INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES IN TANZANIA

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INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO REFORMING PUBLIC
SERVICES IN TANZANIA

• By
• Hon. Dr. Mary Nagu (MP)
• Minister of State, Presidents Office, Public
  Service Management

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Global Public Service Reform Movement

• The Drivers of Reform
• While there are specific pressures making
  Governments to adopt public service reforms
• Globally there are generic pressures that make
  the adoption of the reform an imperative by all
  countries, these are
• Budgetary pressures
• Lack of responsiveness to public demands
• Ineffective programmes
• Need to compete in the world economy
• Internationalisation of many issues that
  previously were solely domestic concerns and
• The over expansion of the scale of government and
  its intervention all spheres of society

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• Responses to Drivers/Pressures
• To a large measure there are commonalities in the
  responses adopted by most countries. The most
  common measures include
• Re-examination of what government should do and
  not do
• Re-examination of the costs of running government
  business, followed by cost cutting measures as
  necessary
• Decentralisation and devolution of authority
  within government

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• Consideration of more cost-effective ways of
  service delivery including privatisation or
  corporatisation of activities
• Introduction of management ideas from the private
  sector into public sector including
• Giving responsibility to public service managers
  to manage and become accountable using tools
  derived from the private sector including
  strategic planning etc
• Partnership between the government and the
  private sector in the provision of services to
  the public

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Focus on Reform in Tanzania

• Reform of public service in Tanzania is not new.
• Soon after independence major efforts to build
  capacity of Government machinery to take on new
  responsibilities resulting from independent
  statehood and contribute to social economic
  development were taken.
• These efforts contributed significantly to some
  of the positive elements of the Tanzania state
  including the fact that the country is an island
  of peace and security in this part of the world.
• On the negative side the reform measures
  contributed, in some measure, to the problems of
  public administration which have had to be
  addressed in the period between the early 80s and
  today.

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The Civil Service Reform Phase

• The present Public Service Reform Programme
  (PSRP) originates from the Civil Service Reform
  Programme (CSRP) 1991-1998.
• The CSRP focused on
• Redefining the role of the state
• Rightsizing Government , and
• Controlling public expenditure including the
  wagebill.

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The Civil Service Reform Phase (Continued)

• It also focused on
• Motivating public service employees
• Enhancing public service pay levels
• Introducing initial measures to a return to
  meritocratic principles
• Capacity building, and
• Improving the policy and legislative environment
  for managing the public service.

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The Civil Service Reform Phase (Continued)

• The results of those measures included
• Reducing public service employment levels from
  355,000 in 1992 to 264,000 in 1998.
• Effective controls on new Hiring and Wagebill
  expenditure.

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The Public Service Reform Phase

• CSRP Drawbacks
• While CSRP helped to redefine the role and
  functions of the state and share responsibilities
  with the private sector, NGOs and decentralised
  delivery of services to Local Government by 1998
  it was apparent that its effectiveness would
  remain limited for a number of reasons
• There was limited political support for the
  reforms both at the level of the politicians and
  the general public
• It was not sufficiently owned by public service
  organisations including ministries, departments
  and agencies

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CSRP Drawbacks (Continued)

• It was not adequately linked to other public
  service reform programme
• The support from development partners was not
  well harmonised and coordinated.

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• Addressing the Drawbacks
• In recognition of the foregoing, Government
  adopted a new strategy to reform its public
  service called the Public Service Reform
  Programme (PSRP)
• PSRP had the following features
• Recognised that reform is a long term phenomenon,
  therefore, PSRP was planned to be implemented
  under three phases, over an 11 year period, from
  2002-2011.
• The reform entailed going beyond structural and
  process changes in the operation of public
  service organisations to a cultural orientation
  of the public servants as well as the general
  public in Tanzania.

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Addressing the Drawbacks (Continued)

• It was to be comprehensive and cover all aspects
  over public service management
• It shifted primary responsibility for
  implementation of the reforms to ministries,
  departments and agencies
• It ensured it is linked with other public sector
  reforms
• It recognised the importance of incentives by
  addressing seriously pay reform and
• It had a strong focus on service delivery
  improvements

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• Review of PSRP Experience The First 3 Years
• Two years into the implementation of PSRP
  internal and external reviews revealed the need
  to improve the implementation strategy.
• In July 2003 a Revised PSRP Strategy and Action
  Plan covering the period 2003/4 2005/6 was
  adopted with the following features

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Review of Experience The First 3 Years
(Continued)

• Took stronger measures to integrate and
  coordinate PSRP with other public sector reforms
• Link the reform measures to support poverty
  reduction strategies
• Develop and adopt a more robust monitoring and
  evaluation system and
• Encourage development partners to coordinate
  their actions in supporting PSRP.

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Review of Experience The First 3 Years
(Continued)

• It is too early to comment on whether the Revised
  Strategy is addressing the problems which led to
  the review of the PSRP. Already internal reviews
  and an anecdotal evidence suggest that while
  implementation may be slower than anticipated
  good and sure progress is being made.

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• Ladies and Gentlement,
• I found it necessary to describe the context and
  content of Tanzanias recent reforms to give a
  backdrop to the subject of my contribution to
  this forum.
• I will now focus on the main thrust of my paper
  which is INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO REFORMING
  PUBLIC SERVICE IN TANZANIA

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• A Decade of Transformation and Innovation in
  Tanzania
• A decade ago, Tanzania economic situation was
  pathetic, in both absolute and comparative terms.
  
• Per capita income was low, about 180
• Economic growth was stagnant
• Budget deficit were huge
• Inflation was 60 and above
• Macro and fiscal instability were the norm
• Supply of goods and services was tight and
  inaccessible for the majority of people, and
• The regulatory framework was chaotic although
  formerly it was tight
• Political and social order was tightly controlled
  through the one party political system.

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• The economy is growing at more than 6 (last year
  it grew at 6.2)
• Per capita income has nearly doubled
• Budget deficits are minimal
• Inflation has fallen to about 5 per annum and
• Pluralistic political and social institution are
  thriving.

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• In terms of public institutions we had
• A bloated public sector
• No reliable systems and guidelines
• Indiscipline in its many facets was common
• Ghost workers on Government Payroll were regular
• Wagebill and other public expenditure were out of
  control
• Ministries could not produce accounts on timely
  basis.

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• To day the public service has turned the above
  problems around and in some respects we hear we
  are market leaders in approaches to managing
  state functions.
• We have a clear vision and mission to propel
  Tanzania to prosperity in the 21st century.

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Innovations

• You miss 100 of the shots which you do not
  take.
• Ladies and Gentlemen those are words of a wise
  person.
• I do not want to go into the definition of
  innovation but I subscribe fully to the above
  saying. Innovation involves daring and not
  fearing to fail and always trying new things.
• In this conceptual context I will discuss six
  areas in which Tanzania has approached public
  service reform in an innovative manner

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Innovations (continued)

• These include
• Indigenising and mainstreaming program leadership
  and management
• Building an Incentive framework under severe
  budgetary constraints
• Integrating public sector reform processes
• Service delivery re-engineering
• Radical reorganization of Government, and
• Building smart partnerships with a variety of
  stakeholders.

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• Indigenising and Mainstreaming Program Leadership
  and Management
• Today our PSRP
• is a home-grown and locally driven effort
• it is managed by Tanzanian public service team
  with some technical assistance from both local
  and international consultants
• it has no enclave secretariat
• it is mainstreamed into regular PSM management
  systems, and
• it is increasingly mainstreamed into regular
  management systems of MDAs.
• For that reason it facilitates capacity building
  and ownership and sustainability

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• Building an Incentive Framework under Severe
  Budgetary Constraints
• Our approach to reform recognises the critically
  of incentives in mobilising the energies of
  institutions and managers to support reform
• The reform has adopted a Medium Term Pay Policy
  aimed at
• achieving competitive pay for technical and
  professional civil servants
• achieving a living wage for all civil servants
• It has also adopted a Selective Accelerated
  Salary Enhancement Scheme (SASE) consisting of
  top-up of salaries of critical managerial and
  professional personnel, based on the difference
  between current pay and the Medium Term Pay
  Targets. THIS IS OUR INNOVATION NUMBER TWO.
• While this scheme is politically controversial
  given the legacy of egaritarianism in Tanzania
  it is contributing to a greater motivation and
  better performance for the staff involved.

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• Integrating Public Sector Reform Processes
• As our Innovation number three an Integrated
  approach to Public Service Reform using a
  uniquely Tanzanian Performance Improvement Model
  (PIM) has been adopted (see Figure 1). The Model
  is a process that links Strategic Planning with
  Performance Budgeting, Staff Appraisal, Client
  Service Charters, Monitoring and Evaluation, the
  installation of the scheme is well advanced in
  our Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

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Figure 1 Integrated Performance Improvement Model
ANNUAL PLANNING PERFORMANCE BUDGET ING
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Services Delivery Options Decentralization
Private Sector Participation Plans
Mission Vision
Gap analysis

• Implementation of
• restructuring and
• Decentralization
• Capacity Building
• Incentives for Performance
• Proposal for PIF support

Efficiency Improvement Capacity Building Plan New
Policy Environment
National and Sectoral Goals and Priorities
Performance Benchmarks Strategic Plan Budget
Medium Term Expenditure Framework
EVALUATION OF PLANS
MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING
Review and endorsement of plans and budgets
EXECUTION OF PLANS
Reviews Repeat Client Surveys Audits Staff
Performance Appraisals
Deploy resources from PIF and appropriations
Take action, track status and communicate
progress
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• Service Delivery Re-engineering
• We have approached this by what we describe as
  Quick-Wins.
• We have concentrated on dealing with red-tape
  and bureaucratic attitude. This has transformed
  a number of organisations that were the worst
  performers, including the immigration service.
  THIS IS OUR INNOVATION NUMBER FOUR.

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• Radical Reorganization of Government
• This has entailed
• the rationalisation of Government roles,
  functions and institutions
• Decentralisation and embracing institutional
  pluralism in service delivery
• Undertaking this pragmatically and objectively
  exploring all feasible options available given
  our conditions.
• In this regard we have launched 20 Executive
  Agencies using a home grown framework which we
  created for the concept and we regard this as our
  innovation number five.

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• Building Smart Partnerships with a Variety of
  Stakeholders
• Using the same pragmatic perspective we developed
  a home grown policy framework and implementation
  strategy in outsourcing non-core activities in
  MDAs to the private sector.
• As part of this my own ministry has outsourced
  Cleaning, Security, Reception and Ground
  Maintenance functions and we have since helped
  other ministries to do the same.

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Challenges

• Leading innovations in public services has many
  challenges. These include
• First, the broadness of its range of clients
  which include the general public. Their
  expectations are rising, they are becoming more
  aware of their rights and more able to demand
  them.
• Reforms are of course increasing awareness even
  more and leaders have to decided how to manage
  the situation.
• Second, the private sector which we now recognise
  to be the engine of growth has its needs and
  wants.
• Skillful leadership is required when deciding on
  the balance between freedom to do business and
  state responsibility to regulate their activities.

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Challenges (continued)

• Public Sector leaders need to develop their
  skills to match their business sector
  counterparts, and to have the capacity to
  distinguish between real red-tape issues and
  bids for excessive license.
• Third, there is a group that was dormant but it
  is growing first and tends to be skeptical of
  government and its reform efforts, and often
  believe in their causes with passion. This is
  yet another area that requires competent
  leadership.
• Finally, but not least, are our development
  partners. Given the scarcity of financial
  resources on our part we can only make
  significant progress with their assistance.

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Challenges (continued)

• In doing so however, the leadership of the
  recipient countries should
• set their agenda
• build trust and encourage flexible approaches
• In this regard, we have been able to work with
  our partners through dialogue to increasingly
  move away from the project mode which made it
  difficult to plan implementation reforms in an
  integrated manner to sector-wide approaches.
  This is our Innovation Number Six.

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Challenges (continued)

• I am glad to say that we have recently signed a
  Memorandum of Understanding with a number of
  development partners undertaking to provide their
  support to the PSRP using this mode.
• I am informed that the host of this meeting is
  also taking steps to move to the same
  arrangement.

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The Imperatives

• Leading change that is based on innovations
  requires a difference mind-set, additional
  technical skills, and a lot of concentration.
• The role of the leader is
• Sale the reforms by promoting them at every
  opportunity
• Deal with the difficult and controversial issues
• Provide their people with some stability when
  they are surrounded by certainties
• Know the limit of their peoples abilities and
  respect them
• Realise the skill and resource limitations and
  take these into account
• Leaders need to be ambitious while remaining
  realistic and pragmatic.

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Conclusion

• A lot of resources have gone into financing
  reform in Tanzania over the last 20 years and a
  significant proportion has been deployed on
  reforming the public service.
• Questions that are being asked and rightfully are
• Where is the return on that investment?
• Are those reforms contributing to improvement in
  service delivery and poverty reduction?
• Why should reform be treated as a priority in the
  allocation of budgetary resources by both the
  Government and our development partners.

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Conclusion (continued)

• My response to these is that while many of the
  sector reform measures could have a direct impact
  on service delivery improvement and poverty
  reduction the public service reform measures may
  not have a direct impact on the same.
• However, a well functioning public service and
  therefore is reformed is a necessary condition
  and prerequisite for achieving improvements in
  service delivery and reducing poverty.
• That is why my Government and I are prepared to
  devote resources to fund PSRP and related
  activities.
• For the same reason we encourage and urge our
  development partners to do the same.