In this interview, Sigitas Šiupšinskas discusses his work in public administration, regional policy and public service with the Lithuanian government. He discusses the VORT (Improvement of Performance-Based Management – from the Lithuanian Valdymo, orientuoto j rezultatus, tobulinimas) project and the Sunset Commission (The Commission for the Improvement of State Administration). He details the methods of the reforms, the gains achieved and the challenges faced. He talks about the effects the cultural environment of the Lithuanian government had on these reforms. He also talks about the successful efficiency gains in public administration and civil service reforms, and the implementations that led to those. Šiupšinskas discusses evaluative measures, methods of prioritization, and functional reviews.

Erwin Ariadharma talks through the history of civil service reform programs in Indonesia, focusing on recent reforms in the Director-General of Tax within the Ministry of Finance under Sri Mulyani, as well as reforms in the Supreme Audit Board and the Supreme Court.  These three institutions together make up three priority areas for the government of Indonesia in terms of state revenue, auditing of state revenue, and law enforcement.  Ariadharma talks briefly about the job-description exercise and rationalizing of job grades undertaken in these institutions.  He also talks about the streamlining of standard operating procedures and improvements in information systems.  He describes how salaries were raised within the three targeted institutions and how, once this had been done, there was a clearly articulated zero-tolerance policy on corruption.  Opportunities for corruption were also reduced through minimizing citizen-staff interactions.  Ariadharma talks about the role of the Ministry of Administrative Reform in sanctioning and approving reform.  He concludes the interview with some thoughts on effective donor engagement with partner countries.

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

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

Rizwan Khair reviews the reasons he thinks civil service reform had not taken place in Bangladesh. He argues that the mindset of government leaders and the senior civil servants was risk averse and that Bangladesh was stuck in the mindset of the old colonial civil service, with its emphasis on seniority rather than performance. He believes that the development of Bangladesh in a globalized world economy requires that a premium be set on performance, accountability and innovation in the civil service. He suggests that international donors had not been persistent enough in pressing for civil service reform in Bangladesh. More importantly, he calls for his country to look at reforms in Malaysia and India to see why Bangladesh must follow suit in order to build its long-term future.    

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at The Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Syed Tanveer Hussain discusses a report on Bangladeshi government downsizing and restructuring he authored for the Office of the Prime Minister in 2002.  This document examined the implementation status and relative urgency of recommendations issued by 17 prior administrative reform committees and reorganization commissions.  Hussain describes a number of reasons for unsuccessful or incomplete implementation: lack of political will across party lines, insufficient explanation of reform rationale, finger-pointing at civil servants that generates built-in resistance, a reform committee system that fosters procrastination, and a distribution of power that at times favors the interests of a stable bureaucracy.  Hussain characterizes his ideal for the bureaucracy and describes a four-step process to achieve that ideal through planning, structural reform, capacity building and constant monitoring.  He then explains in detail each of his concrete proposals.  Among successfully implemented recommendations he counts separation of the Supreme Court and judiciary from other branches of government, and the establishment of quotas for civil service employment of the handicapped. Pending recommendations include administrative downsizing through elimination of function redundancy and outsourcing of some tasks to the private sector, appointment of an ombudsman, creation of financial incentives for civil servant relocation to remote areas of the country, computerization of ministries, employment of local manpower at Bangladeshi embassies for efficiency, retirement age increase in response to improvements in life expectancy, a constitutional mandate for a Civil Service Act, division of civil service into functional clusters to facilitate competition for awards and promotion, and creation of a senior-management pool.  While the government forwarded the report to the Establishment Division for implementation, it neglected its recommendation to streamline reform through an Administrative Performance Services Division modeled after its Malaysian equivalent and set up under the Prime Minister’s Office. Hussain believes centralization is key for successful administrative reform.  

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at the Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011