Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel: Public Service Reform in the Post-Soviet Countries Author(s) Bahram Khalilov State Examination Center of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku city Azerbaijan Title Development Directions in Civil Service in the Republic of Azerbaijan File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Bahram Khalilov Abstract Firstly, I want to give brief information on the establishment of the Civil Service in the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to the decree № 53, signed by the Former President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on December 29, 1998, the State Commission on reforms in the public administration in Azerbaijan was established. Based on the activities of this Commission, Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Civil Service was accepted on July 21, 2000 and came into the force on September 1, 2001. Thus, the Reforms on the Civil Service started. Thanks to these reforms that particular civil service system was formed and the international experience has been used in this area. According to the Decree № 180 by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on January 19, 2005 the Civil Service Commission under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan was created. The main function of the Commission was to provide the right for the citizens to participate in the public administration through transparent and equal interview procedure. According to the decree signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on April 11, 2016, the State Examination Center public legal entity was established as a merge of the Civil Service Commission under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and State Students Admission Commission. In the Civil Service field, Azerbaijan has been an active partner with different international and regional organizations as well as relevant bodies of other states and provided implementations of recommendations by those organizations. I would like to inform the attendees of the event that recently, substantial reforms have been adopted in the area of Civil Service in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In order to icrease the effectiveness of the state bodies and improvement of the certain areas in the civil service, strategy has been prepared and presented with the participation of the SEC to the President. The document called “The Strategy for Civil Service in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2025” defines the diverse, logical and phased activities covering medium and long term in order to achieve the goals for developing the civil service system. The action plan on the strategy has been confirmed and the first stage of the Action Plan covers 2019-2021 years. In the strategy, for each action relevant state body has been chosen and the SEC has been shown as a main executive organization for the implementation of the reforms. The main purpose of the strategy is to develop the civil service system particularly the personnel potential in state bodies, form corps of civil servants who appreciate ethical values and stand for with their knowledge, skills and personal qualities and to increase the efficiency of state bodies in their activities. In order to develop civil service system institutional building, personnel policy, rotation of the civil servants, increasing their professionalism and efficiency of activities, application of competency and progressive motivation models, improvement of information provision in civil service and other related reforms will be implemented. I would also like to mention the active involvement of the NGOs particularly the ones dealing with corruption issues in the implementation of the Strategy. I have to note that as one of executive bodies of the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy the State Examination Center has been named to implement the highest number of assignments (about 40). The strategy will cover very important areas of the Civil Service and will be a great help in the development of the Civil Service field. I once again want to thank the organizers of the event holding this panel session and creating such a convenient condition for us to share our experience and learnt lessons.
