Supreme audit institutions and parliaments have an important role in holding governments to account for the use of public funds. Parliaments rely on the objective and professional work of supreme audit institutions to provide them with information...

A well-functioning policy making system is a key pillar of a transparent and effective democratic system. It is also a crucial precondition for the country to make progress in the European integration process as the capacity of national...

Kosovo is facing crucial challenges in developing a competitive economy, providing a decent level of public service and moving closer to the EU. Developing national policies to meet these objectives will require a functional policy co-ordination,...

Both an ambitious European integration agenda and the need for Montenegro to develop national policies for a more competitive economy require a functioning policy co-ordination, a planning system with clear requirements, and proper institutional...

The management of operational risk is at the heart of efficient government, but countries often fail to apply good or even routine operational risk management practices and have difficulty in understanding how to put the processes in place. Through...

This paper sets out a strategy calling for a radical overhaul of the manner in which both the EU and aspiring member states define and implement what the Copenhagen criteria refer to as the “Rule of Law” in pursuit of the elusive goal of...

This report examines the professionalisation of the civil service in seven Western Balkan states: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia1, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia. In the case of Bosnia and...

This study provides a comparative analysis of existing centralised purchasing institutions in selected EU Member States in terms of organisation, coverage, objectives and rationale, financing models, types of framework agreements and call-off...

The aim of this paper is to explore the most problematic aspects of information access legal regimes and to provide some guidelines to policy makers, including legislators, governments and public administrators. The analysis is based on the...

How do Member States regulate their national public procurement systems below the EU thresholds and in areas not regulated in detail by the EU Directives? This paper provides the reader with an overview of different national policies, rules and...

Before joining the EU in May 2004, Central and Eastern European countries were required to professionalise their civil services. Most were perceived as having made improvements sufficient to be granted EU membership status. But what happened next?...

The main purpose of the paper is to provide orientations based on a comparative approach to policy makers on drafting legislation on the organisation and functioning of the state administration. It is therefore written in a practice oriented way,...

The European Commission requested Sigma to carry out a study on the regulatory management capacities of the ten countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 to learn more about their Better Regulation practices, exchange good practices and make...

This study provides a comparative analysis of the public procurement review and remedies systems of Member States. Twenty-four separate overviews of public procurement systems in the 24 participating Member States were produced on the basis of...

This study provides an analysis of the functions, structures and capacity of the central public procurement bodies of Member States. Twenty-two separate overviews of public procurement systems in the 22 participating Member States were produced on...

This publication is based on a Sigma paper and on reports by EU Member States prepared in 2005 at the request of several new Member States. The original paper and some Member State reports were then used as background documentation for a Sigma...

While defining appropriate roles for political advisers is a highly relevant topic in most democracies and especially in EU NMS, as well as candidate and CARDS countries today, surprisingly little comparative information exists. To fill this gap, in...

This paper analyses the negotiations which will take place with the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and attempts to identify where the major...

This paper was prepared by Sigma, upon the request of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, to serve as a basic comparative working document for the preparation of a new policy and regulation on conflict of interest in the Czech public...

A well-functioning government office acts as a co-ordinator of the decision-making system and as such is crucial for the government’s capacity to define and pursue its collective objectives. The “Government Office” is a generic term that refers to...