Dear Prime Minister, Distinguished Ambassadors, and Distinguished Colleagues,

We declared at the beginning of the year that this would be the year when the public administration’s modernization and readiness for the path toward Albania 2030 in the European Union received more attention.

With this aim in mind, we conceived and implemented this first Public Administration Week in Albania, under the motto “Modernization in Action,” as a series of events dedicated to the public sector. First, we wanted to bring the work of everyone closer to the citizens through the administration fair and the opportunities that working in the administration offers. It has been very rewarding to meet young people at the fair’s stands who are interested in joining our teams.

We have shared with students studying international relations and political science, who will be their future colleagues, the remarkable experience of our colleagues in the administration, Albania in NATO and the UN, and EU negotiations, through the “Administration Goes to Universities” initiative.

The Forum’s focus will be on innovation as a compelling engine for employment in both the public and private sectors. In areas where we compete, we will engage in exchanges with the private sector to attract the best talent in the market.

Alongside the daily grind of meetings and paperwork, the administrative teams also participated in a number of fun activities over the week, like the ministry volleyball tournament and the “Bring the child to work” campaign.

However, we did not expect this week to deepen the transformation towards modernization.

The pay reform, which was started years ago and is anticipated to be completed this year with its second phase, is the beginning of this reform movement. With the goal of attaining the benchmark of 900 euros for the average pay in the public sector, this is the most significant increase of the past ten years. The consequence of the increase thus far has been a rise in compensation from 15 to 46 percent for employees at various administrative levels.

The public sector’s standing as a competitive employer has been considerably improved by this expansion, which has also changed the atmosphere at work and encouraged the private sector to support this endeavor.

The second phase of the pay increase has now begun and will be finished this year. It will affect all employees in the education sector, the armed forces, professional civil servants, security personnel, and, last but not least, the salaries of those working in local government institutions, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Local Government.

This reform has already begun to bear fruit, as evidenced by the 23% increase in the average number of applications for recruitment outside the civil service for middle and lower management positions, precisely because of the more significant increase in salary and the 15% reduction in the number of resignations.

The reform sticks to a defined performance agenda in addition to pay.
To make the adjustments that satisfy the needs of both the employees and the citizens who genuinely receive the services they require, we have conferred with all members of the staff as well as the administration.

Our belief that meritocracy, which rewards good performance, must be at the core of this modernizing transformation has been reinforced by this conversation.

To improve standards and fulfill our promises to Brussels regarding the revision of the Civil Service Act, we will therefore be introducing changes to the Act this year as well as to the laws governing the structure and functions of the public administration.

During these 10 years, the legislation on the civil service has followed its course, and, despite the difficulties that may have been encountered, no initiative has been taken to patch up this legal framework.

We established the first career system in Albania thanks to the gradual implementation of this law, which also standardized all the procedures for managing the civil service’s human capital. Additionally, we implemented the first online recruitment system, which is already highly functional and will soon reach new heights thanks to collaboration with the Albanian National Information Agency for the introduction of the virtual assistant in recruitment—the first chatbot that guides interested parties through the civil service admissions process.

Thanks also to these developments, Albania is the best regional performer in the field of public service and human resources management, scoring the highest in the Western Balkans in the SIGMA evaluation. According to the report, the civil service system shows a high degree of maturity and stability. However, there is still a long way to go to strengthen meritocratic standards in order to fulfill the commitments made in the Roadmap for Public Administration Reform, which is now our compass for progress and dictates the need for legislative changes.

More than a decade after the adoption of the Law on Civil Servants, we are faced with a completely different reality, with new trends and the need to reflect on both the recruitment and evaluation processes.
In cooperation with EU and SIGMA experts, we will look at the best models to inject dynamism into the recruitment process and, as we are currently trying, a new performance evaluation system in three ministries. We will seek to establish, through legislative changes, a clear system for evaluating the institutional performance of the dependent institutions. The work of the institution will be measured against clear performance indicators, including aspects of the development of its human capital. The law will provide for the possibility of granting bonuses for good work performance, within the limits dictated by the need to maintain a more objective approach.

The changes will essentially be aimed at revitalizing the civil service, maintaining standards on the one hand, but reflecting the new spirit and the vital need to respond in every dimension to the vision of Albania 2030 in the EU.

At the same time, we have started a dialogue with you, both in joint meetings and in virtual format, by filling out the questionnaire for the motivation package, which received 1000 answers in its first hour, on the aspects of work in the administration that are motivational factors, targeting precisely those aspects that inject flexibility into the work.
Thanks to the excellent dialogue with all of you, but also with the EU experts who traveled around Europe to offer the best contemporary ways of motivating employees. We have researched and tested with you every aspect of making our everyday working lives friendlier.

Today, we present a few components of the package that show our dedication to fostering a more accommodating and encouraging work environment for all. This targeted intervention plan is small in nature, but it will undoubtedly have a very beneficial effect.

One of the first things you asked for was a guarantee of flexibility in working hours. I would therefore like to share with you the good news that during the course of this year, employees will be able to alternate and choose the start of their daily work schedule according to the agenda dictated by family life and accompanying children to nurseries, kindergartens, and schools. As we all have to be at work within a fixed time slot from 9 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., colleagues can choose to start their day earlier and end it later, and vice versa, a practice already in place in some European countries that naturally excludes those units that have direct contact with the public.

The second item on the list was a recurring demand to have the Labor Code’s legal prohibition on the ability to take yearly leave for less than one calendar week removed.

All other initiatives, including flexibility mechanisms, will be even more helpful if the government apparatus adopts this invention and incorporates it into its daily operations. Because change may occur from within through the spirit brought from outside, we are excited to open the Leadership Academy in June, where 450 managers will go through a leadership training process, thanks to our good cooperation with the UNDP.

Last but not least, we think that every public servant should have a clear understanding of their mission and a sense of belonging that only arises when hard work is valued and recognized, beyond the pressure to perform and the contribution that one hopes can occasionally go undetected.

Thus, let’s pause as we implement these reforms to honor our colleagues’ skills, professional integrity, and strength of character. They are priceless resources of the civil service and have established themselves as industry leaders. In addition, there are the youngsters who devote their hopes and boundless energy to our common goal of quickening the pace of integration.

One of the reasons we are here today is to honor these colleagues, since five staff members, nominated by each minister and the prime minister, conducted a very transparent procedure to select the winners, who were then chosen by their peers. You are the only one who is truly valuable to the organization, the Ministry’s SAs, and the civil service as a whole.

The public service in the EU in 2030 is envisioned as having the necessary pulse to rise to the level required by the problems of integration, serving as an indispensable group of designers and implementers of Albania’s vision in the EU this decade.

Thank you!