[Kabar-indonesia] Public sector management reform remains a priority for Indonesia

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Op-Ed

Public sector management reform 
remains a priority for Indonesia 

Graeme Macmillan, Jakarta

Two years ago I wrote in this paper about the urgent need for implementing 
strategic planning across the Indonesian public sector. Since then there has 
been a series of natural and man caused disasters, all highlighting the 
inadequate government response to crises. Indonesian governments remain too slow, too 
cumbersome and too disorganized to deal with the complex issues that result 
from mass loss and displacement. 

This also applies to the normal public services that people rely on for their 
daily health, safety, education and economic survival. The need for improving 
public services and delivering good governance across Indonesia therefore 
remains a top priority. The question is, of course, how can this be achieved? 

The answer, both short term and long term, is to have a high performing, 
accountable and ethical Public Service that implements government policies 
effectively and appropriately. Whilst there are many separate initiatives within 
government institutions seeking to modernize government such as performance 
budgeting under Law 17/2003, there is still no clear strategy or framework to 
coordinate the change management required on a whole of government basis. 

International success in lifting public sector performance has been achieved 
through having public sector management improvement programs that focus on the 
key role of the public sector manager. The paradigm shift needed is from 
controlling inputs to delivering outputs, from a handout mentality to true 
community participation and from using military type command structures to letting 
the manager manage. 

By providing the future leaders with the necessary modern management 
techniques and technology, the improvement can be dramatic. Instead of clinging to the 
old ways of doing things that entrench power, privilege and jobs, modern 
public sector managers need to use their skills to help the people they are paid 
to serve. 

Indonesia can benefit from the experience of other countries in building a 
public sector management reform program. The key ingredient is that all 
governments need to support and apply the reform program guidance -- the principles of 
good governance and good management apply equally to central agencies and 
Ministries as much as the smallest of local governments. 

The outputs of the public sector management reform programs are mostly ideas 
in discussion papers, not laws. These ideas are used to create debate and 
resonance among leaders to improve the performance of their organizations rather 
than impose top down instruction. 

The power of ideas is enough to create change. Osborne and Gaebler (1991) 
proved this with their book Reinventing Government which led to the National 
Performance Review program that transformed the approach of U.S. governments. 

A public sector management reform program would only work in Indonesia if it 
was established independently of existing institutions. Too often "reforms" 
have stumbled on the power plays involved in who does what, and not what has to 
be done. 

There are leading thinkers across the public sector and private sector in 
Indonesia, and these people need to be provided with the right environment to 
develop ideas for solving the many problems that exist. 

Some examples are the low pay for public service managers compared to their 
private sector or international counterparts, the absence of functional 
placements (the right person in the right job) and the over staffing or inefficiency 
issue. 

These problems can be addressed by gathering the best minds, both national 
and international, and recommending realistic options in discussion papers for 
policy makers and the public to consider. 

There are now many techniques for achieving good governance and good 
management applied by overseas public sectors that are transferable. Performance 
management and reporting, Best Value frameworks for local government, strategic 
thinking and planning, benchmarking, international public sector accounting 
standards, triple bottom line reporting and risk management policies are some of 
these. 

Information technology and e government is now the backbone of "joined up" 
governance whereby citizens and their politicians are directly linked. The 
development of partnerships between the public, private and social sector 
organizations based on allocating responsibility and capacity to those best able to 
deliver public services is a significant trend. All these issues could be on the 
agenda of an independent public sector management reform program for 
Indonesia. 

We recently completed a series of training courses for local government 
officials on public accountability in East Indonesia financed by the Australian 
government. The overwhelming response of the participants is that while they seek 
to improve their own performance and that of their organization, they despair 
over the restrictive and old fashioned nature of Indonesian public sector 
structures, systems and laws. This has to change if Indonesia is to lift national 
economic, social and environmental performance and achieve regional 
leadership. 

The solution is having good public sector managers, and this requires a 
concerted, comprehensive, whole of government public sector management improvement 
initiative now. 

The writer, co-author of the Government for All People (2004) ADB TA 4067 
report, 
is Director of Public Management International Institute. He can be reached 
at Graeme.macmillan at ciptanet.com. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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