Monitor quality of public participation in drafting public policies and regulations (RS0044)

What is the public problem that the commitment will The Law on the Planning System of the Republic of Serbia and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Administration, adopted in 2018, established the institute of consultations with interested parties when 25 address? drafting public policy documents and regulations, which is further specified by bylaws adopted in 2019. In this way, in addition to the previously existing process of public debate during the preparation of draft laws, citizens are enabled to participate in the drafting of regulations and public policy documents through consultations from the earliest phases of drafting said documents. However, in addition to improving the normative conditions for greater citizen participation in these processes, it was noted that, in the current circumstances, it is necessary to establish some kind of systemic monitoring and control over consultations and public debates to improve their quality and ensure a high degree of inclusiveness and transparency. The European Commission called on the state administration bodies "to ensure a centralized quality control function which would regularly monitor the implementation of public consultations in practice." One type of such control was established through the obligatory obtaining of the Public Policy Secretariat (PPS) opinion on the prepared draft of the public policy document, i.e. the proposal or draft regulation, with a report on the conducted analysis of effects, which includes information on conducted consultations and a report on public debate. As the mentioned mechanism, in fact, represents controlling each individual case, it is necessary to provide systematic monitoring of the implementation of consultations and public debates at the level of all state administration bodies, which would enable a comprehensive overview of the way state administration bodies conduct these processes. Also, in addition to this internal monitoring and quality control within the public administration system, it is necessary to provide the interested members of the public with insight and the opportunity to monitor the implementation of these processes by ensuring public availability of information and data on consultations and public debates.

What is the commitment? The commitment implies the establishment and development of mechanisms for systematic monitoring and control over the quality of public participation in the preparation of regulations and public policy documents through regular annual monitoring and publication of information and data by state administration bodies, starting with data and information for 2021. The expected outcome of the commitment includes the establishment of a systemic mechanism to monitor and control all consultations and public debates. The general purpose of the commitment is to improve the quality of public participation in the drafting of regulations and public policy documents, as well as the transparency of their monitoring by the interested members of the public. 26

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? The implementation of the commitment will establish an additional mechanism for quality control of public participation in the preparation of regulations and public policy documents, in addition to the existing one which is reflected in the obligation of state administration bodies to obtain opinions of the PPS when referring the act in question to the Government to make a decision. Based on the established systematic monitoring, the Government will be able to get acquainted with and observe the observed processes and trends that occur and, based on them, possibly take measures to further improve them within its competencies. On the other hand, through the public availability of this information, interested parties and the general public will be able to monitor the implementation of consultations and public debates, which will contribute to improving the transparency of the processes themselves. The commitment will be realized through the presentation of information and data on conducted consultations and public debates within the Annual Report on the work that the Government has done, which will be generated from the database of the eParticipation Portal, as well as from other information bases in accordance with regulations on the planning system and the work of the Government. The establishment of regular and systematic monitoring will be ensured by adequate amendments to the Instructions of the Secretary General, which provide directives and instructions to state administration bodies regarding the submission of attachments for the purposes of preparing the annual report on the work of the Government.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Encompassing the development of a system for quality control of consultations and public debates, i.e. ensuring control over the implementation of legally set standards, this commitment is relevant in relation to public accountability as a value of OGP. Other than that, since it directly refers to monitoring mechanisms for the participation of the interested public in the development of regulations and public policy documents, the commitment is also relevant in relation to the participation of citizens. Also, considering that the Report on the Work of the Government is a publicly available document, as well as the fact that the information and data provided by this commitment will be an integral part of this document and thus also publicly available, the commitment will contribute to improving access to state administration bodies’ information by citizens, as a special Partnership value.

Additional information The commitment is based on the findings and recommendations of the previously prepared Analysis, which should contribute to the establishment of an appropriate mechanism for quality control of 27 consultations, and which was realized with the support of the GIZ project "Support to Public Administration Reform in Serbia."

Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date: End date: 1. Amendments to the Instruction for Compiling the Report on the Work of the Government for 2021, which introduces information and data on consultations and public debates as an integral part of the Report I quarter of 2022 I quarter of 2022 2. Data collection and processing for 2021 I quarter of 2022 II quarter of 2022 3. Adoption of the Report on the Work of the Government for 2021, which contains information and data on the conducted consultations and public debates II quarter of 2022 II quarter of 2022 4. Publication of the Report on the work of the Government for 2021, which contains information and data on conducted consultations and public debates II quarter of 2022 II quarter of 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 2: Public Participation in Public Policy

Commitment cluster 2 and 3: Improved public participation in the creation of public policy

(General Secretariat of the Government; Office of Information Technology and eGovernment; Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government; and GIZ project “Support of the Public Administration Reform in Serbia")

For a complete description of the commitments, see commitment 2 and 3 in the action plan.

Context and objectives

Over the past several years, Serbia has improved its legal framework to better engage the public in the policymaking process. However, despite improvements, the regulatory framework is yet to be implemented consistently, and its impact remains to be seen. [1] Indeed, as established by the Law on the Planning System, the Law on State Administration, and their respective regulations, as of 2019, Serbia’s state administration bodies are required to use the eGovernment portal [2] to consult the public on the preparation of laws, regulations, and policy documents and to report back on these consultations. [3] However, the eGovernment portal lacks the functionality to consistently and effectively accompany all of the consultation processes the law requires. [4]

Commitment 3 seeks to address the portal’s shortcomings by improving its capabilities through the creation of a single platform to enable access to information related to, and a space for, all phases of consultation and public debate to inform national laws, regulation, and policy documents. This is intended to operationalize the administrative bodies’ legal obligations and to improve how the public is engaged in the country’s policymaking process. Meanwhile, commitment 2 seeks to facilitate further improvements by establishing a mechanism to systematically monitor the quality of all consultations and public debate processes.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MPALSG) proposed commitment 2 during the co-creation process. In turn, Civic Initiatives, a CSO focusing on promoting democracy and civic education, submitted the original proposal for commitment 3. [5] The commitments are complementary to commitment 14 of the previous action plan to amend the Law on Referendum and Civic Initiatives to electronically enable all existing forms of civic engagement for referendums and civic initiatives. As of early 2021, the draft amendment was still pending an additional round of inter-institutional review and government approval. [6]

Potential for results: Substantial

Currently 50% of adopted laws in Serbia undergo public debate. Meanwhile the percentage of policy documents and regulations that undergo consultations is around 85% and 35%, respectively. [7] Because there is no single system for aggregate data collection on consultations and public debates in the creation of public policy, it is difficult to comprehensively assess how these engagements are conducted. Commitments 2 and 3, thus, constitute an important step in strengthening public participation in the creation of public policy. On one hand, a well thought-out eParticipation platform (commitment 3) could result in the operationalization of administrative bodies’ legal obligations to improve how they inform and engage the public throughout the policy creation process by enabling a central place to conduct this work online. On the other hand, the implementation of a mechanism to systematically monitor the quality of all consultations (commitment 2) could allow the identification of strengths and shortcomings and the implementation of relevant solutions to existing challenges. In turn, better and continuously improving channels for consultations and public debate should help improve Serbians’ participation in the government’s decision-making process. These commitments, thus, represent an important opportunity for the country, as only about 3% of Serbians claim to have ever participated in public debate related to government decisions. [8] Furthermore, these developments could help the relationship the public has with institutions like the government and the Parliament, which currently only around 27% Serbians says they trust. [9] Due to these commitments’ significant relevance and potential reach, the IRM considers them to have the potential to achieve substantial results.

Currently, citizens can share their inputs regarding policy proposals directly to the administrative bodies overseeing the proposals through the webpages of those bodies, and they may only use the eGovernment portal to find out information about consultations and public debates related to these proposals. The eGovernment portal, thus, faces significant limitations to fulfill its mandate. According to Civic Initiatives, one of the main remarks from CSOs about the portal is that it lacks critical material and functionalities necessary for these consultation and public debate processes. [10]

This commitment envisions that the eParticipation platform provide all key material related to each consultation and debate and enable electronic participation in, and monitoring of, the entire policy proposal process. Many of the current portal’s limitations are primarily of a technical nature and include limited visibility, accessibility, and navigability. Among other improvements, the new eParticipation platform could allow administrative bodies overseeing policy proposals to directly manage the consultation and debate procedures, provide feedback on the inputs received, and answer any questions asked throughout these processes. [11] In essence, the new platform could enable administrative bodies to improve the quality of engagement they have with citizens during the consultation and debate of policy proposals. Improvements that could result from the implementation of the eParticipation platform should manifest some improved metrics compared with the current portal. These include the number of visitors to the platform, the average time spent in it, its bounce rate, and the number of returning visitors. But perhaps more significant may be the number of administrative bodies conducting consultation processes on the new platform and the public’s assessment of how well the new platform is informing it about policy proposals, how easy it is for the public to provide feedback, and how easy it is for it to understand how feedback is incorporated.

Although the eParticipation platform could result in important improvements in how the public is engaged online, commitment 2 could lead to the systematic monitoring of the quality of public participation, online or otherwise, in the creation of public policy. The insights drawn from this monitoring could help inform further improvements, which should in turn contribute to more effective participation from the public.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

The implementation of these commitments could result in both an enabling platform to better engage the public in policymaking, as mandated by law, and in a mechanism to assess the quality of these engagements. However, the existence of this platform and mechanism does not necessarily guarantee improved citizen engagement. For the eParticipation commitment to achieve its full potential, the government will need to ensure that a wide number of administrative bodies adopt the platform, that the public knows about and understands how to engage through the portal and, ultimately, that it is motivated to do so. Similarly, it will be critical for the monitoring commitment to not only institutionalize its mechanism but also to lay the ground for improvements of the mechanism itself. To ensure these determining factors, the IRM recommends the following:

Ensure the institutionalization of the monitoring mechanism for public participation and plan to strengthen it with future improvements. Though it is understood that the commitment seeking to establish this monitoring mechanism anticipates that the mechanism will be permanent, the milestones, as stated, exclusively guide actions for the year 2021. For the commitment to fulfill its potential the mechanism should continue operating in the future, so actions to ensure that the mechanism is institutionalized should be taken either in this action plan cycle or in the next one. Furthermore, the mechanism should plan for future improvements to increase its influence. One possible route for strengthening it may be that, beyond monitoring, the mechanism eventually conducts evaluations of topics dealing with public participation in the creation of public policy, as needed.

Results Report

Commitment 2. Public participation in policy-making

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● This commitment has been clustered as: Improved public participation in the creation of public policy (Commitments 2 and 3)

● Potential for results: Substantial

● Completion: Substantial

● Did it open government? Marginal

Commitment cluster 2 and 3: Improved public participation in the creation of public policy (General Secretariat of the Government; Public Policy Secretariat; Office of Information Technologies and eGovernment; Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government; and GIZ project “Support of the Public Administration Reform in Serbia")

Context and Objectives:

Under this cluster, the General Secretariat aimed to create a central e-participation portal (“eConsultations”) for administrative bodies to improve public participation throughout the policy cycle. [1] Commitment 2 involved collecting data from eConsultations on public debates and consultations in drafting regulations and policy documents for the Report on the Government's work for 2021. Commitment 3 envisaged creating and piloting eConsultations, as well as organizing trainings for citizens on how to use eConsultations.

Did It Open Government? Marginal

Of the envisioned activities, half were substantially or fully completed. [2] In connection with Commitment 3, the Government passed the “Decision on the establishment of the eConsultation Portal” (Official Gazette of RS, No. 62/21). [3] The Public Policy Secretariat (PPS) launched and piloted eConsultations in December 2021. [4] The General Secretariat, PPS and the Office for Information Technologies and e-Government sent a joint letter to all ministries and special organizations reminding them of the obligation to use eConsultations in accordance with the aforementioned decision. [5] Regarding Commitment 2, which aimed to monitor the effects of eConsultations, the General Secretariat did not include data from eConsultations in the 2021 Annual Report because eConsultation was established only in December 2021. [6] The implementation of other activities remained limited, including amendments to the instructions for the creation of the annual report, data collection on consultations and processing, and publishing the report with data from eConsultations. Despite the intention of the General Secretariat to add an annex to the report where all data stemming from eConsultations across all ministries would be available, some information on public participation was spread over the 2,000-page Report on the Government’s Annual Work Plan instead. [7]

By December 2022, only a limited number of citizens had registered on eConsultations and actively participate in decision-making processes since it was launched in December 2021. [8] Moreover, interviewed civil society stakeholders noted that, in practice, civil servants are still not fully trained to use eConsultations. [9] The lack of training on eConsultations for civil servants is reflected in the fact that documents not intended for public consultations are often published on eConsultations. [10]

This cluster was a step toward greater government openness, but its impact on citizen participation so far remains marginal. After a year of operation, eConsultations has not attracted many citizens and CSOs to participate in policy-making processes. [11] The General Secretariat has not published official data on the impact of eConsultations on public policy-making, and statistics on public consultations. Moreover, the challenges foreseen in the IRM Action Plan Review turned out to be stumbling blocks, notably insufficient human resources and trained administrative staff in state bodies, as well as a lack of awareness among citizens to participate in online consultations. Nonetheless, in its 2022 Report on Serbia, the European Commission noted that the scope of public consultations in Serbia has improved overall. [12]

Looking Ahead:

Although eConsultations has been operational for only one year, key deficiencies are already noted. By addressing these deficiencies in the coming years, eConsultations could yield better public participation. Specifically, the IRM recommends 1) promoting eConsultations among citizens to increase quantity and quality of their participation; 2) ensuring that each public institution is allocated enough human resources to use eConsultations effectively; and 3) carrying out additional training for administrative staff within state bodies to use eConsultations in accordance with the legal framework.