Functional Review of the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

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II.5 Co-ordination function Inter-administrative coordination and interaction is essential for an effective, efficient and smooth functioning of the public administration. It critically depends on the readiness to communicate in a proactive way. For the environmental sector administration both horizontal and vertical coordination are of vital importance. Examples of particular areas to improve coordination include transport (management of air quality in relation to transport); agriculture (obligation under the new Common Agricultural Policy in the EU to take in consideration of environmental sustainability in farming); and energy (introduction of renewable energy sources that contribute significantly to environmental qualityand has a high priority in the EU). Apart from ad hoc consultations, such a mechanism does not exist yet in Kosovo. Recommendation II.8: Designate and fully operate the Advisory Board for Protection of Environment in Government as an official decision-facilitating inter-ministerial body. The goal of inter-ministerial coordination is to integrate the environmental considerations into the agriculture, industry, transport and energy sectors to achieve environmental sustainability. II.6 International cooperation function Good management requires a national strategy for international environmental cooperation, setting of priorities in view of the obligations, the estimation of the expected costs of implementation through the years, a cost-benefit analysis prior to entering the international obligation, clarification of internal institutional responsibilities, and due reporting to the decision-making and supervisory state and entity bodies. Kosovo is neither a direct signatory of any environmental Conventions or Protocols nor up to date ratified any of them. Recommendation II.9: Develop Kosovo’s national strategy for international co-operation; commencing the active co-operation with the European Environment Agency (EEA) through regular transmission of environmental data to EIONET (European Environment Information and Observation Network). Similar activities should be undertaken in spatial planning through active participation in ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Network) and taking the advantage to develop the international project from EURICUR (European Institute for Comparative Urban Research). KEPA and Institute for Spatial Planning should be appointed as the focal points in Kosovo. II.7 Human Resources The Personnel Office seems to have sufficient capacity including a special coordinator for HR development and an annual HR development plan, but line managers indicate that responsiveness to their needs or a strategic approach are both very limited. The expectations of the senior ministry management towards the Personnel Office would need to change as well, moving towards a more strategic approach in assessing the Ministry HR needs and filling the gaps through a combination of recruitment and existing staff development. The current set of skills appears broadly adequate for the current set of functions but is weak on the policy-making side. If the Ministry’s policy side is strengthened then a real skills gap will emerge. Looking at human resources two elements become apparent: the relatively high number of directors and heads of sectors compared to more junior staff – resulting in an inverted pyramid effect; the significant gap between the number of posts established (297) and the number of posts actually filled (281). For the time being it is understandable that there is a vacant position in nuclear radiation and noise but other vacant positions at the environmental departments significantly reduce the performance capacity of the whole ministry. The first element is typical for underdeveloped administrations who are also understaffed (an important factor in this is the current rigid salary system). The second phenomenon is simply a lack of finances. 17
The common duration of an employment contract at MESP is one year. Despite conventional practice of employment contract prolongation, there is no explicit job guarantee for public employees, which results in fluctuation. In some professions this does not present a major problem, in the case of MESP however, the demand on the labor market for educated environmental officers with professional experience (and preferably also with language skills) is relatively high. We suggest the introduction of a compulsory state exam on professional knowledge competence. Passing this exam should ensure the lifelong / open ended employment relationship in the central administration. If agreed, this would need a change in the current legislation. Recommendation II.10: Introduce into the civil service an obligatory state exam on professional knowledge competence. Among other actions that can be achieved relatively soon and with little effort or costs are i) strategic HR documents and decisions and ii) better targeted and more demand driven training. Both measures can be easily implemented by MESP, they don’t require specific permission from other ministries or the Cabinet of Ministers, and do not need to be embedded in legislation. Throughout the report the issue of staff capacity particularly on core competencies has been evident. In light of this the lack of capacity development and co-ordinated training programmes within the MESP is critical – currently no adequate plans and / or resources are available to identify and address training and capacity building needs of the MESP staff. Based on the experience from other countries the highest demand is expected in the field of: Managerial skills (administrative organization, delegation & supervision, leadership, time management); Training on environmental standards; Environmental monitoring; Training on EIA and IPPC; Solid waste management training; Industrial waste management training; Hazardous waste management training; Specialized GIS training; Technical English and Computer Driving License (CDL). There is also an absence of strategic human resource management in terms of clear definition of HR priorities and then planning and executing definite steps to achieve them. The HR Division devotes nearly all of its capacity to meeting formal requirements of the law in terms of recruitment and there is very little focus on strategic human resource management. The ability of line managers to define competence profiles and requisite training needs is also relatively weak. On the positive side, the Ministry (together with other Kosovo institutions) seems to benefit from the great effort made by Kosovars to build up the national economy. Recommendation II.11: A systematic approach to staff capacity building is urgently required. Develop Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy and design capacity building programme as a part of overall institutional development framework. The first practical step towards capacity building would be staff Training Needs Assessment (TNA). Rigid and ineffective salary system The salary system is one of the most critical management instruments at the MESP. The current salary and staff motivation system at the MESP is rigid, does not sufficiently reflect the content of work of individual employees but rather is focused on formal categories and does not sufficiently include the element of performance evaluation and substantiated performance bonuses. In fact the salary system creates adverse motivations whereby the only conceivable way of increasing an official’s salary is by creating a higher level position. As a result the structural formations of the MESP are driven to create ever more complicated and fragmented internal structures – new divisions, sectors etc. The use of the salary system for staff motivation and performance management is very limited. Therefore we recommend decompressing the wage scale, so that the difference between a low grade and a high grade position becomes more evident in terms of individual income. 18
Page 1 and 2: Functional Review and Institutional
Page 3 and 4: ABBREVIATIONS ACDEI - Agency for Co
Page 5 and 6: Performance results are less satisf
Page 7 and 8: This survey did not included the en
Page 9 and 10: The above-mentioned mandate require
Page 11 and 12: SECTION II: CROSS-CUTTING FINDINGS
Page 13 and 14: Coordinating internal policies prep
Page 15: and summed up for the whole ministr
Page 19 and 20: SECTION III. RECOMMENDATIONS REGARD
Page 21 and 22: determine the charges for public ut
Page 23 and 24: SPATIAL PLANNING / HOUSING AND CONS
Page 25 and 26: SECTION IV. SUMMARY AND SEQUENCING
Page 27 and 28: ANNEX 1. PROPOSED MESP STRUCTURE Ma
Page 29 and 30: D Dep. State Secretary D.1. Investm
Page 31 and 32: ANNEX 3: LIST OF INTERVIEWS AND MEE
Page 33 and 34: 14. On Package and dump package 15.
Page 35: REFERENCES 1. Environmental Strateg

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