Robertson Nil Akwei Allotey explains the history of civil service reform in Ghana and the National Institutional Renewal Program. Phase 1 of the program began in 1994 and ended in 2000. It redefined the mission of the ministries and set out methods to improve the delivery of services to the citizenry and to publicize the services offered to the public. The Civil Service Improvement Program analyzed ministries, departments and agencies to reorganize them, to decide on the optimal size, to retrain, and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery with attention to work ethics and transparency. The first task was to reduce political and social influence in recruitment and promotion by open civil service examinations and performance assessments carried out by retired senior civil servants. In Phase I, a “single spine” pay policy was instituted to insure pay equity. Increases in salary were based on performance. In Phase II, emphasis was placed on private sector growth for the government’s development agenda. He says that the reform effort targeted all public agencies, not just the civil service, with decentralization and the restructuring of central management agencies with emphasis on procurement and records management and information technology as support interventions. The major reform initiatives were part of the government’s poverty reduction strategy program, which was linked to the Millennium Development goals developed by the United Nations.

Awni Yarvas discusses reforms undertaken in Jordan’s Department of Civil Status and Passports, with a focus on those that took place under his tenure.  He explains how increases in efficiency were possible with changes in departmental structure, employee incentives, and, in particular, computerization.  Yarvas details how changes in procedures for issuing passports and national IDs improved the department's efficiency and accuracy.

Case Studies:  Creating a 'Citizen Friendly' Department: Speeding Document Production in Jordan, 1991-1996 and People and Machines--Building Operational Efficiency: Document Processing in Jordan, 1996-2005

Former IRS Commissioner David Adom describes the organizational changes that helped improve revenue collection at the Ghanaian IRS between 1986 and 2001.  He focuses on changes to human resource policy and organizational structure.  On his watch, first as deputy Commissioner and then as Commissioner, the IRS became autonomous from Ghana’s civil service regulations.  Using that freedom, the organization tripled salaries and hired a large new cohort of professionals—mostly lawyers and accountants.  In order to integrate these new hires into the pool of existing employees, Adom kept retrenchments to a minimum, applied salary raises equitably throughout the whole organization, and spread new hires across different units in order to give new and old staff a chance to mix on the job.  Finally, in an attempt to target the small number of taxpayers who accounted for more than half of Ghana’s revenue, Adom introduced an elite Large Taxpayer’s Office, which offered better service—and more careful enforcement—to wealthy individuals and firms.  

Case Study:  Professionalization, Decentralization and a One-Stop Shop: Tax-Collection Reform in Ghana, 1986-2008

Clay Wescott draws on his global experience and talks about civil service reform programs in countries around the world.  He talks about his involvement in such programs in Vietnam, including aspects such as downsizing and the introduction of one-stop shops.  He also recalls the introduction of an effective but contentious computer-based budgeting system in Kenya in the 1980s.  Wescott reflects on the difficulty of reforming a civil service that had been used as a tool of a peace process, such as in Cambodia, where positions were parceled out in order to get different factions to buy into the process.  He also identifies the importance of building reforms to last beyond a current window of opportunity, and of selling a vision of reform that people want to buy into.  He also talks about civil service censuses and outsourcing in Nepal and capacity-building programs in Eritrea, Timor-Leste and Afghanistan.

Case Study:  Policy Leaps and Implementation Obstacles: Civil Service Reform in Vietnam, 1998-2009

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.

Nasouh Marzouqa discusses major reforms in Jordan’s Civil Status and Passports Department during his time as its director.  He describes how he improved the physical infrastructure of the department and streamlined the process for issuing passports.  Marzouqa also worked to institute a system of national identification numbers and began the process of computerizing the department.  He also discusses his efforts to motivate employees.    

Case Study:  Creating a 'Citizen Friendly' Department: Speeding Document Production in Jordan, 1991-1996

Senator Sumo Kupee provides insight based on his experiences as Chairman of the Senate Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee. He describes the committee’s endeavors to ensure that the oversight responsibility of the legislature with respect to the executive is filled, specifically by scrupulous monitoring of the approval and implementation of the national budget.  He further outlines the committee’s work in drafting a public financial management law, and improving the existing investment incentive code, looking to bring about economic revitalization to facilitate poverty reduction. Kupee stresses the importance of the decentralization of the budget, and details the committee’s efforts to ensure that the budget is county-sensitive and efficiently allocated. He also discusses the creation and plans of the Legislative Modernization Committee, going into depth about problems with appointed personnel and the need for qualified/trained staff. In this respect, Kupee describes his experience with his own staff and the training strategies he employed. Acknowledging the competing factional interests that often need to be overcome when conducting negotiations within governance, he outlines the fragmented conception of loyalties within Liberia and discusses how these play out in Liberian politics. Kupee also stresses the need for reconstruction and infrastructure building within Liberia, considering this a major national task. He concludes by providing information about the avenues he explores when looking to draft new legislation.