HR- Peer Review: the Belgian
experience
GOOD GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT (GFD) IN ARAB
COUNTRIES INITIATIVE
GROUP B
Regional Meeting of the Working Group on Integrity and Civil Service
04 APRIL 2008
Philippe VERMEULEN, Advisor general, Federal Public Service on Personnel
& Organisation
1. Getting started: a well considered process
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End 2005: proposition by the OECD + estimate of the costs
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March 2006:
– Agreement/”contract” between OECD & CEO (Chairman of the
Board of Directors) of the FPS P&0 & representatives Belgian
federated entities
– Drawing up & consensus on the Terms of reference
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Taking into account some major challenges:
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Complex structure of the Federal State
Volume on documentation
Different culture & views on HR & public management
Reputation of the OECD (80’s & 90’s)
Ensuring political commitment on federal level, quid on regional
& community level?
1. Getting started: a well considered process
•
(cont.)
Responding to core questions:
– Goal of the Peer Review?
– Added value, now & for the future?
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Consensus on definitions
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Organizing workshops between the international experts and the
respondents + interviews social partners & other stakeholders (May
& September 2006)
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Looking for & using already available data and/or ongoing surveys
to limit the burden on the administrations
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Draft paper (November 2006 & February 2007)
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Final approval (June 2007)
2. Do’s & don’ts
• Clear contract between OECD & partner country
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(senior) Experts
Timing
Cost
Outcome
• Guidelines
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Good practices instead of best practices
No universal truth
Client defines which areas are audited
Goal=
• Not another survey
• Define challenges
• promote structurized cross-section dialogue &
exchange views
• Permanent feedback & only finished + published
when government(s) agree(s)
3. Added value
• Methodological:
– Interaction between both auditors and audited
parties on a well defined consensual terms of
reference
– in which the autonomy of the auditors is crucial
– the audited parties don’t find themselves in a
conceptual or spoon-fed ideologically correct
framework,
– but are encouraged to give their points of view,
clarifications or amendments as they see fit.
– It’s then up to the experts to analyze the data and
to give their expert opinion, always taking care to
give sufficient feedback and being prepared to
accept any reasonable arguments to rectify their
opinions
3. Added value
(cont’d)
• A forum for dialogue:
– ensuring freedom of opinion, putting hard
facts on the table and keeping the possibility
open to react in respect for everyone’s goals
and reasons
– Not only between the auditors and the audited
parties, but also between the different central
levels within the Belgian Federation whose
common and ultimate objective it is to serve
the citizen in the best way they can.
– also between different viewpoints on
conceptual or practical approaches for
common challenges
3. Added value
(cont’d)
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enables data mining which is interesting for Belgium as
well as for other OECD- Member Countries and
Observers.
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Furthermore, it allows benchmarking between different
central levels in the Belgian Federation, and with other
countries if they apply the same methodology.
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strengthens cross-entity collaboration on matters of
HR-policy
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Communication between all actors continues by setting
up a cross-entity extranet “RELEX” on OECD-documents
and activities with the goal to reflect the opinions of the
different entities in the viewpoints & communications of
the Belgian delegation to the OECD on public
governance matters;
4. Impact
• data was a topic for broad discussion between employers
organisations & unions
• Report was discussed at senior civil level in the different
entities
• basis for negociations when forming new federal
government
• has finally influenced policy objectives for the new
government due to the fact that quite some
recommendations & remarks were followed or taken into
account :
– The HR-policy:integrity, training possibilities, motivation,
result-oriented & user or client-driven;
– Customer satisfaction as well as civil servant satisfaction;
4. Impact
(cntd)
– The regulatory simplification of the personnel statute within the
goal to adapt HR- conditions to enhance modern career management &
development ;
– Priority is given to statutory employment, but possibilities to develop
career possibilities & equal working conditions for civil servants
recruited on contract basis will be examined as well as the possibility
to contract interim personnel;
– Developing an effective performance management;
– Creating a real management contract between the political level and
the administration based on concrete goals, adaptable to the
stakeholders’ needs and objectives where the Chairpersons of each
Federal Public Service receive large, real autonomy to develop their
HR-policy and to use their budget where a priori, ex ante controls are to
be replaced by random a posterior, ex post controls;
– New citizen’s participation methods are to be examined in order to
enhance involvement in policy making & assessment
– A electronic Single Point of Contact (SPOC) is to developed ensuring
the equal access to public information for those who don’t benefit from
the internet revolution;