Towards Better Governance in Palestine through Public Administration and
Civil Service Reform
According to UNDP, governance is “the exercise of
economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country's
affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and
institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests,
exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their
differences.”
Good governance ensures that political, social and
economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the
voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making
over the allocation of development resources. According to UNDP, “economic governance
includes decision-making processes that affect a country's economic
activities and its relationships with other economies. It clearly has major
implications for equity, poverty and quality of life. Political governance is
the process of decision-making to formulate policy. Administrative governance
is the system of policy implementation. Encompassing all three, good
governance defines the processes and structures that guide political and
socio-economic relationships.”
When assessing
government performance from a good governance perspective we must ask the
following question: how successful are public institutions in promoting the
achievement of national development goals by establishing, inter alia,
favourable political, legal, economic and social conditions? We must also determine the extent to which
public institutions operate in accordance with the following core principles
of good governance:
- Participation – Citizens should have a voice in decision-making, either directly
or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their
interests. Such broad participation is built on freedom of association
and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively in the
public decision making process.
- Rule of law - Legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially. They should
constitute a solid reference for governing the relationship between the
different institutions of government on the one hand, and between
government and the citizens, civil society and the private sector on the
other...
- Transparency - Transparency is built on the free flow of information. Processes, institutions and
information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and
enough information is provided to understand and monitor them.
- Responsiveness - Institutions and processes try to serve all citizens and
stakeholders.
- Consensus orientation - Good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad
consensus on what is in the best interests of the group and, where
possible, on policies and procedures.
- Equity - All men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their
well-being.
- Effectiveness and efficiency - Processes and institutions produce results that meet needs while
making the best use of resources.
- Accountability - Decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil
society organisations are accountable to the public, as well as to
institutional stakeholders. This accountability differs depending on the
organisation and whether the decision is internal or external to an organisation.
- Strategic vision - Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on
good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is
needed for such development. There is also an understanding of the
historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective
is grounded.
Since the formation of the PNA, direct and indirect taxes, custom and
other duties paid by Palestinian citizens have historically constituted more
than one-half of the public budget, with the remainder being funded by
grants, budget support, and public debt.
Palestinian citizens have the right to expect the PNA to deploy these
resources in line with the core principles of good governance.
The PNA has faced enormous challenges and obstacles, primarily related
to the political, economic and social instability and fragmentation caused by
the conflict with Israel,
which have contributed to its limited success in building institutions of
good governance. Despite the difficult
environment, the PNA has made some progress in the area of public
administration and civil service reform (particularly in public financial
management) but, according to most independent observers, it has failed to
make meaningful progress in certain crucial areas such as security and
judicial reform. So whilst it has made
many achievements, the PNA must implement a number of high priority reforms
before it can claim that the basic elements of a system of good governance
are in place.
Achievements
The report of the General Control Bureau in 1996, the 100-Day Plan of
President Mahmoud Abbas of 2002, and the functions of the Ministerial Reform
Committee dealt with a number of reform issues and priorities including the
presidential, legislative, and local elections. These also dealt with, inter
alia, separation of powers, financial reform, security reform, and public
administration and civil service reform issues. The result of these efforts were a number
of achievements in the area of governance, including:
§
Improvement
of basic health and education services leading to better outcomes for
citizens (e.g., higher enrolment rates, improved test scores, increased life
expectancy, lower infant mortality);
§
Establishment
of the Central Elections Committee to oversee free and fair Presidential,
Legislative and Municipal elections;
§
Establishment
of a single Central Treasury Account (CTA);
§
Implementation
of an enhanced budget process and basic accounting system;
§
Establishment
of the Palestine Investment Fund to oversee public enterprises;
§
Implementation
of a process for annual preparation of a medium-term development plan;
§
Passing
of a single, unified civil service law covering the West Bank and Gaza;
§
Implementation
of centralized, strengthened control of the PNA payroll;
§
Implementation
of a model organizational structure for ministries and agencies;
§
Rationalization
of the number of non-ministerial agencies and making them accountable to
ministries;
§
Capacity
building in the Palestinian Legislative Council; and,
§
Nominations
to the Supreme Judicial Council, following the signing of the Judicial
Authority Law, and appointment of additional judges and prosecutors.
Priority reforms for the future
These are a number of shortcomings and gaps in the public
administration and civil service in Palestine. The following priority reforms of the
institutions of government, requiring interventions in the Executive,
Legislative and Judicial branches, would take the PNA a long way towards
implementing the basic principles of good governance.
§
Policy
& decision-making – Enhance the ability of the prime Minister and his
Cabinet to focus on strategic policy and decision-making by strengthening
policy analysis and policy formulation capacity in the Cabinet secretariat
and line ministries.
§
Government
performance and service delivery – Establish a transparent, participatory
mechanism for preparing a long-term vision for Palestinian reform and
development (a “National Agenda”) and establish a unit in the Prime
Minister’s Office to monitor and evaluate performance of ministries in line
with this national vision.
§
Institutional
and organizational development – Implement a medium-term programme, managed
by an independent, professional unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, to
rationalize the number, mandates, structures, operating procedures and
staffing of government ministries and agencies to maximize efficiency and
cost-effectiveness and ensure the long-term affordability of the public
service.
§
Human
resources management – Establish independent, effective oversight of human
resources policy and practices at the centre of government, delegate human
resources administration to line ministries and implement a single human
resources management IT system that is integrated with the payroll system.
§
Financial
resources management – Integrate the medium-term planning process with the
budgeting process, enhance transparency and PLC oversight of the integrated
PNA budget, establish an effective and independent audit function reporting
directly to the PLC and implement affordable pay and pensions policies.
The need for political will and
leadership in public administration and civil service reform
The previous government began to take steps towards designing a
“Public Management Reform Programme” (PMRP) addressing the five areas of
priority reforms described above under the umbrella of a national reform and
development vision (national agenda) linked to the existing MTDP
process. The PMRP may be summarized as
follows:
However, the previous government
had limited success in establishing effective institutional arrangements to
implement its governance reform agenda.
Sustainable governance reform can only be achieved if it is
domestically driven, based on the wishes of the Palestinian people and their
leadership. In order to play it’s part in advancing the reform agenda the PNA
must establish:
§
high-level political leadership
and ownership of the reform agenda by the President, Prime Minister and
Cabinet; and,
§
credible and effective
institutional arrangements for the co-ordination, implementation and
monitoring of governance reform with clear accountability to the PLC.
Once proper political
and technical leadership arrangements are in place, the National Agenda, the
MTDP (integrated with the budget) and the PMRP will provide a credible,
coherent and Palestinian-owned framework under which donors must provide
coordinated support for Palestinian governance reform.
Published by Good Governance Initiative - 2006
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