7. IMPROVING ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT IN STATE ADMINISTRATION

Public administration is a system imposing considerable requirements on the quality of its management and coordination as well as on the internal management of its components. The effective exercise of public administration will necessitate stripping the decision-making and management processes of the stereotypes generated by centralist management approaches and methods. The quality and economy of organization and management will have to receive attention commensurate with their significance and impact on the functioning and efficiency of public administration.

7.1 Improving Organization and Functioning of Central Government Authorities

The objectives of public administration reform, in particular the preparation for EU accession and the territorial administration reform, require fundamental changes in the organization and functioning of central Government authorities. An optimum solution will have to be developed and detailed on the basis of a thorough analysis of the functioning of the Government and central authorities, which represents an immediate priority. Recent experiences and assessments point to the necessity of changes in the following principal directions:

• strengthening the conceptual, strategic and coordination dimensions of the activities of the Government (supported by the necessary changes of the role, functions and staffing of the Government Office, Government committees, etc.), ministries and other central authorities and agencies,
• adopting a conceptual and coordinated approach to key administrative processes, in particular to the decentralization of state administration and the territorial administration reform, the preparation for EU accession and the civil service reform,
• overcoming departmentalism which is the cause of one-sided and biased solutions of problems requiring inter-departmental and supra-sectoral approaches,
• a radical departure from devoting most of the time and energy to “operational“ decision-making (ad hoc solution of individual and partial problems, troubleshooting, decision making in the first instance of administrative procedure, etc.) due to the lacunas in legislation and policies, excessive centralization and a lack of future development perspectives,
• providing common model principles for internal structuring and management methods of ministries and other Government bodies, including the delegation of decision-making powers within the ministry and increased responsibility of individual officials, while maintaining sufficient freedom for adapting structures and methods to specific organizational conditions.

7.2 Improvement of Coordination

The problems of coordination were pointed out by the EU, which emphasized the importance of the coordinated preparation of the Czech Republic for EU accession. The coordination of the functioning of public administration as a whole as well as the coordination of individual processes, activities, programmes, departments and officials must be improved in all sectors and at all levels. Public administration at all levels is confronted with an increasing number of problems which cannot be solved without coordination. Apart from the aforementioned departmentalism the barriers to coordination include:

• the prevalence of narrow specialization of public officials and insufficient interest in broader consequences of their action and in related activities,
• an insufficient number of competent generalists capable of qualified management and coordination of specialists,
• an underestimation of coordinating bodies and their frequent staffing with poorly informed officials,
• a narrow conception of responsibility.

Improvements of coordination must start at the top. It will be necessary to rapidly and radically improve interdepartmental coordination and show that the Government itself not only considers coordination to be essential, but can practice it better and with greater consistency at central level. At the same time, coordination will have to be cultivated from the bottom, in the work of individual civil servants and authorities by

• emphasizing and explaining the need and the substance of coordination,
• insisting in a coordinated approach and providing subordinates with adequate information,
• publicizing and rewarding examples of excellent coordination and cooperation,
• providing training in questions of coordination concerning the given sector and public administration as a whole.

It will be essential for public officials to understand a broader context and be more interested in the achievement of broader goals, exceeding the framework of operation and responsibility of the given unit. Horizontal cooperation and coordination must be enhanced at the cost of the still prevailing vertical hierarchical links. For this purpose it will be necessary to prepare and issue appropriate directives and instructions for the improvement of coordination. New coordination formulas may be needed in certain cases. However, formal measures would not improve the situation by themselves. Finally, coordination must also make better use of information and communication technologies.

7.3 Use of Information and Communication Systems

Information and communication technology (hereafter referred to as IT) represents an instrument which can contribute to the improvement of quality and effectiveness of public administration literally in all fields. The condition sine qua non, however, is the assurance of adequate data protection and security of systems.

The broader environment for IT application in Czech public administration is favourable. The Czech Republic has developed a considerably high standard of computer literacy and equipment as well as specialists and business firms in the field of IT. Large data sets have been digitized in recent years and a number of applications for the work of administrative authorities has been provided, many of which can stand international comparison. The communication infrastructure is being extended and the telecommunication services are being improved, electronic mail and Internet are becoming a matter of course. Nevertheless, IT application to public administration has numerous weak points. Very poor coordination in the development of information systems, low effectiveness of IT investments and shortcomings in the respective legislation and its enforcement are subject to criticism. The problems do not consist in technology, but in the rules of its provision and operation. The reform must concentrate on the solution of the following clusters of problems:

(a) Formulation of coordinating role, vision and principles comprising:

• the definition, explanation and demonstration of the role of IT as a key instrument for improving the services to citizens and businesses, enhancing the quality of public administration services and facilitating the work of individual officials,
• establishment of a government agency for coordinated development and better application of IT in public administration (by intensive cooperation within public administration at all tiers, discussion of key problems with the professional public, feedback generation and analysis, etc.); the competences and the time schedule of activities of this agency must be harmonized with the general plan and actual advancement of public administration reforms (see also Chapter 11),
• elaboration of practical instructions for the selection, provision, use and assessment of information systems and technologies (see e.g. the criteria for the selection and assessment of IT projects for public administration in the United Kingdom, based on the principles of the right to make selection, reliability, accessibility, efficiency, rationalization, openness of information and protection against abuse).

(b) Adoption and enforcement of European standards for the security of information and communication systems and the protection of personal and classified data against abuse in legal, institutional, technological as well as personal respects (concerns the State Information System Agency, the National Security Bureau and individual state administration authorities in the framework of their respective competences).

(c) Establishment of a communication infrastructure, of which the "state administration network" is considered to be the basic alternative in the Czech Republic at present, and generation of a competitive environment in the market of telecommunication services.

(d) Making the basic "administrative resources" fully operable to satisfy the needs of public administration, i.e. the establishment of the required and legally duly supported data files and reliably operating registers; this requires, among others, an evaluation, a revision and sometimes even a reconstruction of existing systems of registers, data files and information systems operated by state administration, an updating of key registers (Business Register, Register of Inhabitants, Territorial Planning and Identification Registers I and II and Real Estate (Cadastral) Register) within binding terms, provision of binding rules for the administration of these key registers including the responsibility for their continuous updating and sanctions for failure to do so, revision of the data files and registers existing on the basis of legal norms and cancellation of those which have become obsolete, and assurance of complementarity and compatibility of public administration data and information systems.

(e) Dropping unrealistic plans to develop one total and integrated state information system (which has no analogy in the whole democratic world) and rather than that turning to gradual development of coordinated and integrated services (with preference to services to small and medium enterprises), assurance of operation of these services "above" the distributed autonomous information systems and administrative systems by means of data transmission in network environment (in a clearly defined security regime after previous formalized description of public administration activities and the legislative transfer of a part of the notification duties concerning the changes of the data on citizens or legal entities, from natural persons and legal entities to state administration).

(f) Creating conditions that are explicit and easily understandable to the public, concerning the use of data and information generated by public administration, provision of information and related electronic services to the public (see also para. 5.5).

(g) Substantially improving cooperation between law-makers and IT specialists in the preparation of legal norms (see also para. 5.2).

(h) Information and training of public administration staff about using IT in improving the quality of public administration activities, and of IT specialists about public administration needs; and enhancement of mutual cooperation in the quest for practical solutions.

7.4 Operational Management and Style of Work

Operational management in public administration, particularly in central Government administration, should recover its proper role. It must focus mainly on implementing adopted policies, strategies and principal decisions, detecting deviations therefrom, solving arising problems and guiding the teams of subordinates, including the continuous control of their performance. It must be cleansed of formalism and rigidity. It should apply a modern management approach and style, encourage and support initiative and use teamwork and "soft methods", such as consultations, informal cooperation and information sharing, advice to subordinates and colleagues and dissemination of experience and good practice.

The prerequisites necessary for the improvement of operational management include the decentralization of state administration, explicit definition of decision-making powers, broad power delegation and existence of development concepts and policies. Without these prerequisites, operational management would remain in the ruts of the prevailing present-day practice, in which this term is applied to the processing of current matters prevailing in the conditions of existing excessive centralism. And it is the very volume of this "operational" routine work which is often given as the reason why the respective authorities cannot find any time for conceptual work and strategic management.

7.5 Internal Control and Evaluation of Results

Control is an irreplaceable instrument of remedy and prevention of shortcomings, misunderstanding, unlawfulness and inefficiency of administration. Its possibilities, however, are not unlimited. It would be financially unfeasible and meaningless to continuously control the performance and the results of all activities. Therefore, the reform should emphasize self-discipline and self-control and the control exercised without additional costs as a normal and integral part of operational management. This control must include not only the formal control of compliance with the respective regulations, but also control of the quality of work, use of funds, conduct of officials in their contacts with the public and the control of the results that heave been actually achieved. The conclusions drawn from such control must become the source of knowledge and inspiration for improving both the services rendered and internal management.

In accordance with these principles it will be necessary to:

• revise the definition of the tasks of senior officials (managers) and the duties and job descriptions of individual civil servants,
• create prerequisites in the management structures of the individual authorities and agencies for an efficient performance of service supervision,
• harmonize the concept of service supervision with the system of staff appraisal and the system of motivation (including disciplinary responsibility) to be introduced by the Civil Service Act, and make a better use of control for the assessment of total activity areas, administrative units and individual employees,
• provide for adequate treatment of the tasks, methods and practical use of control in the training of civil servants.

7.6 Making Administration More Cost-effective

If organization and methods of public administration receive insufficient attention, it is not surprising that questions of public administration economy, cost efficiency and rationalizations have been grossly neglected. From time to time the consecutive Governments have had recourse to across-the-board cuts of budgetary allocations, staff reductions, or postponing maintenance or investment, frequently without having made any prior analysis of real needs and priorities and without having searched for possible savings.

The reform should develop and introduce a correct approach to a cost-effective operation of administration which starts with strategic management, the definition of objectives, priorities and required results, and respective improvements in budgeting and fund allocation. The responsibility for funds and their use in achieving required results must be clearly defined (for example, some experience is offered by programmes of the "value for money" type applied in Great Britain). The next step is the choice of effective organizational structures, procedures and methods emphasizing the abolition of redundant bodies and elimination of duplicate structures, the correct choice of the number and size of particular management bodies and tiers, the simplification and acceleration of procedures and the improvement of organizational performance and personal productivity. It is necessary to make a better use of training, expert assistance, teamwork, coordination, control and motivation, etc. It is important not to seek minor rationalization opportunities where total services or processes need to be radically reformed or even abolished.

Czech public administration is not ready to adopt this approach as yet. However, due to the present situation in the Czech Republic cost-effectiveness must be strongly emphasized and appropriate criteria and approaches must receive due attention right from the outset of the reform. It will be desirable, for instance, to include cost considerations in comparing and choosing alternatives and take them increasingly into account in decision-making concerning strategic choices in public administration. Special rationalization projects aimed to achieve measurable results may be required in some cases (e.g. for certain sectors or labour-intensive administrative processes). IT projects must be to an ever increasing extent based on or preceded by an analysis, simplification and rationalization of administrative processes.

7.7 Long-term Arrangements for Improving Organization and Management in Public Administration

Although the state and public administration are undergoing fast and far-reaching changes and are entering the information society, and the issue of administrative costs is increasingly burning, in Czech public administration no organization or senior official has been made responsible for systematically developing and rationalizing organization and management in the public sector. Consequences of this failure include, among others, uncoordinated and often excessively expensive acquisition of IT, overlapping in activities, responsibilities and information systems, ambiguous definitions of competences and responsibilities, difficulties connected with establishing and rationally structuring new administrative bodies, and frequent improvizations. Both the differences and the important inter-linkages between public administration reform and systematic long-term improvement of management and work methods in public administration are fuzzy and poorly understood.

For these reasons our Proposals make the following recommendations:

• the reform must lay down, as one of its key tasks, the foundations of systematic and continuous improvement, modernization and rationalization of public administration and establish the necessary structures and competences,
• it will be necessary to establish a unit (centre) for the management and methodological guidance of these activities; also the larger sectoral and territorial agencies should foresee a need for organization and rationalization units (departments) while smaller agencies should at least designate an official responsible for this field; these and possibly other officials will have to be provided with professional support and training in questions of organization development, rationalization, performance and efficiency improvement in administrative structures and processes,
• in the second phase of the reform (as a medium-term task) it would be advisable to make a more profound analysis of public administration efficiency and economy with particular reference to the most labour-intensive and cost-consuming processes. These analyses should result in a programme for rationalizing such processes and reducing their costs, and in further specific recommendations on how to make public administration more cost-effective.