VIEWS

Good governance and equal opportunities

In my opinion, the process of the NGO sector and the civic society in the Republic of Macedonia maturing, thus gaining bigger influence towards the social flows is an indisputable fact. The process of NGO specialization is in progress, where the NGOs focus on concrete problems and activities. Unfortunately, the phenomena of the “money driven” activities for gaining and overtaking others’ projects and ideas are still present and will be so, but it is also a part of the development.
Citizens for citizens, since the very forming and the starting idea, as well as since the implemented activities, has been focused on promoting principles and practices about what good governance is.

Governance

Simply said, governance is a process of decision-making and implementation (or non implementation) of the decisions. It is a process where decisions are brought and implemented. Both formal and informal participants in that process should be mentioned.
One of the participants in the governance process is the government and the local self-government. Other informal participants in the governance vary depending on the development of social relations: influential landowners, expert associations, non-governmental organizations, research institutes, religious leaders, financial institutions, political parties, the army etc. On a national level there is also the media, various lobbies, international donators, multinational corporations that can be key decision-makers or factors, which influence the decision-making. Not even the various criminally-organized groups and trade unions should be forgotten.


Good governance

Good governance prefers applying several principles: rule of the law, transparency, responsibility, efficiency and openness, participation and involvement. The application of these principles creates conditions for reducing the corruption opportunities, as well as for including the minorities and creating conditions for the margin groups to express their opinion in the decision-making process. Good governance responds to the current and future needs of the society.


Responsibility

Promoting the principles of good governance has been the last activity initiated and organized by the Citizens for Citizens as a public debate on responsibility of the bearers of public functions, and we have been researching the phenomenon of responsibility in the Republic of Macedonia.

Both laws and experts claim that the process of determining responsibility is equal to both the bearers of public functions and the ordinary citizens. Apart from the criminal, there is also a moral responsibility, for both deeds done, and not done.

Everyone has to face the responsibility. The bigger the function, the bigger the responsibility, above all the moral responsibility. Thus we come to the concept of expertise and competency. The inappropriate solutions, which do not meet these criteria, most probably do not feel the appropriate weight and responsibility.


Reform of the public administration

Public and state administration. We have to make a difference between these two terms, in spite of the fact that they are both financed by the budget that is the taxes we pay. The state administration carries out the functions of the state management. In Macedonia, the civil servants are under the competence of the Agency for civil servants and there are 14,400 out of the total of 128,000 employees in the public enterprises. The existing institutions and organizations (the trade union and the agency) protect the rights of the employed in the administration, but who protects the citizens? Where are the rights of the citizens on a professional and efficient management?

The too big administration sucks and unproductively spends the accumulation of the development energy of the society for giving salaries. In our opinion the employment in the public administration is not a solution to the problem of unemployment, but it only deepens it. The salaries budget consumption has been increased to Euro 500,000 in comparison with 1998, and if this amount of money is used properly for cheap credits, it can certainly initiate a development cycle and create real economic development, employment and bigger income in the budget.


What can citizens do?

Citizens influence the decision-making process through their representatives or directly, especially through organized forms and NGOs. Only organized NGOs can encourage the processes and put pressure. Ombudsman Institute. In the developed democracies the public vigilantly follows the ombudsman’s annual report. Each negative mentioning in such report is a very serious reason for the state and public administration to be worried.

I would like to point out some positive and successful activities:
-         the civic voice for pressure against the Telekom prices increase (I think the activities should continue and intensify) – a good example of cooperation with the media;
-         Summer relay marathon Tetovo – Skopje, organized by OSCE. Those who did not take part, missed a great opportunity for socializing and symbolic support to human values and ideas.


About the ethnic communities

We must not leave the process of appropriate and proportional representation of the ethnic communities as a taboo. It should be an open and transparent process where again the basic principle will be competency and expertise, at the expense of party membership and loyalty. Again we return to the principle of good governance and the principle of equal opportunities under equal conditions. The responsibility of the bearers in the decision-making process is not only towards the ones who have voted for them, but also towards the citizens who have had a different opinion and towards the undefined.
 

(Zage Filipovski is a former director of the coalition “Citizens for Citizens”. You can comment on this text on the Citizens for Citizens’ web-site: www.c4c.org.mk ).