Georgian public sector introduces performance appraisal of civil servants

Performance appraisal of civil servants as an important step in the implementation of the Public Administration Reform in Georgia was discussed at a conference this month, attended by 80 representatives of the Georgian ministries, Government Administration, National Bank of Georgia, civil society and international organizations. The invited experts and representatives of the public agencies presented the benefits and drawbacks of a performance appraisal system, introduced in January 2018.

The event was organized by the Civil Service Bureau of Georgia with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UK aid from the UK Government.

Ekaterine Kardava, Head of the Civil Service Bureau of Georgia; Natia Zedginidze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Georgia; Gela Khanishvili, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia; and Gigi Bregadze, UNDP Democratic Governance Team Leader in Georgia, addressed the participants of the conference at an opening session.

Ekaterina Kardava stressed that the new system of performance appraisal gives civil servants more opportunities for career growth and professional development.

“The success of every public institution depends on the success of its employees. The new system of performance appraisal allows for assessing civil servants against the objective indicators, such as the achievement of goals, defined at the beginning of the year,” Head of the Civil Service Bureau of Georgia said.

UNDP’s Gigi Bregadze noted that the ongoing reforms in civil service are a step forward to ensuring good governance of public institutions.

“The establishment of a performance appraisal mechanism in civil service is a challenging process which requires systemic transformations in civil service and changes in the attitudes of civil servants. Nevertheless, some major steps forward have been already made to establish an effective system to assess the performance of civil servants,” he said.

The establishment of an objective and efficient performance appraisal system for civil servants is mandatory for all public agencies in Georgia under the Law on Civil Service. UNDP and UK aid from the UK Government have been supporting the introduction of this new mechanism since 2017 providing thirteen partner agencies with technical support and expertise. UNDP and UK aid helped organize a series of working meetings across the public agencies to develop specific appraisal procedures and relevant documents.

The establishment of performance appraisal system in civil service is part of the ongoing Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Georgia supported by UNDP and UK aid from the UK Government in partnership with the Georgian Government.
(UNDP Georgia)