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Background
Bahrain is on the way to modernising the management of its civil service. This process includes changes in the management of human resources and the administrative procedures inside government, both areas are of paramount importance to the modernisation of the public service. The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) of Bahrain is the central unit in charge of Human Resources Management (HRM) and has identified a need to improve efficiency and better redistribute the workload, which can be enhanced by a more comprehensive approach to regulation inside government. The CSB requested the OECD Secretariat to provide expert support and promote policy dialogue to analyse OECD countries’ experiences in human resource management and regulation inside government. An expert meeting took place on 26 – 27 May 2008 at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
Objectives
The objective of the meeting was to explore innovative ideas, approaches, and techniques on how to modernise the management of the civil service, particularly in the areas of HRM and regulation inside government that may be used as lessons for evidence-based policy-making in Bahrain.
Areas of interest
As for HRM the CSB was especially interested in exploring the experience of OECD countries regarding:
a) the role of the central body in HRM policy formulation and job evaluation;
b) the extent of delegation of authority to line ministries;
c) approaches to downsizing the civil service workforce;
d) the pros and cons of outsourcing the studies on manpower planning, job evaluation and organisation structuring; and,
e) The creation, organisation, and regulation of independent civil service bodies.
Improving regulation inside government consists of examining public administration procedures, more concretely those compliying with data collection obligations.
This topic is of interest for the CSB in the sense that a growing number of procedures inside the administration have to deal with HRM. Hence, the CSB was interested in exploring the experience of OECD countries regarding:
a) broad strategies for regulation and administrative simplification inside government;
b) identification of administrative burdens for governmental institutions;
c) general tools under use: reengineering process, information sharing protocols and other tools to bring efficiency to public administration performance; and
d) Institutional setting for administrative simplification within government.
The Experience of OECD Countries
In recent years, OECD countries have adopted reform strategies to modernise the management of their civil service through the introduction of measures to foster delegation, flexibility, and individualisation of pay, performance management, and diminishing administrative procedures.
Central HRM bodies play a key role in the modernisation of the civil service as they retain legal authority for policy formulation. The extent and the speed of the reforms vary among OECD countries depending on their political, historical, and cultural context.
In order to respond to the demand of the CSB, the OECD organised a high technical level meeting with experts from OECD countries who shared their experience on HRM and regulation inside government with Bahraini officials.
Experts from the Belgian Recruitment Agency SELOR, the German Federal Ministry of Interior, and the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, as well as OECD experts from the Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA) Programme, the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division (BUD) and Regulatory Policy Division (REG) attended the meeting.
In general terms, the meeting was a very informative exchange of experience and information and, as a result, Bahraini officials consider now the possibility of visiting those countries to conduct a more in-depth study of their experiences at a more technical level, mainly the Belgian agency SELOR and the German Federal Ministry of Interior.
Experts from OECD countries agreed to provide further information in the areas of job evaluation and organizational structuring. Although the topic of regulation inside government is not the main priority of the reform efforts in Bahrain, the CSB might conduct future work in the area as Bahraini officials were very interested in the Dutch experience in reducing red tape inside the public administration and, therefore, might request further assistance in this field.
Discussion points
The main points of discussion during the talks between OECD and Bahraini officials may be summarized as follows:
• Drawing lessons from countries with different political and economic development and cultural traditions should be regarded with care as policies and programmes implemented in one particular setting may not necessarily produce the same results elsewhere. Transferring knowledge and experience, particularly in HRM and regulation inside government, is a process that needs to take into account the contextual differences between countries. Hence, lessons derived from other countries’ experience may need to be adapted to make them compatible with the local context, culturally assimilated through comprehensive evaluation, and built on existing organizational strengths.
• The role of central HRM bodies in policy formulation and coordination in the implementation of policies needs to be enhanced. Central bodies have a specific role in the production of knowledge as they have access to relevant information, know the particularities of the public service and have authority over other units of the public administration regarding the management of human resources. Central HRM bodies should be intellectual, but also entities with authority and influence regarding the management of human resources even if HRM responsibility has been delegated to line ministries.
• Outsourcing studies on HRM related topics has the advantage of reducing red tape and workforce, and obtaining an outside view of the state of the public sector. However, outsourcing poses certain risks for central bodies as they may become dependent on private firms losing authority and influence. Moreover, the recommendations provided by private consultants are not always suitable to the particular context of the public sector. The experience of Germany in insourcing may constitute an alternative to conduct HRM tasks in areas such as: personnel planning cost calculation, recruitment, and organizational development.
• The role of the OECD as a facilitator of policy dialogue and exchange of information for evidence-based policy-making was stressed as it provides an environment to openly discuss common problems and the different alternatives to face them based on the experience of other peer nations. This unique environment allows policy and decision-makers to exchange ideas, knowledge, information, and experience through open discussions, an aspect that private firms do not provide.
Documentation
Agenda
Participants List
Presentations
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