Week 7

Tutorial Question:
1. What is Governance and why has there been so much emphasis on this term for the past few
decades?

 Governance is not only popular in the public sector but the private sector embraces its
principles as company boards and regulators look for better ways to organize for the
benefit of the shareholders and the greater society.

Kiribati: it is the society that run by the people in order to develop the peoples in the country.
Samoa 2: Government is the system or group of people governing an organized community,
often a state.

In the case of Fiji, we have the national budget consultation whereby the responsible ministers
visit the important institutions, such as, USP and get opinion from the public on the national
budget.

2. How does governance relate to the NPM model?

Governance requires transparency and accountability in the public sector process
and managers have to take responsibility for the final results. NPM is all about
hands on professional management and managers taking final responsibility for
the results. This ensures good governance. For example, Finance and
administrative work in the public services requires checks and balances at each
stage before final approval is given for a transaction to be processed. This
ensures transparency and accountability of the public service.

Kiribati: Outsourcing-cleaning works is outsourced there are policies that has to

be followed before the provider of the service is selected. For example, advertise
or expression of interest from all the interested parties and select the best party
to provide the service in a fair manner.
Tutorial Question: week 8

1. What are the imperatives shaping the practices of public sector management in developing South
Pacific region countries?

 Role of donor agencies are extremely important- The donor agencies want the funds that
is provided to the small island developing countries to be productively used; therefore, they
play an important role in driving public sector management practices. For example, some
of the important donor agencies that provide financial resources to us are Australia, New
Zealand, EU etc.

 Corruption: This changes the culture and attitudes of people working for public service, for
example, corruption is usually linked to lack of accountability and transparency.

 Availability of resources and know how: For example, you can discuss how brain drain is
having an impact on the productivity and culture of public sector in Fiji.

2. How effective are contracting out and outsourcing in the public sector?
Effectiveness of contracting out in the public sector can be assessed based on which countries
public sector we are talking about. There are a number of factors that influences the effectiveness
of public sector in any country:

 Rules and regulations in the public sector: Here we will be exploring the procedures
undertaken to award the tenders. For example, Pacific Island Countries, we can explore
the tender contracts for building and construction activities.

 Impact of outsourcing on the overall cost of managing public service: Cost can be both
tangible and intangible, for example, demotivated workers and the impact on public service
productivity.
 Advantages Disadvantages

Reducing costs for the same  Private providers respond to the

level of quality. population’s willingness to pay for public
Filling the “capabilities gap”. services. As a result, they will serve those
The replacement of direct, groups in the population who are most
hierarchical management willing to pay, such as affluent urban
structure with contractual residents. The result will be increased
relationships between inequity in access and use of public
purchasers and providers, which services.
will increase:  Because of lower willingness to pay, private
Not only the transparency of providers will undersupply socially desirable
prices, But also competition, services, such as immunizations and personal
which in turn will lead to a gain preventive care. This will worsen allocative
in efficiency. efficiency in the corresponding sector.
 Driven by the profit motive, and because they
have significant control over demand, private
providers will take advantage of clients by
supplying more than is required. This is
particularly significant in health care
services. This is inefficient and may result in
health-weakening actions.
 Private providers can also take advantage of
clients by providing low-quality services,
which may result in welfare losses.
 The actual effect of these four major worries
is as greater as there is lack of competition.

Additional Topics
1. Discuss Wilson’s contribution and Political control

 Politicians should be responsible for making policies .

 Administration would be responsible for carrying it out.

2. Discuss Taylor’s contribution and public sector management

 Labor specialization or work specialization should not be holistically applied to

public sector because each public service process is unique in itself.

 Public sector involves delivering services and under the post NPM model we have
to consider the numerous unique ways of delivering high quality public service,
for example, teamwork is an important component of delivering high quality
public service.
3. Week 9

4. Tutorial Question:
5. 1. What are some of the Issues relating to Leadership in the Pacific and Management of
Human Resources?
In the context of the Pacific Island Countries, we are miles behind as compared to
developed countries in terms of implementing NPM based reform models. Recently, we
have tried to implement the contractual based employment systems that recognizes
productivity level but it takes the public service lot of time to implement the important
determinants of employee productivity highlighted in the NPM model, for example,
providing contractual based employment.
 2. Have HR issues being dealt with appropriately in the PIC’s?
Not really,

Many labour cases are pending.

Ministry of Labour in the Pacific Island Countries: How the Ministry of Labour is
handling HR issues and concerns in the Pacific Island Countries, particularly, those faced
by the employees and employers working for the private sector.
We have to examine how the public service managers are managing the employee issues
within the public service.
Week 10
Tutorial Question:
1. What are some of the changes in the area of financial management? How relevant are they
for the Pacific?
 Allocating funds to measurable results. For example, payments for operational and
nonoperational expenditures. Operational expenditures will be payments for day
to day operations of the public service, payments of wages of employees.
 Nonoperational expenditures includes investment in capital works, for example,
investment in building and construction, roads, and other infrastructure
development projects.
 Often by allocating budgets to programmes – not line items – over more than one
year. For example, poverty alleviation programs.
 With measurable performance and linking spending to results
 Decentralization of spending to agencies. For example, allocating funds to towns
and cities for infrastructure development.
 Provides for greater transparency in performance and public spending.
Samoa: Appointing qualified people: Qualified people have greater knowledge on resource
allocation.
Kiribati: our government provides some money to help the ministries to afford what they need.
For example, it can fund some employees to do their training at overseas
Very important in the Pacific
2. How effective are the checks and balances in the public sector?

Week 11

Tutorial Question:

1. What are the changing nature and emerging role of public sector management in developing
countries?
Role of the donor agencies: The donor agencies are providing funds to the public service and in
this way the donor agencies are ensuring that the public sector operates in a transparent and
accountable manner, for example, the donor agencies are currently focusing on reforms and these
reforms are essential because it shapes the way the public service operates.
Emerging Role of the public sector management:

 Protection of national welfare

 Creating a conducive business environment for the private sector

2. How does the external environment influence the public sector in developing countries?
1. Economic factors: Determine the tax revenue of the government, for example, if the economy
is performing well then the government will be receiving more taxes because there will be rise in
tourist numbers.
2. Political factors: Determine the tax revenue of the government. If there is a political crisis, the
tourists will not be visiting the Pacific Island Countries.

3. Social Factors: The demands from the citizens of the nation, for example, if we have a well-
educated society, then definitely they are going to progress towards national wellbeing.

4. Technological Factors: With the use of information computer technology, the government is
able to implement more transparent processes for improving the public service delivery.

Additional Topics
1. What is governance? Discuss its importance and relevance in the public sector.

 Mechanisms in place to ensure that the agents are working in the interest of the
principals.

 Move from minimal government to ‘better government’

 Attention to the development of market supporting and broader ‘institutions’

 Institutions are rules, often formal, structuring human behaviour

2. What is corporate governance?

Having a government system or mechanisms in place for improving the transparency and
accountability of the corporation, for example, the private enterprises.

Agency Theory to the Corporate Enterprise:

Board of
Directors

Principals Agents (Managers)

(Shareholders)
Agency Theory to the Government Situation

Monitoring
agencies

Principals Agents (PS managers)

(Citizens)
Checks and balances are important in the Pacific

Tutorial Question: week 12-13

1. Why is there a lot of emphasis on Transparency and Accountability in the Public Sector?
 Accountability can be simply defined as holding someone or a group accountable or
responsible for the activities they have carried out. It also means disclosing results in a
transparent manner.
 Bovens (2007) defines accountability as an ‘icon’ a concept that has become less useful for
analytical purposes and loosely defines concepts and vague images of good governance.
He goes on to say that it is also a relationship between an actor and a forum. The actor must
justify his or her actions and the forum can ask questions and pass judgment.
 Accountability and transparency is needed to ensure that the public funds are effectively
used for the benefit of the nation.

2. Discuss the implementation of E-government in the PICs and issues related to it.
 E-government is slowly growing.
 Problems:
o Lack of trust of users on the e-government website
o Privacy issues
o Poor infrastructure.
3. Does the NPM model allow for more transparency and accountability in the public sector?
Explain with examples.