Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 31st NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel: Systemic issues of PA revealed during turbulent time Author(s) David Špaček Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic Title What systemic issues of public administration have been revealed in Czechia during the COVID-19 pandemic? File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter David Špaček Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic gives us a great opportunity to explore two broad types of PA issues – ‘preparedness-related’ issues and issues hindering resiliency building. These issues have not been paid much attention in literature on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public administration and its management, although they may impact any change expected or implemented in PA. In this paper we identify, explore and discuss both the types of issues in Czech public administration based on data we obtained from 29 semi-structured interviews with employees of 2 ministries and 2 agencies. The findings clearly indicate that an unprecedented intensive external shock like the COVID-19 crisis (and its several critical waves) was (were) not intensive enough and has not led to overcoming some systemic issues that severely impact the functioning of public authorities, ministries in particular.
