ANNUAL
CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATON OF SCHOOLS AND INSTITUTES OF
ADMINISTRATION: WARSAW, POLAND: 5 TO 8 JULY 2006
REPORT TO PARLIAMENT
1. INTRODUCTION
Having attended the above-mentioned conference as represented by Mr M R Baloyi,
the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration hereby submit a
report for consideration by the National Assembly as an accountability
mechanism
2. BACKGROUND
The International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration,
abbreviated and generally referred to as IASIA, and referred to in this report
as the Association, is a non-profit formation voluntarily established to
provide a forum for organisations and individuals whose activities and
interests focus on public administration and management. It aims to promote and
support cooperation among participating organisations and individuals, to
enhance their capacity to strengthen the administrative and management
capabilities of governments, organisations, agencies and enterprises they
serve.
Having been conceptualised in a document circulated in Viena in 1962, the
Association was formally incorporated in 1971, at the Congress of the
International Institutes of Administrative Sciences (lIAS), which was held in
Rome. It was later formally established as an independent Association operating
broadly to adopt a non-scientific-and-broader-stakeholder approach, contrary to
its mother-organisation, the liAS, which is purely scientific.
IASIA now has worldwide membership of over one hundred and seventy institutions
in seventy countries. Most of the member-organisations of IASIA are academic
institutions at tertiary level, public service institutions as well as
individuals who are practitioners in the public service and administration
arena.
As a non-profit entity, the Association survives out of money generated from
membership contributions, income from services rendered by its members and
contributions from funding organisations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat,
the Ford Foundation, the German Foundation for International Development, the
United Nations and the United Sates Agency for International Development.
The Association seeks to provide an opportunity for personnel of member organisations
and individuals to:
·
Exchange information, ideas, experience and materials on issues and
developments of common interests;
·
Study public sector management issues and developments of current and
future concerns; and
·
Advance their professional knowledge, expertise and development.
In
order to achieve the above aims, the Association organises Annual conferences,
mobilise and organise Research groups and facilitate and sponsor publications.
Although neither Parliament nor the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and
Administration is an affiliated member of the Association, the Committee has
been attending the Annual conferences thereof since around 2002.
3. THE REPORT IN DETAILS
3.1 PARTICIPANTS
Institutions and individuals from fifty two countries attended and participated
in the conference, including South Africa, which was represented by the
Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, the Public Service
Commission and the following Universities:
·
University of the Free State;
·
Tshwane University of Technology;
·
Bloemfontein Central University of Technology;
·
University of the Western Cape;
·
University of KwaZulu Natal
·
University of Pretoria, and
·
University of South Africa.
The
Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, the Chairperson of the Poland Parliamentary
Committee on Public Services and the Mayor of Warsaw attended the official
opening of the Conference. The Uganda Minister of Public Administration
attended the conference throughout and she even delivered a paper sharing the
experience of her country in dealing with issues of public administration,
particularly in the area of how they manage the recruitment process.
Also in attendance were the European Commission, the United Nations and the
African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development.
3.2 CONFERENCE THEME, WORKING GROUPS AND DELIBERATIONS
The theme of the Conference was "In search of the best Attracting,
Developing and Retaining in Public Service", and it focused the
conference in dealing with issues related to the recruitment of the most
suitable public servants, motivating them to stay in the public service and
training them so that they remain focused on the key priorities of respective
public service organisations for consistency and accelerated service delivery.
In deciding on this theme, Conference organisers recognised that it is a
world-wide reality that the success of any 'public service organisation is
heavily dependent on the quality of the public service that such institutions
have, and the fact that dealing with such questions as the theme suggests is
not an easy exercise, hence a need to bring together those academic experts and
expert practitioners to share their views on how best to deal with the
questions.
Conference noted that there are some reasons as to why Governments of the World
are confronted with serious recruitment challenges, such as the following:
·
Application of passive recruitment strategies
This
is a situation where Governments rely on the use of newspapers, radios,
televisions and verbal announcements for advertising posts. The argument in
this regard was that this is an outdated approach that tend to attract
quantities and not necessarily qualities, because, in doing so, the message may
reach a number of people who may be available for interviews, become impressive
in the process of interviews and convince the panel that they are the best
recruits. The panel may have to accept the bonafides of those who will demonstrate
such qualities at the interviews as being able to answer the questions that are
asked, and that may not necessarily translate into guaranteeing that those
individuals may be the best suitable of the public servants.
During deliberations, and as the various stakeholders were sharing their
experience on this matter, Conference considered that an alternative strategy
for recruiting the best candidates for public service posting should the one
referred to as the active strategy, which include web recruiting, on-site
recruiting, such as considering individuals on the basis of their contributions
say at conferences, meetings and other instances, the use of referees of a
sound standing, the use of internships or co-opting, the use of credible
employment agencies and head-hunting. What was considered as a diving line
between this strategy and the one referred to as passive, is that this one
provide an opportunity during the recruitment process, to consider the
practical side of the assumed quality and capacity of the candidate, and this
minimises the risk of appointing candidates only on considering their
articulate representation and eloquence during interviews.
·
Time consuming through red tape or proceduralism
Conference
noted that, related to the passive recruitment strategy referred to above, is
the lengthy recruitment processes where the governments will follow procedural
steps to a point where individual applicants find themselves attracted
elsewhere whilst waiting for Government confirmation of appointment. They loose
confidence in the recruitment process and seek for alternative opportunities.
·
lack of attraction
Experience
shared at Conference suggested that the most suitable and thus the best
candidates are not always readily available and that they are very considerate
as to what they involve themselves in, such that they scrutinise the nature of
work and the image of the organisation they join through recruitment. In the
majority of cases, it is seen as an international phenomenon, that of the bashing
of the bureaucracy by media, academics and politicians. So much negative tend
to be said about the public service in the name of being transparent, but that
which goes so far to a point of discouraging the best from joining the public
service, such as public announcements of the salaries of public servants, more
so if the reporting is negative, such as branding the public servants "fat
cats" or branding them other negative tags. This was identified as the
most demotivating factor for professionals preferring to take up employment
with the Civil Service. They believe that once they accept job offers from the
public service, they will be joining the club of those people who will always
be at the receiving end without due consideration of the sacrifices they will
make from time to time. What was identified as a common trend in the
international arena accountable for these perceptions in the public service is
the allegation that there is more negative reporting on the work of public
servants than what they objectively deserve.
However, there is no option that does not give rise to some sort of challenges
that need to be addressed from time to time, thus, debates in the alternative
strategy to the passive recruitment one are often characterised by perceptions
of favouritism, nepotism and job reservations.
·
lack of financial incentives
A
global reality noted was that Governments generally are not competitive with
the outside employer bodies as to salaries and salary packages, hence the
difficulty to attract the best and to retain those best who are already within
public service. A driving factor for this challenge is that Governments are
confronted with a need of having to balance expenditure patterns, such that the
salary bill is not seen to be higher than the operation account.
Conference deliberated as to whether this is not a foreign impositioning of
concepts that do not apply to the public service environment, hence it remains
an issue for further research, because Conference agreed that without resolving
the salary question in Government employment, Governments of the World may have
to forget about being able to attract the best and to retain them within the
public service.
Due to this factor, it was argued that in some countries, university graduates
with such scarce skills as medical professions leave their countries as soon as
they graduate, in search of better employment opportunities, and that those who
remain take decisions that they will compensate themselves by indulging in such
practices as moonlighting.
It is a converse reality that in order to recruit and retain the best public
servants, Governments need to pay their staff competitive salary packages so
that they do not see themselves available to quit at the slightest excitement.
3.3 FURTHER DELIBERATIONS
Notwithstanding the challenges some of which referred to in this report, there
are some common indicators that may assist the process of recruitment,
retaining and development of the best employees in the public service arena
expedient in anticipating future challenges and winning ongoing battles in the
desire to ensure service delivery, determined by the immediate challenges
prevalent in any given situation, such as the following:
3.3.1 Choosing the best is relative and contextual
This is a factor that should guide the recruitment process to be viewed as
related to addressing the real challenges of each country and Government, in
formed by the priority needs of the people concerned. What is said to be the
best for a particular environment may not necessarily be the best for all
instances; hence the absence of a one-size-fit-all recruitment process and
yardstick for what is seen as quality public service.
Of course this factor does not rule out the possibility of the existence of
generic processes in recruitment, but the point of emphasis in this matter is
that even in those instances, the determining factor is that there has to be
common assumptions leading to those instances.
3.3.2 Choosing the best means the existence of systems, processes and
practices
Whereas the best in terms of public servants relates to attributes of
knowledge, skills, competencies and character, greater achievements is
attainable in the event of a further combination of same with reliable and
efficient systems, clear processes and a culture for accountable practices.
3.3.3 Search for the best should be across the organisational structures of
an organisation.
Although common trends suggests that more focus tend to be given to recruit the
best only at senior management level and less attention is given to middle and
lower management up to the general rank-and-file in any institution, the
journey to best performing public institutions will only be made a successful
project with a specific biasness to seek for the best across the rank divide.
3.3.4 The best means ability to weather current storms and pre-empt future
threats.
Because service delivery does not take place in a vacuum, there is always a
need that when recruitment is done, it should be directed at selecting the
people who will live up to the unique challenges of each unique country.
3.3.5 Experience may not necessarily be cognate or relevant.
A common practice, which Conference established that it is problematic and
misleading, is the one that suggests that the chances are high that
institutions may recruit the best by making reference to experience of
individuals accumulated over years of service in a particular field of
deployment. The problematic part of considering service and experience as a
determinant for choosing the best is that the Public Service environment is
dynamic, such that what becomes a relevant exposure and experience at a
particular time may not necessarily be holding across time-periods, either
because political situations change and influence policy-making or that
policies themselves are subject to review from time to time.
3.3.6 Academic training may not always prepare a person to be suitable for a
particular work.
The one with an impressive resume is not necessarily the best. Public service
work is not entirely academic. It is all about understanding policies and
internalising the obligations to implement those policies.
On this score, Conference acknowledged that a system of recruitment that only
places academic achievement as a tool for the best may not always get the good
performers out of such, and that cadreship development should be encouraged as
the best guide, which is that individuals are prepared through thorough
engagement on tailor-made development programmes to be able to be the best
public servants relevant to particular environments.
3.3.7 Business management-type of skills may not always yield good public
service results.
The idea of running public service institutions like business formations is
gaining momentum the World-over, in terms of which there is a drive for so called
return on investment. This is one of the characteristic features of the New
Public Management theories. In this regard, preference for the recruitment of
personnel for public service goes to those people who command such skills and
knowledge. Conference stressed that this may not always yield good results.
Public management practices should be service delivery focused and not profit
driven, although there should be an effort to be efficient.
4. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it suffices to mention that this Conference set a stage for
countries and participants to pay special attention to issues related to
recruitment of the best public servants, retaining in the public service and
also further developing them.
Lindelwa Dyasi Committee Secretary
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M.R. Baloyi Acting Chairperson
Date