January 2009 five BMC consultants started a complicated project in Croatia. In the next two years they will take care of the upgrading of the social security system in Croatia in order to meet the targets of the European Committee. 

In Turkey, also in January 2009, three BMC consultants started a project on the topic of flexicurity. Purpose is to exchange expertise and best practices to the reform of the social security system in order to deal with a more flexible labour market.

For the Serbian Ministry of Infrastructure three BMC consultants started in September 2008 with their assignment to strengthen the management capacity. Elements of policy, management and control instruments are used to analyse the current situation and provide recommendations for improvement.

Strengthening the management capacity of the Serbian Ministry of Infrastructure
A team of BMC-experts provided the Serbian Ministry of Infrastructure with advise to improve the administrative strength and effectiveness of the ministry. This assignment was initiated on request of the Dutch government, based on the challenge to improve the administrative capacity and good governance in this potential candidate Member State to the EU. Strengthening the management capacity is necessary in order for the ministry to be able to plan, implement and evaluate the construction of complicated infrastructural projects. Such improvement is also necessary to be able to make better use of financial sources of the EU. The project consisted of a detailed SWO-analyses of the working and budgetary processes of the ministry and a dynamic training programme containing all stages of the construction of infrastructural projects. For the SWOT analyses BMC made use of several models for analysing the good governance performance of public entities. The conclusions of the analyses were specifically important for:

• The planning and control cycle of the budgeting of infrastructural projects;
• The financing of infrastructural projects;
• The political relations of the ministry with other ministries and public enterprises for roads and railways;
• The transparency of political and administrative strategies;
• The restructuring of the EU coordination department of the ministry;
• The management of the operational services.

Although all conclusions and advice were accepted it will take time to really implement all recommendations. In the process of accession to the EU in the coming years the BMC recommendations will for sure proof their value.

Establishing and developing professionalism in the public procurement system in Serbia
Recently BMC together with Movares got a new assignment regarding the improvement of the Serbian pubic procurement system. Being a potential candidate country to the EU, Serbia has to implement the public procurement policies of the EU as these are one of the main pillars of the internal market. They provide a level playing field for public contracts in the market and improve transparency and god governance within the Serbian public administration. The project, which is financed out of the Dutch G2G-programme, will start in January 2010 and contains a detailed training programme on public procurement in order to raise the professionalism of public procurement staff, advice on the adaptation of Serbian law and the creation of a public procurement network in which expertise and information can be shared with all public entities in Serbia.