- What place does introduction of civil service system occupy in the concept of reforms in Armenia’s Defense system?
- In 2007, Armenian President approved the program of measures within the framework of defense reforms for 2007-2015. Introduction of the institute of civil service in the Defense Ministry of the republic is the component of this program.
This issue is conditioned by the fact that, according to article 8-2 of Armenia’s Constitution, the Armed Forces preserve neutrality in political issues and are under civil control. The introduction of civil special service itself is an element of civil control, since civil control over Armed Forces has wider content. This is conditioned by the fact that the positions of the Defense Minister and his Deputies are civil ones. Here the matter is not the civil social service: the position of the Minister is political, and of the Deputies – arbitrary.
The Standing Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs, National Security and Defense, the institute of the Ombudsman, a number of institutes on informing the society are mechanisms of control.
- At which stage is the implementation of the civil element in the Defense Ministry, and when do you plan to complete it?
- Conditionally, one can name two stages: introduction and implementation. At present, the system of civil special service can be considered introduced in the Defense Ministry, and the year of 2010 will start directly from its implementation.
Let me present the path the introduction of the civil special service has passed. The law on special civil service was approved in November, 2007, after which there was the preparation stage, during which over a dozen of normative-legal acts were approved, 12 normative decrees were issued by the Defense Minister, related to the order of holding the competition for vacant positions in civil special service, attestation and retraining of civil servants, etc.
Besides, there was the necessity to make certain changes in a number of laws. This was conditioned by the fact that the Defense Ministry, as opposed to other executive bodies in Armenia, has its peculiarities, related to the tasks in process of realization and the corresponding structure. In connection with this, there were changes made into the law on “State Administrative Establishments”, into presidential decrees of July 18, 2008, as a result of which on December 25, 2008, the regulations of the Defense Ministry, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as well as the Investigation Service and the Department for Material-Technical Provision were approved.
This was a quite volume issue, and after this legal basis was created, we started its introduction, which also required approval of a number of legal acts. In particular, the list of positions in the civil special service was composed, the authority to approve which belongs to the Civil Service Council of Armenia. After approving the list, the Defense Minister approved the staff list, the lists of positions in each group and subgroup. And already on December 12, 2009, the corresponding people were approved for positions in the civil special service. In fact, one can state that the civil service system is already introduced in the Armenian Defense Ministry.
- What will the correlation of military and civilians be in Defense Ministry after completing the process?
- According to the approved list, civil positions will be occupied by 403 civilians. Here we speak about the subdivisions, which do not realize direct military functions. Among them are legal, financial-budgetary subdivisions, dealing with issues of planning, public relations, military education, staff issues. There are peculiarities here as well, for instance, both civilians and military may be in one and the same subdivision. This is conditioned by the fact that personnel management and military education also deal with military-educational institutes, where there is certain necessity in military skills. There is a flexible mechanism created, which will allow efficiently solving tasks the Defense Ministry faces.
- How competitive will the special civil service be in financial terms and from other points of view?
- In any country, the privilege of a state official’s position is that the state takes up the role of the stable employer. What concerns competitiveness, there are also corresponding guarantees for civil servants, fixed by the law on “Social protection of military and their families”.
The corresponding changes were made to the law on “Payment for the work of civil servants”, according to which it becomes possible to pay additional means to civil servants in twofold volume of their position salary rate.
Special attention was paid to the fact that no one suffered in terms of salary, concerning which there were corresponding mechanisms elaborated.
- Not all military would like to renounce shoulder straps. What should be done in that case?
- I have already noted that the list of civil service positions also contains officials, who do not carry out military functions. Professional military remain the same, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, as the administrative body, consists of military.
- How is the military position brought into compliance with the civil one?
- Positions of the civil service are divided into four groups: the highest, the senior, the leading and the junior. In 2008, the Armenian government established compliance of military service with the civil one. That is to say, this issue is already solved.
- When the system of civil service was introduced, retraining and attestation of personnel were realized in state structures. How will this take place in the Defense Ministry?
- We apply the same mechanism. At that, one should differentiate the notions of first retraining and first attestation. The system itself is a new one. People, who previously occupied military service positions, are considered civil special servants by the law. In this context, there is the necessity to additionally study the provisions of laws and legislative acts, after which one can hold professional attestation, which is realized once in three years.
Each year, 1/3 of civil servants undergoes retraining and attestation. That is to say, we plan to first carry out the retraining and then the attestation.
- In the process of reformation, you, undoubtedly, have studied the practice of other countries. The path of which country became an example for you?
- In 2002, when the civil service was being introduced in Armenia, we were studying the experience of certain Baltic and Eastern European countries and we already have 7 years’ experience in civil service system. However, now we take the experience of the current civil service as a basis. Here one should note certain peculiarities: there is the principle of one Chief here, and there are the corresponding differences in terms of appointment, the rights of people, who become civil special servants in defense system (the law provides for exact limitations, which differ from the items of the law on civil service, in particular, they concern people, who have been previously dismissed from a military position basing on negative grounds or have taken an alternative service), as well as in terms of forming committees and holding service exams.
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