as the sea gulls freely explore the sky, let these blog components (documentaries, essays, insights, travels, affiliations and works) reach and penetrate through peoples and nations who might have the same advocacy for good governance and fight against the diseases of poverty in the province of ilocos sur, the philippines and the global community in general
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Report of Marlon
Flavier Tagorda, 2009 IAF Alumnus
Public administration
has always been a dynamic element of the government which incessantly responds
to the continuous demands of time. For
the economy to grow, the government must able to comply with the requirements
of its people. This entails various applications
of relative techniques to prevent the government and its citizens from
suffering its consequent distress.
The public often equate public
administration with corrupt leaders, provides inadequate information, poor
quality services, an extended arm of central powers and violation with existing
laws. Though public administration
existed long before the turn of the 19th century with Max Weber’s
bureaucracy, the perfection of its application was observed to be of bearish
trend. Think tanks have conceptualized a
new approach to better off the general welfare of the people by employing the
market-driven mechanisms.
To maximize
efficiency and effectiveness in governance, one technique that emerged was the
New Public Management (NPM). The Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development in a survey conducted concluded that
new management techniques and practices involving market-type mechanisms
associated with the private sector are being used to bring about changes in the
management of public services in countries that have widely varying governance,
economic and institutional environments (Larbi, 1999).
The central feature
of NPM is the attempt to introduce or simulate, within those sections of the
public service that are not privatized, the performance incentives and the
disciplines that exist in a market environment.
According to Metcalfe and Richards as cited by Larbi (Ibid.):
“the
assumption is that there are benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness
in exposing public sector activities to market pressures and in using markets
to serve public purposes, and that government can learn from the private sector
despite contextual differences.”
In addition, Larbi
quoted Bienefeld and Mukandala (Ibid.) that:
“a
noticeable trend in public sector reforms, in the context of economic crisis
and structural adjustment, is that a wider range of administrative functions
and the delivery of public services are being subjected to the approach.”
New Public Management has been a
liberal view that was included in the programs of the International Academy for
Leadership (IAF) of the Theodor-Heuss-Akademie of the Friedrich Naumann
Foundation – the think tank of the liberal FDP of Germany – based in
Gummersbach, Germany. Every year, they
conducted a month long online seminar on various liberal ideals which may be
participated in by hundreds of global participants in several countries. This Online Phase is very significant because
it is where the IAF will pick at most 25 global mix of participants to continue
with the Offline Face-to-Face Seminar at the IAF.
For 2009, the Online Phase for the
New Public Management held last 23 July to 20 August with 80 active
participants from 25 countries. Based on
their contributions, the IAF picked only 25 participants to continue to
Gummersbach on 27 September to 4 October.
Local Government Partnership
The Philippine participants to the
2009 International Academy for Leadership (IAF) for its seminar on the New
Public Management: Lean State, Lean Government came both from the local
governments within the city (Bago City – Edwin de Nicolas) and provincial
(Ilocos Sur – Marlon Tagorda) levels. A
partnership that indeed complemented ideas that eventually harmonizes to be
worth implemented in either local governments.
Initially, the partnership has
commenced during the Phase II Online Seminar where both belonged to the Southeast
and East Asia (SEEA) regional group doing two tasks – Regional Political
Analysis and Best Practices. Though
miles apart, the two have successfully forwarded to the IAF their completed tasks
on the assigned deadline. The fact that
the deadline fell during one of the Philippines’ special holiday, the two did
not waste valuable time and certainly have worked for the completion of their
tasks through progressive technologies.
What-a-Fate?
Time came when the two have to
depart Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) but due however to Typhoon
Ondoy, their flight was delayed by two hours – the only two hours they have supposedly
to connect their flight from Amsterdam to Bonn-Cologne Airport. Should they have not run as Flash, they might
have missed their connecting flight in Cologne.
It normally takes at most 30 minutes for one to transfer within Schipol
airport and baggage to be transferred to connecting aircraft for at least 45 minutes. Apparently, their Flash-ability brought them
to their connecting aircraft in less than 10 minutes. Consequently, their baggages was left at the
Schipol Airport. They arrived in Cologne
in time and have met Mr. Alexander (IAF Driver) waiting at the arrival area
with Andres Quintero (co-participant from Columbia). For more than 24 hours, they did not have
comfort due to their missed baggages.
Fortunately, it did not take two or three days before they got hold of
their baggages. After their evening
Opening Program (27 September), Mr. Michael (IAF Front Desk) handed over their
baggages.
In their return flight to Manila,
one of the partners (Tagorda) got its baggage in a very poor condition. When he packed his returning baggage, he
unzipped the extension of his trolley to fit the souvenirs and reading
materials from Cologne and the Academy respectively. Additionally, de Nicolas has to pay for his
extra baggage since he has to fly back to Bacolod and local limit does not
permit him to bring in his baggage without a fee.
Relative to fate still, the two had
worry minds during their stay at the Academy since their home country had
experienced the most typhoon-destroyer Ondoy (Ketsana) in 42 years surpassing
the all-time record in 1961. Ondoy
posted a 100 percent larger in rainfall as compared to the US’ Hurricane
Katrina in August, 2005. This typhoon
made its landfall during their departure delaying their flight
consequently. In their return still,
another super typhoon, Parma – a very stationary in motion, has again bounded within
the country’s area of responsibility.
When they were at the South China Sea area, from where Tagorda was
seated then, very huge and dark clouds were down them and have caused
anxiousness to the two. In spite of
this, they have safely touched-down at the NAIA. In addition, Parma has caused heavy landslide
along the highways of Ilocos Sur which again escalated Tagorda’s anxiety since
one particular area has been previously declared to be impassable due to more
than 10-feet stones and mud mix along the highway.
Eventually, after all this
uncooperative fate, the two has succeeded to be back to their hometown.
Tri-German Chronicles
The 17th Federal Germany
Election was held during the first day (27 September 2009) of the IAF
Seminar. Despite slackened poll rating of
the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in recent months, it actually acquired its
highest vote (14.6%), the highest after 41 years when FDP has received 12.8
percent in the 4th Federal Election (1961). As to gain and losses, the FDP has the
highest gain among all the parties represented at +4.8 percent gain. As the FDP’s think tank, the Friedrich
Naumann Foundation was very elated to receive this historic achievement. Our presence at the THA during this
remarkable episode has indeed given us a perfect view of a seventh heaven
atmosphere among the liberals who have seated around the fireplace of the
Academy watching acceleration in the seat-share in the federal government.
At the end of the IAF Seminar (03
October 2009), another momentous account was shared with the Philippine
participants as Germany commemorated the Day of German Unity – the German
reunification. A year before celebrating
two decades of reunification, the German government has showed to the world
that their brave move to unify the Wessi and the Ossi 19 years ago was their
most liberal attempt to ultimately achieve a high regard status to Germany as
the Europe’s most strong nation.
The IAF NPM participants have joined
IAF’s Birgit Lamm in celebrating her third year of Directorship in the Academy
last 01 October 2009. This event was supposed
to be spontaneous but it turned out much planned with the coordination of IAF
NPM participants particularly Ahmed Ibraim (Egypt) and the conniving IAF staff.
Citizen’s Charter as the Best Practice
Part of the presentation of Tagorda
during their regional report on the Best Practices Implementation of NPM tools
was the Citizen’s Charter that gained acceptance and envy among all the other
countries represented in the seminar.
The Philippine participants deemed Citizen’s Charter as the Best
Practice to present during the Regional Presentation.
It has the following contents that
correspondingly answered particularly the deficiencies (in parenthesis) of
public administration, to wit: vision and mission (far removed from citizens); frontline
services offered and the clientele (poor information); step-by-step procedure
(inefficiency); responsible officer and employee (accountability); maximum time
to conclude the process (slow); required documents and their relevance (too
expensive); procedure for filing complaints (slow, poor information); allowable
period for extension (slow); and feedback mechanisms (far removed from
citizens).
With the above contents of a Citizen’s
Charter, most of the deficiencies of public administration may be
answered. Basically, a government must
clearly define the products they offer to its customers to refrain the
government from being tagged as institution offering poor information. After this product definition, a given
flowchart of the step-by-step procedure will as well be defined with the responsible
officer/s and employee/s to respond to the inefficiency and accountability
issues raised for public administration.
The cost of public service will eventually be cleared since requirements
will be laid down and be presented with the citizens. As for the feedback and complaint mechanisms,
the government designed relevant avenues where the citizens may forward their
complaints to answer the sentiments of the citizens that they are far removed
from public administration.
Briefly discussed, the following are the
steps in crafting the Citizen’s Charter: 1.) Identify and Prioritize Office
Services; 2.) Record and Review Existing Systems and Procedure; 3.) Re-engineer
and Set Service Standards and Performance Pledge; 4.) Set up Feedback,
Complaints and Redress Mechanisms; and 5.) Write and Package the Citizen’s
Charter.
To date, the following countries have a
Citizen’s Charter: US, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Argentina, Netherlands, Canada,
Portugal, France, Italy, Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, United Kingdom,
India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Samoa, Australia, Peru
and Chile (last two countries added as comment by Luz Arce Ramos, one of the
moderators).
Being proud to be the presenter of the
Citizen’s Charter, it eventually subsided when in fact, the Municipal
Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has this charter 10 years ago evident with
the MCGM Citizen’s Charter brought by the representative of India (Priyanka
Sharma) who happened to work with Praja, a Non-Government Organization of India
which drafted the Charter for Mumbai.
However, MCGM Charter complemented
the Citizen’s Charter of the Philippine municipalities/cities since it
justified the significance of having a charter, a handbook for its
citizens. With the global mix of
participants, universal comments were as well presented and actually very
relevant to possibly improve the bureaucratic process in the Philippines. The most relevant recommendation then was
from Wael Nawara of Egypt emphasizing on the volume of requirements needed to
get a certain service (or in NPM sense, product) from the government. That though steps are clearly presented to
its citizens, it would be more effective if the prerequisites may be lean down
and only essential requisites are demanded from the applicant.
YES – NO Arguments
During the last day of the seminar,
a very simple yet notable scene was observed when the final workshop was
conducted – the arguments of NPM.
Opponents of the NPM have undeniably posted several attacks on its implementation,
be it on privatization or structure related.
NPM advocates will say “Yes” while NPM attackers will certainly say
“No”. This was the very core of the
workshop discussion. Though participants
were expected to be NPM-conformant, within their small group of eight, there
exists an affirmative and apparently a negative debate parties.
Typically, a certain individual
counter a particular argument. Should
there be no democratic means of expressing ideals, everyone might have just say
“Yes” to the assertion. However, to make
the counter-argument stronger, several “No” was raised. Eventually, due to a common objective, the
self-group arguments decided to be revised and presented in a more agreeable
phrase among its members.
Is it all Theory?
The state may have
become leaner and the control of its affairs may be more manageable. With the NPM, the criticisms of the
stereotyped public administration may be offset. Correspondingly, this innovative approach may
appear to be defenseless and may not be the prime methodology of the state if
the leaders still remain to be off-tangent with its general objectives. Vulnerability of tactics depends largely with
the values of the leaders of the organization.
Government, particularly the
political-administrative leaders, must possess essential values to ensure the
people with equitable benefits.
Twenty-first century leaders must formulate courses of actions to
mobilize resources down to the grassroots level and must have profound respect
for human rights.
In the Philippine setting, lots of
different flagship of every national administration have been introduced and
were cut-off after every turn of new administration. This is one of the reasons why the country
seems not to achieve development.
Cutting shorts every national goals and objectives relative to the
foremost leader brought unsound and wobbly administration.
With the present
administration, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has instituted her 10-point
agenda that encompasses vision to promote livelihood, infrastructure,
decentralization and peace process. In
her 2009 State of the Nation Address (SONA), PGMA enumerated several
achievements that confer her agenda.
Particularly, she stressed that her administration has invested three
times that of three previous administrations combined in technical and skills
training. She even presented one student
(Jennifer Silbor) who has acquired medical transcription skills that paved way
to her significant income. On the
contrary, similar students as Silbor have reported days after the SONA that one
institution which implemented this government training seems to be deflective. Though PGMA has confidently emphasized the
achievement, there were problems encountered.
This may be traced back on the management of this undertaking. Should there have been efficient
implementation and monitoring of every program, there may be no drawbacks. This may be asserted with the manpower that directly
holds the program.
Hence, reform must not at all be
within the system but more importantly and of the greatest essence, within the
human resources of the system. Economist
Toby Monsod presented her research on the Philippine bureaucracy at the
Philippine Economic Society 2008 Conference.
The study discussed inequities, position overlapping and the 2004
personnel size of the government that accounted to almost 1.5 million
employees. These data is the main
concern of the New Public Management – to make the state lean.
In conclusion, reform, primarily in
the system, may have a lesser bearing as it may tackle only the institutional
framework of the government. Reform
within the human resources may be more liberally affective as it fundamentally
deals with humans. As the government
desires for a leaner state, the government must take a liberal move to possibly
trim down its size. The government must
forgo some of the inequities and position overlapping by reforming the
organization of each department and/or agency.
Consequently, the government will be easier to manage, programs will be
effectively carried and the expenses relative to the defunct positions can be
utilized for other demands of its citizenry.
Sources:
1.Arroyo,
Gloria. 2009. State of the Nation Address (SONA). PIA, Manila, Philippines
3.Larbi,
George. 1999. Discussion Paper No. 112 The New Public Management Approach and
Crisis States. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development,
Switzerland
4.Monsod,
Toby. 2008. The Philippine Bureaucracy: Incentive Structures and Implications
for Performance. Philippine Economic Society (PES), Philippines
