Heads of institutions and State Secretaries in some ministries will have to find new jobs
Changes to the State Civil Service Law provide that heads of institutions, including State Secretaries, will be able to hold office for a maximum of two consecutive terms. A look at the list of ministries' State Secretaries shows that some State Secretaries will have to look for a new job following the adoption and entry into force of the amendments to the law.
The term of office of senior officials is generally set at five years, and the draft law also maintains the five-year term, stipulating that the same person may serve as head of an institution, director of the State Chancellery or head of the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Center for no more than two consecutive terms, i.e. for a total of 10 years. These amendments to the Law were not objected to by any ministry and have already been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
One will have to leave his post
The State Chancellery has been headed by Jānis Citskovskis since 2017. He has several years to spare before his 10-year term expires, while the 10-year term of Pēteris Vilks, the head of the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Center, would expire in the middle of next year, as he took over the post on June 5, 2013. However, at least one of the two heads of these institutions may have to leave his post earlier, as the Coordination Center is planned to be merged into the State Chancellery on January 1, 2023. This is needed to improve planning and coordination of national development, to reduce fragmentation of public administration and to strengthen the center of government.
The two heads of institutions were instructed to draw up and submit to Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš by January 14, 2022, a plan for adding the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Center to the State Chancellery.
Some manage to keep the post of State Secretary for a long time
The longest-serving of the current State Secretaries is Baiba Bāne, State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, who took up the post in 2014. Before that, she was Deputy State Secretary for five years. It would be difficult for the Ministry of Finance to find a person with the same level of knowledge of the financial sector as B. Bāne. On the other hand, Mihails Papsujevičs, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, and Raivis Kronbergs, State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, took up their posts this year.
Initially, the MoJ had announced plans to appoint Kronbergs as Head of the Patent Board, but later the situation changed and he was offered the post of State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture. The previous State Secretary, Dace Lucau, who had worked in the Ministry of Agriculture for almost 14 years, left.
The current State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), Līga Lejiņa, took up the post for the second time in September last year. She was already previously State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science, a post she held from 2015 to 2020.
Of the current 13 State Secretaries, seven have been in the post for less than three years and only six have been there longer.
In their letter "For a democratic, lawful, efficient, open and accessible public administration", the senior civil servants - the Director of the State Chancellery and the State Secretaries of the ministries - pointed out that it is necessary to ensure that the civil servant is protected against political retaliation by the Minister, as the decisions of the Secretary of State must not be politically motivated. Indeed, there have been cases where a new State Secretary is recruited soon after the Minister takes office. However, there have also been State Secretaries who have managed to get along with several ministers from different parties. For example, since 2014, three politicians have served as finance ministers - Andris Vilks, Dana Reizniece-Ozola and Jānis Reirs (twice).
Political retaliation will be ruled out
However, although the amendments to the law explicitly provide for two terms, a number of caveats have been built into the law, namely that six months before the end of the term of office, a decision may be taken to extend the term, reassign the head of the institution to another post (including in another institution) or dismiss them, taking into account both the performance of heads of institutions and a comprehensive assessment of management competencies by an outsourced service provider.
For example, if the performance and managerial competencies of the head of the institution concerned are assessed as high and the institution's objectives have been achieved, the Minister for the sector or the Prime Minister will have the power to extend the head of the institution's term or to reassign the head of the institution shortly before the end of the second term. If, on the other hand, the head of the institution receives a low rating, the sector minister or the Prime Minister will have the right to dismiss them at the end of the term. The drafters of the amendments to the law believe that this would promote mobility of senior managers in the public administration and preserve knowledge and skills to ensure a professional and efficient civil service.
Also, in order to ensure the protection of the civil servant against political retaliation by the Minister, the draft law provides that the head of an institution (including the State Secretary, the Director of the State Chancellery, the Head of the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Center) would have the right to address the Ombudsman with a request to assess the compliance of an order or a task with the principle of good administration.
The amendments approved by the government also provide for a new criterion for the termination of civil service relationships. Namely, a mutual agreement based on a lack of cooperation between the Minister and the head of the institution or between the Prime Minister and the Director of the State Chancellery or the Head of the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Center. On the basis of such an agreement, however, the civil service relationship could be terminated no earlier than six months after the start of the cooperation. The six-month period is set both to ensure that the two officials have the opportunity to find a common ground for cooperation during this period and, if it wouldn't happen, to guard against a possible and immediate political retaliation between the Minister and the civil servant. It also stipulates that if the civil service relationship is terminated by mutual agreement, a new head of the institution must be selected by a competitive procedure.
The draft law also provides for a limit of one year on the duration for which a civil servant who is transferred to a post with a lower salary than the previous one receives the salary of the previous post, the permanent service-related bonuses and social guarantees, as well as the ranks established in the specialized civil service.
Taking into account that the State Chancellery develops and coordinates the human resources development policy of the public administration, the amendments provide that uniform information on the conditions for determining the remuneration of civil servants and termination of civil service relationships will be published on the State Chancellery's website.
The amendments approved by the Cabinet of Ministers extend the range of acts that may lead to the dismissal of a civil servant (similar to the Labor Law for employees) and set deadlines for the termination of civil service relationships.
At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers approved amendments to the Law on Remuneration of Officials and Employees of State and Local Government Authorities. The amendments stipulate that if the head of an institution is dismissed on the basis of a mutual agreement due to a failure to establish cooperation with the Minister or the Prime Minister respectively, they receive a severance payment of three months' salary.