In this interview, Marwanto Harjowiryano describes institutional reforms in the Ministry of Finance, most notably the introduction of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Dr. Marwanto discusses the fiscal reforms and priorities throughout his career beginning in the early 1980s. The bulk of his interview details the structure and implementation of reforms in the ministry. He explains how the reformers distributed the power of the budget office by separating the Treasury, the Fiscal Balance Office and the Budget Office. Next the ministry introduced SOPs in every service that directly contacted the public, beginning with several quick wins or excellent services in every directorate-general. The ministry intended the SOPs to reduce and standardize service times, while also reducing corruption by establishing accountability regarding the cost and time of services. Within the ministry, evaluation teams ensured directorate-generals properly implemented their SOPs and made credible promises.  The ministry engaged with other government agencies to encompass various aspects of their reforms, and Dr. Marwanto describes these joint efforts. One challenge he describes is the difficulty of changing not only behavior but also culture, both within the directorate-general’s staff and among customers. A major element was human resources reform through the introduction of performance evaluations, and Dr. Marwanto details the steps of this initiative. He ends with comments on the sustainability and spirit of the reforms.

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

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

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

In this interview Francesco Giambrone discusses the challenges, priorities, strategies, and results of his four years as Councilor of Culture for the Municipality of Palermo. When Mayor Leoluca Orlando, under whom Giambrone served, took office in 1992, Palermo’s cultural icons were largely closed and unknown to the citizens. Giambrone describes the Villa Trabia, Teatro Massimo, and Lo Spasimo as magnificent pieces of Palermo’s culture and history that the municipality neglected. Many Palermitans had never seen or knew nothing about the buildings despite their central location. Giambrone outlines his three interdependent priorities as councilor that aimed to restore cultural awareness and pride in the city. First, he sought to reopen closed spaces like the Villa Trabia, Teatro Massimo, and Lo Spasimo. Second, he needed to spend more money. Giambrone explains that the previous administration often spent only a fraction of the budget, but he used to the full budget to put the civil servants to work restoring cultural spaces for reopening to the public. Lastly, he pushed for a change in the mentality amongst the civil servants. He says that he tried to replace a culture of unprofessionalism and lack of dedication with a more hard-working and responsible attitude. He also describes a close relationship, marked by cooperation and agreement, amongst members of Mayor Orlando’s administration. Giambrone expresses satisfaction with the reforms in the short term. Civic awareness and pride and economic activity returned to the city while crime rates dropped. But he acknowledges that the reforms did not sustain after the departure of Orlando and his administration and speculates why. Giambrone concludes with two anecdotes about the restoration of Lo Spasimo and the reopening of the Teatro Massimo, describing them both as important moments in Palermo’s cultural reawakening.

Case Studies:  Palermo Renaissance Part 1: Rebuilding Civic Identity and Reclaiming a City from the Mafia in Italy, 1993-2000; Palermo Renaissance Part 2: Reforming City Hall, 1993-2000; and Palermo Renaissance Part 3: Strengthening Municipal Services, 1993-2000

Lisa Cleary talks about the role of the Public Service Improvement Program and her role as human resource adviser to develop a human resource strategy for the Solomon Islands.  First, she conducted a human resource survey across every ministry in order to develop a baseline for future work the PSIP would do to put a new payroll system in place.  Then she mapped workforce budgeting to prepare a strategic plan to change the way people are recruited and hired in the workforce and to develop a collective bargaining agreement.  She talks about problems such as patronage appointments, the length of time between recruitment and processing an appointment, the inequities in salary structure, the problems in service delivery and the problem of accelerated promotions.  She also talks about devising an administrative procedure toolkit for civil service positions as a way to achieve change in the processes to make them transparent and fair.

Case Study:  Starting from Scratch in Recruitment and Training: Solomon Islands, 2004-2009

George Pessima describes his central role in the efforts to reform the Sierra Leonean civil service. Pessima argues that though the Sierra Leonean service was once one of the best in Africa, it has been in rapid decline, in large part because of its unnecessarily massive size, the under-qualification of many of its employees, and the rates of pay, which he describes as being some of the lowest in Africa. Pessima emphasizes the importance of fair and open recruitment through the publication of openings which include full job descriptions. He goes on to identify the promotion system and the lack of extensive training facilities for a number of sectors as the major areas which require immediate attention and reform.