A new law on civil servants
A new law on civil servants
The new law on the civil servant aims to create a stable, professional civil service based on merit, moral integrity, and political impartiality. It regulates the legal relationship between the state and the civil servant. It defines the civil service administration rules by considering the civil service relationship as a traditional relationship of an administrative nature.
In a general view, he is richer in terms of his predictions. Suffice it to make a simple comparison between the law on the civil servant of 1999 and the rule adopted in May 2013 to note that the new law has almost three times the current regulation articles. However, this law provides for a series of delegations, nearly half of its themes, to the Council of Ministers to draft and approve the relevant bylaws that will facilitate the implementation of this law after it enters into force, providing as such the date October 1, 2013.
The Council of Ministers must approve all bylaws cited in the new law’s transitional provisions within three months from this date. Within six months from the law’s entry into force, i.e., from October 1, 2013, they must also enter into force. The law contains several important definitions, but we will limit ourselves to quoting some of its key reports, which will replace some of the purposes of the 1999 law but will also clarify and express more clearly the scope of the law:
1. “Institutions of state administration” belong to the Council of Ministers, ministries, central institutions under the Prime Minister or ministers, including their territorial branches, as well as the administration of the perfect.
2. “Independent institution” is the administration of the Assembly, the President, the local government, the Constitutional Court, the High Court, the Prosecution, and any independent institution, provided in the Constitution or established by law and reporting to the Assembly, including their territorial branches.
3. “Civil servant” is the person who performs the function of exercising administrative authority, public, based on ability and professionalism, who participates in the formulation and implementation of policies, monitoring the performance of rules and managerial procedures, ensuring the execution of and providing general administrative support for their implementation.
4. “Direct superior” is: a. the head of the institution for senior civil servants, including civil servants in the position of special coordinator and leaders of subordinate institutions;
b. the general secretary or the clerk in the equivalent position, for the directors of the directorates and the heads of the territorial branches of the institution;
c. the head of the subordinate institution for the directors within this institution;
d.the director of the directorate for all employees of other positions.
An essential provision of the new law is the transfer of civil servants’ complaints from the Civil Service Commission to the administrative courts. This Commission is competent to review the complaints registered with it until the date of entry into force of the new law. Complaints that are registered but fail to be reviewed by the Civil Service Commission by October 1, 2013, can be filed within 60 days in the administrative court of the first instance.
As has been the case in previous attempts to incorporate some amendments to the 1999 Civil Servants Act, which a qualified majority could not approve, this law realizes the expansion of its scope of action despite other compositions of the Assembly in previous legislatures. The law does not list the institutions or categories of employees to whom it applies. Still, it explicitly lists the officials who do not enjoy the status of a civil servant, as follows:
a. the elect;
b. ministers and deputy ministers;
c. officials appointed by the Assembly, the President of the Republic of the Council of Ministers;
d. judge and prosecutor;
e. judicial administration officials;
f. military of the Armed Forces;
g. State Intelligence Service personnel;
h. personnel of direct public service units;
j. the member and chairman of the collegial governing bodies of committees or institutions under the Prime Minister or a ministry;
g. administrative staff;
gj. Cabinet functionary.
So this provision of the new law on the civil servant clarifies that anyone else in the state, central, local administration, or independent or constitutional institutions will be a civil servant. It is also clear that the civil servants’ circle has expanded to include, for example, municipal employees.
In the absence of accurate official data to cite a precise figure of civil servants in the Republic of Albania with the entry into force of the new law, at the time of preparation of this paper, we can say with certainty only that this number will increase significantly compared to the total number of civil servants based on the scope of the 1999 law. Regulate the respective functions do not prohibit or otherwise predict their status. Also, an essential provision of this law is not to initiate any recruitment procedure three months before the date of extension of the new law’s effects. This problem has been cited by the Constitutional Court as unconstitutional precisely because the law before it enters into force prohibits the implementation of specific provisions for recruitment in the civil service.
The new law addresses the continuity of the employment relationship in the civil service for civil servants that the new law on October 1, 2013, finds in employment in the civil service. We need to make a parenthesis: the existing categories of civil servants are considered transferable by categorizing civil servants provided by the new law. Thus, according to the 1999 law, senior management civil servants are regarded as a body of senior management officials, or TND for short. Under the new law:
1. Senior civil servants, in the Prime Minister or a ministry, admitted to the civil service, according to the procedures of law no. 8549, dated 11.11.1999 “Status of a civil servant,” are, due to the law, members of the TNC.
2. Existing employees, who are employed in senior management positions, part of the civil service, according to this law, in institutions under the Prime Minister or a ministry, are obliged to undergo admission procedures in the TNC within one year from the enactment of this law. If these employees are not appointed as members of the TNC at the end of this period, their relationship ends due to the law.
3. Existing civil servants, existing employees, who are employed in civil service positions, according to this law and recruited according to a competitive admission procedure, similar to that defined by law no. 8549, dated 11.11.1999 “Status of a civil servant,” or employed in the same job for not less than one year, are, due to the law, civil servants.
4. Existing employees who are employed in positions, part of the civil service, according to this law, and who do not meet the conditions provided in this article are civil servants on probation. Under the new law, the Department of Public Administration will continue to exist and subordinate the Minister of Interior.
Its competencies are already expanding, as the Department of Public Administration is expected to oversee the implementation of civil service legislation in state administration institutions. Suppose we refer to the law currently in force. In that case, it now exercises this competence only for central state administration institutions. . The new law, as mentioned in the above paragraph, provides for the existence of the Commissioner for the Supervision of the Civil Service as a legal, public, independent person for the supervision of legality in the administration of the civil service, as an institution under the Assembly.
Several articles provide:
The election and dismissal by the Assembly in more detail.
The conditions that the candidate for Civil Service Commissioners must meet.
His competencies.
Not coincidentally, we separated from the competencies of DOPA that of supervising civil service legislation in state administration institutions, as the same competence is recognized to the Commissioner for Supervision of Civil Service.
This same legal provision in two different articles for two other institutions, i.e., the duplication of legal competence, creates many conjectures for problems such as disputes of two various institutions, different positions on the same issues, during the implementation of the law in state administration institutions.
