Open AccessIssues in the Designing of Public Sector Reform
Author(s) -
Nadeem Ul Haque
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v37i4iipp.299-327
Subject(s) - incentive , public sector , accountability , paternalism , government (linguistics) , economics , new public management , business , public administration , public economics , economic policy , political science , market economy , law , economy , linguistics , philosophy
“Civil service reform,” which has become the nickname forpublic sector management reform in the parlance of developmenteconomics, has only recently and grudgingly been accepted by those whoadvise on policy in the poor countries. Even then, the approach issomewhat paternalistic in that it emphasises externally-designed rulesand processes for management, organisation, audit and accountability. Itrecognises the role of people in terms of noting that incentives andemployment policies matter but only in terms of right-sizing thegovernment and second to the need to spread budgetary resources over thepolitically chosen level of employment. What it does not accept is thatand the drive to manage the public sector better has to be led andimplemented by the domestic talent and in that they must have both theincentive and the honour of doing just that. This paper argues that themain reason that the public sector management has suffered in many ofthe poor countries is that incentives have been allowed to erode rapidlyas public sector employment was viewed politically as a means ofproviding welfare.