure in accordance with European directives. It would mean a certain limitation of the deadlines for its adoption, and it is possible to avoid the Commission for Transport and Communications, so that the amendment debate would go through the Committee on European Affairs.

– With the support, MRT, MRD and AVMS receive predictable funds to plan their programs and be autonomous in editorial policy, said Mancevski.

For the upcoming year, 66.3 million denars are foreseen for public administration reforms, and 2.4 million denars for the electronic population register are an integral part of the budget, which, as Mancevski said, will also facilitate the implementation of the census. Emphasizing that most of the projects supported by the MISA are supported by the EU, Minister Mancevski announced a new broadband strategy that needs to be ready by the end of this year, and by the middle of the next, an ICT strategy should be developed.

Minister Mancevski said that it is planned to increase the salaries of the administrators and public sector employees in September next year. However, he announced that the fulfilment of this promise depends on how the administration reform will be implemented, which is one of the key criteria set by the EC to the country.

If Macedonia does not deliver results to get a date for negotiations with the EU in June, and a key condition for this is public administration reform, the decision to raise salaries will be revised in September, said Mancevski.

He pointed out that employment in the administration is no longer attractive for highly skilled professionals, which means that they need to find a way to attract them with something. Quality administration is not needed only for the implementation of EU and NATO screenings, but for citizens to receive quality services.

Mancevski said it is too early to tell how many of the administration employees will be offered to the private sector. This will be known, as he said, by the end of 2019, after the institutions have been reorganized and optimized. The process will be public and transparent, and it will include trade unions and chambers of commerce.
(AMM)