Integracija poslova ureda državne uprave u županijsku upravu: dosadašnji rezultati

Abstract

In January 2020, the county state administration offices, as former first-instance state administration bodies, ceased to operate. By legislative amendments of October 2019, most of their tasks were transferred to the counties’ delegated scope of affairs. The paper presents the peculiarities of the legal regime of delegated scope of affairs and it introduces the organizational forms that the counties are using in order to perform the delegated tasks. The first results of the abolition of county administrative offices are evaluated on the basis of semi-structured interviews conducted with the heads of county administration bodies responsible for general administration affairs. The results obtained so far are classified into three categories. The first category consists of the positive results of this organizational change: better material rights of employees, better working conditions and unchanged or slightly improved position of citizens. The second category consists of the negative results: weaker control exercised by the central government and the loss of control over general acts of units of local self-government. The third category consists of open questions: whether there will be a new increase in the number of employees, or whether their current reduction will affect the quality of work; what is the position of the county governor and whether politicization will increase; what is the future role of counties and whether there can be inequality in the performance of delegated state tasks between counties. The paper represents the basis for further evaluation studies on the abolition of county state administration offices and opens the doors for further research.