ADMINISTRATION IN BRIEF SERVICES AND DATA CREDITS Publisher: Federal Chancellery, Division III – Civil Service and Administrative Reform Editing: Klaus Hartmann, Elisabeth Dearing Layout: Jarmila Böhm Print: Remaprint Version: May 2006 ADMINISTRATION IN BRIEF SERVICES AND DATA CONTENT THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION 3 The Federal Government 4 The Department Principle 4 Federal Ministries and subordinate agencies 5 The structure of a ministry 6 “Disincorporation” from the Federal Government 6 Federal State Administration 6 Municipalities 7 Public Administration tasks 7 Task distribution 7 Indirect and direct administration 7 Public Administration reform 8 THE PUBLIC SERVICE IN AUSTRIA 9 Dimensions of the public service 10 Officials and contractual staff 10 Structures of the public service 10 The public employer 11 Personnel management and controlling 11 Social partnership in the public service 12 Recruitment into the public service 12 Careers and functions in the public service 12 Personnel development 13 Salaries 13 Retirement 13 FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION SERVICES AND DATA 15 Federal Chancellery 16 Foreign Affairs 18 Education, Science and Culture 20 Finance 22 Health and Women 24 Interior 26 Justice 28 Defence 30 Agriculture and Forestry, Environment and Water Management 32 Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection 34 Transport, Innovation and Technology 36 Economy and Employment 38 THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION The organisational variety of the Austrian ad- ally integrated in the federal state administration ministration is derived from two principles: (as district authorities) or within the greater city. As | from the constitutional basic principle of the Fe- such, Austria can be said to have a four-tiered ad- deration ministrative structure throughout: Federal Govern- | and from the principle of local self-administrati- ment – Federal States – Districts - Municipalities on of Austrian municipalities These two principles result to an administrative | THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT structure consisting of three levels of subdivisions each with corresponding administrative organisa- The Department Principle tions: The Federal government is the largest admin- istrative organisation in Austria. It is under the | at central government level the Federal Gov- leadership of the Federal Ministers, who preside ernment as monocratic organs of a particular department. | at federal level, the federal state administra- The number of Federal Ministers and consequently tions of the nine States of Burgenland, Carin- of the departments is variable – currently there are thia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, twelve. State Secretaries can be appointed for po- Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna litical support and for representation in parliament | and at local self-administration the municipal or at European level. administrations of 2,359 Austrian municipali- ties Other than the Federal Chancellor, who is also supported by his own department, there are Fed- All over Austria there is also a network of 99 ad- eral Ministers for foreign affairs, for education, sci- ministrative districts, which are not independent ence and culture, for finance, for health and wo- territorial authorities but are rather organisation- men, for the interior, for justice, for defence, for LOWER AUSTRIA VIENNA UPPER AUSTRIA STYRIA VORARL- SALZBURG BURGEN- BERG LAND TYROL CARINTHIA ADMINISTRATION IN BRIEF 4 || 5 THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION agriculture and forestry, environment and water Federal Ministries and management, for social security, generations and subordinate agencies consumer protection, for transport, innovation and Each Federal Minister’s department consists technology and for the economy and employment. of a Federal Ministry (also called Central Offices), Currently there are seven State Secretaries active where strategic decisions such as draft bills are in five ministries. prepared, and the subordinate agencies. The latter is a collective name for all kinds of organisational As a whole, the Federal Ministers make up the establishments. In this way, finance offices are Federal Government. The Federal Chancellor is the subordinate agencies just as police inspectorates chairman of the Federal Government and as such, or even individual schools are. exercises the central function. As heads of the The size of individual departments varies greatly Federal Chancellery, he has the same rank as all as a consequence. Traditionally, large departments other Federal Ministers. This clearly demonstrates are the ones concerned with education and secu- the prevailing distinct “department principle” of the rity agendas. In particular, the dimensions are as Federal Administration. follows: STAFF SIZE OF FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS (2005) Ministry Central Office 0ther whole (Ministry) (subordinate) Ministerial area Ministerial area ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Federal Chancellery 740 125 865 (0,6 %) Foreign Affairs 627 756 1.383 (1,0 %) Education, Science and Culture 975 42.523 43.499 (32,6 %) Finance 743 10.575 11.317 (8,5 %) Health and Women 459 91 550 (0,4 %) Interior 1.307 30.316 31.623 (23,7 %) Justice 249 11.090 11.339 (8,5 %) Defence 1.078 23.093 24.171 (18,1 %) Agriculture and Forestry, Environment and Water Management 891 1.788 2.680 (2,0 %) Social Security, Generations and Consumer Protection 550 674 1.224 (0,9 %) Transport, Innovation and Technology 688 280 968 (0,7 %) Economy and Employment 1.046 1.962 3.008 (2,3 %) Others 661 – 661 (0,5 %) Total 10.014 (8 %) 123.273 (92 %) 133.287 (100 %) ADMINISTRATION IN BRIEF 4 || 5 THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION The structure of a ministry | FEDERAL STATE ADMINISTRATION The twelve Austrian Federal Ministries (including the Federal Chancellery) are subject to standard or- In contrast to the Federal Administration, the ganisational basic principles. They are divided into administrative apparatus of the nine Federal States divisions, and for the most part have between 50 are not organised according to the branch system. and 150 employees. The divisions are themselves The state government as a leadership organ of divided into departments. Depending on the case, the state administration basically acts as a com- several departments can be combined into groups mittee, although many aspects are still delegated or areas. Subdivision of departments into sections to individual members for decision. There are no is also possible. Additionally, Secretaries Gene- separate State Ministers with or without portfolios ral are established in some areas as are personal as administrative assistance, but rather a common offices of Federal Ministers or State Secretaries State Government Office. Internal affairs of the Of- around the political leadership of a ministry. The fice are led by the State Governor as chairman of actual structure of the organisation and distribution the State Government (at political level) and the of responsibilities (division of tasks) is laid down Head of the State Government Office (at admin- by each individual Federal Minister internally. The istrative level). running of the organisation occurs in all ministries through an electronic file system (ELAK), which has Most of the 99 District Administrations are also completely replaced the “paper file”. part of the State Administration. Outside the 15 larger cities, which act as administrative districts, “Disincorporation” from the there are 84 District Authorities established as ad- Federal Government ministrative districts throughout Austria, and which In the last decades, various legally independent play a leading role especially in national adminis- establishments were founded outside of the Feder- tration. District authorities are led by one of the al administration. This occurred through so-called persons nominated as District Governor by the “disincorporation”, in which a governmental estab- State Government. lishment was converted into a legally independent institution or a company under company law on the Furthermore, State Administrations also have basis of a special law. In the course of a disincor- subordinate agencies and numerous disincorpora- poration process, the staff – while maintaining its tions from State administration have taken place. rights – is also transferred to the disincorporated State hospitals especially have been going through establishment. Also, financial funds are separated a process of legal independence over the last few from the government budget. Financing and con- years. trol relationships with the relevant Federal Ministry | continue to exist, of course. The spin-off process began in 1969 with the disincorporation of the government owned Postal Savings Bank and currently includes around 100 companies and institutions following the disincor- poration of the postal service, museums and thea- tres, employments offices, banking supervisory authorities, all universities and many other govern- ment establishments. | ADMINISTRATION IN BRIEF 6 || 7 THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION THE ORGANISATION OF AUSTRIAN ADMINISTRATION | MUNICIPALITIES Task distribution In the distribution of administration tasks to ter- From the 2,359 municipalities, only 50 towns ritorial authorities, the way in which the state ad- have more than 10,000 inhabitants and 85% of