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Keynote Address
Closing of “Launching Strategic Direction of National Program for Administration
Reform and Preparation of Action Plan 2009-2013” National Conference
Intercontinental Hotel, 18th February 2009
- Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
- Dear participants!
Today, it is my great honor and pleasure to participate in the closing of
important national conference on “Launching Strategic Direction of
National Program for Administration Reform and the Preparation of Action Plan
for 2009-2013”, which is organized by the Council for Administration
Reform.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to convey my high appreciation and
compliment to the Council for Administration Reform and all relevant
stakeholders for providing their material and technical supports to the
preparation of this conference. In parallel, I also would like to express my
appreciation to Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen and all participants for your
active participation and vigorous discussion on key and meaningful topics for
the constructive cause of setting Direction and Strategic Plan for
National Program for Administration Reform to revamp public service to
become more transparent, accountable, efficient and effective, which is capable
of answering the need of the people aiming at increasing the welfare and
livelihood of the people.
Such a positive spirit and participation is the reflection of great attention of
the management and civil servants of all levels to promote and strengthen
institutional managerial capacity which is the key prerequisite of public
administration reform program for the cause of ensuring sustainable and
equitable socio-economic development and social justice that we all need and
which is also in conformity to the will of the Royal Government who considers
good governance as the core of the Rectangular Strategy during
the Fourth Legislature of the National Assembly.
Taking this auspicious occasion, I would like to convey my high compliment and
appreciation to the Council for Administration Reform, particularly H.E.
Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister in charge of the Office of the
Council of Ministers, Permanent Vice Chairman of Supreme Council for State
Reform and Chief of Council for Administration Reform for collaborating closely
with relevant ministries/institutions and development partners and successfully
leading the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Program and for preparing the “Strategic Direction of National Program for
Administration Reform and the Preparation of Action Plan for 2009-2013”,
which enabled us to gather today to discuss about the preparation of action plan
for subsequent implementation.
Also, I would like to thank all development partners who made contribution and
support with good will to the effort of the government in all reform platforms,
especially the “Public Administration Reform” for the cause of
poverty reduction and the development of Cambodia.
The Public Administration Reform will not only help improve the quality of public service delivery and poverty
reduction, but also work as the mechanism to strengthen institutional capacity
which in turn will trigger the change in the behavior and attitude of civil
servants. Indeed, the Public Administration Reform has a broad
coverage and plays a coordinating role and providing rules, standardization and
other necessary tools to increase the efficiency, productivity and unity of
public service. The people’s welfare and the prosperity of the nation depend on
many determinants where effective public administration is one of the key
factors. Furthermore, I am of the view that the Public Administration
Reform is designed to encourage government officials to work willingly
and honestly and transform themselves from managers into respected service
providers to answer to the real need of the people and to fulfill their duties
with high sense of accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness.
Obviously, the Royal Government is determined to lead and take ownership of
various reforms because reforms are the policy formulation for bringing
harmonization and prosperity to the nation. Public Administration Reform is a long process requiring patience and step-by-step implementation at
each stage. Clearly, for the last 5 years we had made many achievements in
public administration reform program including civil servant census for the
construction of fundamental database for computerized human resource management,
the introduction of a new pay and classification regimes, computerized personnel
retirement system, adoption of Strategy to Rationalize the Civil Service,
putting in place legal and regulator framework for civil servant management,
adoption of Governance Action Plan (GAP) I & II covering 9 priorities sectors, laying out public service delivery policy,
implementation of the Priorities Mission Group (PMGs) and Merit-Based Payment
Initiative (MBPI) etc…
In the implementation of the Rectangular Strategy and the Strategy to Rationalize the Civil Service, we are committed to maintain
the current number of civil servant and deploy them where and when required to
facilitate implementation of various projects. On the other hand, we have
adopted the decentralization of ICT-based human resource management and
increased remuneration between 10% and 15% per year as envisaged in the Public Administration Reform Program of the government.
So far, the government has started carried out the PMGs at a number of
ministries and institutions in order to strengthen institutional managerial
capacity by developing selection criteria, raising social security transfer and
bonuses for civil servants and piloting the MBPI with the objective to increase
the efficiency, transparency and responsibility of the public service. Moreover,
the Royal Government also tried the “Single Window” mechanism to
facilitate public service users and adopted the implementation of
commune/sangkat decentralization and ICT-based service provision. As the result
of the implementation of public administration and public financial management
reform programs, the government has raised the average monthly salary from
120,000 riels in 2004 to about 300,000 riels in 2009 i.e more than double.
The Royal Government of the Fourth Legislature of National Assembly will keep
further expanding the implementation of PGMs and MBPI to priorities ministries
and institutions in order to deepen nation-wide sectoral reforms of the
government.
The Royal Government will continue to increase the base salary by 20% per annum
and pay particular attention to the efficiency of its IT system, strengthen the
management and capacity building of public servants, encourage women to involve
more actively in the public administration, improve basic public service
delivery, state’s sovereign service, other services relating to investment,
trade, and SMEs through the implementation of “Single Window” mechanism and the establishment of people’s offices.
Along with this, various ministries/institutions are involving fiercely in
de-concentrating their responsibility to facilitate and provide public services
timely and efficiently. In this spirit, the Royal Government will give priority
to the improvement of public services for all people, including the provision of
legal documents to facilitate investment, trade, agriculture, education
services, health, and local administration and so forth.
In general, we aim at cutting down bureaucracy in our public administration and
make public services more efficient, transparent, accountable, and accessible
while the public servants are well motivated, honest, obedient to professional
ethics, and willing to provide public services to the people. In this context,
we need to accelerate the improvement of public services to become a wise
servant with quality and credibility.
In particular, increasing the salary of public servants has been the Royal
Government’s determination since the 1st Term of the Legislature of
the National Assembly to make them committed to serving the country and the
people. However, this is a difficult job and cannot be accomplished in the short
term as its success depends on economic condition and government revenue, which
require comprehensive examination and gradual implementation. In this spirit, I
have instructed the Council for Administration Reform Council to prepare the Strategy of National Administration Reform and Action Plan for 2009 - 2013 on the basis on our past achievements.
It is no doubt that our consecutive successes in the Public Administration
Reform do not only highlight the distance we have traveled in a short
period of time, but greater achievements of the Royal Government that stem from
the visionary policy and appropriate strategy, firm determination, support and
active involvement, and the ownership and responsibility of all
ministries/institutions and all levels of government officials. However, with
these encouraging achievements, the Royal Government also acknowledges that we
still have a long way to go and there are countless obstacles awaiting us before
reaching the reform’s final objective.
Indeed, the public administration reform requires all stakeholders to work
closely and firmly together to overcome all challenges, including the limited
capacity of those responsible for implementing the reform, limited support from
development partners both in terms of materials and techniques, lack of
consistency and consensus amongst officials and ministries/institutions in the
cooperation and implementing reform. Indeed, these challenges originate from the
absence of deep and comprehensive knowledge on the substance, processes, and
strategy of the reform within ministries/institutions. In this sense, I request
all ministries/institutions to promote understandings more comprehensively and
deeply about the Public Administration Reform and maintain the
ownership of this implementation. Our immediate task is to prepare the legal
framework and build institutional and human capacity at all levels to ensure
that all governmental institutions will be able to work efficiently, correspond
to the actual demand, and get closer to the people.
I will not recall the outcomes of this conference, but, in order to strengthen
the implementation of the Public Administration Reform, I would
like to draw the attention of the conference to the following issues:
1. Promoting transparency and improving the quality of public services by updating
governance work plan and collecting data on the provision of public services. In
this spirit, all ministries/institutions must reexamine their own provision of
public services, including the use of IT and mechanisms for exchanging dialogue
with the community. All ministries/institutions must improve transparency in the
provision of public services to serve the public timely and efficiently.
Therefore, I request all ministries/institutions to finalize all documents
relating to the public administration reform to improve the quality of these
services for the public.
2. Enhancing the accountability and effectiveness of public services through
institutional mechanisms such as PGMs and MBPI in order to change the value and
behavior of civil servants at all level. In this sense, I request all
ministries/institutions to establish and use these PGMs to promote the
effectiveness of public services. To increase the efficiency of institutions and
officials, I request all ministries/institutions to cooperate closely with the
Council for Administration Reform to expand the coverage of priority package and
merit-base bonus scheme, simplify administrative procedures, prepare annual work
plan on priority package, and provide merit-based bonuses.
3. Developing institutional and human capacity by providing knowledge and know-how
to government officials through trainings, appointing government officials on
the basis of capacity and skill, recruiting, motivating and maintaining
competent officials, and using skilled human resources efficiently. Moreover,
all ministries/institutions must prepare work plans and develop the capacity of
their officials to oversee and coordinate existing resources. I think the
consistency and smoothness of the public administration reform require the
preparation of policy paper on the implementation and human resource management,
which is the base document, and the increased use of IT for managing human
resources.
4. Strengthening the management and allocation of government officials through the
re-preparation of policy on allocating government officials and reinforcement of
institutional mechanisms in managing and overseeing this process to meet the
requirement of priority operations. Along with this, ministries/institutions
must facilitate the transfer of front-row and competent officials amongst
ministries/institutions to fill the gap of human resources in order to promote
the efficiency of the public administration reform.
5. All
ministries and institutions have to look at the possibility of strengthening and
expanding the “Single Window” mechanism to facilitate public
service users and continue to strengthen the implementation of de-centralization
and IT service delivery.
Once again, I would like to express my profound compliment to Excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen and all participants for spending your most valuable time
to discuss and provide your valuable ideas and comments as important inputs for
the preparation of action plan and programs to implement the Strategic
Direction of Public Administration Reform Program and Action Plan for 2009-2013. This contribution and involvement has truly provided this forum with motivation
and energy to proceed smoothly and successfully for the benefit of the society
as a whole.
Finally, along with the closing of the national conference on “Launching
Strategic Direction of National Program for Administration Reform and the
Preparation of Action Plan 2009-2013”, I would like to wish Your
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen the Four Gems of Buddhist Blessing: longevity, nobility, health and strength.
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