Experience of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry 

The objectives regarding the development of a new efficient agro-industrial system in the Republic of Moldova, set in the present governmental programs (Government Activity Program for 2005-2009 „Modernization of the Country - Welfare of the People”, National Plan „Moldovan Village”, Action Plan „The Republic of Moldova - European Union”, Strategy for the Central Public Administration Reform in the Republic of Moldova, Strategy for the Development of the Agro-industrial Sector for 2006-2015) set down how important the consolidation of the strategic role of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) is in the development and promotion of the policies for a sustainable development of the markets of agricultural and food products, in the fields of health and food safety, as well as of the rational use of the land resources and rural development. 

The Government of the Republic of Moldova initiated discussions as early as 2005 with the representatives of the USA Agency for International Development (USAID) on the possibility of granting assistance in restructuring and consolidation of the MAFI. Thus, in August 2006 USAID launched the Project „Agricultural Policies” (PAP), implemented by the American organizations Abt Associates Inc. and ACDI/VOCA. 

In this way two tasks have been set: one – to support the MAFI consolidation activities, and the second – to create a good practice in the context of the central public administration reform. In order to achieve these objectives a group of USAID experts has made a brief analysis of the MAFI, with the view to identifying the problems and the constraints the ministry is facing. At the same time the experience of the Ministries of Agriculture from Slovenia and Lithuania has been studied taking into account the European Union (EU) standards. The recommendations of the functional review carried out within the CPA reform and the decisions of the Governmental Commission for the CPA Reform have been consulted as well. 

After carrying out the functional review of the ministry, the experts have found out a series of problems hindering its normal functioning, which have been divided into three categories. 

First of all a great number of functions and tasks of the ministry do not correspond to the policy development function and must be excluded or transferred to other entities. Secondly, the policy development functions are focused on production aspects and not on the market development. Thirdly, the activities of the ministry can be considered more reactive (that come as a reply), then proactive.  At the same time, in order to get a more complex image, the present condition of the ministry has been analyzed as compared to the organization of the administration of the agro-alimentary sector in the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe. 

First of all, the present statutory tasks, functions and competences of the MAFI are not in compliance with the model applied in all the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and focused on sectorial policy functions and tasks. The latter are substituted by quasi-administrative and technical activities (coordination, regulation, service provision). Simultaneously, some subordinated institutions exercise political functions (particularly development of normative act drafts), violating the principle of function separation. 

Secondly, the possibility to exercise policy development and promotion functions is limited by the current administrative- bureaucratic activities, such as the examination and settlement of petitions, audiences, answers to the orders, etc. 

For an efficient exercising of the functions, the ministry needs both sufficient financial resources and highly qualified personnel, that would get involved in the agricultural policy development and implementation, in the analysis and forecast of the social and economic development of the sector, in the study, analysis and implementation of the best international practices in the respective sector, etc. 

After analyzing the professional skills of the ministry’s personnel, the PAP experts, while holding discussions with the Expert Group within the Government Office, have developed a training plan according to the training necessities of each person. 37 topics have been identified for training, among which the most important are those dealing with the development of the normative acts, legislative techniques, correlation of the national legislation with the communitaire norms, the policy analysis, development and evaluation of the policy efficiency, coordination of the branch policy implementation, cooperation and horizontal negotiation with the institutions, etc. 

In order to increase the efficiency of the human resources management within MAFI it has been suggested to create within MAFI the Human Resources Service. Another recommendation on behalf of the experts has been to review the MAFI regulations, in order to ensure the priority of the policy development, coordination functions, and consequently, to review the regulations of the divisions for the achievement of the same objective. 

As far as the analysis of the MAFI financial management concerns, the tender spot is the improvement of the management of the resources designed for financing the agro-industrial sector, which is currently carried out by working groups made up of MAFI personnel. This is a service provision function that according to the criteria of good governance and the principles of the Strategy for central Public Administration Reform should not be placed at the ministerial level. Thus, it has been suggested to transfer the subsidy management function to an institution subordinated to MAFI. 

Taking into account the conclusions and recommendation of the experts, MAFI with the support of the PAP have determined the main domains for establishing the plan for the ministry’s consolidation, which is already in course of implementation. 

The main objectives of the MAFI consolidation plan are:
1. Consolidation of the ministry’s capacity in policy development in the agro-industrial sector, directed towards a market economy. This includes the determination of the a) MAFI mission with b) objectives, c) functions, d) tasks, e) competences and the respective organizational structure, as well as the improvement of the human resources and human resources management.
It should be mentioned here that the MAFI Mission has been discussed during a round table held with the participation of the MAFI leadership, of the Expert Group within the RM Government Office, USAID and specialized NGO.
A cycle of trainings has been organized as part of a training program, developed for the specialists of the ministry and other institutions subordinated to MAFI. These courses have been designed for training in the development of the normative and legislative acts.
2. Harmonization of the legislation, including simplification of the normative-legislative framework in the agricultural field and assistance in the creation of a center for legislation harmonization.
In this respect PAP has hired a group of jurists, whose objective is to assist MAFI in revising and improving the normative-legal framework for MAFI functioning in the following domains: agricultural policies, food safety, operational activity, rural development. The requirements include eliminating contradictions, ambiguities and provisions of the normative acts which contradict other acts with legal power of a similar or superior level, etc.
3. Improvement of management of the financial resources and of those designed for financing the agro-industrial sector, one means for achieving this being the creation of a Pay Agency. In this respect, the selection of some international experts will be carried out for the development of a Implementation Guidebook, regarding the creation of the Pay Agency. 

Besides the above mentioned activities, working groups will be created at a national level, as well as groups responsible for certain domains for a successful implementation of the MAFI consolidation plan. They will be made up of representatives of MAFI, of the CPA bodies, of the civil society and other institutions interested in the MAFI consolidation, as well as national and international experts. 

Taking into account the fact that the MAFI consolidation in compliance with the EU standards and the requirements of the market economy is an advanced experience within the central public administration reform, we consider that the success of the modernization and efficientization of the overall central public administration depends on its successful fulfillment.

Customs Service experience

The Customs Service is one of the CPA authorities which took initiative in the CPA reform process. In order to modernize and optimize the Customs Service activity, the development strategy and the action plan have been developed and the mechanism for the elaboration of such documents has been tested. The positive experience can serve as a base for other authorities which are ready to face the challenges of the reform.

The Customs Service includes the central office, the customs offices and posts; for this reason the development of an action plan starts with the consultation of the territorial institutions. In this respect, one of the objectives of the recent reform of the Customs Service has been to review its competences to enable the customs offices to participate actively in the development of the planning documents in the field of customs activity improvement. The Customs Service has worked out several principles, which can be applied to developing the planning documents in order to improve of the activity in the field. They are:
1. Participation – the document will be developed after consulting the territorial subdivisions and specialized international institutions, as well as other interested entities.
2. Alignment of the existent programs and strategies with the national priorities and with the priorities of each institution.
3. Ongoing monitoring.
4. Flexible character of the documents to ensure the updating according to the new objectives and requirements.

At the moment, the Customs Service has several plans of activity, which make the implementation process confusing. It has been concluded that all the existent planning documents must be compatible with each other, as well as with the state-level policy documents, for their implementation at the highest level. Thus, it has been suggested that the plans of activity to be compatible and to be improved according to the Plan of Action RM-EU.

Presently, the Customs Service has two documents for the authority’s development. The first one is the long-term strategy document, which contains the orienting direction. Its aim is to identify the mechanism for achieving the identified objectives. The second one is the annual plan of actions where the clear tasks for achieving the identified objectives are pointed out.

At the same time, with the view to facilitate the record keeping of the plans and strategies of activity, the Customs Service has launched the creation process of a special informational program, which will include data about all the activities, deadlines, compatibility of measures, persons or institutions, responsible subdivisions, etc. In this program all the plans of activity are included and the responsible persons are informed about the deadlines for the planned actions. Currently, this informational program is being tested.

In order to carry out the activities foreseen in the development plans, the Customs Service developed a filter of activities, which filters each action foreseen in the development plans. This ensures the carrying out of all the measures necessary for the correct implementation of the actions foreseen in the development plans. The Filter of Activities of the Customs Service stipulates the creation of a working group charged with the fulfillment of the action; development of the action plan; assessment of the necessary human and financial resources; development of a departmental normative ground; necessity for completing the legislative framework; development of drafts for legislative documents and their coordination in the established manner; coordination with other programs, strategies, plans; placing the information on the web-site of the institution and spreading it; coordination with other institutions and subdivisions; international experience in the field; interaction with the civil society; organization of seminars, conferences, round tables, etc.; setting and improvement of performance indexes, statistics, etc.; record keeping and finalization of action documents; drawing up the report on the fulfillment of the actions.

A very important stage in the process of development plans and strategy implementation is the assessment of the results of the planned actions, which includes the quality of the action, the efficiency of the implementation, durability etc. 

Presentation of the positive practice (md)