Good Governance Monitoring Report – Issue no. 1

 

 

 

3.5 Institutional and Organizational Development

 

The institutional and organizational development efforts made during the period under review were largely limited to reviews and revisions of the ministerial and non-ministerial organizational structures and development plans (that have been approved by the previous government in 2005), and the annexing a few non-ministerial institutions to line ministries.  Cabinet decisions related to the latter can be summarized as follows:

 

·        Annexing the Civil Aviation Authority and the Seaports Authority to the Ministry of Transport.

·        Canceling cabinet decision number 19/12/09 of 2005 which annexed the Fatwa and Legislation Bureau to the Cabinet, and, instead, attaching it to the Ministry of Justice (under the Minister's direct supervision).

·        Attaching the House of Poetry, the High Council of Education, Culture, and Science, and the National Book House to the Ministry of Culture.

 

Though these decisions provide indications of a logical, technocratic approach to organizational reform, in practice they based on consultation or in-depth studies and were not part of a comprehensive, objective and transparent program. 

 

However, many pre-existing and long-standing problems (including duplication of roles at the PNA institutions, excessive numbers of employees, lack of material and human resources) remain unsolved. It is worth noting that the new Cabinet – unlike former Cabinets – has not had access to technical assistance in organizational and institutional development; this may go some way towards explaining its relative inactivity in this area. Nevertheless, the following organizational and institutional issues remain urgent reform priorities:

 

·        Defining gaps and overlaps in the roles of the ministerial and non-ministerial institutions and dealing with them through amending rules and executive regulations.

·        Restructuring ministries and government institutions, enhancing job descriptions and documenting operating procedures.

·        Provision of training for employees at ministries and non-ministerial institutions in key core skills area as well as more technical areas such as policy-making, planning, public financial management and human resources management.

·        Unifying policies, procedures and systems of cross-cutting and common functions across all government institutions (e.g., financial management, human resources management, IT administration, etc.)

·        Develop mechanisms of retrenchment, redistribution and retraining of human resources in accordance with comprehensive review of the mandate, efficiency and effectiveness of the entire PNA apparatus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Good Governance Initiative - 2006

 

 

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