Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej MW Pivot Skin

OFFICIAL – in a broad sense it is a person serving in public administration, being a state or local-government official. In common terms, the concept of an official is used more extensively, also in the sphere outside public administration (e.g., bank officer). The Polish law has the concept of a → public official/functionary which is used, among others, in relation to those employed in public administration (its scope is wider than the concept of an officer). In regards to those employed in public administration, three service pragmatics apply in the Polish law: the Civil Service Act, the Act on employees of state offices and the Act on local government employees. The term “official” only appears in the first two. In the government administration, “civil servant” means a person employed on the basis of → appointment in accordance with the principles set out in the Act. In turn, the Act on employees of state offices distinguishes two basic groups of employees: state officials (who must meet statutory requirements, and the list of positions referring to them is specified in the regulation of the Council of Ministers) and “other employees”. Thus, in a narrow legal sense, the term “official” refers to these two groups (civil servants and state officials). It should also be taken into account – for the broad meaning of the term – that the term “official positions” is used in the official pragmatics for government and local-government administration – and this concept has a much wider scope. With regard to government administration, it refers to the whole civil service, because the act states that the civil service corps consists of employees employed on official positions in the types of institutions listed in the Act (which refers to the entire scope of civil service institution). In the local government, “official positions” refer to all those local-government employees who are not employed on ancillary and service positions (these are specified in a separate legal act). A further general description will refer to the broad understanding of the term “public administration official”. Officials may be elected in universal or indirect elections, appointed, nominated by specific bodies or may be employed under a contract of employment. Due to the fact that the administration is a hierarchical structure, there is a subordination of the service. Therefore, the o. must execute orders of superiors. Among the o. one can distinguish a political corps consisting of people from a political assignment, indicated by the governing political parties, and the executive corps of the administration, composed of people who meet the criteria determined by the → recruitment and have substantive knowledge. Several groups of o. can be distinguished. The first one consists of people holding directorial positions (President of the Republic of Poland, Speaker of the Sejm, Speaker of the Senate, President of the Council of Ministers, ministers, heads of central offices, voivodes, etc.). The second group are members of the civil service corps, working in ministries and other government administration institutions and members of the foreign service. The next group consists of employees of state offices that do not belong to the government administration (such as the Chancelleries of the Sejm, the Senate and the President of the Republic of Poland, the Constitutional Tribunal Office, the Office of the Commissioner for the Citizens’ Rights, the National Electoral Office, etc.). The fourth one consists of the employed in courts and prosecutors. Employees of the Supreme Audit Office have a separate status. The sixth group consists of local government employees, employed in municipal offices, city offices, county starost offices, marshal offices, as well as their subordinate organisational units, etc. In the public administration literature, the term “official” is usually used for basic corps of employees – for example, when talking about the ethics of officials, official-citizen relations, official crimes. The term “public service” has broader scope that is referred to in the Constitution (→ civil service, local-government employees, access to public service) [ A. Jarosz ].

Literature: M. Czyżak, Podstawy organizacji i funkcjonowania administracji publicznej, Warszawa 2016 ■ E. Ura, Prawo administracyjne, Warszawa 2010 ■ E. Ura, Prawo urzędnicze, Warszawa 2011.