SWOT ANALYSIS OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ROMANIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN REGULATIONS ON CIVIL SERVICE WITHIN COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS

Lăcrămioara VERNICA^[1]

e-mail: l.vernica@icc.ro

Abstract

Management of civil service and civil servants involves a strategic, dynamic approach, able to keep up with the changes and alert pace of the reform, as well as the development of a body of civil servants, stable and politically neuter, able to contribute to the efficiency of the administrative system and to the improvement of the relation between administration and civil society, in accordance with the principles underlying the provision of civil service.

Key words: SWOT analysis, civil servant, European regulations on public service

Management policies applied by the National Agency of Civil Servants (Superior management of human resources)

The National Agency of Civil Servants is a central, specialized body of public administration with general material competence in management of civil service, which carries out its activity under the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Specific human resources policies: 

o Equality of opportunity;

o Recruitment and selection;

o Training and development;

o Performance management;

o Career management;

o Communication management;

o Beneficiary-oriented culture;

o Working relationships;

o Satisfaction, motivation and commitment;

o Salary and bonus payments.

Management of civil service and civil servants involves a strategic, dynamic approach, able to keep up with the changes and alert pace of the reform, as well as the development of a body of civil servants, stable and politically neuter, able to contribute to the efficiency of the administrative system and to the improvement of the relation between administration and civil society, in accordance with the principles underlying the provision of civil service, namely:

o Legality, impartiality and objectivity;

o Efficiency and effectiveness;

o Transparency;

o Responsibility;

o Citizen-oriented service;

o Hierarchical subordination;

o Stability in providing civil service.

RESULTS AND CONSIDERATIONS

The policies of the National Agency of Civil Servants are:

o Promoting human resources as strategic element in the current activity of any organization within public administration;

o Carrying out citizen-oriented activities within civil service, as the citizen is the ultimate beneficiary of public services;

o Integrating some European-quality values, principles and standards into the civil service in Romania, consistent with the idea of modern and professional administration;

o Implementing a quality management system in its own activity and also at the level of each active public-administrative structure;

o Using resources fairly and transparently in order to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the administrative activity.

Aspects of the harmonization process during the course of Community integration: 

o Any change process within an organization must be founded on the desire to do so.

o Firstly, superior administrative management must be aware of the opportunities and long term positive implications of this initiative.

o The way of identifying appropriate motivation and control mechanisms, without implementing rigid procedures at the level of each public entity, is the key of successful reformation of public institutions.

SWOT analysis of human resources in Romanian public administration – Strengths: 

1. The existence of some ongoing strategies – a National Development Plan, a National Reforms Plan and a Government Program – oriented toward European Community alignment, with express approach to the human resources within the state administrative system.
2. The tendency and manifest will of overall harmonization with the Community legislation in the administrative field.
3. The existence of a central body – the National Agency of Civil Servants – capable of setting in motion the managerial change of the body of civil servants in public administration.
4. Attracting European financing and specialized contribution for training in the management of Community civil service.
5. Encouraging the creativity of the human resources in the national administrative system by their involvement in Community interstate projects for the purpose of achieving a functional desideratum, namely a viable European public administration.
6. Widening the managerial horizon by involving Romanian professionals in the coaching of training for trainers.
7. The inertia of the force of systemic radicalization at administrative level generated by the post-December 1989 drive, which eminently animates the human factor and, implicitly, the mentality of the human resources in the administration – the very first echelon of change.
8. The existence of an innovative flux, with strong connotations of adaptability to the celerity of the administrative act itself, on the part of the superior management.
9. Adaptability by personal improvement on all steps of the administrative-hierarchical ladder.

SWOT analysis of human resources in Romanian public administration – Weaknesses: 

1. The redressing economical-financial situation.
2. Social pressure generated by generalized dissatisfaction, which constitutes resistance to reformation process.
3. Insufficient coordination in change implementation.
4. Systemic dysfunctions generated by the financial crisis.
5. Delaying some essential legal regulations in the matter of unified and equitable remuneration of the budgeted staff in public administration.
6. Putting generalized pressure on the active staff, by suggesting the imposition of some budgetary restrictions and of some policies of salary cuts, inclusively by restricting the rights bargained through the collective labor agreement.
7. Obstructing civil servants’ training process by discontinuing its financial support, the offers in this area remaining purely theoretical and individual financing of such process being impossible given the drastic cuts of remuneration.
8. Systemic blockages generated by staff reduction in some administrative structures and areas of activity, imposed by norms inconsistent with reality, based on overrated desiderata.
9. Political convulsions of deliberative state bodies resulting in various temporary blockages of the decisional factor, detrimental to the celerity of the administrative act, with direct consequences for the carrying out of the activities of the human resources in the public budgetary field.

SWOT analysis of human resources in Romanian public administration – Opportunities: 

1. Know-how support in the area of reform and transition by interstate cooperation with EU Member States.
2. Access to European Structural and Cohesion Funds through Operational Programs.
3. Free access to consecrated administrative organizational models in the European area, and implicitly worldwide, through the national status of strategic Community partner.
4. Openness of the political factor to a structural reformation of central and local administration, as well as the orientation toward a sustainable development, concurrently with Romania acquiring the status of full member of the European Union.
5. Exploiting the latent potential of human resources in the specialized administrative system, as the staff had been on an upward curve with regard to improvement and professional training, when the financial crisis began.
6. Implementing the principle of decentralization and local autonomy – a factor that would support the foundation of more efficient human resources management.
7. Integration in a community of values with focus on mobility and opportunities with European openness.
8. Evolution in the access to information, materialized in the self-taught sphere, an element of continuous improvement and professional training.

SWOT analysis of human resources in Romanian public administration – Threats: 

1. Political instability and inconsistency of the governmental decisional factor (delayed legislation, radical changes of normative vision in various connected fields).
2. Tendencies of politicization of the administrative system at the expense of professionalism, in a destabilized economic background, conducive of populist approaches.
3. Uncertainty in the area of remuneration policies and inconsistency in the promotion policy.
4. Feeding the mass-media rumors of future staff reductions by representatives of central public authorities not trenchantly denying them, is also an element of imbalance.
5. Inconsistency in the recruitment promotion policy by institutionalization of a quasi stagnation of administrative career and blocking access to budgeted jobs.
6. Deterioration of the training process of the executive civil servant through insufficient financing on the part of the decentralized institutions dealing with more urgent functional priorities.
7. Undermining the social status of the body of civil servants in public administration by drastic reduction of remuneration, up to the limit of decency.
8. Increasing the work volume by blocking vacant positions, whose functional attributions have to be taken over, with supplementary efforts, by the active staff.

EUROPEAN REGULATIONS ON PUBLIC SERVICE WITHIN COMMUNITY INSTITUTIONS

Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities adopted by Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of 29 February 1968 (published in Official Journal no. L 056 of 04/03/1968), with modifications 

o The first part of this regulation is dedicated to officials of the Communities and includes 11 annexes.

o The second part is concerned with the

status of other categories of European agents.

o The third part consists of other regulations applicable to officials and agents of the European Communities.

o The fourth part presents regulations adopted by accord of the institutions of the European Communities, which are applicable to officials and other agents of the Communities.

The principles of Communities public civil service:

o The necessity of the official’s absolute independence from any government, authority, organization or person outside his institution – Art. 11 para. 1 of the Regulation;

o The necessity of independence from the member states whose nationals they are;

o The official has to carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the Communities in mind;

o The privileges and immunities enjoyed by officials are accorded solely in the interests of the Communities;

o Officials in active employment shall at all times be at the disposal of their institution (however, the normal working week shall not exceed 42 hours).

o Officials are informed on the preparation of the regulations they comply with and in their application.

At European level, one notices that the concept of career prevails in various European states (France, Spain, Germany, Italy etc.).

This aspect supports the idea that the official, in the service of the state or of a local community, is in a regulated (legal and impersonal) situation, which ensures reasonable opportunities of promotion during his professionally active life and sufficient guarantees for the security of his activity. Thus, promotions are granted based on some rules (examination, advancement grids), while disciplinary proceedings are also rigorously regulated.

Conversely, in other countries (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium) the concept of activity (the “job”-type system) prevails over that of organized career.  Thus, the agent is recruited for a certain determined job and cannot stay and advance within that hierarchy.

Moreover, some states do not use the concept of official and prefer that of “civil servant” in “civil service” (The United Kingdom).

The organization of the Communities civil service: 

An official of the Communities is any person who has been appointed to an established post on the staff of one of the institutions of the Communities by an instrument issued by the Appointing Authority of that institution.

The posts covered by the Staff Regulations shall be classified, according to the nature and importance of the duties to which they relate, in four categories designated in descending hierarchical order from letter A, B, C to D.

o Category A – comprises eight grades of posts, which are grouped in two gradations, and which include positions of management, conception and research. For appointment in such posts, one is required to have a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies and/or professional experience of an equivalent level. These officials’ mission is to elaborate policies, draft projects of legal norms and apply Communities laws. The management posts are held by Directors-General (A1), Directors (A2) and Heads of Units (A3).

o Category B – comprises five grades of posts, which are grouped in two gradations, include positions of application and require having an equivalent level of education. This category includes those who receive and analyze information necessary either for the elaboration of EU policies or for the supervision and implementation of legislation.

o Category C – comprises also five grades of posts, which are grouped in two gradations, and include executive positions which require a level of post-secondary education or professional experience of an equivalent level. Those who have secretarial and archiving posts fall in this category.

o Category D – comprises only four grades of posts, which are grouped in two gradations, and include service positions which require a level of secondary education and, where justified in the interest of the service, technical training.

o Category L A – includes interpreters and translators.

Recruitment and promotion of Communities officials is mostly done by competition, with some exceptions, expressly and comprehensively provided by the Regulation.

CONCLUSIONS

In the constantly changing social-economic situation, no organization can afford to indulge in stagnation. Every time new ways of achieving something specific can be found, and this supposes the emergence of new ideas, a better understanding of the problems and improved abilities in various domains.

Acknowledgment of this aspect led to the creation of a new concept: the learning organization, which voluntarily promotes the learning process, at both individual and organizational level, which constantly and critically analyses its practices, procedures, processes and projects, thus trying to determine those aspects which can insure success and identify the committed errors.

Accepting such a concept at administrative level is a win of the European integration, and the entire dynamic structure of changes is supported by the fundamental contribution of the human resources in the public system.

Once confirmed the orientation toward integration into the European system of values, public administration develops rapidly and tends to remove the functional differences of human resources, which it tries to mold and value through a management of concepts and action.

Unlike private administration, the human resources in public administration aim at appropriately, continuously and selflessly satisfying public interest, public utility, inclusively by providing quality public services.

The reformation and restructuration of state institutions and activities of central and local public administration, as well as of other social, political, economic, scientific and cultural organizations, has widened the horizon and the sphere of address of some new authorized specialties, sections, faculties and even institutions of accreditation in view of professional training in the area of institutional, administrative and public management.

The management of human resources in public area has a complex character and the legislative changes sometimes determining major changes in the structure of the public management system and in the content of the activities provided by public administration institutions, should consider principles such as:

o Decentralization

o Civil service optimization

o Becoming dynamic by use of IT systems of performant human resources

o Simplifying administrative forms and language

o Decisional transparency.

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[1] Counselor, Iaşi County Council