Democracy Plus (D+) held a roundtable in regards to the duplication of positions in the civil service as a result of the government’s recent restructuring from 21 ministries to 15, where stakeholders from the Local Governance, Public Administration, Rural Development and Civil Society participated.

In this roundtable it was stated that civil servants’ contracts should not be terminated, and the government should readjust their positions in the new merged ministries, otherwise their possible termination will be illegal.

Visar Rushiti, policy analyst in D+ stated that if the government aims to decrease the number of civil servants, then it should stop the recruiting processes until the already employed civil servants are settled.

Valon Ramadani, member of the Committee for Local Governance, Public Administration and Rural Development said that in order for the current situation to settle down there is a need for an administration reform. Amongst other things, the number of inspectors needs to be raised from 60 to 400.

There is a number of civil servant positions which are identical in each ministry e.g. the position the General Secretary, Head of the Legal Department, Head of the European Integration and Policy Coordination Department, Head of personnel, Internal Auditor, Head of Procurement, Head of Public Communication, and a number of professional civil servant such as certificate officials, budget and finance officials etc.

As known, all civil servants with regular contracts are appointed for an indefinite time. The Law on Civil Service no. 03/L-149 recognizes and addresses the category of redundant civil servants in the event of termination, merger or reorganization of the institution (article 32 of said law). On the other hand, Law no. 06/L-114 which is pending in the Constitutional Court until the end of February 2020 recognizes the right to transfer civil servants to another position within the same category of Civil Service, in case of termination or reorganization of institutions (article 54).