Muhammad Zarif bin Ahmad Tarmizi 1629041
PSCI 2523 Section 2
Case Study on Accountability of Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy can be defined as a government organization responsible for regulating
and enforcing individual and commercial activities. Having high bureaucracy accountability is
essential to enhance the function of the organization to the public. Accountability is where
there are some obligations in performing duties without any problems like corruption,
dishonesty and insincerity. However, most of the countries in the world are having problems
in implementing a perfect bureaucracy. Many countries, especially Malaysia, faced many
challenges in addressing high accountability among government organizations. For instance,
there are many issues addressed by The Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series, which mainly
focused on the financial management. Khor (2019) stated that many issues were brought up by
the report like improper payments, leakages, and wastage involving millions of ringgits. This
showed the accountability of the management is quite unfortunate as it failed to explain the
reasons how such problems can occur. Therefore, this paper will provide and illustrate a new
model that able to increase the accountability in the bureaucracy to makes it function more
efficiently in handling monetary issues and to avoid the same situation in the future.
To enhance the accountability of the organization, the root of it, which is the internal
control of the bureaucracy needs to be changed and reformed first. This is because the internal
structure of the organization provides as a core to determine how well is the organization. In
internal structure, it will mainly focus on the personnel of the organization. This model below
which focusses on the internal organization will be able to enhance the bureaucracy
accountability in Malaysia.
Openness system
among all
employees
Strict hiring
Developed discipline
and integrity
Enhance
accountability of
bureaucracy
Contract
employment method
Efficient system
Individual tasks
based on their
qualification
Based on the model above, these elements could able to ensure bureaucracy
accountability from the issue that was brought by the report. The elements like the openness
system among all employees, strict hiring, contract employment method and individual tasks
would be able to develop high discipline and integrity and more efficient system among the
employees which leads in enhancing the accountability of bureaucracy. Based on the model,
the organization should implement openness system, which means there is no secret among
all employees. The information like records, check and balances can be accessible to all
employees, especially among the low-level employees. Therefore, this able to enhance
integrity among all employees. This is because all personnel, especially from the high level of
employees able to avoid corruption as all their works in terms of financial management, are
being monitored and acknowledged by all employees of the organization. The employees
could report to the authority if there are some corruption activities in the organization.
Therefore, this could enhance the integrity among all employees from involving in misconduct
financial matters. Then, strict hiring of new employees. The employers must be strict,
especially in choosing the high position of the employee in the organization. Instead of
qualification and academic, there should be some background checks by the employers first
before hiring the person. The background checks are essential because they can ensure that
the person who holds the position must be free from any interests, primarily political
interests. Thus, the person will be able to do their job more efficiently, and the decision that
was made in managing the organization, especially in financial management is free from any
bias to politics.
In government organization, the personnel status of the government organization
should be focussed more on contract employment system instead of lifetime employment. In
this system, public servants can be put on limited-term contracts. Hence, this system able to
make the employees not to take their career for granted. Their performance must always be
on top and free from any negative cases related to their organization to ensure that they got
the next contract renewal. Therefore, this surely will increase productivity and enhance the
efficiency of the organizational system. The government organization must focus more on the
individual instead of the group. It means in conducting a big project, all members of the team
are given their task individually even the project is done in a team. The chief of the project
team must divide and assigned the work individually based on their qualification and
specialization. This is because all members are responsible for carrying their task to increase
the output or productivity of the team. Thus, by implementing this type of element, the team
members will be able to know their task, which then able to reduce the risk from the project
to be delayed.
In conclusion, these elements from the model above, especially the openness system
able to enhance bureaucracy accountability if it is implemented appropriately into the
organization structure. By implementing these elements, it will make sure that the issues that
were addressed from the report can be solved in the future. The issues like corruption and
abuse of power happened because of the employees from the organization itself. Thus, by
improving the system structure among the employees of the organization, it could able to
increase and enhance the bureaucracy accountability in Malaysia.
References
Khor, S. (2019). The First A-G Report of 2018 Reveals How Millions Of Taxpayers' Money
Was Wasted & Misused. Says. Retrieved from https://says.com/my/news/first-a-greport-of-2018-reveals-how-taxpayers-money-is-being-used