Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Main Conference Theme Author(s) Olga Vidlakova ILEI - Institute for Legal Education and Information Prague 9 Czech Republic Title The reform and modernisation of central state administration in the Czech Republic File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract My paper will concern two basic topics of the administrative development in the Czech Republic since our membership in the EU: the reform and modernisation of central state administration and the public-private partnership (PPP). In 2004, the Czech Government approved the conceptual document “The progress and main directions of the reform and modernization of central state administration comprising the solution of the management and organisational support”. Its vision is “ a flexible and better functioning central state administration, capable of well reacting to cross-sectoral and global problems”. It may be considered as an attempt of our government to promote good governance. The organ responsible for the co-ordination and management of the reform is the Office of the Government, where a special department for regulatory reform and reform of central state administration was established. There are five main directions of the reform: 1) Rationalization of processes in central state administration. 2) Improvement of central state administration management. 3) Quality improvement of central state administration. 4) Implementation and improvement of civil service in central administrative authorities. 5) Rationalization of central state administration financing. In each of the main directions several projects have been already drafted. Up to now only two of these projects were completed and approved by a resolution of the government: 1) Identification of the goals of central state administration and 2) Regulatory reform in central state administration. It is expected that all other projects will be submitted successively to the Government for approval so that the whole concept of the reform and modernisation of central state administration should be completed by the end of 2007 at the latest. In my paper I shall give the analysis of the approved reform projects by the end of March 2006. The partnership of the public and private sectors (PPP) has become a highly frequented term in the Czech Republic recently. In 2004 the Government has adopted several resolutions on this problem, in which it approved the policy of PPP as an instrument of assurance of public services and public infrastructure. The necessary prerequisite for PPP application is the programme and system approach which should assure the observance of the basic principles among which the government ranks primarily: • value for money, • distribution of risks and transfer of risks, • specification of public service standards, • maintenance of the value of public assets, • assurance of innovation and competition, and • macroeconomic effects. In my paper I shall present the description and analysis of the government resolutions. From the very beginning of the declaration of the government PPP policy it was clear that a new law was needed, not contained in the asked for comprehensiveness in the Czech legal system so far. The Ministry of Regional Development drafted the Bill on Public-Private Partnership, called the Concession Bill, and the Government adopted in after a long-time reviewing and submitted it in July this year to the Parliament. The number of the main principles of the proposed Bill includes: • integral special regulation of concession projects, • transparency, • assurance of effective and long-term sustainable provision of public services and infrastructure. The reason for PPP legislation in the Czech Republic is the intention to strengthen legal security, to provide a clear-cut legal framework for concession projects giving the public as well as private subjects transparent rules applicable to these projects and to define a functional procedure for the selection of the Concessionary and appropriate regulatory mechanisms. The proposed legislation is in full accordance with Community law. The Concession Bill is not the only legislative change needed for the legal establishment of the PPP. The others comprise a new Public Procurement Bill and the so-called Amendment Bill introducing amendments of existing acts required by the Concession Bill. All Bills submitted to the Parliament by the Government contain the 1 January 2006 as the date of coming into force and now it depends on the situation in the Parliament if and when it will enact them. Hopefully it will happen before the NISPAcee Conference in Ljubljana so that I shall be able to include a more detailed description of these new Acts and also the description of the PPP practice in our country.
