Decentralization as an essential element of public administration reform in Slovakia

Abstract

After 40 years of experience with central governance, decentralization of public administration was considered the only way to the more effective governance of public affairs. Decentralization has involved territorial reorganization, public administration and fiscal reforms. The split of former Czechoslovakia resulted in new territorial organization of Slovak republic; however, different opinions on the territorial division have been discussed and new proposals for territorial reorganization are still relevant. There is the separate model of public administration in Slovakia consisting of the territorial self-government and state administration. While the central government authorities have their standard form since 1990, when the democratic political system was created, the regional state administration was reorganized several times. The most significant reform in the provision of public services took place in 2002-2004 when several competencies were transferred from the central to the regional and local level of public administration. Fiscal decentralization with the aim to advance a new financing system of local and regional self-government took place after the original and transferred competencies were defined. ESO programme currently implemented should reduce costs and optimize public administration in general. The government should be closer to the people and the intention is to simplify the whole process and make it more customer-friendly.