Speech of the Prime Minister of the CR, Mirek Topolánek on the occasion of presentation of the initiative "panepremiere.cz" on November 21st 2006

First of all I want to confirm that promoters have chosen the name of their project properly. Helplessness of an elected politician in conflict with eternal bureaucracy – it is one of the first feelings, which I registered after my coming to the crowded Straka´s Academy (the seat of the government). More than six hundred employees – nearly double in comparison with times of Václav Klaus – two hundred commissions and government councils, number of them are doubled to be on the safe side, some of them are even non-dissolvable, because they had been established following certain directives of the EU...

Just my fears of my own survival would force me to start a change of this status quo. Fortunately, I did not have to rely on my own fears. I knew I had a support. Apart from other things it was the project eStat, which I helped started and whose good spirit was Michal Tošovský who unfortunately tragically died.

I think that a paraphrase of the statement of Winston Churchill can be related to the work of the group of fanciers: There have not been such times on the field of de-bureaucratization when so many people owed to so few people. In professional circles there are slogans up to this time like: "Tošovský´s anti-bureaucratic law, bureaucratic burden, CzechPoint, Legislative Software, de-bureaucratization, eGovernment Act, Central Administration of State Property. And if I govern for some time, they will not rest only slogans.

Two years have already passed, from the time when I, on the June 21st 2004, for the first time mentioned the term and the project "Effective State". Then I said that we needed the "Plan of Reconstruction of the Republic Destroyed by Špidla with Use of Purposeful and Effective System of Management of the State Administration". In the meantime, after the period of Špidla, whose managerial style was characterized especially by long meetings, other two socialists changed in the position of prime minister. Gross was engaged in different things, than in administration management. Paroubek, on the other hand, change the administration into his own election staff.

The work has been left to me. And with sincerity that is my own feature, I say that I have managed the two months in my office well. My sir Humphrey also uses strong-arm tactics, but his credo is different form the famous serial story character. At the first place there are not interests of bureaucrats, but interests of citizens. Even in such a short time we managed to reorganize significantly the work of advisory bodies of the government. We removed duplicities, we made performance of those bodies more effective and we transferred number of them under ministries, which carry out similar activities and where there would be better professional background. Together with rationalization of performance of the office, we have saved about one ten of workers and five percent of the budget. All this has been managed during the first month of operation of the new administration.

I do not want to bother you with details, but this is, of course, an example for ministries and further offices of public administration. Our objective can be expressed by the slogan: Fever can mean more. Fewer officers for less money must provide better services for citizens. We must not be threaten by the shout of lobbyists that dissolution of this office or that office "radically endanger operation of the state administration: contrary is the case: radical but well thought out reform not only makes the public administration cheaper, but it also enhance its real output, because it will cease to be engaged in useless matters and to lord over citizens and thus time will rest and means just for useful work.

As a prime minister I receive number of questions and I want to answer at least the most significant ones:

The first questions: What should be the role of the Office of the Government like?

From the essence of the matter results that the office should be coordinating and managing body of the state administration.

The second question: Should we introduce the model, which is common in other countries, when state secretaries or deputies manage the office in fact, and ministers are engaged in political priorities?

This is exactly what I do not want. I do not want us to get to a state, which was described by Edvard Kožušník and which is symbolized by the heading behind me.

The solution is to remunerate key workers of the state administration in managerial style and I would even accept clearly defined long-term rules. It is one of reasons why we postponed the enforcement of the Act on State Service. We want in fact, to submit quite new legal norm.

The third question: How do you want to depoliticize the state administration?

The state administration must be operating tool of administration of the policy of the government. Every reasonable politician, and it does not matter of what political party, must be interested in operation of this machinery. And also because of this reason, long-term rules must be determined to motivate officials.

The fourth question: Which model of "governance" is the most acceptable for you? The British one, with effective and "slim" state? German one, with its corporatism and departmental attitude? The Scandinavian one, in which ministries of foreign affairs and trade have the strongest position?

The British model is the closest one to my heart, or if you want the Anglo-Saxon one. It must be built more on the personal responsibility of the Prime Minister regarding principal issues, and not on the collective non-decision-making process. Otherwise, it corresponds to our Constitution, which gives the Prime Minister exclusive power to decide on the composition and the fate of the government.

The fifth question: The shortest and concurrently the most difficult answer: And how are you going to manage it?

Those questions I like best. Particularly from the side of journalists. My common answer is: New governance. Governance less lavish, less noisy, but with more visible concrete results for citizens.

Everything starts with the new prime minister, who has to set priorities, which will be projected into the composition of the government and into the organization of the Office of the Government. I have compounded my government as the anti-corruption government, pro-European and effective government. I am convinced that I was successful.

With new prime minister, the new government starts to operate. Every member of the government must be a professional, regardless the party membership or nomination. Such ministers are able to bear personal responsibility and also to effectively participate in work of other ministries. I have a feeling that I have already formed the best possible government.

With a new government a new style of governance arrives. An open and transparent style. Decision-making processes inside and outside the government must be visible and they must be under public control. A style, part of which is permanent liquidation of unnecessary bureaucratic burden and restriction of clientilism and corruption. A style, which make decision-making process more effective both from the time and cost point of view.

Unfortunately, we had little time to enforce a new style into all offices. But I rely just on the eStat project, on institutions like CEVRO to provide the proper ammunition, so that I could be able to destroy the bureaucracy in the next round. And I of course rely on the project www.panepremiere.cz, which makes problems of citizens in relations with the public administration more visible, and which popularizes the idea of de-bureaucratization. It is not a change itself, but it is its good start. For me personally, is the character of the Prime Minister Jim Hacker an excellent inspiration to make the change seriously.