Public Administration Reform Council holds its first session: Public administration reform is Government's strategic priority

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić opened today the first session of the Public Administration Reform Council in the new composition. In his introductory speech, he pointed out that public administration reform is one of the key activities to which this Government will be committed. He said that public administration must be constantly focused on citizens and their needs.

The Prime Minister assessed that it is necessary to map all the shortcomings of the work process in public administration, and that it is necessary to continuously work on the improvement of business processes and digital transformation, in order for the public administration to be efficient in its work.

Public administration reform is high on the list of priorities of this Government and one of the top strategic priorities of the Ministry of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, said Tamara Srzentić, Minister of Public Administration of Digital Society and Media. The Minister stated that the public administration of the 21st century should be open, efficient, inclusive, agile, faster, accessible, simple public administration, based on research and analytics, in order to design better processes, policies and platforms in accordance with interests and citizens' needs.

The Council was acquainted with the operational goals of the strategy related to the optimisation of public administration, efficient provision of services based on the needs of citizens and the economy, as well as full interoperability of registers and increasing the number of electronic services at a high level of sophistication.

Members of the Council exchanged views on the future public administration reform with special reference to the indicators of success of public administration reform, optimisation of public administration reform, as well as openness and transparency in the work of public administration.

The Council concluded that public administration reform is key to the EU accession process, and that civil servants and their competencies need to be further strengthened in order for the reform process to be successful. The members of the Council assessed that the reform of public administration should be accompanied by the digital transformation of business processes, and that the success of the reform itself depends on the goals that will be constantly measured, but also reported on.

The session stated that the future reform of public administration will be comprehensive in its scope and that it must respond to the needs of citizens at all times. Work on the Public Administration Reform Strategy continues, through a fully inclusive process involving a large number of focus groups and operational teams made up of local and international partners from the public, civil and private sectors. The adoption of the Public Administration Reform Strategy is planned for the last quarter of this year.

The Rules of Procedure of the Public Administration Reform Council were adopted at the session.

Members of the Council are Minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media Tamara Srzentić, Minister of Interior Sergej Sekulović, Minister of Finance and Social Welfare Milojko Spajić, Minister of Economic Development Jakov Milatović, Chief Negotiator for Montenegro's Accession to the European Union Union Zorka Kordić, Director of the Human Resources Management Authority Jovana Nišavić, Director of the Agency for Free Access to Information and Personal Data Protection Ivan Medojević, representative of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro Vuksan Vuksanović, representative of the University of Montenegro Ivan Radević, NGO representatives Biljana Papović and Milena Muk.