|
|
| RE- INVENTING GOVERNMENT |
2/16/2009 |
|
There is a growing disenchantment with government performance all over the world which puts increased pressures for reform. Innovation and quality, the modern slogan for organizations’ success are concepts not frequently associated in people’s minds with government. Too often, government is seen by citizens, the media, and sometimes by public servants and political leaders themselves, as plodding, inefficient, bureaucratic, change-resistant, incompetent, unresponsive, or corrupt. Citizens often complain that governments provide services that are inadequate, inappropriate, inferior, or too costly of their hard-earned tax payments. Frequently, people see government officials to be acting in their own interests rather than responding to the needs of citizens. The complaints range from the very simple to the absurd and obscene.
As profound changes continue to impact on the public and private sector in many countries, governments now face an urgent need to transform the scope and conduct of their activities to meet these national, regional and global challenges. Governments are trying to adapt to the new environment caused by globalization, the spread of democratic processes, the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution and various other challenges to economic and social development. Every organization whether a business, a nonprofit, or a government agency, needs to rethink itself in the face of these unprecedented global changes. Otherwise, it would outgrow its policies and its rules of behavior, if it continues in its old ways; it becomes ungovernable, unmanageable, and uncontrollable. The response and success of governments in this regard enhances socioeconomic development, as well as the trust and confidence of their people in governance. As a result, many governments are in the process of reinvention, privatization, renovation, regulatory reform and building private-public partnerships.
However, these transformations must be undertaken in ways that take cognizance of the needs of their people, particularly the poor, in a more transparent, participatory and responsive manner. In this regard, we congratulate some African countries that have taken bold steps in the wake of globalization to adopt and implement participatory governance as their governing philosophy. At the recent United Nations Public Service Awards, it was no surprise to see that many governments are innovating and attempting to achieve higher quality performance. The government of Zambia was recognized for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery by commercializing the protection of industrial property and registration of enterprises. And the Egyptian Ministry of State for Administrative Development for developing new technologies that facilitates and simplifies the processes through which its citizens obtain government services.
The Egyptian Government developed administrative agency strategies for improving standards of public service performance in central or local level government agencies, rationalizing the work force, and improving the training and policies of civil servants toIt is not only the inefficiency of the system of government that has received such bashing in the recent time. It was the same in the early 80’s with the traditional accounting system. The complaints ranged from the harsh criticisms that Traditional Accounting Procedures, such as generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, etc does not adequately capture the valuation issues of "New Economy" companies. Wide-ranging suggestions have been made to allow current accounting practices to incorporate the New Economy characteristics of uncertainty and flexibility, remedies as the use of real option analysis, balance-score-card, etc to provide the informational support required to meet these objectives were posited.
The Police service philosophy of an inclusive policing based on encouraging partnership between the police and communities in a collaborative effort to solve crime and disorder is being advocated as part of the reform being undertaken in the force. Such a shift in thinking comes as observers of policing worldwide now recognize that the traditional police like many other domains of the public service are increasingly unable to meet the demands of the public given the limited capacity of the government in the late modern society.
Nigerian Ambassador to Switzerland and permanent representative to the United Nations, Dr. Martin I. Uhomoibhi in the recently concluded Business and Investment Forum for Nigerian Governors, noted that in the new dispensation, the States should constitute the pivot to drive socio-economic activities and propel the entire country towards sustainable growth. He reiterated –“that success would not be achieved by conducting matters in a business-as-usual mode. That participation in the Forum will not be merely to attract public attention, to be seen or heard in the media, or to engage in white elephant projects with little relevance to the actual needs of the people for whom these projects are designed to benefit.”
The core issue here is that in both the out-dated accounting system and the obsolete system of governance, there was no suggestion whatsoever that the system be scrapped intoto or a return to anarchy. God forbid! Doing so would only amount to throwing away the baby with the bath-water. The consensus was rather on how to repackage, make-over or re-invent the old system to meet the present challenges and realities. The echoes whether coming from the Police service through O.O. Onovo- DIG’s vision on reform or Dr. Martin Uhomoibhi under whose auspices the Business and Investment Forum was held, the emphasis is that in the wake of pressures of globalization and technological innovation and more widespread access to telecommunications systems, citizens are demanding more of their governments, therefore the time to re-invent the various aspects of Government is overdue, or else the rest of the world would leave us behind.
|
|
|
|
| Comments | Post your comment |
|
|
|
