Personal opinion - the Mayor of Leskovac, Slobodan Kocić
28 March 2011, Slobodan KocićThe ultimate goal of all policy, on the local as well as the national level, is to create a system enabling citizens to have a normal life, that is, providing conditions for a life of dignity everyone deserves. The shortest way to achieve this goal is to create realistic and sustainable jobs.
In order to achieve this goal, certain assumptions are necessary. Firstly, this requires people with vision, but equally importantly, the dedication of people who truly wish to participate in team work and who started working on realising this vision. A certain level of knowledge, courage and honesty go without saying. The biggest breaks to development can be found where there is corruption and opportunism among decision makers.
Public administration reform is certainly one of the key, if not the most important assumption for reaching the mentioned goal. There is no development without an efficient and effective public administration which provides cheap, fast and high quality services. It should have an entrepreneurship approach, be a service to the people and the economy. Unfortunately, public administration reform also presents the most painful spot in the work of every leader. However, things can and must improve. I will try by giving an example of my town to shortly describe the situation we found and what is being done to improve it, believing that the example of Leskovac is more or less pragmatic for Serbia too.
What we found
Entering into duty of Mayor a little under two years ago I had no illusion about the situation in the public sector, but I have to admit, I did not expect the scale of crisis to be so deep. Among other things we found:
- An oversized, expensive and inefficient local administration in the more narrow meaning of town administration. The story had become a legend about Leskovac administration employees running after chairs because there had not been enough for everyone. For reference, in the year 2000 there were 380 employees in the town administration, with this number rising to nearly 680 in March 2009, almost double. The fact that nearly everyone was employed not according to professional criteria but, of course, according to political party affiliation. The day before my inauguration for Mayor more than 100 people were employed in the public sector. If we take in consideration other budget beneficiaries at that moment an incredible number of 1,965 people were being sustained, which could not have been managed by much stronger self-governments either. Under these circumstances, nearly two-thirds of the budget was allocated for employee salaries, which completely erased the budget’s development component and inevitably led not to stagnation but ruin. This situation had to be changed.
- A large number of public utility companies, funds and other institutions sustained from the budget were economically unsustainable. I feel that in this case Leskovac was specific with such a high number of companies, funds and other organisational forms that could not finance their own operations but represented another noose around the necks of the Leskovac tax payers. Let us take the Public Company Parking Service as an example. I have not heard that anywhere in the world a company like this was ruined except in my town. Only a small portion of the collected parking services was going into the company, and of course nothing in the town budget. There was not enough money even for employee salaries. Or for example PUC Komunalac, which deals with public hygiene. Out of 186 employees only around twenty were cleaning the streets. I am still not able to answer the question what others are doing, but I know they cost even 70 million dinars a year. There are quite a few other examples like this, but I think it is clear what kind of problems we are facing.
What we have accomplished
Even before the Law determining the maximum number of employees in public administration was enforced we worked in many segments on the local administration and utility system reform. We reduced the number of employees by over 300 and introduced a moratorium to new employments. Only by doing so we now save 20 million dinars of budget resources monthly.
We closed down some companies and institutions and transformed others by rationalizing them. Out of four funds, the function of which was only to accommodate party members, we made one – Agency for Local Economic Development, reducing the number of employees by over one half. One of these was the Fund for Agricultural Development which employed 35 persons and did not give even one incentive to those it was allegedly formed to serve. It is only natural that such a Fund was closed. We registered a new Fund, with no employees, and managed last year for the first time in Leskovac’s recent history to give our farmers a certain amount of non-refundable resources in the form of subsidies.
When I speak of expensive and unsustainable companies – for them the solution is simple – public-private partnership. I am personally a passionate advocate of these. If this government gets another term, all utility services will become PPPs except for those the law does not allow – production and distribution of water and heating.
One such strategic partnership already exists with the Austrian company Porr Werner Weber in the area of treatment of solid communal waste. Now our town is cleaner and our immediate environment more protected. A good example of PPP is in the area of regulating parking. Finally the people of Leskovac got their pavements, around forty workers receive salaries regularly, and some of it goes into the town budget.
In lieu of a summary
Today Leskovac is a town attracting renowned foreign investors. More work is being done now than ever in the circumstances of the most severe economic crisis. At the fair organised by USAID – Invest in Serbia, our town took home the silver medal. As acknowledgement of our dedicated work and results a NALED certificate followed, for a town with favourable business environment. These prises will not let us relax. On the contrary, for me, for us, they are an inspiration and a signpost for proving ourselves further and for reaching our visions. The town of Leskovac has slowly but surely become a place desirable for living, place from which people will not go away, but a place they would want to live in.
Rationalisation and public sector reform need to continue and I hope that in the coming period there will be political will to do what is natural and logical. I have no doubt about that. If we want to achieve the goal for our Leskovac to be a competitive town, there is no other way. The fruits of such politics are visible even after less than two years despite many difficulties we come across nearly every day.
In realising our "mission impossible" we have had great support from the European Union, USAID and other donors. PROGRES has had an important place in this circle of friends.
Slobodan Kocić
The Mayor of Leskovac