IFAL Institute to Run Course On Public Administration

Luanda - The Angolan "Institute For Training On Local Administration" (IFAL) will start as from the next school term a high-school degree course on Public Administration, announced Monday, here, the institution's general manager, António Martins. The course will last four years and will be aimed for young people interested in taking up a career on Public Administration. The manager informed that in an initial stage they will take in young people aged 19-20 residing in the capital city, Luanda, because the centre does not yet have conditions to get students from other provinces. IFAL is a public institution established on May 2002, with the objective of contributing to the improvement and modernization of the state's local and autarchic administration, by providing training, scientific investigation and technical assistance to local administration officials.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, 7 July 2003

Francophone Parliamentarians Appeal for Good Governance

Niamey - The Parliamentaries from the French speaking countries on Wednesday appealed for the consolidation of law abiding states and good governance amongst the countries comprising the Francophone community, Angop has learnt. The appeal is part of the final resolutions from the 29th Parliamentary Assembly of French Speaking countries (APF), which gathers since Sunday, in Niamey (Níger), more than 30 member countries, observers, organisations and foreign individualities. When opening the event on Tuesday, the Niger Head of State, Tandja Mamadou, said the instauration of lawful states and consolidation of the Francophone community may be translated into the reinforcement of relations amongst the peoples. According to Tandja Mamadou, the political instability in some African Nations "weakens the community and holds back the economic and social development of those countries". To overcome these crisis, the Niger President pointed out national dialogue, involving every constituent of the civil society and a transparent governance.

On Wednesday, last day of session, the Francophone parliamentarians approved the matters addressed by the political commissions, such as parliamentary matters, cooperation and development. Cape Verde, which up to date had the statute of an observer, was admitted as an APF full member country. Whereas the Central African Republic, suspended from the organisation till the holding of legislative elections in the country has been readmitted. As an observer, Angola participates since 2002 at the Francophone Parliamentary Assembly and, in Niamey, the delegation was headed by the Speaker of the Angolan Parliament, Roberto de Almeida, who was accompanied by the MPs Carlos Magalhães and João Manuel Barradas, from MPLA (Ruling party) and Augusta Valentim, from UNITA (main opposition party). The Angolan participation was inserted in the strategic vision of its diplomacy which is to observe the development of parliamentary activity of the countries of the region. The French speaking Parliamentary Assembly was established in Luxembourg, in 1967, aiming at promoting inter-parliamentary cooperation and democratic development among French speaking countries. The Angolan parliamentary delegation is expected back home today.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, 10 July 2003

Call to Revise Trading Regulation for Civil Servants

A local business association has delivered a letter to the Prime Minster's Department requesting for the regulation that allows civil servants to conduct businesses, to be revised. Persekutuan Peniaga-Peniaga Melayu Brunei (PPPMB) stated in a letter dated July 14 that the regulation allowing civil servants to conduct businesses had lead to inefficiency and incompetence in concerned employees as they could not concentrate on doing two jobs at one time. The letter was signed by the association's secretary general Hj Ilmi Hj Awg Gafar. Elaborating the content of the letter to the Bulletin was its deputy president Pg Shahminan Pg Hj Ismail. Pg Shahminan said allowing civil servants to conduct businesses had caused the concerned civil servants to be ineffective in their day-to-day office works.

From Borneo Bulletin, Brunei, by Rosli Abidin Yahya, 18 July 2003

"It Is Difficult For Civil Servants To Perform The Role Of Elected Representatives"

Naresh Kumar Chapagain, Local Development Officer at Kavrepalanchwok District Development Committee, is now the senior authority to plan, formulate and execute the local development activities in the district. Chapagain, who has a long experience of working as a local development officer in various districts, spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various issues at his office in district headquarters Dhulikhel. Excerpts: How do you see the present state of District Development Committee (DDC)? We have been running the administration and development works. After the expiry of tenure of elected representatives a year ago, local development officers are responsible to execute, to plan and to formulate development works for the district. Do officers like you effectively carry out the programs? It is definitely difficult for the civil servants to perform the role of elected representatives. But we have been making every effort to prove ourselves efficient and effective. Since the Ministry of Local Development has well trained pool of district development officers, we can fill the vacuum left by the absence of elected representatives. Undoubtedly, elected representatives can deliver services more effectively than us since they know the problems of the villages and the priority, as well.

Since the tenure of elected representatives expires, what are your challenges right now? We are running the programs approved a year ago by elected District Development Council. Since there are no more elected representatives in the DDC, the responsibility falls upon us to formulate annual plans for the district for the coming fiscal year. Our difficulty is to set the prioritization and to meet the people's demand. How do you see the role of DDC now? Since Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) are institutionalized and legal entities; they will be there in one or other form as a popular institution. They have established mechanisms to carry out their day-to-day activities and formulate plans. The DDCs are guided by the acts passed by the parliaments and regulations formulated by the elected councils. The existing manpower in the DDCs knows how to run these institutions. But the only question is whether it is effective. What is your impression about the planning at the VDC level? We are facing certain difficulties in some VDCs, which are situated in the remote parts of the district. Although there are secretaries in each village development committees as a government representative, it is difficult to establish regular contact with them. The VDCs are local based institutions so people at the grass root level know its importance. There are scarcities of manpower in the VDCs. Despite insurgency, I have seen strong trust of the people in the VDCs as the institutions have been there for more than five decades in one or other forms. People want functional VDCs. As you mentioned you were transferred here from the Bara district.

What differences did you perceive working in districts of terai and hilly region? There are more difficulties in hilly region than in terai. In terms of topography, the hills are inaccessible and economic activities are nominal compared to terai. However, in hilly areas, people participation is higher. Since there are similar systems and institutional mechanisms in both the areas, we don't have other difficulties. We have to work remaining within different acts, regulations and sub-regulations wherever we go. But personally, I find it easier to work under the elected leadership. I am more comfortable in implementation rather than the planning aspect. Currently I am expected to carry out both these aspects. Having worked for more than a decade in different DDCs, I am aware of the kinds of development programs that local people desire. We are receiving support from all concerned parties of the district. Because of the dissolution of local bodies, people are said to be suffering from various problems. How do you look at it? At the village level, people are facing some problems. In absence of elected representatives, people have to rely on VDC secretaries. In many cases, we also receive complaints from local people that secretaries do not stay in village. I am organizing regular meetings of VDC secretaries in my district. How do you see the support of donor countries in strengthening DDCs and VDCs? They have made immense contribution to institutionalize the local bodies. I have seen changes in the donors' attitudes. In the past, different donors used to have different priorities and targets, but they are now coming through institutionalized way. The process of internalizations has already begun. There are transparency in institution building and developing mechanisms.

From Spotlight, Nepal, 17 July 2003

Civil-Servant Reform Bill Delayed

State reform minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Friday he will give up trying to present a bill to reform civil servant employment practices to the current session of the Diet, which ends Monday. Ishihara, minister in charge of administrative and regulatory reforms, indicated he will try to present a revised bill to the extraordinary session in the fall. The bill would be aimed at introducing merit-based wage and personnel systems, and cracking down on the practice of "amakudari," which literally means "descent from heaven." Under the practice, retired civil servants often take plum jobs in public corporations or the private sector in industries formerly under their bureaucratic jurisdiction, and typically try to obtain favors for their new employers from the agencies for which they had worked. "In question-and-answer sessions, such as in the Diet, the National Personnel Authority gave answers that were opposite mine and it shows the matter is not agreed upon within the government," Ishihara said at a news conference, referring to why the bill will not be submitted. "And we did not gain the acceptance of the governing parties," he said. "The bill cannot be submitted as long as there is no understanding from the relevant Cabinet members and the ruling parties. It would serve no purpose if it cannot withstand Diet debate."

The Japan Times: July 26, 2003

E-Government: a Key Component to Europe's Competitiveness, Hears Conference

'In the Lisbon strategy, we have sketched out the future that all Europeans want to see. This is a future in which eGovernment will be a source for the competitiveness, integration and cohesion of Europe,' Italian Minister for Innovation and Technology, Lucio Stanca, told delegates attending the first day of the eGovernment 2003 conference in Como, Italy, on 7 July. Mr. Stanca said that implementing eGovernment is at the very heart of one of the priorities of the Italian Presidency - relaunching competitiveness in Europe and continuing with the Lisbon strategy - because 'a competitive Europe really needs administrations which are able to introduce change, drive forward development, and generate innovation and economic growth.' 'New information technology is a lever to bring about this transformation in government and public administrations; it can also help remove the bureaucratic red tape that is slowing up European business,' said Mr. Stanca. 'It is for this reason that we have to support the IT industry's ability and its strategic role in making available these technological instruments. This will be the foundation for any further growth or competitiveness,' he said, adding that providing political commitment to the information and communication technologies (ICT) industry was particularly crucial, given the current economic climate in the sector. However, to become a meaningful agent in the modernisation of public governance, eGovernment cannot remain technology focused, Mr. Stanca claimed: 'eGovernment is not just a combination of informatics and technology, it is a path we have to follow based on human, technological and organisational capital,' he explained.

This point was also taken up by EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen, who noted that in the future, ICT has to be combined with investment in the reorganisation of public funding and the improvement of civil servants' skills. 'A more productive public sector will also benefit the private sector and make companies more competitive,' he said. For the purpose of shared prosperity and for the provision of an open society, both Mr. Stanca and Mr. Liikanen agreed that further political commitment is needed in order to cultivate a long term public-private partnership: As long as politicians are not fully convinced of the medium and long term benefits which eGovernment can bring to the public sector and to public governance, the willingness to participate and fund such initiatives will be limited, they said. However, as Gerard Druesne from the European institute for public administration's (EPIA) explained, Europe is already demonstrating its ability to work in this way. In his presentation of the EPIA study 'eEurope in Europe: the current state of affairs', he noted that administrative authorities are already working closely with private partners to bring about examples of innovative and competitive forms of public administration.

'Perhaps, we are seeing for the first time the emergence of 'integrated eGovernment',' he suggested. 'We have seen a considerable transformation across Europe and we are witnessing a stage at present where the traditional power structure of society based around a State, is moving to a more flexible one that listens to market needs to a greater extent,' he continued. Professor Druesne noticed that in the projects submitted for the eEurope 2003 awards for eGovernment alone, more than 20 per cent of local administrations focused on services, contributing to the enhancement of job creation, productivity and overall competitiveness. These projects illustrated an openness and willingness to share information, which the professor believes is key for the sustainable competitiveness of Europe. However, in order to continue fostering such exchanges and common objectives, Professor Druesne believes there is a need for an effective and sustainable framework to be put into place, calling it a prerequisite for the broad development of the best solutions at affordable costs. 'If the Commission agrees, we would suggest establishing a permanent platform which would facilitate exchange of experiences and best practices between public administrations right throughout Europe,' Professor Druesne concluded.

FromCordis News, EU, 8 July 2003

EC Calls on Political Bosses to Tear Down E-gov Barriers

The "mindsets and rigidity of administrations" are the greatest barriers to implementing effective e-government, Erkii Liikanen, EC commissioner in charge of IT policy, said today. Opening the EC's eGovernment 2003 conference today at Lake Como, Italy, the commissioner called upon politicians "at the highest level" to commit themselves to eGovernment and lead by example in overcoming internal resistance to political reform (so when will Tony Blair get his first email address?). eGovernment cannot be led by the IT department, Liikanen proclaimed. Removing the barriers will require "a change in the way we think and the way we work. Putting the citizen first and creating a culture of service will in many instances mean reforming the public sector." Liikanen is a techno-optimist. He characterises technology as a tool for public sector reform, and a method to improve governance. eGovernment will enable open administration, better accountability and services for all, according to Liikanen In his speech he quotes Manuel Castells: "The Internet can be used by citizens to watch their governments - rather than by governments to watch their citizens." True enough, but this goes against the grain somewhat of the natural inclination of governments, even in mature democracies, to do the watching. The EC is keen to promote Europe-wide online services. At the conference it is to release a working paper outlining a framework for interoperability of back-office processes between the Member States and with the European Institutions. The framework is to be available for comments from September.

From The Register, UK, 7 July 2003

French Civil Service Outlaws 'E-mail'

Paris - The French government, in a bid to turn back the tide of English words in the field of technology, has banned its civil service from using the term "e-mail" instead of its approved French equivalent, the culture minister announced Wednesday. All government ministries, websites, publications and documents must now use "courriel" - a shortening of "courrier electronique" (literally: electronic mail) - when they are referring to the messages sent via the Internet, the ministry said in a statement. The move, made law by its publication in the official government gazette on June 20, will put the French administration out of step with the majority of the French public, who still prefer to use "e-mail" to communicate between computer accounts.

From Expatica, Netherlands, 10 July 2003

Commission Welcomes Determination Expressed by 30 Ministers to Accelerate eGovernment

Lucio Stanca, Italian Minister for Innovation and Technology, today issued a ministerial declaration on behalf of the Italian Presidency, proposing concrete measures to accelerate the move to eGovernment. The declaration was agreed by the 30 EU, EFTA and accession countries Ministers attending the second European conference on eGovernment 7 and 8 July. Ministers were able to see for themselves the best of eGovernment practices already implemented in Europe and the benefits these are bringing to all concerned. As a result, they have jointly expressed their determination to further accelerate exchanges of practical experiences, and proposed concrete measures to be taken towards widespread deployment of eGovernment. This declaration was the result of a ministerial meeting that took place within the conference, in the presence of Erkki Liikanen Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society. Ministers have specifically asked the Presidency to present their declaration to the next meeting of the Telecommunications Council.

In acknowledging eGovernment as a driver for the modernisation of Europe's entire public sector, Ministers recognised many advantages it can offer through increased productivity and efficiency within Public Administrations. These free up resources, and deliver more value for taxpayers money. On-line applications and services are supporting new forms of involvement and participation of European citizens in the policy definition and decision-making processes of government. Ministers believe that such technologies should cement the four freedoms of the single market, and help those citizens and enterprises from one EU Member State wanting to settle, work or trade in any other. The experience gained with pan-European services in the fields of job search and learning opportunities were highlighted as examples to be further diffused and extended to other fields.

Ministers reaffirmed the importance of making eGovernment services open and accessible to all citizens, by providing these services through the most appropriate platforms, including PCs, interactive TV and improved front-office counter services of the administrations themselves. They called upon the Member States and the Commission to agree on a list of services for which trans-national interoperability is desirable, taking into account differences in culture and legal practices. Ministers welcomed co-operation between Member States and the Commission in research for cross-border solutions for identifying individuals, and for maintaining the security and privacy of information compiled through eGovernment services. Europe's programmes that can support eGovernment must contribute coherently to the goals of eEurope 2005, and the "Lisbon Strategy" for a knowledge-based economy. This second European eGovernment Conference was jointly organised by the Italian Presidency and the European Commission.

From Tenders Direct, UK, 8 July 2003

Putin Signs Decree on Alternative Civil Service

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree "On the organization of alternative civil service". According to the presidential press service, the decree defines the Labor Ministry and the Defense Ministry as federal executive agencies responsible for organizing alternative civil service. It also lays down the functions of federal executive agencies interested in sending citizens to their organizations for alternative civil service. The decree comes into effect on January 1, 2004. Earlier, the Federation Council approved the bill "On alternative civil service". The law was passed by the State Duma on June 28, 2002. According to the new rules, the period of alternative civil service will be 3.5 years if it is performed in civil organizations and 3 years - in the organizations of the armed forces. Applicants for alternative civil service will have to prove that service in the armed forces contradicts their convictions. The persuasiveness of their arguments will be assessed by draft committees. Draft committees will also decide where alternative service should be performed - in civil organizations or in the armed forces (as civilian personnel).

From Gateway 2 Russia, Russia, 22 July 2003

Special Service by AGI on Behalf of the Italian Prime Minister's Office

Rome - Public Administration: Mazzella, Cabinet Approves 7000 New Jobs - The Cabinet approved the hiring of 7000 people in the public sector. This morning, the Cabinet authorised the hiring of around 7000 people in State administrations, also including the armed forces. The Minister of Public Functions, Luigi Mazzella, was quite satisfied. "Finally, after two years, the winners of the 2000-2001 competitions can be hired. Notwithstanding the hiring freeze, the budget established a specific norm for workers in the public security sector, for national defence, international commitments, the legal sector, as well as that of research and technology," he said. The new jobs will be divided in this way: 900 will be destined to ministries, 150 to public and economic bodies, 159 to research, 170 to universities, 5601 to the security sector.

From Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, 25 July 2003

House Panel Approves Deep E-Gov Funding Cuts

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee is calling for only $1 million in 2004 funding for the Electronic Government Act (E-Gov), which invests in inter-agency projects with government-wide applications. The Bush Administration had requested $45 million for the program. Amid much fanfare last November, Congress passed the legislation, touting a new era of government services, and President Bush signed the bill in December. Bush had hoped to ramp up funding for the program to $150 million a year by 2006. As a part of the President's Management Agenda, the E-Gov initiatives proposes to make it easier for citizens and businesses to interact with the government, save taxpayer dollars, and streamline citizen-to-government transactions. A House Appropriations Committee spokesperson said the Bush Administration had not justified the $45 million funding request. The Senate has not reported an E-Gov funding bill as yet and Joe Lieberman (D.-Conn.) and Conrad Burns (R. Mont.), who authored the original bill, are expected to fight for more money for the program. The issue will be ultimately be resolved in a compromise budget committee of House and Senate members.

The E-Gov Act also establishes an Office of Electronic Government, headed by a Bush-appointed administrator within the Office of Management and Budget. The administrator will implement e-government initiatives and oversee agencies' compliance with relevant statutes. In addition, the new legislation: - Authorizes funding for improvement of the federal Internet portal, Firstgov.gov, so that on-line government information and services are organized "according to citizen needs, not agency jurisdiction."; - Requires regulatory agencies to conduct administrative rule-makings on the Internet, and federal courts to post court information and judicial opinions on their Web sites; - Allows agencies, scientists, policy makers and the public to have access over the Internet to non-sensitive information about where federal funds for scientific research are spent; - Improves recruitment and training for federal information technology professionals; and - Establishes "significant new privacy protections" for personally identifiable information maintained by the government.

From InternetNews.com, by Roy Mark, 28 July 2003

NAII Reiterates Strong Public Policy on Civil Justice System

The National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) Board of Governors reiterated its strong support of litigation reform by adopting a comprehensive policy position on the topic at its June meeting. The policy position adopted by the NAII Board extends the Association's support for litigation procedure and civil justice reforms from the state to the federal level. The position updated public policy adopted in 1996. "The U. S. tort system is the most expensive in the industrialized world, equating to a tax of more that $720 on every U.S. citizen in 2003. Barely three years ago the figure was $87," said Terry Tyrpin, NAII senior vice president, insurance and research services. "There is little control over civil litigation at the present time, but when reforms are enacted insurance markets are more stable and consumers benefit as coverage is more available and pricing less prone to dramatic fluctuations." Tyrpin said that NAII does not seek to restrict access to the courts, but to support reforms that provide balance by controlling the "lottery-like" characteristics of the civil justice system and restoring predictability that is crucial to an effective insurance mechanism and a healthy economy. "The U.S. tort system is highly inefficient, returning only 46 cents on the dollar to the people it is designed to help and only 22 cents on the dollar to compensate for actual economic losses to the very people it promised to make whole.

Who is the winner here? Certainly not the consumers or insurance policyholders the courts claim to protect," said Tyrpin. The U.S. tort system costs are reportedly more than double that of any other industrialized countries. U.S. tort costs are 2.04 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Tort costs were 1.33 percent of the GDP in 1970 and only 0.61 percent of the GDP in 1950. NAII advocates litigation management reforms that specifically address attorney contingency fees; collateral source rules; frivolous lawsuits; noneconomic damages; state of the art defense and forum-venue shopping. "It has been widely publicized that certain 'venues' attract lawsuits from around the nation because attorneys correctly perceive that a particular court has a bias, rather than being considered even-handed," said Tyrpin. "Madison County, Illinois was named along with other counties in Alabama, California, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia in a list created by the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) as court venues where the term equal protection under the law doesn't seem to have the same meaning. However, on a more positive note, since 1986, 45 states and the District of Columbia have enacted tort reform legislation addressing most of the priority issues named by the NAII Board in it policy position." Tyrpin said NAII supports state and federal reforms in a variety of areas including, but not limited to: Asbestos liability; Automobile injury liability; Class actions; Environmental liability; Medical liability; Other professional liability; Premises/operations liability; and Products/completed operations liability.

From Insurance Journal, 28 July 2003

Police Lead in Corruption Survey

Nairobi - Government officers led by the police force are the most corrupt in the country. A latest survey by the Public Service Integrity Programme (PSIP) also reveals that an estimated 50 per cent of Kenyans engage in corruption. "About 50.4 per cent have bribed recently," says a report of the survey. The details were contained in a paper presented by the head of Research, Information and Public Education of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Committee, Mr Gikunda Muketha. Muketha made the revelations at Bandari College during a PSIP implementation seminar for provincial and district commissioners. Second in the list is the Provincial Administration followed by the Judiciary, Ministry of Lands and Government hospitals. Others are the Local Authorities, Immigration Department, colleges/schools, Parliament, religious organisations, businesses, licensing offices and public works department. Corrupt sections which are not visible include the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Registration of Persons and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Muketha also said in his report that 90 per cent of Kenyans interviewed in the survey believe that corruption can be reduced and eliminated. About 70 per cent believe that it is the duty of "the Government and the people" to fight corruption. Muketha outlined the biggest causes of corruption as poverty, greed, bad governance, bad politics, lack of standards, bureaucratic complexities and insurbodination. In the opening speech Coast Provincial Commissioner, Mr. Cyrus Maina said he had instructed all DCs in the province to put up corruption prevention and complaints suggestion boxes in their offices to report corruption cases. Maina, whose speech was read on his behalf by Mombasa DC Mr. John Egesa, warned that any officer or department reported three times would be liable for investigation and prosecution. He said members of the public or any person who may want to settle "personal scores through the boxes" would also be liable for prosecution. Maina reported that most departments within the province had already constituted their Corruption Preventive Committees.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Caroline Mango, 10 July 2003

Bush Urged to Condemn Nigerian Corruption

Lagos - Yetunde Ogunwa, a 45-year-old mother of five, lives without water or electricity in a dilapidated house next to mountains of garbage in Lagos, Nigeria's vast seaside commercial capital. Despite the country's massive oil wealth, Nigeria's citizens have grown steadily poorer and its cities more violent in the four years since military rule gave way to democracy. So as the United States turns to Nigeria to help lessen its dependence on Middle East oil, pressure is mounting for President Bush to take a stand against rampant corruption in the West African country. "If only they would let him see how we live, he might take pity and help us," Ogunwa lamented ahead of Bush's arrival Friday in Nigeria at the end of a five-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria, a regional powerhouse and Africa's most populous nation, is a land of contradictions. Billionaires and beggars, law-abiding citizens and con men rub shoulders in cities where power and water services are still among the worst on the continent. Violent crime is rife, and more than 10,000 people have been killed in ethnic, political and religious bloodletting since President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in 1999. Underlying many of the problems is widespread graft. A World Bank study on public expenditure in Nigeria showed as much as 70 percent of government funds were frittered away as patronage through over-inflated contracts between 1970 and 1992 - leaving the country with worse social indicators than it had at independence from Britain in 1960. More than two-thirds of Nigeria's 126 million people survive on less than one dollar a day.

Widespread poverty spawned a generation of drug dealers and organized criminal gangs with a global reach long enough to prompt the United States to establish a Secret Service office in Lagos. When Obasanjo was elected, he promised to end the brutality and corruption that characterized 15 years of military rule and quickly set up a body charged with investigating and punishing those guilty of graft. Four years later, the government has failed to secure a single corruption conviction against officials or civil servants. Government coffers continue to be pilfered, while roads, schools and clinics are left to crumble and decay. Oil multinationals, pumping more than 2 million barrels a day from Nigeria's southern swamps, face growing questions here about whether they are fueling the culture of corruption. American companies Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco together account for more than one-third of production. The U.S. oil services giant Halliburton caused a stir recently when it filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission admitting a Nigerian subsidiary paid $2.4 million in bribes to a Nigerian official in exchange for tax exemptions. Obasanjo has ordered an investigation into the deal. Warring ethnic groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta region accuse oil companies of colluding with Nigeria's government to deprive impoverished residents of profits from the area's massive oil wealth.

Activists - and thugs - frequently target the companies with sabotage, kidnappings and other attacks in a bid to extort payoffs. Companies counter that they spend millions of dollars a year on community development. "What we need from Bush is to ... clean up our environment and allow us to control our God-given wealth," said activist Itioghor Tortorbor. International human rights groups have launched a "Publish What You Pay" campaign calling on oil multinationals to disclose all payments to the government. Oil companies, which say they work to the same standards here as in any other country, have embraced the initiative. The scheme as also won the support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and activists are urging Bush to endorse it too. U.S. Embassy officials said the violence in the Niger Delta would be on the agenda when Bush meets with Obasanjo in Abuja on Saturday. But Bush has said little on the allegations of corruption in the oil industry. "Bush should push the Nigerians to break the web of entrenched corruption and vested interests, and move into a more open economy where oil money is used to uplift people instead of uplifting elites," said Herman Cohen, who served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Clinton. "That's a tough message he should take to Nigeria."

From Salon, by Dulue Mbachu, 11 July 2003

Local Governance Is The Cornerstone of Participatory Democracy

Accra - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday said an efficient and effective local governance at the grassroots level formed the cornerstone of participatory democracy. "Participatory democracy cannot be practised efficiently and effectively without local governance at the grassroots level." President Kufuor was speaking at a reception held in honour of the delegates attending the 12th Annual United States-Africa Sister Cities Conference at the Castle, Osu. The seven-day conference, the third to be held in Africa is on the theme, "Strengthening Sister Cities in Africa: A Focus on HIV/AIDS Crises, Business, Trade Investment and Democratic Governance." Senegal and Kenya are the other two countries that had hosted the conference, aimed to promote local community initiatives in line with decentralization as well as promote international peaceful co-existence as a prelude to improving international trade and investment. The participating countries at the Conference included Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Luanda, Botswana and South Africa. President Kufuor said the world was rapidly moving into an arena where the individual human being was being seen as the rational for government.

He said democracy was fast gaining grounds all over the world and Africa was very much included in this awakening where governments were being made to acknowledge the rights of the individual citizens and assuming the responsibilities to serve people in their localities. President Kufuor said: "You are all local governors serving the people at the grassroots. When the people are well served and empowered to pursue their responsibilities to assert their lives all over the world then the human being could become the justification for the decentralisation of governance." Mr. Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said it was ideal to foster such relationships between the people among sister cities and Africa. He said all the relationships had been between nations and officials at the governmental level but the sister cities relationships sought to bring about interaction among the people at the grassroots level. Mr. Adjei-Darko suggested that such relationship should also be established between cities and towns within particular countries to study and understand the customs and cultures of the various ethnic groups within a country in order to curtail the rampant conflicts on the African Continent.

Miss Shirley Rivens Smith, President of the US-Africa Sister Cities Conference, said the meeting was held in Accra because of the warm Ghanaian hospitality that Ghanaians had always shown to Americans who visited the country. Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice President, who was one time the Chairman of the Tamale-Louisville, Kentucky Sister-Cities Relationship, is honorary patron of the conference. A former US President Dwight Eisenhower, introduced the sister city concept in 1956, as a non-profit, non-governmental network and movement of citizens, corporations, NGOs and institutional partners in all countries around the world. There are about 2,400 sister cities relationships formally registered world-wide. In Ghana, nine cities and families are in relationships with sister cities in the United States. These are Accra-Chicago, Tema-San Diego, Kumasi-Charlotte and Newark, Sekondi-Takoradi-Oakland and Boston, Cape Coast- Hanover Park, Tamale-Louisville, Bolgatanga- Glenarden, Ga District-Grand Rapids and Akwapim South District-Lansing. The Accra Conference is being hosted by the Ghana Sister Cities Foundation and the Metropolitan City of Accra under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

From GhanaWeb, Ghana, 2 July 2003

Should Local Government Be Reformed?

Lagos - Many believe that governance at all the tiers should be pursued in the interest of the well being of the masses, but the experiences of all in the past four years have been to the contrary. In the face of the widespread poverty and corruption by the officials and politicians in charge of the various administrations, the dividends of democracy have become elusive. It is interesting that the President and some state governors have embarked on some self-examination through which attempts are being made to reduce the excessive and unwieldy bureaucracies, which have eaten deep into the resources of government. At the state and federal levels, attempts are being made to reduce the number of ministers, commissioners and their retinue of hangers-on. Some attempts are being made too to monetise the fringe benefits of all public and political office-holders so as to reduce the expenditure on accommodation, cars, furniture and reduce the dishonesty associated with overhead costs and bring financial prudence to governance, embark on efficiency in resource allocation, minimise waste and bring an end to misuse and abuse of public facilities.

Welfare - But the piece will dabble only into the efforts and the desirability of reforming or re-structuring the third tier of government. After all, governance is not an end itself but a means to improving the welfare and ascertaining the well being of all stakeholders. Therefore, the attempts of the President through the Council of State to improve the performance of the third tier of government through a proposed restructuring, yet to be determined should be encouraged and seen by all and sundry as a bold step to make the local governments more responsive to the yearnings of Nigerians. These efforts, to the uninformed and many professional opponents of President Obasanjo and particularly the nascent Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and their individual political party members, have been roundly rejected and regarded as the 'biggest blunder'. Many refused to come to terms with the reality of the fact that local governments were wantonly created not to achieve and meet the needs of the people but to satisfy personal egos and ethnic interest at the expense of genuine progress and development of the people.

Recently, many state governors before handing over to their successors in furtherance of their political gimmicks increased the local governments in their states by over 200-300 per cent, whereas the existing ones merely paid salaries and allowances without bringing any positive influence on the masses. Corruption - The third tier of government also successfully served as the anchor leg of corruption ravaging the polity. That most of the politicians that superintended over these local councils looted and regarded them as their personal fiefdoms is not in dispute. If the Council of State comprising of eminent Nigerians now desire to restructure with a view to making the local councils fulfill the needs of the people they should not be blackmailed. The suggestion of the committee would still be made open for the comments of the people. The problems afflicting this polity are numerous. Not all can go before a national conference but many can still be solved through the instrumentality of honest, sincere Nigerians. Therefore, there is 'need to cultivate the culture of tolerance and understanding.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Olorunnimbe Farukanmi, 11 July 2003

Zambia's Corruption is Redeemable - Dhanani

Lusaka - Zambia's corruption and bad governance record is absolutely redeemable, said American Embassy acting deputy chief of mission Kathy Dhanani yesterday. Closing the US Embassy sponsored seminar on the role of the Inspector General of Police in public affairs at Lusaka's Hotel InterContinental, Dhanani said the Zambian government had shown great commitment to improving good governance. "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to provide lessons on public administration as asked by the government of the Republic of Zambia to be helpful on wide range of governance objectives they have embarked on," Dhanani said. "This event in my view is concrete evidence of real commitment to provide good governance in Zambia." Dhanani said Zambia's bad corruption and governance record was absolutely redeemable under the current path that government had taken. "We have a long way to go together to make things different and I have great optimism," she said.

Dhanani said the US government would work hard with the Zambian government to create an African model of good governance. "Zambia needs own model of good governance and programmes like this small contribution we have made adds to that," he said. On Zambia's 163rd ranking on the Human Development Index, Dhanani said the statistical record was only important at alerting people of the potential problems. She said such indices did not significantly portray the actual economical position or problems a country was facing. "The challenge is to create development and good governance is critical to economic development," she said. Dhanani said the US government support Zambia's economy directly through the various USAID activities including agriculture, exports, good governance and other income generating activities. She said US President George Bush's visit to Africa was to help trigger HIV/AIDS fight. "We have noticed the major challenge to Zambia's development is HIV/AIDS," Dhanani said. "HIV/AIDS is President Bush's major spotlight and the US government is interested to help Zambians help themselves."

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Larry Moonze, 14 July 2003

Managers Warned Over Corruption

Nairobi -The Public Service Integrity Programme (PSIP) yesterday warned parastatal heads and managers in the private sector who have continued to victimise workers unearthing corrupt deals that "their days were numbered." A PSIP official, Mr. J. F. Mwachai, told District Commissioners and heads of department who attended a one-day implementation seminar in Mombasa that the most affected sector was parastatals. He said members of the public should report any corrupt activities in their places of work as "there is nobody above the law". The seminar also discussed the role of corruption prevention committees and integrity assurance officers. Mwachai told participants that Kenyans were keeping quiet on matters concerning corruption while the few who had the courage to unearth corrupt activities in their organisations were being victimised. Mwachai said if former top personalities who were declared "untouchables" were now recording statements and others in jail, then eliminating corruption was not difficult. "The culture of victimisation still exists and those responsible will soon be dealt with," warned Mwachai.

He cited a case involving a former Railways employee who was allegedly sacked and evicted from his residence despite a court order after he reported corrupt activities. The employee was sacked after he allegedly unearthed corrupt deals at the Kenya Railways. Mwachai called on members of the public to take advantage of the police and the anti-corrupt police department to report corrupt activities. Mwachai praised Kenyans who have had the courage in the last six months to fight for their rights freely and without fear. The official, however, asked the police department to try and change its dented image so as to be able to be close to the public. "The police have been viewed as the most corrupt department whereas ironically, the public is desperate for police service," said Mwachai. Mwachai encouraged bosses both in the parastatals and private sector to accept anonymous letters and at least go through the information they contain.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Caroline Mango, 14 July 2003

Mbeki Addresses Governance Conference in London

President Thabo Mbeki and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian president, have joined forces to attack rich countries for protecting their farmers with subsidies. Speaking to delegates at a progressive governance conference in London, Mbeki said the World Trade Organsiation talks in Cancun, Mexico, would fail if the United States and Europe did not overhaul these subsidies. Lula, who named France as the key offender, said politics was the driving force behind the policy. The EU agreed last month to overhaul its farm policy hoping to give stalled world trade talks a boost ahead of the Cancun meeting. However, critics say the EU must do much more. Tony Blair, British prime minister, who hosted the event, defended his efforts on fighting to change farm policy in the EU. Britian has frequently clashed with France who is one of the main benefactors of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

From SABC News, South Africa, 14 July 2003

Mugabe Given Key Role in Governance Group

President Robert Mugabe's regime has pulled off an extraordinary diplomatic coup by winning a senior role in the African Union, the group set up to promote good governance in Africa. The move was seen as a direct snub to US President George Bush, who called for a "return to democracy" in Zimbabwe during his African tour last week. It also outraged Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which said that it was a "betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe". The MDC leadership said that the African Union, founded a year ago, was no better than its widely discredited predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. This was notorious for appointing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin as its head in the 1970s. Mr. Mugabe is expected to exploit Zimbabwe's appointment as a deputy chairman of the African union to bolster his claim that he is the victim of a Western conspiracy against Africa. While America and the European Union have condemned the Mugabe regime's systematic abuse of the rule of law, African leaders have been more tolerant if not completely supportive.

From The Age, Australia, 14 July 2003

Anti-corruption Team Targets KFF - Federation Officials Questioned on Finances

The Kenya Football Federation (KFF) is being investigated by the Kenya Anti-corruption Commission, the Nation has reliably learnt. A source at the commission said several top KFF officials have recorded statements at the commission's Integrity House headquarters in the past one month. Our source said the investigation, which is centred around the federation's financial management, started two months ago and is in its final stages with a preliminary report soon to be handed over the minister of sport Najib Balala. Citing legal constraints, however, our source declined to give further details about the identities of those who had recorded statements and what exactly the commission is seeking to establish. The KFF top brass has denied any knowledge of the federation being investigated. Treasurer Mohammed Hatimy said he did not know of such an investigation into the federation's finances. "Yes, I do remember people from the anti-corruption commission coming over to the federation headquarters three months ago but I have no details of what happened then or who they spoke to," said Hatimy. He also denied having personally recorded any statement with the commission.

The federation chairman, Maina Kariuki, could not be reached yesterday to react to this development. But last, week he too denied any knowledge of such an investigation into the federation's activities or of any official having recorded a statement. "I would have known if any member of the executive had recorded a statement with the police," he said. The acting KFF secretary-general Allan Chenane has been away from the federation's Nyayo Stadium headquarters for weeks and cannot even be reached on telephone. Several claims of financial mismanagement have been made against the KFF in the past with the most prominent being a public accusation in 2001 by the then minister in charge of sport, Francis Nyenze. Two weeks ago, the KFF Nairobi Branch chairman, Samuel Kihara raised questions about how much money was raised from the live transmission of the 2004 Olympic qualifying match between the Kenya under-23 team and South Africa at Kasarani two weeks ago. Kihara also wanted the KFF national office to declare how much money was realised from the advertising boards that were on display during the match.

The Nairobi branch chairman also sought to know which company was handling the team's home international matches and how it was awarded the contract. A week ago, the same questions were put to KFF by the Nation in the presence of the minister in charge of sport, Najib Balala, as he received a Sh1 million cheque from Total oil company for Harambee Stars. Hatimy, who was present at the ceremony, said Sh270,000 was raised from the ticket sales but no information was given on how much money, if any, was raised from advertising and the live transmission of the match back to South Africa. It is not just the present administration that has been accused of lacking transparency and financial accountability. The previous administration too, faced many such accusations but was never investigated. Ironically, the current KFF executive is being investigated at a time when Kenya is experiencing relative success on the international scene having qualified for the Africa Nations Cup finals for the first time since 1992. The KFF has been in the red even when it had sponsorship for the Premier League and the national soccer team. Several Premier League clubs have taken on the federation on financial matters, demanding in vain to be furnished with audited accounts of the federation. Towards the end of last season, the clubs refused to play a mini league organised to decide the 2002/2003 champions unless KFF paid them all the money owed to them.

From Daily Nation, Kenya, by Chris Tsuma, 16 July 2003

Corruption Now The Order of The Day

"Something for something nothing for nothing," so sang Chimurenga music guru Thomas Mapfumo. This was in the early 90s, after having detected the virus and little did he know corruption was going to spread like a wildfire. Then, Zimbabwe was still a good country to live in with few such cases. Poor government policies, coupled with political uncertainty have plunged this country into chaos, reducing Zimbabweans to paupers living well below the poverty datum line. This has created two classes - the rich and the poor. There is no middle class anymore. The once promising nation is now full of thugs and crooks. Corruption is the order of the day. It's sad that Africa, with all its natural resources, cannot realise its potential. It has had its fair share of civil wars, diseases, and bad governance, making it a fertile place for corruption. People in government have specialised in dipping their fingers in national coffers. This has mainly benefited their immediate families and cronies. Some African dictators have become so rich as to lend their governments some money. Money from the International Monetory Fund and the World Bank meant for development purposes has been channelled towards personal projects. In the case of Zimbabwe, Bretton Woods institutions have severed ties with us. They do not hate us. We are just irresponsible. We are corrupt. It depends on who you know to get government tenders. It depends on who you 'grease' to get even a hearse to take your beloved one on their final journey.

We are so corrupt we cannot even respect the dead. Withdrawing money from the bank can be a nightmare. After oiling a bank official's palms to get cash, you have a supermaket chap to give a "cut" for the scarce basic commodities and you also have the petrol attendant to give a few Zimkwachas to get fuel. The list is endless. Recently, the government came up with a brilliant idea. We have fuel problems. We have to share the little that trickles in. It was laudable to introduce coupons so commuter omnibus operators could get the scarce commodity and improve on public transport. But the same commuter omnibus operators, as reported in newspapers, are selling the coupons. In a situation like ours, there will always be those who use short cuts and whatever means possible to make money. Some cannot stomach the idea of standing for a long time in queues for commuter omnibuses. So, the solution is to gag the rank marshalls with cash. Getting a national identity document, a birth certificate, let alone a passport, which is every citizen's constitutional right, is a hassle too. In 1980, it would take less than three weeks to get a national identity document, less than three days to get a birth certificate and less than seven days to get a passport.

Now, you have to bribe everybody starting the very moment you join the queue. Government institutions are so corrupt that even people who are supposed to be enforcing the law have joined the race. We have a fuel crisis that was triggered by corruption at the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) and we have a looming power crisis blamed on corruption of the top brass at the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA). Are the responsible people facing the the music? No, they are getting promoted instead, or "retired" with golden handshakes. Roadblocks are now called automated teller machines (ATMs) in the police force. Policemen demand bribes from motorists with impunity. This has resulted in accidents which could have been avoided had road unworthy vehicles been taken off the road. We have become a corrupt nation such that we need a complete change of attitude in us all, starting with those at the top to the ordinary man in the street. That, with a bit of divine intervention will see us regain our respectable place on the continent. (teve Mathambo Ngoma is a journalism student.)

From Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe, 17 July 2003

Anti-Corruption Investigates Education Ministry Again

Freetown - Information reaching this press say the Anti Corruption Commission is currently probing circumstances that led to an excess payment of two hundred and two (Le 202 m) million Leones as grant-in-aid to students of Fourah Bay College recently. At the centre of the investigation is the Student Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Gilbert Copper who is alleged to have colluded with finance officers of tertiary institutions in what has been described as a well organized syndicate which has been in operation for the past decade. The deal involves inflating students pay vouchers with fictitious names of non-existing students, which is then presented to the Ministry of Finance for endorsement. The latest fraud involving the Le202 million was detected by Finance Ministry officials who alerted the Education Ministry, who in turn informed the University of Sierra Leone. A query was sent to Fourah Bay College authorities about the anomaly. "The Senior Assistant Finance Officer (SAFO), Mrs. Alice Lansana broke into tears when she was served the query," an FBC source told Standard Times.

Mrs. Lansana, the source explains, took up the SAFO job without realizing that a syndicate of that nature existed in that college for years, leading to the dismissal of a former Finance Officer of the college. "I am a victim of circumstance," she is quoted to have said after she received the query letter from her supervisor. Recently Finance Ministry fished out ten names of students from the FBC voucher, students said to have left the college more than two years ago. Education sources say the sum of Le50 million was recently shared among some education officials, being proceeds from the loot. The painful aspect of the entire deal is that even the Minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie doesn't have a comprehensive list of students from the different colleges entitled to the Sierra Leone Government grant. "In such a situation, the possibility of rogue officials to defraud the state is very high," opined a ministry official, noting that if Le200 million could be recovered from an operation involving a single college, the is all the likelihood that more of such amounts have already been siphoned from the treasury before this discovery.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, 17 July 2003

Kenya Says Tackling Corruption But Faces Hurdles

Nairobi - Kenya's new government led by President Mwai Kibaki said on Wednesday it was making progress in the fight against corruption but warned there were no quick fixes. Corruption is widely seen as the defining characteristic of former president Daniel arap Moi's 24-year rule, and Kibaki's government has made the fight against it a high priority. But more than six months after the government was sworn in, momentum has waned. Many Kenyans are becoming impatient and questioning the government's commitment to the process. Kiraitu Murungi, the minister for justice and constitutional affairs, said fighting graft had been slowed by insufficient resources and threatened by growing complaints by some ethnic groups that the campaign was a witch-hunt for supporters of the previous government. ''The pace and the depth of anti-corruption reforms are disappointing many Kenyans. They are becoming cynical and impatient, some are talking of impossibility and failure,'' he said at a conference to launch Kenya's five-year anti-corruption programme.

The government has made changes to the judiciary, taken several senior managers of public firms to court and enacted key anti-graft laws demanded by donors for lending to resume. Kenya's main opposition party, largely made up of members of parliament from Moi's ethnic tribe, have dismissed the fight against corruption as an attempt to punish Moi and his tribe. But Kibaki said he would not stop the campaign and promised to deal ''ruthlessly'' even with members of his government. ''My administration is committed to making political sacrifices necessary to keep us firmly on the anti-corruption road,'' Kibaki told the conference, also addressed by visiting heads of the World Bank James Wolfensohn and Peter Eigen, the head of the Transparency International. The body ranks Kenya the world's sixth most corrupt nation. Wolfensohn said Kenya should take advantage of the change of government to wipe out graft and promised World Bank support. ''I urge you to take this moment because it will be a long time coming again,'' he said. (Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.)

From MSNBC, by David Mageria, 24 July 2003

The Government's Corruption Coup

Freetown - Corruption has blushingly accepted that it above be blamed for all that is wrong with Sierra Leone. In corruption's is also the blame for the war that confounded the dead as much as the living. Weekend TV sensitization programme by the Finance Ministry must be commended as the government's determination to hold the blue by the horn more corruption is most cruel at the grassroots. Corruption may be a criminal act but it is essentially a problem of morality. So both teachers anyone to steal (or look the books). Of course, corruption is usually expressed in cash but it can also be found in sheer inability to be judicious with responsibility or abusing regulation for rewards prompted by ills of greed. Stealing from, or abusing public trust is a rascal thing to do and is as despicable as rape. The people need to know at the grassroots, and not limited to it, that the thief has to be desprised even if his jeep is the latest in the market. Corruption faces a hard time when the people are engaged in monitoring their own resources. Officials of the Ministry of Finance have by their initiative recruited themselves as combatants of the enduring war.

Always assuming that the ministry is itself above board then, victory is within a sniffing distance. The endemism of the country's corruption has always, unfairly, been laid at, the feet of governments above. A country that lacks the culture of corruption promptly puts its rogues behind bars. When a country's rogues are prospering it is either that the people are encouraging by condoning or the people are not paying attention to their own resources. The Anti-Corruption Commission will have a better chance to succeed when the people are themselves the crusaders. Although the initiatives are coming form a government ministry, cultural and religious leaders should seize the baton. The Churches and Mosques will have to walk with the government on this even if they don't work together. A moral disease, corruptions have cost this nation dearly and the custodians of culture and soul cannot be seen to be unconcerned. Any unfair advantage is corruption, period. And unfair advantages in the society are found on the mountaintops as well as on the bottom of valleys. It is a society problem. Which is why all sectors of leadership should give corruption a critical look. Sierra Leone is God's beautiful garden. If the people resolve to fence off corruption then it will be paradise again.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Sule Musa, 24 July 2003

Corruption Levels Sink to All-time Low

Zimbabwe has been classified as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, slumping from 45th place in 2000 to 71st position in a Transparency International Corruption Perception Index released this week. A Transparency International Zimbabwe programme officer, Mary Ncube, said Zimbabwe's corruption rating had been worsened by the country's continued economic meltdown, rising poverty and unemployment. But the major blame for the country's increasing corruption record, she said, stood out as corrupt systems and policies that were benefiting a few individuals while the rest of the country's population bore the brunt of the economic woes. Zimbabwe is currently going through its worst economic crisis, characterised by acute food shortages, foreign currency and From C9fuel shortages that have disrupted the normal functioning of all economic activities.

Basic food commodities, whose prices have shot up by over 500 percent during the year, are in short supply and only available on the black market. Inflation has been breaking record highs, with the year-on-year rate touching 364.5 percent for June. Ncube said a recent survey conducted by Transparency International had indicated that over 80 percent of Zimbabweans believed corruption had worsened their plight in the face of mounting shortages and economic woes. She said the local chapter of transparency International was advocating for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission to help stem the worsening economic cancer. Already a Bill on the formation of the commission awaits parliamentary approval. It is expected that the Bill could pass during the fourth session of the House, which opened this week.

From Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe, 24 July 2003

Toward Capacity-Building In Good Governance

Yaoundé - Poverty and exclusion was at the centre of the conference organised by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences that ended in Yaounde last Friday. The Minister of State Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic and president of the International Institute for Administrative Sciences, Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara has called for the implementation of proposals for good governance in order to stimulate national prosperity. He made the call last Friday while presiding at the closing ceremony of a conference organised by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, IIAS. During the four-day workshop in which 264 delegates from 49 member countries took part, several important issues were examined. They include: participation in governance, poverty alleviation and exclusion, partnership, coordination and cohesion, accountability and transparency. On participation in governance, it was resolved that, exclusion as well as power within society must be shared amongst multiple actors, specifically, government, civil society and the private sector. All were asked to work hand in glove as partners but with each group having well-defined role. "

The Yaounde conference signals a return to a more balanced view where the State and the civil society will all have key roles to play", Mr. Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara said. Addressing the participants, the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Réné Ze Nguéle said that, there is no standard means of fighting poverty and marginalisation. " Individual countries must therefore define their objectives, taking into consideration their local realities". On poverty and exclusion, participants resolved to develop strategies for the State to implement laws protecting the minority groups. Transparency and accountability were raised as means of effectively checking government actions. Decentralisation was also proposed as a powerful tool although not as a panacea. It was recognised that in order that decentralisation be successful, a number of conditions must be fulfilled. They include: capacity building, adequate resources and a system of mutual help, solidarity, cooperation and coordination. The next conference takes place in South Korea, in 2004.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Esthar Azaa, 22 July 2003

Corruption, Ethnicity Hinder Fair Elections in Nigeria - Shehu Shagari

Kaduna - Former President Shehu Aliyu Shagari has said corruption abetted by debilitating poverty, ethnicity and intolerance are the factors hindering free and fair elections in Nigeria. Opening a three-day Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 2003 post-election seminar at the International Trade Fair Complex, Kaduna yesterday, Shagari said corruption was a serious national problem that can no longer be swept under the carpet. "I sincerely and firmly believe that the cankerworm that has greatly hindered the flourishing of democracy in Africa in general and in Nigeria in particular is corruption aided and abetted by the debilitating effects of poverty, ethnicity and intolerance," Shagari declared. He commended INEC for "miraculously" succeeding in entrenching democracy in Nigeria where many in similar circumstances would have failed. "The tension that pervaded the political system made a lot of us to shiver and wonder where the country was heading to. The signs were ominous. Most of us thought we would never come out of the elections in one piece." He said democracy was heavily dependent on the supremacy of the law. "Democracy can only thrive in this country therefore when we all learn to respect our laws. Anything short of this is an invitation to anarchy," he added. Shagari said we should when necessary delete from our books all laws that would hinder the growth of democracy in Nigeria and also spoke of the need for prompt release of funds to INEC.

INEC Chairman, Dr. Abel Ibude Guobadia said although the last general elections were widely acknowledged as successful "we as a commission are under no illusion that all was well with the elections. We note in particular, the constructive criticisms of most of the international and domestic observer groups." He said all the identified flaws by the commission, individuals and observer groups have been collated for analysis and that the issues and problems during the 2003 general elections were legal and constitutional issues, funding, logistics and operational problems, voter registration and education. Others are: polling day activities cum result management, political parties (monitoring, party auditing, campaign and fund raising), electoral violence and national security. Senate President Adolphus Wabara said the National Assembly was willing to let INEC get its funding from the first line charge to make the commission truly independent. The seminar is being attended by over 400 participants drawn from INEC, all the political parties, academia, State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs), the diplomatic corps and relevant NGOs. Seven principal papers are expected to be presented covering all legal framework of the Nigerian electoral system, the electoral-process, voter registration and education, funding the electoral process: issues, problems and solutions, logistics and electoral operations, polling day and result management and political parties and the political system.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Sani Babadoko, 29 July 2003

1,000 Corruption Cases Spending Prosecution in State

As many as 1,000 of the 2,642 cases registered by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) are hanging fire since the past four years due to lack of state government sanction for prosecution. Addressing mediapersons, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chaggan Bhujbal said on Monday that of these cases, 169 were awaiting sanction for prosecution for more than 10 years, 139 for between 8-10 years, 195 for between six-eight years, 439 for between four-six years, 664 for between two-four years, 569 for between one-two years and 340 cases for less than a year. Bhujbal said: "The technicality of government sanction being required to prosecute corrupt officials may have been incorporated in the law so that innocent persons are not falsely implicated and prosecuted." "Considering the large number of cases that are pending sanction, we have directed all state government departments to promptly clear the paper work on these cases," he said. The ACB, up to May 6, has registered 250 cases. In 2002, it had registered 453 cases, while 450 cases were registered in 2001.

According to Bhujbal, 20 cases of government officials amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income were registered till May. The ACB had registered 14, 20 and 29 such cases, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively. The state revenue department tops the list of the most corrupt division with 62 cases registered against its officials who were nabbed while accepting bribes. The state police department came in second with 41 cases of entrapment undertaken by ACB officials. These two departments are followed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), municipal corporations and councils, and the land records department. Bhujbal said that the Union government has convened a high level meeting of state government officials to take stock of various cases registered in various states in the fake stamp paper scam that is being investigated for the last few years. He added that the state police department, which last week arrested Anil Gote, an accused in the stamp paper scam, was making progress in the case so far.

From Business Standard, India, 8 July 2003

Wichit Wins Good Governance Award

Phuket Town - Wichit Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) has won a best-governance award and additional funding of 1.7 million baht in competition against seven other Phuket OrBorTor. OrBorTor Pa Klok received additional funds of 1.4 million baht for coming second and OrBorTor Sri Suntorn received 1.2 million baht for third place, Sorawich Chaiyasawat, Chief of the Phuket Provincial Local Administration Office, said today. A committee of representatives from the government and private sectors, headed by Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi, also considered entries from Maikhao, Rawai, Sakoo, Thepkrasattri and Rassada tambons. The Office of the Prime Minister cooperated with the Department of Local Administration in Bangkok to provide the 500-million-baht budget to reward local administration organizations around the country for good governance. K. Sorawich added that the Tambon Council and Tambon Administration Act, passed earlier this year, means that leadership of an OrBorTor, which formerly carried the title of Chairman (Prathan), now carries the honorific of President Nai Yok.

From Phuket Gazette, Thailand, 1 July 2003

Self-Help Organizations and Good Governance

While the government machinery is generally corrupt, unaccountable and non-transparent, it is just the reverse in the case of the self-help groups (SHG). The SHGs have immense advantages in terms of good governance over the government organizations. Three basic attributes characterise the functioning of self-help groups in Nepal. First, an SHG is invariably an exclusive organisation of the direct stakeholders or users of a certain activity, infrastructure or service and is democratically organised. Secondly, the members have valuable stakes in common. With the proliferation of externally-promoted or spontaneously organized self-help groups in the communities in recent years, reclaimable cash contributions by members to group savings have almost invariably emerged as the stake they hold in common and have been used as a group-managed mini-credit scheme for themselves. Even where there are other stakes such as an irrigation scheme or a community forest, the emphasis on cash savings has been increasingly pronounced. This condition creates a vested interest on the part of the members in the proper functioning of the groups which, in turn, ensures the regular and effective part9icipation of all the members in the meetings and decision-making of their groups. Such common stake-holding in the groups has had very significant empowerment effect on the weaker sections of the people in the village communities, including women.

Traditionally, the inter-caste, inter-class and gender disparities between people have been the principal barrier to effective participation by women, Dalits and other poorer members in the decision-making in the communities. Invariably, it is the elite who take the decision for the rest of the people in the community. And, for reasons cited earlier, those decisions went unchallenged even when they affected them adversely. However, when the poor and non-poor alike in the communities participated in the groups with common stake-holding, these barriers have simply melted away. Their poverty and disadvantaged position in the communities notwithstanding, the members of the weaker sections too have found it necessary to assert themselves and to participate in the decision of their groups to assure that their valuable stakes are properly managed and not misappropriated. And conversely, in the face of such new found assertiveness on the part of the weaker sections of the communities, the leaders in the groups too find themselves in a position of having to be more responsive, accountable and transparent. Thus, mobilization of such cash savings has not only established itself as an important source of local resource mobilisation for development in the communities but also an effective equalizing instrument in favour of the poor and the disadvantaged in the community.

The third attribute of Self-help Groups (SHGs) is their capacity to seek out and access new information, skills, technologies and inputs, in short, the ISTI support. As an organized collectivity the SHGs perceive and establish new horizons of possibilities for themselves which they, as single individuals, could not have done. This is one of the main advantages of the group approach to development. As members of an organized group, they are more confident of themselves and set out to access resources that can potentially contribute to their material, social or spiritual well-being. This is where most members find meaning in organised self-help action. These days, there are many non-government initiatives under which the SHOs have significantly benefited from the ISTI support provided or promoted by the concerned NGOs. Important examples of such NGOs would be CEAPRED, DSD, RSDC, SAPPROS, VDRC, etc. Even under government promoted projects such as the Remote Area Basic Needs Project of CARE-Nepal in northern Gorkha (1992-1999), the local self-help groups, 170 of them in nine VDCs, were able to bring about significant improvements in the living conditions in their remote villages due to the smooth ISTI support provided by its Project Office at Arughat in the district (Shrestha, et al, 2000). Even where no such NGOs or agency is formally committed, the spontaneously established SHGs have been able to access ISTI support from the environment although in a more limited scale than otherwise such as the Didi Banini Bachat Tatha Reen Shakari Shantha in the Amarapuri VDC of Nawalparasi district.

There is, therefore, a crying need in the country for redefining the role of the government service delivery agencies so that the burgeoning population of the Self-help Organizations (SHOs) all across the country can have easy access to the ISTI support represented by them. Besides, the recent experiences of a number of both government and non-government programs (e.g. SFCL, CEAPRED, SAPPROS, etc.) have show3n that a higher order of organisaitons at supra-grass-roots level is feasible and essential for greater sustainability and self-reliance of the SHGs. Under SFCL, for instance, the individual small farmer groups at the grassroots with a limited membership 6 to 8 generally are federated into Inter-Group organisations at the ward level and the latter into the SFCL at the VDC level. With a large membership at the base of its pyramid, the SFCL is able to employ its own managers and other support staff without having to rely on any government officials, subsidies or grants to run them. Similarly, formed of some 85 producers' groups at the grassroots. While the saving and credit functions are still performed at the smaller groups level, the (federated) co-operative performs mainly the marketing function. CEAPRED has withdrawn itself from the project for a long time, and the co-operatives continued to function effectively (Adhikari and Shrestha, 1994). The essential lesson from these experiences is that certain functions such as the management of saving and credit is better performed at the small group level whereas they need higher order organisations to manage their higher order functions such as banking and marketing services for their large number of group members.

Whether at the level of the grassroots or of their higher order incarnation, democracy and the essential conditions of good governance are effectively at work in the organization and management of the SHGs in Nepal. The members of the organizations effectively participate in their decision-making; the SHG leadership is accountable to the members; and the functioning of the organization is transparent. Because of these good governance conditions in the groups, resources are mobilished and used for the greater good of the members; members are materially benefited in terms of increased income and employment opportunities; and they go on to effectively establish new norms of social existence wherein their mutual cooperation is heightened, evil practice such as gambling, drinking and extravagance are effectively curbed, and the whole groups look to the future with vision an optimism. Evidence also exists, although sporadically, that in those VDCs here most people are organised in such SHGs, the office bearers of the local bodies are more beholden to the wishes of their voters than otherwise. The VDC members in them are much more accountable in their behaviors and the management of the VDCs themselves are more transparent. Two examples of such VDCs would be Chhatre Deurali in Dhading and Prithivi Narayan in Jhapa where most of the households in the villages are organised in small farmer groups and SFCLs.

Similarly, most of the nine VDCs in northern Gorkha under CARE Nepal RABNP Project too are more transparent and accountable, given the fact that most people there are organized in the large numbers of SHGs there. In these situations, the social and economic stratification in the village notwithstanding, an association seems to exist between the majority of the people being organised in SHGs on the one hand and the increasing degree of accountability and transparency of the local leaders on the other. Should this proposition hold on a larger scale in the country, then there is a very compelling case for devolving authority all the way down to the level of the SHGs at the grassroots and to drastically re-define the roles of the VDCs, DDCs and the government service delivery agencies accordingly. With such pressure being built up from below, both the politics and bureaucracy at the national level will have to tame themselves and be increasingly accountable in their behavior in order to successfully respond to the demands from the SHGs at the grassroots. The demands themselves are bound to be ever more persistent because of the compulsion for the local leaders to have to be responsive to needs and priorities of their own constituents. So far, however, there has been no purposive effort on the part of the government for instituting a well-informed policy of decentralisation in the country to promote and backstop such self-help initiatives at the grassroots where Nepalese poverty is at its worst.

Despite decades of rhetoric favoring decentralisation, effective devolution of powers has remained a mirage. While centralised planning has persisted as the basis for national resource allocation, it has been inherently incapable to respond to the specificities of local needs and priorities. The national planning mechanism has thus stubbornly continued to preside over the continued to preside over the continuous wastage of scarce national resources. This situation is brought to the full glare by the fact that the expenditure of enormous sums of resources over the decades has failed to make any significant dent on the continued underdevelopment and worsening poverty in the country. The national planning mechanism must acknowledge that SHOs at the grassroots are critical for successfully reaching the poor and for bringing about overall socio-economic development in the communities. They have the demonstrated capacity to generate savings, promote income generating activities, adopt better health and sanitation practices, enhance access to literacy and education facilities, establish more progressive norms for population control, and ensure more effective management of infrastructure. The whole super-structure of the development bureaucracy must be geared to providing support to such self-help organizations at the grassroots.

The donor's side too assures us no better. Despite five full decades of foreign aid to Nepal, the socio-economic condition of the vast majority of the people in the country has only gone from bad to worse. The country continues to languish in abject poverty, stark under-development, unacceptably high population growth rates, ill-developed infrastructures, poor health and educational systems, acute social and economic stratification, and discriminatory access to limited social services. The numerous donors in the country whose number is steadily on the rise cannot absolve themselves of their share of responsibility in perpetrating and perpetuating this mess. This raises a very fundamental question about the very justification and legitimacy of their continued operations in Nepal. The mounting debt burden of Nepal, which affects the poor and the weak the most, results primarily from this largely irresponsible conduct of foreign aid both by the donor officials and their receiving counterparts in the country.

There are a number of regions in Nepal which, after having gone through more than fifteen years of the implementation of prominent bilaterally funded and donor-directed rural development projects, have now turned not into the promised oases of prosperity but into strongholds of Maoist insurgency. The responsible donor officials and the government counterparts themselves are now ensconced conveniently away from those political hotbeds, enjoying the perks and privileges associated with their elevated positions in their organizations. And it is the very poor local people who, having been denied any role to influence the donor projects, are now left to face the music of the Maoist insurrection. (Excerpts from the author's article on " The Sociological Context of (I)NGO Work in Nepal from a book, NGO, Civil Society and Government in Nepal published by Central Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, T.U in cooperation with the FES: Chief editor.)

From The Telegraph, Nepal, by Bihari Krishna Shrestha , 15 July 2003

Amendments Are Aimed at Stability, Good Governance

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare told Parliament yesterday that his idea to propose the law to repeal and replace the Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates was to leave behind a legacy of political stability and good government. Sir Michael said the proposed law and the constitutional amendments would further strengthen and entrench the role of political parties as key players in PNG's system of government and guarantee political stability and continuity, which has been lacking. Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta, however, maintained that extending the Prime Minister's term for a further six months, on it own, does not create stability. Sir Mekere pleaded in Parliament with Sir Michael to withdraw the amendment, stressing that PNG needs flexibility in its system of government - a pressure valve that allows for a no-confidence vote - when the people are not satisfied with the performance of their government.

Tabling the changes initiated by the Central Fund Board of Management, for first reading and the first opportunity for debate, Sir Michael said the amendments maintain the motion of no-confidence as a pressure valve without becoming a threat to good government. Important changes also include the recognition and establishment of the Office of the Opposition with its own budget to be appropriated annually in the national budget. The age limit of the person holding the position of Registrar is extended from 55 to 60 years and a female candidate, who receives 10 per cent of the votes cast in an electorate in an election, would be entitled to 75 per cent of K10, 000 payable to a successful party-endorsed candidate and not a percentage of the expense as is the current law. In the main, the decision by the coalition for the new amendments means it effectively removes dissolution of parliament after a successful vote of no-confidence. Instead, the grace period is extended from 18 months to 36 months and an absolute majority vote is required for a vote of no-confidence to be successful. These amendments would be accommodated at the committee stage.

Sir Michael said these amendments deal with three situations that impact on political stability: namely the activities of political parties and their members, the independent members and the motion of no-confidence. "We have experienced the outcome of weak political parties, manoeuvrings by Members of Parliament and frequent motions of no-confidence. We must deal with these situations to make way for progress," he said. "I have no selfish interest in maintaining my term and that of the current coalition government for the five years. I do not need to extend my term. I want to leave politics knowing that the future of this country is secure and the way to achieve this is to ensure political stability through these important proposed amendments. "What is more important than leaving our governments to be constantly exposed to motions of no-confidence at the drop of a hat is to create stability in our political system and its processes, so that it can trigger the acceptable developments in other sectors like economic, social and related activities." Many Government ministers and MPs spoke in support of the changes. Debate was adjourned to today.

From The National, Papua New Guinea, by Colin Taimbari, 17 July 2003

More Effort Needed to Fight Corruption: Commentary

Discipline inspectors in Beijing are to talk to all newly appointed or elected officials in Communist Party and government departments, urging them to be clean and honest in their work, under revised anti-corruption guidelines. Discipline inspectors in Beijing are to talk to all newly appointed or elected officials in Communist Party and government departments, urging them to be clean and honest in their work, under revised anti-corruption guidelines. Officials who have committed minor improprieties will be admonished, under an interim regulation issued by the Beijing Municipal Discipline Inspection Commission. Such measures are aimed at nipping the evil in the bud, a lesson drawn from past failure. China has reaped a lot from its anti-corruption crusades of recent years, catching some high-ranking officials. But, by tracing the fall of corrupt officials, we find that one of our failures has been not able to detect and contain their wrong-doing at an early stage. With their initial misdeeds going unchecked, those corrupt officials, whose malpractice might otherwise have been contained, went inexorably down the road to doom. By strengthening internal supervision, the new mechanism of admonition and of giving new officials advance warnings will play a part in curbing the growth of corruption. However, this alone cannot guarantee clean government.

Some corrupt officials are often cunning at covering up their dirty deeds. For example, they often make inspiring speeches on different occasions, calling for tighter control on corruption while receiving bribes in secret. They only pay lip service to the fight against corruption. The fall of several high-ranking officials in recent years exemplified this stark contrast between words and deeds. Good at putting on a show, corrupt officials can often manage to deceive their seniors into believing their feigned innocence. In this situation, "clean talk" from the top will not work. Past experience has shown many corruption cases have been uncovered thanks to information provided by the public or the media. Therefore, while enhancing internal controls, policies should be devised to facilitate supervision by the media and the public. Officials should be made more accountable to the public instead of only to their superiors. Government activities should be made more transparent. And the role of public opinion should be better respected. Only by combining external and internal efforts can we win the war against the scourge of corruption.

From People's Daily Online, China, 17 July 2003

Good Political Leadership Ensures Good Governance: Intra-party Democracy, Curbing Corruption a Must

Leading political scientists at a seminar in the capital yesterday uderscored the need for intra-party democracy, leadership training, curbing of corruption and bettter government-opposition relationships for good governance in Bangladesh. The seminar formed the first working session of a two-day 9th National convention of the Bangladesh Political Science Association at the Sonargaon Hotel. Prof. Ataur Rahman of Dhaka University who presented the keynote paper at the seminar underlined the need for the establishment of a high profile institute for excellence in leadership in governance for leaders from various sectors including political leaders and Members of Parliament to interact, learn and take courses to update their knowledge and experience. Barrister Mainul Hosein, Chairman of the Editorial Boards of The New Nation and the Daily Ittefaq, presided over the seminar which was addressed by NDI country representative James Oliver, Hafizuddin Khan, former adviser of Cateraker Government, Prof. Aftab Ahmed, Vice Chancellor of National University, Prof. Dilara Chowdhury, of Jahangirnagar University, Prof Shamsur Rahman of Rajshahi University, AKM Shahidullah, of Dhaka University Prof. Yahya Aktar and Prof Badiul Alam of Chittagong University, Prof Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Prof. Ferdous Hossain and Prof. Nurul Amin Bepari of Dhaka University, Dr Shawkat Ara Hossain, Dr Habibur Rahman, Dr Tareq Shamsur Rahman and Dr M Abdul Wahab.

Tracing the growth of political leadership in Bangladesh Prof Ataur Rahman said that the era of charismatic leadership ended with Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman who built his charisma on hard work, and a unique vision of a prosperous Bangladesh with a strong sense of nationhood. The much-coveted transition to parliamentary democracy in 1991 ushered in a new brand of democratic and participatory leadersip that came from the context of struggle against authoritarian rule, he said. Prof Ataur listed the reforms initiated by the present government in the legal judicial system but pointed out the dominating public perception that police and criminal justice system are inefficient and corrupt. He said as in other South Asian countries, corruption has become an enduring pattern of public life in Bangladesh and poses a threat to democracy and development. Quoting from World Bank and UNDP reports, he said that 30-40 per cent of development fund of Bangladesh is siphoned off by corrupt means and that the country can save a substantial percentage of its GDP by curbing this malaise. The move to set up an independent anti-corruption commission is a step in the right direction, he said. Underscoring the need for making Parliament effective he said that the challenge for Khaleda Zia's leadership is to make legislative body attractive for the opposition lawmakers as well as the members of her own party and alliance. Barrister Mainul Hosein congratulated Dr Ataur Rahman for his keynote paper. He said, our Constitution as the supreme law has given us the outlines of democratic system and good governance.

It is important that we follow the Constitution in its full meaning and spirit. Our opposition politicians in general believe that as MPs if they cannot become ministers it is no use attending the Parliament. On the role and significance of the opposition in the Parliament our political scientists should come forward with their ideas and thoughts. Barrister Hosein said that democratic leadership has to be collective for securing collective national interest. But it is advantageous for the corrupt ones to help one-person leadership. We must fight corruption for the needed democracy and good governance, he said. James Oliver said that the political leadership must have courage, vision and tolerance. Democracy is also about change in party leadership, he said. Hafizuddin Khan referred to shortage of qualitiy leaders and called for filling this gap. Prof Aftab Ahmed strongly criticised the MPs for remaining busy with allocations for their constituencies instead of taking interest in legislative activities. This leads to quorum crisis, he said. Prof Dilara Zaman underscored the need for practicing democracy within the parties first to run the country in a democratic manner. She said without participation of women good governnce is not possible. Prof Shamsur Rahman alleged that the country's politics was being controlled by the musclemen and black money holders. AKM Shahidullah said, "We want parliamentary democracy not Prime Ministerial system." Prof Yahiya Akhter of Chittagong University said "Political criminals buy nominations for election to Parliament. They consider this an investment." © Copyright 2003 by The New Nation

From The New Nation, Bangladesh, 19 July 2003

Corruption Eats Away at Thailand

Corruption condemns the Thai people to never being able to reach their full potential in so many areas of daily life: in education, politics, the economy and morally the list could almost be endless. Its crippling practices run through every level of politics and the bureaucracy. Things look glum even though the people had the chance to take part in shaping their future through helping to draft the ``people's constitution'' of 1997. This constitution paved the way for the establishment of semi-independent agencies tasked with making the electoral process fairer and making life tougher for the corrupt in society. These bodies include the Election Commission, Constitution Court, National Counter Corruption Commission and Anti-Money Laundering Office. The aim was to guarantee less corruption and less cheating and vote-buying in elections. Thailand also was given an elected upper house for the first time whose members were supposed to be non-partisan. The future was to be a brighter place. But things have not worked out as well as intended. We might have stable government, especially after the Thai Rak Thai party managed to win a huge number of seats at the last election and has since been able to add even more.

But the party is made up of too many of the old politicians who continue to practise their old ways based on money and patronage, practices which help to encourage corruption. The prime minister himself might not be a member of this old breed, but he must spend an inordinate amount of his time balancing their demands, and those of others in the government, against those of the public. Take the matter of the Klong Dan waste-water facility in Samut Prakan. This project has cost the taxpayer 23 billion baht to acquire the necessary land and build the treatment plant, but now, when things are very near completion, the Thai public and the foreign creditors have been told the development is to be halted. Investigations completed around a month ago into the land purchases and the building costs show that the corruption involving the land deals alone has been massive and around 10 people, among them prominent politicians, would be charged. It is a familiar story only the scale of the corruption is different and there are very few among the public who actually believe the powerful among the guilty will be brought to justice.

Another suspected case of corruption involves the recent suggestion to ban the advertising of alcoholic beverages on television between 5am and 10 pm. The suggestion was warmly received by the media and the public. But rather than go to the cabinet weeks ago as planned, the proposal has run into roadblocks as a result of the considerable influence of the liquor industry. And let's not forget Chuwit Kamolvisit, the operator of a chain of upmarket massage parlours, and his accusations of bribes paid to a large part of the Bangkok police force. It is understood that dealing with corruption takes time, but a concerted start must be made. Too much tax money has been abused, too little which is duly owed has not been collected, and too many state resources have been wasted. The public's hopes rest with Mr Thaksin. He promised them he would fight corruption, drugs and poverty should they elect him. He has done well on drugs and has now promised he will turn his attention to eradicating poverty within the next six years. But if he cannot deal with corruption, a considerable but the lesser of the two tasks, how can he possibly bring about an end to grinding poverty?

From Bangkok Post, Thailand, 24 July 2003

Good Governance Awards

Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh yesterday told executives of local administrative organisations to take poverty, drugs and corruption problems seriously. At a ceremony to present good governance awards, Gen Chavalit said there was no other solution than education to eliminate poverty. As far as the drugs problem went, the government was implementing mostly peaceful campaigns to encourage traffickers to stop dealing in drugs, he said. When it came to corruption, he remarked softly that the overall budget of local administrative organisations was indeed tiny compared to the scale of corruption and the amount of money being siphoned off from mega development projects at the national level. Of the 7,946 local administrative organisations, only 258 received good governance awards yesterday. The first prize went a provincial administrative organisation in Prachin Buri. Bang-on Wilawan, the Prachin Buri administrative organisation president, said her organisation emphasised transparency in its management and project implementation. Local people, experts and representatives from the Auditor-General's Office were always involved in the day-to-day operations. There are 75 provincial administrative organisations, 1,129 municipalities and 6,742 tambon administrative organisations.

From Bangkok Post, Thailand, by Onnucha Hutasingh, 21 July 2003

Local Authorities Forging Ahead with E-government

Kuala Lumpur - The launch of the Smart Local Government's Governance (SLGGA) Agenda is expected to promote e-government among the local authorities. The programme would enhance the local authorities' efficiency in providing better services to the public, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said Wednesday. "SLGGA is aimed at increasing the quality of services offered by the local authorities to the community using information technology. It will help to strengthen the elements of transparency, accountability and effectiveness and will also be more responsive. "SLGGA will also help to reduce the digital gap between progressive local authorities and those that are less progressive," Ong told reporters after the weekly post-cabinet meeting at his ministry here. Under the project, the "e.pbt.gov.my" portal will be established to enable the public to source for the latest information about the activities and services rendered by the authorities. Effective September, about 40 local authorities nationwide are expected to implement the online programme through their respective websites. "All the local authorities must have functional websites. Don't just put up a website that shows the name of the YDP (president) and secretary. I emphasise, it must be a functional website," he said. Ong said the website should have at least five functions - e-complaints, e-submission, e-tax, e-collection and e-licensing. The first project, introduced in collaboration with the National Information Technology Council, was launched on July 7 in Port Dickson.

From Daily Express, Malaysia, 25 July 2003

Good Governance Key to Economic Growth: Chidambaram

Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has urged the government to get out of business and concentrate only on sectors like education, healthcare, law and order, justice delivery, roads, drinking water supply and sanitation to improve the human development index of the country. Delivering the keynote address at a one-day seminar on the 'Changing Face of Banking', organised by the Greater Mysore Chamber of Industry in Bangalore on Saturday, Chidambaram said huge spending in these core areas was the need of the hour if India had to be transformed into a developed country. ·Chidambaram pats Shourie on divestment strategy - "The fundamental failure of the Indian state is the failure of governance in the issues where the state must and can alone act. All other activities must be left to the people who are quite capable of taking care of them. "The people of India are far more qualified than a few of them occupying key positions in the government. Trade, business, export, import, manufacturing and production of goods must be freed from all controls and left to the people to take care of. "In the case of building the infrastructure, the government must encourage more and more public-private partnerships as it lacks both the resources and the expertise in executing the projects. By involving the people and the private sector, a great deal can be achieved to mitigate the hardships of daily life," Chidambaram stated.

The government must concentrate its energies and tariffs on what it alone can do, namely, of maintaining the supply of public goods and creating a climate where people are happy and contended. All other aspects of the economy should be left to the people, who will find resources, make investments and create jobs. Referring to the success story of the Indian software development industry, Chidambaram said the main reason why the IT industry flourished was because the government could not control though its bureaucrats would have liked to do so. "It is not that the government did not want to control the software sector. It simply did not have the wherewithal to control something that was being exported through the means, which were beyond its reach. "As the software industry was free from the travails of customs, excise and inspector raj, it could consistently outperform and sustain its growth despite recession and turbulence in the global economies," Chidambaram claimed. The people are competent to organise their tax, lending, borrowing, investment, and capable of producing goods and services, creating markets for their products, and earning huge foreign exchange. What needs and can be done by the people should best be left to them, while the government should ensure that its energies and resources are spent judiciously in the larger areas that have a direct bearing in the socio-economic development of the country. In the case of public-private partnerships, Chidambaram stressed the need to define the role of the government and limit it.

Lamenting on the decline in good governance during the last 4-5 years, Chidmabaram said the absence of feel good factor and lack of fresh investments were the result of the prevailing sense of uncertainty among the people. The flip-flop attitude of the government towards economic and labor reforms is keeping away fresh investments in green field projects and creation of new jobs. While jobs in the public sector have shrunk, they have remained stagnant in the private sector over the last five years. The Montek Singh Ahulwalia report to the Planning Commission bears testimony to these hard facts. Even in the agriculture sector, the investments have dwindled rapidly. In Tamil Nadu, out of a state budget of Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion), the capital investment on agriculture is just Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion). This sorry state of affairs spill over to irrigation facilities, channels, canals, new seeds, new fertilisers and new pesticides, roads to connect farms to markets, storage facilities, cold chains and testing facilities. "If investments are not made in agriculture, I wonder how there can be growth that is commensurate with the increasing needs of a growing population. The Indian economy has become more monsoon dependent in the last 6-7 years than ever before," Chidambaram cautioned.

Reflecting on the state of Indian economy, the former finance minister said despite the tall claims of the NDA government, the GDP growth remained below or around 5 per cent in four years and 6 per cent in one year. In the case of various states, the growth rates differ widely with the southern ones surging ahead, while those in the north and the heartland of India stagnating. "Growth cannot be measured by GDP alone. In the long-term, it is the human development index of the country that matters most as it encompasses a variety of aspects of human life such as housing, drinking water supply, sanitation, education, healthcare, infant/child mortality, and longevity," Chidambaram declared. Calling for a drastic change in the mindset of the people in grappling with the socio-economic problems faced by the country, Chidambaram said the prevailing situation was totally different from what it was a decade ago when India embarked on the reform process. "The geo-political changes the world over has brought about a paradigm shift in our priorities and strategies. In the face of increasing globalisation and inter-dependence of the economies of one another, we need to become more productive and competitive to emerge as a developed country," Chidambaram affirmed.

From Rediff, India, by Fakir Chand, 26 July 2003

Good Governance Won't Help Bad Strategy

Much has been written in the past few months about the impact of regulatory changes, particularly in terms of the roles of UK plc chairmen, chief executives, directors, auditors, audit committees and other interested parties. The shared political imperative for all of them is to shore up corporate governance measures in boardrooms and to build shareholder confidence. As the Financial Reporting Council redrafts the Higgs review and more column inches are devoted to the implications of the latest changes, it is clear that improved corporate governance does not rest merely in combined codes and the detail of refined standards. As an audit partner who spent seven months at Amey, the support services group, as acting finance director, albeit not a member of the board, I have found the regulatory debate, and the accompanying notion of boardroom scrutiny, stimulating and important. As an auditor and adviser to many public companies I was, of course, already familiar with the boardroom. However, in my role as acting finance director, attending all board meetings, I became even more directly aware of the complexity of the various board roles in dealing with a fast-changing environment.

One of the most significant issues for boardrooms is ensuring that directors work well together and trust one another. At Amey I observed a strong determination to do exactly this, which is not a surprising revelation given that the company was in a very public crisis mode. There was a real desire to get things moving, and my role was to help the board to stabilise the business. Within two weeks of my appointment, clear objectives were developed and there was a common acceptance that the board was there to work together to provide solutions necessary for the survival of the company. The overriding issue was to rescue or salvage as much shareholder value as possible from the potential terminal cashflow crisis facing the company. The crisis situation forced the board to share information and work together in a way that doesn't always happen when things are going better for a business. Invariably, a company in distress is not in that situation because it has too few or too many directors either as a result of changed trading conditions or because of poor strategic decisions or instances of poor financial control. The corporate governance challenge is to ensure that such causes can be recognised and that actions are taken to rectify them and mitigate loss.

Many companies are now focusing on complying with new requirements as new processes, reporting and risk management systems are introduced. Yet in difficult market conditions compliance is not the sole boardroom concern. Strategy is paramount in determining the success or failure of a company. Corporate governance compliance cannot make up for bad strategic direction. For a board to be successful, roles must be clearly defined. In particular, a working relationship, but one that of necessity contains a certain tension, needs to be created between the chief executive, chairman and finance director. Trust is essential, but board members must be prepared to challenge and be challenged. Strong personalities who try to shape the direction of a company without input from others on the board must be prepared not always to get their own way. Indeed, this is critical to success. In practical terms, an informal system of checks and balances should operate at the highest levels of a company so that key figures play off each other's strengths and nullify weaknesses. Some finance directors in the mid-1990s seemed to be over-focused on acting as deputy chief executives, sometimes to the detriment of their gatekeeper role.

While most chief executives want to see their finance directors as partners in developing their businesses, the gatekeeper role cannot be watered down. Finance director responsibility extends to balancing the demands of strategic and financial realities and ensuring that chairmen and chief executives are engaged in the detail of business information. No amount of vision can prevent disaster if the basics of cashflow management and business planning are not kept in view. While the board's role has not fundamentally changed, non-executive directors are now expected to be the scrutineers, and management can expect an increased degree of scepticism from the board. Ambiguity or confusion can have disastrous consequences for a company. However, a better definition of roles will not, on its own, necessarily lead to better corporate governance or improved shareholder performance. What is also needed is for the board to have the best information and analytical data available to it when taking strategic decisions. No number of additional combined codes will lead to success for a company that has embarked on a fundamentally flawed strategy that in turn has been based on an incomplete picture of the business's activities. The author is a partner in Deloitte & Touche.

From The Times, UK, by Eric Tracey, 9 July 2003

Parliamentary Corruption Investigation Commission Proposes Launching Investigation About Former Prime Ministers And Ministers

Ankara - Parliamentary Corruption Investigation Commission proposed on Wednesday launching investigation about 25 former ministers including former prime ministers Bulent Ecevit and Mesut Yilmaz. The Commission submitted its final report to the Office of Parliament Speaker. The Commission announced its decisions and the conclusion part of the report. Accordingly, the Commission expressed its view to launch a parliamentary investigation about 16 separate issues. The report proposed launching investigation about former prime minister Bulent Ecevit and deputy prime minister Devlet Bahceli on charges of their acts contrary to the Privatization Law and on charges of corruption in the tenders of the Supreme Privatization Board. Also, the commission said that investigation should be launched regarding former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz on charges of corruption in the Turkbank tender. Other ministers for whom opening of parliamentary investigation is wanted are Rustu Kazim Yucelen, Husamettin Ozkan, Hikmet Ulugbay, Sukru Sina Gurel, Metin Sahin, Nami Cagan, Yuksel Yalova, Sumer Oral, Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu, Recep Onal, Kemal Dervis, Yilmaz Karakoyunlu, Yasar Topcu, Gunes Taner, Mustafa Tasar, Koray Aydin, Abdulkadir Akcan, Cumhur Ersumer, Zeki Cakan, Yasar Okuyan and Mehmet Kececiler.

From Turkish Press, Turkey, 23 July 2003

Has a New Era Dawned on Arab Governance?

The march of history is filled with coincidences, portentous or otherwise, and Tuesday added a new one whose nature has yet to be determined. Egypt got an early start on its July 23 national day commemorating Gamal Abdel Nasser's overthrow of the monarchy, an event that infused the entire Arab world with hope that bold new leadership would sweep the region. Simultaneously, Odai and Qusai Hussein, progenies of a pretender to Nasser's mantle, were breathing their last in a firefight with American soldiers. It will take months and maybe years to know for certain, but the violent deaths of two men who led such violent lives would be a fitting symbol for the closing of the book on a dream that went sour. Nasser's rise to power inspired Arabs everywhere to believe that they could do away with the dysfunctional governments and lopsided relationships bequeathed by the colonial era. It took just a decade, though, for "revolutionary" Egypt to be seduced by traditional power politics into entering the civil war in Yemen.

This and other instances of foolhardiness eventually drained the Egyptian experiment of its creativity and its Arab admirers of their enthusiasm. What Saddam wrought was far worse. Styling himself as the inheritor of Nasser's legacy, his interpretation of pan-Arabism was degraded, debased and then deranged by unquenchable ambition. The long and costly war with Iran robbed his country of precious lives and resources, and the subsequent invasion of Kuwait opened the door to the return of foreign hegemony over the region. His betrayal of everything for which Nasserism was once thought to stand culminated in the unofficial crowning of his sons as heirs to an especially bloody throne. With any luck, Arab history reached a genuine turning point on Tuesday and what comes next will be fundamentally different from that which went before. There is no more convincing argument for radical reform than the economic, moral, political and social bankruptcy of the Arab ruling class.

Saddam's sons represented a new generation that thankfully failed to follow in its predecessor' footsteps. Their demise offers a chance for legitimate leadership to take root, not just in Iraq but elsewhere in the Arab world as well. As this newspaper has previously stated, the onset of competent, democratic governance in the Middle East is inescapable. The only uncertainty is the manner in which the transformation will take place, and the people best-placed to make sure it avoids the self-destructiveness of full-fledged revolution are those who currently hold power. They still have a chance to compensate for their many and manifest failings of the past by recognizing the approach of a very different future and working to ease and hasten its arrival. Should they fail to do so, they will only delay and make more painful the inevitable. The fate of such shortsighted rulers is to be unceremoniously supplanted by forces they could and should have nurtured with all the tools at their disposal.

From The Daily Star, 7 July 2003

Corruption Probe

Land at the center of Alabama's government corruption probe is now owned by Montgomery County. Questions surrounding the state's plan to build two warehouses on the 256-acre site just north of downtown prompted a federal and state investigation into government corruption in 2001. The ongoing investigation has resulted in convictions or guilty pleas by six people involved with the state warehouse project, including a member of former Governor Don Siegelman's Cabinet. Montgomery County paid nearly $693,000 for the land. County Administrator Donald Mims said the county plans to use the site to build a minimum-security community corrections facility in the near future, and later on, build a jail on the site. Mims said the land's location was a major factor in the county's decision to buy it.

From WTVY, AL, 7 July 2003

Police Corruption Probed in Colombia

Bogota - Focus remains on suspected coastal corruption - Colombia's scandal-prone police force said on Friday it was investigating a group of officers to determine whether they took bribes of more than $1 million to return confiscated cocaine to traffickers. The probe comes a month after the government sacked an army general amid media reports of U.S. anger at the disappearance from under police guard of two tons of cocaine seized last year. As was the case with last month's scandal, the three new suspected cases of corruption all took place in Atlantic Province on Colombia's Caribbean coast, the main departure point for the country's massive cocaine shipments. "I will act with all the rigor called for by this type of conduct," National Police head Gen. Teodoro Campo said in a news release, without revealing the identities or number of police officers under investigation for the three separate incidents. Colombia's National Police, with about 100,000 officers, has been a principal beneficiary of about $2 billion in U.S. aid aimed at fighting the cocaine trade over the past few years. Dozens of senior police officers, including the former president's security coordinator, were investigated last year after about $2 million of American money was found to have disappeared. Corruption has taken some of the shine from the success of an aerial spraying onslaught which slashed drug crops by about 30 percent last year. Both far-right paramilitaries and Marxist rebels exploit the narcotics trade to pay for a 39-year-old war claiming thousands of lives a year.

From CNN, 11 July 2003

Extradition for Corruption

Trinidad and Tobago citizens found guilty of corruption, computer crimes or illegal, electronic transfer of funds can no longer escape the long arm of the law by hiding out in foreign countries. This was the warning sounded by Attorney General Glenda Morean when she piloted the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Order 2003 in Parliament yesterday. The AG said while the original Act of 1985 listed murder and drug-trafficking as extraditable offences, global technological adv-ances have seen an increase in trans-national crimes such as corruption, money laundering and cyber-crime. "In recent times, TT has intensified its efforts to fight corruption which it recognises as a threat to democracy, the economy and the moral fabric of society," Morean told the Opposition UNC. She said the former regime amended the Act's schedule in 1995 to include offences under the Treason and Firearms Acts. Morean further recalled that on April 15,1998, the UNC Government signed and ratified the Inter-American Convention against corruption and joined 92 countries in signing the 1997 Lima Declaration on Corruption. "These international conventions provide guidelines for the various measures which states can adopt to facilitate better investigation, prosecution and prevention of this most brutish form of criminal activity.

The Prevention of Corruption Act of TT in accordance with the Convention provides a sound legislative framework for the prevention of corruption," Morean said, subtly hinting at the UNC government's failure to deal with corruption. She declared it has now become necessary to amend the 1995 Act, in accordance with Articles 6 and 13 of the Lima Convention, to include corruption as an extraditable offence. Noting growing concerns about computer misuse and credit card fraud, the AG stated: "Both the Computer Misuse Act 2000 and Electronic Transfer of Funds Act 2000 provide the legislative framework for prevention of computer crimes as well as credit card fraud. It has therefore become necessary to include these acts as extraditable offences to be listed in the first schedule of the Act of 1995." Pointe-a-Pierre MP Gillian Lucky expressed concern about compatibility of evidence in extradition matters, recalling her role as a State attorney in the extradition of Lolita Saroop to the United States in the early 1990s. She called for "a special police force" and prosecutors to deal with sensitive matters involving extradition and crooked cops. She wondered why the authority to investigate such matters was shifted from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Office of the Attorney General. Morean reminded Lucky that this transfer occurred under the UNC.

From AG Morean, by Clint Chan Tack, 17 July 2003

Top of Corruption List

Economic or white collar crime is a problem throughout the world, but a survey has found that South African companies headed the list when it came to being defrauded, having their assets stolen or experiencing corruption or bribery. The Global Economic Crime Survey 2003, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that 37% of businesses worldwide had suffered economic crime in the past two years and that they had lost an average of $2 million (about R15million) each. The survey of more than 3 500 chief executives and financial directors in 50 countries worldwide found that 71% of South African companies had experienced economic crime in the past two years. This compared with the global experience of 37%. Peter Cromhout, a Forensic Services partner, said asset misappropriation was by far the biggest problem in South Africa and Africa. He said 79% of the 91 South African companies featured in the survey reported that they had experienced asset theft, compared to the global figure of 59%. Product piracy was also prevalent, with 30% of those surveyed reporting the problem. Corruption and bribery was reported by 21% of South African respondents, compared to 14% globally. Cromhout said economic crime was most frequently detected by internal and external audits, followed by tip-offs, risk management systems and "accidentals".

Worldwide, the highest levels of economic crime was reported in Africa (51%) and North America (41%). The survey found that larger companies, with more than 1 000 employees in a country, were most vulnerable to fraud with 52% reporting economic crime in the past two years. This compared to only 37% of smaller companies reporting fraud. "Larger companies' investment in unfamiliar overseas markets, the devolution of management control and investment in superior fraud risk management systems helped to explain higher detection rates in larger businesses," the survey said. Rick Helsby, leader of the Investigations and Forensic Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "Far from being a victimless crime, fraud can have a material and lasting impact on businesses, their share price and reputation." Financial loss from economic crime was notoriously difficult to quantify, especially for less tangible economic crimes such as cyber crime. PricewaterhouseCoopers said the real financial cost of fraud extended beyond the average loss of $2.2 million (R16.5 million) to the companies they had interviewed. Not only were such losses rarely recovered - only 9% of companies which suffered fraud managed to recover more than 80% of their losses - but they were unlikely to be insured: just over half of the businesses surveyed had taken out insurance against fraud losses.

One third of businesses reported long-term operational effects of economic crime and 47% stated that fraud had a long-standing impact on the company share price. Despite the risks, a majority of businesses were found to be inadequately prepared to manage and prevent economic crime. Fewer than 30% of businesses had any fraud-related training for senior management that had responsibility for handling economic crime issues. The survey concluded that too many companies relied on intangible prevention tools such as codes of conduct and ethical policies which, although a foundation for good practice, were poorly understood and difficult to enforce. "But companies that had actually suffered fraud were more likely to take practical and effective measures to combat fraud and mitigate its impact. By taking out insurance cover against fraud-related losses, companies were three times more likely to recover more than 60% of their losses," the survey said. PricewaterhouseCoopers said a preventative anti-fraud regime should consist of an ongoing assessment of the real risks and vulnerabilities to fraud within an organisation; senior management actively communicating a company's fraud policy; developing policies to encourage and protect whistle blowers and development of a robust fraud response plan which was based on worst-case scenarios. Looking to the future, a majority of companies said they expected fraud to increase in the next five years and 35% of companies expected their greatest fraud risk to continue to be asset misappropriation, followed closely by cyber crime.

From Daily News, Africa, by Yunus Kemp, 8 July 2003

Measuring the Quality of Governance

World Bank indicators confirm governance issues are critical in development - Governance is increasingly one of the key factors that determines whether a country has the capacity to use resources effectively to reduce poverty. Measuring governance has traditionally been an elusive challenge, but one that is crucial in understanding the link between governance and development, and for enabling countries to monitor their performance. A newly updated set of World Bank indicators that tracks the quality of governance across the globe can help assess how countries perform in this critical area of development. The indicators trace six areas of governance from 1996 to the present in almost 200 countries. They create a unique source of benchmarks for policy makers, donor agencies, civil society and development experts. The authors, Daniel Kaufmann and Aart Kraay of the World Bank, define governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. To create the indicators, they divided the concept of governance into six categories aimed at capturing how governments are selected, monitored, and replaced; a government's capacity to formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern them.

The six measured indicators are:·- Voice and Accountability - Political Stability and Lack of Violence - Government Effectiveness -·Regulatory Quality -·Rule of Law -·Control of Corruption. Kaufmann, Director of Global Governance at the World Bank Institute, says that the World Bank uses these indicators to help countries identify areas of weakness so that capacity building and assistance strategies are more effective. However, the authors caution against using this data to run "horse races" among countries with similar ratings. While the researchers' methodology reduces the margins of error, those margins of error can still be large enough to make precise rankings of similarly rated countries impossible. They also dispelled the myth that good governance is a 'luxury' that only wealthy countries can afford, as exemplified by emerging economies with good governance, such as Botswana, Chile or Slovenia. They found that a country that has an income windfall from, for example, higher oil prices, would not automatically benefit in terms of improved governance. To the contrary. Income growth alone does not guarantee better rule of law or improved voice and democratic accountability. Governance reforms are continuously required instead, and they then result in higher incomes. The indicators are based on 25 separate data sources at 18 different organizations, including the World Bank itself, Gallup International, the Economist Intelligence Unit, IMD, DRI/McGraw-Hill, Columbia University, Freedom House, Afrobarometer, Latinobarometro, the World Economic Forum, and Reporters Without Borders. The database covers four time periods (1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002) and will be updated regularly.

From World Bank Group, DC, 14 July 2003

Anti-corruption Talks Pose Challenge

The delegates assembling in Vienna today to try to finalise the first global anti-corruption convention are expecting the talks to be fraught. The process has been dogged by debates between countries over how far to extend rules ranging from the international return of stolen assets to private-sector graft and the transparent funding of political parties. Experts hope to conclude the text in time for a December launch in Mexico. But its unprecedented ambition leaves officials with few illusions about the challenge they face. Previous drafts have looked not only to prevent and criminalise the bribery of public officials, but also to address untoward political funding, "trading in influence", accountancy fraud and banking secrecy. While all delegations agree on the need for global rules, and have made significant progress over past sessions, a long list of unresolved questions remains over how binding they should be and how toughly they should be monitored. It is not even clear how tightly corruption as a concept should be defined. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN office on drugs and crime, says the rules are needed to respond to an international area of concern, but acknowledges that they envisage big changes yet to be universally agreed.

For example, "at the moment there is no legislation requiring recipient countries to return assets: if [countries do] it, they do it voluntarily", says Mr. Costa. Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-graft organisation that publishes an annual corruption league, says a tough convention is essential. "Governments have a historic opportunity to secure a UN convention with teeth and global reach," says David Nussbaum, head of TI's international secretariat. But the danger, warn some officials, is that in attempting to take on too much, delegates end up with an instrument no one fully agrees to, resulting in a convention not respected in practice. The US is concerned at calls to extend the convention's ambit to criminalising private-sector corruption. "We are not against the convention dealing with the private sector," said one US official. "It is just when it comes to defining what conduct is criminal, we need to be careful when we start making globally applicable, legally binding rules. "What qualifies as criminal in purely private conduct, and how you get to it in the most effective way, has not been very thoroughly fleshed out. We feel we are testing out new tools [in the US]. The convention has enough to bite off dealing with the public sector." But TI backs other delegations' belief that the convention must address private-sector corruption, as "tolerance of corruption in this sector undermines public confidence and can thwart sustainable development".

From Financial Times, UK, by Mark Turner, 21 July 2003

Convention Against Corruption

The final round of negotiations on a United Nations treaty aimed at fighting the proliferation of corruption has began in Vienna on Monday July 21, with more than 110 Member States expected to discuss remaining areas of divergence in order to reach consensus. "The text being finalized over the next three weeks in Vienna has been compiled from proposals submitted by 26 countries from all regions of the world. That by itself reflects the global nature of the problem," said Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The sixth session of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of the UN Convention against Corruption, through 8 August, will focus on areas where divergence still exists. These include the search for a definition of corruption, assets recovery and the question of whether to sanction only public, or also private, corruption. Mr. Costa called for every effort to be made to reach consensus. "The effective fight against corruption is a condition for good governance and rule of law. These in turn are foundations of financial stability and sustainable development. Above all, the world needs an anticorruption instrument with teeth, namely able to have an impact," he stated. Finalizing the text would allow the new instrument to be submitted to the General Assembly at its 58th session this September and to the High-level Signing Conference scheduled to take place in Merida, Mexico, from 9 to11 December.

From Accra Mail, Ghana, 23 July 2003

Accountability Workshop, Seminar for Civil Servants Underway

Civil servants in Kano State are to participate in seminars and workshops on accountability and transparency to aid the discharge of their duties. The decision to organize the workshop and seminars by the state government arose out of the need for civil servants in the state to regard public service as public trust, which Almighty Allah (SWT) would hold them responsible on the day of judgement. The Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau stated this while receiving the executive members of the Kano State council of Ulama who paid him solidarity visit at the government house recently. He emphasised his administrations resolve to run an open door government and urged the council to always forward their suggestions and advises to the government on matters affecting its services. Malam Shekarau then urged the members of the council not to relent in their effort to assist the government for the smooth implementation of Sharia in the state. In his remark, the chairman of the council, Uztaz Ibrahim Umarkabo expressed delight over the reconstituting Sharia implementation committee by the government, which he said, would take care of a number of vital issues forwarded in their memorandum for the smooth take off of the Sharia.

Civil servants in Kano State are to participate in seminars and workshops on accountability and transparency to aid the discharge of their duties. The decision to organize the workshop and seminars by the state government arose out of the need for civil servants in the state to regard public service as public trust, which Almighty Allah (SWT) would hold them responsible on the day of judgement. The Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau stated this while receiving the executive members of the Kano State council of Ulama who paid him solidarity visit at the government house recently. He emphasised his administrations resolve to run an open door government and urged the council to always forward their suggestions and advises to the government on matters affecting its services. Malam Shekarau then urged the members of the council not to relent in their effort to assist the government for the smooth implementation of Sharia in the state. In his remark, the chairman of the council, Uztaz Ibrahim Umarkabo expressed delight over the reconstituting Sharia implementation committee by the government, which he said, would take care of a number of vital issues forwarded in their memorandum for the smooth take off of the Sharia.

From Weekly Trust, Nigeria, by Habiba Adamu, 3 July 2003

Trade Union Warns of Civil Service Action in Zambia

Lusaka - The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had threatened to paralyse the government if it cut or froze wages for public service workers and civil servants, state media reported yesterday. The powerful trade union federation was responding to acting finance minister George Kunda's announcement on Tuesday that the government would reduce salaries and freeze wage negotiations with civil servants in an effort to close a $124 million budget deficit. Leonard Hikaumba of the ZCTU said if the government went ahead with the plan, it would face nationwide industrial unrest on a scale never seen before. Hikaumba said workers had already sacrificed enough and the government should look elsewhere to finance the deficit. The Zambian government is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other western donors to balance the budget. The donors have threatened to suspend aid unless the government explained how it would finance the deficit without shifting funds from priority poverty reduction programmes. The IMF has already refused to release $100 million in aid. Recently the government awarded both civil servants and public service workers wage increases and housing allowances after a prolonged countrywide work stoppage that nearly crippled all essential government operations. Civil society and opposition political parties have urged President Levy Mwanawasa to reduce his 69-member cabinet instead of cutting wages for civil servants and public service workers.

From Independent Online, South Africa, by Sapa-DPA, 3 July 2003

Prime Minister Sees Modernization of Public Service As Key to Fulfilling Economic Aspirations

Moroccan prime minister, Driss Jettou, said on Thursday the key to fulfilling economic aspirations lies in modernizing public sectors and their management means as well as improving the administration's capacity to meet openness and competition requirements. The prime minister, who made a report on his government's action at the House of Representatives, said the government has devised a comprehensive program meant to lay down the bases of a modern and transparent administration. Likewise, he went on, the government has also developed an e-government program in order to provide information to citizens and, consequently, facilitate access to the administration basic services. Furthermore, said the prime minister, in a bid to improve standards of public officials and fight corruption, a law that compels administrations to justify their decisions entered into force on February 1st as a text that will establish modern relationships between the administration and citizens, on the basis of transparence and responsibility. In the same vein, the government is drafting an anti-corruption bill that will be referred to the parliament.

From Morocco Economics, 12 July 2003

Why Corruption Thrives in Civil Service - Ex-Secretary to State Government

Lagos - Former Secretary to the Kwara State Government and Head of Service, Mr. Joshua Ogunlowo, has called on political leaders to respect the nation's constitution on the concept of political neutrality of the civil service to reduce corruption in the public service. Speaking at a lecture organised by the National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) in Ilorin yesterday, in a paper titled:" The Civil Service and Politics: The Dividing Line and Implications for Effective Human Resource Management," Ogunlo-wo warned against politicisation of the civil service adding that such could increase the level of corruption in the country's civil service. He stressed the need to enhance stability, effectiveness and higher productivity in the civil service warning that treating the public service sector with disdain and in manners which contravened the rules and conventions of the service were bound to affect human resource management.

He identified poor management of human resources as the bane of country's development urging the present crop of political leaders to reverse the trend so as to bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation. He emphasised that political leaders should consider merits in their appointment "to bring on-board men and women who are sufficiently motivated to tap to the fullest the potentials of those working for them." Earlier, the state chairman of the institute, Alhaji Ganiyu Opeloyeru, said the lecture was to mark the 23rd anniversary of the institute. He said the institute's motive of promoting discussion on contemporary human resource issues informed the choice of the topic of the lecture.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Ayodeji Fashikun, 15 July 2003

Civil Service Boss In Corrupt Deal?

Following the announcement made last month by the head of Civil Service, Dr. Alex Glover Quartey, that a South African consultant had been contracted to review the universal salary structure of the Civil Service, Moses Asaga, a former deputy Finance minister, has accused him of having a cut in the deal with the consultant. Mr. Asaga told The Chronicle in Accra that there is nothing new that would emerge from this new contract because it is the old policy which was developed by the Central Management Board and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which the consultant was going to polish and go away with a huge sum. Mr. Asaga described the situation as a waste of resources. The former minister explained that the previous administration implemented 90% of what was recommended by the Price Water House Coopers but there were a few distortions which constituted about 5% of the total package, and must be rectified. Mr. Asaga, who is also Minority spokesman on Finance, further argued that awarding such a contract to a South African consultant cast a slur on the competence of Ghanaian experts and is also an indictment on those who understand incomes and prices in the country.

According to Mr. Asaga, the assertion by Dr. Quartey that he wanted the job done within a period of two weeks was a lame excuse, and wanted to know whether he had contracted any local consultant that could not meet such a deadline. Even though Mr. Asaga told The Chronicle that there is nothing wrong with Ghana importing expertise from other African countries, he stressed that such contracts are justifiable only when there is deficiency. "The fact that we want African integration does not mean that Ghana should import chocolate from Nigeria," he asserted. He further explained that integration should complement comparative advantage but not to duplicate it for the benefit of the whole continent. Asked why the former government could not implement the CAP30, he said both CAP30 and the pension scheme were exhaustively dealt with by Price Waterhouse Coopers and that certain categories of public and civil servants mainly in the security services were expected to benefit.

However an attempt to include those who have benefitted from CAP30 in the pension scheme, he said, was hindered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme, which needed a second look. Civil servants in the country have been disappointed on promises by successive governments to alleviate poor conditions of service and pay them better wages and salaries. Poor conditions of service have created the impression that the service is corrupt and inefficient. Based upon these problems that have bedeviled the service, Dr. Quartey on his assumption of office as head of the Civil Service, promised that he would do everything possible to address the numerous problems. However, how soon these problems would be rectified remains unknown to civil servants. Earlier Dr. Quartey had declined to mention the name of the consultant when this paper interviewed him.

From GhanaWeb, Ghana, 9 July 2003

Government Salaries Up By 6-10 Percent

The Government will increase civil servants' salaries by between 6 and 10 percent, effective this financial year, the National Assembly was told yesterday. About 34.5bn/- has been budgeted for the exercise in the estimates of expenditure. This follows an agreement reached between the government and the Tanzania Union of Government and Health Employees (TUGHE). Presenting the budget estimates of the President's Office (Civil Service) for this financial year, the Minister for Civil Service, Mary Nagu, said the 10 percent increment would go to teachers who would use 54.4 percent of the total money allocated. Teachers make up 49 percent of the civil service. Nagu said other cadres to benefit from the 10 percent increment include doctors, lawyers, accountants and information technology experts. She said the office would continue to issue permit and coordinate employment of new civil servants in education, health, judicial, police, prison and accountancy departments.

The minister said her office was looking into possibilities of employing directly graduates of professions which employers fail to get through advertising the vacancies. She said since the third government assumed power, seven years ago, the ratio between female and male civil servants had been improving. She said available data showed that 34% of civil servants in the low cadre were women. The minister said 39% of civil servants in the middle cadre were women whereas 24 percent of permanent secretaries were women. She said 26% of directors in government departments were women, whereas for assistant directors women count for 24%.Nagu said the trend was a deliberate move by the government to build and improve women's ability to lead. She is asking the Parliament to approve 54,313,390,600/- for recurrent expenditure and 44,459,494,100/- for development expenditure.

From IPPMedia, The Guardian, Tanzania, by Juma Thomas, Dodoma, 16 July 2003

Ogun Government Holds Retreat for Civil Servants

Abeokuta - Ogun State Government has organised a three-day retreat for its commissioners, special advisers and permanent secretaries to acquaint them with the focus and intentions of the present administration. Addressing the participants at the end of the programme held in Ijebu-Ode on Sunday, the State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel explained that the aim of the retreat was to ensure that stakeholders in the state understand the intention of his administration. He reiterated his resolve to reduce the cost of governance by 25 per cent through prudent deployment of funds, just as he encourage maintenance culture in the state's civil servants. While charging the participants to show more understanding with his style of administration, Daniel urged them to join him in evolving a shared vision for the development of Ogun State, by imbibing the challenges "business unusual". The Governor said he was happy that the service principal officers showed good understanding for the focus of his administration in employment generation through key sectors such as Agriculture, Sports, Commerce and Education. He reminded them of the necessity of leading by example and cultivating a modest lifestyle that would inspire hope in the citizenry. According to him, there was the need for top government officials to avoid scandals and give their utmost best to actualize his government's programmes as contained in his manifesto tagged "My contract with Ogun people".

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Toba Suleiman, 16 July 2003

Publication of Salaries Riles Public Servants

The civil service staff association has deplored the publication of civil servants' salaries in media by the Public Service Commission saying this violated industrial relations principles. But the PSC said it published the salaries for transparency and accountability purposes. "We published them for the benefit of the public servants and the general public," said PSC secretary Mr. Ray Ndhlukula. "Civil servants are paid from public funds. If we didn't publish them, it could create a lot of suspicion and mistrust. And publishing them removes these things. We want to communicate so that we can remove mistrust and suspicions." He said through publication of the salaries, civil servants could easily note anomalies and bring them forward to the attention of the commission. In most countries throughout the world, particularly the United States and Britain, civil servants salaries are a matter of public record and can be accessed by anyone, even on the Internet. P

ublic Service Association executive secretary Mr. Charles Chiviru said his association learnt with shock and embarrassment the publication of civil servants' salaries in the media. "When civil servants join the public service, the employer makes it clear that there should be no disclosure of any public service activity or information to the public," he said. He said employee records are classified as confidential information, but the PSC had decided on its own to publish salaries for the entire civil service. "The Public Service Commission has shown that it has no sense of remorse in violating industrial relations principles, including its own regulations. "This is a clear contradiction of its own regulations or employment regulations which it formulated single handedly without even consulting the same worker. "It's a pity that despite the harmonisation of the labour laws in the country it is still living in the legacy of making decisions unilaterally without consulting the other stakeholders," Mr. Chiviru said.

He said the publication of civil servants' salaries would push inflation up as retailers would increase the prices of commodities in line with the new salaries. "We are aware that civil servants' salaries are public expenditure but this is captured during the budgetary process and the publication of the national budget but the contract of civil servants with their employer remains confidential." PSA, Mr. Chiviru said, was now considering taking action against its employer for exposing the civil servants' salaries. The PSC should have informed the National Joint Negotiating Council first before going ahead to publish the civil servants' salaries in the media, Mr. Chiviru said. He also said the commission should urgently address anomalies and disparities, which emerged after the Government embarked on a job evaluation exercise. Civil servants, he said, should move with speed to form workers' committees as provided for in the Labour Relations Act.

From Harare Herald, Zimbabwe, 16 July 2003

TUC, Civil Servants kick against Insurance Bill

Accra - The Civil Servants Association, Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other groups have kicked against certain provisions of the National Health Insurance Bill currently before Parliament and called for a review of some portions. They have also questioned the lack of consultation and haste with which the Bill was laid before Parliament in its present state, which they said was flawed. The Bill seeks to provide a policy and regulatory framework for health care financing to replace the 'cash and carry system', which involves paying for services at the point of delivery. Speaking at a day's stakeholders' workshop on the Bill in Accra, Mr. Wilson Tei, an Official of the Ghana Insurers Association, said the administration of the National Health Insurance Scheme should be the duty of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and not the Health Ministry, as captured in the Bill. "The implementing agency being the Ministry of Health is a fundamental flaw in the delivery of health insurance as it is a financial service. The implementing agency should be the Ministry of Finance," he said.

The Bill makes provision for the establishment of the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) to license, regulate and supervise the operations of all health insurance schemes in the country. "The NHIC should be under the MOF and not the MOH as is being proposed by the draft Bill," Mr. Tei noted. The workshop was organised by the Legal Resources Centre, a non-governmental organisation and PHRplus, an insurance organisation at present engaged in establishing mutual insurance organisation in the country. Mr. Tei said the Bill proposes two and half per cent deductions from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in addition to levies or taxes. This source of funding, he noted, would further place a burden on the formal sector in the face of inequalities in taxation between the formal and informal sector. "The SSNIT funds belong to only about one million Ghanaians, who invariably already enjoy employer sponsored health delivery. Over the long-term the reductions of SSNIT contributions will compromise the solvency of SSNIT," he stressed.

Mr. Tei said the Bill, as it stood now, did not seek "to promote private health insurance business and seeks to kill already existing health insurance schemes". Mr. Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association, said the Association has already started its own health insurance scheme, which the government had to build on. He said it would be wrong to evolve a new scheme without reference to the existing ones. Mr. Chigabatia said the government was not the only employer and did not also own workers' contributions to SSNIT and, therefore, had no right to take any monies from SSNIT for the insurance scheme. He also questioned the tax regime being proposed by the Bill as a source of funding. He said the government should be a regulator of the insurance scheme and not a businessman. He questioned why the government had hastily sent the Bill to Parliament without giving any chance for the majority of people to see copies including Parliamentarians, who had their copies on Tuesday. Mr. Kwasi Adu-Amankwa, the TUC Secretary-General, also deplored the haste with which the Bill was sent to Parliament and the lack of consultation.

From GhanaWeb, Ghana, 17 July 2003

Pay and Employment Reforms in Civil Service

The advent of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1990 saw the introduction of civil service reforms as one of the major facets of the reform programme. Among other things, civil service reforms sought to rationalise the size of the civil service by shedding off about a quarter of the public service in order to end up with a leaner and more efficient public service. Most would agree that when staff rationalisation measures were put in place, the service unfortunately lost some of the cream in the process. While numbers may have gone down, the wage bill has continued to increase in nominal terms simply due to the inflation adjustment exercise that has taken place year in and out. It is understood that the recently completed job evaluation exercise that has seen a significant improvement in the remuneration of civil servants has been conducted with the same spirit of implementing reforms that will bring about a more efficient and well rewarded civil service. This has been one of the long outstanding items on the ESAP/ZIMPREST/MERP agenda. The job evaluation exercise has helped reduce distortions that have prevailed in the civil service wages structure and incomes policy for a long time. Effectively, the adjustments have improved the real incomes of civil servants to some extent.

This can only be considered a positive development if such measures are accompanied by serious and more concerted effort to address enemy number one - INFLATION! Failure to do so simply becomes a zero sum game and before December 2003, we will be negotiating another round of salary adjustments. In view of the prevailing inflationary conditions in the economy, where inflation has moved from single to triple digit levels, it is only logical and necessary for such adjustments to take place. Simplified, with bread costing an average of $ 1 000 a loaf, a domestic worker earning $10 000 month can have a loaf of bread per day for 10 days only in a month (By the way, there are people who are still paying domestic workers such low salaries!) Given that the civil service salary adjustments have gone up by more than 100 percent, one would wish to undertake a simple maths exercise using figures in the Blue Book. Taking an example of the following scenarios where salaries are adjusted by 100 percent, 200 percent and 300 percent or whatever percentage, such increases over a 2003 total civil service wage bill estimate of $221.6 billion will increase the bill to an estimate of around $443.2 billion, $664.8 billion and $886.5 billion respectively. It is therefore hoped that the capital budget, an equally if not more deserving expenditure item, will be granted a similar boost.

The question being raised by the taxpayers who finance this wage bill is one of value for money. The taxpayer is over-burdened with not only Pay As You Earn (PAYE) or corporate tax or whatever form of tax, but inflation tax (of which civil servants are taxpayers too!). Value for money can only be granted to the taxpayer if he / she asks for it. So here comes the request on value for money from the taxpayer. 1. The taxpayer would like to see the Public Service Commission develop into a strong institution that monitors and implements reforms in the civil service on a continuous basis. Reforms should not only focus on remuneration although retrenchment and remuneration can be the starting points. The positive effects of the efforts made by the Commission should be felt and acknowledged by the taxpayers. Specific examples of areas that need attention are as follows: lSome civil servants are insufficiently productive in that they do not fulfil the tasks assigned to them or they carry out the assignments with great delays at high cost. Consequently, some are ineffective and inefficient. Such a civil service syndrome needs to be tackled before it becomes endemic; lAn unsavoury response to low salaries is corruption. While corruption may be a function of low salaries, among other factors, high pay does not necessarily guarantee absence of corruption.

Corruption is not only a challenge in Zimbabwe but other developing countries too. Therefore we need to talk and debate such issues and consider ways to curb this cancer. By keeping quiet, corruption becomes a way of life. The taxpayer would like to see measures put in place to address this cancer that is slowly eating away the reputation of the civil service. lGraft, bribery and other forms of extortion are widely prevalent and are becoming contemporary instruments of collecting rents or tributes. Empirical evidence for this manifests itself as payment of money to "speed up things" e.g. passport processing, allocation of A2 farms, placement at institutions of higher learning especially teacher's colleges, high and primary schools, private high profile creches or day centres, speed money to have files move rapidly. Speed money is also paid to facilitate clearance of goods and luggage at airports with customs officials or to facilitate transfer pricing; speed money to get passport forms that have the required "stamped number" otherwise the form is unacceptable; payment of illicit under-valuation of imports, income tax forms, licensing officials e.g. for liquor licence, shop licences so that inspectors do not enforce laws and regulations. The list is endless but this will stir debate and propose solutions to this cancer that has destroyed other developing countries. So what will make Zimbabwe immune if we do not confront the challenge head on before it gets out of hand? This is the question the taxpayer is asking.

Further empirical evidence on how the taxpayer is failing to get value for money is in the area of abuse of state assets e.g. telephones, withdrawal of working hours as some staff are reported missing in office, teachers not being on duty or doctors not being in hospitals when required; civil servants requesting for travel allowances on more mileage than actual travelled etc The guilty are afraid and will not like this kind of talk but if the truth is to be told, this is it. This is what is happening not only in other countries out there, but here in Zimbabwe too. The taxpayer is now saying, in addition to the efforts made by the government through the Public Service Commission I presume, the following reforms may be considered to have the kind of civil service everybody wishes for: lCivil servants should display their IDs and employment numbers as is the case with the Zimbabwe Republic Police. lConsideration could be made to having a hotline that is managed and monitored by an autonomous body. The hotline will handle reports, complaints, compliments and disseminate the information accordingly. lQuick resolution of complaints and queries is a vital component of the civil service reform programme. lImproved information dissemination on pertinent issues is vital to the taxpayer e.g. what may be simple to some may be but a nightmare to others. This is exemplified by such processes as accessing government services like passports, burial orders, death certificates, national IDs , qualifying criteria for entrance into institutions of higher learning or qualifying criteria for accessing A2 farms, access to subsidised loans for the mining and export sectors.

From Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe, 17 July 2003

Fresh Headcount for Civil Servants

The Government is considering undertaking a major head count of civil servants to flush out ghost workers, Finance Minister Mr. David Mwiraria announced yesterday. Mwiraria also warned the local business community against falling prey to tricksters currently going around pretending to be soliciting money for use by the Government using names of leading officials including himself. The minister said the Government was concerned at the continuing huge wage bill in the Civil Service despite the retrenchment exercise carried out by the previous regime under the World Bank-driven Civil Service Reform Programme (CRSP). He said initial investigations through scanning of the payroll had established that some people were earning more than a salary in the Government. "Our estimation is that if the retrenchment process yielded a reduction of 10 per cent in the level of government, we expect the wage bill to go down by the same margin and not increase by 2 per cent," the minister said.

Mwiraria said the move to scrutinise the Government payroll would be taken as part of the ongoing efforts to bridge the current huge budget deficit estimated at Sh47 billion by cutting on unnecessary expenditures. "We will start the process of accounting for the huge wage bill by looking at what is on the computer. We have already established that our payroll has repeated names which means people are earning more than they are entitled to," he said. Mwiraria who was addressing a news conference in his Treasury office, produced a number of letters written to leading chief executives of local firms by tricksters asking for colossal sums of money to support various government projects. The letters are on the Ministry of Finance letterhead complete with a reference file number and Mwiraria's signature. Though the minister said the signatures were fake, he could not immediately ascertain whether the file numbers were genuine.

In a letter written to Messrs Vijas Manufacturers and Horseman Cigarettes, and purportedly signed by Mwiraria, the conmen say: "The government as a matter of urgency requires Sh2 million for refurbishing and furnishing of State House Nairobi. It is the Government's pleasure to appeal for financial support from private sector". It goes further to say that the fund should be channelled through the National Bank of Kenya, Harambee Avenue Branch Account Number 0126005024500 and should be strictly cash deposits. Another letter addressed to the Executive Director of Kirinyaga Construction Company the Government says as a matter of urgency requires Sh300 million for re-carpeting and reconstruction of roads destroyed by floods in Nairobi as part of their participation in financing the infrastructure. Mwiraria said the same characters had also used his name to send people to industrialists, Messrs Manu Chandaria and Chris Kirubi for employment consideration. He said there was a possibility that the same tricksters could be using names of other ministers to solicit funds from the private sector players. He said initial investigations by the police indicated that the account number belonged to a university student.

From East African Standard, Kenya, by John Oyuke, 18 July 2003

Senior Minister Decries Current State of the Public Service

Accra - Senior Minister Joseph Henry Mensah said on Wednesday that the public services remain in a state of considerable ineffectiveness because of the neglect of systematic training, capacity building and career development of public servants. Speaking during a visit to the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) Secretariat in Accra, he said a weak public service could not serve the government well enough in implementing its development agenda. A statement from NIRP quoted Mr. Mensah as saying, it is therefore, necessary to take stock of the on-going public sector reforms in order to prioritise them and redefine the reform programme that seeks to make the public sector more efficient and effective. Mr. Mensah is also responsible for Public Sector Reforms and the NIRP. Dr Appiah Koranteng, National Co-ordinator of the NIRP, charged staff of the Secretariat to redouble their efforts in ensuring that the reforms are carried through for efficient delivery. He said the pilot phase of the programme has achieved significant successes but admitted that a lot of work still needs to be done. He pledged support of the secretariat to assist the Senior Minister in the implementation of the public sector reforms.

From GhanaWeb, Ghana, 24 July 2003

Shake-up in Federal Civil Service Soon - 190,776 Jobs On Line

Abuja - A comprehensive overhaul of the Federal Civil Service that would erase about 190,776 jobs is under way. Sources close to the just-concluded ministerial retreat told the DAILY TIMES that the job cut was one of the sour decisions taken there. The sources said a presidential directive was handed over to the ministers some whom had already briefed their directors and heads of departments. A staff audit to determine those to be eased out is under way and all the relevant heads in the ministries, and government parastatals have accordingly been told what to do. At present, the Federal Civil Service, which the World Bank had repeatedly said was over-bloated has 286,163 staff, excluding the military, the police, the judicary (1,152 workers) and the 1,448 political office holders. World Bank's reasoning is that the government could execute its policies with about one-third of the present workforce. Already, the fate of no fewer than 1,500 drivers in the employment of the Federal Government hangs in the balance as their vehicles have been withdrawn as part of the implementation of government's monetisation policy. Sources said the worst hit might be Works and Houseing Ministry which has 28,000 staff, though, the erstwhile minister, Tony Anenih, had insisted that "8,000 could actually do the job."

From Daily Times of Nigeria, by Ebhohon Ikhurionan, 23 July 2003

Too Many Public Servants, Says Audit

The government is paying 23 836 people who are performing functions in various departments where their skills are not required. This is according to an audit on personnel done by the department of public service and administration, in which the employees are declared in "excess". This was revealed by the department's director of communications, Thembela Khulu, who indicated that minister Geraldine Fraser- Moleketi would brief cabinet on the issue at the July lekgotla. She said the department was spearheading the formation of the new government security agency, which would absorb 7 856 soldiers, who form the bulk of the excess. Moleketi viewed the formation of the new security agency, which will safeguard state buildings, and the formation of the social security agency, which will administer payment of social grants, as urgent. A number of public servants who were found to be in excess during the audit face redeployment to other departments and provinces.

A total of 23 836 public servants have been declared in "excess" in their respective departments. Khulu said the agricultural sector had 860 employees more than the number required for their respective expertise. The department of defence has the highest "excess" - 7 856 - while education has 2 019, the criminal justice sector nine, the environmental field 118 and finance 115. There was also an excess of 15 562 general administration employees, drawn mainly from home affairs. The excess employees have been encouraged to apply for vacant positions in the public service. Khulu said by the end of June there were 11 163 vacant posts in the public service. Among other sectors with the most vacant posts are infrastructure and parks, with 2 843, criminal justice (15), the welfare sector (474), the agricultural sector (192), public works (1 553), arts and sport (3), education (153) and finance (5).

From City Press, South Africa, by Mpumelelo Mkhabela, 19 July 2003

Kenya Uses More On Civil Servants

Nairobi - Wages and salaries of civil servants consume 9.2 per cent of total wealth created in the economy, according to a new study launched by the government yesterday. The study shows that Kenya spends much more on civil service salaries than Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia. According to the study, Uganda spends 5.7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Tanzania 4.1 and Ethiopia 7.8. The study, launched by Finance minister David Mwiraria, also shows that budgetary allocations to development and capital expenditure were also lower than in the three countries. In terms of development spending, Tanzania is at 5.9 per cent of GDP, Uganda at 10.1 and Ethiopia at 12.8. The study found that even when monies are allocated for development, most of the ministries do not spend it. The study named several ministries and departments as persistent over-spenders of resources. They include the National Assembly, State House, Office of the President, Health and Defence. It shows that government departments engaged in administration consumed a disproportionate share of budgetary resources compared to ministries which provide services to the public.

The study recommends that the government should live to its pledge of reducing the wage bill to below 8.5 per cent of GDP by the year 2005. The study, known as Public Expenditure Review, was conducted by the Ministry of Planning and sponsored by the European Commission, the Department for International Development (DfID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAid). Speaking at the launch, Mr. Mwiraria said that such reviews would be conducted more regularly, noting that it was one of the tools for monitoring and evaluation. He blamed the previous government for having conducted public expenditure reviews on a "stop and go" basis. He said the Narc Government would re-train staff and equip them with necessary skills to conduct expenditure review. The minister noted that a publication, the African Competitive Report, had ranked Kenya among the top African countries in terms of quality of human resources, exporting human labour to South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda, Namibia and Zambia.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, 25 July 2003

Jigawa to Restructure Civil Service

Dutse - Worried by the of redundancy- inefficiency and overlapping functions within the state ministries, parastatals and agencies, the Jigawa State government has set up a committee to re-structure ministries and the civil service for improved productivity and efficiency. Head of Service, Malam Ibrahim Manzo who delivered this to Daily Trust in his office said the restructuring exercise to avoid overlapping functions of workers, waste and idleness and to study, recommend and ensure the only relevant ministries, agencies or parastatal are maintained. Malam Manzo added that the structuring would also instil discipline among civil servants in the state and ensure punctuality and dedication to service. He also revealed that the civil servants would be streamlined to relevant agencies and ministries to wipe out cases of redundancy. He warned that worker who is in the habit of late coming or absenteeism will be shown the way out of the service. The Head of Service therefore called for concerted efforts by all civil servants to brace up for a better and more enduring challenge towards bettering the state civil service, stressing that time for lukewarm attitude to work and idleness has gone. He said the committee's report would form the bedrock for the transformation of a stronger, viable and production civil service in the state. The five-man committee has the state Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia as the Chairman; the committee's term of reference includes analysing the present structure of government.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Hassan A. Karofi, 29 July 2003

Problem Lies With The Civil Service

In response to the letter by Jeffrey, 'Meritocracy is the solution to our malaise', I would like to say that meritocracy is not a cure-all either! Let us first accept that Malaysia is a Muslim country with a sizeable (40 per cent of the population) non-Muslim citizenry. This is as it should be by Articles 3 and 153 of the Federal Constitution. Then we have to understand that the meaning and implementation of 'meritocracy' may be different for the different ethno-religious groups. What is worthy of merit for one group may not be so for others because of differing value-systems. In particular, Muslims attach an Islamic dimension to the practice of meritocracy. To make matters more complicated, the distinct ethno-religious groups have different aspirations and they may be heading towards different directions socio-politically. Thus in both PAS and the Umno-led BN, political supremacy is reserved for the Malay-Muslim majority because they can realise and project the Muslim aspiration and values both locally and internationally.

In other words, a purely materialistic definition of meritocracy ala Singapore's PAP, is not sufficient to capture the Malay-Muslim aspiration in Malaysia. Of course this leads to dissatisfaction among certain quarters - but by and large, Malaysia functions well when compared to other multi-racial and multi-religious Third World nations. The same can be said of Singapore too - as after all there are those who claim that Singapore's 15 percent Malay-Muslim population have been marginalised because of their materialistic, numbers-only approach with meritocracy. I think the problem in Malaysia are the inefficiencies in the civil service sector. Should the Malaysian civil service overcome its inefficiencies and make significant improvements, I am sure that people like Jeffrey will be happy to be Malaysian. That is what matters at the bottom-line anyway.

From Malaysia Kini, Malaysia, by Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad, 8 July 2003

Malaysia to Build Public Servants Housing Scheme

On the invitation of Minister of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Vajira Abeywardene, Minister of Works Malaysia, Dato S. Samy Vellu laid the foundation for two Housing Projects for Public Servants at Wakunagoda and Habaraduwa. Under this Pilot Project, 1,500 houses for public sector employees would be constructed by Wincon Development (Ceylon) Pvt. Ltd of Malaysia. Making the keynote address, Minister of Works, Malaysia, Dato S. Samy Vellu said that under the able stewardship of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Sri Lankan Government had shown the farsightedness and demonstrated the seriousness by providing affordable housing for the employees of the public sector. Malaysia he said had encouraged its private sector to venture out and invest overseas. Malaysian private sector had considerable experience and technical know-how in a number of areas, particularly in construction, consultancy and the development infrastructure, he said. He thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for giving the opportunity to the Malaysian private sector for development as well. He said this was the first major Malaysian project ever undertaken by a Malaysian company in Sri Lanka.

This would also be an opening for Malaysian investors to invest in development projects in this beautiful country, he said. Rapid development in Malaysia in the last decade had produced many Malaysian construction industry players of international standards. The type of projects successfully completed in Malaysia by these construction firms covered a wide range of scopes including infrastructure, buildings, highways bridges and water supplies, he said. Large number of impressive and large-scale residential schemes in Malaysia were the evidence of the great achievements and success of our country in implementing housing projects, he said. 'I regard this housing project for the public servants of Sri Lanka, very important as it provides the means and platform for the Malaysian construction industry players to share their expertise and experience in the development of housing', he said. This would open the door for a lot more Malaysian involvement in Sri Lanka not only in the scope of housing but also highways as well as other scopes of construction, he further said. This would directly contribute towards further enhancing the good relationship between the two countries, he said.

The foundation laying ceremony was the culmination of several months of cordial discussion and negotiation between the two sides involved namely Pembinaan Wincon Sdn Bhd and the Ministry of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Sri Lanka, he said. This symbolized the commencement of the construction of 25,000 units of houses over various locations within Sri Lanka for public sector employees, he said. Minister of Public Administration, Management and Reforms, Vajira Abeywardene said that there were nearly 25,000 public sector employees and out of that number about 3,000 to 4,000 were keen on buying houses on terms of easy payments. As a pilot scheme, out of 25,000 houses, only 1,500 houses would be constructed in Galle district, he said. Similarly in all other districts, 'Nila Sevana' housing project would be implemented in order to solve the housing problem of the public servants, he said.

Once the project was completed, the private sector employees could purchase the houses for four to ten lakhs of rupees which amount could be paid monthly out of their salary, he said. Minister of Mass Communication, Imithiaz Bakeer Markar said that this novel housing scheme embraced the whole system of public administration. During the previous government there was no congenial atmosphere for the foreign investors in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan nation was bleeding during that dark era, he said. As a direct result of the protracted North-East War, people were living in suspicion and fear. The economy was shattered due to mismanagement of resources, corruption and malpractices were rampant. The unprecedented amount of foreign aid granted by the international community to the Sri Lankan government revealed the trust and confidence they had on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as a statesman genuinely dedicated to bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka, he said. On the same day foundation was laid for the Economic Centre of Galle District at Boossa.

From Daily News, Sri Lanka, 8 July 2003

Employing Gays in Civil Service a 'Tiny Step Forward'

Some gays see policy change as progress, but feel more has to be done before they gain acceptance - As a policy officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 1999, Mr. Lee Say Choy had access to classified information on the free trade agreement to be signed between Singapore and the United States. After a day of closed-door discussions, he would unwind in gay bars with his friends. 'My colleagues and, I believe, my supervisors, knew I was gay, because I was quite open about it. But it was never an issue,' said Mr Lee, 30, now a financial reporter. His move to the private sector three years ago was for 'personal reasons' unrelated to his sexual orientation. 'I never felt I was discriminated against because of my sexuality,' he told The Sunday Times. 'The top-most priority is still one's capability.' His experience reflects the quiet policy change towards homosexuals that Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong revealed in a recent interview with Time magazine. Mr. Goh said the Government now employs openly homosexual people, even in sensitive jobs.

He said: 'In the past, if we know you're gay, we would not employ you. But we just changed this quietly. We know you are. We'll employ you.' Homosexuals had to disclose their status to avoid being open to blackmail, he added. When interviewed, members of the gay community here said PM Goh's comments represented a 'tiny' step forward that was long overdue, but they would adopt a 'wait and see' attitude to see if the words would 'translate into action'. 'It's a step towards affirmation of the gay society although, all along, there have been homosexuals working quietly in the civil service,' said Ms Peggy Koh, 30, a counsellor. Members of the gay community said that at the root of the 'danger' of gays being blackmailed was society's prejudice against them. 'Why should gays be susceptible to being blackmailed in the first place?' asked law academic Eleanor Wong. Mr. Alvin Tan, director of arts group The Necessary Stage, was among those who were sceptical. 'I don't think the Government is doing this in a true attempt to embrace diversity, but due to the brain drain of talented gays who have left the civil service - and Singapore - in search of more welcoming environments.'

There is a lot more to be done before homosexuals can receive the same level of respect as heterosexuals, said people in the gay community. Dismantling the 'archaic' legislation against engaging in homosexual acts would be chief among them, they said. In the Time interview, PM Goh said homosexual acts will remain an offence. 'It's more than just the criminal code. It's actually the values of the people. The heartlanders are still conservative,' he said. Dr Lim Han Nan, 55, a Chinese physician, agreed. He said: 'It defies human nature. If people of the same sex want to be friends, that's fine. But not if they become lovers. 'We should not encourage them by legalising homosexual acts.' But Singapore Buddhist Federation secretary-general, the Venerable Shi Ming Yi, said: 'People have different likes and dislikes. Of course, as a religion, we do not think that homosexuality is right. 'But we should still respect them and try to help them as much as possible. We would extend them a hand of compassion.'

From Straits Times, Singapore, by Li Xueying, 5 July 2003

Report Graft and Abuse in Civil Service to MCA

MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting has urged the Chinese community to help curb corruption, abuse of powers and administrative deviation in the government service by reporting such cases to the MCA, Sin Chew Daily reported yesterday. Ong, who is Housing and Local Government Minister, was quoted as saying that such reports should be made with concrete evidence to enable MCA ministers to raise the matter at Cabinet meetings. "The MCA has been bringing up social problems, particularly those affecting the Chinese community, at the weekly Cabinet meeting. "Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi are concerned and are trying to find ways to resolve them," he was quoted as saying. Ong said he came to know that Dr Mahathir had specifically instructed Second Finance Minister Datuk Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis to make sure that hawkers and petty traders from all ethnic groups benefited from the small loan scheme provided under the economic stimulus package.

The daily added that Ong told hawkers and petty traders who were facing difficulties in their application for small loans to seek help from the MCA. The daily and Nanyang Siang Pau also reported that the Federation of Hawkers and Petty Traders Associations Malaysia cried foul over the strict terms and conditions imposed by Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) on the small loans provided under the stimulus package. Quoting the federation's president Tan Tian Kooi, the two dailies reported that the red tape set by BSN had made it almost impossible for the hawkers and petty traders to get the loans. According to Sin Chew Daily, Tan said that the BSN wanted hawkers and petty traders to include a seconder, who is a member of the federation, in their loan applications. He said the bank had also stipulated conditions in selecting the seconder. Tan added that over 1,000 members of the federation had submitted their applications but none of their loans were approved, the daily reported.

From Star, Malaysia, 3 July 2003

Good Citizens Course for All Civil Servants

Kuala Lumpur - All civil servants, except police and armed forces personnel, will have to attend a five-day course on being good citizens to instil patriotism and good work culture in them. Public Service Department director-general Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri said this would help create a mentally and physically prepared and disciplined civil service. "The modules in the course will include the nation's history, loyalty pledge to the King, government and nation, the importance of preventing corruption, being accountable for one's actions and having good morals and ethics," he said in a circular. This took effect on March 1 and participants will be assessed throughout the course and required to sit an objective test. Those who fail the test will be allowed to attend the same course a year later with an option for a shorter programme. Those who do not pass will not be considered for promotion, while those confirmed in service will be given preference to attend the course. Jamaluddin said the course would be handled by National Civics Bureau under the Prime Minister's Department. The PSD will appoint officers to run the course.

The participants will be briefed on events leading to independence, the provisions in the Federal Constitution, national policies and the social contract. "They will also be briefed on the importance of the country's demography to the nation's development, the workings of the parliamentary democracy system, the country's diplomatic relations with other countries as well as loyalty to the country and its leaders," he said. At the end of the course, the participants are expected to understand the implications of the country's social contract system. They also have to understand the values, morals and ethics in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. "Participants are expected to know how to gauge their level of fitness through simple tests, to reduce stress, to improve one's physical being and to remain emotionally stable," said Jamaluddin. He said during the course, individuals would be told of the need to inculcate the spirit of solidarity and to help one another without looking at one's race or self-interest. "It is also important that they know each individual may differ in opinions and the importance of respecting this and how to become an effective civil servant," he added.

From New Straits Times, Malaysia, by Sarban Singh, 3 July 2003

Japan Mulls Linux for Civil Service

Japanese authorities may consider switching to Linux during their next IT systems upgrade in 2005, a move which is expected slash maintenance costs by half. The government has taken to a proposal by Fujitsu, IBM Japan and Oki Electric Industry which moots the use of open-source for managing salary and other personnel administration data for the country's 800,000 public servants, government spokesman Masanobu Arao told Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. While finer details of the deal are still being discussed, the paper said the 188 million yen (US$1.6 million) contract will halve maintenance fees for government IT systems because Linux is free. Japanese authorities first sneaked details of their Linux plans in November last year. At that time however, security issues were cited as the key impetus for considering the open-source move as hitches in platforms such as Linux are thought to be easier to fix.

Besides Japan, India and China are two other Asian strongholds for open-source software. Officials in India's Department of Information Technology in New Delhi disclosed details of a move called the Linux India Initiative just weeks before Microsoft chairman Bill Gate's visit to the country last year. In China, Linux has already made inroads into a slew of government ministries such as the National Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Statistics and the National Labor Unit. To curb the spread of Linux, software giant Microsoft has started to reveal its closely-guarded Windows source code to authorities around the world as part of its Government Security Program (GSP). In Asia, the company has opened its code to the China and in other parts of world to Russia, NATO and the United Kingdom. Microsoft said it is also in discussions with more than 30 countries, territories and organizations regarding their interest in this program.

From Cnet Asia, Asia, 10 July 2003

Civil Servants Urged to See the Bigger Picture

Kota Kinabalu - Sabah State Secretary Datuk KY Mustapha said civil servants must raise their level of mission consciousness to achieve the goals of the state government for a better administration. He said civil servants cannot let their jurisdiction and duties deter them from forming productive and progressing networks to achieve the state government's goal. To achieve something important together, they must first be lifted above boundaries, territories and pettiness. Datuk Mustapha said this when launching a workshop on team dynamic and the Kota Kinabalu City Hall's management guidebooks at Nexus Karambunai Resort here. He said civil servants must work towards a symbiosis between individuals and the goal of the various government components. Symbiotic relationships depend on the ability of diverse organisations to set aside differences and strive towards a common goal. "We need to shut out the bureaucratic mindset be resourceful, innovative and pioneering. If we think we are the entire picture, we will never see the big picture," he said.

He said civil servants must be receptive to new ideas and not hide behind rules and regulation. They must not resist changes that expand opportunities. Datuk Mustapha strongly urged government agencies to work as a team, have the ability and confidence to make great individual contributions and still have the humility and cooperative spirit to respect and contribute to the team. Mayor Datuk Haji Abdul Gahni Rashid said earlier that the guidebooks are meant to spur the implementation of its Corporate Action Plan comprising strategic and operational plans, complemented with a human resource policy and practice, which are the deciding factors for organisational success. "We want to forge stronger partnerships in resolving issues pertaining to the city's physical and social developments," he said.

From Borneo Bulletin, Brunei, by Arman Gunsika, 10 July 2003

More Male Civil Servants Take Childcare Leave

An increased number of male public servants took a childcare leave last year, according to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs. According to a poll conducted on 54,159 public servants qualified for childcare leave, 1,784 took it, 50.1 percent up from the previous year's 1,188. The proportion of male servants who took a childcare leave increased to 6.1 percent, up from the previous year's 4.9 percent while that of female servants dropped to 93.9 percent from 95.1 percent of the previous year. Childcare leave is designed to provide workers, both men and women, time off from work to care for children under the age of three. The government provides financial assistance for ten and a half months. Public servants became eligible to receive the benefits since November 2001. However, only a small number of civil servants had taken the leave, due mainly to lack of publicity, a ministry official said. The small amount of money allotted and uncertainty about being able to return to work after the time off also contributed to decisions not to go on leave. In line with the earlier decision by the National Assembly's standing committee to raise workers' allowance for childcare leave from the current 200,000 won (about $160) per month to 400,000 won, the government also expanded benefits for public servants on childcare leave.

From Korea Times, South Korea, by Yoo Dong-ho, 10 July 2003

Stressed Civil Servants Can Seek Advice of Mentors

Putrajaya - All government departments should implement a mentoring programme as a way to counsel and support civil servants working under severe stress, said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman. He said the departments would benefit from such a move as there had been cases where civil servants were unable to cope with their workload or personal problems. "For instance, previously, we tended to treat people who turn up late for work or who don't even bother to show up at all as a disciplinary matter, but we have found that those involved may be experiencing serious emotional and personal stress. "By having mentors in each department and allowing these people to talk about their problems, we hope this will be able to help them work and live better," he told reporters after presenting excellent service awards to 301 staff of the various departments under the Prime Minister's Department here yesterday.

Samsudin said the PM's Department had implemented such a programme for the second year running and had seen improvements in overall performance and efficiency standards. "The feedback is very positive. We started off with 53 mentors who underwent a training course by psychologists on how to best counsel and listen to their colleagues. The mentors may not necessarily be someone of a certain seniority level, but they have the ability to listen and advise. "We think that all government departments and ministries can benefit from such a programme, and we would like to encourage them to implement it," he said. Earlier in his speech, Samsudin called on civil servants not to delay taking action or coming to a decision on matters referred to them by the public, which was the main factor behind the recent rise in the number of complaints received by the Public Complaints Bureau.

From Star, Malaysia, 11 July 2003

Vietnamese Civil Servants Face Sex Sanctions

Hanoi - Few have taken Vietnam's previous pledges to eradicate prostitution seriously, but recent legislation could result in state employees being caught with their pants down. The names of all civil servants, military and police personnel found to have visited a prostitute will be passed on to their superiors for punishment. Civil servants account for 60 percent of prostitutes' customers. Those caught face fines between $15 (about R100) and $250 (about R2 000) and will be barred from promotion for a period. Repeat offenders risk suspension. Nguyen Thi Hue from the ministry of labour, invalids and social affairs, leading the drive, said the annual budget of $1,5-million was "insufficient". Nguyen Ngoc Lan, manager of a Hanoi mini-hotel is sceptical. "The benefits brought by the sex industry are too important," she said. "What's more you cannot settle personal matters with administrative measures." - Sapa-AFP

From Independent Online, South Africa, 14 July 2003

'Kamikaze' Type to Test Public Service Deal

Opposition MPs want to find a "kamikaze" public servant bold enough to head a legal challenge against extra benefits given to union members in eight Government departments. Act finance spokesman Rodney Hide says he has been approached by staff of four departments furious at what they see as bribery, but has been told he needs to find one close to retirement "or else a kamikaze" for a legal challenge. He said the latest approach was from a Conservation Department insider, whose 1150 union colleagues are voting on a three-year collective employment agreement including payments of $1137 in recognition of the perceived value of a management-union partnership. About 150 non-unionists will receive all allowances negotiated by the Public Service Association and the Amalgamated Workers' Union for their members, but not lump-sum payments of $737 this year and $200 for each of the following two years. "They are angry beyond belief because they see it as the politicisation of the civil service, but say it is more than their job is worth to speak out," Mr. Hide said yesterday. Conservation Department human resources manager Julie Craig denied extra payments were bribes.

To get them staff had to be union members on June 20, predating the end of months of negotiations between their delegates and managers. She said the department wanted its staff on standard terms but was also directed by the Employment Relations Act to promote collective bargaining. PSA secretary Richard Wagstaff said it was ludicrous for Opposition MPs to keep "bleating on about this" as his union could negotiate only on behalf of its members, having no lawful authority to represent anybody else. Neither Mr. Hide nor National finance spokesman Dr Don Brash accept this, saying they will keep searching for a public servant prepared to take a test case to court. Auditor-General Kevin Brady said in reply to a complaint by Dr Brash about special deals reached last year in Inland Revenue and four other departments at a cost of almost $5 million that he had no mandate to intervene.

But he said the relationship between two clauses of the Employment Relations Act had not been tested, and the Employment Court had jurisdiction to consider the lawfulness of lump-sum payments if a litigant had necessary standing to make a case. One clause says preferences should not be given to workers over terms or conditions of employment, fringe benefits or opportunities for training, promotion or transfer just because they are or are not members of a union. But the next clause adds that the anti-preference provision is not breached just because a worker's employment terms are different from those of somebody else employed by the same organisation. The State Services Commission has defended the extra payments under its bargaining rules, which allow lump sums "in recognition of identifiable benefits arising out of the collective relationship with a particular union". Other departments paying lump sums to unionists are Social Development, Internal Affairs, Corrections, and Land and Information.

From New Zealand Herald, New Zealand, by Mathew Dearnaley, 14 July 2003

Tahan Expects RM2.5 Milion in Premiums From Civil Servants

Composite insurer Tahan Insurance Malaysia Bhd hopes to generate RM2.5mil in premium income from the government employees market via a salary deduction programme, said its chief executive officer, Razidan Ghazalli. He said this could materialise following its business alliance with Coshare Holdings Bhd where government employees could opt to invest in Tahan Insurance products via a salary deduction programme. "We have created a platform that will enable these employees to invest via a salary deduction programme," he told reporters after formalising the business alliance with Coshare in Shah Alam yesterday. A result of a merger involving Talasco Insurance Malaysia Bhd, The People's Insurance Co (M) Bhd and Tenaga Insurance Malaysia Bhd, Tahan Insurance aims to register a combined premium income (from life and general insurance products) of RM300mil next year.

On plans of further acquisitions, Razidan said he did not rule out the possibility that Tahan Insurance would acquire more insurance companies. He said the insurance industry was currently operating in an overcrowded environment. "There are too many players. The insurance industry will consolidate, taking the cue from the consolidation of the banking industry," he said. Tahan Insurance is the third insurer that has formed business alliance with Coshare, an entity granted by the government to undertake government employees salary deduction programme. The other insurers are AIA and Pan Global Insurance. "There's no exclusivity to any insurer. So they (employees) have choice," said Coshare chief operating officer Amir Awang Hamad.

From Star, Malaysia, 14 July 2003

Public Servants' Air Travel Under Review

An independent review is to be held into air-travel in the Commonwealth public service following claims by REX airlines that most bookings go to Qantas. REX argues public servants tend to fly with Qantas even though its fares are often more expensive. The head of the Prime Minister's Department, Peter Shergold, has written to senior transport and finance executives saying a review will be held to determine if public servants are opting for the cheaper flights. REX airlines is expecting to make a decision by next week on whether to axe the rest of its Canberra services.

From ABC Regional Online, Australia, 16 July 2003

Power To The Civil Servants

With the expiry of the tenure of elected representatives of local bodies a year ago, the democratic exercise practiced at the grassroots has been held up, thereby, obstructing the local development activities and process of social mobilization. In the history of strengthening the grass root level democracy, the clashes of internal and external interest often thwart the process of institutionalization and leadership making. Be it under the leadership of Panchayat system or democratic set up, the local bodies continue to struggle for survival. Grass root level organizations were more institutionalized and stable than central level institutions when they were under the elected leadership. However, in the absence of election of new representatives, the local bodies are now in similar state as their central counterparts. Local bodies are popular institutions and they have contributed immensely in the social mobilization and development activities. If it is so, why this successful experiment is not being allowed to function properly? When Naresh Kumar Chapagain, chief of Kavrepalanchwok District Development Committee switched on a light of projector to display progress report at the meeting hall of District Development Committee at Dhulikhel last week, it reflected the changes at the local level that have come about in the last one decade. The sophistication in his presentation and the time he took to explain the planning and programs showed how capable the local bodies have become at far away districts.

From district planning to networking, human resources and social mobilization, the two-hour presentation covered all the important aspects that had evolved in the last five decades. It focused on the changes that occurred after the implementation of the Participatory District Development Program (PDDP). Since there is a remote possibility to hold the elections now, it seems that district development officers will have to take the leadership role in planning, implementing and execution of development programs in the grass root level, activating the existing institutions. Kavrepalanchwok is not alone in boasting such progress. Many other DDCs have similar kinds of institutions and development planning, completed in the last one decade. Despite political instability at the center, the DDCs and VDCs provided stability and strong leadership much needed for the development of local areas. Experiences have shown that the effective program is implemented only through the participation of local people. In the last one decade, many successful programs were put into action where DDCs and VDCs enjoyed dedicated and strong leadership. In terms of expenditure, the DDCs spend more than half of the development budgets, allowing local population to select, plan and execute the development programs they desire.

From school buildings to roads and bridges and health posts, local populations have constructed them on their own. Unfortunately, despite their importance, the government seems to be in no mood to revive the local bodies. According to a source close to the prime minister's office, the government is considering to extend its one-year-old decision of leaving the local bodies under the supervision of the civil servants by another year. History of Local Bodies - The institutionalization of local bodies has a long history. Many donors have put valuable resources and expertise to build and develop local bodies so as to deliver effective service to the local population. From initial days of process of institutionalization, the local bodies have passed through various phases of ups and downs. From the conflicting interest of internal and external powers, the local bodies had seen many painful days. But, it has survived many a number of sabotages and clashes of interests. With an initiation of the United States, the evolution of modern and functional local bodies embarked on in Nepal. "From the beginning, the Point IV team believed that if assistance programs were to be successful, a structure had to be developed to extend program benefits to Nepal's many villages," states Half-a-Century of Development, The History of U.S Assistance to Nepal 1951-2001, published by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"In the early 1950s, there was minimal government organization at the local level, and no dialogue between villagers and the national government. Paul Rose, the director of U.S Operation Mission (USOM), and chief Agriculturist Harold Dusenberry proposed the concept of local bodes in 1950s. According to the USOM, this was to be an organization known as the Village Development Service, established to contact village people, to find out their needs, and then to get assistance from various departments which would channel programs through this service," it further states. Today's village development committee, according to experts, is not merely a traditional and informal organization but it is an institution established under a legal and constitutional provisions. Constituted under the Local Self-Governance Act, 2055 (1999), various constitutional provisions and other existing acts and regulations guide its functions. The Supreme Court also interprets the laws relating to the local bodies. The process of legal evolution is very long. Recommendations of the representatives of local bodies are required in acquiring citizenship, birth, migration, marriage certificates and so on related to individuals. The article 46 (C) of the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal 1990 has provision where representatives of local body choose members of National Assembly.

The constitution says fifteen members, three each of Development Regions, to be elected in accordance with law on the basis of the system of single transferable vote by an electoral college consisting of the Chief and deputy chief of the villages and town level local authorities and the chief, deputy chief and the members of the district level local authorities. Since at present the local bodies do not have elected representatives, it is facing obscurity in implementing the programs. "Because of lack of elected representatives, the local bodies are unable to effectively accomplish development activities in the rural areas," said Krishna Man Pradhan, president of Rural Development Foundation, a non-governmental organization working to protect the rights of the local bodies. "Sooner the elections are held, better the local bodies will function." Achievements of DDCs and VDCs - Along with the District Development Committees (DDCs), the Village Development Committees (VDCs) have also achieved remarkable success in the areas of social mobilization. Supported under the PDDP, local residents of Kushadevi Village Development Committee of Kavre district have shown how transformation can be effected in their localities through social mobilization. "During my two tenures as a chairman of Kushadevi Village Development Committee, we had constructed four concrete two lane bridges, 39 kilometers long road, four primary schools and one high school building, health posts and number of community buildings," said Bhim Neupane, former chairman of Kushadevi VDC. "The pace and spirit of the development has decelerated following the expiry of tenure of local bodies."

With the expiry of the terms of elected representatives a year ago, chief executive officers of the DDCs have to share additional burden including formulation of planning, execution and implementation. Likewise, secretaries at the village development committees are responsible to impart the duties, which were earlier carried out by elected chairmen. Many see it is impossible for civil servants to carry out effective development-oriented activities. "Central leaders have little idea regarding the importance of the grass root level organizations like VDCs, municipalities and DDCs. Had the local bodies been given due considerations, the country would not have to face severe situation in the villages like now," said Daman Dhoj Chand, former minister from Bardiya who had worked for ten years as the president of Bardiya DDC and before that for another ten years as the chief of local Panchayat. "Based on the local people, the local bodies can easily mobilize the people at the grass root level," he said. Institutionalization of DDCs and VDCs - Responsible to implement almost all district level development activities, the DDCs play catalytic role to coordinate and implement planning process in the districts. The Local Self-Governance Act 2055 (1999) authorizes VDCs for formulation of plans of and process of implementation, preparation of resource maps, feasibility study and selection of the projects and coordination among village development committee and governmental and non-governmental agencies. The DDCs, too, have similar authority at the district level.

With the pressure from international donor agencies, civil society and elected leaders of local bodies, the government had tabled the Local Self-Governance Act in 1998 giving sweeping power to the elected authorities in the matters related to development and planning. If local bodies are such important and powerful entities, why did the mainstream democratic parties and government never consider holding its elections? The answer is simple and clear. Political leaders always perceive elected representatives of local bodies are their rivals. External powers, which have their own interests, too, feel the threat because the local bodies mobilize people at grass root level. However, the existing local bodies had enjoyed strong backing from the western countries including the United States since they want to see the democratic exercise at all level. "Weakness of western power is that they cannot influence the leadership at the policy-making level where national political leaders have a cozy interest with a country that has strong interest in Nepal," said a political analyst. Capabilities of Local Bodies - After injecting billions of rupees and experimenting with several rounds of elections, the local bodies have developed institutional frame works and program management systems. There are strong pools of civil servants working under the ministry of Local Development and political workers at the grass root level.

Chapagain's presentation demonstrates the capability of local level institutions built over the last five decades and software available at the local level. From drinking water to road and other micro-credit projects, the chief executive had many things to boast about. Divided into 15 units, Kavrepalanchwok district, which has 87 village development committees with a population of 385,281, has introduced many new programs including the computerized network as well as transparency in the accounting and program management. "Because of the lack of the elected representatives, we are facing the problems in the process of prioritizations. But the DDC has adequate manpower and capability to build planning and implement them," said Chapagain. "We are now on the planning phase and our programs for the forthcoming fiscal year will be announced next month." Despite his enthusiasm and institutional capabilities and legal authority, what he lacks is a backing of the elected representatives to implement the programs successfully at the targeted population. Since almost all 75 districts have well-built institutions and physical infrastructures with technical and administrative back up, district institutions will remain immobilized till the elections take place. "Since the officials are accelerating the development works, the question is who will take the ownership of development programs? Will VDC secretaries be responsible for failures?" Pradhan asked.

Evolution of local bodies - The sophistication seen in the Chapagain's presentation was not the outcome of a week or a month's efforts but a cumulative result of five decade long continuous support and contribution of the donor communities, who had backed the institutionalization efforts of local bodies. Whether it is through a Participatory District Development Program (PDDP), which is supported by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), or other local governance programs supported by various donor countries including DANIDA, DFID, NORAD, SDC, GTZ, SNV and other international organizations, all have focused their attention in strengthening the institutional capability of local bodies. Since the involvement of the USOM in early 1950s, many donor countries have injected billions of rupees to strengthen the local bodies and make it more effective and credible. This has resulted in the growth of strong institutions. Although more than 1800 VDC buildings were destroyed in the last seven years, people have not forgotten the importance of the VDCs. In the People's Movement of 1990, the parties directed their workers to go against the local Panchayat and changed the name of all local bodies, but people's attachment to the grass root institution remained. "Decentralization and local government system have always been the areas of keen interest for the Kings and rulers of Nepal since the very dawn of history. The Kirat Kings belonging to the first Nepalese dynasty had laid down the foundation of LGIs (local government institutions)," said Tulsi Narayan Shrestha, a decentralization expert.

To make more representation in the village and districts, the act divides the VDCs in nine wards and DDCs in 15 units. Each VDC is composed of 47 elected representatives including chairman and vice chairman. DDC consists of area members including president and vice president elected through indirect elections. Whether it was called Panchayat or VDC, people have strong attachment to the local bodies, which is their own government where they can discuss and decide their fate. Following intensification of Maoist insurgency, many police posts were removed from far away villages - the VDCS, then, were the only remaining entities of the state. King Mahendra's Contribution - Although King Mahendra dismissed elected government and suspended the constitution in 1961 AD, he also played equally important role in formation of popularly elected local bodies. King Mahendra introduced Panchayat system at the grass root level to mobilize the people. Introduced by late King Mahendra, who is criticized as an authoritarian ruler, the local bodies have helped to transform power structure giving room for local people to take their collective decision. Before the establishment of the VDCs, it was the sole duty of landlords. Along with establishing the local bodies, the Constitution of Nepal promulgated in 1962 also gave the constitutional guarantee to the local bodies. The Part 8 of the Constitution of Nepal 1962 mentions the modalities and functions of Village Assembly, Town Assembly, Village Panchayat, Town Panchayat and District Panchayat.

In terms of constitutional guarantee, the Constitution of Nepal 1962 was more progressive and protective than the present constitution formulated by the democrats of 1990.The existing forms of local bodies are based on a system introduced by the Panchayat and legal institutional frame works, too, originated at that time. "The existing structure of local bodies is compilation of custom, religion, habit and historical compulsions. Since the arms of the central government never reaches in the periphery except to collect the revenue, local bodies are envisaged to mobilize the local population," said a senior advocate. "As the unitary form of government always tends to be authoritarian, the local bodes are very important to decentralize the power." Realizing the need of local bodies in forming the leadership, King Mahendra encouraged local participation. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, many leaders who were groomed in Panchayati local set up were elected to the parliament. The elected leaders of grass root level are always powerful influence to contain the insurgency. When the Maoists launched their insurgency in 1996, they began their movement by targeting the infrastructures of local bodies and elected representatives. As long as elected representatives were functional, the insurgent could not escalate their activities. Many VDCs contained the Maoists through effective development planning and by penetrating to the villages. "Local bodies will help foster the leadership at the center. Since the periodical elections produced the leadership much needed at the center, it is the best place where new leaders are groomed and taught the apprentice," said an analyst.

Clashes of Interest - The local bodies have survived the clashes of interests among Nepal's friendly countries. In the early phase, the US government wanted the local bodies to make delivery system effective at the grass root level. But the Nepalese government chose the Indian support to form the local bodies and the US left the scene. "The goal was to establish a nationwide system which would distribute increased services to villages, while providing a channel of communications through which people could express their wants to the government. A fundamental assumption was that rural Nepalis were willing and able to learn new technology, and they would use this knowledge to develop themselves. In his justification for the Village Development Project, Rose emphasized the "bumpy transition from autocracy to democracy' that was making HMG an unstable partner," states the Half-a- Century of Development. As India had successfully launched village development program, Nepal also sought support from India to strengthen the local bodies. Late in the 1950s, USOM decided to phase out village development assistance over a three-year period and turned this sector over to India. "The USOM decided to phase out village development assistance over a three year period and turn the sector over India. USOM expected the Indians to assume full responsibility for the sector in the coming decade.

However, Nepali dissatisfaction with India's patronizing attitudes (in 1962 it asked India to withdraw from the village development project), combined with critical internal political development, would draw the U.S. back to support the next rural development program in the 1960s," writes Eugene Bramer Mihaly in his book Foreign Aid and Politics in Nepal, A Case Study. "Nepal accepted the Indian Aid Mission (IAM) offer because of political pressures and the fact that India was willing to provide substantial assistance. For a couple of years joint USOM-IAM assistance was discussed, however, India and the U.S. mainly competed for spheres of influence and selection of the most appropriate community development model. India concentrated its efforts in Terai districts and the key valleys of Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Palungtar hoping to increase friendliness towards India in strategically vital areas," Mihaly further writes. The initial phase had seen the conflicting interest between India and USOM. "USOM officials apparently resented the Indian domination of the field resulting from its larger investment. They also felt the Indian emphasis on "brick and mortar" instead of development of human resources was inappropriate. In addition, Mission support for the Village Development Project dwindled as new technical officer assigned higher priority to projects of counterpart's technical ministries," states the book Half-a-Century of Development.

Phases of Uncertainty - From the very beginning, the village development concept passed through bumpy roads surviving all kinds of internal political upheavals. The un-elected central political leaders always faced a threat from elected representatives of local bodies since they acquire the basic knowledge of governance. As an elected leader, they will always be threat to the un-elected leadership in the party organizations. Once the local leaders realize their strength, they will even defy the order of central leaders. This will help to develop sense of accountability at the local level. Unfortunately, this positive aspect itself has stood in the way for its advancement. Furthermore, the elected representatives of local bodies are also threat to elected MPS who will always perceive them as rivals in their pocket constituencies. From political leaders to elected members of the parliament, the local leaders have become nobody's favorite. The elections of local bodies are important to sustain the democratic system since it provides much needed leadership at the center. Only those who want to impose the leadership from top down will oppose it. Girija Prasad Koirala, then prime minister, in 1993, decided to hold the local elections under the pressure of western donor countries.

Since 1990 to 1993, the local bodies were left under the nominated civil servants. When the Local Self Governance Act was passed in the parliament in 1999, the CPN-UML, which controlled two thirds of local bodies, broke all the seats in parliament opposing certain clauses. Though the act was passed after a long and bitter struggle, the local leaders could not enjoy it for more than two years. Whenever there is a revolution or political upheavals in the country, local bodies have remained vulnerable. The People's Movement of 1990 was initiated by burning the buildings of local bodies. During the 45 days of the movement, they burnt a couple of municipality buildings including the Lalitpur Nagar Panchayat and other Village Panchayat buildings forcing the local elected leaders to leave their villages. Maoists, too, followed similar route. They, too, started their revolution by dismantling the local bodies. Even democratically elected government did not consider it important when it came to extending the tenure of the elected representatives.

It was during the Sher Bahadur Deuba's government last year that their tenure expired. "Without extensive citizen participation, electoral democracies run the risk of becoming hostages to the manipulation of voter performances by rich and powerful elites. Involvement in civil society and the public sphere can also provide citizens common grounds to make demands upon the state, thereby improving the functioning of higher-level bureaucratic and representative institutions," says an expert. Despite its strong role in accelerating development activities and leadership making, the local bodies have to struggle with different institutions for its survival. In the last five decades, every political party wanted to put the local bodies on its own hold. Since the elected local bodies mobilize the mass and challenges any kinds of hegemony, it is regarded as a threat to other powers. While a huge number of people are facing several difficulties because they have no local bodies to carry out their day-to-day duties, nobody is concerned about reviving them for the time being.

From Spotlight, Nepal, by Keshab Poudel, 18 July 2003

Taiwan to Lift Ban on Business Trips By Civil Servants to China

Taiwan will lift a four-month ban from August on business trips by its civil servants to China which had been aimed at curbing the spread of the SARS outbreak. On March 28, Taiwan suspended most visits to areas affected by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome including China, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It relaxed the restriction on July 16, allowing them to visit the mainland for family reunions, seeing sick relatives and academic activities. Travel to Taiwan by Chinese living overseas and by mainlanders through third countries also resumed on July 16.On July 5, the World Health Organisation announced SARS had been contained worldwide after it declared Taiwan, the last region on its watch list, free of new infections. Taiwan, where 84 people died and 670 were infected, was the third worst-hit area after China and Hong Kong.

From Channel News Asia, Singapore, 18 July 2003

WB Proposes Major Overhaul of Civil Service

Islamabad - The World Bank would finance a comprehensive programme of civil service reforms to upgrade skills, improve pay packages, and rightsize the bottom-heavy structure. Pakistan Public Sector Capacity Building Project, with an estimated cost of $62 million, was expected to be approved by October, 2003. The Bank observed in the Project Information Document that the capacity and quality of public institutions had been declining overtime. Based on the analytical work undertaken on civil service reforms (CSR) in Pakistan, the Bank said that steady erosion in capacity and technical skills of civil servants was a key issue. The Bank maintained that the government had over the time set up many committees and commissions on administrative restructuring that have produced copious reports. However, until very recently, implementation of the recommendations coming out of these reports had been weak. This had been largely attributed to "vested interests, lack of political will or resources constraints."

Since the last three years the government had embarked on a broad-based institutional reform agenda of key institutions like the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Auditor General (AG), and Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The first phase of devolution had been undertaken. The objective of the Public Sector Capacity Building Project (PSCB) was to support government efforts in the implementation of its ongoing Economic Reform Programme by: Enhancing the skills of public sector officials; Strengthening capacity for improving the quality of entry level civil servants; strengthening capacity of key ministries/agencies which are in the forefront of design, implementation and monitoring of policy reforms; strengthening capacity of independent regulatory institutions in effectively regulating their respective sectors; and enhancing government capacity to facilitate broad-based civil service reforms (CSR).

From Hi Pakistan, Pakistan, 19 July 2003

India's Civil Service Not Unduly Overstaffed: World Bank

New Delhi - Contrary to the Government's view of right-sizing its staff strength, the World Bank has said India's Civil Service was "not unduly" large, but there was a "pronounced imbalance" in the skills. Though it held that the Fifth Pay Commission was the "single largest adverse shock" to the country's strained public finance, the World Bank said "India's civil service is not particularly overstaffed and not unduly large by global standards." The K P Geethakrishnan-headed Expenditure Reforms Comm had suggested proportionate pruning of Government staff in view of implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission report. In its India Development Policy Review, the Bank, however, said "there is pronounced imbalance in skills mix" since 93 per cent of the civil service comprised Class III and Class IV employees for both the Centre and various states. Stressing that changes in skills mix should accompany the measures to reduce administrative fragmentation, the Bank said, "within Government of India and in many states, number of ministers, ministries and departments has proliferated far beyond any rational assignment of functions." Comparing that the number of cabinet ministers in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had come down to an average of 14, it said India had 31 cabinet ministers and another 45 ministers of state. Many states had 35-40 cabinet departments and especially in Uttar Pradesh, there was over 70 such departments, it said, adding, "institutional reforms are therefore needed to reduce the current administrative fragmentation and align the structure of civil service more closely with the modern-day functions".

From PTI News, India, 24 July 2003

Sabah MCA Wanita Public Service Bureau Launched

Kota Kinabalu: MCA Wanita Chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen viewed the setting up of the Sabah MCA Wanita Public Service Bureau at its premises as a platform or centre to train women in volunteerism. The bureau is headed by Sabah MCA Wanita Chief Senator Datuk Agnes Shim. Launching the bureau on Monday at Lintas Square here, Dr Ng urged the committee to initiate a training programme for women to acquire communication and counselling skills. She said the bureau welcomes anybody, regardless of gender, race or age, who needs help. "The services provided are for everybody, men, women and children, and not just for members of Sabah MCA Wanita. Depending on the nature of the complaints or concerns raised, the Bureau's officials will refer the case in question to the relevant authorities," she explained. The bureau is expected to deal with a wide range of social and welfare issues, involving individuals and families, relating to marriage, domestic violence, single motherhood, old age assistance, health and education, among others. Shim, meanwhile, said the bureau comprises three units, namely Counselling for Women under Agape led by Dr William Liew, Legal Aid and Complaints Bureau led by senior lawyer James Lam and Social Welfare Bureau headed by former Deputy Director of Welfare Services, Lawrence Hee. There are 10 counsellors trained by Dr Liew. "The bureau is open to the public every day. All complaints and requests will be recorded accordingly for the necessary action, and those seeking professional advice will be referred to the counsellors concerned," she said.

From Daily Express, Malaysia, 21 July 2003

Sichuan Civil Servants Forbidden from Moonlighting in Private Sector

Civil servants in the southwestern Sichuan Province have been forbidden from taking jobs in the private sector, according to a notice recently released by Sichuan provincial government. Civil servants in the southwestern Sichuan Province have been forbidden from taking jobs in the private sector, according to a notice recently released by Sichuan provincial government. Local regulations which previously allowed civil servants to take jobs in the private sector while remaining in the civil service have been abolished. In recent years, in order to develop the local private economy, civil servants in some areas in Sichuan were allowed to enter the business world and remain employed with government organizations. The "double identities" of these business-running civil servants violates the State Public Servant Statute and is to be banned. The Sichuan provincial government started to investigate the issue early this year and identified 423 civil servants who were working full-time or part-time in the private sector. The 423 civil servants have been ordered to choose between their government jobs or private sector employment.

From People's Daily Online, China, 26 July 2003

Psychological Tests for Civil Service Applicants

Lumut - The Government has begun conducting psychological tests on job applicants during interviews to ensure that they are able to take the work pressure and provide service with a smile. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said: "Now we have two officers in the Public Services Commission who are responsible in carrying out psychological tests on those who are interviewed for jobs with the government sector." On questions set for the interviews, he said the expertise of officers from other government departments such as Intan, the Public Services Department and the Education Department would be obtained when the need arose. Such tests had to be carried out as the workload and the pressure in the government sector now was not the same as in previous years, he said yesterday after opening the Eighth seminar of the Public Services and Education Commissions in Damai Laut, about 30km from here. "I think it is very important for an officer who mans the counters in government departments to be psychologically prepared to shoulder the responsibility. "This person should also be able to serve the public with a smile although he or she is under pressure," he said. Dompok said the number of applicants applying for jobs with the government sector had been increasing as more school leavers and graduates were looking for jobs, adding that 290,979 people registered with the Public Services Department last year.

From Star, Malaysia, 29 July 2003

Civil Servants Face Demanding Challenges Ahead, says DPM Lee

Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said today's civil servants face demanding challenges compared to their peers of yesteryear. Mr. Lee was painting the picture of the demanding challenges to this year's Public Service Commission scholars. Terrorists they are not, but these PSC scholars are just showcasing the bad and good times Singapore has been through. And as the 48 scholars took their pledge, DPM Lee had a sobering reminder. "From time to time surprises will come out of the blue like SARS to which we must respond creatively and vigorously, improvising as the situation unfolds, always thinking on our feet and using our brains to stay ahead. Never before has "total defence" meant so many serious challenges on so many different fronts at once," he said. As part of the scholarship, the students had to undergo a 3-week orientation and leadership course, the first group to do so. "What I took away most was the interaction with the pupils there teachers on the ground, to facilitate the gap between those who make the policies and those who had to implement them," said Lian Ming Wee, one of the scholars. Another scholar, Regina Low said: "The 3-week pre-departure course has certainly changed my perception of the civil service. I always thought it was mundane 9-5 job, everyone does the same thing everyday - simply monotonous. Now I see the civil service is more than what you see." The students will head to China, France, the UK and the US to pursue their undergraduate studies.

From Channel News Asia, Singapore, by Farah Abdul Rahim, 26 July 2003

Action Against Civil Servants Who Join FSFM

Lumut - Disciplinary action will be taken against government officers and staff found be involved in the illegal Federal Special Forces of Malaysia (FSFM), Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said Monday. He said the government took a serious view of the involvement of its employees in such illegal activities and hence, appropriate action would be taken against them. "No doubt about it. If government officials are involved in this special forces, they will face the disciplinary board," he told reporters after opening the Eighth Public Services Commission meeting in Damai Laut, near here. He said this when asked to comment on the uncovering of the activities of this illegal group on Thursday by police who estimate that the shadowy paramilitary movement has more than 8,000 members nationwide. According to press reports, a director at the Science, Technology and Environment ministry is among the FSFM members who surrendered and was detained by police throughout the country Sunday.

On reports that the FSFM used the name and logo of the Prime Minister's Department and the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry on their letterheads and authority cards, he said the matter should be probed further. Dompok, however, said he believed employees of the Prime Minister's Department or other divisions under the department were not involved in the forgery. "I do not believe officers in the Prime Minister's Department are involved in the activities of the FSFM. To my knowledge, police have not sought help or information from us," he said. Dompok said Malaysians should not believe in such activities and take the easy way out to gain power or promotional opportunities. "Malaysians must learn not to expect short cuts to achieve something. This scam is unrealistic," he added.

From Daily Express, Malaysia, 29 July 2003

Survey Fuels Fears of Civil Service 'Sick Note Culture'

Scotland's civil servants feel stressed out, overworked and undervalued, a new survey has revealed. The findings in an official report for the Scottish Executive suggest high workloads and tight deadlines are partly to blame for sick leave which is costing taxpayers almost £2m a year, fuelling concerns of a 'sick note culture'. The survey of 4,195 staff found 69% of civil servants had suffered from work-related stress and that a quarter did so on a regular basis. The factor causing staff most difficulty is the sense that they have "too much work to do", which is cited by 30% of the civil servants questioned, while a quarter complain they are struggling to balance work and home life. Long hours were a problem for 15%. Perhaps most damaging is that under Jack McConnell's leadership only 53% believe the Executive values its employees and just 48% think it makes good use of resources.

The findings underline the scale of the challenge facing Scotland's new top civil servant John Elvidge as he tries to modernise the system to deliver the improved public services on which McConnell has staked his political reputation. A period of dramatic changes in the way civil servants work appears to have taken its toll. Since the creation of the Scottish parliament they have faced strong pressure to prepare bills and answer MSPs' questions to ministers, which are about five times higher than the number that had to be dealt with in the former Scottish Office. There have also been tensions between ministers and civil servants as McConnell and colleagues voiced frustration over the way the civil service machine operates. Last night an Executive spokesman said the survey findings would be acted upon.

From Scotland on Sunday, UK, by Jason Allardyce, 5 July 2003

Public Services MMR Below England Average

Rates for the immunisation of children by their second birthday remained several percentage points lower in London than in England as a whole. Adverse publicity concerning the effects of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination contributed to a fall from 83 per cent coverage in London in 1991/92 to 75 per cent in 2001/02, while coverage for most of the other major childhood vaccinations rose over the same period. Numbers of people on NHS hospital waiting lists in London changed little between 2000 and 2002. However, average waiting times fell, and the numbers of people waiting more than 12 months decreased by nearly 3 percentage points to 3 per cent. Forty two per cent of London's 1,691 general medical practices had only one general practitioner in 2001, much higher than the England average of 29 per cent. The average list size for London GPs at 1,985 was higher than the average of 1,841 for England. There were 4,500 children and young people on child protection registers in London in 2002 and nearly half the cases were due to neglect - 48 per cent in Inner London and 45 per cent in Outer London. This compares with 39 per cent in England as a whole. Sexual abuse was a relatively less common factor in London than nationally. The London Fire Brigade employed around 6,600 people in March 2001, some 6 per cent fewer than in March 1999. London had a lower rate of fire-fighters, at 68 per 100,000 population, than the other metropolitan areas in England (74) or Great Britain as a whole (82). Front-line ambulance staffing in London increased by 32 per cent between 1995 and 2003, reaching 2,500, while emergency calls increased by nearly 26 per cent in the same period. The rate of emergency incidents, at 7.7 per 100,000 population, was higher in London than in England as a whole in 2001/02.

From National Statistics, UK, 8 July 2003

Corruption Grave, Says Survey

A survey by Transparency International called The Global Corruption Barometer 2003 has found that 76.5 per cent of Bulgarians think that corruption in the country has a significant impact on their lives. The survey was done in 47 countries all over the world. A total of 81.8 per cent of the respondents in Bulgaria said that corruption affects very significantly the business environment in the country. The polls showed that 20.2 per cent of all Bulgarians polled think that the highest corruption levels exist within political parties. In this respect Bulgaria is a part of the global trend, because according to the survey by Transparency International, an overall total of 29.7 per cent of all respondents in the world think that the political parties are the most corrupt institutions in their countries. The next most corrupt institutions in Bulgaria are courts, according to 19.8 per cent of respondents, the customs with 16.5 per cent, the medical services with 14.3 per cent and business licensing with 9.9 per cent.

The least corrupt institutions, according to Bulgarians, are the immigration and passport services with only 0.9 per cent of respondents saying that they would remove the corruption in those services. Diana Kovacheva, head of Transparency International for Bulgaria, said that according to the survey, most Bulgarians come across various forms of corruption every day. A total of 39.7 per cent of Bulgarians think that corruption has a somewhat significant effect on the political life in the country, while another 40 per cent believe that it affects it very significantly. According to 55.3 per cent of those polled in Bulgaria, however, corruption does not have a significant impact on culture and values of society. The survey by Transparency International showed that most respondents think that within the next three years the levels of corruption globally will rise. In this aspect Bulgarians are quite uncertain about the levels of corruption.

Almost 34 per cent of the respondents said it would stay the same, while 26.1 per cent said they did not know. A total of 11.4 per cent said it would increase a little, 19.7 per cent said that it would decrease a little. By comparison, people in Colombia are most optimistic, 32 per cent believing corruption will decrease sharply. Most pessimistic are the people of Cameroon - 39.4 per cent think that the levels of corruption will increase a lot. The index of perception of corruption puts Bulgaria in forty-fifth place out of 102 countries. The most corrupt country, according to the index, was Bangladesh, while the least was Finland. The Transparency International poll also showed that corruption affects most seriously people with low incomes. Against the background of this statistical data, last week the BBC World TV channel showed a four-minute report on Bulgaria as a part of the Europe Direct magazine show, which treats serious problems all over Europe.

From Sofia Echo, Bulgaria, 11 July 2003

Head of EU Civil Service 'Impressed' by Maltese Preparation for Accession

The top civil servant in the European Commission yesterday said he was "tremendously impressed" by the state of preparations on the part of Malta as it prepares to join the EU. David O'Sullivan was on a short visit to Malta and he spoke to the media at the EU Delegation in Ta' Xbiex after meeting EC representative Ron Gallimore. He is carrying out a fact-finding mission to all acceding countries and this was his first visit to Malta. Coinciding with his visit, there is also in Malta a rather large monitoring mission from the Commission, which is examining, in all technical detail, that Malta is doing what it committed itself to doing. The report on the state of preparedness of the 10 acceding countries will be published by the Commission in autumn. Malta, Mr. O'Sullivan said, is well-prepared to accede to the EU. There are nine months yet to go and there is still much work to be done but it is time to prepare on all levels so as to be able to finalise all arrangements before accession. After accession, the EU will not be monitoring Malta as it has been doing during the accession negotiations and during these months. However, it will still monitor, as it does all member states, to see that they implement all EU legislation. Mr. O'Sullivan said he has been impressed by the seriousness of the public servants he met.

He has met with the Cabinet Secretary, the Head of the Civil Service, the Foreign Minister and also the members of the Monitoring Commission. Meanwhile the recruitment of Maltese nationals to posts within the Commission has been proceeding and at least a minimal presence of all accession countries will be in place by next May. A total of 85 officials from Malta have been chosen at entry grade while further recruitment will be undertaken in the coming months. Mr. O'Sullivan said that there is a cyclical effect of recruitment. His fellow Irish who were recruited with him 20 years ago are now heading many EU directorates. Just below them are the Spanish and the Greeks, who came in later. The EU civil service is a meritocratic bureaucracy and able Maltese officials will be able to get promoted. Some top officials, like Directors General and Deputy Directors General, will be recruited from Malta in the coming months. As regards the Commissioner from Malta, Mr. O'Sullivan said that the name would be expected around January or February so that the European parliament will begin its hearings in April, just before accession. As members of the EU civil service, these Maltese will not be representing Malta but it is important that the Commission's officers express a spread of nationalities of all member states and ensure that the EU has a multicultural basis. Mr. O'Sullivan touched upon the translation mishap of the draft Constitution. The EU prides itself with having a very serious level of linguistic diversity but one must admit that the first attempts to put the Maltese language at EU levels has met with some teething problems, he said.

It would seem that some mistakes were committed on a procedural level which led to the mistranslation of the draft Constitution but it would also seem that there are not enough structures in Malta to sustain the amount of work of translation and interpretation that having Maltese as an official language of the EU entails. The EU delegation has opened an office in Malta to coordinate all translation work and it is holding talks with the academy of language and with the university to increase the number of Maltese who are expert at this level. Mr. Gallimore added that when a call for applications for translators was made, not enough people applied, even before one started to ascertain how expert the applicants may be. It may also be the case that some of the requirements were too stringent.2004 will be a very important year for the EU: the final decisions on the Constitution will be taken then; there will be enlargement on 1 May, and 10 new Commissioners will start functioning in May. There will be elections for the European Parliament in June and, before ending its term in November, the Commission is due to issue its draft financial programme for post 2007 so that the discussion on the next EU budget can begin. However, enlargement will be the main item on the EU agenda next year. In a way, Mr. O'Sullivan said, "we are already 25". Many meetings in Brussels are already being held with all 25 representatives present. 1 May 2004 is a formal date: the EU is already working as a collection of 25 nations.

From Malta Independent, Malta, by Noel Grima, 12 July 2003

Rise In Salaries Of Civil Servants Will Be Announced Tomorrow

Ankara - Justice Minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek said on Monday that rise in salaries of civil servants would be announced on Tuesday. Following the meeting of Council of Ministers, Cicek told reporters that they set the principles of rise in salaries of civil servants in their meeting. Cicek said that State Minister Ali Babacan for the Treasury and Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan would work on the issue in detail later in the day under chairmanship of State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin. Thus, the rise in salaries of civil servants would be given final shape, Cicek noted. Cicek stated that a verbal or written statement regarding the issue would be made on Tuesday. ''Our principle is to make high rise in salaries of people with lower salaries and low rise in salaries of people with higher salaries,'' Cicek said. When reporters recalled him about the news that 60 million Turkish liras (TL) of rise would be made in salaries of civil servants, Cicek said, ''we will announce the details tomorrow because it is a technical issue. I may say wrong things if I make a detailed statement now. Our three friends will work on the issue and inform you tomorrow.''

CICEK: LEGAL ARRANGEMENTS IN 21 FIELDS SHOULD BE MADE IN ORDER TO ENCOURAGE FOREIGN INVESTORS - Cicek told reporters that they agreed to legalize those arrangements as soon as possible and pass a majority of laws on agenda of parliament before the parliament recess. Cicek said that scarcity and insufficiency of investments came at the top of main problems of Turkey. Turkey could not make sufficient investments from its budget since it was under a heavy debt burden, Cicek noted. Cicek stated that scarcity and insufficiency of investments brought forward many social and economic problems, particularly unemployment. Therefore, information about the efforts of the Investment Environment Rehabilitation Coordination Board was given during the meeting, Cicek said. Cicek recalled that the board was formed by high-level undersecretaries of some ministries and representatives of private sector. Very comprehensive initiatives were made under the umbrella of that board to attract foreign capital and encourage foreign investors, Cicek said. Cicek stated that many legal arrangements should be made in that field. ''We give importance to such initiatives to encourage investments and the Council of Ministers once more confirmed that these initiatives should be accelerated,'' Cicek said.

Cicek pointed out that legal arrangements in 21 fields should be made in order to attract foreign capital and encourage foreign investors under the auspices of that board. The government had legalized four relevant laws so far, including direct foreign investments law, labor law, law on working permit for foreigners, and company establishment law, Cicek recalled. Cicek said that Employment Agency Law, law on amendment to several laws to enable sale of lands belonging to the Treasury, law on fight against smuggling were passed from the parliament and waited for President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's approval. Five laws namely law on Social Security Agency (SSK), law on Social Security Agency for the Self-employed (Bag-Kur), Environment Law, Mine Law, and Turkish Patent Institute Law were on parliament's agenda, Cicek stated. Cicek went on saying, ''some of the laws on parliament's agenda are among laws we have to pass priorily within the scope of the fifth negotiation. There are 4 draft laws at the Prime Ministry. There are five issues which are at the stage of presentation to Prime Ministry. We think that legal vacuum in encouragement of foreign capital will totally be ended in case we legalize these 21 laws.'' ''Today, we have decided to legalize these laws and pass a majority of laws on parliament's agenda before the parliament recess,'' Cicek added. Cicek stated that the commission formed to amend Press Law had completed its work and draft Press Law was ready.

State Minister Besir Atalay would hold a press conference within the week and give information about the mentioned draft, Cicek pointed out. Cicek noted that they thought of legalizing the draft in the new legislative term. One of the issues they took up in their meeting was foreign trade, Cicek stated. Cicek emphasized that export was one of the most important factors of economic growth. Turkey had gained a good momentum in exports and recorded positive developments, Cicek said and expressed pleasure. Cicek went on saying, ''Turkey has recorded 7.4 percent of growth rate in the first quarter of 2003. This figure is the second biggest rate in the world. Exports from Turkey rose 14.1 percent to 35.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2002. Turkey raised an income of 17.8 billion U.S. dollars through exports with a rise of 30.1 percent in the first five months of 2003. Rate of increase in all main and sub sectors was 30.1 percent as of January-May 2003. Rate of increase in agricultural product exports was 16.5 percent, 30.8 percent in industrial product exports and 20.4 percent in mining sector in the mentioned period.'' ''First ten countries ranked first in exports from Turkey are EU countries. Germany, the United States, Britain, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Russian Federation, Israel and Greece come at the top of exports from Turkey. Turkey makes imports from Germany, Italy, Russia, France, Britain, the United States, Switzerland, China, Iran and Japan,'' Cicek said.

Cicek continued, ''thus, it can be seen that Turkey has not only targeted EU as a political preference but also the economic figures have shown that Turkey is in more cooperation with EU countries and makes a great deal of its exportation to these countries. Our exports to European countries increased 36 percent this year and Germany ranks the first with 33.5 percent.'' ''China comes at top of markets we give importance. Our exports to China increased by 79.4 percent. Our exports to Japan rose by 63 percent. Automotive and by-industry, electronics, agriculture, ceramics, paper, glass products, textile are our main export fields,'' Cicek said. Cicek stated that Turkey had 50 billion U.S. dollars of investment in contracting services in 55 countries. Noting that they also debated work of Eximbank, Cicek said that Eximbank was serving businessmen who made investments abroad. Cicek noted that Eximbank had provided support to exports to 173 countries so far and gave around 2,500-3,000 exporter firms loan every year. ''Firms using loan from Eximbank make 55 percent of Turkey's export. After our government came to power, significant steps have been taken through Eximbank. Maturity of short term loans are extended from six months to a year. A new program named small and medium scale enterprises export preparation loan to solve the guarantee and finance problems of those enterprises.

Short term loan interest rates were reduced for three times on April 21, May 5 and June 5, 2003. The interest rates are between 30 and 41 percent on Turkish lira and Trlibor plus 1.50 and 3.75 percent on foreign exchange loans. Turkish Eximbank has stated that it will provide cash loan support of 3 billion U.S. dollars to export sector and 3.5 billion U.S. dollar insurance guarantee support in 2003. Thus, it will contribute to 16 percent of finance of Turkey's export,'' Cicek said. Cicek pointed out that talks with IMF delegation were also taken up during the meeting. Fifth review contacts continued by not only representatives of private sector but also with officials, Cicek said. Cicek added, ''as the government, we favor that these talks are concluded positively and they are ended as soon as possible. As the government, we favor expressing our determination about these talks with the IMF. The stability program in practice is for the benefit of Turkey. The government doesn't have any hesitation about this. The program will be continued determinedly.'' CICEK: ''WE WISH TO PASS SEVENTH EU ADJUSTMENT PACKAGE BEFORE PARLIAMENT RECESS'' - When asked if the efforts of the commission formed by Turkey and the United States to inquire detention of Turkish soldiers by U.S. forces in Sulaymaniyah came onto agenda, Cicek said that the issue did not come onto their agenda. Cicek said, ''in fact, it needn't come to our agenda. We talked about this before. It is a negotiation carried out by the Foreign Ministry and Office of General Staff. A statement will be made about the issue by authorities who join the talks soon.''

Asked if the seventh EU adjustment package was opened to signature, Cicek said that there was a short discussion on the issue. Cicek stated that they had to inform political parties about the issue and hoped to give that information within that week. ''We think of submitting the package to parliament most probably within this week. We wish to pass it before the parliament recess,'' Cicek said. When a reporter said that a meeting on economy would be held at 9.00 p.m. and asked if new economic measures were in question, Cicek said that the most important issue of Turkey was always the economy and it was natural to make meetings on economy so often. Cicek added that evening's meeting would be within that scope. Asked if arrangements on making National Security Council (NSC) civilian would take place in the seventh adjustment package or if it would be included in another package, Cicek said that there were not any arrangements necessitating a constitutional amendment in the seventh package. Cicek pointed out that the mentioned issue directly required a constitutional amendment and said, ''such an amendment is not foreseen in this package. I think this is an answer to your question.

In fact, a constitutional amendment cannot be made by a draft of the government. This necessitates signature of at least 184 parliamentarians. Therefore, ours is a draft not a proposal.'' Replying to questions of draft on Higher Education Board (YOK), Cicek said that that issue did not come onto Turkey's agenda for the first time with their government. Cicek went on saying, ''YOK is on Turkey's agenda for a long time. There is a paragraph about YOK even in program of every government and in election declaration of every party. These reveals that YOK has some shortcomings and deficiencies in making a modern university life. It will be useful to make such an arrangement. We try to make every arrangement with a wide participation and informing everybody. Since YOK Law is a basic law and since it is an arrangement regarding the most distinguished institutions of Turkey, it will be beneficial to bring the issue onto agenda after discussing it with the concerned institutions.'' ''When Erkan Mumcu was the National Education Minister during the term in office of the 58th government, the draft was sent to all concerned institutions, rectors, YOK and Inter-university Board. But, a positive response did not come. And, even no response came. After it was stated last week that the draft YOK law would be submitted to parliament, the Inter-university Board held a meeting. National Education Minister Huseyin Celik was also invited to the meeting.

What came out of the meeting was that the concerned institutions expressed belief that they could make contributions to an amendment to the YOK law. Thus, our government thought it would be beneficial to give opportunity to the concerned institutions to express views about the draft if it would contribute to the law,'' Cicek said. Cicek added, ''therefore, the draft will be sent to YOK, all political parties and the opposition party, members of the Inter-university Board, and rectors. We have given them one-month time. In this one-month time, we will expect everybody to express their views on the draft. After learning their views, we will bring the draft onto parliament's agenda in the new legislative term.'' Asked if rise in salaries of public workers came onto agenda, Cicek said, ''this issue was negotiated by the Prime Minister and Turk-Is Coordination Board. It was earlier announced that 5 percent rise would be made in the first six months, 9 percent rise in the second six months of time, and 5 percent rise would be made in the third and fourth periods. Any change is out of question. We expect the unions to accept this proposal and sign collective contracts. The process Turkey is undergoing is certain. Economic problems are obvious. The number of unemployed is certain. Therefore, I would like to state that the earlier proposed amount is not a rise which can be underestimated.'' Cicek added, ''as government, we have told them that we don't have the opportunity to make a higher rise. I would like to once more express the same determination today.''

From Turkish Press, Turkey, 14 July 2003

Dalli Insists on Flexibility in Top Civil Servants' Thinking

The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, John Dalli, yesterday exhorted heads of government departments and parastatal organisations to add a strong dose of flexibility to their way of thinking when they deal with small enterprises. The country, he said, needed to invest far more funds in research and remove stumbling blocks that prevented innovative ideas by entrepreneurs from taking shape and yielding results. "Entrepreneurs cannot be held back for a year-and-a-half by red tape before being given the go-ahead to move along with their initiatives. "One should not keep citing regulations as if they are divine commandments with which to pour cold water over and kill off initiative. "The country can no longer afford, for example, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the trade department taking too long to issue permits," Mr. Dalli argued. Earlier this week Mr. Dalli called on heads of government departments to contain their spending.

The minister was making off-the-cuff comments while addressing a half-day conference at the Metco offices, in San Gwann with the theme "Thinking small in an enlarging Europe". He departed from a prepared speech, which was more of an overview of what the government was doing in the small and medium sized enterprises sector. The minister said he did not mean to say that one ought to do away with regulation. If, at Mepa, for example, the rules were not suitable, the best thing would be to change them but, at the same time, this did not mean that every architect should have a free hand to lay down his or her own regulations. "Nobody has his own empire. It is important to dismantle the walls that separate organisations, walls that hamper the efficiency of those who want to work. "Let us not hinder the people who want to work", the minister entreated his audience.

Earlier, Edwin Vassallo, the parliamentary secretary at the ministry for economic services, focused on the message that government departments and entities could not keep piling burdens they dream of onto small businesses. Quoting the rural proverb that "a hundred nothing killed the donkey", Mr. Vassallo said that the policy whereby small businesses were marginalised and burdened with innumerable burdens was obsolete. He said he would be dedicating next year to the spreading of the culture of entrepreneurship. Vince Farrugia, director general at the General Retailers and Traders-GRTU, called on the National Statistics Office to compile data showing the economic impact of SMEs. Reginald Fava, president of the Chamber of Commerce, likened excessive bureaucracy to a worm that ate into the economy. The Small Business Efficiency Unit at the finance ministry may be contacted on sbu@gov.mt or through 21226688.

From Valletta Times, Malta, by George Cini, 19 July 2003

Increase in Civil Service Numbers under Fire

New Labour's target culture has made Whitehall "bloated with form fillers", it was claimed yesterday, as government figures showed an annual rise of more than 8,000 in civil service numbers. The 1.9 per cent rise in permanent staff in the year to April 2002 took the total number of government staff and some key agencies to more than 500,000.The Inland Revenue - which employs 14 per cent of the total civil service - had one of the highest increases, taking on new staff to cope with "increased workloads and the preparation for the new tax credits". Ofsted, the education watchdog, was another big net recruiter, bringing in 1,920 new staff to carry out inspections of childminders and play groups. The Crown Prosecution Service took on 980 new people. The Cabinet Office report stressed that, despite the annual increase, civil service numbers remained about 35 per cent below their 1976 peak of 751,000 staff. But the Liberal Democrats claimed the new statistics showed "Labour's centralisation drive is getting out of hand," with the main "form filling" tax and benefits agencies increasing staff by 24,000 since the government came to power in 1997."Whitehall is getting bloated with form fillers costing the taxpayer over £10bn a year and costs are still rising," said David Laws, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman.

From Financial Times, UK, by Jean Eaglesham, 25 July 2003

Civil Servants Deserve Better Treatment

One issue that Lord Hutton's inquiry into the David Kelly tragedy should touch on is the ability of top civil servants to protect their own people and defend Whitehall traditions of political neutrality. In the immediate aftermath of Mr. Kelly's apparent suicide there was an almost palpable sense of anger among some officials. They felt this was another sign that they are being sucked into a blame culture where unscrupulous ministers and party propagandists use them as fall guys for government failings. Even some senior people only a few rungs down the hierarchy feel let down by the Whitehall establishment. A climate of unease in the civil service has built up over time. Small incidents have bitten deep. Earlier this year, for example, David Blunkett, the home secretary, when urging his officials to do better at meeting targets, is reported to have said failure to do so could bring him down - and he warned that if he fell he would take them with him. Perhaps it was meant as a joke but it struck like iron into the civil service soul. As Lord Hutton begins his inquiry, civil servants hope it will answer some questions. Specifically, they are asking why Sir Kevin Tebbit, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, and Sir Andrew Turnbull, cabinet secretary and head of the home civil service, were unable to protect Mr. Kelly. Admittedly, some details remain vague. It is still not clear, for example, whether Sir Kevin knew the intricacies of the plan to leak Mr. Kelly's name to the press.

We also do not know whether he was one of the officials who invited the House of Commons intelligence and security committee to interview Mr. Kelly, albeit in private, which would have made it more difficult for the government to deny the foreign affairs committee the chance to interview him publicly. Once Mr. Kelly's name was out, Sir Kevin and Sir Andrew were bound to find it harder to prevent his being hauled before MPs. History tells us they had the power to do so if they had had the will. It is less than 20 years since the Westland crisis when another cabinet secretary, Sir Robert, now Lord, Armstrong, faced a political scandal centring on Whitehall leaks. Civil servants, drawn into a titanic battle between two Tory ministers, leaked damaging extracts from a letter written by the solicitor general. The civil servants' names became public and, then as now, a Commons committee was determined to cross-examine them. They included Bernard Ingham, then Number 10 press secretary. Sir Bernard, as he is now, was never the shyest violet in the bunch and he and his colleagues could probably have withstood public scrutiny better than Mr. Kelly. Unlike Mr. Kelly they were spared such an ordeal. They were spared because the then cabinet secretary refused to let his civil servants go before MPs. Instead he went himself, having already carried out an internal leak inquiry. MPs protested. Yet in Whitehall terms Lord Armstrong showed leadership and courage to prevent civil servants being made into political scapegoats.

Admittedly he had the advantage of the backing of Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister. Her government's line then is instructive now: "A select committee inquiry into the actions and conduct of an individual civil servant conducted in public and protected by privilege, would give the civil servant concerned no safeguards and no rights, though his reputation and even his career might be at risk." Officials today may wonder why the same principle was not upheld with Mr. Kelly. One Whitehall knight noted that having confessed to his bosses, Mr. Kelly was in double jeopardy. He asked why, at the least, Sir Kevin did not accompany Mr. Kelly to the Commons. Whitehall etiquette means that Sir Kevin, as the ranking official, would have answered questions on Mr. Kelly's behalf, while the junior man sat down table, speaking only to clarify. Events such as this summer's botched cabinet reshuffle and the intelligence furore have shown the folly of Tony Blair's tendency to sideline impartial officials in favour of political advisers. Yet if civil servants are poised to reclaim their rightful role from the usurpers, that is all the more reason for those at the top to be more robust in defending their service - and being seen to do so. A new set of Whitehall guidelines on the appearance of civil servants before select committees would be a good start. The writer is an FT journalist and author of The Cheating Classes.

From Financial Times, UK, by Sue Cameron, 25 July 2003

EU Ruling on Public Service Subsidies

The European Union's highest court yesterday delivered a verdict on the rules for providing subsidies for public services, in a case that heightened concerns for Germanländer. It ruled that subsidies granted to public services did not qualify as potentially illegal state aid where four conditions were met. In such instances, the Commission will not have an oversight role. The conditions hold that companies must have clearly defined public service obligations; that the rules for granting subsidies must be transparent and set in advance; that the subsidies cannot exceed costs; and that they should be compared with the costs of a typical undertaking. The action is known as the Altmark case, after a German bus company that claimed it could not survive without public subsidies. Germanländerhad been worried that if conditions were too stringent they could lose important freedom of manoeuvre to fund public services.

From Financial Times, UK, by Daniel Dombey, 25 July 2003

EU Presidency, Hungarian Civil Servants Learn Italian

Rome - An initiative promoted in the context of the current six month Italian European Union Presidency, which has provided a free intensive course in Italian for government employees in Budapest, organised by the Italian Cultural Institute, has been a huge success. More than 200 students have taken part in the project, which began in mid July and will finish in mid August with the awarding of a diploma. All the Ministries are represented, with greater participation from employees working in Cultural, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade offices. The aim of the initiative, promoted by the Institute and the Italian Embassy, and the first to be organised between an EU member country and the Hungarian government, is above all to i improve linguistic and cultural communication between Hungarian and Italian public institutions, in view of the entrance of Hungary into the European Union.

From Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Italy, 29 July 2003

A Civil Service

Bahrain's civil servants were honoured yesterday for all they have done for their country. His Majesty King Hamad, accompanied by Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, hosted a reception for civil service employees at Bustan Palace. The King praised their loyalty and voiced his approval for a union for government employees. Generations of government employees have helped push the country forward, the King said at the ceremony, also attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Islamic Affairs Minister Shaikh Abdulla bin Khalid Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa and other ministers and officials. Bahrain's continuous development is a model for the Gulf region said the King, who stressed that rule must be based on the will of the people through constructive democratic processes. "I am pleased to renew our blessing for the directives for the formation of the private union for government employees and to recognise the collective system for the workers," he said. "We shall support the Parliament statement submitted to the government for approval." Privatisation of some services would continue, to ease the burden on the government and to fuel Bahrain's progress as a leader in the free market, said the King. He said he considered the civil servants as watchdogs for the interests of the country.

From Gulf Daily News, Bahrain, 15 July 2003

Performance of Public Servants To Be Monitored

Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Ras Al Khaimah Crown Prince, affirmed yesterday that he would propel the emirate into a bright future. A raft of changes, including law reform and a watchdog on the performance of public servants, comprise Sheikh Saud's prescription for improving the quality of life and attracting new enterprise to Ras Al Khaimah. Efficient, hard-working staff will be rewarded, and the lazy ones punished. "My main objective is to improve Ras Al Khaimah in all aspects of life, and make a difference, especially in the economic sphere," he said. "We need to know the exact responsibilities of every department to implement a new monitoring system. Each head and director general of every department should submit a detailed report on the performance of his department in two weeks. "We should all fight routine and make the procedures more flexible. My door will be open 24 hours to all department heads to discuss notes and new creative ideas to enhance life." The recently-appointed Crown Prince was speaking at a meeting with heads of local and federal departments at the Emiri Court. He will personally go through the reports and issue recommendations. "These reports will tell us about the work in each department and the problems. Services will be improved and people will feel the change very soon. The departments will play their roles and foster change."

Every employee will be questioned even on small details of his work. He called on departments to facilitate procedures to make things easier for people. The Government of Ras Al Khaimah will work under the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who has repeatedly called for the development of all individuals. He said Ras Al Khaimah will adopt e-government in the very near future and Dubai will be the model. Departments will be ordered to take steps to achieve the goal. "UAE national women are equal to men and will be given the same job opportunities. Women will be given training in the workplace. They will be recruited in local and federal departments to play their role in the progress of the emirate." Sheikh Saud underlined the importance of investment in Ras Al Khaimah and encouraging capital to come. All obstacles will be removed. Laws will be implemented to guarantee true development. However, laws in the courts will be amended soon to create a better social and economic environment for investment. Sheikh Saud said a key step to development is to increase the number of the projects which will ultimately raise the price of land. On raising budgets, Sheikh Saud said it will depend on the performance of departments. Raising salaries of national employees is currently under study. On the Ras Al Khaimah Executive Council, he said a decision will be taken in due course.

From Gulf News, United Arab Emirates, by Nasouh Nazzal, 22 July 2003

Potential Public Servants Think Twice About Running

It's an odd-numbered year and summer has only just begun, but here we are, already enmeshed in politics. The governor is about to be recalled, the Modesto City Council is in moderate and perpetual turmoil, and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors is under suspicion of all kinds of misdeeds. To this environment, The Bee has added a clarion call for "high-caliber candidates" with "common sense" to step forward and run for office. Sure. Before all you political wannabes run down to the elections office to apply, it might be wise to understand what all successful politicians say you must become: one part chameleon, one part beggar, two parts saint and three parts deaf and dumb, with a dash of masochism and a pinch of egotism. An alligator skin is essential. Oh, yes, being rich doesn't hurt. You must be able to speak and say nothing. You must tell farmers how important agriculture is to the community and the next night talk glowingly of the need to grow and become a more vibrant community. You must address the needs of the poor and minorities, but never hint that some of their wounds are self-inflicted. You must laud the wealthy but never speak of their obligations to the common good and to those less fortunate. Above all, mumble and irritate no one. Surely, this is "common sense." The public expects it. And yet, there are some whose words are meaningful and cause good things to happen.

You must be able to beg campaign funds from friends, family and all kinds of institutions in ways that put San Francisco's street people to shame. Of course, donors expect nothing from street solicitors, but sooner or later the hand that gives to the political process is the hand that expects to receive. No biting that hand. Just "common sense." The public ignores this. And yet, some - a very few - can pursue the public good without financial distortions. You must be the patron saint of goodness, with a closet empty of even the smallest skeleton, for surely all transgressions, real or imagined, will be uncovered in the name of "the public's right to know." Accept untruths and distortions as your daily due - all in the name of "common sense." And the public approves this. And yet, there are those who know the virtues of selective deafness, ignore the mean babble and press the larger goals. Not many, but some. I spoke not long ago to two competent, community-minded men, asking if they would consider running for office. Before the first could respond, his wife intervened. "If he runs, I'll kill him," she said. "Divorce is too lenient." The second looked at me as if I were daft. "Are you out of your mind?" he asked. These, too, are men of "common sense." What have we done to our public servants? Allen, a semiretired Modesto physician, has served as a visiting editor on The Bee's editorial board.

From Modesto Bee, CA, by C.V. Allen, 2 July 2003

Civil Service Crossroads

Democrats got rolled again last month when House Republicans moved another step closer to granting the Defense Department's request for sweeping authority to build a new personnel system almost from scratch. It was the most stunning breakout since William Holden's great escape in Stalag 17. Assuming the Senate goes along, which is anyone's guess, the legislation would spring 750,000 Defense employees from the civil service system, marking the end of an era. With 200,000 employees at the Homeland Security Department already outside the system, 100,000 operating under flexible rules at the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Aviation Administration, and 250,000 working under a separate (albeit outdated) system at Veterans Affairs, the civil service system would apply to little more than a third of the federal workforce. As Government Executive's Brian Friel rightly pointed out in the June issue, the problem facing the Defense Department and the rest of government is not necessarily the impending retirement wave. Indeed, the turnover rate in government might actually be too low, especially at the middle and upper levels. Moreover, as Friel reported, there are plenty of applicants for most government jobs. More than 1.5 million people applied for the 62,000 baggage and passenger screening jobs at the Transportation Security Administration last year, while another 47,000 applied for 900 Federal Bureau of Investigation jobs, 23,500 applied for 465 Foreign Service slots, and 20,000 applied for 270 information technology jobs at Agriculture.

The challenge is not getting enough applicants, however, but getting the right applicants. The vast majority of the TSA applicants were rejected because they could not read or write, pass the initial screening test, or were not U.S. citizens. Recent reports also suggest that a troubling number of final hires have criminal records. Unfortunately, by almost any measure, the federal government's human capital system does not work. According to a recent survey of 1,002 liberal arts and social work students who are about to graduate, the nonprofit sector, not the federal government, is now seen as the destination of choice for young Americans who want a public service career. Not only is government in general seen as far less effective than nonprofits at helping people, spending money wisely and making fair decisions, its hiring process is seen as the most difficult, the slowest and the most confusing. The Defense proposal would certainly address some of these problems. It would give recruiters authority to offer jobs on the spot at career fairs, for example, while expanding the number of qualified candidates. However, in its push for special hiring authorities, Defense neglected an essential piece of the process-bipartisanship and consultation with federal employee unions.

Sensing an opportunity to move quickly, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pushed the idea forward in what one House Democrat described as another "shock and awe" campaign. Hearings were scheduled overnight, witnesses were given only a day or two to prepare testimony, and the bill was marked up for passage a day or two later. Like last year's Homeland Security legislation, the proposal moved through the House on straight party line votes with nary a Democrat in support of the overall package. That's been a problem for Democrats. Lacking any alternatives of their own, they've been trotting out much of the same rhetoric they used last year. Democrats are right to fear that the Defense bill is moving too fast. And they have good reason to worry about giving the Defense secretary carte blanche on hiring and firing rules. It is one thing to streamline the disciplinary process, for example, and quite another to eliminate employees' right to appeal. The status quo is no longer good enough for government work.

But that hasn't stopped Democrats from falling back into their old rap. If the civil service system is good enough for other agencies, they argue, it is good enough for Defense. Luckily, at least one Democrat, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, has decided to join with his Republican colleagues, Susan Collins, George Voinovich and John Sununu, in drafting a bipartisan amendment to the Defense proposal. Defense would clearly get less than it wanted under the bipartisan proposal, particularly under a requirement to phase in the reforms 120,000 employees at a time. But it would get more than it needs to do the job. More importantly, a bipartisan bill would send a signal to all federal employees that human capital reform is not a one-party issue, while establishing a template to govern the mad rush for the gates that is sure to follow as other departments and agencies seek their freedom. That is just the kind of signal that anxious federal employees need right now. Instead of making reform a Rumsfeld referendum, Congress should work hard to reach a bipartisan consensus at this critical crossroads.

From GovExec.com, by Paul C. Light, 29 June 2003

Brazil Union Leaders Say Nearly Half of All Civil Servants on Strike

Thousands of Brazil's teachers and health and social workers stayed off their jobs Wednesday, the second day of a strike protesting planned cuts to retirement benefits. Strikers - which also included university staff, tax inspectors and social security workers - had agreed to a 72-hour work stoppage, but several groups said they would strike indefinitely until their demands were met. Union leaders said about 40 to 45 percent of the nation's civil servants took part in the walkout, which started Tuesday and came six months after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. A former union leader who rose to prominence during the country's 1964-86 military dictatorship, Silva defended the workers' right to strike but said he would not stop his government from pushing the proposed reforms in Congress. "What would hurt (the reforms) would be if the congressmen went on strike," he told reporters. Silva's government says trimming retirement packages is needed to offset federal budget woes. Proposed changes include requiring a financial contribution from retirees and raising retirement ages. The government hopes the reforms will help reduce the country's $24 billion social security deficit by saving the country about $19 billion over the next 30 years. Professors and staff were striking at about 32 of the country's 52 federal universities, union leaders said. "Our objective to is to maintain and widen the mobilization," Jose Domingues Godoi Filho, the leader of a federal teacher's union said Wednesday.

From San Francisco Chronicle, CA, 9 July 2003

Public Services at Risk as US States Face Financial Crisis

The street lights may still be twinkling on Sunset Boulevard and the sun may still come up every morning over the Mojave desert, but California could soon be plunged into fiscal darkness. The state with an economy the equivalent of the world's fifth largest nation is bust, and a crisis which could lead to mass lay-offs and collapse of the public education system is in the offing. California is just one of many states facing the worst financial crisis for decades. Nevada, smarting from a decline in tourism and a loss of gambling revenues to the growing number of reservation casinos, is facing a deficit of up to $1bn. To deal with the shortfall, it is introducing a novel live entertainment tax of 10%, which will apply to the state's brothels, legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties. The state's many strip clubs would also have to pay the tax. Elsewhere, New York's police officers are leading the drive to plug a potential $4bn deficit in the city's budget, fining anyone they can for anything they can think of. One man was ticketed for sitting on a milk crate outside a shop; the citation was "unauthorised use of a crate".

Alabama has been facing a deficit of $700m and now the governor, Bob Riley, a conservative Republican, has announced the biggest tax changes for 100 years. "We cannot balance our budget with cuts alone, not unless we are willing to lay off thousands of teachers and cancel all extra-curricular activities, open prison doors and put convicted felons back on the streets, and force thousands of seniors out of nursing homes and take away their prescription drugs," he said. There are also budget crises in Oregon, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In Connecticut, the Republican governor, John Rowland, is now running the state by executive order, making ad hoc decisions on which of the state's mounting bills get paid until a budget is agreed. But it is in California that the meltdown is most spectacular. The state has a deficit of $32bn and desperately needs to agree a new budget. The Democrats, who control both the state senate and assembly, want to put half a cent on the sales tax and make some cuts in public services.

The Republicans, whose support they need to pass the budget with the required two-thirds majority, have suggested an alternative which would mean mass lay-offs of public employees, closure of college courses, and putting back by a year the age for entering kindergarten. Into this stew has been added a spicy political ingredient. Democrats believe the Republicans are being encouraged by the White House to cause chaos in the hope this will lead to the recall of the Democratic party governor, Gray Davis, and his replacement with a Republican, possibly Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mr. Davis is fighting his corner. "I will not sign a budget that slams the door on more than 100,000 kindergarten students," he said this week. The Democrats have warned that if the Republican budget were adopted, with its cuts in prison costs, it would mean freeing 20,000 prisoners. California has the lowest credit rate of any state, but others are facing problems of varying magnitude. The stuttering economy is blamed for the chaos as taxes once generated by capital gains and stock options in the wealthier states in the boom years have dwindled. Growing unemployment, which reached a national nine-year high of 6.4% in June, means people are buying less, thus cutting sales tax revenues. And most states have used up their "rainy day" funds over the past two years.

From Guardian, UK, by Duncan Campbell, 5 July 2003

Watchdog Queries Public Service League Tables

Concerns about the use of numerical targets and league tables for public services will be reinforced by a warning from the new statistics watchdog about the reliability of data used to assess them. Professor David Rhind, chairman of the Statistics Commission, said statisticians knew that the quality of the information used for league tables and other performance measures was "variable", and promised that the commission would address the use of that information by the government. He said the question was how to ensure that "the lay public, not just the compilers, are aware of the sensitivities in the league tables to all sorts of assumptions". Hospital waiting lists are one of his priorities. In spot checks on 41 NHS trusts by the Audit Commission last year, only three were found to have "no significant problems" in their reporting of waiting list information. Prof Rhind said: "It seems to me that a lot of the statistics that I've seen quoted on hospital waiting lists have got this big problem because they don't cover the end-to-end experience; they just cover a particular section in the middle. So we've been trying to get to grips with that and we will do more about it. "His concerns will add to the pressure on ministers to step back from the government's concentration on quantitative targets and league tables for measuring the performance of public services.

Earlier this month, Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, said the government had "sometimes fallen into the trap of frankly having too many targets". The signs are that Prof Rhind intends taking a tougher line than his predecessor, Sir John Kingman. Now that the commission, made up of part-time experts supported by a full-time staff, has had three years to find its feet, Prof Rhind expects it to start sticking up for itself. He is aware that outside central government, the commission's profile has been low. "We'll start putting out things fairly straightforwardly - not necessarily gently but I hope clearly and calmly - and if things that we believe to be important don't get done, then we'll wind it up," he said. "There are bound to be some things which are minutiae of statistical matters which are not worth a full-frontal confrontation. There will undoubtedly be other things which are worth going to war over if we have to." He added: "A lot of people I talk to think of statistics as extremely boring things. I think statistics are absolutely fundamental to all of this and we need to ensure statisticians and the lay public understand the bigger issues."

From Financial Times, by Ed Crooks and Simon Briscoe, 14 July 2003

Quebec Civil Service Has Grown Since 1996

Early-retirement packages short-sighted: Treasury - Quebec employs more bureaucrats, nurses, doctors and teachers now than it did before early-retirement packages were offered in 1996 to reduce the size of the provincial payroll. The Liberal government revealed yesterday a total of 36,950 public- and para-public-sector workers took a sweetened retirement deal offered by the Parti Québécois back in 1996. But since then, 52,849 new workers were hired in health, education and the civil service. While there were 365,158 on the public payroll in 1996, there were 381,057 as of June 2002. The figures raise questions about whether the painful exercise - which has led to personnel shortages in many medical specialties - was worth it and whether it is possible to reduce the public payroll and still offer adequate public services.

Treasury Board President Monique Jérôme-Forget released the numbers yesterday during the final stage of study before this year's spending estimates are voted on today. She promised her government's plans to re-engineer the province won't be as short-sighted. "We emptied our hospitals, in particular, of an irreplaceable expertise," she said. "The lesson is you better be careful when you ask people to leave the civil service. It indicates that, frankly, it was a decision that was taken too rapidly. The consequences were not evaluated." The Liberals will use a combination of public-private partnerships, the Internet and anticipated retirements in the public service to manage the payroll. "We don't need to reduce the number of civil servants. In the next 10 years, 40 per cent of the public service is going to leave," she said. "It's enormous." Former health, finance and education minister Pauline Marois, today the opposition education critic, defended the PQ's actions as necessary in light of the $6-billion deficit they faced. The PQ never expected the program to be so popular, she admitted. But the goal of reducing payroll costs was achieved. ahanes@thegazette.canwest.com

From Montreal Gazette, Canada, by Allison Hanes, 15 July 2003

Commission Studying Overhaul of Civil Service System

Denver - Hiring more private companies to do government work, giving temporary employees longer contracts and making it easier to fire inept workers are some of the changes being considered for the state's civil service system. State personnel director Troy Eid said the current system for hiring and promoting state workers is antiquated, with some mandates reaching back to 1918. A commission he leads along with former Gov. Dick Lamm plans to meet Friday to prepare a final draft of changes. Already unions that represent state workers are feeling uneasy and leaders worry if the reforms will resurrect the spoils system that civil service rules were intended to stop. ''Privateers are licking their chops over all the possibilities,'' said Jo Romero, president of the Colorado Federation of Public Employees. ''That's what this is all about. The people lose control of public services once they are privatized.'' Larry Odegard, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Colorado Council 76, suspects Gov. Bill Owens wants the changes so he can provide more favors and rewards for political allies.

Some of the other changes being studied include giving department heads more freedom to appoint their immediate staff to ensure loyalty and confidentiality and allowing public colleges and universities to create their own pay scale system. The commission has also talked about eliminating the ''rule of three'', which requires all candidates for a vacancy to take a test. Only the top three scorers on the test are then eligible for appointment. Colorado is one of only 10 states that constitutionally require a competitive selection process. Only Colorado and Louisiana limit the appointment to the top three. Many of the changes being considered would require a constitutional amendment to be approved by voters. A 1986 ballot question which attempted to change the system was defeated but Eid said conditions have changed. ''The labor organizations were huge, but not now. I think the mood of the work force was different,'' he said.

From Wyoming News, WY, 28 July 2003

Don't Hold Your Breath for E-Government

Johannesburg - A decade of work and hundreds of millions of rand will be required before all government information and services are made available online. The e-government initiative has been talked about for years as a vision for enabling every citizen to apply for services without filling in reams of paperwork, waiting in queues or being shunted from office to office. But the more that government explores the initiative, the more work it uncovers. Last week, the e-government project was discussed at three separate events, each attracting a high level of interest from information technology companies eager to win some work. But each event shared a common concern that government and the private sector do not see eye to eye. "Government and the private sector aren't really talking to each other," says Jane Mosebi of research house Forge Ahead. "The private sector wants business from the government but that's not the right attitude. Government wants the private sector to understand it intimately. They need to work together so the private sector doesn't just deliver goods and go away, but understands what government is all about and shares the risks." Government needs to communicate better to tell the industry exactly what is happening and precisely what it requires, agrees Mike Wright, the organiser of an industry think-tank, First Tuesday.

A government official says the problem was that IT suppliers simply wanted to sell a product, and were not interested in holistic solutions. The perfect technology partner would analyse the problems within government operations, design a solution, then provide the services for a fixed fee, such as producing passports within a week or running the payroll system, he says. IT spending in SA is expected to hit R35bn this year, of which government alone would account for R14bn, says Mojalefa Moseki, chief information officer of the State IT Agency (Sita). Much of that will be generated by the e-government's most visible project, the Gateway, an internet portal serving as the front door to all government services. Eventually people will be able to access the Gateway through the internet at home, at work, or from internet cafes, or at 8000 internet kiosks to be installed in post offices, banks and at other points. Walk-in centres will be established where computer illiterate citizens can ask an assistant to help them. People in remote areas will access the services by telephone, by calling an agent to act as their internet intermediary. The Gateway is a six-phase project. The first will see information put online, but with no ability to interact.

Users may be able to see what social benefits they are entitled to and the address of the local office they must visit, for example. Phase two will introduce e-mail for asking questions and receiving replies. Each phase will offer more interactivity, until information automatically flows between different departments without intervention. That will let details recorded at various times during a person's life be made available for the next event, from birth to death. The size of the task is enormous. Home affairs alone has 14 different systems which are not linked to each other, let alone to other government departments. "Information is the single most important resource within government," says Moseki. "This will be one of the most modern service delivery systems in the world. But e-government will not happen overnight, it will take a massive change. There is so much to be done and so many stakeholders to be consulted."

Government has not yet reached phase one, although TSystems has been contracted to set up the internet portal, while Siemens Business Services and Cornastone are setting up a call centre. That should soon be completed so phase one can be launched next month. "For the second stage, we will go out to tender to find companies able to offer services as we go forward," says Moseki. Every province will appoint its own service providers to carry out the work using standards and technologies approved by Sita. One source said no calculations had been made to extrapolate the likely cost of the entire Gateway project. "There will be cost savings and it will serve customers better, but it is never going to be a breakeven project," he said. The costs will be shared by the public service and administration department and various other government departments. "This is a 10-year process in its entirety," said Vusi Magagula, the chief information officer for the public enterprises department. "Government has done a reality check and recognises that it has to improve its services."

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Lesley Stones, 10 July 2003

Expert Advocates E-Governance

Lagos - A Technical Consultant with Federal Ministry of Information, Mrs. Ibukun Olusote has advocated e-government as a panacea to maintaining transparency and dynamism in Nigeria's governance. Speaking on an NTA channel 5 programme-one-on-one on Thursday, Mrs. Olusote said that it is only e-government that can fasten pace of work and eliminate bureaucracy in the nation's public sector. She said that her experience at the ministry of Information provided her insight into the ailing public sector in need of information technology for structural evolution. She observed that effective use of e-government can boost government programmes like NAPEP and UBE adding that this would provide opportunity for government to configure numbers of people enrolling in primary and secondary school job seekers and other relevant statistics. Mrs. Olusote stated that the recently conducted national identity card project and passport photographs taken at immigration department are examples of e-government.

She for urged the federal government to evolve a broad-based e-government model in the public sectors. Responding to questions on the possibility of e-government, Mrs. Olusote said "We must work at it being realistic." She said with the wave of globalisation blowing across the world "People cannot be thrown out with computers but rather be enhanced by computers." She commended Nigerians for helping to force down prices of computers through frequent travels abroad for IT transaction. She observed that the ever-increasing numbers of cyber café(s) in Nigeria is a good development in Information technology market adding that parents should always caution their wards against cybersex and other forms of pornography on the net. Meanwhile, Mrs. Olusote has said that she is currently working on a project called DG Test 2003. The programme which has been introduced since year 2000, according to her, was designed to tutor children between the ages of 8 and 17 the rudiments of computers. She said DG Test 2003 will "enable children to excel in what they are doing, to develop their intellect."

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Mohammed Shesanya, 23 July 2003

Public Service in Power Fight

Kampala - The ministry of Public Service has usurped some of the constitutional powers of the Public Service Commission, legislators heard yesterday. The commission, under the Public ministry, is in charge of recruiting civil servants. The commission officials were presenting their 2003/4 budgetary allocations and policy statement before the Public Service and Local Government committee. "We are suppressed," lamented the Commission Deputy Chairperson Ms Joyce Kaddu, who is also the acting chairman. She led the 10-man delegation to Parliament yesterday to defend their budget. The commission budgeted for Shs 2.198bn but the Finance ministry allocated it only Shs 1503bn. Ms. Kaddu spilled the beans after committee vice Chairperson Ms Beatrice Byenkya (Hoima) asked her to state the difference between the Ministry of Public Service and the commission. Kalungu East MP Mr. Anthony Yiga presided at the meeting. The commission officials did not however, name any ministry official usurping their powers. Third deputy Prime Minister Mr. Henry Kajura is also minister of public service. Lubaga North MP Mr. Deo Kayongo said the Judicial Service Commission is also suppressed. Mr. Sam Baingana, a Public Service Commissioner outlined the role of the statutory body. He appealed to the MPs to enact a law, which defines their work. The meeting also discussed problems faced by district service commissions. These include political interference from the councils.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, 25 July 2003

Public Service Taken to Task Over Jobs

Nairobi - Members of Parliament yesterday took Public Service head Francis Muthaura to task over the appointment of over-age people in government. The MPs asked Mr. Muthaura to explain why he was not advising the President on the appointment of such people to top positions. They were attending a post-election orientation seminar at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi. Speaker Francis ole Kaparo told MPs to look for ways to make the House recover the powers he said it had lost to the Executive. "In my opinion, a quiet coup took place years ago and government was unlawfully taken away by civil servants. This is why a district commissioner will tell a minister that the Government will not accept this or that," Mr. Kaparo said. The constitution is clear, only that civil servants have stolen government "and it is about time that Parliament flexed its muscles to ensure the wishes of Kenyans are adhered to," he added. Mr. Boniface Mganga (Voi, Kanu) asked Mr. Muthaura why he had not advised the President on public service recruitment. But Mr. Muthaura countered: "Retiring age is not constitutional. It is administrative", sparking protest. Mr. Muthaura added: "There are two groups of officers - permanent and pensionable who retire at 55, and the others who are usually recruited on contract after retirement". He said the latter group had no mandatory retirement age. Mr. Bonaya Godana (North Horr, Kanu) asked Mr. Muthaura to brief the meeting on plans to raise the mandatory retirement age from 55 to 60.

A week ago, there was an uproar in Parliament when an assistant minister said there were only five permanent secretaries over the retirement age. Yesterday, Mr. William ole Ntimama (Narok North, Narc) said the President's constitutional powers to appoint officials, regardless of existing commissions, had an element of dictatorship. "We are supposed to build a government through democratic institutions; why doesn't the Government rely on these institutions so that the President's role is that of approving their appointments? The present one entrenches dictatorship," Mr. Ntimama said. Mr. Muthaura said there were only a few posts filled by the President. But he added that the constitution was the creature of Parliament and not the Executive. Opening the two-day workshop, Mr. Kaparo had said: "Power gets to the people through their elected leaders collectively". The secretary-general of the Constitution Review Commission, Mr. Patrick Lumumba, said the three arms of government should be complementary, and that without this it would be impossible to achieve full democracy. Mr. Dennis Marshall, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association secretary-general, said general election campaigns should be pegged on pledges made by governments. Other leaders who addressed the seminar were Mr. Moody Awori, Dr Bonaya Godana for the deputy leader of Opposition, Government Chief Whip Mr. Norman Nyagah and Assembly Clerk Mr. Samuel Ndindiri.

From AllAfrica.com, Africa, by Julius Bosire, 28 July 2003

E-governance: the New Line of Force in India

It's a different image that the government sector is getting - that of emerging as the fourth largest vertical spender on information technology after the telecom, manufacturing and banking and finance industries. That's not surprising, since most major players in the IT industry say that e-governance is their biggest practice worldwide, and so it would seem that India's following that trend. According to Gartner estimates, the Indian government has spent $1.008 billion on information technology in 2002. This includes the expenditure of the Central and state governments on hardware, software, telco equipment, telco services, and IT services, but excludes salary costs of IT staff. In fact, the government accounted for 9 per cent of the total IT spend in India for the year 2002, and in five years that's estimated to go up to 15 per cent. That makes it quite a force to rckon with in the Apac (Asia Pacific) region where combined spend across Apac governments was $15.2 billion. According to Gartner that makes it the only recession proof vertical that could keep up the momentum in IT spend despite a downturn in the country's economy. Though eGovernment is just five years old in India, 12 states already have an IT policy in place.

For Microsoft, for instance, which is working with various departments of the Central government and most state governments considers its role as a "technology partner" in e-governance and a very important part of its practice in India. According to Shailendra Kumar, head, government vertical, Microsoft, the vertical applications where IT-spend is being seen most include police departments, treasury, land records, irrigation and justice. "Work flow and messaging are the areas where IT first makes its entry in governments," he adds. IBM too is a major player in this sector having implemented several initiatives fo