U povodu prestanka rada ureda državne uprave u županijama od 1. siječnja 2020. (dalje u tekstu: uredi) u radu se pokušava utvrditi koju su ulogu te upravne organizacije ostvarivale u hrvatskome upravno-političkom sustavu. Njihova uloga utvrđuje se pravnom analizom sektorskih zakona kojima je središnja državna vlast uredima dodjeljivala javne poslove tijekom razvoja upravljanja u hrvatskim teritorijalnim jedinicama. Osim utvrđivanja uloge ureda, na temelju provedene analize mijenjanja djelokruga ureda tijekom vremena raspravlja se otome u kojoj je mjeri institucijski razvoj ureda pratio europske trendove, kakav je bio odnos ureda sa središnjim tijelima državne uprave i ostalim dijelovima dekoncentrirane državne uprave te o opravdanosti prijenosa poslova ureda na tijela županijske uprave. Rad sadržava sustavni pregled zadaća ureda od njihova ustrojavanja do danas.; On the occasion of the county administrative offices abolition from January 1, 2020, the paper aims to analyze what role the administrative organizations played in the Croatian administrative-political system. The role of the offices is determined by the analysis of sectoral laws through which the central state government had assigned public affairs to the county offices during the development of territorial administration in Croatia. In addition to determining the role of the county administrative offices, the paper also discusses the extent to which the institutional development of the offices followed European trends, what the relationship of the offices was with the central state administration bodies and other parts of the deconcentrated state administration, and the justification of the transfer of the public affairs of the offices to the bodies of the county government. The paper contains a systematic overview of the tasks of the county offices since their establishment to the present day.