Number of administrative employees to be discu?ed in April

BUJANOVAC- A draft law regulating the number of employees in the state administration and local self-government authorities should be adopted in April, Serbian Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government Kori Udovicki said on Tuesday.

The criteria for the maximum number of administrative employees must be determined a?urately and objectively, Udovicki said after a meeting with the mayors of three municipalities in southern Serbia - Presevo, Bujanovac and Medve?a - representatives of the ethnic Albanian National Council, MPs from the region and Zoran Stankovic, president of the Coordination Body for the three municipalities.

"The proposal, for now - and I believe that that is how it will be - is to define the maximum number of employees. We are currently working on precisely giving objective criteria that will be mu? better than some linear reduction of the number of employees, whi? is not being discu?ed," Udovicki said in Bujanovac.

The required number of employees will be established and once that maximum is defined, local self-government authorities themselves will decide whi? posts they need to fill and where the number of employees needs to be cut, Udovicki said.

Implementing the complete programme for regulating the state and local administrations will take around three years, Udovicki said.

The minister said that the three municipalities in southern Serbia also have specific problems.

The Serbian government wants all citizens - ethnic Albanians, Serbs and Roma - to remain in southern Serbia and have employment opportunities here, she said.

"That is why we need to overcome a certain mistrust that still exists here and start building cooperation," Udovicki said.

The minister...