civil service commission

Listening to the Public: A Citizen Scorecard in the Philippines, 2010-2014

Author
Maya Gainer
Country of Reform
Abstract

Citizens of the Philippines were used to receiving poor service in government offices. Activities as basic as obtaining a driver’s license were slow and complex, and the tortuous processes created opportunities for public employees to solicit bribes for faster service. In an effort to improve service delivery, Congress passed the Anti–Red Tape Act in 2007. But, getting civil servants to comply with the act from civil servants presented a big challenge. In 2010, the Civil Service Commission began to conduct annual social audits to assess both the public’s satisfaction with frontline services and the degree to which offices adhered to the Act’s provisions. For the audits to succeed, the commission had to both persuade skeptical citizens to cooperate with the survey, and find ways to motivate civil servants to improve in response to poor ratings. Because budget constraints limited the use of financial incentives, the commission linked the results to other oversight programs and used social pressure to prod civil servants to improve the quality and efficiency of their work. During the survey’s first four years, the commission oversaw improvement in citizens’ ratings of public services but still faced challenges in raising awareness of the law and using it reshape public expectations.

Maya Gainer drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Manila in November 2014. Case published April 2015.

Associated Interview(s): Jesse Robredo

Richard Panton

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B
Focus Area(s)
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4
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Summer Lopez
Name
Richard Panton
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Director-General for Training and Development
Interviewee's Organization
Liberia Institute for Public Administration
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Liberian
Town/City
Monrovia
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Richard Panton describes the role he played in public sector reform in Liberia. Before the civil war, he explains, civil servants were adequate and well trained. But they began to take jobs in the private sector, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations after the war, leading to a decline in the public sector’s capacity. Also, due to transitional arrangements, recruiters did not consider education and professionalism when selecting public workers. Reform was necessary to resolve capacity issues. The Civil Service Agency was in charge of selection and recruitment, payroll and age structure, and promotion systems. The Liberia Institute of Public Administration designed a curriculum for training existing public workers. Panton was involved in designing and facilitating training programs in records management, project planning and management, human resource management, strategic management, and financial management. According to him, some of the challenges included a shortage of training equipment, budget delays and inadequate specialists in human resource management.  

Profile

At the time of this interview, Richard Panton was the deputy director-general for training and development at the Liberia Institute for Public Administration. He joined LIPA in 1998 as a special assistant to the director-general. He was also a trainer of the African Management Development Institute Network and an instructor of public administration and management at the University of Liberia and United Methodist University. Panton joined the government as a cadet in 1985 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He worked in the Office of the Deputy Minister for Administration. He later moved to the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor concentration in political science from the University of Liberia and a master’s in development management from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.  

Full Audio File Size
73 MB
Full Audio Title
Richard Panton - Full Interview

Jairo Acuña-Alfaro

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M
Focus Area(s)
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1
Country of Reform
Interviewers
David Hausman
Name
Jairo Acuña-Alfaro
Interviewee's Position
Policy Adviser
Interviewee's Organization
United Nations Development Programme
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Costa Rican
Town/City
Hanoi
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Jairo Acuña-Alfaro discusses Vietnam’s past and, at the time of the interview, ongoing and future efforts to reform the civil service. He discusses the Vietnamese public sector’s shortcomings, including corruption, nepotism, politicization, low salaries, and a lack of clear job descriptions. He describes what Vietnam is doing to modernize its civil service by introducing merit-based considerations in recruitment and promotions; to encourage professionalism by restructuring and formalizing the civil service and improving performance management; to improve service delivery through decentralization, consolidation, and the establishment of one-stop shops; and to curtail corruption by enacting pay reform and monetizing benefits. He also discusses challenges specific to Vietnam, including the politicization of civil service through the single-party system, rigid hierarchism and the consequent lack of initiative from subordinates, and other cultural factors. Finally, Acuña-Alfaro emphasizes the establishment of best practices as key to reforming a country’s civil service.    

Case Study:  Measuring Citizen Experiences: Conducting a Social Audit in Vietnam, 2009-2013

Profile

At the time of this interview, Jairo Acuña-Alfaro had been working for the United Nations Development Programme since 2007. Prior to that, he had worked with the UNDP in Costa Rica; with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; and at the World Bank Institute, where he studied governance and anticorruption. Acuña-Alfaro earned a doctoral degree in political economy from Oxford University.

Full Audio File Size
61MB
Full Audio Title
Jairo Acuña-Alfaro Interview

Ngo Hongly

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K
Ref Batch Number
5
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Rohan Mukherjee
Name
Ngo Hongly
Interviewee's Position
Secretary-General
Interviewee's Organization
Council for Administrative Reform, Cambodia
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Cambodian
Town/City
Phnom Penh
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Ngo Hongly describes steps taken in Cambodia to integrate formerly warring factions into a common civil service and to develop the capacity to deliver public services. In 1994, the government adopted a Common Statute of Civil Service and conducted a census to determine how many people actually worked for the civil service. It then began to rationalize the system and computerize pay rolls. In 2006, it adopted a four-point reform strategy to improve public service delivery, rationalize pay and employment, build capacity and improve public information. These were central reforms in a broader strategy aimed at greater transparency in government, improved accountability and performance, enhanced capacity, and better management of human resources. With full support from top leadership, the reform set high values on motivated public employees, professionalism and service to the public. He describes the challenges of decentralization and Cambodia’s experience with one-stop offices for services, as well as his attempts to improve the work environment, map clear career paths and systematize compensation.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Ngo Hongly was secretary general of the Council for Administrative Reform in Cambodia. After 20 years in the French private sector, he returned to Cambodia and worked from 1994-2003 as a consultant for the Cambodian government on administrative reform. In January 2004, he was appointed secretary-general of the Council for Administrative Reform (CAR), working directly under His Excellency Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the CAR under the direction of the Prime Minister Hun Sen. The council, active since 1999, engaged in various policy-making activities in the area of administrative reform.

Full Audio File Size
50MB
Full Audio Title
Ngo Hongly Interview

Fatbardh Kadilli

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D
Focus Area(s)
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13
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jona Repishti
Name
Fatbardh Kadilli
Interviewee's Position
Adviser to the Prime Minister
Interviewee's Organization
Albania
Language
Albanian
Nationality of Interviewee
Albanian
Town/City
Tirana
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Fatbardh Kadilli, adviser to Albania's prime minister on anti-corruption policies, presents his views on the efforts to reform public administration. He says that the country adopted Western models for reform legislation and implementation, but that breaking old habits acquired under the former communist system was difficult. He believes that protecting civil servants from arbitrary firing impeded efforts to modernize the government because so many administrators were still in positions where they could not perform. He describes the difficulties of trying to institute a successful performance management system because Albania had few leaders who understand management. He reports on initiatives to downsize and consolidate ministries and to install Internet-based systems to reduce corruption in procurement, licensing and a number of other public services.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Fatbardh Kadilli was adviser to the prime minister on anti-corruption matters, a position he had held since 2005.  Prior to that he served for four years as a consultant on anti-corruption with an American firm financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Prior to that he led a program on integrated services for children at UNICEF. From 1998 to 2005, he was also a consultant with the Institute for Contemporary Studies, where, among other tasks, he advised the government on decentralization reforms. Earlier, he served in the State Secretariat for Local Governance, where he was in charge of the Refugee Office and drafted the law on asylum seekers.

Full Audio File Size
78 MB
Full Audio Title
Fatbardh Kadilli - Full Interview

Zef Preci

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D
Focus Area(s)
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6
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jona Repishti
Name
Zef Preci
Interviewee's Position
Research Director
Interviewee's Organization
Albanian Center for Economic Research
Language
Albanian
Nationality of Interviewee
Albanian
Town/City
Tirana
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Zef Preci, head of the independent, non-governmental Albanian Center for Economic Research, critically assesses progress and setbacks in Albania’s civil service reforms. He says that despite a civil service law aimed at creating a merit-based civil service insulated from politics, the hiring and firing of civil servants had become highly politicized and retained many of the characteristics of the former communist system. The focus is upon patronage rather than services to the public. He is critical of international donors for looking the other way. He believes that the army and police have been de-politicized and were forces for good.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Zef Preci was the founding head of the independent, non-governmental Albanian Center for Economic Research, established in 1992 as Albania's first independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to research and analysis in support of a market economy and democracy. He served briefly in 2000 as the minister of public economy and privatization before he returned to ACER as its director. Later, he was an adviser to Albania's president and chairman of the Authority for Competition.  During his career, he also was a lecturer in entrepreneurial economics at Tirana University.

Full Audio File Size
61 MB
Full Audio Title
Zef Preci - Full Interview

Rose N. Kafeero

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F
Focus Area(s)
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2
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Rose N. Kafeero
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Secretary of the Public Service Commission
Interviewee's Organization
Uganda
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Ugandan
Town/City
Kampala
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Rose Kafeero describes the challenges she faced to implement “results-oriented management” reforms in the Ugandan government. While she believes that the mindset changed over the years and that budgets were prepared on the basis of outcomes, she says the impetus for outcome-based performance weakened when some of the managers leading these reforms left agencies. She also did not have full backing from top officials. She believes that other civil service reforms such as downsizing and divestiture of functions have been more successful. She outlines the merit-based selection process at both the national and district levels. She says that universities do not produce skill levels that match government requirements in some categories. She describes the difficulties of recruiting or retaining civil servants in some categories because of low pay and a failure to provide core benefits such as housing.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Rose N. Kafeero was deputy secretary of the Public Service Commission in Uganda. Upon graduation from university, she was appointed as a personnel officer and subsequently was promoted to higher positions. In 1992, she was elevated to head of department in the Ministry of Public Service and subsequently to her position at the time of the interview.  In that position, she also headed the Department of Monitoring and Guidance, which served as the secretariat to the Public Service Commission.

Full Audio File Size
78 MB
Full Audio Title
Rose N. Kafeero - Full Interview

Kartlos Kipiani

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J
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3
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Kartlos Kipiani
Interviewee's Position
Chief of Staff
Interviewee's Organization
Constitutional Court of Georgia
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Georgian
Town/City
Tbilisi
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Kartlos Kipiani, chief of staff of the Constitutional Court of Georgia at the time of the interview, discusses his time as head of the Public Service Bureau of Georgia and the efforts he was involved in to implement civil service reform projects.  The projects, which were wide-ranging, included efforts to improve technical skills of civil servants and to create a single information-management system across the ministries.  Kipiani also explains the role donors such as the World Bank played in setting the reform agenda.  He discusses the difficulty of dealing with poorly defined and sometimes overlapping government bureaucracies.  He touches on the question of decentralized versus centralized public-administration reform, and he explains why he thinks centralization of reform concepts is important.  He also discusses the difficulties he ran into with attempts to create one codification of job descriptions across all ministries.
 
Profile

At the time of this interview, Kartlos Kipiani was the chief of staff of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, a position he held from 2006 until March 2010.  In April 2010 he became deputy head of the Government Chancellery.  He previously served as secretary of the Public Service Council and acting head of the Public Service Bureau.  Kipiani also headed the Division for Civil Service Reform under the previous government in 2000.  He worked on various programs as a coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme.  He first began working for the government in the Office of State Chancellery in 1995.  Kipiani earned a master's degree in public policy from Japan’s National Graduate Institute for Public Policy Studies at Saitama University in 2003.

Full Audio File Size
59MB
Full Audio Title
Karlos Kipiani Interview

Albert Bockarie

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A
Focus Area(s)
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4
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Summer Lopez
Name
Albert Bockarie
Interviewee's Position
Senior Permanent Secretary
Interviewee's Organization
Public Service Commission, Sierra Leone
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Sierra Leonean
Town/City
Freetown
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Albert Bockarie describes civil service reforms after the end of civil war in Sierra Leone.  He focuses on recruitment procedures and training.  He reports that because of low public service pay, the country suffered from a “brain drain” and corruption.  He argues that these problems cannot be addressed without increasing salaries.  He describes the challenge of getting pay for retirees disbursed promptly.  He urges increased use of computers and other information technologies as essential because paper records can be lost or purposely destroyed.  He says international donors and consultants are helpful in meeting these challenges.     

Profile

At the time of this interview, Albert Bockarie was senior permanent secretary of the Public Service Commission of Sierra Leone.  He had served since 1982 at the provincial level as a district officer and in all the national ministries in the government of Sierra Leone except Trade and Finance, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Education.

Full Audio File Size
66 MB
Full Audio Title
Albert Bockarie - Full Interview

Denyse Morin

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E
Focus Area(s)
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7
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Denyse Morin
Interviewee's Position
Senior Public Sector Specialist
Interviewee's Organization
World Bank
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Canada
Town/City
Washington, DC
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Denyse Morin details the planning and motivation behind the civil service reform programs in Tanzania.  She talks about the changes in recruitment policy and procedure within the civil service and the difficulties of rolling out a performance-management system.  She describes the role and independence of the Public Service Commission, Tanzania's massive retrenchment program and attempts to tackle the difficult issue of pay reform and control of allowances.  She closes the interview with a reflection on the importance of strong monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

Case Study:  Creating an Affordable Public Service: Tanzania, 1995-1998

Profile

Denyse Morin began working at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., in 1994 in the areas of public-sector governance and capacity development.  Before that, she worked at the World Bank office in Nairobi on issues related to water and sanitation. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked at the Canadian International Development Agency.  She has lived in Kinshasa, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.  At the time of the interview, Morin was a senior public-sector specialist at the World Bank and the task team leader for the Public Service Reform Program in Tanzania.

Full Audio File Size
43 MB
Full Audio Title
Denyse Morin - Full Interview