On Friday, November 27, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) organized a discussion “The Law on Civil Service – Changes and Prospects”. The discussion was held within the framework of the project “Strategic Plan Georgia 2020 – Strengthening Public Involvement”. The article was published on the blog.

The representatives of public and non-governmental sector participated in the event, where they discussed the civil service reform, its main features, intended changes and the effectiveness of the bureaucracy.

The speakers of the panel were: Maia Dvalishvili – the Deputy Head of the Public Service Bureau; Khatuna Gogorishvili – Member of the Parliament, “United National Movement”; Nino Dolidze – The head of the public policy program, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA); Levan Alapishvili – Lawyer, The Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia; Aleksandre Elisashvili – Deputy of the Tbilisi City Council; Iago Khvichia – Lawyer, Founder of the New Political Center “Girchi”.

During the first panel, speakers discussed the Civil Service Reform. The Deputy Head of the Public Service Bureau – Maia Dvalishvili talked about the concept of the reform, the process of its formulation and the changes in the law, which will come into force from January 2017. According to Dvalishvili, existing challenges were identified during the formulation of the concept, that determined the necessity of drafting the new law. As Dvalishvili said, the work on the new legislation began because of partitioned and sometimes contradictory regulations in the legislation of 1997. The new law contains norms such as disciplinary proceedings, the mechanisms for protecting the rights of civil servants and for the assessment of their work, etc. According to Dvalishvili, Georgian and foreign experts, as well as the representatives of non-governmental organizations were involved in the working process.

Khatuna Gogorishvili talked about the negative sides of the new law and discussed necessary amendments. According to her, despite the fact that the law is based on the principles of professional civil service, under the new law the competition will be closed for professionals working outside the civil service sector. As Gogorishvili said, closed competition will damage the principle of professionalism, since the chances of attracting professional staff from the private sector will decrease. She also discussed the mechanisms for providing stability to civil servants and stated that the new law does not provide any of these guarantees. According to Gogorishvili, the regulations necessary for the stable civil service reform, are outside the framework of the new law, and will only be based on the government’s respective decisions. This practice increases the risk that the regulations for stable civil service will be determined according to the good will of the members of the government. She also talked about the disciplinary responsibility, social guarantees and regulations for remuneration system.

Nino Dolidze assessed the new law positively. According to her, the major advantage of the law is the implementation of professional civil service model, since this model enables the protection of the principle of competitiveness. Dolidze also noted that the biggest disadvantage of the new civil service law is the procedure of appointing civil servants, which makes the civil service unattractive for many of the professionals outside the field. Dolidze stated, that it is vital to make the civil service accessible to professionals outside sector, to make the process transparent, open and politically neutral – the problem which is still unresolved. She also discussed the role of the EU in implementing the Civil Service Reform and stated that the EU does not present any specific requirements for the implementation process of the reform. The union only sets general principles, values and objectives that needs to be achieved by the reform. Determining the steps for realizing these goals is the prerogative of the government, which is responsible for identifying specific ways to achieve the effectiveness of the civil service.

The speakers discussed the tendencies for growing bureaucracy and the issue of its effectiveness during the second panel of the discussion.

Levan Alapishvili - the head of the program supporting self-governance, talked about the interdependence of budget and the effectiveness of bureaucracy. According to him, there is no functioning program budget, having a significant effect on the growth of bureaucracy and problems related to governance. Alapishvili emphasized the lack of standards of program budget and stated that this deficiency is especially apparent in incase of effective functioning of self-governing entities. 

Alexandre Elisashvili – the deputy of the Tbilisi City Council talked about the growing staff list in the Tbilisi City Council and Tbilisi City Hall and discussed the ineffectiveness of the bureaucracy in these establishments. According to him, one of the problems is the citizens’ inactivity and the lack of interest toward the working process of the legislative and executive branch. The lack of civil involvement delays the full implementation of the civil service reform, noted Elisashvili.

The founder of the New Political Center “Girchi” – Iago Khvihia emphasized the advantages of the small government and noted that regulations in the new civil service law further complicates the implementation processs of the Civil Service Reform. According to him, the problem is the lack of political will, and the enforcement of the law will not have any significant effects unless the approach is changed. As Khvichia noted, the way out of the situation is decreasing the size of bureaucracy, which now costs the state approximately 1/3 of the income.

After the presentations, the discussion continued with a Q&A session, where the invited guests had the opportunity to engage in the discussion through questions and remarks.

See the media coverage of the event. 

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