Administrative Modernization and Ethics Programs

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Administrative Modernization and Ethics Programs
IX IACC DURBAN October, 1999
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Context

• Public confidence is increasingly a critical
  asset for effective and legitimate democracy and
  economic development.
• New and greater demands on the State
• new role of the State as a regulator
• new and more complex social demands (quality of
  life, environment, security, drug abuse, etc.)
• State and politics face a crisis of legitimacy
• new and higher ethical standards for public
  conduct
• greater salary gap with the private sector.

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Limitations of some anti-corruption strategies

• Excessive emphasis on the legal (criminal)
  aspects of public ethics.
• Restrictive concept of ethics (mandate of things
  you are not suppose to do)
• Weak linkage with institutional and management
  reforms (ethics as a unique and especial policy
  area)
• Focus on the supply of good and ethical
  government, but not in the demand for it

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Public Management Modernization and Ethics

• Corruption limits efficiency and effectiveness of
  Government.
• Efficiency and effectiveness add a new and key
  dimension to public ethics.
• To increase efficiency and effectiveness you have
  to do a lot more than just investigate and punish
  corruption.
• A positive externality of modernizing public
  management is precisely more transparency.

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Chiles Modernization Agenda

• Human Resources training, cultural change,
  competitive salaries
• Quality of Service and Citizen Participation
  putting users first, hearing them, measuring
  their satisfaction, recognizing the models
• Management and IT output based budget,
  performance evaluation, online services
• Institutional Reform Decentralization and
  strengthening regulatory institutions
• Transparency and Probity

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Why is Transparency so critical?

• Allows for customers and citizens input to
  improve performance
• Strengthens the concept of accountability among
  public officials
• Allows for social control and assessment of
  government
• Deters corruption by increasing visibility of any
  wrongdoing
• Fosters legitimacy of Democracy

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Some Chilean Examples

• Evaluation and control Project evaluation
  program Institutional Performance Contracts
  Internal Audit Office
• Access to Information Agency Financial and
  Management Statements (www.modernizacion.cl)
  Complaint and Information Offices State Wide
  Internet Portal (www.estado.cl)
• Administrative Probity Law free access to
  information, new incompatibilities, etc.
• Electronic Procurement Information system

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Public Procurement Electronic Information
System (www.compraschile.cl)
The Chilean State buys and contracts MM US 7.000
a year, with more than 1,4 MM of transacciones.
This system, plus the possibility of electronic
bidding, will save the Chilean Government MM
US200 a year.
Part of a more wide reform on public procurement,
which includes A new framework law on public
procurement, the elimination of the procurement
agency, electronic bidding and this information
system
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State Internet Portal (www.estado.cl)

• Almost 400 web sites (from 30 in 1998)
• The information can be search by theme, by word,
  by alphabetical order, by Government structure
  and by service
• More than 2000 visits a day. Messages to the web
  master are increasingly related to service
  quality and abuse of power
• Has forced us to develop a policy on information
  and services on line

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Some Lessons

• Usefulness of treating public ethics as a
  component of the Modernization process
• Ethical risks of any Modernization process are
  addressed by balancing trade-offs
• Political commitment and direct engagement of the
  President is key to a consistent policy.
• The need of social pressure to make politicians
  face the costs of not enacting difficult reforms
  (in Chile political financing and senior
  officials salaries).

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Some Lessons (continued)

• The need of a global plan and clear goals.
• You need strong institutions and standard
  operational procedures to make ethics part of
  public sectors routine.
• The need to have ethical training, starting by
  the senior managers
• Need for an autonomous and external pressure for
  institutional change (not only scandals)
• Importance to create an internal and external
  network for a more ethical government.

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• Any questions or comments
• Claudio Orrego
• Secretario Ejecutivo
• Comité Interministerial de Modernización de la
• Gestión Pública
• phone [phone]
• fax. [phone]
• mail corrego_at_minsegpres.cl
• web www.modernizacion.cl
• web www.estado.cl