Strengthening Public Administration System: A Call from Civil Society
A newly formed group comprising civil society representatives has issued a statement emphasizing the need to optimize the public administration system in order to prevent corruption and ensure the rule of law.
Factors for Preventing Corruption
According to the group, professionalism, competence, personal integrity, and psychological traits of those conducting monitoring are crucial factors in preventing corruption. To achieve this, the group is advocating for:
- Development of a set of indicators necessary for accurate evaluation
- Special training programs for members of the monitoring group
Enhancing Public Service Delivery
The group also emphasized the importance of enhancing the quality of delivery of public services, clarifying public service delivery arrangements, and introducing legislative grounds to reduce bureaucratic red-tape. To achieve this, they recommended:
- Streamlining budgetary financing of agencies, inspectorates, and public non-commercial organizations
- Optimizing decision-making processes and governance structures
Strengthening Reporting and Accountability
Additionally, the group called for strengthening reporting and accountability of public administration institutions, developing fair remuneration and social security schemes, and implementing a new system of reporting and accountability to improve internal audit and supervision systems.
Increasing Public Awareness and Legal Awareness
The group also highlighted the importance of increasing public awareness and legal awareness in preventing corruption. To achieve this, they recommended:
- Enhancing and reconsidering the operation of public relations offices
- Creating an inter-ministerial information network
- Adopting sub-legislation
- Improving rules governing relationships between public officials and citizens
- Maximizing public awareness on citizen rights
Ensuring Rule of Law
Furthermore, the group emphasized the need to ensure the rule of law by:
- Streamlining legislation
- Removing discrepancies between legislative and sub-legislative acts
- Eliminating ambiguous provisions conducive to corruption
- Achieving unequivocal enforcement of the principle of the rule of law and equality before the law
- Harmonizing domestic legislation with international standards
Government Response
The group’s statement comes as a response to the government’s efforts to reform the public administration system and combat corruption. The World Bank has been supporting studies on internal and external audit systems, and the government has committed to developing and strengthening these systems.
Expectations
The civil society group’s recommendations are expected to be taken into consideration by the government as it moves forward with its reforms.