15 April, 2008
UNITED STATES
Publishing personal details angers staffers
Ministerial staffers working in the US White House are angry that a small internet company has begun posting details about their personal finances on the web.
   In a conflict over constitutional rights, the high-level aides have argued that the disclosures leave them vulnerable to identity theft.
   But the Web site, LegiStorm, contends that it has a First Amendment right to publish already public information about some of the Capitol's most powerful players, and is creating a new check against potential corruption.
   "Congressional staffers are among the most powerful people in Washington,” said Jock Friedly, the founder of LegiStorm. “And in the past they have received very little scrutiny.”
   For several years, LegiStorm has published salary and expenditure reports that provide detailed information on how much each Congressman or Senator spends, along with the names, titles and salaries of every employee.
   In February however, the company expanded its data service to put the staffers' personal financial disclosure forms online.
   Those documents, which must be filed by senior aides, contain explicit detail on aides' finances including bank accounts and investment portfolios, as well as some home addresses and signatures.
   “It's shocking," said one House Democratic chief of staff, who requested anonymity.
   "Now that anybody can look it up on the Web, I don't know if I like it anymore."
   At staff meetings over recent weeks, some aides have suggested that the House general counsel should sue LegiStorm, which they accused of trying to profit from the dissemination of their records.
   Mr Friedly responded by saying he was not selling the information on his Web site, which was available free supported by advertising.
   Under Federal US law, staffers who earn more than $110,000 a year must file financial disclosure forms revealing their financial holdings, any outside income, gifts received and official positions held with outside groups.
   The clerk of the House has written to the more than 2,000 staff members who filed disclosure reports, warning them to check whether they revealed any sensitive material, such as bank account or Social Security numbers.
   Mr Friedly refuses to remove sensitive information about the staffers unless he is paid the roughly $10,000 cost of altering thousands of the forms.
   He noted that since his site began publishing the financial information of top aides, at least two newspapers had published articles about questionable transactions by top staffers.
   A spokesman for the Clerk of the House said his office was working to ensure that disclosure requirements were met, while at the same time protecting confidential or personal information.

15 April, 2008
SINGAPORE
Survey shows high satisfaction levels
A survey of 1600 members of the Singapore Public Service has revealed that the majority were satisfied with the effectiveness of their service, actively engaged in their jobs, and energised about what they do.
   Two-thirds of those surveyed felt that way, but not all. A quarter rated their engagement levels at about 50 per cent.
   Minister in Charge of the Public Service Teo Chee Hean, who announced the survey findings said more must be done to motivate Public Servants so that their quality of work and the level of service to the public could remain high.
   The survey was part of the Government's efforts to attract and retain civil servants,
   To reinforce a sense of purpose among staff of the Public Service, Mr Teo announced that the inaugural Public Service Week would be launched next month.
   "We want to reach out to the public so that they understand what the Public Service does, what its constraints are, what are the challenges it faces,” Mr Teo said.
   “And if we can have a good measure of mutual respect between the public and Public Servants, I think we'll be able to improve and move to the next level of public service." he said.

15 April, 2008
NEW ZEALAND
PS to lead way in greenhouse policies
The New Zealand Public Service has released plans to reduce its carbon emissions, according to Environment Minister, Trevor Mallard.
   Mr Mallard said the Public Service would be implementing state-of-the art measures in the hope that six major departments would be carbon neutral by 2012.
   He said those Departments were the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, Ministry of Health, Treasury, Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Economic Development.
   He said the New Zealand Government expected plans for the remaining 28 agencies to be announced in due course, also putting them on the road to carbon neutrality by 2012.
    Mr Mallard said each Department had calculated their carbon emissions, and found that the total emissions of the core Public Service were equivalent to 159,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
   He said proposed emission reduction strategies included the replacement of diesel generators with renewable energy systems; a more energy efficient approach toward travel and computer equipment; increasing the Public Service’s use of video conferencing for meetings; energy efficient lighting; and driver education about vehicle fuel efficiency.
   A report from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation said the NZ Public Service aimed to reach a 10 per cent reduction in energy use per Full-Time Equivalent staff member and a 25 per cent fuel economy improvement in PS vehicle fleets by 2012.

15 April, 2008
BOTSWANA
Call to double PS payrise
A call has been made for Public Service salaries in Botswana to be increased by 30 per cent.
   The National Organising Committee of the National Collective Bargaining Labour Forum made the call saying it was against the recently awarded 15 percent salary increase for public service workers, saying it wasn’t enough.
   The Forums demands and sentiments were contained in a petition which had been submitted to Kgatleng District Commissioner, Moemedi Letina in Mochudi.
   Ms Letina said she would send the document to the relevant Government authorities.
   In the petition, the forum said it was disturbed by the Government's decision to increase public service salaries by 15 percent "which was different from what the previous (wage) commissions, that of Tsa Badiri and De villiers" had recommended.
   The petition said the two commissions (Tsa Badiri and De villiers) recommended that Botswana Public Service Salaries were below the lower quartile, and there had been a subsequent 22 percent cumulative erosion of salaries from inflation.
    "The Government ignored this important recommendation,” it said.
   "While the commission fully achieved its mandate of reviewing productivity and came up with strategies of attracting and retaining skilled workers with the effect of increasing competitiveness, Government through oblivious and malignant intentions perpetuated by the desire to down-size the public service, paid no attention to such recommendations."
   The forum made other recommendations, including waiving the rule of half inflationary rate increments and linking the downsizing of the Public Service with the introduction of unemployment benefits.
   It also called for higher duties allowance to kick in after seven days, a scarce skills allowance of 25 per cent of basic salary to be paid and decisions on staffing matters should be made within a defined timeframe.

15 April, 2008
CAMEROON
17,500 new recruits announced
The Minister of Public Works and Administrative Reforms, Emmanuel Mbonde has announced that 17500 temporary workers were to be absorbed into Cameroon’s Public Service as contract workers.
   The decision, Mr Mbonde said, was taken by the Head of State, Paul Biya.
    Mr Mbonde said the exercise was in response to an acute shortage of State employees since recruitment to the Public Service was frozen.
    The new recruits, according to the Minister, will be deployed in different services across the country’s Public Service.
    Though no details have been given concerning the exact numbers to be sent to the different Ministries, recent assessments indicate that the biggest demands are coming from:
Education (20,000), Public Health (3,550), Justice (1,534), Agriculture (1385) and Employment and Professional Training (1,299).
    Mr Mbonde had earlier emphasised the fact that the decision to recruit the new contract workers was facilitated by results of the recent Public Service census that indicated, with greater precision, the profile of employees needed within the different services.

15 April, 2008
KAZAKHSTAN
Regional centre of PS learning planned
Administrative reform and Public Service training initiatives in Kazakhstan have been discussed by the Chairman of the Kazakh Agency for Public Service Affairs, Gabidulla Abdrakhimov with the former President of Estonia, Arnold Ruutel.
   In a meeting in Astana this month Mr Abdrakhimov and Mr Ruutel discussed the possibility of a strategic partnership in the area of Public Services and a possible course of administrative reform for the Public Service of Kazakhstan.
   They also addressed a proposal by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research that suggested an International Training Centre for Local Authorities (CIFAL) be established in the region.
   The proposal has been supported by Mr Abdrakhimov, who said the centre could be located in Astana, where all central state bodies were concentrated.
   He said Astana offered the best base for training Public Servants.
   The proposed Centre would be the first educational Centre of its kind in the Central Asian region.

15 April, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Innovation the aim of PS says Minister
The Minister of Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has described the ideal public servant as someone who was innovative and always ready to find ways of improving service delivery methods.
   Speaking at a function at the South African Centre for Public Service Innovation (PCSI), Ms Fraser-Moleketi said a Public Servant aimed to serve, and to a large degree joined the Public Service because they felt they have a contribution to make.
   She said while there were complaints at times about service delivery at certain Government Departments such as the Department of Home Affairs, it was important to be creative about administration.
   In many instances, she said, it was about being creative when looking at ways of speeding up service delivery.
   “This includes the question of innovation,” she said.
   "The suggestion of innovation does not mean that we do away with accountability,” Ms Fraser-Moleketi said.
   “For us it is ensuring that the processes are transparent, that there is very clear accountability because we are dealing with public resources, and we need to take that into account at all times.”
   She said ethical practices could often enhance creativity and innovation when dealing with service delivery.
   Some of the innovative solutions that have come to the fore were actually the ones that looked at how you could ensure ethical practices, she said, and added “innovative is not synonymous with anarchy".
   The CPSI was established in 2003 to develop innovative, sustainable and responsive models for improved Public Service delivery.

15 April, 2008
CANADA
Review of PS HR tabled
A report on human resource management issues in Canada’s Federal Public Service has been tabled by the Senate National Finance Committee.
   The Committee found that there was good and bad on the PS HR scene.
   "Most Federal Departments and Agencies have developed sound human resource plans that cover a good portion of their workforce," said the Chair of the National Finance Committee, Senator Joseph A. Day. But the Committee did note some modernisation efforts that needed to be strengthened.    
   According to testimony of the President of the Public Service Commission, Maria Barrados, there remained a gap between the workforce availability of visible minorities and their representation in the Public Service.
   The report found that while overall recruitment to the Public Service had increased, the recruitment for visible minorities has dropped from 9.8 per cent of new appointments in 2005-2006 to 8.7 per cent in 2006-2007.
   Committee members also highlighted a reliance on temporary employment in Public Service recruitment patterns.

15 April, 2008
TONGA
Bank manager takes over as PS Chief
The Tongan Government has appointed former Bank manager, Mishka Tu'ifua, as the new Chair of the Public Service Commission.
   Mrs Tu’ifua has been the General Manager of Westpac Bank of Tonga since 2003.
   She has more than 15 years of business and professional experience in the private and public sectors and is expected to leave the bank in May and start as Chair of the PSC on 2 June.
   In reporting the appointment, the Tonga Broadcasting Commission said Mrs Tu’ifua’s expertise included organisational performance planning, review and management, the management and governance of human resources, as well as strategic thinking and leadership.
   Other media reports said the appointment was a political one “shrouded in controversy” after allegations the Prime Minister approved the transfer of $5 million in Government deposits to Westpac to bring them out of financial difficulty at Mrs Tu’ifua’s request.
   The Prime Minister recommended Mrs Tu’ifua for the appointment, which was approved by the King.
   The Tonga Broadcasting Commission said, “The appointment of Mrs. Tu'ifua as full time Chairperson will help to strengthen the PSC, enabling it to be more effective and to continue on
with the reforms in the Public Service.”
   It said the position was widely advertised and followed tight selection processes. Retired Commissioner of the Public Service of Victoria, Peter Salway, was on the interview panel.
   Ashleigh Matheson, the head of Credit and Risk in Westpac Fiji, is to replace Mrs Tu’ifua at the bank.

15 April, 2008
MALAYSIA
Call for more Indian places
The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has called for the recruitment of eligible Indians into the Malaysian public sector to increase by up to eight per cent.
   According to a recent report, the annual recruitment rate of Indians into the public sector was lower than five per cent.
   President of the MIC, S. Samy Vellu, said that even boosting employment opportunities in the Public Service to that level would still not be enough to tackle unemployment in the Indian community.
   Mr Vellu said the MIC would ask the Government to consider speeding up the process of recruiting Indians in government-linked companies (GLC), as well as in the private sector.
   He said the ruling Barisan Nasional party would get back some of the support of the Indian community if it met MIC’s requests under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.
   He said the requests included expediting measures to increase equity for Indians through provision of a fund and the setting up of a foundation like Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) with the aim of increasing Indian equity to three percent by 2010.
   He said that this was crucial because Indian equity had dropped to 1.2 percent from the previous 1.5 percent

8 April, 2008
UNITED STATES
New computer pays retirees on time
A computer system which began operating in February to allow Federal Public Servants to receive full pension benefits on time, instead of only partial benefits for the first few weeks of their retirement looks to be achieving its goals.
   The Office of Personnel Management has announced that it compared 34 pensions awarded by the new computer system, RetireEZ, with those based on paper records and concluded that the technology upgrade provided the right amount within 30 days of an employee's retirement.
   For many years the OPM had provided recently-retired staff with interim pension payments while it tried to pull together paper records and reconstruct employment histories.
    The hunt for personnel files often took months, forcing retirees to wait for correctly calculated pensions, usually for larger amounts.
   The OPM administers retirement systems for about 3 million government workers and 2.5 million government retirees and their survivors.
    OPM Director, Linda Springer said she was pleased to report that the majority of cases processed by RetireEZ to date had matched the legacy calculation.
   She also revealed that the project's costs had been overestimated when several million dollars of spending before fiscal 2006 was included that was not related to the modernisation.
   A revised estimate, she said, showed that $106.5 million had been spent on planning and acquisition and an additional $254 million would be spent on operations and maintenance through to 2016.
    With an increasing number of Federal employees, mostly baby boomers, filed claims for retirement, the OPM's workload picked up, dooming the paper-based administrative process to deterioration.
   The new automated system can make up to 150 distinct calculations when figuring out the correct annuity for a new retiree, the OPM said.
   The first phase of the project involves about 26,000 employees and subsequent phases will cover the rest of the executive branch, the Postal Service, and the legislative and judicial branches.
   In response to concerns raised by auditors, the OPM said it added personnel to conduct tests on the new computer system, find defects and fix them. A contractor will also verify that system components were functioning.
   As more records are converted to the new system and the volume of claims grows, the OPM expected to encounter additional challenges.

8 April, 2008
GERMANY
Strikes over as pay deal struck
The series of Public Service strikes that has hit Germany since mid-February could finally be at an end after public sector workers agreed to a new pay deal with the Federal Government and local authorities.
   Negotiations between the Government and Germany's powerful services union, Verdi ended with an agreement that would see 1.3 million Public Servants receive a monthly increase of 50 euros (A$85) plus a 3.1 per cent pay rise backdated to January.
   The deal, which averted the prospect of a nationwide strike, was agreed to by State and municipal authorities.
   "We have accepted a very painful deal after exceedingly hard negotiations," said the head of the Municipal Employers' Association, Thomas Boehle.
   Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, announced details of the agreement, saying staff in western Germany would now work 39 hours per week, half an hour more than was the case for public sector workers.
   Staff in the former communist east already work 40 hours weekly but their wages will be harmonised with those in the west from 1 January.
   Mr Schaeuble said staff in particularly strenuous jobs, including bus drivers, hospital staff and childcare workers, would also receive more time off.
   Chairman of Verdi, Frank Bsirske said the deal was a "great success" that spared Germans the inconvenience of mass industrial action in the public sector.
   Mr Bsirske said it meant Public Servants would receive an increase above the annual inflation rate for the first time in many years.
   "It is far from certain whether a better deal could have been reached even after a long strike," he said.
   Despite the agreement, Verdi announced that postal workers would stage pinpoint strikes
to press demands for more pay following the breakdown of talks with management.

8 April, 2008
NEW ZEALAND
Union points to staff cap risks
The New Zealand Public Service Association says the risks involved in placing staffing caps on the Public service, rather than investing in it have been borne out by a report into an error on tax revenue made by the Inland Revenue Department.
    The report, by Treasury and IRD, follows their investigation into a $600 million calculation error by the IRD’s provisional tax accrual unit.
   The investigation found that the six staff in the unit were “under considerable pressure of limited resources, high staff turnover and increasing service demands.”
   PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff said IRD wasn’t the only NZ Government Department or Agency where staff were working hard to deliver a quality service with limited resources.
   He said other areas of the core Public Service and the wider State sector also faced the same problem of retaining and recruiting staff with the necessary skills to do crucial work.
   “This is why it’s vital that we continue to invest in our public services,” Mr Wagstaff said.    
   “It’s also why we have major concerns about the National Party’s policy of capping the number of staff in the core Public Service.”    
   Nationals’ leader, John Key said the cap would only apply to staff he labelled ‘bureaucrats.’
   “But who are these so called bureaucrats?” Mr Wagstaff asked .
   “Does it include Public Servants, like those in the provisional tax unit at Inland Revenue, who were struggling with limited resources and finding it difficult to hold onto skilled accounting staff in a highly competitive job market?”
   “The IRD case shows the risks involved if we put a lid on the Public Service rather than ensuring it has the resources and skilled staff that it needs,” Mr Wagstaff said.

8 April, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Full steam ahead on PS reforms
British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has told 700 senior civil servants that the Government was determined to push ahead even faster with public service reforms.
   He made the Government’s position clear to speed up the reform agenda.
   The hardening of the Government’s policy was underlined by a private letter from the Treasury chief secretary, Yvette Cooper, to ministers in the biggest-spending public sector departments, in which she urged them to market-test many of their services in the tighter budget climate.
   Mr Brown also spoke to his backbench MPs urging them to send out a strong message during the local elections that the Government was delivering.
   He received robust response from the MPs, with one calling for former ministers who sniped at the Government from the sidelines to be "injected with rabies".
   To place more pressure on the PS reform agenda, Health secretary Alan Johnson announced he was pressing ahead with plans to use pharmacies and GPs' surgeries to screen patients for vascular, heart and kidney disease.    
   He also disclosed that patients needing routine operations now had 180 private sector hospitals to choose from.
   Notices in regional newspapers told patients needing routine elective operations that their choice of surgery locations had widened from four private sector hospitals (along with their local NHS hospital) to 180 private sector hospitals.
   Speaking to the senior civil servants, Mr Brown said "in the face of global financial turmoil it is essential that we push ahead with both investment in and reform of public services".    With party officials estimating that Labour could expect to lose 200 seats in local elections on 1 May, Mr Brown was keen to be seen delivering on neighbourhood policing across England, completing the deep cleaning of hospitals and extending patients' choice.

8 April, 2008
FIJI
Staff seek 10% pay rise
The Fiji Public Service Association has called for a 10 percent pay rise, backpay and a bonus payment for its members.
   The interim Government had imposed a five per cent pay cut on Public Servants after the 2006 coup, but the union said interim Ministers were exempted, and it regards that as unfair.
   Last month, the interim regime decided to restore the pay cuts in two steps but to not offer any backpay.
   The Union’s senior industrial advisor, Nirbhay Singh, said it was asking for several things in the still active pay dispute.
   “We have written to the public commissioner about an across-the-board living adjustment to the salary rates of all our members,” Mr Singh said.
   “This is based on pure inflation figures, which is now close to eight percent, and secondly the restoration of the pay cut.”
   Mr Singh said the Union had also learnt that permanent Government Secretaries had received a bonus payment of several thousand dollars each so it was now asking for similar payments for its members.

8 April, 2008
CANADA
Expos to attract PS staff
The provincial government of Corner Brook in Newfoundland, Canada, is planning career expos to try and attract people to work for the Public Service.
   Finance Minister Tom Marshall, who is the Tory legislature member for Humber East, announced the second career fair when he spoke in the House of Assembly recently.
   The province’s Public Service Commission held similar job fairs across Newfoundland and Labrador last May. The second annual career expos will be in Corner Brook with other expos held in St. John’s, Grand Falls-Windsor and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
   Mr Marshall said these events were designed to highlight the provincial public service as a preferred employer.
   “This valuable initiative supports our strategic human resources planning process,” Mr Marshall said.
   “The career expos give us an opportunity to attract talented professionals to strengthen our already dynamic and skilled Public Service.”
   Mr Marshall noted the province had conducted more than 1,400 job competitions to fill various Public Service employment opportunities province-wide this financial year, which concludes at the end of March.
   He said the expos would provide those interested in a career in the provincial Public Service with information on the Public Service Commission hiring process, as well as on current and anticipated employment opportunities, departmental and occupational profiles, position qualifications, salary ranges and employee benefits.
   “I encourage all who are interested in a career with the provincial Public Service to visit one of the career expos and discover the opportunities that are available, right here, at home,” Mr Marshall said.

8 April, 2008
SOUTH AFRICA
Capacity building on the boil
A new Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity-Building Program is set to improve the South African Government's overall strategy for service delivery by creating innovative problem solving solutions.
   According to the Public Service and Administration Minister, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the aim of the new system was to contribute to improved governance and enhance the effectiveness of public sector organisations and industries.
   Speaking at the launch of the South African Management Development Institute's Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity-Building Program this week, Ms Fraser-Moleketi said SAMDI was currently being reconstituted into a new public service academy.
   "SAMDI has a different approach to public sector capacity-building,” Ms Fraser-Moleketi said “It is changing from being a provider of training on a modest scale, to becoming a facilitator of training for the public sector.”
   She said Cabinet had mandated SAMDI to develop and implement capacity building programs for monitoring and evaluation in government.
   "SAMDI will ensure that appropriate and relevant monitoring and evaluation skills are acquired throughout the public sector to measure the extent of service delivery to all citizens," Ms Fraser-Moleketi said.
   She said the objectives of the program included collecting and collating, analysing and disseminating, and applying information on the progress and impact of programs.
   She said the Office of the Presidency had been the lead agency in the task and had developed a Government-wide monitoring and evaluation system which provided the overall policy platform for Government programs.
   She also emphasised that the promotion of good governance must be based on appropriate knowledge, skills and responsibilities within the public sector.
   Ms Fraser-Moleketi said the first orientation course had been designed and was currently being delivered to various Public Service officials at junior and middle-management levels.
   "This three-day course focuses on an awareness of monitoring and evaluation and its methods should enable the initiation of service delivery monitoring in the public sector," she said.
   She said capacity building initiatives would then be extended to senior management in national and provincial Government Departments, through a series of short courses in support of their planning and reporting processes.
   She said stakeholders involved in the program included the Office of the Public Service Commission, the Departments of Public Service and Administration and Provincial and Local Government, the National Treasury, Statistics South Africa and SAMDI.

8 April, 2008
NIGERIA
Interactive forums to promote cooperation
The head of Nigerian Civil Service, Mrs Ebele O. Okeke, has said that interactive forums among Public Service workers were vital for enhancing a more responsive action towards the realisation of the Government's policies and programs, and particularly the administration's seven-point agenda and the vision 2020.
   Mrs Okeke addressed officers on grade levels 14-17 in the Federal Civil Service at a one-day interactive session, organised by the office of the Head of Service (HOS) at the Women’s Development Centre, in Abuja.
   In her address, Mrs Okeke said that the inaugural meeting was to enable interaction with one another and discuss issues that would make the Federal Civil Service more responsive to the realisation of Government policies and programs.
   "Moreover in order to further complement this administration's efforts at helping our civil service return speedily to the glorious past, when it was an epitome of excellence, commitment and dedication to duty, we will continue to host this forum so that at the end of the day, we will evolve strategies that will help increase productivity, enhance service delivery, increase transparency and make the system more responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of our people," Mrs Okeke said.
   She said that current and ongoing initiatives by the Federal Government aimed at reinvigorating the civil service for better performance would continue.
   She said the Government had already rationalised the Civil Service by cutting the number of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) from 31 to 19 in order to have a slim, compact and manageable civil service that could meet the challenges of modern day administration, management, and service delivery to the people.
   While emphasising the importance of capacity building, Mrs Okeke announced that apart from the promotion examination regularly conducted by the Federal Civil Service Commission, annual mandatory two-week training programs for officers had also become a prerequisite for moving from one grade level to another.

8 April, 2008
CANADA
Health injection not enough
A $2.3 billion boost in the Ontario health budget this year would not stem the job cuts expected to hit the hospital sector, according to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
   The OPSEU said the increase seemed substantial, but the money had been spread out over a number of programs, such as reducing emergency room waiting times, and would not help hospital staff keep their jobs.
   Staff at the Rouge Valley Health System were told the day after the new budget was released they would have to cut 220 jobs over the next three years, despite the hospital being in a high growth area.
   The reservations of the OPSEU were not universal.
   Norm Gamble, chairperson of the South West Local Health Integration Network said the money in the budget matched the needs of the area.
   “Does their money match what we see as our needs? In a lot of cases it does," he said.
   Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the Government would invest $500 million over the next three years in hiring 9,000 more nurses, 2,000 of which would staff nursing homes.
   Another $107 million over three years would be put aside to hire 2,500 personal support workers for nursing homes.
   While the Ontario Medical Association praised the budget, leader of the New Democratic Party, Howard Hampton said it was a “threadbare” plan that would not provide a revolution in long-term care.

8 April, 2008
KENYA
Oriental practices to increase PS efficiency
Moves to overcome lethargy, inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the Kenyan Public Service appear to be on track with the organisation taking out the 2007 United Nations Public Service Award and experts saying the PS was becoming more efficient, effective and customer-friendly.
   Lecturer at the Kenya Institute of Administration, Samuel Macharia acknowledged that the Public Service had improved, but said there was still the challenge of exceeding customer expectations and remaining globally competitive.
   “Government Ministries and Departments have elevated customer expectations with elaborate service charters,” Mr Macharia said.
   “This brings us to our challenge: How can we exceed customer expectation?”
   He said to take customer service to the next level, the Public Service should embrace an international strategy and suggested the Japanese Gemba kaizen approach as a means of further improving the Kenyan PS.
   He said this approach would encourage small, continuous improvements throughout the PS without making any radical changes.
   Mr Macharia said that ‘Gemba’ was a spatial concept which was rare in the field of management theories.
   “The idea is interesting,” he said, “because… (it is) not an idea used to organise activity, as most management theories are.”
   He said ‘Kaizen’ meant improvement through team involvement, minimum spending and the use of common sense.
   Mr Macharia said the Gemba kaizen approach had been embraced by a number of businesses in Kenya including the Kenya Wildlife Service, which had shown the benefits.
   He said if the Public Service was to follow suit, it would be in the running for more awards.
   “If our Public Service institutionalised kaizen, then it would consolidate its leadership in service delivery and win many more well deserved awards,” he said.

8 April, 2008
CANADA: Call for more PS jobs
   MP Patrick Brown, from Barrie, has called on the Minister of National Revenue to supply Barrie with more Public Service jobs to ease high turnover rates and to save money on employee training.

CANADA: Bissett Alumni award
   The 2008 Bissett Alumni Award for Distinctive Contributions to the Public Sector has been awarded to William Baker for his leadership and dedication to the Public Service and Carleton University.

1 April, 2008
SCOTLAND
Public Service to learn to say ‘sorry’
Public Servants in Scotland have been told they should get better at saying "sorry" and they may be given legal backing to help them.
   The advice comes from the Public Services Ombudsman, Professor Alice Brown, following a series of investigations into PS activity that led to a number of organisations being forced to apologise.
   The Ombudsman said in many cases, saying sorry was all that members of the public wanted when things went wrong.
   “I often recommend an apology be made to the complainant,” Professor Brown said.
   “To those looking on from outside, this may appear to be less significant than other recommendations I make - for example training, changes in practice, or reviews of policy or guidelines.
   "However, for the patients or families concerned, an apology is often the key action they are looking for.”
   She said the need for apologies to people who had been wronged was particularly strong in the health services area but health board managers were reluctant to say sorry because of implied legal liabilities and potentially costly Civil Court action.
   She said one complainant who lost her 91 year old father to “a horrible death” after receiving “shocking treatment” wasn’t complaining to make some fast money, but to ensure the system was improved.
   “I wasn’t complaining for financial gain,” the woman said. “What I want is for this not to happen again.”
   Professor Brown recommended that the National Health Service for Scotland should apologise for the mishandling of the complainant’s father’s case.
   Professor Brown also said apologies would lead to improved learning and trust between the Public Service and the public.
   MP in the Scottish Parliament, Karen Gillon, said the legal complications of saying sorry would be tackled by a Member’s Bill, which she planned to introduce in Parliament.

1 April, 2008
KENYA
Over 55s face the sack in new regime
Public Servants over 55 years of age have been earmarked for the sack under new power-sharing arrangements in Kenya.
   Plans to retire all ‘grey-haired’ permanent secretaries, parastatal heads and other senior civil servants are in the process of being finalised in a move to make way for youthful faces.
   The move comes following demands from the Orange Democratic Movement, a Kenyan political party, that President Kibaki fill a substantial portion of public jobs with favoured candidates to fulfill power-sharing arrangements.
    President Kibaki had approved the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill 2008, which gave the go-ahead to the principals of partnership of the Coalition Government and was expected lead to the establishment of offices for a Prime Minister and two Deputies.
   Positions left vacant by the previous Government would be filled by recommendations made by ODM and the Party of National Unity.
   ODM and Government sources said the replacement of sacked Public Servants would be carried out in the spirit of ‘real’ power-sharing, despite the Head of the Civil Service, Francis Muthaura, saying otherwise.
   Mr Muthaura prematurely dismissed Government plans to fire Public Servants above retiring age.
   The plan to overhaul the PS indicates that Mr Muthaura had got it wrong and he was now among those earmarked for dismissal.
   ODM and President Kibaki are to discuss lists of would-be Cabinet ministers as both parties will be looking to fill positions with professionals who need jobs.
   The issue of ‘grey-haired’ Public Servants was first raised two years ago by the Minister for Public Service, Moses Akaranga who had trouble convincing Parliament that older Public Servants were beneficial to the Service.
   The Public Service purge was also proposed as an attempt to gain an ethnic and regional balance into the Service, along with employing a larger number of people.
   This follows a Government decision last year to investigate allegations of tribalism in upper Public Service appointments.
   The resulting overhaul has caused anxiety among top Public Service officers.

1 April, 2008
UNITED STATES
Outsiders filling top jobs
A study of US Federal Government employment has revealed that Agencies were increasingly appointing people from outside the Government to fill upper-level jobs.
   The study, conducted by the Merit Systems Protection Board found many of the upper-level jobs filled by outsiders were in priority areas such as technology, homeland security and national defence.
   The MSPB report said the trend was likely to continue as Federal programs needed experts in new fields and specialties and more Public Servants were retiring.
   The report also found that the majority of new-starters taking on top-level jobs had substantial work experience often based around the Government.
   It found that around one third had worked for a Government contractor and 16 per cent had served in the military and Coast Guard.
   The study was undertaken as a part of an on-going project to assess Government competitiveness surrounding the hiring of highly skilled workers.
   It found that applicants from outside the Public Service were considered for upper-level jobs as a part of a Government commitment to improve the quality of the PS workforce.
   Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, Neil McPhie, said the findings of the report suggested that Government service had strengths that Agencies could capitalise on to compete for highly skilled workers.
   The report showed the number of people hired for top jobs from outside the Public Service in 2005 increased by 39 per cent from 1990 figures.
   Almost half the new Public Service employees applied for their job as they wanted more job security but other reasons given were better employment benefits and the desire to serve the public.
   Around 80 to 85 per cent of top jobs in the US Federal Government service were filled by existing Public Servants.

1 April, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
Day of support planned for PS
A groundswell of support for improved pay and conditions for the UK’s Public Servants is to culminate in a day of activity on 9 June when teachers, health workers, firefighters and civil servants join a lobby of MPs to press for what they claim are "decent public services and fair pay for workers".
   The event is supported by 26 trade unions with members in the public sector, ranging from the National Health Service to central Government and the prison service.
   The planned event follows a series of pay disputes in the public sector including warnings of problems in Local Government after workers were offered a pay rise of only 2.2 per cent when seeking a 6 per cent rise.
   General Secretary of Trades Union Congress, Brendan Barber, said Public Servants across the country were feeling undervalued due to poor pay conditions and a lack of acknowledgement of their contributions towards the improvement of public services.
   “Across the country, Public Sector employees are feeling increasingly undervalued and demoralized,” Mr Barber said.    
   “Their pay is being held below the cost of living and they feel that Public Service reform is something done to them, not with them.
   "They believe that all their hard work frequently goes unnoticed by politicians and that their contribution to improving public services is often overlooked.”
   He said the UK's six million public sector employees were hoping for a better deal this year.
   “That's why a representative segment of the workforce will be in Westminster in June calling for fair pay for everyone in the public sector and for MPs to stand up for public services."

1 April, 2008
SOUTH KOREA
Fewer signing up to the PS
The Number of South Koreans applying to join their Public Service is dropping due to the difficulty of the entrance process and plans to reform the PS.
   According to reports, the number of students taking classes in Seoul to prepare for the State-administered examinations such as the National Civil Service Examination, fell about 20 percent compared to the same period a year ago.
   Other private institutes which specialised in preparations for the exams also saw the number of students drop by 10 to 50 per cent and Hanyang University had cancelled the Level 7 Public Employment Preparation Class, run for juniors and seniors, citing the lack of participants this semester.
   The number of applicants for one Public Employment Examination decreased by 21,788 last month, compared to a year ago, despite an increase in the number of open positions by 469.
   A teacher in Sillim-dong said the main reasons students were dropping out was the planned restructure of the Service and the difficulty of the aptitude test and the National Civil Service Examination.
   “In Sillim-dong, there was about a 30 per cent drop overall in the number of people who are preparing for the National Civil Service Examination,” the teacher said..
   “It is mostly because preparing for the Public Service Aptitude Test is a challenging task for students, and also because the Government plans to restructure the public sector,” he said.
   Another institute that specialised in preparing for the exams in Busan in the South-east of South Korea, said their student numbers had dropped by 50 per cent.
   The planned restructuring of the PS came as President Lee Myung-bak said all Public Servants should become servants of the people.
   A survey conducted by the job referral service Career, showed that 34.2 per cent of people preparing for public employment were considering quitting due to the planned restructure.
   But experts were seeing the decrease in interest in Government employment as a positive trend for the private sector.
   Professor Kim Jong-seong from Chungnam National University said it was important that people preferred jobs in the private sector as the public sector should only play a supplementary role in the economy.

1 April, 2008
SRI LANKA
Entrance exam to defuse politics
The Sri Lankan Public Administration and Home Affairs Ministry has decided to recruit Public Servants only through a competitive examination and an interview.
   Minister for Public Administration and Home Affairs, Karu Jayasuriya said the idea was to depoliticise the PS.  
    “It is well known that the political meddling in recruitments, transfers and promotions has heavily contributed to the inefficiency and low productivity in the state sector,” Mr Jayasuriya said.
   He said uder the program, there would be an annual exam for almost all Departments in the Public Service and interviews would then be held according to a merit list based on exam results.
   Mr Jayasuriya said even university graduates would have to sit the competitive exam and all new recruits into the Public Service would have to learn a second language within five years of their first appointment.
   He said learning a second language would aim to reduce the language gap between Public Servants and the public and promote an efficient and people friendly service.
   The Minister said the new system would also decrease recruitment costs as last year it cost over 41 million rupees (A$416,000) to hold different exams for individual sectors.
   Trade Unions and the Commissioner General of Examinations have been consulted about the program.

1 April, 2008
FLORIDA
Florida’s low paid the lowest
A recent study of the States and Governing in the USA has found that Florida spent less per capita on its Public Service workforce than any other and there was little likelihood of improvement.
   Conducted by the Pew Centre, the study found that thousands of low-paid State workers with dangerous jobs had little hope of a raise this year.
   It highlighted the case of Kevin Haywood who worked at a Florida State hospital, protecting doctors from dangerous inmates.
   Eight years ago he needed surgery for a dislocated spine after being choked by an inmate while at work, and was now being tested for HIV and hepatitis after a biting incident a year ago. Mr Haywood’s annual pay check was only US$24,000. (A$26,150)
   Doug Martin, Legislative and Communications Director for the Florida branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Florida had been falling behind in its spending per capita for some time.
   “Over the past 10 years we have fallen farther and farther behind,” Mr martin said.
   “Now when the Budget turns down, the Public Servants are the ones who have to suffer.”
   Tallahassee Democrat, Loranne Ausley said pay and benefits improvements for Public Servants should be a top priority, however, with the Florida budget being reduced that was unlikely.
   The report also found that new recruits were often being paid more as starting salaries were increased but the extra wasn’t being given to those already in the Service.
   Elva McCaig, who is a nurse in a Florida prison, said it was hard to accept new staff were being paid more than existing staff.
   "It does seem like a slap in the face when you have to train somebody with absolutely no experience that makes more money than you do," Ms McCaig said.
   Mr Martin said Public Servants would not be expecting a pay rise for the second year running.

1 April, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM
BBC to fund its own competition
The Leader of the UK Opposition, David Cameron, is planning to give away part of the BBC’s licence fee money to create new competition in UK Public Service broadcasting.
   Mr Cameron said that handing over ₤250 million (A$540 million) of licence fee money to other broadcasters would break the BBC’s “monopoly” over programs and guarantee a higher quality of broadcasting output.
   He said the move would be coupled with plans to scrap the governing BBC Trust and replace it with a more independent “public service broadcasting commission”.
   The Conservative Party’s proposal have prompted an angry backlash from the BBC, with one senior executive saying the plans would harm the Corporation.
   “Going down this route will eventually destroy the BBC,” the unnamed executive said.
   “If the Conservatives want to get rid of us, they should come out in the open and say so rather than do it in this underhand manner.”
   The Tory Culture spokesman, Jeremy Hunt said the plan would not destroy the BBC, but would benefit the community by encouraging diversity.
   “The BBC is the crown jewels,” Mr Hunt said, “but for British broadcasting to be healthy, we need to have quality public programs from many sources - not just one.
   He said last year the annual licence fee brought in £3.2 billion (A$ billion) to fund the BBC’s eight national TV channels, 10 national radio stations and over 200 websites.
   The Tories have proposed to “top-slice” the licence fee income and put some of it into a fund available to outside bidders, which include the BBC’s commercial rivals.
   Mr Hunt said the BBC would be eligible to bid for a share of the money.
   The Tory plan is to remove £250million from money currently allocated to switching from analogue to digital broadcasting.

1 April, 2008
CANADA
Health injection not enough
A $2.3 billion boost in the Ontario health budget this year would not stem the job cuts expected to hit the hospital sector, according to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
   The OPSEU said the increase seemed substantial, but the money had been spread out over a number of programs, such as reducing emergency room waiting times, and would not help hospital staff keep their jobs.
   Staff at the Rouge Valley Health System were told the day after the new budget was released they would have to cut 220 jobs over the next three years, despite the hospital being in a high growth area.
   The reservations of the OPSEU were not universal.
   Norm Gamble, chairperson of the South West Local Health Integration Network said the money in the budget matched the needs of the area.
   “Does their money match what we see as our needs? In a lot of cases it does," he said.
   Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the Government would invest $500 million over the next three years in hiring 9,000 more nurses, 2,000 of which would staff nursing homes.
   Another $107 million over three years would be put aside to hire 2,500 personal support workers for nursing homes.
   While the Ontario Medical Association praised the budget, leader of the New Democratic Party, Howard Hampton said it was a “threadbare” plan that would not provide a revolution in long-term care.

1 April, 2008
KENYA
Oriental practices to increase PS efficiency
Moves to overcome lethargy, inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the Kenyan Public Service appear to be on track with the organisation taking out the 2007 United Nations Public Service Award and experts saying the PS was becoming more efficient, effective and customer-friendly.
   Lecturer at the Kenya Institute of Administration, Samuel Macharia acknowledged that the Public Service had improved, but said there was still the challenge of exceeding customer expectations and remaining globally competitive.
   “Government Ministries and Departments have elevated customer expectations with elaborate service charters,” Mr Macharia said.
   “This brings us to our challenge: How can we exceed customer expectation?”
   He said to take customer service to the next level, the Public Service should embrace an international strategy and suggested the Japanese Gemba kaizen approach as a means of further improving the Kenyan PS.
   He said this approach would encourage small, continuous improvements throughout the PS without making any radical changes.
   Mr Macharia said that ‘Gemba’ was a spatial concept which was rare in the field of management theories.
   “The idea is interesting,” he said, “because… (it is) not an idea used to organise activity, as most management theories are.”
   He said ‘Kaizen’ meant improvement through team involvement, minimum spending and the use of common sense.
   Mr Macharia said the Gemba kaizen approach had been embraced by a number of businesses in Kenya including the Kenya Wildlife Service, which had shown the benefits.
   He said if the Public Service was to follow suit, it would be in the running for more awards.
   “If our Public Service institutionalised kaizen, then it would consolidate its leadership in service delivery and win many more well deserved awards,” he said.

1 April, 2008
CANADA: Call for more PS jobs
   MP Patrick Brown, from Barrie, has called on the Minister of National Revenue to supply Barrie with more Public Service jobs to ease high turnover rates and to save money on employee training.

CANADA: Bissett Alumni award
   The 2008 Bissett Alumni Award for Distinctive Contributions to the Public Sector has been awarded to William Baker for his leadership and dedication to the Public Service and Carleton University.