ADMINISTRATIVE BURDENS FROM THE SERVICE USERS' PERSPECTIVE

Similar to the countries in the region, due to the needs of citizens and especially businesses, as well as new technological, economic and social developments, the Government of the Republic of Kosovo has developed policies and legislation that aiming at reducing administrative burden, particularly on businesses. While most of these policies have been adopted only recently and the extent of their effect and implementation will be seen in the years ahead, it remains unknown if evidence-based information for their design and needs of stakeholders have been taken into account. One segment that has not been sufficiently addressed and which lacks significant empirical information is the consideration of all regulatory, organizational, staffing and practical factors that affect access to administrative services, especially by businesses. The research aims to address this issue by discussing the survey results on the perception of businesses of a certain number of respective factors. The analysis of individual questions in the survey suggests that such factors can be categorized into several groups. The factors where more than 55% of respondents express their concern include lack of understanding with the frontline staff, faults made by administration and the need to run from one to another office to get administrative services. In addition, the article provides a discussion of the theoretical framework on administrative burden, elaboration on administrators that have direct contact with service users and a brief policy framework established by the Kosovo Government on the administrative burden reduction.