HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FUNCTION IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM IN FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

Public service cannot be properly established unless it clearly determines the place, importance and role of the basic unit or central resource, which is a public servant. Public administration is perceived through the work, activities and characteristics of the employed individual who, on the basis of clearly established and determined legal norms, performs the tasks and serves the needs of the ultimate user, the citizen. Therefore, the problem of the human resources management function in the public service is a central reform issue under SIGMA’s public administration principles for the enlargement countries. The establishment of a professional staff structure of public administration bodies, a clear horizontal and vertical scope, with the introduction of a merit system and a hybrid career system followed by the depolitization of the recruitment and selection process, nominally and factually guarantee minimum management standards in human resources management. Fragmentation of the legal system and the civil service in BiH points to the tendency and trend of differential reform processes at each of the administrative levels that jeopardize the uniformity of the public service in BiH. Global and theoretical models, European and other comparative experiences provide an adequate normative basis for future steps in the public service reform process. The basic issues of the civil service system, such as the notion of a civil servant, the horizontal and vertical scope of the public service, the payment system, the system of promotion, recruitment and selection, training in service, the grounds for termination of public service employment, represent the disputed differential base and the crucial de-harmonization in the civil service reforms at each level of government in BiH. The importance of internal organization, systematization of workplaces and working conditions as well as rules of good administrative behavior in the EU, are also a very important normative reform context for the credibility and dignity of the professional public service in BiH.