Initial ex-post impact analysis for the new Czech civil service

The Czech Republic was the last EU Member State to pass a Civil Service Act which took effect in 2015, ten years after its accession. The main aim of the legislation was to give staff working in government departments legal status and protection.

There was a two-year transition period for enforcement of all the provisions provided for by the new act: recruitment and appointment procedures, overhauling the compensation system and appeal channels.

The government recently decided to conduct an initial ex-post impact assessment as recommended, in particular, by the OECD. To ensure both neutrality and impartiality, the work was entrusted to an independent firm selected following a call for tenders.

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For the assessment, the firm opted for RIA (1) methodology which advocates a fact-based approach to public action and which should allow the authorities to better monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of regulations.

First of all, the service provider put forward a series of indicators for which data from the Civil Service Information System was used. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with civil servants of all ranks, a panel of researchers and a representative sample of users. Next, a questionnaire survey was carried out across all departments to gather missing data.

Broken down into five main fields (independence, performance, transparency, professionalisation and stability), which match the act’s objectives, the hundred or so compiled elements enabled a comprehensive review to be established and  the positive and negative points after the first few years of implementation to be listed.

This work shows that the act has helped boost transparency and guarantee stable HR management. The results are less clear cut as regards independence and professionnalisation, and even inadequate when it comes to efficiency.

There is a set of recommendations at the end of the report so that this in-depth analysis – that will be conducted every five years – really helps with decision-making. The recommendations are set out on the basis of their level of operational complexity and the urgency of implementation to address the shortcomings brought to light.

¹ Regulatory Impact Analysis.