downsizing

Richard Panton

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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

Nasir El-Rufai

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1
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Graeme Blair and Daniel Scher
Name
Nasir El-Rufai
Interviewee's Position
Former Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, and Secretary, Council on Privatization
Interviewee's Organization
Nigeria
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Nigerian
Town/City
Washington, D.C.
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
Yes
Abstract

Nasir El-Rufai narrates his entry into public service in the context of the return to democracy under President Olusegun Obasanjo.  As an outsider to the political scene, he managed to advocate for privatization and eventually drafted and implemented a concrete multistage plan.  El-Rufai identifies the “easy” cases for privatization as companies that are (1) already listed on the stock exchange, (2) easy to value, (3) already operational in competitive markets, and/or (4) not politically contentious.  In contrast, the “hard” cases require progressive policy reform including regulatory sector review, enactment of legislation for independent oversight, implementation of antitrust measures and, notably, the creation of a pension system.  In dealing with trade unions and special interest groups, El-Rufai highlights the importance of legal tools and the support of the media, the general public and figures with considerable political capital, such as Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar.  He also describes his office’s instrumental collaboration with the newly created Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the fight against money laundering and, in particular, the Nigerian letter scams.  During Obasanjo’s second term, El-Rufai joined the Economic Management Team that successfully renegotiated the Nigerian external debt and pursued wide-ranging reform.  He attributes the success to the trust, sacrifice and synergy established within the team; their capacity to understand and integrate Obasanjo’s political goals into a reform plan; and their ability to capitalize on booming oil prices by using revenues to strengthen fiscal rule.  His commitment to reform continued during his tenure as minister for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT Abuja).  To improve the quality of service delivery, he promoted the involvement of the private sector in service provision and increased the range of options for public staff training, including attachment with public and private entities in Nigeria and abroad, and post-graduate training at Harvard Business School.  El-Rufai also sought to disincentivize engagement in corruption by increasing remuneration. He addressed the challenge of limited resources by focusing on civil service downsizing and reduction of state expenditure followed by a pay increase across the board.  The necessary downsizing was achieved through a double strategy.  First, following the computerization of personnel management, ghost workers were identified and eliminated from the system.  Second, permanent secretaries were tasked with identifying underperforming or corrupt civil servants, who were offered retirement packages.  As the administration could reject resignations, the drain of the best public servants was prevented, and El-Rufai aimed to address the sources of their discontent, such as shortcomings in the promotion system.  On the other hand, cost reduction mainly entailed the transfer of government-provided housing and vehicles to private ownership by civil servants, amortized through a newly created mortgage system and installment plans.  El-Rufai then discusses another major and controversial achievements of his tenure, namely the land titling initiative, highlighting the role of democratizing information to manage public pressure and increase transparency.  In closing, his personal reflections on public policy making include the need for immersion in the political scene to ensure the continuity of reform across administrations, and the importance of formal training in public administration to understand how to frame policy to overcome resistance and biases. 

 

Profile

A quantity surveyor by training, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai worked as a consultant in the construction private sector for years.  After declining several offers to join the public sector, in 1999 he became president Olusegun Obasanjo’s director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises  and Secretary of the National Council on Privatization.  During Obasanjo’s second term, he served as a member of the Economic Management Team and took over as minister for the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), where he led civil service reform and undertook the computerization of Abuja’s land register.  He served briefly under President Umaru Yar’Adua.  After leaving public service, he completed legal and public management training programs at the University of London and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. 

Full Audio File Size
136 MB
Full Audio Title
Nasir El-Rufai - Full Interview

Deependra Bickram Thapa

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Focus Area(s)
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7
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Deependra Bickram Thapa
Interviewee's Position
Secretary of Education
Interviewee's Organization
Ministry of Education and Sport, Nepal
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Nepali
Place (Building/Street)
Ministry of Education and Sport
Town/City
Kathmandu
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Deependra Thapa describes the successes and failures of civil service reform efforts in Nepal before, during and after civil conflict. He reports successes in downsizing the bureaucracy and combating corruption. A Web-based personnel information system was installed. However, its use was inhibited by the resistance to change within the bureaucracy, which persisted in doing most transactions on paper. Because of a lack of support from top leadership, installation of a performance management system, with pay and promotion dependent upon outputs, was stymied for similar reasons. When Parliament was suspended during the civil conflict, training for parliamentarians and senior civil servants and officials also came to a halt. Thapa expresses concern that tensions under the coalition government at the time of the interview meant that little attention and few resources would be paid to achieve the ambitious civil service reform goals the government originally set for itself in 1999.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Deependra Thapa was Nepal's secretary of education, a position he had held for less than a year. Earlier, he was secretary of the Ministry of General Administration, where he had served for two years as national program officer in charge of the civil service reform program.  Since entering the civil service in 1997, he also served in the ministries of tourism, environment, operations, transportation and labor and in the office of the prime minister.

Full Audio File Size
76MB
Full Audio Title
Deepndra Thapa Interview

Kakha Bendukidze

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6
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Kakha Bendukidze
Interviewee's Position
Faculty
Interviewee's Organization
Free University, Tbilisi
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Georgia
Town/City
Tbilisi
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Kakha Bendukidze outlines his experiences and personal views about downsizing Georgia’s civil service and reducing the number of government agencies, functions and employees. He argues that the traditional model of civil service promotion and tenure is not appropriate in the fluid political and economic context of Georgia. He suggests that reforms cannot be sequenced formally. Rather, the opportunities for reform fluctuate with political circumstances and must be seized when they present themselves.  He explains how budget reforms were used as instruments to reduce the size of the civil service and the functions of Georgia’s government.    

Case Study:  Delivering on the Hope of the Rose Revolution: Public Sector Reform in Georgia, 2004-2009

Profile

At the time of this interview, Kakha Bendukidze had returned to the faculty of the Free University in Tbilisi (February 2009) after serving four years and nine months in the government of Georgia, most recently as head of the state Chancellery.  Before assuming that position in February 2008, he served as minister for reforms coordination and minister of economic development in 2004-2005.

Full Audio File Size
44 MB
Full Audio Title
Kakha Bendukidze - Full Interview

Krishna Devkota

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1
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Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Krishna Devkota
Interviewee's Position
Training Adviser, Revenue Administration Report Project
Interviewee's Organization
Danish International Development Agency
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Nepali
Town/City
Kathmandu
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Krishna Devkota provides a history of numerous attempts to reform Nepal’s civil service since the 1950s. All of them, including the most recent donor-instigated initiative, have either not been implemented, or only partially implemented. As a contracted consultant to international donors funding the most recent effort, Devkota describes both the aim and design of the reform effort and his opinion about why implementation of most of the reform efforts failed.  He cites political and civil conflict and tensions in the country, a lack of political will or commitment to the reforms by top leaders, the short time horizons of donors, corruption that diverted donor funds from their intended use and resistance to change by civil servants because they did not sense any possibility for reward or promotion.    

Profile
At the time of this interview, Krishna Devkota was training adviser to the Danish International Development Agency’s Revenue Administration Report Project. While he pursued his university training in the early 1970s, he worked at the Agricultural Project Services Center, a Nepali autonomous semi-government consulting organization. In 2000, he became a freelance consultant to international donor organizations in Nepal, including the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, the Asian Development Bank, the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization and the U.N. Development Programme.
Full Audio File Size
71MB
Full Audio Title
Krishna Devkota Interview

Jeremy Cronin

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ZA
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4
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Richard Bennet
Name
Jeremy Cronin
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Minister for Transport
Interviewee's Organization
South Africa
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
South Africa
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Jeremy Cronin discusses the challenges facing transportation infrastructure in South Africa, particularly the divided spatial issues he sees as products of apartheid.  Cronin touches on the role of the Washington Consensus and similar approaches to governance in structuring post-apartheid South African government, particularly in relation to the Department of Transport. He then discusses the creation and roles of various parastatals such as the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and the Airports Company of South Africa in building the country’s transportation infrastructure. He examines both the successes and challenges of such corporatization of public agencies.
 
Profile

At the time of this interview, Jeremy Cronin was the deputy minister for transport of South Africa and an African National Congress member of Parliament, as well as deputy general-secretary of the South African Communist Party. He was appointed as deputy minister of transport in 2009 and had been an MP since 1999. He previously worked on the South African Reconstruction and Development Programme, and he served as deputy general-secretary of the South African Communist Party since 1995. He was a political prisoner under apartheid for seven years, from 1976-1983. A respected poet, Cronin also worked as a lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Cape Town in the early 1970s.

Full Audio File Size
41 MB
Full Audio Title
Jeremy Cronin Intervirew

Robertson Nil Akwei Allotey

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2
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Ashley McCants
Name
Robertson Nil Akwei Allotey
Interviewee's Position
Chief Director
Interviewee's Organization
Ministry of Public Sector Reform
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Ghanaian
Town/City
Accra
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

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.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Robertson Allotey had been acting chief director at the Ministry of Public Sector Reform in Ghana for six months.  Allotey began his career in civil service reform in 1998, when he was the director in charge of the Customer Services Improvement Unit in the office of the head of civil service. He earned a master’s degree in urban policy and housing and was particularly interested in the accessibility of urban housing stock and what factors made people content with their environments. Improvement of public service delivery to citizens played an important role and prepared him for his work with the civil service to improve delivery of services. 

Full Audio File Size
114 MB
Full Audio Title
Robertson Allotey - Full Interview

Alfred Drosaye

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Y
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3
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jonathan (Yoni) Friedman
Name
Alfred Drosaye
Interviewee's Position
Principal Administrative Officer
Interviewee's Organization
Liberian Civil Service
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Liberia
Place (Building/Street)
Civil Service Agency
Town/City
Monrovia
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Alfred Drosaye describes the push for pay and pension reform in 2006 after the inauguration of the new president, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson. He talks about the strategies to clear the civil service payroll of ghost workers. He describes the make-up and training of the teams sent into the counties to vet each worker and enroll the workers in the Biometric ID system which, among other benefits, enabled workers to receive pay via direct deposit.

Case Studies: Cleaning the Civil Service Payroll: Post-Conflict Liberia, 2008-2011 and Building Civil Service Capacity: Post-Conflict Liberia, 2006-2011

Profile

At the time of this interview, Alfred Drosaye was the principal administrative officer in the Liberian Civil Service and the project director for the Biometric Program in the Human Resource Management Services Directory of the Civil Service.  His position required him to manage three directories in the civil service: employment, human services management and career and training.  He joined the civil service in 1997 as an analytical secretary and rose to assistant director and then director of Classification Selection Standards.  As the principal director, he was in charge of the review of public employment.

Full Audio File Size
89 MB
Full Audio Title
Alfred Drosaye Interview

Fatbardh Kadilli

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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

David Beretti

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Y
Focus Area(s)
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1
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Michael Woldemariam
Name
David Beretti
Interviewee's Position
Executive Director of Corporate Services
Interviewee's Organization
City of Cape Town, South Africa
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
South African
Town/City
Cape Town
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

David Beretti recounts his experiences working with the city of Cape Town. While Beretti had a 38-year experience with the city government at the time, he focuses on his body of work as the executive director of corporate services. He begins his discussion by detailing the efforts to reform the many municipalities of Cape Town down to one streamlined unit. He discusses the many challenges the government of Cape Town faced in instituting this reform. First, he recounts discussion surrounding the sequence of reforms. He details the efforts to work with the collective bargaining organizations that originally opposed the reforms. Faced with a short deadline of only six months, he explains the innovations that were created in order to address redundant positions that existed among the pervious seven municipalities while avoiding serious retrenchment. Beretti also explains the outside accountability measures used to ensure the cooperation and satisfaction of the City of Cape Town’s employees. This included a large-scale survey and performance monitoring system for the reform process. He concludes his detailed discussion with information on how diversity was handled in the recruitment and promotion process.    

Case Study:  Municipal Turnaround in Cape Town, South Africa, 2006-2009

Profile

At the time of the interview, David Beretti was the executive director of corporate services for the City of Cape Town, having worked for the city for 38 years. Beretti previously held positions in the finance, engineering, planning and human resources departments of the City of Cape Town. In his current position, he is responsible for the full human resource functions for 25,000 employees.  He also manages the legal services, information systems and technology departments. During his time as executive director of corporate services, Beretti oversaw the reformation of Cape Town from an original 39 municipalities in to one streamlined city government.    

Full Audio File Size
187 MB
Full Audio Title
David Beretti - Full Interview