pay reform

Denis Biseko

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E
Focus Area(s)
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2
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Denis Biseko
Interviewee's Position
Senior Public Sector Specialist
Interviewee's Organization
World Bank
Language
English
Town/City
Dar es Salaam
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Denis Biseko of the World Bank traces the history of civil service reform in Tanzania back to the mid-1990s, focusing on two phases of the Public Service Reform Program. He outlines some of the institutional underpinnings of reform, such as open performance appraisals for public servants, merit-based recruitment, and capacity building. He also describes various challenges involved in reform, including retaining qualified staff, a lack of political will, and announcing new policies without taking into account the plans that had already been set out. Biseko argues that the government should have started small rather than push for a comprehensive approach of pursuing reforms simultaneously. He discusses pay policy reform in detail as well the evolution of donor relations. Donors have played an instrumental role in civil service reforms in Tanzania, but the government has by and large been in the lead in terms of their design. Biseko explains how reform was affected by the decentralization process. He relates the process for determining allowances and setting targets for advanced salary enhancements and describes various methods for determining the success of reform policies. He maintains that the government was not able to maintain the size of its workforce because of the growth in the demand for social services, especially education and health. He highlights the importance of being able to ensure that successes are demonstrable on a smaller level before moving to a larger scale.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Denis Biseko was the senior public sector specialist for the World Bank in Tanzania, where he managed a World Bank project involving public financial management reform and legal and judicial reform. Before joining the World Bank, he was a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he worked primarily on public sector reform and organization and capacity building.

Full Audio File Size
75 MB
Full Audio Title
Denis Biseko - 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
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Rose N. Kafeero - Full Interview

Baiba Petersone

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E
Focus Area(s)
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6
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jonathan Friedman
Name
Baiba Petersone
Interviewee's Position
Director
Interviewee's Organization
Latvia School of Public Administration
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Latvian
Town/City
Riga
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
In this interview, Baiba Petersone describes various tasks ministries assigned the Policy Coordination Department, particularly the civil service reforms she led. In her first few years in the new department, the main task was to survey Latvia’s policy-making system. From this survey, Petersone explains the department knew its first task was to create a policy system. They developed a process based on several types of documents, each with a different purpose. The department also created an annotation system to include information such as the costs of a proposal. The next step was to implement an inter-ministerial consultation system. Petersone discusses how the department chose its priorities and the sequence of its reforms. Finally, she details the civil service reforms undertaken, which she was in charge of. Her working group proposed abolishing the contract system and reforming how the government sets civil servant salaries. She describes the options considered and how the economic crisis of 2008 affected their ability to implement their changes.
 
Profile

Baiba Petersone was the director of Latvia’s School of Public Administration. She began her career as a researcher in the Academy of Sciences. After entering politics during Latvia’s independence, she spent seven years as an active politician. In 1996 she entered the civil service as Director of the Department of Education Strategy in the Ministry of Education. From there she joined the State Chancellery as a member of the Policy Coordination Department. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy, though at the time the field really consisted of social science. 

Full Audio File Size
70 MB
Full Audio Title
Baiba Petersone - Full Interview

Bernard Zeneli

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D
Focus Area(s)
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14
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jona Repishti
Name
Bernard Zeneli
Interviewee's Position
Manager
Interviewee's Organization
Brain Gain Program, Albania
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Albanian
Town/City
Tirana
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Bernard Zeneli describes his experiences as the manager of the Brain Gain program in Albania as well as his perspectives on the history of civil service reform.  The Brain Gain program seeks to identify areas from which expertise is readily available, particularly among the Albanian diaspora, and attempts to bring these people into the public sector.  The government plays a leading role in the project, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme.  Zeneli outlines the process of applying for a position through the program and some of the benefits received by those with advanced degrees from abroad.  He describes the Soros Program that preceded Brain Gain as well as some of the potential problems created by providing various financial incentives to attract those educated abroad.  He also recounts some of the initial difficulties faced when establishing the program.  There was support from the highest levels, but the program met opposition from some of the lower levels of the administration.  Zeneli characterizes the relationship between the government and the U.N. and Brain Gain’s cooperation with civil society organizations as quite positive.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Bernard Zeneli was the manager of the Brain Gain program, an initiative of the Albanian government supported by the United Nations Development Programme that encouraged skilled professionals to return to the country and contribute to its development.  Previously, he was head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Pristina in Kosovo, where he developed courses related to policy making, comparative politics, government and international relations.  He also taught at Northeastern University, the University of Tirana and South Eastern European University in Tetovo, Macedonia.

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Audio Available by Request

Gregory Ellis

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N
Focus Area(s)
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1
Country of Reform
Interviewers
David Hausman
Name
Gregory Ellis
Interviewee's Position
Senior Operations Officer, Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group
Interviewee's Organization
World Bank
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Australian
Place (Building/Street)
World Bank
Town/City
Washington, D.C.
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Gregory Ellis, drawing on his experience in reform programs in various countries, discusses general themes in civil reform service across various contexts, especially from the point of view of donor organizations. He emphasizes the need for understanding the political economy of countries undergoing reform, and the need for understanding indigenous customs. He places immense import on the citizen-state relationship in fragile states, and discusses how a state should be involved in service delivery. Ellis especially emphasizes deference to the host nation’s priorities in creating a reform agenda. In discussing capacity building in the Solomon Islands, Ellis reflects upon the dichotomy between service delivery by donors and the sometimes deleterious effect of technical assistance on long-term capacity building. He goes on to discuss restructuring organizations and combating patronage through professional associations, decentralized recruitment and autonomous decision making. Ellis emphasizes especially the role of local consultation, continuity in visionary leadership and long-term commitment in achieving success in fragile states.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Gregory Ellis had been a senior operations officer at the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group at the World Bank for about a year. His parent organization was the Australian Agency for International Development. He was posted by AusAID in the Solomon Islands between 2005 and 2007, as deputy program manager for the Machinery of Government Program, part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. Prior to that, between 2000 and 2002 he held a posting in Timor-Leste after the withdrawal of Indonesian forces. 

Full Audio File Size
71MB
Full Audio Title
Gregory Ellis Interview

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

Author
David Hausman
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

This case study offers an account of civil service reform efforts in Vietnam between 1998 and 2009, which yielded substantial formal policy changes but produced only modest practical changes to Vietnam's public employment system.  Before 1998, the Vietnamese civil service lacked standardized competitive recruitment and promotion procedures, offered salaries that did not cover the cost of living, provided insufficient and often irrelevant training, and included ministries that duplicated functions.  By 2009, the Ministry of Home Affairs had standardized and then devolved recruitment and promotion exams to line ministries and provinces, doubled civil service wages while giving agencies autonomy to raise wages further, expanded the enrollment of the National Academy of Public Administration by a factor of 20, and merged six ministries.  Nonetheless, government and donor officials reported that recruitment continued to be driven often by corruption, that even doubled salaries often did not cover the cost of living, that training was rarely relevant to civil servants' work, and that tasks continued to be duplicated in most of the merged ministries.  In order to concentrate on human resource management reforms, this case study does not consider other aspects of the Public Administration Reform agenda, including, for example, the institution of so-called one-stop shops designed to simplify administrative procedures.  Because public sector reform remained a sensitive topic in Vietnam in 2009, many interviewees asked that their names be withheld.

David Hausman drafted this case study on the basis of interviews conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam, in August and September 2009. 

Associated Interview(s):  Clay Wescott

Selina Mkony

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E
Focus Area(s)
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6
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Selina Mkony
Interviewee's Position
Program Coordinator
Interviewee's Organization
Public Service Management Office, Tanzania
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Tanzanian
Town/City
Dar es Salaam
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Selina Mkony draws upon her extensive experience to discuss the goals of reform in Tanzania and some of the related challenges and issues. She describes the procedures and standards used in the system of recruitment and how this changed over the period of the reform program. She lists some of the criteria used in promotions, including things like seniority, education, skills, and performance management. She underscores the government efforts to move away from nepotism and toward greater transparency in hiring. She also describes the process of and challenges facing performance management and evaluation. Mkony characterizes the sequencing and management of the reform process and relates how the reform process fits in with the goals of streamlining government. She highlights the importance of leadership in controlling and managing reforms. She also touches upon a number of other aspects of civil service reform, including the organizational structure of the civil service, pay policy, training programs, and capacity building. She describes the retrenchment process in the 1990s, ways the government has improved the working environment in order to retain quality people, and the importance of local cultural divisions or language differences and how they impact service delivery.    

Profile

At the time of this interview, Selina Mkony was program coordinator at the Public Service Management Office in Tanzania. She joined the Civil Service Department in 1994 as an accountant and was later assigned administrative duties as well. The Civil Service Reform Program lasted from 1994 to 1998, when a new program was developed to focus on institution performance management systems and making the public service efficient. She continued on as an accountant and administrator before a new phase began in 2007. At that time, she became the program coordinator. 

Full Audio File Size
73 MB
Full Audio Title
Selina Mkony - Full Interview

Joseph Rugumyamheto

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E
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
10
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Joseph Rugumyamheto
Interviewee's Position
Former Permanent Secretary for Public Service Management
Interviewee's Organization
Tanzania
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Tanzanian
Town/City
Dar es Salaam
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
Yes
Abstract
Joseph Rugumyamheto describes sweeping human resource capacity-building efforts undertaken to transform the Tanzanian civil service from dysfunction to effectiveness. He details an array of efforts intended to supplement broader economic liberalization by downsizing while enhancing the skills, competencies and attitudes of civil servants. He explains how the role of the civil service was redefined, rationalized and focused via targeted retrenchment and strategic re-organization of departments. Additionally, he unravels New Public Management-style reforms that promoted meritocratic recruitment, introduced an appraisal system based on performance targets, recalibrated career paths and realigned payment systems. He also explains attempts to facilitate the quality of civil servants and attract skills through the formation of a Public Service Commission, needs assessments and training programs, pay raises and the overall image makeover of the civil service into a functional organization.
 
Profile

Joseph Rugumyamheto worked in several capacities in the Tanzanian civil service for 30 years, ultimately serving for five years as permanent secretary of public service management in the President’s Office. He was responsible for the management of all civil servants in the Tanzanian government in terms of human resources and development. He previously served as chairman of the Government Board of the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute and chairman of the Board of Global Development Learning Centre Network. Rugumyamheto retired in 2006, and at the time of the interview he was chairman of the board and a director of Douglas Lake Minerals Ltd., a joint-venture company holding mineral concession rights in Tanzania. In April 2006, he was awarded the Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service by the World Bank.

Full Audio File Size
78 MB
Full Audio Title
Joseph Rugumyamheto - Full Interview

From Central Planning to Performance Contracts, New Public Management in Mongolia, 1996-2009

Author
David Hausman
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In 1996, Mongolia’s newly elected government, led by a group of market-oriented politicians, decided to reform civil service on the New Zealand New Public Management model, which required managers to sign contracts promising results in exchange for freedom to spend their budgets as they chose. The reforms were intended to modernize a civil service that, while legally changed since democratization in 1990, retained many of the characteristics, and staff, of the previous Soviet-modeled system. Reformers confronted a lack of robust accountability procedures, salary arrears and a lack of central control over local expenditures. The Democratic Coalition government, led by an economic team strongly committed to market-oriented reforms, settled on the contract-based New Public Management model as a way of preserving agency-level decentralization while making agencies’ managers directly accountable to the national government. When enacted, the system met with difficulty at every stage: in specifying outputs for agencies and individuals, in measuring performance, and in rewarding good performance. By 2009, thirteen years after the reforms started, officials reported that the contracts remained largely a formality.

David Hausman wrote this case study based on interviews conducted in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in December 2009. 

Associated Interview(s):  Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan

Charles Sokile

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E
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
12
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Andrew Schalkwyk
Name
Charles Sokile
Interviewee's Position
Public Sector Adviser
Interviewee's Organization
U.K. Department for International Development
Language
English
Town/City
Dar es Salaam
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Charles Sokile recounts DFID’s role in financing and advising the Public Sector Reform Program in Tanzania. He describes some of the challenges faced in the first two phases of reform, including issues of harmonization, capacity, and linkages between the reforms and the President’s Office. He notes that the government made progress in attaining milestones it set for itself. Tanzania, in his opinion, was very successful in sustaining reforms. Sokile goes into detail about a number of elements of reform, including merit recruitment and promotions, performance and quality cycle management, and pay policy. He points out that the notion of pay policy has a lot to do with the compression and decompression of the pay ratios and challenges involved in getting these ratios correct. He discusses two major initiatives designed to use pay policy to attract civil servants to underserved areas and how the government has changed its policy with regard to allowances. He provides general thoughts on how the public has reacted to changes in pay for civil servants and details some of the pressures with regards to the total wage bill. He concludes by highlighting the importance of coordinating reforms and political awareness.
Profile

At the time of this interview, Charles Sokile was the public sector adviser for the Tanzania office of the U.K.'s Department for International Development.

Full Audio File Size
43 MB
Full Audio Title
Charles Sokile - Full Interview