Trust and satisfaction with public services

Trust in public institutions and satisfaction with public services are important yardsticks of the quality of public governance. They reflect people’s perceptions of government competence in designing and delivering policies and services, and expectations on the behaviour of public institutions and their representatives. Although high trust in public institutions is not a necessary outcome of democratic governance, trust and satisfaction with public services facilitate effective governance, as they correlate with high rates of compliance with policies, participation in public life and social cohesion.

The majority of citizens in the Slovak Republic express satisfaction with public services, although below OECD averages. In 2022, healthcare satisfaction reached 60% albeit lower than the OECD average of 68%. Similarly, the education system had a 56% satisfaction rate, below the OECD average of 67%.

 Achieving results with good governance practices 

In an age of multiple crises, governments need to adopt more advanced practices to build trust in public institutions and enhance democratic resilience. Actions include building on democratic strengths, such as enhancing citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making; reinforcing key competences to handle crises, such as budgeting and public financial management processes to address the green and digital transitions; and protecting against threats to democratic values, such as maintaining effective public integrity rules and promoting ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Citizen and stakeholder engagement in decision making helps to improve the design, implementation, and public acceptance of policies, infrastructure and services. The OECD Infrastructure Governance Index (IGI) on stakeholder participation provides an overview of countries’ performance in developing national guidance for stakeholder engagement, promoting their effective participation, and ensuring stakeholder oversight over infrastructure projects.

The Slovak Republic outperforms the OECD average on the IGI on stakeholder participation. It scores 0.65 on the IGI, compared to the average value 0.52 across OECD countries (1 is the maximum possible score, meaning full application of IGI on stakeholder participation). The Slovak Republic performs particularly well on stakeholder participation guidance, with a score of 0.24 out of a maximum value of 0.33.

Budgeting management processes, such as green budgeting, can help address the climate crisis and achieve environmental goals. While there has been a rapid increase in the number of countries implementing green budgeting mechanisms, these could be used more effectively. Green budgeting mechanisms include institutional arrangements to assess the environmental impacts of budgetary and fiscal policies, methods for evaluating their consistency, mechanisms to enhance transparency and accountability, and an enabling budgetary governance framework.

The Slovak Republic performs slightly below the average across OECD countries in the application of green budgeting, with a score of 0.43, on a 0-1 scale. The Slovak Republic achieves its highest score in the enabling environment dimension and its lowest score on accountability and transparency.

Financial contributions allow individuals and entities to support political candidates and parties. However, political finance needs to be adequately regulated to reduce risks of undue influence and policy capture.

In the Slovak Republic, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states or enterprises are not allowed to finance political campaigns and parties. In turn, anonymous donations to political parties or candidates need to be registered or reported.  

 What resources public institutions use and how they are managed 

After stark deterioration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which required emergency measures and direct support mechanisms to business and people, public finances show positive signs, but the recovery remains fragile. The fiscal balance is the difference between a government’s revenues and its expenditures in a year. When the government spends more than it collects, it has a fiscal deficit. When it spends less, it has a fiscal surplus.

The fiscal deficit in the Slovak Republic was reduced from -5.5% of GDP in 2021 to -2.1% in 2022. The deficit is lower than the average across OECD countries at -7.5% in 2021. In addition, the Slovak Republic’s public debt also decreased from 79.8% of GDP in 2021 to 65.4 % in 2022. The level of debt is moderate in comparison to the OECD average of 120.8% in 2021.

Public investment can enhance productivity and economic growth and help implement long-term policies, such as green energy infrastructure to support action on climate change. In turn, governments procure large amounts of goods, services and works to help them implement policies and deliver public services.

The Slovak Republic’s procurement spending is similar to the OECD average: 12.4% of GDP in 2021 compared to 12.9% across OECD countries. In addition, the Slovak Republic’s investment spending as a share of GDP was 3.2% in 2021 compared to 3.4% of GDP across OECD countries. It increased however to 3.4% in 2022.

The size of public employment varies significantly among OECD countries, ranging from around 10% to just above 30%. 

Public employment in the Slovak Republic is 19.3% of total employment, slightly above the OECD average of 18.6%.

Governments use different mechanisms to harness and develop the capacity of their workforce. For example, internal mobility in public administrations helps to pool human resources across government and attract and retain civil servants.

The Slovak Republic is among the OECD countries where internal mobility of civil servants, including senior-level civil servants, is possible but not encouraged or expected. Additionally, the Slovak Republic has the practice of developing individual learning plans for all or most public employees.

Equal representation of women and men in the public sector is a key indicator of progress towards gender equality, diversity and better representation. In 2020, a majority of employees in the public sector in OECD countries were women (58.9%), with large differences among countries. However, women are often under-represented in managerial positions.

The Slovak Republic has achieved gender equality in senior management positions in national administration. Half of senior managers are women compared to the OECD-EU average of 40.8%. However, the Slovak Republic fares less well on gender equality in ministerial positions (14%) compared to the OECD average (36%) and well below gender parity.

Young people are under-represented in public and political life across the OECD, with the risk that their voice and interests are not sufficiently taken in consideration in policymaking.

The average age of cabinet members in the Slovak Republic is 50, 3 years younger than the OECD average (53).