Maja Klun

Tax compliance costs for companies in Slovenia and Croatia

The paper compares research into tax compliance costs for businesses in two transition countries – Slovenia and Croatia – with other studies. The main purpose of the comparison is to discover whether the conclusions of the two research projects are similar to those of other studies, and what form any differences take. Aggregate tax compliance costs as a percentage of GDP were evaluated at around 1.2% of GDP in Croatia and about 1% in Slovenia, which is quite similar to other studies. Similarity was found also in their regressiveness and tax structure. Some differences were found in the cost type structure.

Business views of the quality of tax, environment and employment regulation and institutions: the Slovenian case

Eliminating administrative burdens or ‘cutting red tape’ is becoming a political priority in most developed countries. The main problem faced by business and individuals is that, over the past two decades, the regulations they deal with have become more complex, and the related procedures place a financial burden on both business and individuals. This article presents the results of the first comprehensive quality assessment of public institutions and regulations in the fields of tax, environment and employment in Slovenia. Business managers assessed the quality of institutions and regulations in all three areas and their impact on their operations. The research indicates that Slovenian businesses gave the lowest score to environment protection institutions, with environmental protection regulations also scoring poorly. The scores were also low compared to most OECD countries. Points for practitioners The transition process in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Slovenia, is coming to an end. In spite of several efforts to adapt regulations and competent institutions to the higher EU standards, they still remain rigid. In this article, the results of the lastest survey of administrative quality of regulations and institutions in Slovenia with international comparison are presented. As for instructions for improvements in practice, they should above all focus on simplifying the regulations and making them more transparent.

Accreditation in European Public Administration

With the aim to improve the quality of public administration (PA) programmes in Europe, EGPA established in 1999—together with the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee)—the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation (EAPAA). This chapter presents the development of EAPAA in the last two decades and the experiences made with voluntary accreditation of academic PA programmes in Europe. The authors illustrate the basic accreditation concept of EAPAA, its integration into the European quality assurance institutions and the scope of accreditation missions over time. Finally, the effects of accreditation measures in the educational field of PA are discussed.

The importance of HRM factors for public sector innovativeness in Eastern Europe

The aim of the paper was to identify HRM factors associated with the innovativeness in the public sector of the Eastern European emerging market economies (hereinafter: EEEME). The initial phase of the research consisted of data acquisition. We used microdata from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). In the second phase, we divided the EEEME sample into two groups: innovators (at least one novelty introduced in the last three years) and non-innovators (no novelties introduced in the last three years). Finally, in the third phase, a t-test was applied identifying the main HRM factors, which separate the innovators from the non-innovators. The results show a majority of HRM factors by EEEME non-innovators are lacking proper support. At the same time, a positive correlation between HRM factors and EEEME innovation results was indicated. Consequently, proper HRM may be seen as critical when improving the innovativeness of the EEEME public sector.

An Analysis of the Ethics Infrastructure and Ethical Climate in Slovenian Public Administration

Abstract In consideration of the fact that public administrations worldwide face a number of challenges, many governments are dedicated to improving the ethical climate in public administrations. The same issue is also the focus of the attention of many transnational associations. The basic goal is to ensure the development of comparable ethical climates, ethical behaviour in different public administrations and to develop comparable, suitable ethics infrastructures to enable this. Modern public administrations must bring ethical conduct to the fore and resist unethical behaviour. There are different ideas on how to build ethics infrastructures in public administrations, and examples of good practice that could facilitate the development of such infrastructures are found in the public and private sectors of different countries. In this paper, we connect ethics infrastructures and ethical climates. The evaluation of Slovenia’s ethics infrastructures is based on the framework prepared by the OECD, using its questionnaire developed by Victor and Cullen. The results show that there is no general relationship between ethics infrastructures and ethical climates in public administrations. Nevertheless, some determinants of ethics infrastructures correlate to a high degree to the ethical climate, the strongest impact on ethics climates being the ethical infrastructure’s determinant “public involvement and scrutiny”.

Merjenje kakovosti, usmerjenost k uporabniku in davčna administracija

Merjenje kakovosti in usmerjenost k uporabniku je sestavni del reform javnega sektorja in zato tudi sestavni del sprememb dela davcnih administracij povsod po svetu. V clanku je na zacetku predstavljen odziv davcnih administracij v svetu na te spremembe, v drugem delu pa so prikazani rezultati raziskav o mnenju uporabnikov slovenske davcne uprave (davcnih zavezancev) o njenem delu, torej kakovosti izvajanja storitev in njeni usmerjenosti k uporabniku. Ker gre za raziskave, ki so bile izvedene v razlicnih casovnih obdobjih, je podana tudi primerjalna analiza rezultatov, predvsem glede tega, ali so zavezanci bolj zadovoljni z delom davcne uprave ali ne.