Helping Kosovo's institutions improve public service

"Independent institutions are a cornerstone of democracy," reads an OSCE report on independent agencies in Kosovo published in December 2007. They play a vital role in democracies, ensuring checks and balances for government and respect for the rule of law.

"Yet some of these institutions have to struggle to maintain their independence from Kosovo's provisional Government," says Anita Vandenbeld, Senior Adviser at the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. 

This is the case, she says, with the Independent Oversight Board, a quasi-judicial body charged with hearing and adjudicating appeals by public servants on hiring, firing and employment practices within the civil service.

Financial dependence

"We are still fully financially dependent on the Ministry of Public Services," says Sevdail Kastrati, Chair of the Oversight Board. "Furthermore, the Ministry still refers to us as their executive agency in official documents. This creates the impression that we are not independent in our decision-making."

The Board was established in September 2004 under the legal basis of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Regulation 2001/36, and is located within the Ministry. The regulation stipulates that two years after the Board's creation, its status should be reviewed with a view to transforming it into an autonomous body that reports directly to the Assembly.

"This has not happened yet," says the OSCE's Vandenbeld, who works closely with the Oversight Board. It still does not have full legal independence, including with its budget. Vandenbeld says this has a negative effect on its work: "They have to rely on the Ministry for their staff, transportation and funding. Nonetheless, the Board is scrupulous in applying the law in its casework."

Overcoming negative perceptions

A key problem with dependence on the Ministry is that it impedes the enforcement of the Board's decisions. At least one municipality has refused to implement its decisions because municipal officials say that it is an arm of the Ministry.

To help ensure the Board's independence, a working group - chaired by the Office of the Prime Minister and comprising representatives from the Ministry, the Board, UNMIK, the Assembly of Kosovo and the OSCE - was established in February 2007 at the urging of the OSCE Mission.

In October, the group drafted a text for the new regulation and its adoption by UNMIK is high on the OSCE Mission's agenda. The Mission's report says that the difficulties independent bodies currently face could eventually undermine their sustainability and weaken Kosovo's young democracy.

Increasing professional capacity

In addition to helping to ensure the legal and financial basis for the Board's independence, over the last three years the Mission has been working to develop the Board's professional capacities.

Kosovo's Board is based on the common law model of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. As a quasi-judicial body, it holds hearings to resolve complaints and appeals, and its decisions are binding for the governmental executive bodies.

To familiarize the Board with those practices, the Mission has organized a number of training courses for its seven standing members and has taken them on study trips to the United Kingdom, and more recently to Canada last November.

"Through the courses and study visits, we learned the theory behind our work and have seen it in practice," says Board Chair Kastrati. After the visit to Canada, the Board has begun using the negotiation techniques they have learned and it plans to introduce formal mediation in 2008.

A better work environment

In 2006 - the year the Board began hearing appeals - it received 186 and settled 129 of them. In 2007, it received 384 new appeals and resolved 386, including some from the previous year.

"The quick turn-around on decisions is one of the reasons why the Board has developed credibility," says Vandenbeld. Once adopted, the new draft regulation will provide for the Board's formal reporting to the Assembly, security of tenure and funding guarantees.

"In 2008, we hope to become fully independent and be better able to provide a professional, merit-based and politically neutral work environment for all public servants," adds Kastrati.

"We also thank the OSCE Mission for its efforts to help us do our job, and thus increase the quality of the public service for all people living in Kosovo."