Public Service Reforms: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

Introduction Need for reforms

Public service in both the developed and developing world plays a vital role in providing public
goods, such as defense, public order, property rights, macro-economic management, basic
education, public health, disaster relief, protection of environment, and coordinating private sector
activity. A capable public service is essential for creating a favourable investment climate and
facilitating people’s participation in economic life. As countries get more globalized governments
face increasingly complex and cross-cutting issues, such as economic volatility, climate change
and migration. Wide use of the internet has made citizens more aware and impatient and that puts
public servants under greater public scrutiny. Against this backdrop, public service delivery has
acquired new dimensions as governments need to respond not only to changes in the global
environment but also to the demands of an active citizenry. There is a widespread perception that
public servants in many Governments have not delivered what was expected from them. Poorly
functioning public sector institutions and weak governance are major constraints to equitable
development in many developing countries. In other words, the Classical model that saw
government as primarily a provider of professional services is no longer sufficient today. Public
interest now is a collective enterprise that involves government, citizens and civil society as value
creators and co-producers of public goods.
Governments and governance the world over are undergoing a ‘paradigm shift’ in their traditional
roles and structures of inflexible control and procedure orientation, towards result orientation,
flexibility, facilitation and a citizen-centric approach4 . Success however would, to a large extent,
depend upon a cultural change in the Civil Services.
Any effort towards reforms should take account of the economic, social, cultural, constitutional
and political context of the state in which they are implemented. Some of the common issues and
challenges associated with public service reforms are discussed below:
1. Issue: Merit-based recruitment
Challenges: For the transition from an oppressive to responsive bureaucracy, the public
service needs to be merit-based, politically neutral, well-structured, “right-sized”, well-
paid, accountable, professional, free of corruption, well-trained, performance-oriented, and
relatively open. Along with these a full enforcement of civil service laws and regulations
on civil service recruitment is also a challenge.
2. Issue: The new public management
Challenges: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, public sectors around the world began to
undergo a significant transformation. Driven by trends towards market based efficiencies,
new technologies and management models, as well as a public call for more responsive
and accountable public services, governments began to move away from state-directed
intervention, adopting market norms for public service delivery, applying business
principles to their operations, and paying new attention to customer choice and satisfaction.
Many public sectors embarked on sweeping market-driven reforms: privatization,
deregulation, liberalization, corporatization, outsourcing, subsidy withdrawal, and budget
 cuts were introduced in both developed and developing countries. In general, the
movement saw the disaggregation of ministries, departments, and agencies into executive
agencies that had to sign a performance contract with the Ministry but were given financial
and managerial autonomy implementing programmes based on final results or outcomes,
rather than inputs and processes. Some countries, such as Singapore, where privatization
has not been a priority as public sector was considered quite efficient opted for
‘corporatization’ of selected public utilities to introduce business management practices
while still retaining public ownership.
3. Issue: Whole-of-government approach
Challenges: The new public management (NPM) sought to create semi-autonomous
organizations which could handle individual tasks easily. NPM was not fit to tackle the big
issues in society that the government sector was expected to handle. The functional line
ministries and autonomous agencies no longer corresponded with some of the more
complex problems in society, as there was a mismatch between the problem and the
organizational structure.
4. Issue: Improving accountability
Challenges: Accountability helps indicate the results achieved by the government using
public fund. Major options are through performance evaluation system (e.g., more
transparent record management and data collection), results-based programme delivery,
citizen charger, and through Right to Public Services laws.
Therefore, compliance with rules is not sufficient for achieving outcomes.
5. Issue: Public financial management - Tracking resources for better results
Challenges: Sound public financial management is an essential part of good governance.
It supports the efficient and accountable use of public resources, helps foster
macroeconomic and fiscal stability, and guides allocation of resources to address national
priorities. Since resources can leak wherever systems are weak, public financial
management covers all phases of the budget cycle including budget preparation, internal
control and audit, procurement, monitoring and reporting arrangements, and external
audits.
The World Bank has identified six objectives in public financial management: (i) Policy-
based budgeting; (ii) Predictability and control in budget execution, accounting, recording
and reporting expenditure; (iii) External scrutiny and audit; (iv) Comprehensiveness and
transparency; (v) Budget credibility; and (vi) sound donor practices.
6. Issue: Stakeholder ownership and participation
Challenges: Participation of the local people in programme delivery not only improves the
confidence of the women and other marginalised groups in themselves, but also
• makes bureaucracy more accountable and hence improves the efficiency and
effectiveness of government programmes;
• improves their awareness and hence makes them better recipients of intended benefits of
government programmes;
• ensures that multinational corporations and big business (often they also control media
and are able to project their interests as national interests) do not dominate policy and
implementation; and
 • reduces repression and exploitation. In the recent years, participation and empowerment
has been one of the goals in many development programmes. However, it has often
remained more or less rhetoric, as an ideology without a methodology. Much of the
development effort continues to be supply driven, top-down, does not involve people, non-
transparent, and hence full of leakages and not sustainable.
7. Issue: Decentralization
Challenges: Major arguments put forward in favour of decentralization are: increased
grass-root democracy, protection of freedom and human rights, increased efficiency
through delegation of responsibility, higher quality of services, and enhancement of social
and economic development aimed at overall poverty reduction.
Biggest challenge is safeguards against elite capture.
8. Issue: Political economy of reforms
Challenges: While designing any strategy for reforming the civil services of developing
countries the political context has to be kept in view. Power in many countries is
intrinsically linked with kinship, ethnicity or personal factions that shape the roles,
behaviours and expectations of all stakeholders. Institutions and personal interests in such
countries may thwart formal incentive and accountability systems and prevent mobilization
on the basis of shared interests rather than narrow sectional loyalties, and thus influencing
negatively on the outcomes of civil service reforms.
Conclusion: The success of countries will depend not on the strength of any one aspect of
public policy, but on the synergistic whole in concerted action. The challenges facing
whole-of-government initiatives are not to be under-estimated. It is not merely a question
of wanting to work differently. The design and functions of complex organizations like
federal governments cannot change overnight. Parliamentary mandates, accountability
measures, financial legislation, organizational culture and the political undercurrents are
just a few of the variables that will determine the success of such initiatives. Moreover a
reverse trend to sectoral approach is being witnessed in some areas where it is seen as
providing better results, e.g. the anti-corruption machinery that needs to be kept away from
the influence of other Ministries.