THE PRINCIPLE OF RESPONSIBILITY AS THE SUPREME LEGAL PRINCIPLE IN THE WORK OF PUBLIC ORGANS
Authors: Risteski Temelko 
Published: February 2023

PURPOSE: The purpose of the research is to prove that the principle of responsibility is the supreme (primary) principle in the work of public organs (ministries, other state administration organs, organizations established by law, other state organs, legal and natural persons to whom, by law, is entrusted to exercise public powers, as well as the organs of the municipalities, the city of Skopje and the municipalities in the city of Skopje). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The research used the method of analysis of the provisions of the state constitutions for public administration and human rights; on the laws on public administration and on the procedural provisions that lead public organs, on the international legal acts on human rights and on the relevant literature on the organs of public administration. RESEARCH RESULTS: The research imposed the following basic ideas: Public organs are composed by people. Those people are organized by special acts for the organization and systematization of jobs. These acts are adopted on the basis of special laws that regulate social relations in various areas of social life. In the jobs to which people are assigned, they have precisely prescribed tasks that they are obliged to perform. The duty to perform them entails responsibility for non-performance or for low-quality and untimely performance. A democratic society is a society of responsible individuals and responsible public organs. There are no responsible public organs without responsible individuals. CONCLUSIONS: Public service in public organs is performed by officials. The responsibility of officials is manifested as a three-dimensional social phenomenon. The first dimension covers the responsibility of the official to himself as a person to whom the international legal acts on human rights and the Constitutions of the states guarantee respect and protection of honor, dignity and reputation. The second dimension of responsibility covers the responsibility of the officials, as public servants, in relation to the citizens, as clients. The third dimension of responsibility covers the responsibility of the officials to the public organs in which they works and his responsibility to the public service, as a service to the citizens within the state, as an organized community of citizens. The general conclusion is that the principle of responsibility is the supreme principle, the consistent implementation of which in the work of public organs directly depends on the implementation of other principles in their work. RECOMMENDATIONS: Throughout the process of education and upbringing, one should, first of all, work on developing the autonomous responsibility of officials. In addition to the autonomous responsibility with the activity of the control protection services and institutions of society: the system of internal control in public organs, inspections, internal affairs organs, the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, the Ombudsman, prosecutors’ offices and courts should be developed the heteronomous responsibility. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The autonomous morality, and thus the autonomous responsibility of public officials, in the public organs of the Republic of North Macedonia, is not at a satisfactory level. To the principle of accountability of public officials is not given enough attention. This is supported by the fact that it is attributed to a very small number of laws, and it is not found in procedural laws. This imposes the need to prescribe this principle in the laws for the regulation of social relations and for the work of public organs in all areas of social life, and this, as the first in order of rank, because the implementation of the other principles in the work of public organs directly depends on its implementation in the work of these organs.