Challenges of Public Administration

Reform in Myanmar

Tin Maung Than Director/ Senior Research Fellow

CESD-MDRI Centre for Economic and Social Development

Myanmar Development Resource Institute

Is Myanmar too ambitious?

• Transition to Democracy • Transition to Peace • Transition to Market Economy • Transition to Good Governance

Previous Regime

The Context

2008 Constitution

Ex-military officers in bureaucracy

New Government: President +10 ministers

Loyalty > Meritocracy Above Assistant Director

level

Ethnic Issue & Military in Politics

Military Organizational Culture: Top Down & No

Political Insulation

Command & Loyalty

Pers

onal

Int

eres

ts/

Dis

trus

t/ D

efen

sive

Ps

ycho

logy

Low Salary/ Low Morality/ Discretionary Power

Corruption

Political Vision and Agenda in President’s Speeches •  Politics: Peace, liberalization and transition to

democracy •  Economy: Market Economy

– Macroeconomic fundamentals: Inflation stability and exchange rate reform

– Open Market: sim card 1.5 $ down from $ 5000 • Import Liberalization: Car import • Export Oriented: Garment industry

•  Development: people centered development •  Administration: Good Governance, Clean

Government 4

Reform: from a key PO minister’s presentation to local & regional authorities

POVERTY ALLEVIATION RURAL DEVELOPMENT

ECO

NO

MIC

PO

LITI

CA

L

AD

MIN

ISTR

ATI

VE

PR

IVA

TE S

ECTO

R

DEV

ELO

PM

ENT

GOOD GOVERNANCE

CLEAN GOVERNMENT

Approach: Domestic + International/ Across Ministries + Individual Ministries Across Ministries thru Five Programs •  International Participation

1.  OGP (Open Government Partnership) + Egovernment

2.  EITI (Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative)

•  Domestic Initiative 3. Reducing red tape linked to WB’s Doing Business

Report, yet far distant to be called regulatory reform 4. Decentralization: Administrative adjustment to 2008

constitution 5. To adopt the Civil Service Competency Framework

for capacity building and restructuring 9

Approach: Domestic + International/ Across Ministries + Individual Ministries

•  Individual ministerial reform • Public finance management (Finance Ministry) • Comprehensive Education Sector Reform

(Education Ministry - CESR) • Corporatization (eg., telecommunication, airline)

7

Reality Check on Six Dimensions: Myanmar’s Governance Indicators http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp Standard Error: 0.15 to 0.33

Indicators (Percentile Rank) 1996 2000 2005 2010

2011

2012

2013

Voice and Accountability   1.4   0.5   0.0   0.9   2.8   4.3   6.6  

Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism  

10.1   6.7   20.2   10.8   14.6   18.0   13.3  

Government Effectiveness   6.3   8.3   3.4   2.4   3.3   3.8   4.3  

Regulatory Quality   3.9   2.9   1.5   1.0   1.4   1.9   5.3  Rule of Law   6.7   9.6   2.4   2.8   3.8   6.2   10.9  

Control of Corruption   2.9   4.4   1.0   0.5   0.5   11.5   12.4  

Structural Change: Permanent Secretary

Minister

Deputy Minister

Permanent Secretary

Statistics & Planning

Administration & HR

Policy, Regulatory

Review, Monitoring & Evaluation

Finance & Internal Audit

Domestic/ Foreign

Relation & Media

Relation

Major Institutional Challenges •  Leadership

§  political will: yes at top but weak at multilevel §  vision: vague and not shared

•  Authority Structure: silos in nature (from military command?)

•  Bureaucracy disempowered §  No separation of political and bureaucracy level

•  Reform not grounded on coherent technical and contextual assessment and knowledge §  Lack of overall public sector structural assessment §  Lack of Assessment in all areas §  “Our problem is lack of knowledge of how to

change” (one of the rectors)

Challenges

• Weak core values of good civil service: merit, competence, continuity, political insulation & accountability

•  Co-ordination: several committees but weak in implementation

•  Unable to adopt “whole-of-government” approach yet in administrative simplification –  Need to develop an organization like

•  Local Better Regulation Office in UK, Danish Evaluation Institute for Local Governments in Denmark, Kafka department in Belgian (Administrative Simplification)

•  Institutional Development Programme (IDP) in Egypt, Cabinet Implementation Unit in Australia (to set well defined target, accountability)

Challenges •  Limited resource available •  E-government in initial stage •  Rent seeking and corruption •  Standardization of procedures: lack of

standardization promotes discretion leading to corruption

•  Low capacities and skills •  Measurement and evaluation: lack of clear

objectives and targets

Thanks Questions?