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Justification of Public Sector
Reform: what, why adopted for
Myanmar situation
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wongsa Laohasiriwong
Faculty of Public Health,
Khon Kaen University
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Pressure to Reform
• Governments face pressures to improve their processes
and impact, from their own citizens, their civil society
organizations and domestic business.
• They also face demands for change from inward
investors and from international organizations.
• A first step in designing reform consists of understanding the
pressures and the demands on government to change.
• Small reforms to key services are often sufficient to satisfy
demands.
• Fundamental, system-wide changes to practices and
culture may be required, if there is endemic inefficiency
and/or corruption.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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Reform
• Reform’ is used to describe the range of
processes, but genuine reform can be defined
as change that either produces a
measurable improvement in services or a
noticeable change in the relationship
between institutions of the state and the
citizens:
• hence a reform that changes the way in
which civil servants are paid that has no
impact on services or on the way those
civil servants relate to the citizens would
not be counted as a genuine reform.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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Questions for Discussion:
• What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
1. Electoral systems
• Electoral systems that include genuine
competition can lead to competing parties
promising to improve services, and then trying
to carry through those promises after elections.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
2. Organized Civil Society
• Pressure can also come from an organized
civil society, concerned with the standard of
public services or with rights and access to
services.
• Extreme cases such as the Cochabamba,
Bolivia, riots over water services or the
school pupil strikes and
demonstrations in South Sudan over
lack of payment for teachers, or the ‘Service
Delivery’ demonstrations in South
Africa are visible examples of citizens
protesting to governments in favor of
better services.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
2. Organized Civil Society
• Uneven service delivery, whether by
geography, class or ethnicity may also
generate public pressure for service
improvement.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
3. Private Sector
• Sometimes the pressure comes from the private
sector, concerned with the impact of public
services on business:
• bureaucratic obstacles to investment or
to trade cause complaint from producers
and traders.
• Such domestic pressures are more likely to
produce changes if there is freedom of
expression and a democratic system in
which people’s views are important to those in
power.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
4. Fiscal Stress
• Fiscal stress and pressure from lenders have also
led to attempts at reform.
• During the Structural Adjustment period, such
pressures led to spending reductions, staff cuts
and re-drawing of the boundaries of the state.
• Clearly the relative weight of outside agencies
depends on the degree to which the government
is dependent on them for financial support, and
on how clever the governments are at promising
reform without having to deliver.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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What are the pressures on
governments to make reforms?
5. Corruption
• Corruption can also lead to internal and
external demands for change.
• If there is freedom of expression and an
organized civil society and if donors and
lenders fear that aid and loans will be
wasted through corruption.
• Governance and management processes
that guarantee relevant outputs and
outcomes may require reforms of
systems in which accountability is weak.
Source: European Commission, 2009, Public Sector Reform – An Introduction
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Why Public Sector Need to Reform?
• Economic crisis
• Political crisis
• Poverty problem
• The sanction from outsiders
• ASEAN community
• Need strong institutions
• Dysfunctional financial sector and gross distortions and
inefficiencies
• Citizen’s demand for good governance
Source: Asia Report N°231. (2012). Myanmar: The Politics of Economic Reform
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Good Governance
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvQr5yQitB
A&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Demand for Good Governance
 Citizen’s demand for transparency, accountability
and right to participate in public policy
 Citizen’s concern about quality public services and
their continually rising costs
 Corruption was a reason of overthrow and political
crises
 Corruption cases were disclosed
“Improving
governance and Public Administration
Reform (PAR)
become high priority”
Source: Orapin Sopchokchai, Thailand Public Sector Development Commission (www.opdc.go.th)
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Good governance
It is “… among other things participatory,
transparent and accountable. It is also
effective and equitable. And it promotes the
rule of law.” – UNDP
It “… encompasses the role of public authorities in
establishing the environment in which economic
operators function and in determining the
distribution of benefits as well as the
relationship between the ruler and the
ruled.” .” – OECD (www.oecd.org/dac/)
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Good governance
 It is “… epitomized by predictable, open and
enlightened policy making; a bureaucracy imbued
with a professional ethos; an executive arm of
government accountable for its actions; and a
strong civil society participating in public affairs;
and all behaving under the rule of law.” (World Bank 1994:
Governance: The World Bank’s Experience.)
 “Fundamental aspects of governance” are: g raft, rule of
law, and government effectiveness.
Other dimensions are: voice and accountability,
political instability and violence, and regulatory
burden.
(Kaufmann, Kraay and Zoido-Lobaton 1999. )
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Good governance
Mechanisms for assuring good governance have three
key elements:
1. Internal rules and restraints : internal accounting
and auditing systems, independence of the judiciary and
the central bank, civil service and budgeting rules;
2. “Voice” and partnership: public-private
deliberation councils, and service delivery surveys to
solicit client feedback); and
3. Competition : competitive social service delivery,
private participation in infrastructure, alternative
dispute resolution mechanisms, and outright
privatization of certain market-driven activities
(WDR 1997)
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Public Sector Reform
 The effectiveness and efficiency of a
country's public sector is vital to the success
of development activities.
 Sound financial management, an efficient
civil service and administrative policy,
efficient and fair collection of taxes, and
transparent operations that are relatively free
of corruption all contribute to good
delivery of public services.
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Public Sector Reform Goals
• Better and clearer structure, roles, and functions of
public sector.
• Higher public sector’s performance to serve
the country.
• Better and more efficient resource management.
• Service-minded civil servants with new
value and culture.
Source: Orapin Sopchokchai, Thailand Public Sector Development Commission (www.opdc.go.th)
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Public Sector Reform Goals
• Better pay and employment conditions.
• Improve public service delivery with less
costs.
• Accountable and transparent public sector.
• Capable to govern and lead the country
toward the future world.
Source: Orapin Sopchokchai, Thailand Public Sector Development Commission (www.opdc.go.th)
The Reform’s Master Plan
1
Structural Reform
2
Administrative
Reform
3Budgetary
Reform
4
Public
Personnel
Reform
5
Value and cultural
Reform
Source: Orapin Sopchokchai, Thailand Public Sector Development Commission (www.opdc.go.th)
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References
• OECD (www.oecd.org/dac/)
• World Bank 1994: Governance: The World Bank’s
Experience.
• Kaufmann, Kraay and Zoido-Lobaton 1999.
• Orapin Sopchokchai, Thailand Public Sector
Development Commission (www.opdc.go.th)
• World Bank, 2008. Public Sector Reform “What
works and Why?”
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/E
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