Agenda, SIGMA Conference on Good Management in the Western Balkans, 21 July 2022

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Good Management in the Western Balkans
Following the key insights from the SIGMA Monitoring Reports
21 July 2022
DRAFT AGENDA

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Good management in the Western Balkans
Following the key insights from the SIGMA Monitoring Reports
About the SIGMA Monitoring Reports
SIGMA has carried out reviews against The Principles of Public Administration in EU candidate countries
and potential candidates since 2015. These reviews analyse performance against standard benchmarks
and performance criteria, establishing both the state of play at a point in time and the subsequent progress
made towards the standards for good governance and requirements for successful European integration,
as set out in the Principles and its indicators. Regional comparisons and detailed and sequenced
recommendations for reform are provided. The reviews feed into the European Commission's annual
progress reports and its programming of support to PAR. They also provide SIGMA partners with data and
analysis to inform their own reform activities.
The full 2021 Monitoring Reports were presented and discussed in bilateral events in Albania, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Kosovo∗
, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and Serbia in the course of
December 2021 and January 2022. Building on the specific reports, the key messages and lessons learned
at the regional level were the subject of the SIGMA Ministerial Conference: Good public administration for
better lives in the Western Balkans of 22 February 2022.
In order to further stimulate regional exchanges, SIGMA has organised a series of three, cross-cutting
regional events:
∗
This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1244/99 and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo’s declaration of
independence.
21 July 2022 10.00-12.00 CET Online event REGISTER HERE
Digital government (online event) 28 April 2022
Administrative simplification (co-hosted with ReSPA in Istanbul) 24 May 2022
Managerial accountability (online event) 21 July 2022

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Good management in the Western Balkans
Public administration with its employees uses various processes to achieve socially expected outcomes.
In order to be effective, it needs to be well organised, managed by competent leaders and ensure that
basic managerial accountability mechanisms are established.
Managerial accountability means both a clear focus on performance and compliance with rules. It requires
holding managers accountable for results by assigning them responsibility, delegating authority for
decision making, and giving them the autonomy and resources necessary to achieve the expected results.
In the Western Balkans, achieving progress with public internal financial control and public administration
reforms more generally has proven especially difficult in the absence of good conditions for managerial
accountability. Already in 2018, SIGMA highlighted that without managerial accountability, starting with
senior managers, Western Balkan governments will fail to achieve the reforms required for European Union
(EU) accession.
SIGMA’s 2021 Monitoring Reports demonstrate that some aspects of managerial accountability have
improved in the Western Balkan region since 2017 but the change was not structural and systematic.
At the same time, several dimensions related to the quality of top management showed deterioration.
Capable and accountable managers are at the frontline of implementing legislation, transforming policy
into action, safeguarding public finances and ensuring continuity of government operations. Therefore,
strengthening the competences of existing top managers should be a priority.
The level of delegation of decision-making authority continues to be very limited, as is the development of
performance management and monitoring arrangements, including the setting of clear objectives. This is
exacerbated by the high number of first-level budget organisations that are not ministries or constitutional
bodies, reducing managerial accountability at the government level as sectoral ministries are bypassed.
Better management is needed to manage risks, achieve policy objectives but also to strengthen trust in
the public administration.
This webinar will focus on the key opportunities and challenges for governments in the area of managerial
accountability both now and in the future. Key issues such as the need for an effective delegation of
decision-making, the connection between the budget and the administrative structures or the
implementation of mechanisms to measure performance will be discussed with key actors from the
Western Balkan region and the EU.

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Draft Agenda
10.00 Welcome and Opening
 Gregor Virant, Head of the SIGMA Programme
 TBC , DGNEAR European Commission
10.15 Managerial Accountability – What are we trying to achieve and why it is essential for good
public administration
Gregor Virant, Head of the SIGMA Programme
10.30 Insights from the SIGMA monitoring reports on the state of play on managerial
accountability in the Western Balkan region
Lech Marcinkowski and Alastair Swarbrick, senior advisors, SIGMA
10.50 Perspectives from the EU and the Western Balkans
 Tibor Draskovics, SIGMA Expert and former Hungarian Minister of Finance
 TBC Albania
 Tamara Stojcevic, Deputy Secretary General of the Government Serbia
11.30 Moderated discussion (SLIDOO)- main obstacles and challenges for the effective
implementation of managerial accountability
Pilar Ormijana, senior advisor, SIGMA
11.50 Closing words
12.00 End of the meeting
Interpretation provided in Albanian, Macedonian and BSC languages
ABOUT SIGMA
SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) is a joint initiative of the OECD and
the European Union, principally financed by the EU. Its key objective is to strengthen the foundations for
improved public governance, and hence support socio-economic development through building the
capacities of the public sector, enhancing horizontal governance and improving the design and
implementation of public administration reforms, including proper prioritisation, sequencing and budgeting.
We have been working with our partners on strengthening their public governance systems and public
administration capacities since 1992.
CONTACT
Alastair Swarbrick – Senior Policy Advisor, SIGMA (Alastair.swarbrick@oecd.org)
Maggie Redmond – SIGMA (Maggie.Redmond@oecd.org)

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