NATIONAL 9 (Spotlight Weelky)]

PSC's Approach To Good Governance

By Dr. Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

It is essential that the government machinery be swift and prompt in delivering effective services to the people. In Nepal, human resource mobilization functions are run only through the joint efforts of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Ministry of General Administration. Such functions are only possible through effective human resource management.

Human resource planning is the process by which management determines how the organization should move from its current manpower position. Through planning, management strives to have the right number and right kind of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing things in such a way that both the organization and the individual receive maximum long-term benefits. Experts have highlighted that environmental forces such as globalization, new technologies, and economic conditions and changing workforce stem particularly from strong human resource management.

Human resource management and good governance have overall interrelations in the course of effectual manpower planning. Management experts realize and insist that good governance is primarily started through a sound recruitment and selection process. Personnel management experts Koonz and Weihrich (1990) remark that recruiting involves attracting candidates to fill the positions in the organization structure. Before recruiting begins, the positionís requirements ó which should relate directly to the task ó must be clearly identified. This makes it easier to recruit suitable candidates. The PSC was established after the state realized the need of effective manpower selection to provide good governance.

The PSC is an independent institution set up immediately after the arrival of a democratic government on February 18, 1951. It was entrusted with the task of conducting examinations for recruitment to government posts. Since its establishment, the PSC has maintained its status and credibility. Educated people have had faith in the fairness of personnel recruitment and selection. Organizational psychologists and personnel experts have stated that effective manpower selection always helps to impart good governance.

The PSC has been supplying qualified manpower to government ministries on the basis of a sound recruitment and selection process. The selection system mainly comprises of three procedures: open competition, internal competition, and promotion. In all these processes, the PSC always follows the principles of merit in order to deliver effective services to the public.

Delivering effective service to the people is a vital aspect of good governance. On the other hand, the existing training methodology of the government is very theoretical. It does not help new recruits in delivering effective and sound services. So it is very necessary to formulate practical training packages.

The Ministry of General Administration has authority over overall personnel management. Therefore, the ministry must impart objective and applied training packages to government personnel in a macro approach, encompassing newly recruited personnel as well as other officers. Training is a continuous process. It builds psychological competence and a positive hope within bureaucrats. It also builds skills, which enable them to deliver services to the people. The bureaucracy is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, very formulized rules and regulations, tasks grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command.

The PSC and good governance are related subjects in the context of delivering effective services to the people. His Majestyís Government has for the first time announced through the Ninth Plan its commitment to good governance. Governance is more obviously identified with the aspiration level of the society and it is not static. In this context of governance, the report of Al Goreís National Performance Review (1993) prefers the term "democratic governance" to good governance and it distinguishing attributes lie in certain "values" such as equal opportunity, justice, diversity and democracy.

Personnel management experts have emphasized that a civil society must prevent itself from getting accustomed to poor governance. The major barriers to good governance are the bloated size of the career bureaucracy, lower productivity, poor accountability, transparency and integrity. It is said that governance can be seen as the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage countryís affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanism, process and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. "Governance" is a continuum, and not necessarily unidirectional: it does not automatically improve over time. It is a plant that needs constant tending. Like democracy, governance remains particularly difficult to operation. Actually, good governance possesses such diversified features as transparency, accountability and public sector management.

Nepalese management experts emphasize that good governance without good bureaucracy will remain a myth. Therefore, a system should be enforced to revamp the bureaucracy without further delay. The PSC has introduced scientific curriculum with an aim to supply the best, capable and efficient manpower to the government. It is proved that an effective curriculum always recruits the best and talented manpower from society.

In the course of new curriculum formulation, the PSC introduced open, competitive examination syllabus for all gazetted third class, section officers (non-technical) on October 18, 2001. This curriculum was formulated after rigorous exercises, workshop seminars in different regions of the country, interaction with higher government officers and public administration experts and imparting facts and figures about the necessities of changing previous syllabus through radio and television channels. The present curriculum is designed on the basis of the accumulation of detailed job descriptions of the administrative, judiciary, parliamentary and auditing services.

The new PSC curriculum will be very valuable in supplying efficient and capable manpower to the government. The newly recruited personnel must be capable of tackling new challenges and inspiring confidence among the people. In the course of imparting good governance, the PSC, the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of General Administration must work together.

(Dr. Upadhyay is a senior psychologist at the Public Service Commission)