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?