Time for civil service reform under Thailand's Thaksin
Time for civil service reform under Thailand's Thaksin
The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok
The Thaksin administration has apparently made more promises than anyone could possibly keep track of. One of the bigger pledges it has made is the ambitious undertaking to transform the state bureaucracy into a people-friendly entity that will deliver better public service, transparency in decision-making and a higher degree of accountability. This is, undoubtedly, a tall order to fill. Several public-sector reform programs have been drawn up over the past decades, and a few have actually been approved by the government of the day, but none have been carried out with the strong political will required to produce the intended results.
The Thaksin administration appears to have what it takes to implement the public-sector reform program -- tenacious leadership, modern-sounding policy statements, popular support and an overwhelming majority in Parliament.
There is no credible excuse that this government can possibly make to avoid a drastic overhaul of a state bureaucracy that is inefficient, corruption-prone and virtually unaccountable to the public.
The lack of funding is no longer an issue now that a group of multilateral development agencies, led by the World Bank, have pledged to provide grant financing and technical assistance to enable this government to launch and follow through with the most ambitious reform program ever attempted by a government in decades.
The World Bank and other donors, including the Asian Development Bank, the Australian Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Program, have promised to support the government under a three-year program known as the Country Development Partnership in Governance.
The assistance will be provided for the first year, ending in January 2003, but grants for the subsequent years will be made on condition that the government makes measurable progress according to agreed benchmarks.
The big question mark is whether this government has the right intentions and the seriousness of purpose to see it through.
The current public-sector reform program was drawn up by this government's predecessor in the aftermath of the 1997 economic crisis. The Thaksin government inherited the near-complete blueprint on bureaucratic reform in five key areas: public expenditure, human resources, revenue reform, transfer of functions and decentralization, and government accountability and transparency.
With the support of the multilateral development agencies, Thailand can learn from global experience of similar reforms that have been implemented in other countries.The World Bank Thailand Office is right on target when it says when the time comes for the government to translate the ambitious reform program into practice, success depends very much on the details of implementation.
Grand visions and important-sounding schemes like the one coined by Deputy Prime Minister Pongpol Adireksarn -- "high- performance government" -- may even be helpful if they serve as a catchy rallying cry to enhance public awareness and encourage participation from all sections of society.
The chief objective of the reform is to rid the bureaucracy of its debilitating inefficiency, ingrained corruption and suffocating lethargy, which have for too long impeded national development efforts and prevented government agencies from delivering quality public services.
But the real success of public-sector reform in any country can be measured by whether people on the street actually experience real improvements in public services, be they better health care, improvements in their children's schools or an easier time getting a driver's license, among other things.