COVER STORY
Summer 2016 / Issue 50
inspection departments, conducting training sessions for professional
development and training of inspectors, issuing and revoking inspector
licenses and the implementation of
an electronic system for inspection
services (e-inspectorates).
In the past two and a half years
since its creation, the Inspections
Council managed to set the foundations of the new inspection system
in the country. All bylaws incorporated in the Law of Inspection
Oversight were proposed by the
Inspections Council. We manage
registries for monitoring the work of
inspectorates, we formed a group
of 60 educators from among the
inspectors who conduct training
for 45 different types of inspectors
and we successfully conducted the
first inspector exams, followed by
issuing the licenses to those that
passed.
ACM: How often do individuals and legal entities object to
the work of inspectors and are
these complaints substantiated? What are the main complaints of the inspected entity‘s
towards inspectors?
Kjoseva: The Inspection Council holds regular monthly sessions
where we discuss all petitions and
complaints filed by individuals and
legal entities that are affected by the
work of inspectors. In the past year,
we reviewed 52 complaints, but in
most of them, citizens complained
about issues that are under the
purview of the State Commission
for Appeals in the field of inspection
and misdemeanor proceedings;
only a few of the complaints were
about inspectors’ work. On the IC’s
initiative and in line with the Law on
Administrative Officers, we pursued
disciplinary proceedings, wherever
there was a reasonable suspicion of
an inspector offense and also took
disciplinary measures. So far, we
have not revoked any inspector’s
license.
ACM: In your opinion, are
Macedonia’s
inspectorates
properly equipped and staffed?
Kjoseva: The IC monitors
and analyzes staff and technical
equipment of inspectorates and
inspection services. Our analysis
of staffing shows that 72% of the
inspector positions have been filled
so far. Realistically, we expect an
increase in this percentage in the
coming year, with about two hundred civil servants currently working
in other jobs within the administration who have passed the inspector
exam and are waiting to be reallocated to inspector posts.
Most inspectorates and inspection services face problems due to
inadequate technical equipment,
such as a lack of vehicles and IT
equipment. Though budget funds
for this purpose are minimal, some
inspectorates – such as the State
Environmental Inspectorate – have
overcome this obstacle by utilizing international grant funds. We
expect this positive practice to be
transferred to other inspectorates in
the future.
Inspectorate (16 complaints), the
State Education Inspectorate (11
complaints), the State Market
Inspectorate (10 complaints) and
the State Inspectorate for Agriculture (5 complaints).
ACM: Tell us about the USAID
support you received in creating the „Manual of Inspection
Methodology“.
Kjoseva: USAID Macedonia
recognized the importance of the
reform of the inspection system
conducted by IC in Macedonia
and supported our work through
the „Program to improve organizational operations“ as well as the
„Project to promote investment and
exports” within which the “Methodology for conducting inspections”
was developed. The methodology
is a handbook for inspectors detailing basic principles upon which
modern inspection systems are
based. The positive experiences
and practices of these systems
will be a model and framework
for development of the system for
inspection in Macedonia.
ACM: Tell us about your personal career. What will be your
personal mark on the work of
the Council?
Kjoseva: I am a civil engineer
and I have worked both in the private and the public sector. I have
been a part of the IC since its
creation, first as a member of the
Construction, Urban planning and
Transport department. I have been
the IC President for the past 11
months.
I am proud that in this period we
have managed to implement the
first licensing of inspectors, which
is an important part of the reform of
the inspection system in the country. On May 19th this year, the IC
granted 1,020 inspector licenses
to candidates who successfully
passed the inspector exam.
In the upcoming period, the IC
will work on the development and
implementation of software solutions for inspection services to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of inspections. Also, our
activities will be directed toward
raising awareness among those
being supervised of regulatory
requirements, as well as promoting
the principle of „voluntary compliance“ with the law.
ACM: Which inspectorates
receive the most complaints?
Kjoseva: Inspectorates or
inspection agencies range from
those with only two working
inspectors and those with over 100
inspectors. Therefore, naturally,
most complaints received in 2015
are in response to the larger inspectorates such as the State Labor
ACM: What is more important, increasing the number or
the quality of inspections?
Kjoseva: The quality of inspections is more important. Modern
inspection systems recognize that
it is not practical to search and
punish every irregularity, because it
requires a large number of inspectors and a large budget to support
their work. Frequent inspections
create a restrictive environment
that stifles innovation and entrepreneurship. The planning of inspections should be carried out based
on risk analysis, which is made by
processing the available data collected in previous inspections.
AMCHAM MAGAZINE
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