OSCE Mission enables Kosovo to offer better public services

"Treating people with decency, respect and professionalism is every public servant's duty," says Besim Kajtazi, Head of the Legal Office at the Ministry of Public Services.

To increase the quality of services, which is often hampered by a lack of awareness and professional experience among civil servants, in May 2006 the Ministry adopted a new Code of Conduct for them.

Now, with help from the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, it is promoting the implementation of the Code throughout the public service and raising public awareness of it.

The Code and its principles

The Code of Conduct is a set of rules that govern the work of public servants, regulating their responsibilities to citizens and the institutions they work for. It requires civil servants to carry out their work following ten guiding principles: lawfulness, non-discrimination, political neutrality, impartiality, sincerity, procedural integrity, respect, rational use of public funds, avoiding conflicts of interest and transparency.

According to Kajtazi, every public servant should follow these principles not only while working with citizens but with their colleagues as well. "The Code also serves to protect the rights of civil servants in their workplace," he adds.

Training opportunities for civil servants

Per-Gunnar Skog, Senior Adviser in the OSCE Mission's Civil Servants' Standards Unit, says that the Code's provisions are very detailed and specific, and will help professionalize the work of the public service. "Every civil servant needs to be aware of its provisions," he says.

As the 'pillar' of the interim UN administration charged with institution-building, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo has been helping create a professional civil service since 2000. As part of those efforts the Mission helped create the Kosovo Institute for Public Administration.

Since August 2003, the Institute has functioned as an independent government agency providing public servants with professional training opportunities. It is currently training sector managers from each municipality and all central ministries on the Code. It also aims to equip managers with the skills needed to pass on their knowledge to subordinates, as the latter will be asked to train their staff in turn.

Raising public awareness

To support the training project, the Mission has financed the printing of 30,000 copies of the Code in Albanian, Serbian and Turkish, as well as other training and promotional materials. Posters outlining the Code's guiding principles will be put up in all municipal and ministry offices.

In addition, the OSCE has been helping the Ministry prepare a public information campaign, which was launched last week, calling on citizens to take full advantage of the Code and hold civil servants accountable.

Through active monitoring, the Mission will continue to promote the Code of Conduct by calling attention to violations and urging greater compliance. And to boost the overall effectiveness of Kosovo's civil service, the OSCE is also carrying out training activities to improve financial management, raise public awareness and increase transparency.

"With public servants fully trained and the public informed, we hope to make a big step forward in the way the administration functions," says Skog.

His counterpart Kajtazi agrees. "We are on the right path to ensuring that the public service is indeed serving the public."