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