Introduction

This review of the Slovenian public sector salary system was requested by the Government of Slovenia as part of a broader OECD Public Governance Review of Slovenia. To increase its efficiency and effectiveness, the public administration needs to have staff in the right place at the right time and with the right skills, motivated to perform. The public sector salary system provides the backbone for helping to achieve this. This review analyses the current system and makes recommendations for further reform.

The scope of this review is confined to the Slovenian public sector salary system.¹ (The salary system is just one component of human resource management.) The issues raised, however, link very closely with those discussed in the Public Governance Review. The objective of the OECD’s Public Governance Review of Slovenia was to determine means to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the public administration through appropriate governance arrangements, particularly given the tight fiscal context. The Public Governance Review addresses other aspects of human resource management including: workforce planning and capacity and capability reviews; leadership and the structure of the senior civil service; use of strategic HRM and linkages between HRM, strategic planning and budgeting frameworks; and linkages between performance management and accountability for results, and the use of incentives. The Public Governance Review also addresses budget management issues, which are generally outside the scope of this review, unless they are of direct relevance to the public sector salary system.

This review is based on information provided by the Slovenian public administration as well as data and analysis which was collected in the course of several missions to Slovenia in Spring 2011, and which provided the opportunity for the OECD team - made up of OECD Secretariat staff and peer reviewers from other OECD member countries - to interview a wide range of stakeholders both within and outside the Slovenian administration. The review also makes use of data and analysis contained in a range of OECD publications, including the recently published Government at a Glance 2011, and data from the OECD’s publications on economic performance.

The first chapter of the review sets the macro fiscal context, which is important to provide context for the salary system reform, and its contribution to fiscal consolidation. Chapter 2 explains the current public sector salary system and its evolution. The final chapter sets out the specific findings of the review regarding the public sector salary system, and makes proposals for the way forward.