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ISSUE 76
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| November 2005 |
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Civil Service Sections Each Need
Ethics Officers
An ethos is required to ensure that
the capacity and credibility of the administration is not
eroded, writes Perran Hahndiek. Recently, President Thabo
Mbeki, writing in the ANC's online journal, termed corruption
a cancer representative of a society that had lost its anchor.
This is perhaps indicative of the growing concern among prominent
figures in the ANC government and elsewhere that the standard
of ethics prevalent in the public service is undermining the
integrity of the state, service provision and the fight against
poverty. It would appear that
such concerns are well founded. Investigations into the conduct
of public servants - such as the pilot project conducted by
the Auditor-General into two government departments in the
Limpopo province - would suggest that, despite the efforts
of the government over the past decade and the establishment
of ethics regulations and guidelines, impropriety in the administration
appears increasingly endemic.
Conflicts - The auditor-general found
that about 2 800 officials, including 22 senior managers,
failed to request permission to do paid work outside the public
service and had not disclosed conflicts of interest. Moreover,
81 government employees - who were directors or members of
private companies - supplied goods and services to the departments
at which they were employed. Government efforts to transform
the public service, foster an ethos of accountability and
responsiveness - the principles set out in the constitution
- have centred on developing a net of regulations and guidelines.
The Public Service Regulations of 1999
(as amended 2001) are paramount in this regard. Chapter Two
of the regulations stipulates that, among other things, state
employees must recuse themselves from any official action
which may result in improper personal gain. In addition, employees
may not, without approval, undertake remunerative work outside
their official duties. Chapter Three requires senior officials
to disclosure their financial interests annually to the Public
Service Commission. Employees who fail to disclose or who
knowingly provide inaccurate or misleading information are
guilty of misconduct. These regulations
are in line with international practices and, aside from a
few minor anomalies in the regulations and the absence of
post-tenure restrictions (which the government is considering),
provide a solid framework for combating impropriety.
Yet, for the regulations to be effective
and prevent unethical conduct, implementation and monitoring
mechanisms need to be tightened. As the chairman of the commission,
Prof Stan Sangweni, noted in a parliamentary media briefing
earlier this year: "The public service has made progress
in ensuring that there is a basic ethics infrastructure to
promote and maintain sound professional ethics. However, more
attention is still required at the level of implementation
to ensure that a culture of professional ethics is entrenched."
There have been several shortcomings in the implementation
of ethics regulations, particularly with regard to disclosure
of financial interests. Statistics published by Transparency
International (2005) reveal that the submission of disclosure
forms to the Public Service Commission have been average at
best. In 2000, only 62% of designated officials, at both national
and provincial level, submitted the required documentation.
By 2003 this figure had improved, though
the number of outstanding forms, especially at provincial
level, remained problematic. One of the reasons for this low
level of compliance may be that the disclosure regulations
have yet to be enforced.Although
specific penalties for non-compliance are still to be formulated,
considering the regulations have been in place for a number
of years it could be argued that officials should be sufficiently
familiar with the requirements for those who fail to comply
to be charged with misconduct.
Capacity - A
related concern is the lack of capacity in the Public Service
Commission. An Idasa study into the implementation of ethics
laws (2003) found that the commission was under-resourced,
with one official responsible for monitoring disclosure forms
for 3 000 employees. A possible
solution to problems of capacity may be to adopt a decentralised
approach to ethics management, with departments being given
greater responsibility for ensuring that employees observe
the regulations. This approach
would likely involve each department appointing an ethics
officer to provide employees with training and advice, monitor
compliance with the regulations and support Public Service
Commission initiatives.
Whatever the strategy in terms of tightening
disclosure and other ethics regulations, it is important that
they are implemented effectively. "Batho Pele" -
the government's drive to create a people-centred administration
- rests, in part, on the maintenance of set principles and
the prevention of impropriety.Ultimately, though, a high regard
for the public service is an ethos which cannot be built solely
on government regulation. Nevertheless, if minimum standards
of conduct are not adhered to, the capacity and credibility
of the administration will erode. For public officials, in
their interaction with the citizenry, are at the coalface
of delivery and central to the state's effort to bring about
a better quality of life.
From The Mercury- Durban, November 3, 2005
Civil Service 'Bloated,
Yet Inefficient'
Government's failure to
implement performance management to improve public service
delivery has resulted in a bloated, yet inefficient, civil
service. Presenting a paper at last week's Cabinet retreat
at Swakopmund, business leader Harold Pupkewitz told the meeting
that skills, knowledge and good attitude lacked in the public
service, although conditions of employment were "generally
very attractive". The Wages and Salary Commission (Wascom)
in 1996 recommended that Namibia have a smaller, better paid,
more professional, more efficient and professional public
service. Pupkewitz said the wages were increased but the performance-management
monitoring was not implemented.
"The net effect has been that
Government now absorbs over 36 per cent of Gross Domestic
Product and is not generally providing the required levels
of service either efficiently or productively," Pupkewitz
told the meeting behind closed doors. Given the size and resources
of the Government and parastatals, he proposed that the two
be used as training ground for technical and managerial talent
who could then be fed into the private sector. Pupkewitz said
there were good political reasons behind the growth in public
service with the appointment of hundreds of former Swapo fighters,
but a lot of questions on how Government money was spent on
development.
He also expressed anger at the high
levels of abuse and corruption in the public service.
"The misuse of Government property, the time wasting,
the belief that a Government job is a sinecure, the running
of business during working hours, theft of Government property
- and so the list goes on - must stop, and stop now. This
does not take money, just the will to stop the rot. This must
come from the political leadership," he said. He
complemented President Hifikepunye Pohamba for his anti-corruption
crusade, stating that it was a vital precondition for the
country's development.
From allafrica.com, November 9, 2005
Public Servants Do
Not Like Mondays, Says Auditor-General
Monday was unsurprisingly the most
common day for public servants at six government departments
to take sick leave, an investigation by Auditor-General Shauket
Fakie discovered. Mondays were the day for between 26% and
36% of all sick leave taken by employees in the departments
of defence, correctional services, South African Police Service,
justice, national treasury and home affairs, Fakie's report
on the management of sick leave tabled in Parliament yesterday
said. The cost of sick leave at these national departments
and 10 provincial departments representsL about 1,5% of the
total basic salary expenditure during the three-year period
from 2001 to 2003. During this
period, government employees used about 12,6-million sick-leave
days at an estimated cost of R3,3bn.
"Employees exceeded their allocated
sick-leave days by 133038 days," Fakie said. The worst-offending
department in this period was home affairs, where the average
number of sick leave days for an employee each year totalled
9,13 days - or 162648 days, which cost the department R36m
or about R2027 an employee a year. More than 3098 days' sick
leave were taken by 119 home affairs employees over a two-year
period without any evidence of a medical certificate having
been produced. Next in line was correctional services, with
an average 9,04 sick days for each employee, giving a total
number of 952160 sick-leave days taken at a total cost to
the department of R263m.
Public servants are allowed 36 working
days' sick leave with full pay in a three-year cycle. "In
this context it is also not hard to understand why the department
has such a poor track record when it comes to service delivery,"
said the Democratic Alliance's deputy home affairs spokesman,
Marius Swart. In another report
on the state-owned State Information Technology Agency, Fakie
found that the total IT expenditure of national departments
for 2004-05 amounted to about R2,7bn, of which 71% was paid
to contract workers, 18% for IT acquisitions and 11% on maintenance
and consumables.
From Business Day, 15 November, 2005
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Civil Service Ordinance, a Ploy
to Make Bureaucracy Submissive
A former secretary of the government,
on Sunday, flayed the recently promulgated civil service ordinance,
labeling it as a government ploy to make the bureaucracy submissive
to its "unjust activities". Speaking at a program
organized by Martin Chautari, Dr Bhola Nath Chalise, former
secretary at the ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies,
said, "The recently unveiled civil service ordinance
aims at making civil servants submissive to every unjust activity
of the government."
Stating that the provisions set in
the ordinance are meant to handpick desired persons to higher
posts of bureaucracy, Chalise, said, "This is a clear
manifestation that the government does not want to be transparent
in its activities." He also
accused government of "creating terror" among civil
servants. Promulgating a civil
service ordinance some two months back, the government had
set new provisions like sending secretaries into the reserve
pool and putting restrictions on the formation of civil servants'
union, among others.
From Kathmandu Post, November 6, 2005
Ban Bias in Civil Service
Recruitment
For the first time in
their short history, the recruitment examinations for central
government offices are truly open to all qualified citizens
irrespective of where they live. Until last year, more often
than not, one had to be a registered permanent resident of
Beijing in order to become a public servant. This may sound
outrageous to outsiders. It makes many wonder whether they
are recruiting for the central people's government, or government
of Beijingers. But that has been the case, year after year.
It is good to see the back of such an insane stipulation.
The Ministry of Personnel and the Organizational Department
of the Communist Party Central Committee deserve credit for
ordering its removal, though it is long overdue. But
obviously more has to be done to make the annual civil service
recruitment drive respectable.
Yang Shijian, 36, who applied to sit
the exams but was barred because of his age, has filed a law
suit at a Beijing court against the Ministry of Personnel
for the latter's violation of his right to equal opportunities
in employment. Based on the 1994 Provisional Regulations on
the Recruitment of State Public Servants, the ministry's online
registration programme is set to automatically disqualify
all applicants over the age of 35. Yang, a law student, believes
this rule is in conflict with the Constitution's promise of
equality and the right to work for all citizens. It is beyond
our authority to interpret the laws. Still, we find Yang's
case to be of significance. It reminds us of the unsettling
magnitude of age discrimination in present-day China.
The age of 35 has become an ominous
watershed for job-hunters. Examine any advert or attend any
job fair and the chances are the overwhelming majority of
recruiters, no matter whether they are academic institutions,
government agencies or businesses, will automatically reject
applicants above the age of 35. Such people are usually the
most productive workers. They are old enough to make sensible
judgments in their careers as well as personal lives, but
young enough to create and absorb new concepts, and translate
bold ideas into action. There
are 400 million Chinese citizens between the age of 35 and
legal retirement ages. Retirement ages in China usually are
55 for women and 60 for men although the ages may also vary
in accordance with one's gender, health and administrative
seniority. Denying them jobs infringes on their constitutional
right to employment. The rule ruins lives, harms the economy
and sows seeds of instability.
But, most of all, it is immoral. Even
if there is any legislative basis for such discrimination,
it must be eliminated, as soon as possible. The Ministry of
Personnel should set a good example for all employers in terms
of its recruiting practice. The recruitment examinations are
a test of its credibility when it talks of equal opportunities
and criticism of discrimination. We
are waiting for the ministry to explain why a 36-year-old
is not qualified to serve the public.
From China Daily, November 7, 2005
Civil Service Pay Should
Be Reviewed
A call for the pay rates of senior
civil servants to be reviewed. The Civil Service is having
to look overseas to fill vacancies as large numbers of staff
quit. Public Service Association national secretary Brenda
Pilott says it is widely accepted that the pay rates are not
high enough. She says it has been addressed in relation to
chief executives, but it is now time to look at pay rates
of other senior civil servants. The available jobs range from
policy formulation to economists and government planners.
From NewstalkZB, November 10, 2005
Kazakhstan Civil Service
Agency chair met the UN Assistant Secretary General
Chair of Kazakhstan Civil
Service Agency Zautbek Turisbekov and the UN Assistant Secretary
General, director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS
Kalman Mizsei discussed further cooperation in state administration
system development and anticorruption efforts. The UN Plenipotentiary
in Kazakhstan Yuriko Shodji attended the meeting held November
8 as well, Kazinform refers to the press service of Kazakhstan
Civil Service Agency. The parties considered the progress
of joint project realization "Kazakhstan state administration
reforms backing." Kazakhstan NGOs along with the foreign experts
carried out researches and held the meetings to upgrade government
services quality and implement "one stop shopping principle."
The project outcomes have been positively assessed by the
Government's interdepartmental working group and applied by
the country's Justice Ministry when initiating integrated
service centers. The sides came
to agreement to continue the project on elaboration and introduction
of state organs' service standards and the UN extra financing
up to USD 300 000.
From Kazakh Information Agency, November
11, 2005
Fiji Public Servants
to Get COLA Payment
The Fiji government has
given an assurance that it will definitely pay the Cost of
Living Adjustment awarded to all public servants by the permanent
arbitrator last month. The chairman of the public service
commission, Stuart Hugget, has told Radio Legend that they
are working with the ministry of finance to find the almost
20 million US dollars to make the payment. Mr Hugget says
he is dealing with the matter with urgency and the payment
will be made quickly once the details are worked out. Mr Hugget's
announcement comes a day after the Fiji Islands Council of
Trade Unions said it would take industrial action if both
the Cost of Living Adjustment and payments due under the Performance
Management System are not paid by the end of this month.
From Radio New Zealand International, November
10, 2005
Tamil Public Servants
Urged to Boycott Election Duty
An organization called
"Peoples Force" in Jaffna district called all Tamil
public servants to ignore election duty on the presidential
poll scheduled to be held on November 17 and to observe the
day as mourning. Boycott posters are seen in public places
throughout the Jaffna district, civil sources said. Sinhala
political parties are not sincere in addressing the Tamil
national question meeting the legitimate aspirations of Tamil
people. Tamils should show to the international community
and Sinhala leaders of the south that they are not interested
in the forthcoming presidential election, appeal said. I is
the duty of Tamil people and Tamil public servants to boycott
the presidential poll. It is meaningless for Tamil public
servants to perform election duty in Jaffna district, the
appeal further stated.
From Tamilnet, October 13, 2005
Minister Outlines Plan
to Improve Skill, Efficiency of Public Servants
The Home Affairs Ministry has responsibility
for Viet Nam's public servants and its Minister, Do Quang
Trung, wants inspectors appointed to monitor their performance.
Trung discussed his proposal with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
What difficulties would the inspectors have to cope with?
Some of their difficulties could be tackled immediately. But
the mission and duties of the inspectors should be defined
by a Government decree. Their task would be to check that
public servants are efficient. It's a way to encourage public
servants to do their jobs better. It could be construed that
the need for the inspectors has arisen because managers have
had difficulties with the discipline of their subordinates.
Can you explain how this has happened? Inspectors
will help improve the work ethic and discipline of public
servants. The lack of discipline in an office leads to poor
performance. It's time to fix the problem.
Will the inspectors have the power
to discipline those found violating office rules and regulations?
Sanctions are part of many legal documents, including the
Law to Prevent and Fight Corruption or the "Anti-Corruption
Law" and the Civil Servants Ordinance. But the authorisation
of any punishment will be the prerogative of the office managers,
not the inspectors. Would a team of inspectors burden the
State? Everything has its pros and cons. But we should focus
on the positive. For example the story of learning and testing.
When students know they have to take a test, their motivation
to learn improves. Similarly, inspections would make public
servants work better. Administrative reforms are described
as a breakthrough. But the process is very slow, even the
public inspection programme. Why? Yes, administrative reform
is slow.
If we had quickened the pace, social
development would have also developed much faster and our
Gross Domestic Product would have been much higher than 8.4
per cent. Administrative reform however has delivered many
achievements. The law-making process at this sitting of the
National Assembly has been much quicker than at previous meetings.
This is a result of administrative reform. Thorough administrative
reform should take place throughout the entire country. If
we want to build a state governed by law and a strong market
economy, it's necessary to have a complete legal system. This
is the central task of the National Assembly.
Institutional reform should be thought
the essence of the administrative reform programme, including
institutional structures and public finance. You have participated
in the reformed programme for the past 10 years. Yet complaints
about administrative work are heard at all National Assembly
meetings. What is your response? I'm
doing what the people want me to do. I have tried hard but
I'm not happy with the results. I have to carry responsibility
for the slow progress. The way ahead is fraught with difficulties
and challenges and we have to exert even more effort in doing
our duty.
From Vietnam News, November 12, 2005
Civil Servants' Pensions
May Include Pre-1987 Service
The Ministry of Personnel
will introduce a proposal to end a resolution made by the
former administration to allow civil servants to include the
length of their service with the opposition Kuomintang before
1987 as part of their civil service entitled to government-paid
retirement pensions and high interest rates on their saving
deposits. The proposal came after
President Chen Shui-bian (???) and other leaders of the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party, while campaigning for DPP candidates
running for local posts in next month's elections, blasted
some senior officials of the former KMT government for receiving
high retirement pensions. Responding
to inquiries from DPP legislative whip William C.T. Lai, Minister
of Personnel Chu Wu-hsien said the Examination Yuan did mete
out a set of administrative decrees in 1971 to allow KMT officials
to include their service with the KMT as part of their civil
service later.
Those decrees were revoked by the Examination
Yuan in 1987 after the inauguration of the Democratic Progressive
Party. Many Examination Yuan members agreed that the resolution
should be revoked to prevent DPP officials from demanding
the same treatment. However,
the Examination Yuan later passed another resolution allowing
civil servants to count their service with the KMT before
the decrees were revoked in 1987 as part of their service
eligible for retirement pensions paid by the government. Chu
said Examination Yuan members will meet on Thursday to discuss
whether to approve the proposal. Once the resolution is revoked,
civil servants who had previously worked with the KMT would
no longer receive full pensions that cover their service with
both the government and the KMT. Describing
the resolution as unjustifiable and unreasonable, Chu said
the move is necessary in response to what he called "public
demand for social justice".
Because of that resolution, many former
KMT officials, such as former Examination Yuan President Chiu
Chuang-hua, former Control Yuan vice president John H. Kuan,
and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu were able to retire with higher
pensions than some of those who had worked longer with the
government. Chu also claimed
that Taichung Mayor Jason Hu, who is running for reelection
against his DPP rival Lin Chia-lung (???), it not entitled
to pensions for a senior civil servant who had worked with
the government for 25 years. Hu
had been a student in England for 10 years; he said he was
also working with the KMT as a secretary and a liaison officer
during that period. Hu reportedly once told his friends and
reporters that he was a "voluntary worker" of the
KMT while studying in England. According to the resolution,
only "full-time" KMT officials were entitled to
such preferential treatment, he said. Chu
said he hopes the resolution would be revoked as soon as possible,
so that his ministry will have a basis for processing similar
retirement applications filed by some former KMT officials.
From Taiwan News, November 15, 2005
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Government Website Awarded EUROMED
Award
Rome, Italy - The Italian government's
official website (www.governo.it) was awarded the 2005 EuroMediterranean
prize in Bologna. The award is promoted by the Italian Public
Communications Office and Afro-Mediterranean associations.
"[The website] is outstanding and in keeping with EU
standards: it carries newsletter, press review and online
press conference services" reads the award committee's
motivation.
From AGI, November 3, 2005
First Ever Woman Gets
Top Civil Service Job in European Commission
For the first time in EU history a
woman has been appointed secretary-general of the European
Commission, as Brussels on Wednesday (9 November) reshuffled
its top civil service posts. The current head of the environment
directorate, Irish Catherine Day will take over the secretary-general
post from another Irish compatriot, David O'Sullivan, in a
commission move to increase mobility among senior staff. Administration
commissioner Siim Kallas told a press conference in Brussels
that the mobility shuffle aims at achieving a better gender
and geographical balance in 2006. "The current gender
balance in commission staff is not in favour of the ladies.
But it will be better. We used to have three women as directorate-generals,
and now there are five. Soon there will be six, and then seven,"
he said.
The imbalance between old and new member
states on key EU positions will also be addressed by appointing
several deputy directorate-generals from the new states, in
time for them to acquire experience before any future reshuffles
of director general posts. "Merit must come first, and
be the most important principle for these appointments,"
Mr Kallas said on the matter of certain countries' lack of
representation on the list of department heads. The new line-up
of top EU civil servants also puts British or Irish officials
in four of the most influential posts. David O'Sullivan, a
liberal and free-marketeer, will head the commission's trade
directorate-general, with an increasingly powerful and politically
sensitive portfolio under trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.
French influence in Brussels will diminish
with the exit of Francoise Le Bail, president Jose Manuel
Barroso's spokeswoman. Francois Lamoureux, the French director-general
in charge of transport, will also lose his job, but with a
prsopect of becoming an advisor to Mr Barroso down the line.
A Frenchman has taken over as new director-general of agriculture,
but French officials complained that the common agricultural
policy is run by DG trade rather not DG agriculture. Wednesday's
decision on staff mobility applies to officials who have held
their current post for the maximum allowed of five years in
2005, or whose nationality coincides with that of the commissioner
on the same portfolio.
Commission staff rules state a director-general
must be of a different nationality than the commissioner under
whom he or she works, with a rotating scheme in place to reduce
the holding by certain countries of key departments. First
preparations for the re-organisation of the staff organigram
were made by the former commission president, Romani Prodi,
with the introduction of a 'code of conduct' on top jobs to
stave off suspicions of nepotism and abuse.
From EUObserver, November 9, 2005
Community Sector Larger
than Civil Service?
According to the University
of Ulster, several hundred of the 30,000 community based jobs
in Northern Ireland could be endangered if the British government
fails to access a minimum of 120 million Pounds set aside
for Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein MEP, Bairbre de Bruin:
"The promotion and empowerment
of the community sector must be a priority for the British
Government if that sector is to be able to carry on its vital
work of peace building and reconciliation. Without wishing
to be alarmist, it is increasingly clear that if PEACE III
funding is not secured then many community organisations and
projects involved in peace building and reconciliation will
find themselves in a precarious financial position. I have
witnessed at first hand the invaluable work undertaken throughout
the Six Counties (Northern Ireland) and the border region".
But Jim Allister MEP of the DUP questioned the size (larger
than the NI civil service) and effectiveness of the sector:
"I was astounded at the figures released
yesterday by the University of Ulster showing that more than
30,000 people work for community organisations in Northern
Ireland and the neighbouring counties within the Republic
of Ireland. I wonder who all is funded within the community
sector and what are these people doing to ensure there is
a meaningful benefit to the communities in which they work."
From sluggerotoole.com - Mick Fealty, November
9, 2005
Electronic Solutions
for Improvement of Civil Service Efficiency in B&H
Around 500 participants,
mostly civil servants and ICT experts from BiH have opened
today the Second eGovernment Conference in BiH, entitled Domestic
solutions for eGovernment. This two-day conference was opened
in the newly-reconstructed Big Parliamentary Hall of Bosnia
and Herzegovina. The organizers are Agency for Civil Service
and UNDP in BiH, together with the leading industry partners
in the field, from BiH. The Conference was held at the Great
Hall of the B&H Assembly Building. © UNDP BiH The goal
of this conference is to spur development of civil service
in terms of the ICT usage as a tool for increasing effectiveness
and efficiency of the civil services. Due to that, it is necessary
to present the solutions applied in local institutions to
the participants of the conference.
"Information and communication technologies
(ICT) are irreplaceable tool for development of civil service
and its functions. We can see very often that in some countries
people go to elections electronically, via internet, citizens
pay their taxes from their homes. Also, every citizen in European
Union, using the state web site can ask for some documents
to be delivered to his home address. Information technologies
are, what is obvious very useful tool for increasing the efficiency
of the entire society and the state civil service, and that
is why the Agency for civil service and UNDP want to initiate
the development of this segment of social governance, by organizing
such conference", said Mr. Jakob Finci, director of the Civil
Service Agency of BiH at the opening of the conference.
The importance of ICT usage was emphasized
by Renzo Daviddi, Head of the Economic and Political Sector
of the European Commission delegation in BiH and Zlatko Lagumdzija,
MIT Center director, underlining the importance of creation
of ICT usage culture while employing the local knowledge and
potentials, existing in BiH at the same time as well. UNDP
Resident Representative in BiH, Mr. Jens Toyberg-Frandzen
said that today's effective and efficient public institutions
cannot operate without the use of modern technologies. "Governments
throughout Europe and beyond are actively ensuring that e-Governance
is the norm. The process of public administration reform and
implementation of eGovernment systems is irreversible. It
is a process that cannot be fought; one which every government
institution must embrace and harness", said Mr. Toyberg-Frandzen.
One of the conference goals is to connect
local companies offering ICT products and services for informatization
of the civil service with the civil servants responsible for
these issues on all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Insufficient usage of ICTs very often is not the consequence
of financial problems but of lack of ideas at the side of
information technology staff and heads of units at the institutions.
In that sense, this conference will help create ideas and
increase interest for implementation of advanced ICT solutions
in B-H institutions, at all state levels.
The Agency for civil service of BiH
and UNDP want to initiate the development and efficiency of
the state service, but also to improve the level of services
and satisfaction of the entrepreneurs and citizens as consumers
of these services as well. The conference invited heads of
B-H institutions and their assistants to participate in the
conference and see the presentations of the best European
practices of ICT usage so the level of government services
to citizens and entrepreneurs could be improved. The ICT staff
employed in the state institutions will have the opportunity
to gather information of the diverse domestic ICT solutions.
Emphasizing the motto "Let's buy domestic!" the
organizers want to present the best home-made electronic solutions.
Just one day before the conference started, more than 460
people from BiH applied via internet to participate the conference.
This shows that the interest for this kind of event in BiH
is big, what additionally implies the need to enhance the
electronic government in BiH even more.
From see.oneworld.net, November 10, 2005
New Public Servant's
Code
The new public servants' code will
be submitted in Parliament by the end of the year according
to statements made by Minister of Interior, Public Administration
and Decentralization Prokopis Pavlopoulos after the meeting
he had with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis to brief him
on the issue and the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities
of Greece (KEDKE) conference. Mr. Karamanlis during his visit
to Japan, that was completed yesterday, had characterized
the discussion on the imminent government reshuffle as wrong
issue and expressed the belief that changing ministers regularly
is counterproductive.
From Macedonian Press Agency, November 14,
2005
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UAE and Morocco Discuss Cooperation
in Civil Service
Saeed Khalfan Al Ghaith, Minister of
State for Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the Civil Service
Council, met here today with Mohammed Bu-Saeed, Moroccan Minister
in chrage of Public Sector Modernisation, who is currently
on a visit to UAE. The meeting, attended by Abdul Rahman Al
Rostmani, Director General of Civil Service Bureau, discussed
means to enhance cooperation in all fields, particularly civil
service.
From wam.org, November 20, 2005
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Changes to Civil Service Establishment
Presented to House
An update on changes to the Civil Service
Establishment for 2005 has been presented to the House of
Representatives. Finance and Planning State Minister, Fitz
Jackson who moved the resolution for the changes to the Civil
Service Establishment Order, 2005 to be affirmed by the House,
yesterday (November 1), said the Order reflected changes in
at least three areas - salaries and allowances, established
posts and abolished posts. Mr. Jackson said the changes made
between the 2004 and the 2005 Order represented a less than
one per cent increase.
The State Minister also informed that
the major increases were related to the creation of 86 posts
for immigration officers to fill urgent needs in the immigration
and passport division of the National Security Ministry. Mr.
Jackson said other major changes occurred in the restructuring
of the Industry and Tourism Ministry, staff strengthening
in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the
restructuring of the Public Gardens and Zoo Division of the
Agriculture Ministry and the reallocation of staff between
the Finance and Planning Ministry and the Cabinet Office.
This, he said, was in addition
to the modernisation of the Mining Division of the Land and
Environment Ministry, the opening of a new Embassy in the
Chinese Republic and the implementation of an Accrual Accounting
Structure in the Transport and Works Ministry. Over the period
the Justice Training Institute and the Court Reporting Schools
in the Justice Ministry were also merged.
Minister Jackson said in all, some
185 new posts were created, 92 posts upgraded, 159 reclassified,
135 retitled and 144 abolished from the Establishment over
the period. Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw said
while there was no difficulty with the resolution, queried
whether the recently announced amendment to the Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Government and the
Trade Unions for some $2 billion to be paid over to public
sector workers had been effected. Mr. Shaw said although the
MOU had not yet come to an end, the payment reflected some
four per cent of the wages of public sector workers and the
Opposition was concerned as to whether the amounts were being
paid out expeditiously.
Responding, Mr. Jackson pointed out
that the increased MOU payments did not represent a one time
payment but would be made over the financial year which would
end in March of 2006. He emphasized that all public sector
workers would realize the increase in their regular remuneration
over the period. "The payments are being made but not
all at once," he stressed. The
Civil Service Establishment Act requires the Minister responsible
for the Civil Service to provide an annual update on changes
to the Civil Service Establishment to the House of Representatives.
From Government of Jamaica, November 3,
2005
Insulza: Private Enterprise
and Public Policies Key to Job Creation
The Secretary General
of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel
Insulza, said at the opening of the Fourth Summit of the Americas
today that for decent jobs to be created in the region, economic
growth, macroeconomic balance and open markets are essential.
"We have made important strides with these policies,"
Insulza said, citing positive rates of growth, a substantial
reduction in deficits and inflation, and the conclusion of
numerous bilateral and regional trade agreements, most recently
the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement
(DR-CAFTA).
Referring to the central theme of the
Fourth Summit - "Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen
Democratic Governance" - Insulza recognized the importance
of free markets and private economic initiatives in generating
employment, but also underscored the role of public policy.
He recalled that in the 1980s, "distorted ideologies"
at times led to a disparagement of the role of government
in distributing wealth and providing essential social services.
Recognizing the value of public
policy does not mean limiting the capacity of businesses or
individuals to generate wealth, Insulza stressed. "On
the contrary, the creation of an economic and social climate
conducive to investment and private enterprise through clear
rules that eliminate fear, that open up markets, that cut
back on bureaucracy as much as possible, and that afford private
initiative the opportunity to achieve growth must be the unavoidable
basis for our governments' public policy."
The Secretary General recognized that
the largest number of jobs will always be created through
private initiative, but cautioned that market forces alone
are insufficient to guarantee a just distribution of wealth
and to meet basic social needs. "The
time has come to recognize that fighting poverty and inequality
also calls for clear, targeted public policies managed by
governments endowed with resources and technical skills,"
he said. "The fundamental task for policy and politicians
is to solve people's problems and not create new ones, as
often happens in our countries." Insulza
noted that in 2004 the region had its best economic year in
two decades and that the prospects for 2005 and 2006 are favorable.
Still, he said, there is a "palpable sense of uncertainty,"
a natural consequence of the financial crises the region faced
in the first years of this decade.
"From the people's point of view,
there are two key questions: First, will we be able, this
time, to maintain a pace of growth that will prevent our region
from continuing to lose standing in the world economy, in
the face of other developing regions that, in recent decades,
have had much higher rates of growth? And, this time, will
the benefits of our growth and our democracy actually benefit
the more than 200 million poor, half of them destitute, living
in our region today?" In
his remarks to the Heads of State and Government of the 34
OAS member states, the Secretary General also talked about
the need to enhance good governance, noting that in recent
years the region has experienced "serious problems regarding
political stability and the quality of public administration."
In order to improve public policy, Insulza said, "we
must first of all expand and strengthen freedom in the Americas."
"Overcoming unemployment and poverty
presupposes freer societies, in which all people are fully
able to speak out and participate, with more justice, transparency,
greater freedom of expression and association, and full respect
for gender equality, and with respect for the diversity of
original peoples, compatriots of African descent, the most
vulnerable groups, and the millions of migrants and displaced
people," he said. The Secretary
General underscored the role of the Inter-American Democratic
Charter as a tool to help the region "forge a community of
free nations, whose governments not only develop democratically
but also govern with full respect for the rule of law, guaranteeing
the human rights of their citizens at all times."
"The Charter is not simply an
agreement among governments; it is also a victory for our
peoples, and as such, it must be adhered to unconditionally,"
Insulza said. He noted that the Democratic Charter, the launching
of negotiations to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas,
the adoption of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption
and the formation of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control
Commission are among the significant achievements of the Summit
of the Americas process. The
President of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, Canadian Prime Minister
Paul Martin and the President of the Inter-American Development
Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, also spoke at the opening ceremony.
From Harold Doan and Associates, Nov 4,
2005
Public Servants Becoming
Masters Is a Concern
As Californians head to the polls today,
it's fair to say that this election, at its core, is about
the power of public employee unions. Although only one of
the measures on the ballot - Proposition 75 - focuses directly
on that issue, all four of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initiatives
touch on the topic in one way or another. The public-sector
unions and their $100 million campaign have, with a little
help from the governor himself, managed to paint him as a
man who hates teachers, nurses, firefighters and other government
employees. That characterization, unfortunately, has succeeded
in blurring the outlines of the debate. One need not hate
public employees or even dislike them to be legitimately concerned
about the influence their unions have on public policy and
on our lives.
I have such concerns - even though
I love my parents, one of whom was a public school teacher
and principal, the other a university librarian. I have a
brother who is a social worker and a sister who worked in
a veterans hospital. My feelings for them, however, don't
make me any less bothered by the fact that public employee
unions have tied our government in knots and hampered the
delivery of services to those in need. My
first vivid, up-close experience with this fact came when
my eldest son entered kindergarten. A few weeks into the term,
we learned that the drinking fountain on the wall outside
his classroom, the one facing the little playground with a
slide and sandbox, was not working.
The pipes that drained it had long
since filled with debris, mostly sand, forcing the trough
to overflow whenever the fountain flowed. To fix it, one needed
only to loosen two nuts and pull off the clogged, u-shaped
trap, empty it and then put it back into position. It was
a 10-minute job that anyone who has ever wrestled with a clog
in the kitchen or bathroom could do. As it happened, we did
not need to rely on an amateur, because we had a professional
plumber handy. The father of one of the boys in the class
volunteered to clear the clog that was keeping the sink from
working. The principal said no. Though she was a professional
woman with a college education and years of management experience,
she did not have the authority to allow a parent to fix a
clogged pipe on the campus she was supposed to be running.
The job was on a list of repairs at district headquarters,
we were told, and a district
plumber would be sent out in due time. Parent volunteers were
not allowed to do jobs that district employees were hired
to perform.
That small incident opened our eyes
to the maddening role that public employee unions can play
in our lives. Having thought of ourselves as progressives
and having a deep respect for the work that unions have done
in protecting workers from abuse in the mines, in factories,
in the fields, my wife and I grew disturbed at the way the
public employee unions, whose members are hardly in danger
of abuse at the hands of their employers, were tainting that
legacy. Covering state politics and public policy, I have
since seen the unions oppose reforms designed to help poor
and minority students get a better education. I have seen
them push for rules that prevented school districts from saving
money by using private companies to serve food in the cafeteria
or pull weeds in the yard, money that could have been used
to hire tutors for struggling students.
I've watched as lawmakers passed legislation
and approved contracts that made low-income housing for the
poor more expensive, prohibited college students from volunteering
to clear brush from streams and blocked the state from using
private engineers to design new highways. I saw the unions
push for pensions that could not be sustained and for lifetime
health benefits that would be the envy of any private-sector
worker. The public employee unions, meanwhile, have grown
increasingly militant in their tactics. Unlike private-sector
unions, which ultimately have to be concerned about the financial
health of their employer, public employee unions have no such
constraints. Public agencies rarely go bankrupt. Our public
employees might be good people. And their unions have every
right to represent their narrow interests. But that doesn't
mean the rest of us shouldn't be concerned about what happens
when the people who used to be called public servants instead
become the masters.
From Sacramento Bee, Daniel Weintraub, November
8, 2005
Civil Servants' Language
Lessons Tops $120M
Training public servants
to speak French is costing the federal treasury more than
$120 million every year. The
cost estimate, contained in documents newly released to The
Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, places
a price tag on an endeavour that the federal government has
acknowledged is not working. "Although
no firm data are available, it is estimated that direct costs
of OL (official languages) training in the federal government
is in the range of $60-$70 million per year," says the
research report dated Jan. 24, 2005. "These
costs do not include replacement or lost productivity costs
associated with the time employees spend on training, which
could easily double this amount." The
training is going almost exclusively to anglophone or allophone
public servants learning French. In
2003-04, less than four per cent of the 4,656 students taking
official languages training were learning English.
The draft research document, entitled
Official Languages Training and Testing Model of the Future:
Options and Research Findings, states: "Notwithstanding
this level of expenditure, there is widespread perception
that the current delivery model is not working as well as
it should." The view is
shared by official languages commissioner Dyane Adam. Her
annual report last spring found that "the quality of
bilingual services delivered to the public is at a standstill."
Adam's report, which summarized
35 years of progress under the federal Official Languages
Act, noted that support for bilingualism remains strong, with
approximately 80 per cent of Canadians supporting the right
of citizens to receive federal government services in their
own official language.
But, added the report, "Support
is somewhat low when the question asked refers vaguely to
'bilingualism on a national scale' or refers to the resources
this requires." Since 1977,
up to half of Canadians polled believe too much effort has
gone into bilingualism, said Adam. Her
report did not provide a dollar figure for the cost of official
bilingualism, of which public service training is only a small
component. Previous government
estimates of the amount spent training bureaucrats to speak
a second official language each year were in the $50-million
range.
From canoe.ca, November 13, 2005
Public Servants Fight
for Billions Feds Took from Pension-fund Surpluses
Canada's public-service
unions went to court Tuesday in a bid to force the federal
government to repay billions of dollars they say were taken
from their pension funds. In the late 1990s, the federal government
changed the laws on surpluses in pension funds, allowing it
access to the money. The unions claim the money was, in fact,
stolen from the funds. According to the unions, the federal
government in 1999 helped itself to massive pension fund surpluses
from three groups of workers - the RCMP, the military and
the public service. More than $30 billion was transferred
to the government's general revenues. Now the unions want
the government to pay it back. One of the plaintiffs in the
case is the Professional Institute of the Public Service (PIPS).
Its president, Michele Demers, says the federal government
got into financial difficulties during the 1990s when it slashed
jobs, put a freeze on wages and increased pension premiums.
She says the pension fund was never
supposed to be used to help the government out of a financial
jam. "It seems that, every time the government is in
a straightjacket with respect to expenses and deficit and
debt, the first ones to suffer are public-service employees,"
Demers says. According to Demers, a massive pension-fund surplus
should mean an increase in benefits for retired public servants,
and lower premiums for current employees. José Aggrey, president
of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (another
plaintiff in the case), says employers in the private sector
don't have access to surplus pension money, and neither should
the federal government. "They
grabbed it, and it's up to them to find a way and a means
of reinstating the pensions for the employees," Aggrey
says. Lawyers in the case are
representing 18 organizations with a combined membership of
more than 300,000 employees. The unions expect this to be
a long, drawn-out battle. The government isn't commenting
on the case.
From CBC Ottowa, 15 November, 2005
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Tuks Management Not Satisfied with
Rlected SRC
The management of the University of
Pretoria has ordered the reconstitution of the recently elected
student representative council (SRC) for not having enough
black members. "The representation does not comply with
the requirements of the SRC constitution," the university
said on Monday. It said the 17-member SRC comprises representatives
of three student parliamentary structures. Each of the three
structures (the Hatfield student parliament, the Mamelodi
student parliament and the faculty student parliament) nominated
members to serve on the SRC executive committee. According
to the SRC constitution, at least one of the three faculty
representatives on the SRC should be white and one black,
and "gender sensitivity" should be ensured.
But the faculty student parliament
nominated only white members. "This means that neither
the SRC nor the decisions made or actions taken by the so-called
SRC since October 27 can be recognised." The Freedom
Front Plus Youth said the management decision has barred student
representation on the university's board, senate and other
institutional forums meeting this week. One such meeting would
discuss the possible reappointment of the current rector.
"If the university succeeds
in their tactics, students' voices will not be heard in this
crucial matter," youth leader Jan-Hendrik Kay said in
a statement.
The SRC will not allow management to
infringe upon students' right to representation, he added.
"We are not here to play the colour games of the university
management but to manage student interests." He accused
the management of double standards, saying the Mamelodi representatives
on the executive committee are all black. "The Tuks SRC
represents all students, and these students do not see themselves
as white or black," Kay said. "The SRC is representative
of all student communities' interests, and is determined to
address the needs of Tukkies students. Needs do not know colour."
He also accused management of
having written an SRC constitution without the approval or
participation of students.
The university said the identification
of members of the Hatfield and Mamelodi student parliaments
to serve on the SRC took place under the constitution, and
was not contested. Representatives of the Hatfield student
parliament on the SRC included six FF+ members. The instruction
for the SRC to be reconstituted is in no way aimed against
any individual, student political party or ideology, it said.
"Efforts to construe the matter as a plot against the
FF+ are malicious and devoid of any truth. "The
university management remains confident that elected student
leaders will act in the interest of the entire student community
and ensure appropriate representation of the Tuks student
body at all levels."
From Mail & Guardian Online, November
7, 2005
Good Governance Will Address Cries
of Injustice
A religious leader in
Riv ers State, Primate Albert Magnus Uranta has said that
only good governance would address the cries of injustice
by geo-political zones in the country. Uranta who is the primate
of Renaissance of God Reconstructionist Congregation noted
that with good governance and present strength of the country,
all geo-political zones would have cause to smile. Speaking
in an exclusive interview with The Weekend Tide in Port Harcourt
recently, Primate Uranta declared, "I don't want Nigeria to
split because I believe in North, South and East geo-political
zones. The cleric cautioned those agitating for the split
of the country, wondering why Nigerians should seek for the
division, adding that the task before every Nigerian is to
look for good governance so as to make every geo-political
zone happy.
According to him most
Nigerians were either born in Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo which
is outside their immediate places pointing out that Nigerians
must learn to be patience and supportive to the government
to enable it achieve its set objectives for the benefit of
the people. He lauded the reforms put in place by the present
administration in the country, which he said, were aimed at
turning around the economic, social and political fortunes
of the country. Primate Uranta
who told The Weekend Tide that he contested election into
the Rivers State House of Assembly on the plateform of the
defunct Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), noted that the
problem with Nigerian politics is the introduction of Politics
of bitterness.
On the agitation for resource
control, the clergy said there was nothing wrong for any zone
to demand for the control of resources gotten from the zone.
According to him, the infamous one million man match in Abuja
during late Sani Abacha's regime exposed the level of injustice
against Niger Delta zone which sparked off the restiveness
among youths of the area. However,
he appealed to Nigerians to shun violence in making demands
so as to enable the government find solution for such demands
From The Tide Online, November 19, 2005
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SAARC Focus on Disaster Management
The 13th summit of the South Asian
Association for Regional Co-operation began here in Dhaka
with the leaders of seven countries giving leadership to one
fifth of world population emphasising the urgent need for
their deep committment to ensure the South Asian Freed Trade
Area Agreement come into force in January next year and for
evolving effective system on disaster managment, combatting
of terrorism and alleviating poverty in the region. The
seven SAARC nation leaders addressed the inaugural session
of the 13th SAARC which was differed twice earlier as it came
to a reality yesterday at the Bangladesh China Friendship
Conference Centre in Dhaka.
Lyonpo Sangaya Ngedup, Prime Minister
of Bhutan, Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Gayendra
Bir Bikram Shah Dev the King of Nepal,Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India,m Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, President
of the Maldives, and President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
addressed the 13th SAARC summit under the Chairmanship of
Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Pakistan Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz who Chaired the 12th SAARC summit in
Islamabad the handed over the Chairmanship of the SAARC nations
to Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia at the 13th
SAARC summit.
The leaders of SAARC nations, as they
meets in the aftermath of two natural disasters which claimed
thousands of lives in the region, emphasised the need for
better mkechanism to deal with natural disasters. All
the leaders were united in calling a collectinve action by
the seven SAARC countries to effectively face human tragedies
in the form tsunamis and earthquakes that hit the region within
the past one year. Indian Prime
Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh laid a solid footage for the regions
attempts to combat terrorism saying that 'no member country
should allow its territory to be used against the interests
of another member country'.
"There should be zero tolerance
for cross-border terrorism and for the harbouring of hostile
insurgent groups and criminal elements", Indian Premier
Dr. Manmohan Singh said. The Prime Minister of Nepal also
emphasised the need to liberate the region from the clutches
of terrorism as his country has been the victim of senseless
terrorism for nearly a decade. Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum
Kaleeda Zia proposed that Summit proclaim the coming decade
from 2006 to 2015 as the SAARC Decade for Poverty Alleviation.
The leaders of SAARC nations
awarded the first ever SAARC award posthumously to late Ziaur
Rahman one of the founders behind visionary of SAARC as the
summit returned to its birth place after 20 years.
From Ranil Wijayapala in Dahaka, November
13, 2005
India Leading Student-sending
Nation to US
For the fourth consecutive
year, India leads the nations in sending the maximum number
of 80,466 students to the United States, the US Embassy here
said. The embassy, quoting a report released in Washington
today, said this indicated a one per cent incraese over the
previous year's enrolments. 'Open Doors' 2005, the annual
report on international academic mobility, published by the
Institute of International Education (IIE), with support from
the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs, said all the five leading countries accounted for
47 per cent of all international students in the US.
China, the second largest sending country
with 62,523 students, also had a one per cent increase in
enrolment after experiencing a decline of five per cent last
year. Republic of Korea was third with 53,358, Japan was fourth
with 42,215 students and Canada fifth with 28,140 students.
In 2004-2005, the number of international students enrolled
in US higher education institutions remained stead at 565,039,
marking the sixth year in a row that the US hosted more than
half a million foreign students. Asia continued to be the
largest sending region.
From WebIndia 123.com, November 14, 2005
Disaster Management
Authority for the State Soon: Azad
The Chief Minister Mr
Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that the State Government would
frame a Disaster Management Authority soon to be ever ready
to face any eventuality like earthquakes, snow-storm or other
calamity with proper management and compatibility. Addressing
a largely attended Press Conference at Banquet Hall here today,
Mr Azad said that the first priority of the government is
to make sufficient arrangements for construction of temporary
sheds, community halls, pre-fabricated housing structures,
so that every person in quake affected areas who does not
posses shelter should be properly accommodated in these temporary
shelter places before on set of winter. Mr Azad said that
administration has been given clear directions for giving
top priority to construction of shelter sheds as the winter
is approaching fast and weather conditions getting severe
day by day.
The Chief Minister said that the employees
who have been posted in the quake affected areas for undertaking
the work of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction, if
found committing dereliction of duties would be dealt with
severe hand and even cases for termination initiated against
them. Mr Azad who visited earthquake areas of Poonch district
today also gave a resume of relief and rehabilitation measures
under implementation there, he said that more than 3800 tents,
23,000 blankets, 4000 tarpatline, 800 kitchen sets, 4 DG sets
and 1000 sweaters have been dispatched to Poonch area by the
Divisional Commissioner Jammu while as about 3000 quintals
of rice, atta and wheat, 38000 ltrs of k.oil have been distributed
amongst the affected people, he said.
The representatives of Bhartiya Jain
Sangthan also spelt out the details of the working of their
sangthan for disaster management purpose in various areas,
hit by natural calamities in the country. The representative
said that 870 pre-fabricated hutments would be erected in
quake affected areas for providing shelter to the affected
families. They said these structures are likely to be completed
by 15th of December 2005 and more than 10,000 people are expected
to be accommodated in these shelter houses.
In reply to a question, Mr Azad said
that while Accountability Commission would be strengthened
and given a free hand in dealing with the complaints registered
with it and booking the dishonest and corrupt elements who
so ever may be or belonging to any political party, "my Government
would henceforth weed out corrupt elements from the society
by taking stern action well in time without wasting a minute.
He asked the administration to come out of the old hangover
and take best advantage of the opportunity being given to
them to mend their ways. "While corruption and malpractice
would not be tolerated in its any form, honest and disciplined
officials would be encouraged," he asserted.
The Chief Minister appreciated the
employees for showing their positive response in government's
efforts to create work culture for the benefit of people and
the state. He said besides improving the quality of functioning
in the government departments, the time schedule for working
has also be increased to ensure better results. Mr Azad said
that he has started reviewing thoroughly each and every Ministry
to take stock of its functioning and evolve a pool-proof strategy
for addressing the issues relating to the betterment of people
and the state. He said he has already reviewed the functioning
of departments two Ministries so far and the process will
continue unabated.
Appreciating the forces for rendering
timely help to the people during the hour of need in the quake
affected areas, saving large number of human lives and providing
befitting relief, medical care and other facilities to the
people, the Chief Minister said that a silver lining in dark
cloud of this natural calamity was the realization of people
that the forces are their real friends, protectors, saviors
and the epitome of maxim "a friend in need is a friend in
deed" has been well recognized by the people in general and
in border areas particularly.
In reply to another question, Mr Azad
said that those who advocate reduction of extra forces in
the state should also talk about giving guarantee that no
person would be killed in a cool blooded murder attempts.
"While asking for such things they should also stand guarantee
for stoppage of violence in its all farms", he lamented. In
reply to a question with regard to surrender and rehabilitation
policy, the Chief Minister said that there should be complete
change in mind set and surrender by any person should not
be just to pretend that he has shun the violence but actually
he might be indulging in abetting violence and other anti-national
activities in disguise, he added.
From Jammu & Kashmir Newsline (Online),
November 12, 2005
Uni Dumps Stake in
Management School
The University of Sydney
has walked away from Australia's oldest management school
after much speculation about its dissatisfaction with the
institution. Since 1999 the university has jointly run the
Australian Graduate School of Management with the University
of NSW. The arrangement was due to be renegotiated by December,
but yesterday the university's senate voted unanimously to
pull out, validating long-running rumours that it no longer
considered the operation viable. The announcement is likely
to embarrass the University of NSW's incoming vice-chancellor,
former Fairfax chief Fred Hilmer, who was dean of the management
school from 1989 to 1998. The
partnership has cost tens of millions. Last year the universities
contributed $4.6 million, and this year payments were scaled
back to $1.8 million.
A spokeswoman for the University of
NSW said the school, founded in 1977 and owned entirely by
the university for the first 22 years, was intended to be
self-sufficient by next September. But now the university
"will make whatever financial contributions necessary
to ensure [the school] meets its missions and goals".
When the University of Sydney
invested in the operation, its own graduate school of business
was suffering a sharp decline in student numbers. Recently,
the students have returned and it has gained international
accreditation for its postgraduate programs. The withdrawal
will pave the way for the school to offer its own MBA.
The Herald understands that the University
of Sydney will also explore graduate programs that include
elements of the MBA, through its government and law faculties.
In a statement yesterday, the University of NSW said the Australian
Graduate School of Management "has reported surpluses
for the last two years and is on track to report a surplus
this year (year to date surplus $1.75m)".
From The Sydney Morning Herald, November
12, 2005
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Finnish Management Institute Gives
Lacklustre Marks to Presidential Candidates
Top marks eluded Finland's presidential
candidates in a test carried out by the Finnish Employers'
Management Development Institute (FEMDI). The test was commissioned
and printed by Suomen Kuvalehti, a weekly magazine, in its
Thursday issue. In first place came Matti Vanhanen, the prime
minister and candidate of the Centre Party, with three stars
out of the maximum five - an average rating. Sauli Niinistö
of the Conservative Party was awarded two stars while President
Tarja Halonen, the incumbent from the Social Democratic Party
(SDP) was given only one star, the lowest possible rating.
The FEMDI has rated 4,000 leaders over the past few years.
Only 9 per cent have scored as poor marks as the three presidential
candidates. Each rating is based upon appraisals by 4 to 6
people who have worked with the test subject. Further, self-analyses
are used, but President Halonen refused to supply hers.
From NewsRoom.com, November 3, 2005
Greece to Host 1st
international Conference on Net Governance
Greece will host the 1st
international conference on Internet Governance next year,
Transport and Communications Minister Mihalis Liapis said
on Wednesday. The decision was taken during the World Summit
on Information Society (WSIS), currently underway in Tunis.
A total of 150 countries, 60
national leaders, ministers and non-governmental organisations
- totalling some 25,000 participants - are currently discussing
the impact of the digital revolution and ways to bridge a
"digital gap" in the world. The
Greek minister chaired the assembly of the summit. Speaking
to reporters he said Athens was steadily moving towards implementing
an action plan agreed to at the international conference.
From Athens News Agency, November 22, 2005
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OWSC Implementing GIS Technology
for Wastewater Management
OWSC, with its vision to'Build and
Operate' world class waste water system in the governorate
of Muscat, is implementing state-of-the-art GIS (Geographical
Information System) technology to manage the waste water assets.
This implementation will be one of the major milestones of
OWSC's overall information system framework. GIS is a technology
that is extensively used to view and analyse data from a geographic
perspective. This technology links locations to information
and various other environment-related thematic layers.
This will assist OWSC to address the
requirement of integrated approach to manage wastewater assets
more efficiently and effectively and thus in turn serve the
needs to Muscat community. For
successful implementation of this technology, comprehensive
master plan is being prepared for which a multinational company
named Rolta has been appointed. The
teams of consultants from Rolta along with OWSC staff are
working towards implementation of this technology by the end
of 2005. Active participation and support is expected from
external departments. The spatial
data available with these departments can be integrated with
assets management system which can be effectively used for
waste water network management, planning and to satisfy the
needs of OWSC customers by providing value-added services
in a very short period of time.
From Times of Oman, November 7, 2005
Reform-minded Arab
Business Leaders Take on Governance, Religion, Education
Nobody ever said that
reforming the Arab world would be easy, or that it would be
smooth sailing to make the political, educational, economic,
and administrative changes that would allow the next generation
of young Arabs to compete and prosper in the global economy.
The leading pan-Arab grouping of activist senior business
people, the Arab Business Council (ABC), came face-to-face
with those challenges this week at their annual meeting here
in Bahrain. The ABC's core discussions of the technical transformations
needed to spur sluggish and antiquated economies and make
them more competitive repeatedly veered into talk of politics,
terror, religion and youth. In
a fitting symbol of the parameters of its substantive discussions
of the political, economic, nationalistic, and religious dimensions
of Arab societies, the gathering found itself framed chronologically
between the ongoing violence of young French men of Arab origin
and the terror attacks against three hotels in Amman, Jordan.
These complexities, however, seemed
only to stimulate and whet the appetite of this unusual group
of Arab businessmen to accomplish their mission in fields
beyond their usual purview of making money through private
enterprise. ABC President Shafiq Gabr of Egypt described the
mission as being a catalyst for change and lobbying for effective
policies on the pan-Arab challenges of unemployment, political
participation and democratization, education, human development,
corruption, as well as peace and stability. The
two-day gathering of 180 senior business, government, media
and academic leaders included the usual range of panel discussions
and presentations on technical issues, including benefits
and burdens of free trade agreements with the U.S., the role
of the mass media, and the impact of national competitiveness
councils being set up in half a dozen Arab states.
The new element this year - just the
third year of the ABC's existence, after it was launched under
the aegis of the Geneva- and Davos-based World Economic Forum
(WEF) in 2003 - was the strong focus on three related issues:
the mindset and education of young Arabs, who make up a majority
of the population; the route to transforming paternalistic
Arab political orders into more democratic and accountable
governance systems; and the crucial role of religion, whether
the roles of religious leaders and political mass movements,
or the actions of small groups of terrorists who have used
the language and symbols of Islam. Judging
from this gathering's focus and tone, the broad reform wave
that continues to lap at the shores of the Arab world has
fully grasped two important points: political, economic, and
education reform must happen simultaneously, not sequentially,
and, religious sentiments that are expressed through peaceful
political movements must be engaged through democratic politics,
rather than violence or denial.
In a closing communique that reflected
the gathering's concern about extremist and some violent trends
among Arab youth, the ABC called on Arab governments to make
the fate of the 180 million young people in the region their
top priority. "The most
urgent issue is reform of education systems to provide young
people with the skills required by modern economies,"
the ABC stressed. "If equipped with these skills, young
people can be the driving force of an Arab economic resurgence
that will create jobs to sustain growth in future generations."
ABC members called on the business
community to work with educational authorities to improve
curricula, develop better vocational and technical training,
encourage entrepreneurship, and help young Arabs shape their
identity and values.
The ABC also issued a range of recommendations
that mirror and expand exhortations of previous meetings.
These included suggestions that Arab governments increase
transparency, accountability and the rule of law in public
institutions, with budgeting and public procurement as priorities;
steps should be taken to develop an independent, commercially
strong Arab media (an ABC-WEF Arab Media Initiative will focus
on developing an honest and effective ratings system to help
create a robust media market); all those genuinely committed
to a democratic process should be included in the political
system, and at the same time moderate Islamic leaders should
engage extremists in religious debate; more Arab governments
should recognize the value of measuring competitiveness as
a tool for boosting accountability and transparency, and support
the development of National Competitiveness Councils; and,
Arab governments and the private sector should enhance regional
integration through trade liberalization and not rely on bilateral
trade arrangements.
"The key is clearly youth and education,"
said Ged Davis, managing director of the WEF's Center for Strategic
Insight. "To unlock the great potential of Arab youth requires
competitive economies in the region. What underpins competitiveness
is the transparency and accountability of institutions, a vibrant
media, a liberal trade regime and a modern education system
that prepares students appropriately and ensures they have the
right skills. These are the priorities for Arab countries -
for both government and business in the region." Gabr
added: "Arab governments should realize that the existing
education systems don't work. I would like to see in the next
24 months a true revolution in the whole Arab education system."
Gabr underscored the need for Arab
countries to eliminate illiteracy, calling for "unconventional
reforms that allow us to leapfrog conventional changes and
make up for the lost decades of Arab development." More
information on the gathering and the final communique can
be found on the WEF Web site (www.weforum.org). The participants
started talking about the role of religion in society from
the opening session, where they were given the findings of
a new public opinion poll on religious dimensions of education,
unemployment and the rule of law in Arab countries. The poll,
by the leading American group Zogby International, asked citizens
in six Arab countries across the Middle East for their views
on education, business and the importance of Sharia law.
A majority of citizens polled in Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates (U.A.E.) said Sharia law should be applied to businesses,
although they agreed that further interpretation is needed
to allow businesses in the Muslim world to integrate into
the global economy. Citizens
differed substantially on whether they would trust a popularly
elected Islamic government to abide by the rules of a democracy.
Asked whether they would trust an elected Islamic government
to follow these rules, 72 percent of Saudis and 70 percent
of those in the U.A.E. said yes, while just 36 percent of
those in Lebanon agreed. Christians in Lebanon were most skeptical
- just one in five said they believe an Islamic government
would abide by the laws of a democracy.
The WEF's Middle East director, Sherif
al-Diwany, said: "Education, rule of law and employment
are all key issues for the future development and integration
of the Arab world in the global economy." The
survey also found a striking split between various Arab states
on the quality of the education systems in their home countries.
Egyptians are particularly skeptical that their education
system is working. Just 15 percent said they believe their
current system prepares young people for successful careers
in today's global economy. In Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.,
56 percent of polled residents believe their systems are working
properly.
A majority of respondents in most nations,
except Lebanon and Jordan, called for applying Islamic Sharia
law to business operations. In Lebanon, the majority overwhelmingly
rejected this view while, in Jordan, it was the position of
a plurality. Majorities or pluralities in every nation also
expressed the opinion that Sharia law requires further interpretation
to allow businesses in the Muslim world to integrate into
the global economy. This was a majority view in most states,
while a 40 percent plurality of Egyptians and a 43 percent
plurality of Jordanians also favored further interpretation
of Sharia.
From Daily Start Regional, November 11,
2005
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Public Can Have Say on CALM Management
Plan
People in the Shark Bay area are being
urged to get involved in the future planning and management
process of the area. The Department of Conservation and Land
Management (CALM) has released an issues paper and a 'have
your say' brochure designed to promote discussion of the issues.
CALM's senior planning officer, Paul McCluskey, says Nanga,
Dirk Hartog Island and parts of South Peron, Carrarang Station
and Murchison House Station are among the new areas that will
come under the new management plan. "We've already got
an existing terrestrial reserves plan for some of the area
in Shark Bay, but there's been some recent purchase of land
and we want to incorporate some of the planning for those
additional areas," he said.
From ABC North West, November 15, 2005
Wal-Mart to Pilot Wireless
Industrial Vehicle Management System
I.D. Systems, Inc. has entered an agreement
with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to deploy I.D. Systems' Wireless
Asset Net industrial vehicle management system at a Wal-Mart
distribution center in Texas. The deployment will serve as
a pilot program for Wal-Mart to evaluate the benefits of the
system on material handling vehicle operations, productivity,
safety, and maintenance. Wal-Mart
is the world's largest retailer, with fiscal 2005 revenues
in excess of $285 billion.
"Establishing our industrial vehicle
management technology as a best practice in challenging operational
environments like Wal-Mart's is, very simply, what we do.
Our team has worked hard and is well equipped to demonstrate
how our solution can help improve Wal-Mart's management of
material handling vehicles," says Rick Muntz, I.D. Systems'
executive vice president of sales, marketing, and customer
satisfaction.
The Wireless Asset Net consists of
intelligent wireless devices installed on powered industrial
vehicles (such as fork trucks and pallet movers), a patented
communication infrastructure, and client-server software for
access control, utilization analysis, real-time location tracking,
and many other functions. The system is designed to improve
industrial workplace safety and security by restricting vehicle
access to trained, authorized operators and by providing electronic
safety inspection checklists.
The system is designed to reduce maintenance
expenses by automatically uploading vehicle data, reporting
vehicle problems in real time, scheduling maintenance according
to actual vehicle usage rather than on a calendar basis, and
helping plant management determine the optimal economic time
to replace equipment. The system is also designed to help
improve productivity by ensuring equipment is in the proper
place at the right time and by providing management with unique
reports on vehicle utilization.
From Telematics Journal, November 14, 2005
Qwest Energy Management
Appointment
Qwest Energy Investment Management
Corp. ("Qwest Energy") announced today, the appointment
of Mr. Stephen McCoach, Chairman, to the management position
of Managing Director, CEO of Qwest Energy RSP/Flow-Through
Management Corp., Qwest Energy IV Flow-Through Management
Corp., Qwest Energy 2004 Flow-Through Management Corp., Qwest
Energy 2005 Flow-Through Management Corp., Qwest Energy 2005-I
Flow-Through Management Corp. and Qwest Energy 2005-III Flow-Through
Management Corp. These companies are the general partners
(collectively, the "General Partners") of Qwest
Energy's oil and gas flow-through offerings. Mr. Hugh Cartwright
has resigned from his positions as director and CEO of the
General Partners to focus on the development of the broader
application of a successful Bond/RRSP Finance business and
other businesses. Mr. Cartwright remains a director of Qwest
Energy.
"After 3 years of dedicated service
to the development of Qwest Energy's flow-through business,
Mr. Cartwright has decided to pursue the creation of other
finance business opportunities," commented Stephen McCoach.
Mr. McCoach also stated, "Hugh has made many valuable
and instrumental contributions to the overall growth and success
of Qwest Energy's flow-through business, and on behalf of
the executive management team, I wish him the best in the
development of his new business ventures."
"Qwest Energy has attracted high
level management executives who are experienced and committed
to ensuring its continued growth and success," commented
Hugh Cartwright. "Qwest Energy's proven and successful
business model, coupled with exceptional investor returns,
ensures an exciting future. While still a member of the board
of Qwest Energy, I will miss being a daily part of such a
tremendous executive management team." About
Qwest Energy: Qwest Energy is a leading oil and gas investment
management company focused on identifying and delivering exceptional
Canadian based oil and gas investment opportunities to Canadian
investors.
From CCN Matthews, November 11, 2005
DR Will Host Conference
on Disaster Management
The Dominican Republic will host this
upcoming January the International Natural Disaster Conference.
The activity will be attended by heads of state and ministers
from Central America and the Caribbean, as well as state governors
from of the United States that have been impacted by natural
disasters. This high-level meeting
will be sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (CEPAL). On
the other hand, foreign minister Carlos Morales Troncoso informed
that the Dominican Republic will temporarily chair for a one-year
period the Rio Group, composed of 19 nations.
From Dominican Today, November 7, 2005
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Father of Management
When management guru Peter Drucker
penned his memoir in 1979, he gave it a characteristically
modest title: Adventures of a Bystander.
Yet Drucker, who died Friday at 95, was hardly a bystander.
His ideas, propounded over a 70-year, 39-book career, were
widely adopted by corporations, governments and non-profits
worldwide. They made him one of the most important social
theorists of the past century. Drucker
was known principally for his prescience and ability to make
management theory an engaging topic. He foresaw the knowledge-based
economy as far back as the 1950s and convinced companies to
rethink their relationship with their workers.
But what put him even higher in the
pantheon of 20th century thinkers was his vision for why his
theories mattered. Good management, he believed, was not principally
about improving third-quarter profits but about building a
better world. Societies with well-run public and private institutions
would be healthier, wealthier and more just. These views were
informed by a youth in Austria, where he witnessed the rise
of Nazism in Germany. They are equally relevant in today's
world, where faith in large institutions is eroding as a result
of greed, corruption and widening divisions of wealth.
Sadly, perhaps, Drucker's largest following
was not in the USA but in Japan, where he was revered. At
home, his legacy was mixed. Some companies, particularly in
high-tech industries, adopted his once-radical idea that employees
should be seen as assets and empowered. But late in his career,
Drucker grew increasingly disgusted with companies that tolerated
outrageous executive pay and saw mass layoffs as a virtue
rather than an occasional necessity. Despite
his financial success and worldwide acclaim, Drucker lived
a simple life and continued to teach long after it was necessary.
His modest brilliance seems a bit quaint in today's world
of the self-aggrandizing, multimillionaire CEO. Perhaps that's
all the more reason he needs to be rediscovered.
From USA Today, November 14, 2005
Forum to Be Set Up
on Internet Governance
Negotiators agreed to
set up a forum to continue discussions on Internet governance,
a spokesperson of the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS), which is being held in Tunis from Nov. 16-18, said
on Wednesday. After last-minute
negotiations, participants agreed to establish an Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) to further discuss all Internet issues,
Florence Lambert told a news conference. The
IGF, which Greece has offered to host sometime in 2006, will
have an initial five-year term to talk about net issues including
spam, cyber crimes and other related problems, according to
the final text of the agreement. Under
the authorization of the Commerce Department of the United
States, the Internet has been run by a nonprofit American
company - Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), since 1998.
Developing countries argued that the
Internet should not be under the control of one single country
while the United States refused to give up its dominant role,
citing the net has been functioning well ever since its outset.
The agreement on the Internet governance cleared the way for
the three-day Tunis summit, which is designed to find solutions
to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations.
Over 10,000 delegates from 173
countries, including about 50 heads of state and government
leaders, business leaders, technology experts and civil society
representatives participated in the summit.
From People's Daily Online, November 17,
2005
ITU Refuses to Accept
Net Governance Agreement
The ITU has refused to
accept the internet governance consensus reached after torrid
negotiations during its own summit process, further damaging
its credibility in eyes of the net community. Speaking at
the closing press conference for the World Summit in Tunis,
ITU secretary-general Yoshio Utsumi said that while it would
continue to discuss issues in the newly created Internet Governance
Forum (IGF), an increased "regionalisation" of the
internet would mean the ITU will be called upon to take over
in five years' time. "The
internet need not be one Net controlled by one centre,"
he said. "Regionalisation has already started and I suspect
in a few years, the simile of the internet will be a quite
different one."
As an example of this "regionalisation",
Utsumi, a Japanese national, brought up the controversial
topic of China's efforts to create a form of intranet within
its country in order to more easily control access to information.
"In China, they have already started on a Chinese address
not provided by the so-called global ICANN system yet."
Claiming that domestic networks
were "more efficient and economical", he then tried
to draw a parallel to the existing telephone system, saying:
"Telephone networks are made up of regional, domestic
networks united together in agreement of the ITU framework.
A similar situation may start with the internet." And,
in that case, "the role that the ITU plays for the international
telephone network will be called upon."
The statement is a depressing pointer
to the fact that the four-year debate on net governance, which
ended in agreement on Tuesday with only hours to go, may have
achieved very little. Utsumi effectively said that the international
consensus reached was the wrong one. It is the second time
recently that the outgoing head of ITU has made a major blunder
with regard to net governance. At the end of September's PrepCom
meeting in Geneva, Utsumi told the assembled world governments
that the ITU was ready to take over running of the internet.
It was this bold and unthinking statement
that lent much of the power behind the subsequent lobbying
for the existing infrastructure to be retained - a view that
eventually prevailed. There are very strong historic reasons
why people do not wish the ITU to be involved with the internet
in anything but an advisory role. If it were up to the ITU,
the internet as we know it - a vast, cheap, interconnected
network - simply would not exist. In the early days of the
net, the ITU saw the network as an extension of the international
telephone network that it oversees. It foresaw - and heavily
pushed - the image of a network where governments and telephone
companies controlled the means of access, something that would
have resulted in enormous connection charges and greatly reduced
individual freedom on the Net.
In many ways, the ITU is the antithesis
of the culture borne up through the dedicated engineers and
academics that created the Net and for that reason the organisation
will remain public enemy number one in many people's eyes.
Utsumi's comments will not only uphold that view but strengthen
it because they come after an exhaustive discussion process
that clearly rejected the notion of ITU control. It
will now be up to the new head of the ITU, to be chosen in
just under a year's time, to try to repair bridges if the
ITU is to have any credibility within the internet community.
From The Register, November 21, 2005
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Sao Tome President Says under Investigation
in Oil Corruption Probe
The president of the west African island
nation of Sao Tome and Principe said he is under investigation
as part of a probe into alleged corruption in the attribution
of oil prospecting blocks in an offshore zone shared with
Nigeria. Legal authorities in
the former Portuguese colony began in September to look into
claims that certain oil firms were illegally favoured in the
process, which was delayed for months amid a dispute between
President Fradique de Menezes and opposition groups.
'No one escapes, not even the president.
From what I have been told, they have been asking people if
they have information about the involvement of the president,'
de Menezes told Portuguese daily newspaper Diario de Noticias.
'There are many accusations, many complaints that are investigated,
some go to trial, and then no wrongdoing is found,' he added.
The blocks were allocated in
June for a total of 283 mln usd to be shared 60-40 between
Nigeria and Sao Tome.
From Forbes.com, November 16, 2005
Corruption - The Cause for Our Demise
The Director of the Centre for Policy
Analysis (CEPA), Dr Joseph Abbey, has said a determination
to stamp out institutional corruption and not debt relief
was the solution to the economic problems of developing countries.
"In spite of 20 years of debt forgiveness by the G8 states
to the poor countries, developing countries across the world
continue to owe over 260 billion to the rich nations and 14
African countries owe at least 40 billion dollars of this
debt," he said. He therefore
urged African governments, including Ghana, who have managed
to get some of their debt cancelled, not to pride themselves
with debt cancellation as though it were a feat, saying that
"we can only pride ourselves with our ability to generate
wealth in our countries and pay all our debts."
Dr Abbey said this at a forum organised
by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition to discuss corruption
and how it affects economic growth in Ghana. He said some
experts had argued that more debt cancellation and foreign
aid would lead to acceleration of economic growth in poor
countries. "This has not
and would not help African countries when the rich nations
sit by and watch African political leaders in particular stash
their personal Swiss accounts with loans and grants meant
for development projects."
Dr Abbey argued that as long as development
partners did not take concrete steps to ensure that the war
against corruption in African countries was won, debt cancellation
and more economic aid were not going to change the circumstance
of the masses of African peoples. He also deplored the situation
where big chunks of financial aid received from foreign development
partners returned to their nations through exorbitant salaries
paid to foreign consultants who are usually forced on beneficiary
countries as conditionality for aid. Dr Abbey said corruption
and exorbitant salaries of expatriates accounted for high
capital flight into foreign banks but the debt burden remained
for the poor Ghanaian taxpayer to bear.
"Africa accounted for the highest
level of capital flight in terms of financial and human resources
in the world and yet we have the lowest level of economic
growth in the world," he said. "Corruption
has been identified as the chief driver for high capital flight
from Africa."
He noted that projects usually undertaken by governments of
developing countries for which they require foreign aid and
loans are sometimes too high, saying that developing countries
needed to focus on little things that could be tackled by
local investors in order to stop incurring more debt. Dr
Abbey said the situation where foreign aid was only given
for the commencement of new projects while uncompleted ones
remained and deteriorated also led to increased debt burden.
Dr Abbey said weak internal control
systems and equally weak domestic institutions were as guilty
as the perpetrators of corruption themselves for the economic
conditions of developing countries. He said domestic institutions
responsible for controlling spending of public funds needed
to keep an eagle's eye on spending of funds for development
projects that usually went into individual accounts. Dr Abbey
said statistics at the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) indicated
that 70 per cent of Ghanaians had been involved in corruption
either as perpetrators or victims and 90 per cent had witnessed
corruption without taking any action.
He said top of the list were public
institution whom the people depended upon for justice including
the Police Service, the Judicial Service, Customs, Excise
and Preventive Service, Electricity Company of Ghana, Ministry
of Education and Immigration Service. "Civil society
organizations focused on anti-corruption activities should
therefore take the challenge and demand more accountability
on a regular basis from, not only government institutions,
but also private contractors who win state contracts and therefore
use state funds," he said.
From News in Ghana, November 16,, 2005
Corruption Probe Pursues Malawi
Vice President
Vice President Cassim Chilumpha has
been summoned to appear before a magistrates' court Wednesday
in Lilongwe in connection with an on-going probe into alleged
corruption, his Public Relations Officer, Horace Nyaka confirmed
here Tuesday. "Yes, indeed
the Veep has been summoned to appear before the Chief Resident
Magistrate in Lilongwe tomorrow," Nyaka said. He
said several officers from the National Police Headquarters
in Lilongwe and others from the Southern Region Police Headquarters
in Blantyre went to Vice President Chilumpha`s official Mudi
House in Blantyre Tuesday evening for a brief interrogation.
Nyaka could not give further details
but, according to the summons, the Vice President is under
probe over his alleged involvement in a multi-million Kwacha
scandal at the ministry of education. Over 190 million Malawi
Kwacha (about $2 million) disappeared at the Ministry of Education
as bogus payments to ghost contractors of schools. Some of
the money was payment for uncompleted school blocks or school
blocks that never existed. Chilumpha was Minister of Education
at the time of the alleged scandal. He was earlier arrested
by the administration of former president Bakili Muluzi on
the same issue but he was subsequently discharged on a technicality.
But Director of Public Prosecutions
Ishmael Wadi promised to resurrect the issue. Asked whether
being a sitting vice president, Chilumpha was immune from
prosecution, Attorney General Ralph Kasambara said it is only
the president who cannot be prosecuted while in office. "It's
just the president who is immune," Wadi insisted. Chilumpha,
who still belongs to the former ruling United Democratic Front
(UDF), has of late not been seeing eye-to-eye with President
Bingu wa Mutharika. Mutharika
quit the UDF to form his own Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP) citing his erstwhile colleagues discomfort with his
tough anti-corruption policy.
From Angola Press, November 17, 2005
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Indonesia Needs 15 Years To Be Corruption-Free
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
said Indonesia needed at least 15 years to create a public
life which is really free from corruptive practices. The
president made the remark in a meeting with 500 Indonesian
nationals at the auditorium of the Indonesian embassy in Busan,
South Korea, on Sunday. The meeting
was also attended by Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, Trade
Minister Mari Pangestu, Economic Affairs Coordinating Minister
Aburizal Bakrie, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(Kadin) and Indonesian Ambassador to South Korea Jacob Lumban
Tobing.
At present, the government was really
serious in combating corruptive practices and many high ranking
officials such as governor, district heads and mayors as well
as legislators who are also investigated following their alleged
involvement in corruption. "Even
it is a preliminary step, the eradication of corruption has
actually a fruitful result and 78 percent of those suspected
to be involved in corruption cases have been probed,"
the heade of state said. The
president took Hong Kong as an example for that country`s
success in combating corruption in 12 years. "I
will send a team to Hong Kong to learn the way they eradicated
the corruption," he said. At
the beginning the president explained his activity in participating
the APEC Summit which was regarded as a crucial forum to arrive
at the joint declaration, namely creating prosperous people
in Asia Pacific region through trade liberalization and investment.
From Antara News, November 21, 2005
Former Officer to Move
Court on "Corruption"
A former senior Army
officer is planning to approach courts over lack of response
from the Centre to his complaint of corruption in the higher
echelons of the Army. Brigadier
R.P. Singh, accompanied by his family, told newspersons here
on Saturday that he was "fixed and vilified" by
several senior officers and given marching orders soon after
he "exposed cronyism and graft." Court-martialled
- Brigadier Singh alleged that
the ruling hierarchyin the Army, instead of taking cognisance
of his repeated complaints, took revenge, conducting two court
martial proceedings, terminating his career and vilifying
him as "the booze brigadier." His appeal to the
Centre remained undecided for well over six months, the normal
time limit for disposing of such petitions.
Brigadier Singh, who claims he is armed
with tape-recorded conversations and videotapes, said the
court martial proceedings were conducted after he crossed
the path of a senior officer and refused to give certain business
opportunities to persons close to him. Although some officers
(whom he has named) declined to "fix" him, the top
hierarchy, in place after 2001, found others willing to conduct
proceedings against him, he said.
From The Hindu, November 20, 2005
Donors' Stance on Corruption
The government has been
blowing hot and cold ever since the corruption issue received
national and international attention. On the one hand, it
has consistently tried to shrug off the Transparency International's
assessment about the extent of corruption in Bangladesh; on
the other, it has feigned to be serious about combating the
vice that has been eating into the vitals of the country,
in the face of mounting pressure from the donor countries
and agencies. After a lot of foot-dragging, the incumbent
government, as part of its electoral promises, constituted
an independent anti-corruption commission (ACC) in the later
part of the last calendar year. But many, looking at the very
composition of the commission, had expressed doubt about the
government's sincerity. They have proved themselves so far
to be right.
More than a year has gone
by since its birth. But the ACC has failed to make its presence
felt by either design or default. There is no visible sign
either to believe that it would start showing its teeth soon.
Thus, a sense of frustration has gripped the people as well
as the donors following some damaging developments inside
the commission itself. The just-concluded three-day 'Poverty
Reduction Strategy Implementation Forum PRSIF' held in Dhaka
last week offered an opportunity to the donors, both bilateral
and multilateral, to vent their frustration and anger over
inaction to combat corruption and ask the government to take
immediate actions. While asking the government to do the needful
in the matters of reforms, law and order, terrorism and implementation
of the anti-poverty plan at the PRISF meeting, they spent
a lot of time highlighting the need for immediate actions
against corrupt elements. The donors reportedly asked the
government to take some very serious cases of corruption and
prosecute the persons involved in those within the next few
weeks so that the people and the international community as
well could feel that the government was serious about dealing
with graft cases.
A section of people who
include civil society members and politicians tend to find
the donors 'too nosey and interfering'. But they should not
have any objection to the pressure that is now being built
up on the government to show some results on its promised
actions against all-pervasive corruption. True and decisive
actions against corrupt elements in Bangladesh have always
been difficult since the network of corruption is vast and
extremely strong. Amassing wealth through illegal means is
the prime objective of most politicians, bureaucrats and businesses.
The trio has formed an evil nexus that is very much known
to everyone. That is why most incidents of corruption are
either deliberately ignored or go unrecorded. It has been
rather a tradition in this country to file corruption cases
against political rivals soon after the change of governments.
Notwithstanding the merit of such cases, the governments,
irrespective of their political identities, are found to be
casual in pursuing those cases. This casual approach has led
the people to believe that the graft cases are politically
motivated.
In spite of the pressure
from the donors, the incumbent government unlikely to pursue
high-profile corruption cases right now. This was evident
from the statement of the Bangladesh finance minister at the
end of the PRSIF meeting. He said the government cannot interfere
into the activities of an independent body like the ACC. Any
major anti-graft action will have the potential to create
serious resentment among a section of influential people both
within and outside the ruling party and the party high command
may not take such a risk when elections are not too far away.
So, the ball goes to the court of the ACC to justify its existence
as an independent anti-graft body. And it should start with
a big bang. In the ultimate analysis, the government of the
day stands to gain more from major anti-corruption actions
by the ACC.
From The Financial Express, November 20,
2005
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New
Group Formed to Campaign Against Corruption
A group of people allegedly
wronged by the instruments of the State have formed a new
group to campaign against corruption. Anti-Corruption Ireland
is hoping to raise money and take legal cases on behalf of
the victims of misconduct by gardaí and others in positions
of authority. The group includes Frank McBrearty Jnr, whom
gardaí tried to frame in connection with the murder of Richie
Barron in Co Donegal. Speaking at the launch of the organisation
today, he said he hoped it would help people to stand up and
speak out against corruption of all forms.
From Ireland Online, November 16, 2005
Pertti Torstila Earmarked As Top
Civil Servant of Finland's Foreign Ministry
The Finnish ambassador to Sweden, Pertti
Torstila, 59, has been slated to become the secretary of state
of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Finnish News
Agency (STT) learned on Wednesday. Sources within the ministry
told STT the government would propose Mr Torstila for the
task, the top non-political job in the ministry, on Thursday.
The final word is expected to be uttered by the president
on Friday. Mr Torstila has been ambassador in Stockholm since
2002. His curriculum vitae also includes an ambassadorial
posting in Budapest and a stint as head of Finland's permanent
mission to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe.
He was widely considered the frontrunner
for the secretary of state post already in 2003, when he said
he could not consider the appointment after only a year as
ambassador to Sweden. Arto Mansala announced in October he
would retire as secretary of state. He turns 65 in November
next year, right in the middle of Finland's six-month EU presidency.
Mr Mansala has however expressed
willingness to take on board other tasks in order to ensure
the continuity of the presidency.
From NewsRoom Filnland, November 16, 2005
Sign Up for Civil Job:
Chirac to Rioters
After 18 nights of mob
rioting, French President Jacques Chirac delivered his first
formal televised address to the nation, admitting that the
republic is in the grip of a "serious malaise" and
a "crisis of identity". Flanked
by the French and EU flags, Mr Chirac gave a US-style presidential
speech amid widespread consternation at his relative silence
during the worst case of civil unrest in a generation. Calling
on "sons and daughters of the republic" to remain
true to their national values, he lamented the "poison"
of racial discrimination and admonished irresponsible parents
for failing to keep their children in line. But
in a blow to his centre-right government opponent, Interior
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Chirac pointedly rejected any
change to France's rigid model of ethnic integration.
With its ideological attachment
to blind equality and exclusive notions of "Frenchness",
this "integration" model rejects multiculturalism
and has perversely resulted in separatism and entrenched disadvantage.
Statistics are not even collected on the ethnic origin of
French citizens. "It is not a question of entering into
the logic of quotas," he said. What
the rioting young people from the suburbs needed was not so-called
positive discrimination but the same opportunities to find
jobs, Mr Chirac said. "How many CVs are thrown in the
waste paper basket just because of the name or the address
of the applicant?" he asked.
Under the President's plan to revitalise
the maligned suburbs and create more opportunities for young
French people of migrant backgrounds, 50,000 civil service
training jobs will be created. However, Mr Chirac made no
mention of France's profound economic crisis or how the Government
could create the conditions to reduce the country's high unemployment
rate of about 10per cent. A small minority of French commentators,
mainly from business groups, have urged bold macro-economic
reform to open France's sclerotic economy. Along with a host
of Anglo-Saxon critics of the French economic and social model,
they have urged deregulation of the rigid labour market to
create jobs for the disadvantaged community of an estimated
five to seven million Arab and sub-Saharan African migrants
and their children and grandchildren.
The fight against illegal immigration
was a major theme of Mr Chirac's address. But his political
opponents were quick to condemn the President's declaration
as too little too late. "Jacques
Chirac thinks that words are enough," said Socialist
Party Leader Francois Hollande. Extreme
right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen went much further
at a rally in front of an estimated 10,000 loyalists. Mr
Le Pen condemned the admission of 10 million migrants as "wild
insanity". The riots began
in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on October 27 after
two teenage boys were electrocuted when they sought refuge
in a power substation, believing they were being chased by
police. More than 8000 cars have been burned across France.
From The Australian, November 16, 2005
Civil Service Pensions
Row Nears Breaking Point
Protests could be held
outside Tynwald as a civil service pension row reaches breaking
point. Union representatives are holding briefings for politicians
today (Nov, 15) ahead of the proposed civil service superannuation
scheme being passed. They are calling for the scheme to be
pulled until staff have been fully consulted and legal issues
resolved. It has been confirmed a formal complaint has been
lodged over the handling of the pension wrangle and a furious
senior union member has hit out at the Civil Service Commission
for the treatment of thousands of workers. The Government
Officers' Association, which acts as a union for civil servants,
is part of the UK union Prospect. Prospect national secretary
Frank Allen said there is anger over how the situation has
developed and he is calling on Tynwald members to stop the
superannuation scheme going ahead.
From Isle of Man Today, November 15, 2005
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Sharon Embroiled in Corruption Scandal
The Prime Minister's son, Omri Sharon,
has pleaded guilty to lying under oath and falsifying documents,
at the start of his trial in Tel Aviv over allegations of
financial corruption in the ruling Likud Party. Omri Sharon
was formally charged in August with using an illegal campaign
financing scheme to help his father win the leadership of
the Likud Party and, eventually, of the nation. Both father
and son maintain that the Prime Minister knew nothing of the
illegal scheme but Omri Sharon is now fighting to avoid prison
and is also facing disqualification from the Israeli parliament.
As Middle East Correspondent, Matt Brown, reports.
MATT BROWN: Inside the courtroom in
Tel Aviv it got a little chaotic. Photographers and TV news
crews swarmed around Omri Sharon, the son of the Prime Minister
of Israel, as he sat down and shared a joke with those beside
him. There still wasn't exactly order in the court, even as
the judge took her seat. But the guilty pleas that followed
will help to avoid the most unedifying spectacle otherwise
on the cards - a full trial and a full airing of how the Prime
Minister's son raised more than $1 million in illegal campaign
funds and ploughed them into his father's 1999 bid to win
the leadership of his Likud Party.
Ariel Sharon agrees with his son's
assertion, that his father new nothing of his dealings. And
what dealings they were. The prosecutors claim Omri Sharon,
who is a member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, exceeded
the caps on campaign fund raising and he then effectively
laundered the money by channelling the funds into a front
company that paid for his father's campaign expenses. In
the way of these things, Omri Sharon has struck a plea bargain
and pleaded guilty only to lying under oath and falsifying
company records. But he must still try to avoid jail time
and outside the court, the Prosecutor Erez Nuriele, offered
him little hope.
(Erez Nuriele speaking) "We'll
present all our arguments to the court", he said, but
he added, "From the beginning I can confirm that one
of the parts of the punishment will be a prison sentence."
Omri Sharon's lawyer, Dan Sheinman,
says his client assumes full responsibility for his actions.
But in a bid to keep the Prime Minister's son out of jail,
he launched his public relations campaign with a political
plea. By the sound of it, the
lawyer wants the court to consider the illegal scheme a choice
between the lesser of two evils.
(Dan Sheinman speaking) "Had
the alternative been Ariel Sharon not running, he would not
have been elected and think today, in retrospect, as 2006
approaches, what the national significance of that would have
been", he said. "We aren't denying that Omri committed
the felonies and he needs to pay the price for it, but the
question of the price is very important. We think the penalty
should be very moderate." Professor
Peter Medding, a political scientist at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, says that sort of defence is unlikely to wash
with the public.
PETER MEDDING: I don't think there'd
be too many people out there who'd be saying well, you've
got to the right deed by the wrong act and therefore we have
to forgive them, or that the ends justify the means.
MATT BROWN: But the fund raising caps
in the campaign finance laws might be seen as out of date,
and the allegations and the guilty plea from the Prime Minister's
son haven't exactly rocked the nation.
PETER MEDDING: I think that, you know,
in this country there are just so many things in politics.
There are so many issues, there are so many problems, there
are so many major incidents, whether it's terrorism, whether
it's peace agreements.
MATT BROWN: This country does have
a crowded political agenda. But the state comptroller, a sort
of ombudsman and auditor general rolled into one, warned earlier
this year of what he called "the corruption of power".
It is, he said, "more dangerous
than any other threat to which the state is exposed."
From World Today, November 16, 2005
Noticeable Progress
in Civil Service Reform
One of the most important
elements of the Economic, Financial and Administrative Reform
Program, which the Yemeni Government has been implementing
since 1995 is the Civil Service Modernization Program. This
program has been under implementation since 1999. The program
was set up with the help of the World Bank (the Dutch are
also in on this) to streamline the public service employment,
with a view towards making it smaller and more efficient and
to solve the problem of corruption, which has become a wide
spread phenomenon that touched almost every sector in Government.
With the payroll of those in public service, including the
military and security organs reaching some 1,000,000, this
represented an awesome burden on the Government Budget.
Having said that, it should
be noted that the large amounts spent for salaries and wages
for public servants did not give individual employees the
remuneration that would provide for all the essential needs
of subsistence in most cases and most employees suffered from
despair and frustration, especially as salaries were not adjusted
to meet the dwindling value of the Yemeni Riyal. Furthermore,
as time went on, many government entities sought ways to circumvent
the uniform pay scale that the government had put in effect
since 1983, which is also the year that the Yemeni Riyal started
to deteriorate (the exchange rate for the local currency was
then US $ 1 = YR 4.55).
When unification was achieved in 1990,
this merged the former civil services of both the former People's
Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) with that of the
Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) into one payroll. With the
Government of the PDRY being the only employer under a formerly
strict socialist regime, this inflated the public service
payroll significantly. In addition, as a result of the Gulf
War a large number of expatriate Yemenis returned from the
Gulf states. As a result, the Government went on to add more
employees to make up for the inability of the private sector
to provide jobs for hundreds of thousands, who all of a sudden
became unemployed, in order to reduce the social impact on
the rest of the society. This obviously meant that government
employment was no longer subject to actual work needs and
proper criteria of selection. As a result the civil service
had turned into a big, but largely inefficient apparatus,
especially as most civil servants were in the low pay strata
of the payroll, and could not be assigned to dutiful employment
that allowed the Government to provide efficient and effective
public services.
Without prejudice to the above, it
goes without saying with government salaries and wages mostly
insufficient to meet employees' needs for subsistence, let
alone produce a dignified standard of living, corruption found
its way through all the various sectors of Government. With
the absence of transparency and accountability, it was not
long before corruption set in and became an acceptable norm
in public service. In the meantime, the Ministry of Civil
Service was for sometime no more than an employment office
that was primarily engaged in finding jobs for those who sought
to enter public service, and there were a lot of these. The
labor market was saturated with unemployed manpower, which
grew from year to year, as the high birth rate of the population
turned thousands of new people to the labor market each year,
but the market could not absorb them.
Since the Ministry of civil Service
was taken over by Mr. Hamoud Khalid Al-Soufi, the Ministry,
with the help of donors, sought to confront all this accumulation
of mismanagement of human resources. The Ministry of Civil
Service carried out a comprehensive survey of government employees
and worked to establish a central data base of all government
employees. It also set out to determine the costs of this
large number of employees to the Government and determine,
how much of this large number is effectively working. This
was no easy task.
With the full information known, it
was easy to see where the reforms were needed and the requirements
for restructuring, if the Government was to optimize the use
of the manpower under its employment. However, it was also
clear that any reforms in this field were bound to meet with
substantial opposition. Many of the entities have over the
years acquired their own mandates as to the management of
their human resources and thus had their own pay scales and
ability to hire and appoint staff as they pleased. After
having identified all the deficiencies that public service
was facing, the MCSP then introduced substantive and meaningful
steps to reform the civil service. Thus, the creation of the
Civil Service Fund to take on the surplus employment and the
other ineffective employment such as the double employees
and ghost employees. In addition, Biometrics was introduced
to control the flow of government employees and to prevent
a recurrence of double employment and all the other misuses
of government employment.
By 2004, Mr. Al-Soufi and the Civil
Service Modernization Project Unit, ably headed by Mr. Nabil
Shamsan came out with a well designed law and strategy to
deal with the problems of determining employment positions,
salaries, wages and benefits. The Salaries, Wages and Employment
Law (passed in July 2004) and the Salaries and Wages Strategy,
now under consideration by the Government were the culmination
of a number of efforts and based on a scientific and practical
approach to human resource management. Moreover, despite the
obvious increases that the new pay scales introduced by the
Law and the strategy entailed, the ongoing restructuring and
reengineering phases of the project would work to ensure that
the new wages and salaries would not represent an increase
in overall payroll costs, since these phases would help to
reduce the number of government employees significantly, while
at the same time streamline government organs to operate efficiently.
With all the fine work that the MCSP
has undertaken in this regard, it would not be surprising
that the MCSP would also find a way to introduce accountability
so that all those who continue to abuse public service are
confronted with the reality that honor and ethical conduct
are fundamental to sound human resource management in Government
and the real path to successful and efficient Government.
From Yemen Times, November 21, 2005
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Denying
Corruption, Brazil's Finmin Stands Ground
Brazilian Finance Minister Antonio
Palocci denied on Wednesday he was involved in an illegal
kickback scheme and fiercely defended his economic policies,
which are under fire from within the government. Palocci,
a favorite on Wall Street, also signaled that he had no intention
of stepping down. He said he saw no sign that President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva intended to abandon austere policies
that have helped stabilize Brazil's economy, Latin America's
largest. Speculation had been
swirling in the past several days that Palocci, architect
of an investor-friendly fiscal path, might have to resign
over the corruption allegations.
But Palocci said he knew nothing about
a scheme to channel kickbacks from municipal contracts to
fund the Workers' Party 2002 presidential election campaign
when he was mayor of the city of Ribeirao Preto. The allegations,
made by a disgraced former aide, are part of wider scandal
over vote buying and illegal campaign funding that has engulfed
the Lula government since June. "I
met with many businessmen, asked them to collaborate, but
I never was an intermediary for campaign funds for President
Lula," Palocci told a hearing of the Senate Economics
Commission.
Palocci, a 45-year former Trotskyite
and medical doctor, said he was willing to defend himself
before any congressional investigations. "I won't avoid
any issue, I won't avoid any explanation of any event,"
he said. The hearing was brought forward from next Tuesday
to calm jittery financial markets who fear Lula may replace
Palocci with a less orthodox finance minister and increase
public spending to boost his chances in a possible re-election
bid next year. Palocci said the present policy would continue.
"We think this is the time
to consolidate Brazil's fiscal efforts. We have to place those
fiscal efforts in a long term perspective. We are going to
observe even bigger gains and faster growth," he said.
Palocci was attacked on a new front
last week when Cabinet Chief Dilma Rousseff criticized his
public spending controls. But a presidential palace official,
who requested anonymity, told Reuters on Wednesday: "(Lula)
is giving unconditional support for Palocci. As far as we
can see he has not been seeking a replacement. I don't think
he's working on that at all." Brazil's currency and stocks,
which tumbled on Monday because of fears Palocci could be
forced to step down, perked up with his testimony. He is liked
by investors for building steady growth with low inflation
in one of the world's leading emerging markets. Jose Carlos
Aleluia, a leader of the Liberal Front Party, said before
the hearing that the opposition did not want to force Palocci
out. But "Palocci's situation is very serious because
the accusations of illegal movements against him are great,"
he said.
From Reuters.com, November 16, 2005
Ethics Scandal Could
Bolster Stem-cell Foes
An ethics crisis at one
of the world's most successful human embryonic-stem-cell laboratories
has plunged the controversial field into a new swirl of uncertainty,
with U.S. scientists wondering if a political backlash will
develop. The accusations surrounding Korean cloning expert
Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University - the first scientist
to grow stem cells inside cloned human embryos - has killed
a spate of planned studies that sought to prove the cells'
medical potential.
But the claims that Hwang may have
obtained human eggs for his studies from women who felt pressured
to donate are reigniting a long-smoldering debate in the United
States over the ethics of paying young women for their eggs,
which are difficult to obtain but essential to the production
of stem cells tailored to individuals. Egg donation, which
is generally safe but occasionally leads to serious and even
life-threatening complications, has been a wedge issue in
the stem-cell debates, linking feminists and other liberal
thinkers to conservatives who favor tighter limits on stem-cell
research.
With a range of stem-cell bills primed
for congressional action as early as January, the Korean meltdown
could bolster those seeking stronger limits. "We're in
danger of making women into guinea pigs for this research
even before there are any treatments to be tested," said
Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics
and Society in Oakland, Calif., a pro-choice public-policy
group that favors stronger oversight of egg donation and other
biomedical technologies.
Ties severed - The imbroglio erupted
a week ago when University of Pittsburgh biologist Gerald
Schatten abruptly severed ties with Hwang, his collaborator
of nearly two years, saying he had evidence that Hwang had
obtained human eggs unethically. Schatten's charges resurrected
dormant claims of two years ago, when a doctoral student in
Hwang's lab told an interviewer from the journal Nature that
she and another co-worker were among several women who had
donated eggs. At the time, the
student's statement alarmed bioethicists in Korea and abroad.
It is a widely accepted principle in medical research that
junior members of a research team should not be allowed to
be volunteers in studies because such arrangements cannot
be truly voluntary.
Concerns about Hwang's experiments were
amplified by rumors that the woman had been paid for her eggs.
Hwang quickly denied the story. And before
long the student did, too, blaming her poor English for what
she said was a misunderstanding. Schatten accepted those denials
until Nov. 11, when he said he had evidence that Hwang had been
dishonest with him. Hwang, who
has been showered with millions of dollars in government grants,
again denied wrongdoing last Monday. But the full explanation
he promised has yet to be released.
This is not Schatten's first brush
with scandal. Ten years ago, revelations about criminal practices
at a University of California fertility program led investigators
to Schatten, then at the University of Wisconsin. He had an
arrangement to obtain eggs from the clinic in Irvine, Calif.,
where, it turned out, doctors were impregnating women with
embryos made from other women's eggs and distributing excess
eggs to researchers without institutional approval. One Irvine
doctor was convicted on federal charges, and two others fled
the country to avoid prosecution. Schatten was cleared of
wrongdoing. Schatten's latest
close call arose from his 2004 decision to collaborate with
Hwang, who had just succeeded in growing stem cells from cloned
human embryos, a "holy grail" accomplishment that
for the first time proved the possibility of growing stem
cells genetically matched to any patient.
For Hwang, whose English is marginal,
Schatten served as an eloquent translator and link to the
centers of scientific power in the Western world. For Schatten,
whose stem-cell research had foundered, the deal offered a
shortcut to the forefront of one of the hottest fields in
biology and into the international media spotlight. With great
fanfare, Hwang and Schatten last month launched an effort
to distribute hundreds of customized stem-cell colonies to
researchers around the world, including U.S. researchers who
have been unable to gain access to such cells under restrictions
imposed by President Bush in 2001.
Stunned researchers - The sudden collapse
of that endeavor has stunned resource-hungry U.S. researchers,
many of whom had been lining up to take advantage of the Korean's
techniques and enviable funding. The evolving situation in
Korea has renewed an unresolved debate in this country over
the ethics of egg donation for cloning and stem-cell research.
With current techniques, it takes dozens of eggs to make a
single cloned human embryo, which is destroyed in the process
of extracting the stem cells. That means that if the field
of therapeutic cloning is to advance, a significant number
of eggs will be needed to fuel the initial research and to
satisfy the demands of patients. It is legal in the United
States to pay women for their eggs, and in recent years at
least two teams of stem-cell researchers in Massachusetts
have done so.
Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology
of Worcester, Mass., made the decision to pay women after
an analysis by an ethics board created by the company, said
scientific director Robert Lanza. He still thinks it is the
right way to go, given the painful injections involved, the
uncomfortable egg-suction procedure, and the approximately
5 percent chance of a serious case of hormonal overstimulation,
which can require hospitalization. Others, however, say such
payments cannot help but be coercive, especially for poor
women who might feel compelled to take on those risks to make
ends meet.
In April, the National Academies, which
advises the nation on science, recommended against payments
for human eggs beyond expenses incurred by the donors, in
part because of the "sensitivities" inherent in
the creation of embryos destined for destruction. But the
report's impact remains uncertain as research institutions,
fertility clinics and the biggest wild card of them all -
Congress - mull the findings and the larger issues at hand.
At least six stem-cell bills - including one that would allow
broader use of federal funds for the research and another
that would allow the creation of cloned human embryos but
would ban payment for eggs - are awaiting action.
From The Seattle Times, November 20, 2005
A Culture
of Corruption that Remains from Years and Years Ago
Opening a newspaper or
turning on the TV, it is not hard to understand why many Venezuelans
talk about the ongoing "media war" in their country.
If you believed everything the media said you would think
the Venezuelan President was a crazy, half-baked, tin-pot
dictator who was threatening to steal people's homes in his
forward march to totalitarian-style "communism,"
rather that a President whose mandate has already been ratified
seven times in as many years ...and who is leading a process
aimed at empowering and improving the lives of Venezuela's
poor. But according to Servando
Garcia Ponce, this should come as no surprise, because Venezuela
is dealing with "media that have put themselves at the
orders of the oligarchy, of the financial sector, the transnationals.
They are linked to them, they sustain
them, they are helped ... by the US government who gives them
money." Garcia should know, as he is on the frontline of this
media war. Together with his brother and a group of other
journalists, Garcia helped set up Diario Vea in September
2003 as the only daily pro-revolution newspaper in Venezuela.
This move was vital, he told
Green Left Weekly, because for "a bit over two years, the
only available media carried disinformation. They manipulated
information, both nationally and internationally, evading
any real focus on the government of President [Hugo] Chavez
and the Venezuelan political process, the revolutionary Bolivarian
process."
"They denied the achievements, they
were denied completely by the media", Garcia said. "They put
themselves at the service of the coup in April 2002 [that
attempted to overthrow the Chavez government], they fomented
it, they proposed it, they protected the coup plotters, in
all they collaborated and contributed to the development of
the coup. The media, TV, radio and newspaper, all of them
were part of the coup. "Afterwards,
they supported a political strike aimed at the overthrow of
Chavez [in December 2002 January 2003], where there was a
total absence of information for the Venezuelan people."
In response, Garcia said, "bit by bit,
alternative media began to form in the barrios [neighborhoods],
in the states, in the regions. But there was a need for a
national paper that circulated across the country, which could
give information of what was happening in the country. From
there came the idea, as an effort by a group of journalists,
to start Diario Vea. We understood that it was essential that
this revolution had a voice." With
that the newspaper was born - one which now has a daily circulation
of 80,000, making it the second most read daily in Venezuela.
It is perhaps no coincidence that Garcia
and his brother - Guillermo Garcia Ponce, the current director
of the paper - took up this challenge. Neither are young Turks
when it comes to the battlefield, sharing between them a remarkably
long and rich history of struggle as revolutionary journalists.
Garcia recounted how he fought in the armed struggle against
the government of Romulo Betancourt, resisted against the
dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez, spent years in the underground
or in jail, and at one stage was exiled to Mexico. Now, Garcia
states, his work as a journalist is different, because "it
is the first time we are in power." This
is not to say, as much of the national and international media
claim, that the government uses its power against the opposition
media. "Here one looks at the TV and reads the newspaper and
can see how they insult the president, how they foment conspiracies
[against the government] and how they express themselves in
all manners.
"But here there is no journalist in
jail, whilst in the US a journalist is in prison for not revealing
their source of information. There, there is no liberty of
expression. In Iraq they have assassinated 78 journalists
- more than 78 journalists dead as a result of the war pushed
by the US government. By just visiting, anyone - a leader,
a journalist from the US or any country - can see this. If
Reporters Without Borders are sincere, they will realize there
is no journalist in jail, no newspaper shut down, no TV or
radio closed down [in Venezuela]."
That is why for Garcia, the foreign
trenches in this media war are just as important as those
at home, and the balance of forces has changed internationally.
"Since Chavez was elected, there was a discreditation campaign
abroad. Many people were wary of military figures; they did
not have confidence in the military. But now many journalists
... such as yourself, other journalists from the US, England,
France ... have come and they have realized what is happening
here, and so the wheel is turning. Now it is seen [internationally]
that the government of Chavez is a government that respects
liberty of expression, which respects human rights, that is
advancing a process in favor of the excluded masses. "So
we see how the people of Latin America, and Asia, Africa and
Europe, receive President Chavez, they receive him as a leader,
as a man that is leading progress. With the help of the left
and democratic media, people internationally are spreading
the truth of what is happening here. They are playing the
same role as Diario Vea."
That role is simple: reporting the
truth - "It was necessary to
accompany this revolutionary process with a voice that reflected
the social missions. For example, Mission Barrio Adentro in
collaboration with the Cuban doctors [which provided health
care to the poor], the education missions ... which contributed
to students with little resources being able to receive education.
Mission Robinson, which has benefited 1.5 million illiterate
people..." "These achievements
were denied [by the media] in front of the public and the
international community. Diario Vea plays the important role
of transmitting this information, spreading it around."
This is not to say that Diario Vea
is just a mouthpiece for the government. Within the pages
of Diario Vea, one can find some of the most interesting debates
on the weaknesses of the revolution, the challenges it faces
and the internal problems the Bolivarian forces have to fight
against. "This is a young revolution, it has a series of problems",
explained Garcia, discussing why it is necessary to take up
these issues. "Infiltrations, difficulties ... there exists
a bureaucracy that in good part belonged to the previous Fourth
Republic [the period of rule by two parties of the elite that
was ended by the 1998 election of Chavez]. So of course there
is sabotage, infiltrations and confrontations inside the Bolivarian
forces. "The whole government
is not marching forward, because there are bureaucratic sectors
that are sabotaging the process. There is a culture of corruption
from years and years ago that remains." Garcia said jokingly:
"When Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, well,
within three or four years he was arrested and tried for corruption,
so corruption has existed for 500 years ... we need to struggle
against this ... and we are in this struggle."
From VHeadline.com, November 20, 2005
Castro
Launches Do-or-Die Anti-corruption Drive
President Fidel Castro
has mobilized an army of young Cubans on a crusade to stamp
out rampant theft hobbling Cuba's state-run economy and shore
up its communist society. "In this battle against vice,
nobody will be spared," Castro warned on Thursday night
in a speech to Havana University students. "Either
we defeat all these deviations and make our revolution strong,
or we die," the 79-year-old leader said. Castro
railed against Cuba's "new rich" spawned by reforms
that allowed limited private enterprise a decade ago after
the demise of the Soviet Union plunged the island of 11 million
into deep economic crisis. He
vowed to eliminate differences that emerged in Cuba's officially
egalitarian society between those who have access to hard
currency - mainly cash remittances from relatives in Miami
- and those who do not and struggle to make ends meet.
Castro, who has rejected Communist
China's economic reforms as a model for Cuba, said his country
would avoid the "blunders" made by Soviet leaders
before their downfall. Current targets of his wrath are owners
of small restaurants allowed to seat no more than 12 people,
private taxis who drive gas-guzzling vintage 1950s American
cars, and gas pump attendants accused of pocketing millions
of dollars. A month ago, young social workers wearing black
T-shirts took over Havana's gas stations after a pep talk
from Castro. They sent employees home and began working the
pumps. In his five-hour speech, Castro said authorities found
half the cash from gas sales was being stolen. He said 28,000
young social workers were involved in the anti-theft drive,
with another 10,000 ready to join up.
"I'm not theorizing. We are acting.
We are marching toward a total renewal of our society,"
he said. "The work of these young people will put an
end to a lot of vices, pilfering and sources of dishonest
money for the new rich," he said. Castro said hard currency
stores could be targeted next in the drive to stop stolen
goods and also subsidized medicines being sold on the black
market. He indicated that Cuba might revalue its currency
again, a step taken in April that reduced the purchasing power
of Cubans who receive cash from relatives the United States.
In an effort to rein in capitalist practices, police last
week raided farmers markets - Cuba's only free markets - shutting
down stalls while inspectors checked papers, fined and arrested
some of their owners.
The government controls farm production,
but allows farmers to freely sell surpluses after they meet
state quotas. The ruling Communist Party started rolling back
post-Soviet reforms two years ago, restoring central control
over state companies to rid them of corruption and capitalist
tendencies. Cash-strapped Cuba had been bolstered financially
by generous oil supplies from Venezuela and new export credits
from China. But wiping out theft and black market activity
will be an uphill battle as long as Cubans earn such low wages
- an average $15 a month - one Cuba watcher said. "It
is difficult to eradicate corruption when the incentives are
so high," said Paolo Spadoni, a researcher at the University
of Florida in Gainesville. "If you do not improve the
general economic situation, it will easily revert in a few
months."
From Reuters, November 18, 2005
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World Bank Head Urges Developing
Countries To Fight Corruption, Improve Health Care
Millions of people around the world
are dying from preventable and treatable diseases, World Bank
President Paul Wolfowitz said Monday at the High Level Forum
on Health being held in Paris November 14th and 15th, urging
developing countries to fight corruption and invest in better
health systems, reports The Associated Press (11/14). "Every
week in the developing world, 200,000 children under five
die of disease, and 10,000 women die giving birth," Wolfowitz
said at a news conference at the opening of a high-level forum
on the Millennium Development Goals in the health sector.
Development issues have topped the global agenda this year,
with the G8 group of industrialized nations pledging $50 billion
additional aid by 2010, including a doubling of aid to Africa.
The UN world summit in September recommitted themselves to
the Millennium Development Goals, which include reducing extreme
poverty by half globally, ensuring universal primary education
and stemming the AIDS pandemic by 2015.
Wolfowitz welcomed the promises of
extra financing but said developing countries had to make
sure the money was delivered effectively and tackle a shortage
of health workers. "Developing countries also have to
do better in terms of transparency and fighting corruption,
and investing in stronger performing health systems which
are the driving force behind effective health responses,"
he said. He cautioned against focusing on one disease at the
expense of others. "We've (made) a big effort with some
success in the last few years on AIDS, which is a good thing.
I think the subject of malaria has been neglected," he
said, adding that the World Bank was working to rectify the
imbalance
In related news, Dow Jones and The
Associated Press (11/14) note that Wolfowitz is meeting with
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso Monday to
discuss future financing of development projects around the
world, including boosting aid and trade to the world's poorest
countries. The Commission said the talks, part of Wolfowitz's
second visit to European Union headquarters since taking up
his post, will also include EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson
and EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel. Reuters (11/12)
writes that weeks away from a World Trade Organization ministerial
meeting in Hong Kong, Wolfowitz is expected to encourage Europeans
to make concessions to ensure progress in the talks. Leading
WTO members failed at meetings this week in London and Geneva
to make headway on agriculture, industrial goods and services
- the stickiest issues in the trade negotiations.
Wolfowitz was a key player in rallying
industrial nations to agree to debt relief for poor nations
- a pact that was sealed in September meetings of the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington. Failure
to reach a deal in Hong Kong will harm millions of the world's
poorest people, Wolfowitz has said. "There are few things
that could be more helpful right now to the 1.2 billion poor
people living on less than a dollar a day than the chance
to have a decent job," said Kevin Kellems, senior adviser
to Wolfowitz. "These international trade negotiations
could help provide just that for many of them -- but only
if those on all sides of the bargaining table are willing
to do what it takes to make a difference and seize this opportunity,"
Kellems said. Wolfowitz will also meet with WTO chief Pascal
Lamy and French President Jacques Chirac to push for progress
in troubled world trade talks.
From Noticias.info, November 17, 2005
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Tunisia Slated over Net Controls
Tunisia has again come under fire for
its attitude towards media freedom. The North African country
has been condemned for the way it filters websites in an academic
study released to coincide with a UN net summit there. Human
rights groups have already questioned the UN's decision to
hold an information conference in Tunisia. In a separate development,
the head of the media freedom group, Reporters Without Frontiers,
said Tunisia had blocked him from entering the country. The
secretary general of the group, Robert Menard told the BBC
that he had been prevented by Tunisian security officials
from leaving his aircraft seat, following his arrival from
Paris.
'Effective and deceptive' -
Mr Menard was planning to take part in the World Summit on
the Information Society under way in Tunis. The conference
is looking at ways of combating poverty through increased
use of information and communication technologies. But the
event has been dogged by reports of the harassment of journalists
and civil society groups by the Tunisian authorities. The
government of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali rejects any
suggestion that it violates human rights or limits legitimate
access to traditional or electronic media. But
a study by the OpenNet Initiative found that nearly 10% of
the 2,000 sites it had tested from within the country were
blocked. They were mostly sites devoted to political opposition,
human rights, pornography and tools to circumvent the country's
controls.
The OpenNet Initiative is university
collaboration between Toronto, Harvard and Cambridge. "Tunisia's
internet filtering is focused, effective, and deceptive,"
said the report's co-author Derek Bambauer, who is a fellow
at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
"These practices run counter
to the goals espoused by the World Summit on the Information
Society and highlight the challenges to freedom of expression
from states determined to limit it." Tunisian
authorities, the report states, use aggressive filtering tactics,
not just to block pornography, but also the websites of political
opposition groups, Western and Tunisian human rights groups,
and the sites of Tunisians living abroad that are critical
of the government of President Ben Ali. The
Tunisians are also, according the OpenNet Initiative, blocking
sites that tell people how to get around internet filtering.
Selective controls - Nart Villeneuve,
director of technical research for the Citizen Lab at the
University of Toronto, was involved in compiling the report.
He has been in Tunis since Monday, monitoring the online situation.
"I actually expected the Tunisians to lift the filtering
during WSIS, and I was surprised they decided to keep it in
place," he said. But it seems to be selective. Surfers
in the UN-controlled area of the summit site are not experiencing
many filtering problems at all. Just 100 metres away, in the
Tunisian-controlled area of the summit site, people are having
problems accessing certain sites. "Just walk out that
door," said Mr Villeneuve, "and its filtered internet."
Certain rights groups here have found their websites blocked
since the start of the summit earlier this week. The OpenNet
Initiative Report notes that Tunisia uses a commercially available
product called SmartFilter to block access to certain websites.
SmartFilter is made by a US company called Secure Computing.
'Tolerance and moderation' - A
Secure Computing spokesman said the firm sells to service
providers around the world without making any distinctions
about whether they are government-owned or how they use its
products. Saudi Arabia, among
other Middle Eastern countries, uses the same product according
to the report. Mr Villeneuve
said Tunisia uses SmartFilter differently. In Saudi Arabia,
an attempt to access banned online material will produce a
"Forbidden Page" message. "Tunisia
doesn't do that. Instead, it creates a fake error message
telling you the page couldn't be found." In
the end, Mr Villeneuve said, Tunisia's filtering does not
have to be perfect.
"But when it's in place, it reminds
the local population that there are consequences for trying
to access certain types of content. So the filtering doesn't
have to be 100% effective, it just has to get the message
across for people to start self-censoring." In his opening
speech yesterday, Tunisian President Ben Ali highlighted the
great strides his country has made in making information technology,
and internet access, available to the people. "Tunisia,"
said the president, "has always been a land of dialogue,
tolerance and moderation."
From BBC News UK Edition, November 17, 2005
Tanzanian Government
Uses OSS for Localisation
Tanzania, like the rest of Africa,
is attempting to bridge the digital divide to create an information
economy. And like many other African states, it is turning
to open source to achieve this goal. Speaking at the World
Summit on the Information Society conference in Tunis, Tunisia
yesterday, Mark J Mwandosya, Tanzania's minister for communications
and transport, says that challenges developing nations face
include "inadequate infrastructure, high cost to access ICT
facilities and lack of relevant local content".
Open source software is benefiting
Tanzania in the latter challenge - that of relevant local
content. "Tanzania is also spearheading the localisation of
the key open source applications and operating Systems into
Kiswahili," says Mwandosya. "This has resulted in what are
referred to as the Jambo Open Office, and Klinux for word
processing, and websurfing, respectively. These efforts should
lead to inclusive access and enhancement of the cultural and
linguistic diversity of the information society." While not
elaborating on the details, Mwandosya says that the country
has initiated ICT projects in a number of fields, including
e-health, e-agriculture, e-post, e-business, e-commerce, e-government
and e-education.
From tectonic.co.za, November 17, 2005
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Korea Still No 1 in Broadband
Korea remains number one in per-capita
availability of high-speed Internet service, according to
a United Nation's Report that has been recently released.
Apparently, 25 percent of Koreans have broadband, an increase
of four percent from last year. There are several reasons
for this, one being that Korea made a big push to modernize
their broadband infrastructure in 1999 as a result of the
Asia economic crisis. High-speed connections are considered
a service just like water and power and most Koreans can obtain
high-speed connections of at least six to ten MegaBits per
second for about $20 per month. Dense population and a large
percentage of online gamers also fuel broadband usage.
From techspot.com, Derek Sooman, November
14, 2005
E-government Strategy
Faces Delay until 2006
Release of a new five-year federal
e-government strategy, originally planned for late this year,
is now likely to slip to early next year, according to government
sources. While the Special Minister of State, Senator Eric
Abetz, is still striving to release the strategy this year,
a heavy and controversial legislative workload scheduled for
the next parliamentary sitting is likely to frustrate efforts
to secure all necessary signoffs and approvals by the end
of the year. The strategy - whose release is now more likely
in February or March next year - updates a previous document
coordinated in 2002 by the now-defunct National Office of
the Information Economy and overseen by then Minister for
Communications and Information Technology, Senator Richard
Alston.
Senator Abetz is also believed to have
not yet decided the forum - which could include a press conference
or seminar - in which to launch the strategy, which well-placed
sources have described as "fairly ambitious". The
e-government strategy will build on a raft of initiatives
to boost the efficiency of federal government information
and communications technology (ICT), including an open source
procurement guide for agencies, a taskforce to combat skills
shortfalls and the new streamlined 'Gateway' project management
process. The strategy is expected to encompass existing and
new initiatives to improve government service delivery to
citizens and improvements to government operations.
It will primarily tackle the cohesion
of approaches to online service delivery and collaborative
efforts between agencies, rather than agencies' internal ICT
processes. However, while the e-government strategy is unlikely
to hit its hoped-for deadline of the end of the year, Senator
Abetz' office is still targeting the final parliamentary sitting
of the year - due to run two weeks from 28 November - to introduce
a Bill to deliver a raft of electoral measures, some of which
touch on the Internet. One is to enable a small-scale trial
of e-voting over internal intranets to isolated groups of
voters in overseas jurisdictions, such as Australian Defence
Force personnel in Iraq or scientists in Antarctica, while
another is requiring an individual to authorise electoral
comment on Web sites in Australia. Sources conceded however,
there was no certainty of the Bill being introduced to parliament
- let alone passed - before the end of the year.
From Iain Ferguson, ZDNet Australia, 21
November, 2005
E-government Venture
Stalls
TOT Plc is set to suspend talks with
National Computer Services (NCC), a subsidiary of Singapore
Telecommunications (SingTel), to form a joint venture to provide
e-government services after failing to agree to terms. The
negotiations began in the second quarter of this year and
were expected to be concluded within a few months. TOT president
Teerawit Charuwat said that under the initial plan TOT was
to hold 60% of the joint venture with the remainder held by
NCC. He said that a major deadlock in the talks was over the
structure of the firm. TOT wanted it to be an independent
company with no cross holdings in other firms to ensure management
flexibility while Singapore Telecom wanted the entity to have
tighter links with the shareholding companies.
``This was a condition we could not
agree upon,'' Mr Teerawit said, adding that another area of
disagreement between the two parties was over benefit sharing.
TOT has made its final proposal to SingTel for consideration
and is giving it until the end of the year to reply. In the
interim, Mr Teerawit said that TOT was open to holding talks
with other IT and telecom operators from Europe about forming
a joint venture. He said the company saw good potential in
e-government business, particularly on the back of the government's
policy for all of its agencies to utilise it and the support
of TOT's nationwide networks, customer services and personnel.
From KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA, Bangkok Post,
25 November, 2005
Regional e-Government
Training and Resource Centre Launched in Azerbaijan
Knowledge creation and
transfer on e-governance and e-democracy is one of the main
objectives of the Regional e-Government Training and Resource
Centre that was launched last week in Azerbaijan's capital
Baku. The project, under which the Centre was created, is
one of UNESCO's and UNDP's collective efforts to support the
implementation of the Azerbaijan Government commitments made
during a recent visit of the Director-General of UNESCO to
this country.
The new Centre will provide comprehensive
services to all stakeholders including parliamentarians, government
institutions, as well as civil society, private sector and
non-governmental organizations and guide them through various
phases of the e-government initiatives. It will focus on creation
and transfer of knowledge on e-governance and e-democracy
and provide a platform for analyzing international and national
experience in this area.
The Centre will also offer a series
of training packages on key aspects of e-government and information
technology to a wide range of audiences, such as civil and
government authorities, school informatics teachers and educators.
Training sessions on advanced system and network technologies
will be provided to professional and technical staff from
governmental and non-governmental institutions, which are
involved in broadening and expanding local e-government networks.
While encouraging wide participation
of citizens and local authorities in e-government through
resource dissemination activities, the Centre will support
the establishment of two "Citizen-to-Government Information
Access Kiosks", as well as automated systems for local governors'
offices on a pilot basis. The Centre will be based on the
infrastructure and human resources of regional academies and
centers, which have been reinforced by UNESCO and UNDP since
1996 through a variety of joint projects.
From portal.unesco.org, 24 Novmber, 2005
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NHS 24 Buys Knowledge Management
System
UK ebusiness solutions provider LSC
Group has been awarded a prestigious contract for the provision
of a knowledge-management system for NHS 24, the national
health information, clinical assessment, advice and referral
service for Scotland. The contract
has been secured by a competitive tender and provides a solution
that will create composite applications and federated searching
across trusted data sources using Plumtree portal technology.
It will allow approximately 1,000 NHS 24 staff and partner
organisations to create and update information in a secure
environment with workflow processes for content approval.
A key aspect is the incorporation of
geographic information to enable efficient searching for the
most appropriate location of care for the patient and provide
directions to it. This is particularly important for the more
remote and rural areas of Scotland, involving long distances
and challenging geography.NHS
24 delivers high quality healthcare advice and health information",
said Director of Development Dr Chris Stewart. "It is critical
to be fully aware of all health services in each patient's
locality, including geographical proximity and accessibility."
NHS 24 is the main gateway to out-of-hours care in Scotland,
linking patients with local primary care services, A&E
departments and the Scottish Ambulance services.
From BJHC.co.uk, November 21, 2005
Knowledge Management Becomes the
Key Process for Companies Whose Revenue Relies on the Intelligence
of Their Work Force
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c27085
) has announced the addition of Integrating Knowledge Management
and Organizational Learning to their offering. In
today's knowledge economy where the knowledge of the work
force constitutes the majority of an organization's "capital,"
developing and retaining business knowledge and talent stand
at the forefront of business issues. Organizations
have been pouring money into both knowledge management (KM)
and learning and development programs to help employees tap
into the knowledge assets of the organization. Unfortunately,
this dual focus has often resulted in a confusing array of
overlapping knowledge resources. How do employees know where
the best knowledge is?
When faced with a problem or issue,
employees need answers or expertise - whether they come from
communities of practice, learning management systems, expertise
locator systems, best practices repositories, training courses,
online learning or mentors. The integration of KM and organizational
learning (OL) allows employees to learn what they need, when
they need it and to improve organizational performance. Getting
there takes leadership, an implementation strategy, strong
partnerships among vested business and service providers,
effective technology enablers, and measures to track business
impact. Discover how best-practice organizations have integrated
these disciplines to create knowledge-enabled work processes
in the 15th KM benchmarking report, Integrating Knowledge
Management and Organizational Learning.
In addition to qualitative and quantitative
data concerning key findings, this report has in-depth case
studies of best practices at: Accenture Ltd., Aerotek Inc.,
Defense Acquisition University, IBM Corp., and Turner Construction
Co. Topics Covered - Sponsor
and Partner Organizations: A
listing of the sponsor organizations in this study, as well
as the best-practice ("partner") organizations that
were benchmarked for their knowledge management and organizational
learning activities. Executive
Summary: A bird's-eye view of
the study, presenting the study focus, the methodology used
throughout the course of the study, key findings, and study
participants. The findings are explored in detail in the following
sections. Study Findings:An
in-depth look at the findings of this study. The findings
are supported by quantitative data and qualitative
examples of practices employed by the partner
organizations. Partner Organization
Case Studies: Background information
on the partner organizations, as well as their innovative
knowledge management and organizational learning practices.
Summary - For
years, organizations have been pouring money into both knowledge
management (KM) and organizational learning (OL) and development
programs to help employees tap into knowledge resources. Unfortunately,
this dual focus has often resulted in a confusing array of
overlapping knowledge sources as well as time spent justifying
the existence of both areas. How do employees know where the
best knowledge is? Do they care which "brand" it
falls under? When faced with a problem or issue at work, employees
need answers or expertise, whether they come from communities
of practice, learning management systems, expertise locator
systems, best practices repositories, training courses, online
learning, or mentors.
As we progressed through its study
of the integration of KM and OL programs, I was reminded of
what I saw on one of the ubiquitous late-night cooking shows.
On these shows, the object is to create a wonderful gastronomic
experience for the eater in the most efficient manner possible.
What struck me is that during the episode, the chef puts together
precisely measured ingredients that are close at hand and
uses seemingly "perfect" tools and expertise to
whip/grate/sear/broil them into a delicious result. When I
try it at home my goals are the same--an efficient process
that delivers a delightful dining experience - but my results
rarely are. Why? Because I do not have all the right tools,
have not pre-measured or prepared my ingredients, and jump
from cabinet to cabinet looking for things. Similarly, many
organizations have the best intentions with their KM and learning
programs - an efficient process with positive business outcomes--but
are not achieving them because the programs are not working
together to combine the ingredients, tools, and expertise
in one location for employees to use.
On the flip side, this study's best-practice
organizations have mimicked these expert chefs in creating
their knowledge-rich environments. They started with a goal
in mind - "the business of the business" - and put
together the ingredients, tools, and recipes they needed to
make it happen smoothly and successfully. With strategic planning,
effective business partnerships, content management/learning
management systems, communities of practice, marketing, and
infrastructure support, these organizations have taken the
time to prepare a truly wonderful knowledge-rich environment
for their employees.
I hope you will find this report, which
examines how seven best-practice organizations developed their
integrated learning and knowledge environments, as useful
and enlightening as we found it. Using their insights, coupled
with previous KM research, this benchmarking study offers
suggestions, models, and tools for organizations that wish
to improve the business performance of their organizations
by integrating the KM and OL efforts. For
more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c27085
From Business Wire, November 4, 2005
e-Government National
Awards 2005
The e-Government National Awards 2005,
will be presented on 25th January 2006 at a black tie dinner
at the Savoy in London. The Awards recognise and praise the
best strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK
e-Government. The Awards are supported by the Cabinet Office
e-Government Unit, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,
the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm),
and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and
Senior Managers). Platinum sponsor is KPMG, and also sponsoring
are Jobsgopublic, Entrust, futurate, Guardian Recruitment
Solutions, and TES Jobs.
From PublicTechnology.net, 17 November,
2005
E-Government Entails
Leveraging Information Technology in Implementing New Processes
to Fundamentally Improve Government Services
Subject: Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c27166)
has announced the addition of E-Learning Course - e-Government
to their offering. The e-government
course aims to increase the employees' knowledge of the fundamentals
of e-government and the strategies the government can adopt
to better serve the public, business constituencies and the
strategies the government can adopt for inter-departmental
transactions as well. As the
Internet usage across the world starts to grow, more and more
governments are beginning to use the Internet as a medium
to transact with the public, business sector and also within
the government. E-Government
entails leveraging information technology in implementing
new processes to fundamentally improve government services.
The objectives of e-government might
vary from country to country but are likely to involve effective
customer service, cost reduction, global positioning, and
national development. The course
is designed to be very interactive and appealing and covers
all fundamentals of e-government and provides case studies
on e-government implementations done by various government
bodies. Target Audience: The
course is targeted at all government entities who are planning
to implement e-government initiatives and need to educate
their employees to aid in change management.
Objectives: The
e-government course aims to increase the employees' knowledge
of the fundamentals of e-government and the strategies the
government can adopt to better serve the public, business
constituencies and the strategies the government can adopt
for inter-departmental transactions as well. The
course also provides the learner a detailed look at the various
strategies and also contains case studies of e-government
implementations across the world. It
is suggested that the user also takes the courses on Internet
Technologies and e-commerce and Internet Security and Privacy
along with this course to obtain a comprehensive view.
Expected Duration: 4 hours. The
e-Government course is segmented into 7 modules. Each module
is around 40 minutes. The course
includes a glossary and study guide. -0- *T I. E-Government
Essentials II. G2C: Strategies III. G2C: Case Studies IV.
G2B: Strategies V. G2B: Case Studies VI. G2A: Strategies VII.
G2A:Case Studies *T. For more
information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c27166
.
From tmcnet.com, November 7, 2005
Turkey Plans E-government
Portal
Singapore-based CrimsonLogic has secured
a deal that will pave the way for the rollout of Turkey's
e-government programme, according to a report in the Bangkok
Post. The SGD40.2 million (EUR20.1) project will involve the
construction of an e-government portal for the Turkish government.
The portal aims to provide a single point of access to e-government
services for Turkey's 70 million citizens, along with its
30 government agencies. "The project will help transform
Turkey's public administration into being more citizen- and
business-centric and facilitate Turkey's entry into the European
Union," said Leong Peng Kiong, CrimsonLogic's acting
chief executive officer. The gateway will "lay the groundwork
for Turkey's participation in future pan-European e-government
services that require interoperability with services of EU
nations," he said. Turkish company Oyak Technologies
will act as the local partner for the deal.
From electricnews.net, November 9, 2005
Irish Local Authorities
Opt for E-procurement
Local authorities in Ireland
are adopting new technology to help communicate more easily
with their suppliers. A new solution, already implemented
by Kerry County Council, allows suppliers to submit their
annual quotes online using dynamic e-forms through www.LAQuotes.ie.
The solution was developed in-house by the local authority,
and during an initial three-week test period, received 107,000
quotations from 1,300 suppliers. It has since been adopted
by eight further local authorities around the country, with
plans to extend it to others in 2006. "Requesting and
processing quotations from suppliers is a major task for all
councils, who each have their own unique forms for seeking
such information as road-making materials, concrete products,
plant hire and haulage," said Catherine Carmody, e-procurement
project manager, Kerry County Council. "As a result of
moving to a standardised online process, we have delivered
major benefits for internal workflows, process management
and [it] has led to a faster and more efficient system."
From electricnews.net, November 9, 2005
Half of EU Citizens
and Businesses Visit Government Sites
Around half of EU citizens
and businesses who used the internet in the first quarter
of 2004 obtained public sector information online. According
to figures released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of
the European Communities, 45 percent of citizens aged 16 to
74 who accessed the internet in this time period used it to
get information from government websites. Finland had the
highest level of such access at 62 percent of internet users,
followed by Denmark (56 percent) and Luxembourg (55 percent).
On the enterprise side, 51 percent of businesses with net
access used it to obtain information from public sector sites,
with the highest level of access in Sweden (94 percent). Sweden,
Finland and Estonia recorded the highest levels among businesses
for downloading government forms. The study also noted that
services to citizens among the 25 EU Member States were most
developed in the UK, Sweden and Austria, while services for
enterprise were most advanced in Denmark and Estonia.
From electricnews.net, November 9, 2005
EU Aims to Improve
Transparency
The European Commission
is making lists of expert groups that influence the legislative
process available online, as part of an attempt to increase
transparency in its decision-making. The preparation and implementation
of policies at EU level is increasingly reliant on expert
advice, and the EU aims to improve transparency in this process
by publishing online a searchable Register of Expert Groups.
The register, which contains about 1,300 formal and informal
advisory bodies, provides basic information on the activities
of each group and details of their composition, although no
information on individual experts is given due to privacy
reasons. The project is part of a wider Transparency Initiative
by the EU, whose aim is to "increase openness and accessibility
of EU institutions, raise awareness over the use of the EU
budget and make the Union's institutions more accountable
to the public."
From electricnews.net, Sylvia Leatham, November
23, 2005
Moldova Tops "E-Government
2005" Rating
Moldova improved three
times its international rating for digital development in
the last five years. At present, it is the most advanced state
in the Independent States as regards the access to information
and public services on the Internet. Moldova
ranks the 57th in the E-Government 2005 rating published by
Taubman Center for Public Policy of Brown University. According
to the Global E-Government 2005 report, in the last five years
our country improved three times its position in the ranking
that includes 169 states, outrunning all the CIS countries.
For instance, the next CIS countries in the ranking are Ukraine
that places the 93rd and Russia that takes the 109th position.
Minister of Information Development,
Vladimir Molojen, who represents our country at the World
Summit on the Information Society, told the special correspondent
of REPORTER.MD that the main problem Moldova confronts while
building an information society is the digital divide between
the rural and urban area. He specified that 96 percent of
the Internet users live in the cities, while the villages
have limited access to the world network. According
to Molojen, this problem will be partially solved by the SALT
program of implementing information technologies and communications
in the education system, which envisages a computer and software
network in the schools from the country. He also said that
now all the rural schools in Moldova are connected to the
Internet, but admitted that some institutions have by only
one computer.
The ranking's authors assessed the
web presence of each state, especially the quality of the
web pages of the Governments, accessibility to information,
database, publications, online services and other criteria.
Taiwan, Singapore and the US share the first three positions.
According to the statistical data, the number of Internet
users in Moldova was of about 450,000 persons at the end of
last year.
From moldova.org, 21 November, 2005
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AUD Highlights Importance of Intellectual
Capital & Knowledge Management
The American University in Dubai (AUD)
has hosted this year's International Conference on Intellectual
Capital and Knowledge Management (ICICKM 2005) that commenced
its activities at AUD campus on November 21, 2005. This two-day
conference acts as a networking opportunity for professionals
and academics to share their views and perspectives on the
subject of Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management.
Dr. Khalid Khawaja, Chair of AUD's IT department said: "I
am positive that this event will help enhance the understanding
of Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management in the region
and will encourage individuals and organizations to get acquainted
with what the latest technologies have to provide in these
areas."
The Conference is chaired jointly by
Doctor Yousif Asfour formerly chair of IT Department at AUD,
and Doctor Jamal El-Den of the American University in Beirut.
Professor Dan Remenyi of Trinity College Dublin is the Program
Chair responsible for the academic content in the papers presented.
Mr. Joseph Hanania, Managing Director, HP Middle East, delivered
the key note address where he shed light on the significance
of intellectual capital and knowledge management. Following
the keynote address, the conference split into various workshops
or 'streams' that concentrated on Knowledge Management and
Intellectual Capital vis-à-vis their applications on an individual
and management level within a corporate organization. Speakers
discussed these subjects in context to the different commercial
as well as organization environments. One of the highlights
of the Conference was the knowledge café which allowed participants
to both network with each other and share ideas on a number
of subjects. This technique has proven very popular at Conferences
and it may easily be adapted by conference participants for
use in their own environments or institutions.
From The Strategiy.com, November 21, 2005
Lebanon to Roll Out
E-procurement System
The government of Lebanon
is implementing an e-procurement system for five ministries,
it was announced at the recent World Summit on the Information
Society in Tunisia. The system is being rolled out with technical
assistance and an e-government grant of USD498,000 from the
Development Gateway Foundation, in partnership with the Italian
government. The Development Gateway Foundation is a non-profit
organisation whose mission is to help developing countries
make the most of the internet. The e-procurement system, which
will see the five ministries posting tenders on one website,
aims to cut costs by streamlining procurement processes and
creating a more competitive bidding environment. The Lebanon's
Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform
(OMSAR) is the agency that has been charged with implementing
the e-tenders system.
From electricnews.net, Sylvia Leatham, November
23, 2005
Kuwait, Singapore Assert
Cooperation in E-government Projects
Kuwaiti Minister of Communications
and Minister of Health Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdallah Al-Sabah and
Singaporean Minister of Information, Communications, and the
Arts Lee Boon Yang on Friday asserted cooperation in implementing
the electronic government project in Kuwait. The two sides
held a meeting on the sidelines of the World Summit on Information
Society, which was attended by Kuwaiti Ambassador to Tunis
Suhail Shuhaibar and members of the Kuwaiti delegation. Undersecretary
of Civil Service Commission Mohammad Al-Roumi told Kuwait
News Agency (KUNA) after the meeting that talks touched on
a number of issues related to cooperation between the two
countries in the field of the electronic government.
He added that the two sides also discussed
establishing a public authority to follow up with implementing
the e-government project in Kuwait, noting that the two sides
discussed all points of view regarding this matter and the
Kuwaiti efforts to implement this part of the project. Al-Roumi
noted that the two sides also discussed outcome of the second
phase of the summit, which finalizes its works today, in addition
to the latest technological discoveries presented to the summit.
The Kuwaiti delegation is led
by Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah and includes Kuwaiti Ambassador to
Tunisia Dr. Suhail Shuhaibar, Undersecretary of Civil Service
Commission Mohammad Al-Roumi, Assistant Secretary-General
for Ministerial Council Ali Al-Sheridah, Undersecretary for
the Ministry of Communications Abdulmehsin Al-Mazidi, and
the Undersecretary for Ministry of Planning Khalid Al-Khamis.
(end) nm.
From kuna.net, November 5, 2005
Oman's Civil Status
Record System Selected Best E-government Project
The Sultanate's Civil Status record
system has won the prize for the best electronic government
application project in the Arab world. This was announced
at a ceremony held to honour the winning projects in a world
summit for the information society, which was held in Tunis
yesterday. Mohammed bin Zubair, adviser to His Majesty the
Sultan for economic planning affairs and head of the Sultanate's
delegation to the three-day world summit for the information
society, made a tour of an IT and telecommunication exhibition
held on the sidelines of the summit.
From Times of Oman, 18 November, 2005
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INPUT Predicts Federal Knowledge
Management Spending Will Reach $1.3 Billion By FY10
Katrina-highlighted weaknesses spur
OMB and Congress to push agencies to develop more information
sharing processes and systems - U.S. Federal Government
spending on knowledge management solutions is expected to
increase 35 percent over the next five years to reach $1.3
billion by fiscal year 2010 (FY10), according to a report
released today by INPUT, the authority on government business.
Recent information lapses highlighted by Hurricane Katrina
will cause OMB and Congress to be even more focused on getting
agencies to move forward with the development of information-sharing
processes and systems.
"The mere possibility that improved
information sharing between and within federal, state, and
local agencies could have resulted in a more efficient disaster
recovery after Hurricane Katrina, or potentially prevented
September 11, provokes an extremely unpleasant opportunity
cost analysis," said Chris Campbell, senior analyst,
federal market analysis for INPUT. "As a result, the
integration of fully developed knowledge management solutions
will stand out even more as a necessity rather than a luxury."
Knowledge management systems will begin to focus on tying
all of an agency's information together and making it available
in a manner that is supportive of the agency's management
or mission performance process. A large part of knowledge
management systems will be focused on enabling communications
so that an agency can tap into its greatest knowledge base,
its employees. The Army's knowledge management initiative,
centered on the Army Knowledge Online Management (AKO) program,
is a strong model for other agencies.
Vendors must be able to aid agencies in establishing and implementing
a protocol that dictates how data will be collected, stored,
and organized, as well as which employees will have access
to certain types of information, and in what manner the information
can be used. "Agencies will look for vendors to help
them revamp their knowledge management process, making it
imperative for vendors to focus on knowledge management as
a complete process, not just a software or hardware fix,"
added Campbell. "The key consideration for vendors
when dealing with agencies is to consider them as one enterprise
and develop solutions that will address knowledge management
requirements at an enterprise level." INPUT's Federal
Knowledge Management MarketView report is available to INPUT
Network(TM) members subscribing to the Federal Market Analysis
program. For more information on the subscription program,
visit federal.input.com.
From PR News Wire, November 9, 2005
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| UN Debut
for $100 Laptop for Poor
A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop
for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global
solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The green
machine was showcased for the first time by MIT's Nicholas
Negroponte at the UN net summit in Tunis. He plans to have
millions of $100 machines in production within a year. The
laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power
consumption and will let children interact with each other
while learning. Children will be able to learn by doing, not
just through instruction - they will be able to open up new
fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning,"
said Mr Annan. He added that
the initiative was "inspiring", and held the promise
of special and economic development for children in developing
countries.
Green machine - The foldable
lime green laptop made its debut at the World Summit on the
Information Society, which is looking at ways of narrowing
the technology gap between rich and poor. Nicknamed the green
machine, it can be used as a conventional computer, or an
electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at
the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front. It
can also be held and used like a handheld games console and
can function as a TV. "The idea is that it fulfils many
roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless,"
said Professor Negroponte, who set up the non-profit One Laptop
Per Child group to sell the laptops to developing nation governments.
"Studies have shown that kids
take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm,
well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums
and remote areas all around the developing world." There
has already been firm interest in the machines from governments,
though no laptops have yet been manufactured. Professor
Negroponte said he had asked the most enthusiastic countries,
Thailand and Brazil, not to give written commitments to buy
the machines until they had seen the working model, likely
to be produced in February. There
has also been interest in the machines from five manufacturers
and three big brand name technology firms, but no firm commitments
had been made.
Big name supporters - The laptops
will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC
adaptors will act as carrying straps. They have a 500MHz processor,
with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate
moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a
net connection through "mesh networking". Plans
for the global domination of the children's laptop are ambitious.
"The initial plan is to start with countries that are
big and very different to each other," said Professor
Negroponte. "We are launching
with six countries initially, then six months later, as many
countries as possible." Those include countries in the
Arab world, two Asian, one sub-Saharan, and South American
nations. The project also has
some big name supporters on board, including Google, and media
mogul Rupert Murdoch.
But it will rely on open-source software
so that support for local content and languages can easily
be built. Although the laptops will initially be available
to government only, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) is in talks with commercial manufacturers to make it
available on the open market. To
take part in the initiative, governments have to commit to
buying a million machines for around $100 each. Mr.
Annan urged leaders and stakeholders at the summit to do their
utmost in ensuring that the initiative was fully incorporated
into efforts to build an inclusive information society. "We
really believe we can really make literally hundreds of millions
of these machines around the world," Professor Negroponte
said, as costs continued to drop. He
added that it was critical that children actually owned, instead
of loaned, the machines. To overcome
the potential problem of secondary "grey markets"
for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that
they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential
re-selling. "I hope there
would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary
market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled
if not connected to the network after a few days," he
added.
Sharing and collaborating - Technical
breakthroughs have already driven the prototype design, but
every technical breakthrough in the next five years would
mean costs would continue to fall, he said. Michail
Bietsas, MIT's director of computer systems told the BBC News
website that laptops benefited primarily from mesh networking,
as a way of sharing scarce net connections. One
computer with a wi-fi or 3G net modem, for example, would
share the connection with others in a classroom. He explained
that the display did not have a backlight or colour filters
that more pricey LCD laptop displays used, so saved power.
Instead, bright LEDs are used which reduced power consumption
by a factor of 10.
The screens are dual-mode displays
so that the laptop can still be used in varying light conditions.
Although children will be able to interact with each other
through the machines, education was still the priority for
the laptops. But by using mesh
networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing
homework, and even share homework tips on a local community
scale. Collaboration will also
be encouraged by using open-source software, which the children
could develop themselves and use in local communities. "Every
single problem you can think of, poverty, peace, the environment,
is solved with education or including education," said
Professor Negroponte. "So
when we make this available, it is an education project, not
a laptop project. The digital divide is a learning divide
- digital is the means through which children learn leaning.
This is, we believe, the way to do it."
From BBC News UK Edition, November 17, 2005
Electronic Document
Management Simplified
Computers are good at
handling organised data such as databases. They contain facts.
However, the essence of an organisation-its concepts, ideas
and insights-are found in documents and not databases. A document
contains real information. The style of presenting the information
gives value, meaning and insight into the information contained.
Unfortunately, a document is unstructured information. This
is because it can be in any format-a letter, e-mail, form,
spreadsheet, memo, photo, report, sound, animation or video.
It may be in the form of paper or microfilm, an e-mail or
a scanned image stored on a hard disk. Electronic Document
Management (EDM) is a computer-based technology used to manage
electronic- and paper-based documents. It is a step forward
in the quest to create a paperless office, and is part of
document management technologies that ensure a document's
availability anywhere, anytime in the desired format.
Diverse tech base -- Electronic
Document Capture (EDC): This includes scanning, optical character
recognition (OCR) and image or document conversion technologies.
- Electronic Document Management System (EDMS): This locates,
manages, displays, distributes, indexes and provides version
control for a large collection of electronic documents in
an organisation. - Web Content Management (WCM): It focusses
on data collected on Web forms and through e-mail to ensure
accurate handling of information. -
Work Flow Management (WFM): It supports an orderly flow of
documents. In the case of many documents, especially legal
ones, policy decisions are created only after they are approved
by a higher hierarchy. Such documents must reach the right
person at the right time in the right order. -
Knowledge Management (KM): Relevant information is required
so that managers can take proper business decisions and gain
a business advantage for their company.
Why EDMS ? IDC estimates
that offices worldwide produce 7.5 billion documents a year.
Executives spend 45 % of their time working with documents,
while 90 % of the companies do not know how much money they
spend on producing and maintaining documents every year. Document
management is critical because it generates and enhances business
value. For some industry verticals, the documents themselves
are the final product e.g. for the print media, their books,
magazines and/or newspapers are a direct source of revenue.
For many businesses, documents provide support for their core
product or service e.g. documents of lawyers, insurance companies,
consultants, government agencies, etc. Document management
enhances organisational communication because they contain
important concepts, ideas, info about business deals, and
terms and conditions of settlement or agreement. It enhances
business processes and is a major component of organisational
memory.
Document management is not done for
the sake of the documents but for the benefit of the users
to help them achieve their business objectives. It puts the
user in control of knowledge which exists in the organisation.
It merely structures and organises the documents so that they
are available when they're needed in the proper format.
Benefits of document management
- - You know the status of
the work. This improves workload management. The status of
all work already done or currently being done can be known
at any point of time. - There
is less duplication and accumulation. A document can be quickly
distributed or retrieved from across the network and routed
to the proper individual depending on the priority, content
or workload. - You can do a content
search. An EDMS lets you locate the proper document every
time by providing full text search. A user can specify words,
phrases, expressions, criteria, etc. which are then searched
against the index. - There is
information sharing. Any document, be it text, graphics or
multimedia based, can be shared across the Internet or the
company intranet if required.
- There's better communication. Notes
can be annotated to record ideas, suggestions or changes.
- Long-term storage and digital archiving is possible. There
is no question of a document getting lost or misplaced. Documents
are protected by online security. Disaster recovery can be
done quickly. Archiving means moving outdated, old and inactive
files from primary to secondary storage. The EDMS searches
for them in archives and restores them as and when required.
- There are no filing problems.
Also, there is less requirement of office space, people to
maintain files, investments in file cabinets, folders and
paper. The business value of
EDMS includes reduced storage investments, centralisation
of documents, faster and quality decisions due to organised
and quicker document availability, knowledge sharing and business
continuity. The system can be effectively applied to various
industry verticals such as BPO, IT, BFSI, legal, education,
government and manufacturing.
From Financial Express, November 7, 2005
Government Websites
Fail to Meet Standards
The vast majority of public service
websites in Europe are failing to meet international e-accessibility
standards. That's according to a report released by the UK
EU presidency, which shows that a mere 3 percent of public
service websites are fully meeting the terms of the minimum
accessibility requirements as stated by World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) guidelines. E-accessibility
promotes the participation for all in the knowledge-based
economy. With the use of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) quickly becoming an essential part of the economic,
educational and social life of European citizens, there is
growing concern about whether new ICT products and services
are fully accessible, especially to elderly people and people
with disabilities. E-accessibility
has been highlighted as a key priority by the European Commission
in its "i2010: European Information Society 2010";
for the next five years the Commission aims to promote an
inclusive Information Society.
The latest estimates of internet usage
in the European Union show that nearly 48.1 percent (222 million
of the 460 million population) have access to the internet.
Estimates also show that 39 million of the EU population are
disabled and that by the year 2020 some 25 percent of the
population will be over 60. The
report surveyed 436 public sector websites, 70 percent of
which completely failed to meet one or more of the guidelines.
A further 17 percent "marginally failed" to meet
the minimum criteria, while an additional 10 percent managed
to meet some, but not all, of the international guidelines.Most
of the websites fell down in the area of providing suitable
text alternatives for images on their sites, with a large
number of websites also failing to fully explain the relationship
between frames on a website.
In a bid to improve the poor performance
of public sector websites, the report makes a number of recommendations,
which include setting a clear target for making all public
sector websites in the EU conform with all accessibility standards
by 2010. The report also suggests the sharing of best practice
and having a harmonised approach to e-accessibility across
member states. The survey was
carried out by a partnership led by the Royal National Institute
of the Blind and also comprising AbilityNet, Dublin City University
and Socitm Insight supported by the Royal National Institute
of the Deaf.
From electricnews.net, Deirdre McArdle,
November 25, 2005
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Taxing Concessions
The burden of Finance Minister P Chidambaram's
constant efforts to raise tax revenue need not fall heavily
on the entire middle class if he directs his attention towards
the sectional tax sops handed out by his ministry. These today
add up to a whopping one-seventh of total tax collections.
A recent study by the Delhi-based National Institute of Public
Finance and Policy (NIPFP) has estimated that Rs 54,560 crore
of tax sops are being given out each year. This works out
to 1.6 per cent of GDP, which is higher than the 1.2 percentage
point hike in collections that the Twelfth Finance Commission
wanted the tax department to achieve by 2009-10. In other
words, to reach his decade-end target, Mr Chidambaram needs
to do nothing more than just remove the plethora of concessions
given at the moment. Such concessions are becoming increasingly
difficult to finance at a time when populist expenditures
are rising sharply.
That apart, there is the larger issue
of whether such incentives even achieve what they are supposed
to. A study by the economic think tank ICRIER, for instance,
examined the impact of different variables in attracting investment
to Asian countries and found that India's market size, the
availability of skilled labour and electricity were statistically
more significant than fiscal incentives. A similar conclusion
was arrived at by the global consulting firm McKinsey at around
the same time. Indeed, the NIPFP points out that if fiscal
concessions actually made the kind of difference they were
supposed to, there would be a lot more of investment in the
north-east of India than there is today. Similarly, if, as
a study shows, nearly 60 per cent of the income of organisations
registered as charities comes from business activities, there
is little justification for giving them handsome tax incentives.
On agriculture, the NIPFP finds that if only a very small
proportion of farmers are taxed (those with over 8 hectares
of land), it can yield a tidy sum.
Apart from the issue of whether tax sops are yielding the
desired results, the other important aspect is the distortions
they cause. There is already enough literature on how SSI
concessions have ensured that the segment has never matured.
Similarly, the NIPFP estimates that customs and excise exemptions,
which add up to around Rs 4,000 crore, have given rise to
a huge maze of red tape, as each and every exemption needs
to be monitored and certified, and in all probability, also
has to be facilitated through "speed money". Most organic
chemicals, for instance, can be imported at a duty of around
20 per cent, but some users can bring them in at a zero rate.
But in order to avail themselves of
this, the units have to be certified to show that they fall
within the relevant category, and then another certification
is required to show that the imports have been used for the
purpose intended. This, in fact, is one of the reasons why
customs formalities in India remain complex and cumbersome
and India stays high on the list of corrupt countries. Removing
the maze of tax concessions will do three things - increase
collections, raise efficiencies, and reduce corruption. Surely
this can outbalance the adverse fallout of antagonising specific
lobbies which had managed to secure the concessions and exemptions
in the first place.
From business-standard.com, November 7,
2005
Government May Exclude
PSUs from RTI Act
In a bid to provide a level-playing
field to public sector undertakings, including banks, the
Government may exclude all commercial enterprises from the
ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The issue is
also likely to be taken up in the meeting between finance
minister P Chidambaram and bank CMDs here on November 18.
Today in Sify Finance. Bharat Desai, CEO of Syntel, sees India
as a key market for his company's growth. Read and listen
to his interview.
The RTI Act has posed major problems
for PSUs, especially for Government-owned banks and insurance
companies. The Act gives undue advantage to private sector
banks as the RTI Act does not cover them while their public
sector counterparts are. The RTI Act accords the public right
to seek any information pertaining to business models, products,
and customers from public sector entities. This is posing
huge problems to public sector banks and is distinctly putting
the private sector banks in an advantageous position vis-à-vis
the former.
In addition, public sector banks may
even lose a large number of depositors to the private sector
banks. Customers and other depositors would naturally prefer
the private sector banks to the public sector ones as their
account and other details would be well secured with the latter.
Meanwhile, Indian Banks' Association's (IBA) is seriously
considering taking legal recourse to sort out the issue. |
Read more Finance news. |
According to the RTI Act, issued by
the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions,
Information means any material in any form including records,
documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advice, press releases,
circulars, orders, logbooks, contract reports, papers, samples,
models data materials held in any electronic form and information
relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public
authority under any other law for the time being in force
but does not include file noting. Many of these, of course,
fall within the domain of commercial decisions.
From Sify Finance, November 12, 2005
Environment Policies
Focus on Green Growth Potential
The Korean government will strengthen
the role of its environmental policies in boosting the country's
green growth potential which is lagging behind those of other
advanced nations. The Ministry of Environment is seeking to
formulate a set of environment policy measures to support
South Korea's endeavor to achieve sustainable economic growth
while preserving its natural environment. Green growth potential
refers to capacity of which a country can achieve economic
growth with environmentally friendly policies and consumption
patterns that reduces environment pressures arising from development.
Over the past 40 years, South Korea has been pursuing growthoriented
economic development policies, largely disregarding environmental
conservation and management.
It has accomplished rapid economic
growth but its policies have resulted in the degradation in
the natural environment and the destruction of ecosystems.
The country ranked below average this year in the green growth
index, measurement of the economic growth potential of environmental
sustainability, according to the Korea Institute of Public
Finance. Korea ranked 18th among 30 member countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
with a score of 5.74. Its green growth index fell short from
the OECD average of 7.02, showing that the country is in the
slow lane among OECD economies in terms of environmental standards
and government and corporate attitudes to environmental malpractice.
In light of Korea's comparatively low
green growth potential, the government has begun to recognize
that it is urgent to come up with effective policy tools that
improve environmentally sustainability growth, enhance performance
for pollution control and eco-system management and promote
environment as an engine for new economic development, a ministry
official said. "We will try to secure more budgets to provide
incentives to corporations that practice environmentally sustainable
business practices," the official said, adding that the ministry
considers introducing green taxes that requires the polluters
pay more for the social and ecological consequences of pollutants
they emit.
The country has also led an international
effort to achieve a win-win solution between environmental
protection and economic growth across the globe, as today's
environmental problems transcend national borders with wide-ranging
impacts. It hosted the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment
and Development in Asia and the Pacific in March under the
theme of "achieving environmentally sustainable economic growth,"
which was a great opportunity for Korea to increase its presence
in the international community.
From Korea Times, November 17, 2005
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Public Finances: ConfCommercio,
Recovery but ECB Rate Danger
Signs of recovery for 2006, even if
under the EU average, but Italian public finances brings the
danger of a corrective manoeuvre in 2006 if the ECB raises
interest rates. Thus argues the 'Centrostudi di Confcommercio'
in its predictions for 2006. "Either it finally gets
going - writes Confcommercio -, as in Germany, with a broad
programme even if unpopular, but that aims at a deep revision
of the system and a rebalancing of the use of available resources
or the country also in the short term, as in the medium-term
it will remain anchored to a fragile model and, for this,
without real prospects of growth. Italian GDP will remain
stead at up 0.2 pct this year and up 1.3 pct in 2006 and 1.1
pct in 2007. Exports support these timid signs of growth,
with a rise in 2006 (up 2.9 pct) and 2007 (up 2.4 pct) due
to the weakening of the euro. Less comforting is the performance
of internal demand with a growth of family consumption of
0.8 pct next year and 0.7 pct in 2007, a performance slowed
by oil prices.
Better, however, are business investments
(up 2.5 pct and up 2.1 pct) thanks to the improvement of the
productive context. The economic situation in Italy continues
to be characterised by inflation under control and strongly
conditioned by the effects of oil prices, and persistent imbalances
on the public finance side. And there is no comfort in this
area. In the second quarter of 2005 there are three critical
points: "a growth in current spending, including that
relative to interest; a decrease in tax income, also less
due to the effects of a single payment and a doing away with
the primary advance". This last figure, which in the
first quarter of 2004 was 1.5 pct, in the first quarter of
this year fell to 0.1 pct. In this context, "there are
also dangers connected to a change in ECB fiscal policy. The
possible rise in interest rates whose figure should at least
in 2006, be more gradual than what has been done by the Fed
may have negative consequences on Italy's deficit in consideration
of a stock of debt that is particularly high. Presumably therefore
in the course of 2006 corrective actions will be necessary
to bring the deficit/GDP relation within the figures agreed
in Europe."
From AGI, November 5, 2005
UK Public Finance Boost
for Brown
The UK's public finances are healthier
than expected, posting the highest cash surplus for October
since 2001, official figures have shown.
Last month there was a public sector net cash repayment of
4.96m Pounds - boosted by a surge in corporation tax receipts.
And the public sector current
budget was in surplus by £4.1bn, compared with a 0.4bn Poundsdeficit
in October last year. The figures
should give a boost to Chancellor Gordon Brown ahead of his
pre-Budget report on 5 December. Both
figures were much better than analyst expectations - and left
public sector net borrowing for the financial year to date
at £20.89bn, almost 5bn Poundslower than at the same time
last year. October's improvement
was driven mainly by a 23.4% surge in corporation tax receipts,
the Office for National Statistics said. Economists
suggested the surge came as a result of record profits from
oil companies operating in the North Sea.
Budget boost - They
said the deficit for the fiscal year may not miss Mr Brown's
forecasts by as much as previously expected. Earlier
this year the Chancellor predicted that borrowing for the
2005/06 financial year would fall to 31.9bn Poundsfrom 36.8bn
Poundsrecorded for the previous year. "For
the first time for many months, the Chancellor and the Treasury
will be able to get away with predicting that his target of
a PSNB (public sector net borrowing) of 31.9bn Pounds in 2005-06
is attainable," said Angus McRone, senior analyst at
the Centre for Economics & Business Research.
But he warned: "We believe that
October's public sector borrowing figures, fortuitously timed
for the Chancellor, will be followed by less good figures
in the months ahead." The
current budget - which excludes government investment and
is the figure used by Mr Brown to assess whether he is sticking
to his 'golden rule'- is meant to be in balance over the economic
cycle as a whole. But many economists
believe that, although Mr Brown may reach this target in the
year to April, he will have difficulty meeting his rule when
the new economic cycle starts next year.
From BBC, November 21, 2005
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Voters to Decide on Unique Fee
Two years ago, the average Ironton
resident had never even heard the phrase "municipal fee."
Since then, hardly anyone has been able to forget it and Tuesday's
ballot will offer a refresher course. Revenue stream - The
concept itself, charging Ironton households a set fee each
month to help the city generate some much-needed revenue,
has taken countless forms since first proposed by Mayor John
Elam. City council considered a $3 version, and a $5 plan,
and $7, $10, $15 and probably several combinations in between.
Each time, the fee was voted down. Voters will have the chance
to change that Tuesday at the polls. Residents will be asked
to OK a $10 per month fee that would automatically expire
Nov. 30, 2008. If adopted, the
fee would generate approximately $500,000 a year, most of
which is needed to bridge the city's gap between revenues
and expenses. Ten percent of the money would go tothe Ironton
Port Authority for economic development.
"Without it, it's going to be difficult,
if not impossible, to manage next year's budget," Mayor Elam
said recently. Elam projects the City of Ironton will be broke
six months into next year without some sort of revenue fix.
That is why some officials have pushed for the fee, despite
many questions that swirl around the legalities of it and
what to do if the voters say "no thanks." Legalese - Perhaps
the biggest question is simply: Can council adopt a fee just
to generate revenue? "The city solicitor has told council
that it was legal," council chairman Jim Tordiff said. The
legal opinion offered initially indicated that there was nothing
in the Ohio Revised Code, state law or the constitution that
would prohibit it.
The fee would be the only one of its
kind in the state, as far as most sources are concerned. Ironton
did have a fee of just a few dollars in the late 1990s that
passed audits and the city currently has a floodwall fee and
a fire fee to which some have compared the municipal fee.
Dr. Sam Staley is not so sure these comparisons apply. Staley
is a public finance expert and senior fellow at The Buckeye
Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a non-partisan research
and educational institute that looks at government, economics
and other policy issues. Staley
called the fee, as it was explained to him, questionable and
said he "strongly suspects it would be illegal."
"If what the government body is doing
is using a fee to raise general revenue that is going into
the general fund to be used for some future purpose then that
is a tax," Staley alluding to strict laws that regulate how
taxes are levied. "A general fee to raise revenue for government
is in all intents and purposes a tax. It sounds to me like
they are circumventing the public will (since an income tax
was defeated at the polls)." For it to be a true "fee," the
plan must be to fund a specific service and the revenue has
to have specific uses under that plan, Staley said. "There
has to be a plan for spending the money," he said. However,
if the voters OK the fee as a charter change, it still has
some public policy and finance concerns, but not nearly as
many legal concerns, Staley said.
"Legally, it is not as much of a problem
because the courts have been pretty deferential to decisions
of the voters," he said. A Columbus-area attorney who specializes
in cases involving city finance disagreed with Staley, saying
that unless it is clearly prohibited by law, then a council
could pass a fee that wasn't income based. The attorney refused
to allow his name to be published, however. To
the polls - Election Day could
create more questions. What happens if the voters nix the
fee? Can council still adopt a similar plan or would that
go against the voters' will? That too is rather murky.
"If it is within their authority to
pass such a fee, then I seriously doubt that, in all circumstances,
that the authority of council is absolved or disqualified
just because the voters vote one way or the other," said James
Lee, a spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State's Office
which oversees elections and ballot issues in the state. At
least two attorneys agree with Lee's assessment that council
could adopt the fee, regardless what happens at the polls,
though the attorneys declined to comment specifically without
further research.
Without knowing all the specifics,
Lee said it is impossible to know for sure what the ramifications
would be if council passed the fee if it had been voted down.
"Ohio law gives a lot of authority to municipalities, especially
when talking about a charter city. It is known as home rule
and it has a pretty broad reach for locally elected officials,"
Lee said. "Once a legislative authority passes something -
on a state, county or local level - in order to get such a
thing taken off the books usually requires some action in
courts." First, voters will have their say when they visit
the polls Tuesday.
From Ironton Tribune, November 5, 2005
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HM Treasury Makes New Senior Appointments
HM Treasury has announced that following
a Whitehall-wide competition, Mark Neale has been appointed
Managing Director of the Treasury's Budget, Tax and Welfare
Directorate. He will take up his appointment on Monday 12
December. Dave Ramsden, currently Director of Budget and Tax
Policy, will be appointed the Treasury's Chief Macroeconomist
and Director of the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy Group.
He will take up his appointment shortly after the Pre-Budget
Report. The Prime Minister, on
the recommendation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has
appointed Jon Cunliffe as Second Permanent Secretary to HM
Treasury, in recognition of his work in the G7, EU and other
international fora. Jon will remain the Managing Director
of Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance. His appointment
to Second Permanent Secretary takes place with immediate effect.
Mark Neale, aged 48, has spent the
last two years leading the Home Office's work on tackling
organised crime, including the creation of the Serious Organised
Crime Agency, and development of the Government's counter-terrorism
strategy. Previously Mark was responsible for welfare reform
as Director for Children and Housing at the Department for
Work and Pensions, and was Finance Director of the Employment
Service. He spent the early part of his career in the Civil
Service Department and the Department for Education and Science
before heading the Treasury's Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland team from 1995 to 1998.
Dave Ramsden, aged 41, has been Director
of Budget and Tax Policy since January 2004. Dave joined the
Treasury in 1988 and has worked on a wide range of macroeconomic
and microeconomic policy issues relating to the UK and European
economies including fiscal and tax policy and the public finances,
the business sector and labour markets. He played a leading
role on the UK's policy agendas for the EU stability and growth
pact and economic reform and, from 2001 to 2002, he was a
member of the EU's Economic Policy committee. Between 1999
and 2003 he led the Treasury's work on the Assessment of the
Five Economic Tests and 18 EMU studies. This analysis was
the basis for the Government's decision on UK membership of
the single currency. Dave was awarded the CBE in the 2004
New Year's Honours for his work on EMU.
Jon Cunliffe, aged 52, will remain
Managing Director of Macroeconomic Policy and International
Finance, G7 Deputy and the UK Government's representative
on the EU's Economic and Finance Committee, Chairman of the
International Monetary and Financial Committee Deputies and
the the HM Treasury representative to the OECD's Working Party
3. As before, the Permanent Secretary, Nicholas Macpherson,
and the Managing Director MPIF will share responsibility for
being the HM Treasury representative on the Monetary Policy
Committee.
The Treasury's Budget and Public Finance
Directorate will be renamed the Budget, Tax and Welfare Directorate
(BTW), reflecting its role in delivering the Budget and in
directing policy on tax, transfer payments and employment.
The Treasury's Public Sector Finances team will transfer from
BTW into the new Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy Group (MFPG),
part of the Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance
Directorate. In his role as head of the Treasury economics
profession, Dave will report to Professor Sir Nicholas Stern,
Head of the Government Economic Service.
From PublicTechnology.net, 17 November,
2005
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Why Ghana Opted For SAP
Ghana's Decision To Implement Structural
Adjustment Program (Sap), 1982-1992. Ghana's interaction with
the IMF and the World Bank dates back to the late 1960s when
the National Liberation Council (NLC) toppled Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,
Ghana's first president, in a bloodless coup d'etat. The NLC
became pro-IMF and revised Dr. Nkrumah's state-oriented policies.
In the 1970s, intense resistance from domestic social forces
compelled successive leaders to rescind their decisions to
implement rigorous neo-liberal economic reforms. Between 1983-1992,
however, the military government of the PNDC turned around
and accepted Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).
SAP involves both economic and political
dimensions. They both contain specific sets of prescriptions
linked to the conditional loans of the IMF and the World Bank.
The economic dimension involves such market-oriented policies
as trade liberalization, privatization, and fiscal discipline.
The political dimension, on the other hand, involves a process
where government is structured in favor of the governed -democratization.
This essay, however, focuses on the economic dimension of
SAP.
From NewsinGhana, November 2, 2005
Minister Calls for
National Road Fund
Works Minister Adeseye Ogunlewe has
restated the need for the establishment of a National Road
Fund. The fund, to be managed by the private sector, would
be utilised for maintenance of local government, states and
federal roads if established. Ogunlewe made the call (Monday)
in Abuja in an address at the 14th Annual Conference of Directors
of Civil Engineering (Highways). Our correspondent reports
that the theme of this year's conference is "Public/Private
Partnership in development of road infrastructure." Ogunlewe
observed that public and private partnership approach in road
construction and maintenance had become the universal standard
worldwide. "We must encourage our country to move along that
path; we must give out our major roads to private managers
and operators through concession to rehabilitate, maintain,
build and operate," he said.
He stated that the three tiers of government
could not fund road construction and maintenance through the
normal allocations from the federation account. "There is
a compelling need to find alternative sources of funding,"
he said. He said that Roads Funds Management Authority should
be funded through fuel levy as road user charges of at least
3 per cent of the pump price of petrol. "This is what is happening
in countries like Ghana, Botswana and South Africa," he said,
adding that other user charges from other sources must also
be introduced. In a keynote address, the permanent secretary,
Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed, decried the decay of road infrastructure
in the country. He disclosed that it would cost Nigeria between
N600 and N800 billion to adequately construct and maintain
federal highways. "It is only in Nigeria that highway construction
is the exclusive preserve of government," he said. Director,
Planning and Design, Federal Highways, Charles Uniugbe said
the conference would provide a forum for highway engineers
to deliberate on issues affecting the development and management
of the national road network.
From The Tide Online, November 10, 2005
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Japan Post's Private Units Will
Need Business Leaders
When the gigantic Japan Post takes
its first steps toward privatization in October 2007, the
reins should be held by people who have had experience heading
private businesses, Heizo Takenaka, who doubles as minister
in charge of postal privatization and minister of internal
affairs and communications, said Friday. "We're talking
about an enormous company with 260,000 employees. I think
it's natural to seek someone with experience at the top,"
rather than secondary leaders, such as a vice president, Takenaka
said in a group interview. The managers of the privatized
postal services will be expected to make the mail, savings
and life insurance operations as profitable as possible. Meanwhile,
an independent committee that reports to the internal affairs
ministry and the Financial Services Agency will make sure
its operations do not encroach excessively on the businesses
of other banks and insurance companies, Takenaka said.
One of Prime Minister Junichiro Koziumi's
faithful deputies, who has been successful in cleaning up
the bad loans at the banks and in fighting for Japan Post's
privatization, the former economic and fiscal policy minister
has so far taken heavy hits from his critics both in and outside
of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. But
even his most scathing critics have admired the 54-year-old
academic-turned-politician for his composure in the face of
what has been at times nasty name-calling - like "traitor"
and "agent for U.S. vulture funds." Takenaka
has said his role in the next 11 months of Koizumi's term
as LDP leader will be to serve as the "minister for small
government." This means
supervising the postal privatization process, giving local
governments more discretion in managing tax revenue and downsizing
the entire government apparatus.
But his largest challenge by far will
be cutting the total number of public servants by 5 percent
over five years. That 5 percent - roughly 5,000 officials
in the central and local governments - should not be a 5 percent
cut across the board throughout government, according to Takenaka.
"I believe an all-around cut goes against the spirit
of reform," he said. Personnel in "some areas should
be slashed, while other (sections) need more people,"
he said. His new job as head of internal affairs is likely
to give Takenaka strong influence in the planned cuts to the
public-service payroll. The Council on Economic and Fiscal
Policy is expected to draft an outline later this month to
put bureaucrats' salaries on par with those in the private
sector. Public servants are ensured lifetime employment, unless
they are convicted of breaking the law. The bureaucrats, who
passed tough exams and survived harsh competition to get their
jobs, are expected to fiercely resist the job cuts once talk
shifts to who will be laid off - what Takenaka called "the
specifics" of downsizing.
From Japan Times - Mayumi Negishi, November
5, 2005
India and US Formalise
Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture
India and the United States today signed
a joint declaration formalising an India-US Knowledge Initiative
on Agriculture (KIA) on agricultural education, research and
commercial linkages. The KIA was announced by Prime Minister
Dr Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush during former's
visit to the United States in July this year. The joint declaration
was signed here by Dr Mangala Rai, Secretary, Department of
Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Director General
of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Dr J
B Penn, Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural
Services, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in
the presence of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.
''We want to capitalise on complementaries
and harness coherent synergies, we wish to maximise positive
inter-action to derive more than the sum total out of this
Initiative not to serve for the betterment of our two countries
but the other countries of the world also,'' said Dr Rai while
signing the Initiative. Dr Penn said, ''India and the US have
more than 50 years of relationship in agricultural research
and the signing of this Initiative is to re-energise the decades-old
relationship and created a Board for joint efforts in this
sector with representatives from academia, public and private
sector of each country.'' The objective of the Initiative
is to re-energize the agricultural relationship between the
two countries through collaborative efforts by promoting teaching,
research, service and commercial linkages to address contemporary
challenges.
A key feature of the Initiative will
be a public-private partnership where the private sector can
help identify research areas that have the potential for rapid
commercialisation, with a view to developing new and commercially
viable technologies for agricutlural advancement in both countries.
The declaration provides for the creation of a Board made
up of eight members from academia, government and the private
sector in each country to recommend specific projects and
funding sources. Dr Rai will co-chair the Board with U.S.
Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator Ellen Terpstra.
The Board plans to hold its first meeting in December in the
United States followed by a meeting in India early next year
before the visit of President Bush in February 2006.
The areas of collaboration are expected
to include agricultural research on sustainable agriculture
and marketing systems, the use of new information and communication
technologies, implementation of international food safety
and sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements and other priority
areas as determined by the Board. The Board will coordinate
efforts to reach the objectives of the Initiative by bringing
together and working with individuals possessing extensive
experience in scoping innovative international partnerships
and higher education agricultural programming. Such
individuals will represent a diversity of expertise in teaching,
research, service and marketing drawn from throughout the
stakeholder community, including the private sector.
Agriculture departments of both the
countries anticipate that this Initiative will be coordinated
through group participation hereafter referred to as the ''Knowledge
Initiative Board'' consisting of two Co-Chairs and seven individuals
selected by USDA and seven by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Indian Agriculture Ministry and USDA also anticipate that
the Board will develop its observations and findings in a
report that will be delivered to both USDA and the Ministry
of Agriculture of India in 2006.
From webindia123.com, November 12, 2005
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GDP Growth Revised Upwards by IMF
Mr. Harald Hirschhofer, Resident Representative
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Serbia and Montenegro
said in Statement that Growth projections for 2005 and 2006
were revised upward to 4.8 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively,
amid improving export performance, strong domestic demand
and growing investment activity by local and foreign companies
More specificaly , Mr Hirschhofer said
that An IMF mission led by Ms. Piritta Sorsa visited Belgrade
and Podgorica from October 20-31 and made good progress in
discussions under the sixth and final review of the Extended
Arrangement. Discussions will continue in the forthcoming
weeks on a number of issues, including the composition of
fiscal spending, monetary policy measures, and wage bill growth
in public enterprises in Serbia. Further meetings are also
required with the Montenegrin government to firm up understandings
about the privatization agenda envisioned for 2006.
"In Serbia, discussions were held
against the background of broadly favorable economic developments.
Growth projections for 2005 and 2006 were revised upward to
4.8 percent and 5.0 percent, respectively, amid improving
export performance, strong domestic demand and growing investment
activity by local and foreign companies. The current account
deficit is improving, but remains high at about 10.6 percent
of GDP and inflation is too high. External debt dynamics remain
of concern with external debt amounting to about 60 percent
of GDP. "The key policy
challenges for Serbia remain to reduce the current account
deficit and inflation by strengthening competitiveness and
investment, while constraining consumption. The mission made
good progress on discussing the following policies to achieve
that:
- Next year's public sector surplus
will rise to 2.3 percent of GDP, but the structure of spending
is still under discussion. This is to be supported by prudent
wage increases in the public sector.
- The government prepared an impressive
set of measures to reduce permanent, non-discretionary public
spending by one percentage point of GDP next year, and to
improve its quality. These still need to be anchored in supporting
legal actions along with the 2006 budget. The measures include
improving the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system,
reforming the army and adjusting its operations to the requirements
outlined by the currently finalized Strategic Defense Review,
further reducing subsidies to inefficient enterprises, and
ending transfers to the Development Fund.
- Monetary policy and prudential regulations
will be tightened to address the fast growth in lending, in
particular consumer lending, and its risks. It is of key importance
that the planned new Banking Law will be passed by Parliament.
Discussions continue on the exact measures to be undertaken.
- The exchange rate policy remains
appropriate. Competitiveness can be improved by restructuring
and privatizing state enterprises, greater competition in
the economy, improving the investment climate, and increasing
the efficiency of public administration.
- Structural reforms need to continue.
The work of the Privatization Agency to prepare auctions and
tenders of socially owned enterprises has been proceeding
well. Its agenda now needs to be broadened towards privatizing
spun-off units from the large public enterprises. The government
is making efforts to overcome remaining obstacles.
The strong interest by top international
firms to participate in the tender for the NIS privatization
advisor reflects the importance of this industry, its regional
opportunities, and the excellent privatization prospects.
Measures to continue the restructuring in public enterprises
are still being discussed."
From reporter.gr, November 2, 2005
MIM Concerned over
Fuel Surcharge, Pensions Privatization
Issuing its reactions to Monday's budget
speech, the Malta Institute of Manage-ment said it was particularly
concerned about the hike in the fuel surcharge and the capping
in certain sectors, and about the privatisation of the pensions
system. The institute insisted that although part of the increase
in the surcharge was due to the steep rise in international
oil prices, this rise could have been absorbed better had
the inefficiencies at Enemalta and in other government departments
and agencies been better controlled. It was pleased, however,
that these inefficiencies were to be tackled through the review
of public sector work practices that had been announced. The
institute added that it would have expected a more appropriate
approach to the purchasing of oil in the case of a country
such as Malta, and it encouraged the government to accelerate
the process of introducing alternative energies.
The MIM also referred to the fuel surcharge
capping practice as "discriminatory" in that the measure had
been introduced only for certain business sectors. The institute
also expressed grave concern over the privatisation of the
pensions system which, it said, could spur growth in the financial
services sector, but might not be in the best national interest.
The institute described the beginning of the tax reform process
and the changes made to property tax as positive measures,
but added that it would have liked to have seen more drastic
measures introduced and, as such, called on the government
to accelerate the reform process as much as possible. Concern
was expressed over the fact that the National Committee for
the Conversion to the Euro still had to embark on appropriate
information campaigns regarding the impact of euro adoption
and on the need to prepare Malta's businesses for the eventuality.
"Malta needs to meet the Maastricht
criteria and to absorb its past mistakes," the MIM added.
"The government has introduced certain measures it thinks
will propel Malta to meet its objectives. MIM insists that
under the current circumstances, and with the measures introduced,
Malta has to continuously review its economic conditions and
the government should be ready to review such measures if
indications of any negative impact arise." The
MIM called on the government to review its tourism strategy
in that there are factors to consider that indicate the five-star
tourism niche might not be the most appropriate for Malta.
It also encouraged the government to
create appropriate structures to put Air Malta in a position
where it can mitigate the effect that the introduction of
low-cost airlines might have on the national carrier, while
at the same time encouraging more low-cost airlines to operate
to and from Malta. While the institute saw strides being taken
in education, it called for more encouragement of private
training service providers which, it said, would reduce the
burden on the university, generate economic growth and give
room to wider education. VAT discrimination and the current
system of accreditation were hindering the development of
private education, the MIM states. In this connection, the
scholarship scheme announced in the budget speech was applauded
as a good example for future initiatives.
From Independent Online, November 21, 2005
Riga - a Dynamic City
of Change in the Baltics
Riga, the capital of Latvia, is widely
recognised as the Baltic business capital and one of the main
economic centers of the region. The city as a junction point
between Western Europe and the emerging Eastern markets is
a powerful attraction for business activities in Europe. Furthermore,
in the 14-15th centuries when Riga became a significant trade
centre of the Hanseatic League, the city achieved special
rights by the adjoining states to transport goods along its
Daugava river further to the East. Today, Riga is also recognised
as an important transit centre as a result of its harbour,
international airport and well-developed rail and road networks.
This well-developed transportation infrastructure facilitated
Riga's position as the major industrial and business centre
in the Baltic region.
Latvia – rising star of the Baltics
- Latvia, as a former occupied state of the former Union of
the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) since 1940, gained its
independence in 1991 after the dissolution of the USSR. As
a legacy of the USSR's influence in Latvia, the Russian minority
amounts for around 30% of the population. Latvia joined both
NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004
Latvia's objective of EU membership
was always at the top of its foreign policy. After the signing
of a free trade agreement with the EU in 1994, followed by
the more comprehensive Europe Agreement in 1995 which came
into force in 1998, the basis of Latvia's pre-accession partnership
with the EU had been established. Latvia started accession
negotiations in late 1999 and made good progress towards its
goal of EU accession which was acknowledged by the EU Commission's
pre-accession reviews in 1998 and 1999. In February 2000,
eight chapters of the EU's acquis communautaire, relating
to SMEs, research, education, external relations, the EU's
foreign and security policy, competition policy, statistics,
culture, and audio-visual policy were negotiated. Another
eight were opened for negotiations during late 2000: industrial
policy, European monetary union, freedom to provide services,
free movement of capital, company law, fisheries, transport,
health and consumer protection. All chapters 31 chapters were
successfully negotiated by the time of Latvia's accession
to the EU in May 1st 2004.
Geography - Latvia is in Northern Europe
and borders the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania.
Its area is 64,589 sq km of which 63,589 sq km is soil and
1000 sq km is water. Its neighbours are: Belarus 141 km, Estonia
339 km, Lithuania 453 km, Russia 217 km. Its coastline is
some 531 km. Its maritime claims gives it a territorial sea
amounting to some 12 nm with an exclusive economic zone of
200 nm and a continental shelf provision of 200 m depth, or
to the depth of explotiation. Latvia's climate is generally
wet with moderate winters for the region. It has a generally
low plain with its lowest point being the Baltic Sea (O m)
and the highest, Gaizinkalns (312 m).
Meeting with Latvia's Mayor - I met
the Mayor in his office in downtown Riga in September 2005
together with his press secretary, Laila Spalina who was there
to assist with background information. The meeting centered
on the discussion of the Mayor's plans for the development
of Riga and how, Latvia's joining the EU in May of last year
had opened up avenues for confident public-private-partnership
projects to assist in the redevelopment and modernization
of the city. At our meeting, Mr Aksenoks was quietly confident
of his wide-ranging development plans for Riga. Riga is the
capital of Latvia, a new EU state in the Baltics which has
a population of some 2.3 million. Riga itself has around 1
million inhabitants, making it the natural heart of Latvia
and the largest city in the Baltics. As the city's new Mayor,
Mr.Aksenoks, the former Minister of Justice of Latvia, exuded
the warmth and confidence of Riga's proud inhabitants in the
future growth of their city.
Mr. Aksenoks explained that the new
development plan, now at its second reading and which was
due to be accepted in October 2005, would map the city's development
though to 2018. According to Mr.Aksenoks, the plan would focus
on solving the city's existing infrastructure challenges as
well as catering for those of the future. What is PPP - how
does it work? We discussed the concept and origins of PPP.
To explain, PPP, or 'public-private partnership'is as system
that provides for a service previously run solely by the public
sector to be effected through a partnership between the government/
public body and one or more private sector organisations.
It is a variation of 'privatisation'. However, unlike a full
privatization setup, where a new venture is expected to work
like any other private business, the public body, or government
continues to participate in some way. PPP is also referred
to a P3. Usually, the private sector organisation, or consortium
incorporates a special company called a "special purpose
vehicle" (SPV) to construct and service the asset.
The PPP company, or organisation is
usually made up of a building contractor, a maintenance company
and a bank lender. However, it is the SPV that signs the contract
with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility
and then maintain it. A good examply of a PPP scheme would
be a hospital facility financed and built by a private developer
and then leased to the hospital authority, or the state. The
private developer then acts as the building owner/ leasor
and provides the usual maintainance and non medical services
while the hospital itself provides medical services. The deal
for the PPP company is that it has a guaranteed market/ buyer
for its services, or facility.
The UK Underground- PPP in action -
For example, since January 2003 the London Underground has
operated in PPP mode. All infrastructure is maintained by
private companies but the Underground is still owned and operated
by the state Transport Authority. The London Municipality
engaged the American Bob Kiley (who had PPPed the New York
Subway using public bond finance) to develop the London Underground
along PPP lines.
PPP in Central Europe - In Central
Europe, Hungary has a good track record of successful PPP
initiatives. It delivered the M5 motorway in 2003 which was
followed by the M6. The M6 deal was financed in the international
markets with the co-operation of a number of City law firms.
A Model for Successful PPP -Generally, there are three main
criteria that a country's legal system must deliver to provide
for a successful PPP initiative: A strong private law framework
that is respectful and that provides for the enforcement of
deals struck between the public and private sectors. PPPs
are heavily contract-reliant and the PPP investor needs to
know that it can rely on its negotiated deal being enforced
in court. A clear and transparent procurement regime. The
private sector will not compete unless it is sure that it
is doing so on a fair basis. Strong finance and securities
laws that allow the revenue stream fundamental to PPP to be
achieved for the benefit of the project lenders.
In most Central and Eastern European
countries - in particular, the new EU states, these criteria
are largely met to the satisfaction of potential PPP investors
as EU procurement procedural standards are applied generally.
However, the use of PPPs as a model for public procurement
requires a large change in the way the public sector is required
to think and the experience of the new PPP-implementing countries
is that this change can be achieved only with clear, high-level
political support. The key to PPP is the commitment of the
decision-making politicians.
The Way Foward for PPP - The joining
the EU has brought the prospect of significant financial subsidies
for public infrastructure development. For the period 2004-06,
more than €8bn (5.5bn Pounds) has been available to the new
accession countries. This, together with international confidence
in the security of the new EU states, provides a good platform
for PPP initiatives in 2005. Riga Municipality and PPP - In
the view of Riga's Mayor, the rapid and dynamic modernization
and development of the City could be best achieved through
innovative PPP projects and as such, those international private
concerns willing to join with the municipality for the projects
were warmly invited. Some of the key, current areas for PPP
projects were identified as follows:-
Corporate Service Sector - PPP investors
and entrepreneurs would be welcomed by the municipality to
join with it for the development of large-scale conference
centres and hotels so as to cure the current insufficiency
of these facilities for the international business market
wishing to use Riga's key location as a base for business
and conference activities. Daugava & the Old City - The
river Daugava which adjoins Riga, has a special traditional
significance for its inhabitants and as such the municipality's
important development objective was to unify the old city
with the Daugava. This would be achieved by the relocation
of the separating road to an underpass and to put in its place,
promenades and walkways joining the old city with the river.
City Bypass Highways - To ease traffic
congestion, there was a need to expand city road traffic capacity
by moving the traffic flow from the city to around it. These
city bypass highways would redirect through-flow traffic from
the inner city and free up traffic congestion in the centre.
They could operate with Park and Drive establishments. Increasing
Traffic Capacity to and from Riga Centre - Riga's traffic
capacity needs could be addressed by the building of two bridges
crossing the river Daugava. One of the bridges may be optionally
a tunnel for the city's north side (a high priority) which
is estimated as a 600 million EUR project.
Public Transport System - An important
part of the municipality's development plan for the city involves
the modernization of its public transport system to include
the implementation of low floor/ fast tram systems and also
the rebuilding of the existing tram lines for more capacity.
Entrepreneur Zones - The city administration is keen to establish
entreprenuer zones - the allocation of areas within Riga for
particular development purposes (eg., housing, supermarkets,
green areas, etc.) so as encourage entrepreneurial planning.
Recreation - The development of Mezaparks,
Riga's 'garden city' within a city, home of with some of the
most beautiful residential buildings of old. A public conference
is planned to take place in Riga on September 2005 for its
development for recreation and residential purposes. The council
is keen to maintain this beautiful part of Riga for leisure
and recreation and in that respect is interested in joining
with private concerns for its development as there are only
currently two suitable, modern resorts for family entertainment
and recreation in Riga - Livu aquapark and 'big' LIDO. The
council is particularly keen to develop large-scale indoor
recreation centres which can be accessed by families all the
year round.
Waterways/ Riga Harbour - There is
strong interest to move the harbour away from the main city
area, leaving that area for office/ conference centre and
residential housing and the interest of private developers
for this project. Development Territories - The territory
of Lucavsala is lacking in basic infrastructure (eg., water
supply) is in need of development and PPP investment is welcomed.
Education - The network of schools is well developed in Riga,
however, the buildings need renovation . and modernization
and up-to-date facilities (especially IT equipment; sports
equipment and swimming pools). There are pressing needs for
day care centres/ kindergartens and in all these area PPP
investment is warmly invited.
Healthcare - The responsibility for
the administration of hospitals and emergency care facilities
is split between the state and the municipality. A concession
agreement between the parties would enable the rationalization
of these healthcare services. For hospitals, as many occupy
premier locations in the Riga centre and could do with a rationalization
of functions for more efficiency, the city development plan
envisages hospitals to be moved out of the centre to the suburbs
by the merger of some smaller ones with the larger ones in
the suburbs for reasons of costs efficiency. Furthermore,
the area vacated could be used for the development of hotels
and conference centres (which are key needs for the city).
The Ministry of Health could offer PPP investors the considerable
experience in the merger/rationalization of hospitals.
Residential Homes - At present there
are 10, 000 families waiting for flats and there is a pressing
need for the construction of low-cost housing for low-income
families on a 'build for rent' basis. Culture - There are
plans to build a new National Library; an Acoustic Concert
Hall and a Modern Art Exhibition Hall. City Green Areas -
Riga city green areas are in need of development and modernization
and the city's current priority is the redevelopment of these
'green' areas. PPP Investors/ Riga Law Firms and Consultancies
- The Mayor, was keen to point out that private concerns,
especially from Britain and the other larger EU countries,
with competency in any one of the development areas above
and who were able to bring a financing package for a relevant
PPP project engagement would be warmly welcomed. Additionally,
suitable experienced law firms and other consultancies in
Riga are encouraged to join with the municipality in its efforts
to attract well-qualified PPP investors for its development
plans for the city.
From mondaq.com - DrJur. Edward , November
7, 2005
Romania Wins International
Arbitration with Noble Ventures, Inc
The Romanian State scored a major arbitration
victory before the International Center for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID) within the World Bank in Washington.
Noble Ventures, Inc. submitted its claim under the bilateral
investment treaty between the United States and Romania to
arbitration under the ICSID Convention in August 2001. Noble
Ventures` claimed as much as USD 353 million in damages from
Romania, challenging Romania's treatment of Noble Ventures
and its investment in Combinatul Siderurgic Resita S.A. (CSR)
following the steel company's privatization. ICSID
award was communicated to both sides on Wednesday, October
12, 2005 in Washington, at 15.00 hours (22.00 hours, Bucharest
time) and dismissed Noble Ventures claims for disbursements.
The Romanian State shall only bear the expenses with taxes,
fees and other court-related costs, according to the order
for splitting the arbitration costs.
The team of lawyers that successfully
represented the Romanian State before ICSID includes Florentin
Tuca (Managing Partner with Tuca & Asociatii), Cornel
Popa (Partner with Tuca & Asociatii), Cristina Metea (Senior
Associate with Tuca & Asociatii), Levana Zigmund (Senior
Associate with Tuca & Asociatii). The
outcome of the arbitration in Washington has brought back
the smile and scattered the concerns of the authorities in
Bucharest, the success being ensured, to a great extent, by
the teams of lawyers, along which legal experts, accounting
experts and experts in the steel industry have worked in a
file comprising tens of thousands of pages. The case covered
very complex international law matters (particularly issues
related to expropriation, standard of fair and equitable treatment,
investment protection etc.) as well as relevant Romanian law
matters (privatization, fiscal law, bankruptcy and insolvency,
contract law, companies' law, employment etc.).
"It is a very important success
for the Romanian State. We have been waiting the decision
of the arbitration court in Washington with optimism and emotion
at the same time. We haven't lost hope that ICSID decision
would be favorable to the Romanian side and, indeed, our efforts,
as lawyers defending the Romanian State interests materialized
in a huge success. Of course, we can be but happy about this
result; however, it is desirable that in the future, the State
authorities make higher diligences in order to prevent similar
law suits which may result in significant losses", said
Florentin Tuca, the coordinator of the Romanian team of lawyers
in Resita file and currently the Managing Partner of Tuca
& Asociatii. Resita case
reached ICSID in 2001 and the Arbitration panel was formed
in 2003, by a German arbitrator, Mr. Karl-Heinz Bockstiegela,
chairman, a British arbitrator, Mr. Jeremy Level, and a French
arbitrator, Pierre-Marie Dupuy.
First, the Americans required damages
worth USD 200 millions. Later, their claims escalated to USD
447 millions and then stopped at to USD 353 millions. This
amount would have represented the aggregated amount of profits
which were to be realized within an unspecified period pursuant
to the investment made by Noble Ventures, says Cornel Popa,
Partner with Tuca & Asociatii, who worked in this file.
The defense strategy was unfolded
in Washington by a team made of more than 15 Romanian and
American lawyers, who used about 30 witnesses from among the
Romanian authorities, four Romanian legal experts and one
English legal expert, a British company expert in the steel
industry and an American company specialized in accounting
expertise, says Cornel Popa. "We have been better prepared.
The Canadian law firm, a small one, although specialized in
this kind of litigations, brought almost all its lawyers to
the court but only one has actually took part in the hearings.
He was actually outnumbered by our lawyers" adds Popa.
Background information: Tuca &
Asociatii is one of the major players that entered the Romanian
legal market. The eight partners are among the "veterans"
of Romanian legal consultancy, as they have been active on
this market since its emergence. Tuca & Asociatii team
numbers over 40 lawyers and it has a very strong litigation
department, specialized in complex litigation and international
arbitration files.
***
Noble Ventures, a company specialized in consulting services
in the steel industry, has purchased from the Romanian State,
in 2000, an equity of 94.4% of CSR shares, the total value
of the transaction, investments included, amounting to USD
85.25 million. The privatization contract was terminated in
December 2002, based on one of its clauses setting forth that
the privatization was subject to cancellation in the event
of failure by the investor to pay two consecutive installments.
Resita plant was then taken over at the symbolic price of
EUR 1, in the beginning of 2004, by the German company Sinara,
the distributor of the largest pipes producer of Russia, TMK
Group.
From mondaq.com - Alina Nicolae, November
16, 2005
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Histadrut Threatens Public Sector
Strike
The Histadrut labor federation declared
an industrial dispute in the public sector yesterday, a legal
precursor to taking industrial action. After a two-week cooling-off
period, the public sector may take action, including an all-out
strike. The Histadrut said it decided to call for the strike
to protest the government's economic policy, and because it
had not signed a new collective wage agreement in the public
sector. Jihad Akal, acting head
of the Histadrut's trade union division, said the union heads
considered the action necessary to protest the deteriorating
relationship between employers and staffers in the public
sector, imposing structural changes such as privatization
while ignoring the effect on workers.
The state was allowing public sector
employers to manipulate their power "and was using legislation
to harm public sector workers in various ways," Akal
said. As an example, he pointed to a new "flexible"
working pattern among some divisions that allowed the civil
service to dismiss permanent staff members quickly and with
no consultation with workers' representatives. In addition,
the government had taken no steps to renew the public sector
wage agreements since the last agreement was frozen in 2001,
the union official said. Akal also pointed to the recent move
to make veteran public sector workers pay contributions toward
their pensions, which up until now had been noncontributory.
Uriel Lynn, head of the Federation
of Chambers of Commerce, slammed the Histadrut's threat of
public sector industrial action. "The Histadrut is misusing
its power to strike and creating a superfluous drama in an
attempt to shock the economy, before the government has even
begun discussions on the budget," Lynn said yesterday
from London.
From haaretz.com-Haim Bior, November 2,
2005
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American Water Receives Award from
National Council for Public-Private Partnerships; Partnership
Pays Dividends for Buffalo Water System
American Water, the nation's largest
private water company, today announced that it has received
the 2005 Public-Private Partnership Award from the National
Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP). The NCPPP
awarded American Water the honor in the "Service"
category for the company's innovative work with the City of
Buffalo's water system. Services
provided by American Water to the City of Buffalo include
repair and maintenance of the distribution system; water treatment
and pump station operation; residuals management; customer
service; billing and collections; and water meter repair and
installation.
After six years of working with American
Water, the City of Buffalo has recognized $21 million in savings
through operational and financial improvements. The American
Water-City of Buffalo partnership has made significant improvements
to the city's water system, including the complete automation
of customer records, the design and construction of a brand
new customer service center and a new computerized maintenance
and management system. "A
profound change has taken place in how water business is conducted
in Buffalo as a result of our partnership with American Water,"
said Mayor of the City of Buffalo, Anthony Masiello. "Buffalo's
initial goals of rate decrease and stabilization during the
first five-year contract were achieved."
Additional improvements resulting from
the partnership include an initial water rate reduction of
8%, held for five years; improved water quality and reduced
turbidity by 450%; an innovative labor contract resulting
in no voluntary staff reductions and a 26% increase in productivity;
and the implementation of multiple community projects, with
the focus on helping disadvantaged Buffalo residents. "The
partnership between American Water, the City of Buffalo and
the unions has resulted in truly remarkable achievements.
Our industry-leading internal systems and procedures, coupled
with Buffalo's willingness to proactively modify its practices,
have lead to substantial cost reductions, measurable performance
improvements, and superior service to citizens. This is the
ultimate goal of partnership," said James R. Campolong,
Project Manager of American Water. "We are proud to receive
the NCPPP Award, and we share this honor with our friends
and colleagues of the Buffalo Water Board," he continued.
Each year, the NCPPP recognizes organizations
that have successfully completed unique and innovative public-private
partnerships, illustrating the best practices and applications
in the field. A leader in operations and maintenance of water
and wastewater facilities, American Water began working with
the Buffalo Water Board in 1997. The city tapped American
Water to upgrade, operate and maintain its aging water system,
requiring the implementation of water-industry standards and
a benchmarking process to measure and enhance performance.
The 2005 NCPPP Awards ceremony will
take place at the 2005 Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet,
held on November 16 at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria,
VA. With a history of over 100
years, American Water provides high quality water, wastewater,
and other related services to over 18 million people in 29
states and 3 Canadian provinces. Employing approximately 7,000
and reporting over $2 billion in revenue, American Water is
an integrated part of RWE's water division, which includes
Reading-based Thames Water. More information can be found
by visiting www.amwater.com.
From Businesswire.com, November 1, 2005
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