IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autor(en)/Author(s): Graeme Macmillan

Quelle/Source: The Jakarta Post, 01.08.2006