Ukr final report

Study tour to Czech Republic on smart administration: contributing to the reform dialogue in Ukraine

3.-7.8.2015, Prague, Czech Republic

FINAL REPORT

This document provides an overview of the Study tour to Czech Republic on smart administration: contributing to the reform dialogue in Ukraine (3.-7.8.2015).

MEPCO, s.r.o. Spálená 108/51, 110 00 Praha 1 tel.: +420 222 560 384 email: [email protected] www.mepco.cz

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AGENDA Venue Time Presenter/activity Topic

Arrival day - August 2, 2015

p.m.

Arrival of the delegation to Prague airport, collected by Martin Guba, Project Assistant, MEPCO, Transfer to Hotel Charles Central (Thámova 26, 180 00 Praha 8, Czech Republic)

1stday - MONDAY, August 3, 2015

a.m.

MEPCO, Spálená 108/51, Prague 1

9:00-10:00Mgr. Martin Guba - MEPCO, Project Assistant responsible for the study tour agenda and logistics

Invitation and presentation of agenda, logistics and organization of the study tour

10:00-12:00

Ing. Marek Vetýška – Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (SMO CR), former employee of Ministry of Interior responsible for the municipal and regional financing

Introduction to the public administration system in the Czech Republic and roles and competencies of the municipalities in public service provision

Restaurant U medvídků, Na Perštýně 7, Prague 1

Lunch time, Czech traditional restaurant and cuisine, covered by MEPCO representative

p.m.MEPCO, Spálená 108/51, Prague 1

13:00-14.00 Jaromír Jech- Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (SMO CR), Vice- Chairman of SMO

Public administration reform in the Czech Republic, transformation of public administration and providing newly required public services

Transfer to Czech Development AgencyCzech Development Agency, Nerudova 3

14:30-16:00 Mgr. Martin Náprstek - Czech Development Agency, Deputy director of CDA

Activities of Czech Development Agency in Eastern Europe




118 50 Prague 1

2nd day - TUESDAY, August 4, 2015

a.m.

Ministry of Regional Development (MMR), Na Příkopě 3, Prague 1

9:00-11:30

Mgr. František Kubeš - Ministry of Regional Development, Department of urban politics

Regional development policy

11.30-12:00 Transfer to the restaurant U medvídků Restaurant U medvídků, Na Perštýně 7, Prague 1


p.m.


13:00-14:30

Ing. Mgr. Kamil Dominik Slapnička, City of Most, HR manager of the Most Magistrate

Professional development of executives, officers and professional growth further evaluation with a direct connection to the system of remuneration (variable pay) and further education of employees in city of Most.

14:30-16:00Ing. Bohumila Budková - Association of Chief Executives, Chief Executive of the City of Dobříš

Increasing availability and quality of public services in the city level, e-government in city level ( e-procurement system)


16:30- 17:30

Ing. Marek Jetmar, Ph.D. - Office of the Government of the Czech Republic , member

Bringing public services to the citizens, association of Town and Municipal Administrations’ Secretaries of Czech Republic , innovations in Czech Government




3rd day - WEDNESDAY, August 5 2015

a.m.

Ministry of Interior, Náměstí Hrdinů 3, Prague 4

9:00-9:15Ing.Ondrej Mátl, MPA., MS, Ministry of Interior, Secretary of Deputy minister responsible for public administration

Public administration development in Czech Republic. Strategic frameworks

9:15-12:00Ing. Roman Vrba, Ministry of Interior, Director of eGovernment Department

E-government from the national perspective, CZECH POINT, Data box

Lunch time, to be provided at the facility of the Ministry, covered by the MEPCO representative

p.m.

Ministry of Interior, Náměstí Hrdinů 3, Prague 4

13:00-16:00

RNDr. Josef Postránecký, Ministry of Interior, Deputy minister responsible for the state service, and colleagues

Overall civil service framework in CZ, new civil service legislation, HR implications., The selection process for vacant positions of civil servants.

Rašínovo nábřeží, tier number 2,Prague 2

18:00-19:00

Social event: Sightseeing tour in Prague - Vltava boat trip- city view from the river

Restaurant U Fleků, Křemencova 11,Prague 1

19:30- 22:00

Joint dinner, Czech traditional restaurant and cuisine, covered by MEPCO representative

4th day - THURSDAY, August 6, 2015

a.m.


9:00-10:30

Ing. David Koppitz- Ministry of Regional Development, Director of regional politics department

Anti-corruption- Revision of anti-corruption indicators and monitoring system, corruptive risk, behavior and monitoring- municipal level




10:30-12:00

Ing. František Kučera - Government Office, Department for Combating Corruption, Chairman of the Commision monitoring property management

Fighting corruption in the Czech Republic – government level

Restaurant U medvídků, Na Perštýně 7, Prague 1


p.m.


13:00-16:00

Representative of Transparency International, Transparency International

Fighting corruption in the Czech Republic from the NGO point of view-national level

Departure day - FRIDAY , August 7, 2015

Departure of the delegation to Prague airport, Transfer from Hotel Charles Central (Thámova 26, 180 00 Praha 8, Czech Republic)




ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS

MEPCO, s.r.o. (International Advisory Centre of Municipalities) was established in 2004 as a joint venture of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic and the company VNG International, a daughter company of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities. The key objective of the company is to support local and regional authorities whilst addressing their quality assurance and quality control of services rendered. MEPCO provides consulting, management, training and research services to local governments and regions, their institutions and associated businesses throughout the Czech Republic. In addition, MEPCO offers Czech good governance know-how in the international market.

Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic (SMO CR) - is a voluntary, apolitical and non-governmental organization founded as an interest group of legal entities. It is the largest municipal association in the Czech Republic representing all types of municipalities with approximately 2.500 members. Its members account for more than 70 % of the total population of the Czech Republic. SMO CR is a partner to governmental and parliamentary political representation, it participates in the preparation and creation of policy and draft legislative measures in areas pertaining to the competencies of municipalities (self-governance).

Activity of SMO CR is primarily based on active participation of mayors and municipal representatives who, beyond the framework of their duties, also devote to general self-government issues. Considering the size of SMO CR’s platform, its representatives are always able to recommend the ideal experienced candidates for any expert work that is to be carried out on the local level.

The Ministry of Interior is supreme office for the realms of public administration, internal security, border protection and eGovernment in the Czech Republic.

It is a central governmental authority for home affairs, in particular for: public order and other matters relating to internal order and security within its defined scope of competence. Ministry of Interior provides methodological support for the Smart administration transformation in the Czech republic. Another important competency of the Ministry is a reformation of the civil service act and its implementation.

The Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic belongs to the system of central government authorities of the Czech Republic in the fields delimited by relevant legal documents. It plays an important role within the state administration through the extent of its powers, competences and liabilities for the management of financial means.




The Ministry was established with the effect from 1st November, 1996 and has been a central government authority in the matters of: regional policy, housing policy, development of dwelling and housing stock, letting of flats and non-residential premises, spatial planning, building rules, expropriation, investment policy, tourism, undertaking, public procurement, etc..

Government office - is the central body of state administration. The Office fulfils tasks connected with the expert, organizational and technical provision of the activities of the Government of the Czech Republic and its bodies. The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic also provides the conditions (organisational and technical background) for the work of the expert bodies of the prime minister and members of the government who do not have their own departments at their disposal (as a rule this is usually ministers without portfolio or deputy prime ministers). Last but not least, the Office provides the operation of so-called advisory and working bodies of the government such as the Government Legislative Council, the State Security Council, the Council of the Government of the Czech Republic for Human Rights, etc.

Association of Chief Executives - Association of Chief Executives is a voluntary association of individuals who perform the function of secretary of the municipality or city. The main objective of the Association is to promote professional interests and cooperation on the development of public administration in the country. Its mission is to defend the interests of its members, notably by active proposals for legislative action by Parliment, which relates to the activities of the municipal authorities, cooperation with other organizations and associations operating in the local public administration in providing public administrations of towns and municipalities, training of officials and municipal offices, collaboration with foreign national organizations and associations of similar type and orientation, etc. The association was founded on 29 June 1994 and has 311 members.

Magistrate of City of Most- City of Most is with approximately 65thousand inhabitants belongs to one of the medium- sized Czech municipalities. Its magistrate has implemented a very successful smart administration transformation project focused on competency based employee development and management. The project enhanced the quality of personnel management and personnel processes, thus contributing significantly to improved services provided to its citizens and clients and the entire administrative area of the city. This provides a relevant best practice example for the study tour participants.

Czech Development Agency (CzDA)- was established by a decision of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2008. It has taken up activities of the Czech Development Center. CzDA cooperates with the MFA on the establishment of an institutional framework of the Czech development cooperation and actively participates in the creation of development cooperation programs between the Czech Republic and priority countries as well as on the other stages of the project cycle management. Ukraine belongs to one of the target countries of CzDA programme.


http://www.vlada.cz/en/pracovni-a-poradni-organy-vlady/default.htm



Transparency International Czech Republic (TIC) is a non-governmental organization, which objective is to monitor the state of corruption in the Czech Republic and contribute to its systemic reduction. TIC’s activities concern a number of areas, such as public procurement, issues concerning conflicts of interest or non-transparent public finance management. Education and training courses represent one of major tools for dissemination of anti-corruption know-how in the country. TIC is one of more than 90 chapters of Transparency International (TI). TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption. TI and its chapters bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and in business.




LoP

NAME POSITION/ORGANIZATION Contacts

1 BILYNSKA MARYNA Vice President

National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine

Tel. (044) 456-42-58

Email: [email protected]

2 KHILOBOK IVAN Advisor, Administration of the President of Ukraine Cell: +38 050 4646866Email: [email protected]

3 CHMIL LESIA Advisor to the Minister

Ministry for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine


Cell: +38 050 413 7676

4 KUPRIY VOLODYMYR Member of the Advisory Expert Group under the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, Reanimation Reform Package

Cell . +38 067 404 71 77


5 BALKOVENKO HALYNA Head,

Department of Strategic Planning and Information and Analytics Support,

National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service

Tel. (044) 256 00 63

Cell: +38 (067) 290 27 70


6 VOITOVYCH RADMYLA Member of the Advisory Expert Group under the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, PhD, Head of the Department of philosophy, theory, and history of state administration, National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine


Tel. (044) 455 66 75

Cell: +38 (095) 214 11 19

7 KOVALCHUK VALENTYNA

Director, Email: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]









School of Senior Civil Service Cell: +38 (067) 450 88 86

8 KANAVETS MARYNA Director, Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union


Cell. (068) 573 18 57

9 TARAS OLYNEK State Agency on E-Governance of Ukraine Cell.


10 SOROKA SERGII Member of the Advisory Expert Group under the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, Coordinator of the project group “Reform of Civil Service in Ukraine” of the initiative “New Country”

Email: [email protected]. +38 050 352 4564

11 TYMOSHCHUK VIKTOR Member of the working group on PAR of the Reanimation Reform Package, Deputy Chair of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms

Cell. +38 067 441 6532

Tel.: (044) 599 0193


12 VASYL ROMANYUK Project Coordinator, UNDP Democratization, Human Rights and Civil Society Development in Ukraine


Cell. 067 233 11 93

13 YULIYA SHCHERBININA Senior Programme Manager, Democratic Governance, UNDP Ukraine

Email: [email protected];

Tel.: (044)253 93 63/ ext.161


mailto:[email protected];








EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK

The delegation from Belarus arrived on Sunday, 2.8.2015, where greeted and welcomed by MEPCO representative and transferred to the hotel.

Monday, 3.8.2015 represented an introductory day, where the delegation was shortly informed about the study tour and logistics. After that, Marek Vetýška from Union of Towns and Municipalities a public administration system in the Czech Republic and roles and competencies of the municipalities in public service provision. Mr. Jech continued with the presentation afterwards, focusing more on public administration reform in the Czech Republic and its transformation over the years. The overall introduction was important to get into the topic and follow on the next days. The delegation finished the Monday presentation at Czech Development Agency, where Mr. Náprstek presented activities of Czech Development Agency in Eastern Europe

Tuesday, 4.8.2015 started at the Ministry of Regional Development. Mr. Kubeš presented urban politics and regional development policy. In the afternoon, an interesting insight of Mr. Slapnička from Most municipality got the attention. The presentation focused on professional development of municipal executives, officers and professional growth connected to the modern HR management techniques, including ICT. Mrs. Budková from Association of Chief Executives and Mr. Jetmar from Government office presented e-government in city level ( e-procurement system) and public services from the governmental perspectives at the end of the day schedule

The key presentation took place at the Ministry of Interior on 5.8.2015. The delegation was welcomed by Mr. Mátl- Secretary of Deputy minister responsible for public administration and followed by Mr. Vrba Director of eGovernment Department and his colleagues, who presented E-government from the national perspective, including CZECH POINT and Data box. After the lunch, Mr. Postránecký-Deputy minister responsible for the state service, and his colleagues presented civil service legislation and reform.

Thursday, 6.8.2015, the last day of the Study tour, was focused on the transparency issues. Mr. Koppitz from Ministry of Regional Development presented anti-corruption- indicators and monitoring system of corruptive risk and behavior. Mr. Kučera from Government Office looked at the topic from the government level. The study tour was closed by the presentation of Transparency International on fighting corruption from the NGO point of view and practical visit of one of the Czech points.

In overall, the study tour was evaluated positively. Despite the demanding schedule, the delegation was very active, with full attention and open to the discussions. This pushed the presentations and their usefulness to a higher level. Derived from the evaluation, there were some presentations, which were not very interesting for the participants, which brings us to the try to reach more well-balanced Agendas in the future. Logistics wise, there was a wish from some participants to change the hotel to more suitable one, which was acted upon immediately. The delegation was interested in the concrete practical utilization of the knowledge, which was often reflected in the discussions with




the individual speakers. The list of speakers is available to the delegation and is welcomed to contact any organization/individual involved in the Study tour.

FOLLOW UP

Efficient public administration and friendly public services (Smart Administration) is one of the Czech government strategies. Its aim is to ensure a coordinated and efficient way of improving public administration and public services with the utilization of Structural Funds.

The basic aim of the strategy has been to transform and simplify the procedures used in Public Administration to be able and prepared to use modern information and communication technologies (ICT).

Objectives of Smart Administration

Smart Administration vision for 2015:

• Public Administration in the Czech Republic is primarily understood as a service to the citizen. It meets the principles of good governance and operates effectively and efficiently.

• Public services are customer oriented, meet citizens' expectations, respond flexibly to their needs and work efficiently.

• Public administration and public services contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the Czech economy and improve the quality of life of the inhabitants.

Global objective:

To promote socio-economic growth of the Czech Republic and enhance the quality of life by streamlining the function of public administration and public services.

Smart Administration strategy perceives the public governance as a hexagon. Its individual peaks symbolize elements of the public service, which are keys to its effectiveness.

Citizens are clients of public administration. It is required to facilitate contact with public authorities and minimize




unnecessary regulation. It is also necessary to provide more transparent governance, make it open and enable the public to participate in its decisions and to control its operation.

Funds and financing of public administration, budgeting, resource allocation methods within the public administration and linking budgets to the strategic priorities of the Government / ministries / councils need attention. All agenda in the public administration needs to be reviewed in terms of cost-efficiency.

ICT as a tool to facilitate contact between citizens and public authorities, but also facilitating communication within the public administration. ICT is perceived as a tool for change, not a goal in itself.

The public servant is the cornerstone of public administration, whether it's a ministry official or official performing state administration through delegated powers to the county or municipality. The officials should be treated equally everywhere, they must provide high quality performance and undergo permanent training. Emphasis should be placed on quality management at all levels.

Organization of public administration should always seek a balance between proximity of the public service to the citizen and efficient spending of public funds. It involves the level of management, quality control methods, monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of spending and monitoring citizens' satisfaction.

Laws and legislation represent a tool for protecting social values and influencing the behavior of citizens. Laws should be as simple and clear as possible, be forced upon only in cases of absolute necessity and should not cause unnecessary bureaucracy.

Nowadays, many of the Smart Administration outputs meet a positive public response (resulting from the survey of the Ministry of Interior). 100% of respondents know the basic registers, Czech POINT and Data boxes. More than half of respondents uses Czech POINT, 65% of respondents use data boxes and almost 30% of respondents communicates within the basic registers.

Czech POINT is a project which aims to reduce excessive bureaucracy in the citizen - public administration relationship. A citizen must often visit several offices to handle the same issue. Czech POINT serves as the assisted place of public administration, enabling communication with the State through one place.

The aim of the Czech POINT was to create a guaranteed service to communicate with the state via one universal place where it is possible to obtain and verify data from public and private information systems, certify and check documents, convert written documents into electronic form and vice versa, to get information about the administrative proceedings related to the citizen and to initiate proceedings administrations. The basic idea behind




Czech POINT was to make maximum use of data in state ownership and minimize the demands on people. Czech POINT makes communication with the state considerably easier. In some situations, all the citizen needs is to visit one Czech POINT office, which can manage most of his or her demands. In the final phase of the project, citizens will manage their activities from home via the Internet.

Data boxes belong to one of the basic building blocks of Czech eGovernment. They have fundamentally changed the method for delivering official documents. Utilizing data boxes, we can send and receive documents electronically to and from public authorities.

This method of communication - through data boxes - replaces the classic method of delivery in paper form, since the law on data boxes makes paper and electronic versions of the document equal. Public authorities and certain groups of legal entities and individuals have their data box automatically established by law, all others at their request. The goal is to have more and more efficient data boxes - faster, cheaper and more reliable public administration, which feels positively for every citizen.

Regarding the reforming process aimed at the more efficient public service, it is important to mention the recent new civil service law which came into force on 1 January 2015. It covers new relations between government employees (civil servants) and administrative offices. The update of previous Act of 2002 governing service relationships has been postponed many times. Finally, there is completely new law (the Civil Service Act) this year as a replacement. Its adoption was preceded by active media coverage and widely commented debate, particularly regarding the existence of so-called political deputies or the establishment of the General Directorate of Civil Service. More information about the actual state of implementation was provided during the Study tour (especially the Wednesday session).

Smart administration and its implementation can bring a lot of positive impact, if exploiting synergies and holistic and smart approach. However, as it could be seen during the Study tour as well, some cases show uncoordinated actions, often very costly, which bring no benefit at the end. Learning best practices and recognizing bad practice from the various parts of the world is very useful. Looking for the working solution and adopting it is one of the efficient ways hot to implement smart administration principles. However, the overall specific and clear top-down strategy (ideally on the national level) is crucial for the successful implementation. One should be very careful not to create the strategy as a theoretical paper without any connection to reality. Ideally, high level experts discussion, together with practical insights of the broader expert base can help to streamline the process. Constant reevaluation of the strategy and testing its validity is a must as well.




APPENDIX- PHOTODOCUMENTATION

Ministry of Interior, Deputy Minister Postránecký with his colleague, 5.8.2015




Ministry of Interior, Czech point presentation by Mr.Vrba, Director of e-Government, 5.8.2015




Ministry of Interior, joint picture, 5.8.2015


Ukr final report

Documents

Transcript of Ukr final report