A rush to hire new administrators is expected already at the beginning of December Agency for Administration announces that it will complete the upgrade of the software for the job competitions, in order to publish them without the column of ethnicity. And the Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev confirmed that the only criteria for public administration employment contests will be expertise and knowledge, after the Constitutional Court abolished the "balancer", that is, the tool for employment in public administration by ethnic key, until the Government prepares a law for fair representation.
"Sloboden Pechat" has already announced that employment in the public administration may be on ice until the New Year until the software is adjusted, that is, the ethnicity column is deleted from the documents.

The "balancer" will freeze all employment in the administration until the New Year

- A procedure for public procurement with direct negotiations has been published after receiving a positive opinion from the Public Procurement Bureau. The software will be upgraded by the same economic operator because he has the copyright. The work is in progress and it is possible that the software upgrade will be completed before December 1st and the public administration job announcements will begin. After the decision of the Constitutional Court to abolish the balancer, the software is adjusted in the section of the advertisements for the employment of administrators, that is, the column for ethnic affiliation of the communities will be removed. The company asked for more time to upgrade the software, but since it is a matter of public interest, they will speed up the process - say the Agency for Administration.

The Minister of Public Administration Goran Minchev confirmed that the correction of the software is in progress and reiterated that the competitions that started before the balancer was abolished will be completed, as well as the announcements that are without balancer for the institutions that do not have an obligation to hire by ethnic key.

- In the period until there is no legal solution for the fair representation, the advertisements continue based on the knowledge base. And I repeat, this legal solution should not be rushed. It must be of good quality, applicable and have real implementation. But the most important thing is that with the new law, there will be no abuses, because fair representation is a plague if those who are admitted, do not have the appropriate quality and cannot respond to the services to the citizens. The latest data on fair representation, which is the cross-section from the Ministry's report from 2023, says that ethnic Albanians in the public administration are between 22 and 23 percent, and all other communities are in the ratio of 5 to 7 percent. Which means, the balance of fair representation in the institutions is already present. Until the new legal solution, advertisements are based on the knowledge base - Minchev said.

He informs that the working group composed of experts is already preparing the law on fair representation. The expert group takes notes, suggests, observes and perhaps makes proposals for the new legal solution. The draft proposal will be submitted to the Venice Commission and then it would be finalized as a legal solution. Minchev emphasizes that it is important that the law is not a law that would eventually suffer the repeal of articles or provisions by the Constitutional Court.

Minchev: The incompetent will be retrained, they will not be chased

Incompetent administrators will not be chased, but they will be retrained and reassigned to jobs where they can fulfill their work tasks.

- I am more in favor of the variant that incompetent public servants should be further educated. But of course there are other solutions to reduce part of the public administration in a natural way, through retirement and departure from the public administration. In principle, in the three legal solutions that we offer, we offer a solution that is new in Macedonia, and that is formation Academy for further education and training of the public administration. Where there is a lack of quality, they will be educated and allocated jobs where they can fulfill their work tasks based on their affinity, education and quality - says Minchev.