1 UNDECLARED WORK IN CROATIA Executive Capacity of Governance and Underground Economy: The Case of Croatia Zagrebl, September 1, 2015

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5 Indicators of executive governance  Strategic planning  Influence of scholarly advice  Central government office expertise  Government office gatekeeping on the basis of policy recommendation  Usage of the policy recommendation of the GO by the line ministries  Cabinet committees in coordinating cabinet proposals  Coordination of policy proposals by ministerial bureaucracy

6 Indicators of executive governance  The role of informal coordination in complementing formal mechamisms  RIA application  Quality of the RIA process  Sustainability check within the RIA  Negotiating public support for proposed policy  Coherent policy communication achieved by the government  Governemnt efficiency in implementing policies

7 Indicators of executive governance  Ministerial compliance in implementing government’s program  Monitoring ministries  Monitoring agencies  Task funding – adequate funding of delegated responsibilities  Constitutional discretion of subnational governments  Applying national standards to the whole territory of state  Domestic adaptability  Capacity for institutional reform

Executive capacity scores Executive capacity elementsScores Strategic planning6 Influence of scholarly advice4 Government office policy expertise2 Government office gatekeeping on the basis of policy recommendation 5 The usage of policy recommen. of CG by line ministries 4 Coordination of policy proposals by line ministries 4 8

Executive capacity scores Executive capacity elementsScores RIA application6 Quality of RIA process4 Negotiating public support for proposed CG policy 4 Coherent policy communication achieved by the government 4 Government’s efficiency in implementing policy 5 Monitoring ministries and agencies4 9

10 Executive accountability  Citizens’ policy knowledge  Legislative actors resources  Possibility to obtain documents  Task area congruence of parliamentary committees  Audit office  Ombudsman office  Media reporting

11 Executive accountability  Intra-party democracy  Stakeholders competence in policy-making (business)  Stakeholders competence in policy-making (civil sector)

12 Public administration and development  Bureaucracy is better by maintaining law and order than promoting social and economic development (Schaffer, 1969)  SGI concept  system of governance is strongly influencing quality of public policy, contributing by that way to development

13 Strategic planning in Croatia  Limited role of strategic planning as a policy tool in formulating public policy (85 % of the leading experts participating in survey on governance in Croatia mentioned it as a crucial problem).  Problem - this is de facto a key step in shaping of all specific policies, showing the the existence of actors with a strategic vision (policy entrepreneurs), capable of setting up strategic priorities of a community.

14 Inter-ministerial coordination in  Low policy capacity of the GO for sistematic evaluation of line ministries  Expertise of the GO is mostly limited to legal aspects of the proposed regulation – the GO rejects regulation of drafts only on the basis of nomotehnical argumentation  Lack of institutional arrangements for effective interministarial policy coordination  Sectoral ministries rarely consult the central government bodies when drafting their own regulations - cconsultations is rather formal and focuses on technical and drafting issues.

15 Usage of evidence-based policy tools  RIA tools are introduced during the EU accession process  RIA office was in 2009 temporarily abandoned as an absurd office  The usage of RIA tools are dominantly formal and limited - the key problem of this aspect of governance still lies in the fact that the regulatory impact assessment tools do not constitute the basis for policy change and, thus, for sustainability of the assessments made in individual policy fields.

16 Other elements of the executive governance  Limited interaction with the interested public  Policy communication strategy – messages of individual ministries very oftenly are not coherent with the overall government policy  Ineffective implementation - in 2012, only 54 % of the ministries and other administrative bodies submitted at least 1 report on implementation of individual policies; 15 % of them submitted annual reports on their work.

17 Challenges in enhancing the quality of governance  Lack of the political leadership for conducting public sector reforms  Impossibility of reaching political consensus on governance reforms  Social clientelism as a basic obstacle for conducting reforms.

18 Thank you for your attention Prof.dr. Zdravko Petak Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb,