Federal Office (Switzerland)

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A federal office is the highest administrative unit of the federal administration of the Swiss Confederation . The Federal Chancellery and the directorates of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) have the same status as the federal offices .

organization

Organizationally, each federal office is subordinate to one of the seven federal departments . Each Federal Office is headed by a director who reports directly to the Federal Council responsible for the department .

The organizational chart of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) knows a further hierarchy level, the so-called groups . These emerged when the then Federal Military Department in 1945 merged several offices with similar mandates hierarchically (for example as an armaments group ) in order to better guarantee the mandate of the army .

The federal offices themselves are divided into main departments , divisions and sections or areas .

Since the founding of the modern federal state in 1848, the number of federal offices has grown steadily due to the delegation of tasks to the federal government. It was not until the decentralization of competencies that began in the 1990s that individual federal offices were dissolved again and others merged.

assignment

Each federal office has a precisely defined mandate which consists of dealing with a specific problem area. In order to do justice to this mandate, the federal government has given him precisely defined but also limited competencies.

The legal basis for today's federal offices is the Government and Administrative Organization Act (RVOG) of 1997, which replaced the Administrative Organization Act (VwOG) of 1978.

Historical development

Most federal offices were created in an organic way: a department appointed a delegate to deal with a specific subject, who in turn hired people until the subject had become so important that an office was finally established. The legal basis for the federal administration from the 19th century is not known by any federal offices or agencies. They are first mentioned in the Administrative Organization Act of 1914. The first Federal Office with this name was the Federal Social Insurance Office , which was founded in 1912.

The growth and adjustment processes of the administration are most clearly evident at the level of the federal offices . In 1928 there were 30 such "main units" in the six "civil" departments. Their number rose to 42 by 1959 and to 54 by 1980. In the Administrative Organization Act (VwOG) of 1978, following its partial revision in 1991, 70 federal offices and analogous units were listed. They were not only newly founded, in particular in the 1990s some offices were dissolved (such as the Federal Office for Organization in 1190) or merged with others, so by 1999 their number had fallen to 52.

See also

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