Civil service and policymaking integrity challenge the public administration reform in Albania
On the International Day Against Corruption, December 9, 2021, IDM and Hanns Seidel Stiftung (HSS) organised the policy forum “Civil service and policymaking integrity”, within the activities of the Week of Integrity 2021. The forum discussed the challenges of the public administration reform (PAR) in two different panels about civil service and policymaking, based on the presentation of three policy briefs with in-depth policy recommendations on (i) civil service integrity, (ii) policymaking based on data and evidence, and (iii) public consultation, assessed as red-flagged issues by the WeBER 2.0 PAR Monitor Albania 2019/2020 report.
The first panel deliberated on politicization as an integrity challenge for the civil service. Integrity risks examined in the opening policy brief highlighted some of the key civil service areas where urgent intervention is needed to recover fundamental principles of meritocracy and professionalism. Panel discussants compound of policymakers, national and international experts coming from the Department of Public Administration, the European Union Delegation Albania, OECD/ SIGMA, and the University of Tirana further enriched the discussion providing each their feedback from various legal, political, and ethical perspectives.
The second panel dwelled on the topic of public consultation and evidence-based policymaking.
Policy briefs findings argued that lack of transparency prevents meaningful evidence-based policymaking and that conducting successful public consultations processes, need to address shortcomings in the legal framework and institutional practice that enable their circumvention in practice. Discussants from the OECD/SIGMA, the Right of information, Information and Data Protection Commissioner, the WeBER National Working Group on PAR, and attendants from public institutions and civil society confronted their different standpoints and experience with each other, highlighting the need for more activities of this kind that enable an informed dialogue among the civil service and civil society.
“Western Balkan Civil Society Empowerment for a Reformed Public Administration”, implemented by the Think for Europe Network and financed by the European Union.