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Aspects of a Modern Public Administration

Monday, March 30
The Georgian Ministry of Justice and the German Development Cooperation GTZ are co-hosting a conference on “Aspects of a Modern Public Administration” to be held on 2-3 April at the Hotel Courtyard Marriott in Tbilisi.

The Minister of Justice, H.E. Mr. Surab Adeishvili, and Mrs Marion Eckertz-Hofer, President of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, will be among the notable speakers presenting and discussing current approaches to modernising the public administration in Georgia and Germany. The Georgian-German conference, comprising more than 100 delegates, aims to highlight the fact that various aspects contribute to the development of a modern public administration. Above all, the fundamental structural principles and criteria for a public administration in the 21st century will be debated.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Georgia has faced a major task: Managing the process of transition from a centrally steered, planned economy to a social market economy and democracy. In its constitution and through its membership of the European Council, Georgia is clearly committed to a separation of powers and the rule of law. Nevertheless, the sustainable institutionalisation of legal principles, and the mainstreaming of compliance therewith, remains a major challenge.

On behalf of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) implements projects in Georgia to support legal reforms, which are designed to underpin the sustainable development of democratic structures and social justice. “In the course of cooperation with Georgian partner institutions, it has repeatedly become clear that these joint efforts can only lead to sustainable results if linked to a systematic modernisation of public administration,” says Mrs. Franziska Boehm, GTZ Advisor. Civil servants and other members of the public administration interact with the citizenry directly on a daily basis, and as such are figureheads of the state. Deficits in this area are perceived as deficits of state governance as a whole. The creation of transparent decision-making structures and a focus on sustainable human resource development will help to improve the quality and efficiency of state actions, and thus the image of the public administration as a whole.

The following example illustrates a citizen’s interaction with the public administration prior to the reform and the challenge Georgia faces: When Mrs. N. wanted to register property in Batumi she had purchased some time before she had to travel from Batumi to Tbilisi. Only in the capital was she able to apply for the necessary documentation to register her Batumi property. The various administrative offices provided scant information. Often information given by one office contradicted that given by another. There was no one who could assist Mrs. N. with the registration process. The responsible clerk was often ill and absent. Mrs. N. was forced to come to Tbilisi several times over a long period before she could finally register her property.

After the reforms of the public administration such a registration process and others will become transparent and streamlined. The public administration and its officers will perceive themselves as service providers for their citizens. New structures will have been set up, procedures will have been modernized and become transparent to the public. Citizens may then consult a service point in their home town, be advised by newly-trained clerks on how to proceed with their official requests and register property without having to go to the capital. All necessary documents can be downloaded from the internet. Additionally even the registration process can be traced via the internet.