National
Council
a) The status of Parliamentary administration in the Slovak Republic
The status
of the Chancellery of the Slovak Republic is governed by the Act on Rules of Procedure of the
National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 350/1996 Col. as amended.
The Chancellery of the National Council of the Slovak Republic provides
professional, organizational and technical services necessary for the operation
of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, its committees and special
supervisory committees, including parliamentary documentation, recording and
printing services. It also carries out the duties set out by other regulations,
particularly in the area of employment regulations, protection and
administration of public property and spending of public funds as the
administrator of one individual Budget Chapter.
These tasks
are accomplished by civil servants and other employees. The number of employees
is approved by the President of the National Council, who is limited by the
budget of the Chancellery.
Working
relations of the employees of the Chancellery are governed by Act. No. 312/2001 on civil service, Act.
No. 313/2001 on public service and Rules of Procedure of the National Council,
which specifies the status of the Chancellery within the civil service. The
Chancellery has managed to preserve its specific status in the civil service by
special provisions of these acts, that respect the tasks of the National
Council which are different from those of civil service in the executive field.
State
servants are admitted to civil service under the Act on civil service, with
certain modifications of their working relation with the Chancellery laid down
by the Act on civil service and the Rules of Procedure.
The Chancellery is a Service Office, the Head of the Chancellery is at
the same time the Head of the Service Office. The Chancellery, unlike the Civil
Service Office with jurisdiction over civil service in general, projects and
analyses the necessary number of civil service employment posts, manages
education in civil service, keeps the records on civil servants and performs
administration of their personal files on termination of their civil service.
It also elaborates the principles for professional growth of civil servants and
of their professional careers in civil service and determines criteria of
service assessment of civil servants.
Draft systemization (determination of the number of civil service posts
in a Service Office ranked by positions resulting from organisational
structure) shall be prepared by the Chancellery and submitted to the National Council
and the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic for approval.
Admission to the civil service in the Chancellery is governed by the Act on
civil service. Civil servants may be admitted to preparatory or temporary civil
service and later appointed to permanent civil service after passing
qualification exams. A citizen, who applies for civil service may be
admitted to the position in the Chancellery, if such a person meets
requirements set out by the Act on civil service and the Chancellery. Vacant
civil service posts in preparatory or temporary civil service shall be staffed
on the basis of the results of selection procedures, that shall verify the
skills and professional knowledge and other facts on an applicant necessary or
suitable with regard to the terms of the nature of the tasks which such civil
servant is to perform in the civil service.
Selection procedure is carried out by the Chancellery, not by the Civil Service Office. It
is carried out by a selection commission established by the Head of the
Chancellery and consisting of civil servants in permanent civil service.
Details on the selection precedure is laid down by a generally binding
regulation issued by the Head of the Chancellery. Civil service employment
relationship is established on the basis of appointment to a civil service
employment post.
Other areas
– rights and obligations of civil servants, deepening and extending
qualification, remuneration and other entitlements, sickness security,
pensions, activities of trade unions – are fully governed by the Act on civil
service.
As for remuneration, civil
servants of the Chancellery are remunerated according to the Act on civil
service and the Salary Order of the Chancellery, which is annexed to the Rules
of Procedure. The Salary Order also contains catalogues of activities of civil
servants and scale of salary tariffs.
A civil servant of the Chancellery is according to salary class and salary
category (years of practical experience) entitled to a tariff salary plus
other bonuses.
It is
however important to say, that there are efforts of the government to lift the
specific features of the parliamentary
administration as laid down by law and
subordinate the regime of the pariamentary civil service to the one at
the executive level. The draft law has been submitted to the National Council
in September 2003, it should be decided upon in late October 2003.
b) Relations between the political bodies
and the Parliamentary administration
Under The Slovak Constitution, the President of the National Council
shall direct and organize the business of the National Council, in particular
he appoints and discharges the Head of
the Chancellery and performs other activities as may be determined and authorized by the
National Council or set out by the Rules of Procedure. The pay roll of the
Chancellery and the number of its employees shall be approved by the President
of the National Council. The position of the Head of the Chancellery is defined
by the Act on civil service as a special function with respect to his
links with the President of the National Council through his appointment.
Vice-Presidents
of the National Council shall direct and organize the business of the
parliament in the areas authorized by the President of the National Council.
The
Chancellery is under control and represented by the Head of the Chancellery.
For its activities, the Head of the Chancellery is responsible to the President
of the National Council. The President of the National Council determines the
amount of salary and other particulars for the Head of the Chancellery. The
Head of the Chancellery, authorized by the Rules of Procedure, issues
Organizational Rules, Rules for Printing and Disposal of Documents, including
filing, discarding and other internal rules.
Other civil
servants are appointed and dismissed pursuant to the Act on civil service.
c) The responsibility of The Head of the Chancellery for the administration
The Head of
the Chancellery is responsible only to the President of the National Council
for activities of the Chancellery. This responsibility is not shared with
anyone. The heads of particular sections and departments are responsible for
the work of their offices and employees, but do not share responsibility with
the Head of the Chancellery.
The Head of
the Chancellery is a statutory body of the Chancellery and coordinates its
work. He performs his function and brings decisions in accordance with legal
rules, resolutions of the National Council and decisions of the President of
the National Council. He is superior to
all Chancellery employees, whom he may impose duties and tasks regarding their
work position.
The business of a committee is directed and organized by the
Secretariat of a committee, which is headed by a Secretary to whom
one or more employees are subordinated. The Secretary of a committee is
subordinated to the Head of the Chancellery, not to the President of the
National Council. Above all, the President of the National Council may not be
a member of any comittee.
Secretaries of committees are governed in their work by resolutions of
the National Council and corresponding committee, by instructions of the
Vice-president, the director of the Section of Parliamentary activities, his
deputy for Secretaries of committees and in the field of exclusive activities
of the committees, also by instructions of the Chairs of the committees.
The
Secretariat of the President of the National Council and Internal Control desk
of the Section of Parliamentary activities are subordinated to the President of
the National Council. The Secretariats of the Vice-presidents are subordinated
to the Vice-presidents. Employees of the MPs´ clubs are subordinated to the
Chairpersons of the MPs´club.
In
employment relations are these offices subordinated to the Head of the
Chancellery, who also directs the Secretariat of the Head of the Chancellery,
directors of sections of the Chancellery and director of Department for
petitions, complaints and internal control. Directors of sections govern
directors of departments, who govern dirctors of divisions.
The basic
principles of the work in the Chancellery
are laid down by the Organizational Rules. Among others, they are close
cooperation and mutual notification among offices of the Chncellery and
teamwork while elaborating conceptual tasks.
d) The Parliamentary and administration´s
workload
There are
150 MPs in the Slovak parliament, the number of the Chancellery employees is
531, of which 171 are civil servants (about 155 are in direct support of the
legislative tasks of the National Council).
In general,
the National Council sits regularly in the course of the year, there are 9 – 10
regular sessions during a calendar year, that last on the average 10 days,
approximately 10 hours a day. In addition, the parliament holds special
sessions discussing and deciding on current political developments. There were
63 sessions in the second election term.
In the second election term
(1998 – 2002) the parliament in general casted 10 000 votes (does not include
voting in the committees).
Laws passed in:
1998/1999 – 17/100
2000 – 126
2001 – 133
2002 – 158
total: 532
The most
workload lies on the Constitutional
committee, that discusses all draft legislation submitted to the
National Council. The Constitutional committee has the most sittings of all the
committees. The least extracted from the legislative view is the European
Integration Committee. It discussed 6 laws. The procedures of the committes are
strictly formal, governed by the Rules of Procedure and more detailed
procedural rules issued by each committee as authorized by the Rules of
Procedure.
Committees
deliver to the President of the National Council all decisions they bring, he
may request additional explanation.
The role of the parliamentary administration is defined by the Rules of
Procedure (§ 143). See e) for details.
e) Relations between the Parliamentary administration and the legislative
process
The process
of adoption of a bill is divided into three readings, where particular
branches of the Chancellery are directly engaged in the process.
The President of the National Council (and his
Secretariat) to whom a bill is submitted, reviews it as for
requirements of the Rules of Procedure and Legislative rules. If a bill
complies with the prescribed requirements, the President of the National
Council arranges for immediate delivery to all MPs and puts it onto the agenda of the next
session.
Secretariats of the President of the National Council and the
Vice-presidents prepare documentation to allow carrying out the tasks of the
committees, elaborate opinions on the materials presented at sessions of the
parliament or committees, process papers and personal agenda of the President
and the Vice-presidents.
Organizational department performs conceptual and
coordination activities and organizational and administrative tasks in
preparation of sessions of the National Council while cooperating with
particular formations of the Chancellery as well as with ministries and other
bodies of state administration and institutions within the range of its
activities. In particular, it elaborates draft time table and agenda of
sessions, provides consultation on implementation of the Rules of Procedure and
other acts regarding constitutional status of the parliament, provides for the
conditions for the discussion to the materials submitted to the National
Council – recording and documentation of the due numbered materials, their
delivery to addresses, provides transcription of audio-records from the
proceedings of each session, elaborates complete documentation from the
proceedings of the National Council including producing of verbatim records and
minutes from the proceedings.
Department of legislation and law
approximation
carries out tasks regarding the legislative function of the parliament, in
particular reviews bills from their submission and elaborates legal opinions,
where it also gives opinion on compliance of the bill with the Constitution of
the Slovak Republic, constitutional bills, the Rules of Procedure and
Legislative rules, provides professional assistance concerning bills discussed
at a session or procedural issues, provides information on material issues
of the legislative process for internal needs of the National Council, reviews
bills as for their compliance with the EC/EU law and international agreements.
Department of analyses and training performs tasks of
a analytical, scientific, training, consultant and information centre for
the National Council, committees and the Chancellery. In particular, it
provides advisory services concerning material issues connected with draft
legislation, elaborates information and analyses and publishes the results of
scientific research, reviews the material issues of the bills and elaborates
opinions, cooperates with committees in discussion on the draft legislation,
elaborates information on request of MPs, international organizations, national
parliaments and other institutions.
Department of information technologies manages information systems and
provides technical support and operation of
the electronic voting system in the National Council, tests and
establishes technical devices, so that it facilitates administrative work,
provides consultations and maintenance.
Department of communication with media and
public communicates
information on the activities of the parliament through the mass media to
general public and joins the task of creating good relationship between the
National Council and general public within the Information and Visit centre for
public.
The centre
of legislative process rests with the committees, the Secretariats of committees performs coordination activities and
administrative and organizational tasks within preparation and realization of
the sessions of committees.
f) Latest changes in Parliamentary administration
Some important
changes are being made regarding the accession process to the European Union. There is a new
Department on European affairs in process of creation, that will deal with the
EU matters after
There have
also been some legislative changes, especially in the Constitution and
consecutively in the Rules of Procedure.
At the
level of communication, from
beginning of the new election term (2002) there are major changes in the
attitude of the parliament to the communication with the public. Within the
Project Open Parliament, launched by the
President of the National Council, a new Department of communication with
media and public has been established, that keeps public informed about the
activities of the National Council and its committees through the mass media
and the Information and Visit Centre for Public. There is a new information desk
in the foyer of the parliament building, TV sets are located in the halls of
the parliament.
A new
electronic voting system (“digital conference“) has been introduced.
In the
field of security, the National
Council has been supplied by modern equipment, the personal capacities were
strengthened (special police corps – Office of the Protection of the High
Public Servants).
Parliamentary staff takes part in training
and educational projects and programs within PHARE and various bilateral
projects (e.g. British Know-How Fund).