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UNDECLARED WORK IN CROATIA

Executive Capacity of Governance and Underground Economy: The Case of Croatia

Zagrebl, September 1, 2015

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Indicators of executive governance

Strategic planning Influence of scholarly advice Central government office expertise Government office gatekeeping on the

basis of policy recommendation Usage of the policy recommendation of

the GO by the line ministries Cabinet committees in coordinating

cabinet proposals Coordination of policy proposals by

ministerial bureaucracy

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Indicators of executive governance

The role of informal coordination in complementing formal mechamisms

RIA application Quality of the RIA process Sustainability check within the RIA Negotiating public support for proposed

policy Coherent policy communication

achieved by the government Governemnt efficiency in implementing

policies

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Indicators of executive governance

Ministerial compliance in implementing government’s program

Monitoring ministries Monitoring agencies Task funding – adequate funding of

delegated responsibilities Constitutional discretion of subnational

governments Applying national standards to the whole

territory of state Domestic adaptability Capacity for institutional reform

Executive capacity scores

Executive capacity elements Scores

Strategic planning 6

Influence of scholarly advice 4

Government office policy expertise

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Government office gatekeeping on the basis of policy recommendation

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The usage of policy recommen. of CG by line ministries

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Coordination of policy proposals by line ministries

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Executive capacity scores

Executive capacity elements Scores

RIA application 6

Quality of RIA process 4

Negotiating public support for proposed CG policy

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Coherent policy communication achieved by the government

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Government’s efficiency in implementing policy

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Monitoring ministries and agencies

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Executive accountability

Citizens’ policy knowledge Legislative actors resources Possibility to obtain documents Task area congruence of parliamentary committees Audit office Ombudsman office Media reporting

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Executive accountability

Intra-party democracy Stakeholders competence in policy-making (business) Stakeholders competence in policy-making (civil sector)

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Public administration and development

Bureaucracy is better by maintaining law and order than promoting social and economic development (Schaffer, 1969)

SGI concept system of governance is strongly influencing quality of public policy, contributing by that way to development

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Strategic planning in Croatia

Limited role of strategic planning as a policy tool in formulating public policy (85 % of the leading experts participating in survey on governance in Croatia mentioned it as a crucial problem).

Problem - this is de facto a key step in shaping of all specific policies, showing the the existence of actors with a strategic vision (policy entrepreneurs), capable of setting up strategic priorities of a community.

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Inter-ministerial coordination in

Low policy capacity of the GO for sistematic evaluation of line ministries

Expertise of the GO is mostly limited to legal aspects of the proposed regulation – the GO rejects regulation of drafts only on the basis of nomotehnical argumentation

Lack of institutional arrangements for effective interministarial policy coordination

Sectoral ministries rarely consult the central government bodies when drafting their own regulations - cconsultations is rather formal and focuses on technical and drafting issues.

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Usage of evidence-based policy tools

RIA tools are introduced during the EU accession process

RIA office was in 2009 temporarily abandoned as an absurd office

The usage of RIA tools are dominantly formal and limited - the key problem of this aspect of governance still lies in the fact that the regulatory impact assessment tools do not constitute the basis for policy change and, thus, for sustainability of the assessments made in individual policy fields.

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Other elements of the executive governance

Limited interaction with the interested public

Policy communication strategy – messages of individual ministries very oftenly are not coherent with the overall government policy

Ineffective implementation - in 2012, only 54 % of the ministries and other administrative bodies submitted at least 1 report on implementation of individual policies; 15 % of them submitted annual reports on their work.

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Challenges in enhancing the quality of governance

Lack of the political leadership for conducting public sector reforms

Impossibility of reaching political consensus on governance reforms

Social clientelism as a basic obstacle for conducting reforms.

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Thank you for your attention

Prof.dr. Zdravko PetakFaculty of Political Science,

University of Zagreb,zpetak@fpzg.hr