Minister (ENG)

MINISTER – a single-person supreme body of the state, at the same time a member of the collective body (→ council of ministers), head of the ministry, receiving office as a result of political career. M. in the performance of a political function is assisted by his deputies – deputy ministers in the rank of secretary or undersecretary of state. According to the Constitution, ministers can be divided into two groups: 1. ministers in charge of specific → departments of government administration, 2. ministers fulfilling tasks assigned to them by the president of the Council of Ministers (ministers without portfolio). M. is obliged to initiate and develop the policy of the Council of Ministers in relation to the department he/she directs, and to submit in this respect the initiatives and draft normative acts at meetings of the Council of Ministers. In the area of the department he/she directs, the m. implements the government’s policy and coordinates its implementation by bodies, offices and organisational units that are subject to him/her or are supervised by him/her. In order to carry out his/her tasks, the head of a specific department cooperates with other members of the council of ministers, other government administration bodies and the state organisational units, local government bodies as well as with economic and professional self-government bodies, trade unions and employers’ organizations and other social organisations and representatives of professional and creative milieus. The scope of the minister’s activities: a. implementation of the government’s tasks: participates in the work, interacts with other members of the government, determines the ministry’s policy, supervises and controls the activities of local government administration bodies, cooperates with the local government; b. representation of the position in accordance with the arrangements adopted by the council of ministers; c. own competences of the minister – he/she directs, supervises and controls subordinate bodies, creates and liquidates organisational units, appoints and dismisses, controls persons subject to him/her [ J. Itrich-Drabarek ].

Literature: E. Knosala, Zarys nauki administracji [Outline of the theory of administration], Zakamycze 2006.