Institutional support

Date

From July 1995 to July 1997.

Location Cambodia-Presidency of Council of Ministers
Financing French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Position

Expert in Public Administration Reform:

- Restructuring of State activities, 

- Extending the rule of law in Cambodia. 

Description

Writing the attribution and organisation decrees (anoukrets) of the 25 Ministries and State Secretaries.

Writing the statute of many new Public Bodies.

Promoting and following personally the progress statement of the drafting of laws and decrees by the Council of Ministries and the National Assembly.

Participating in drafting the public procurement law.

All the legal texts were written in 3 languages : Khmer, English and French.

 

Cambodia January - February 1994.
Headed a team of 6 experts to construct the reform plan for the Cambodian public administration. Financed by UNDP. 


Cambodia May 1994.
Drafted the terms of reference for the Commission of European Communities concerning an offer to tender institutional support to the Cambodian government (6 millions ECU; 10 permanent experts). 


Conducted 3 missions in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories from October 1992 to May 1993 within the "Peace Process", organised by the Conference of Madrid, then of Paris, "with EEC financing" to : 

Analyse the training needs of the high-level civil servants and the mid-level administrative managers of the future Palestinian civil administration.

Determine the training means and methods for these personnel.

Advise the Palestinian civil authorities (called "Technical Committees" at this time) on the future government's structure (100 keywords method and scheme to organise the administration by homogenous operational activities). 

Aid the Palestinian institutions to use the trans-Mediterranean networks (the EEC's MED programme) on a regional basis.


Study of the internal organisation of the Cameroon President's Office and proposals for improving the internal operation and co-ordination of government work (confidential report). Cameroon President's Office, 1986. 


Study concerning installation of a system for managing family allowances for civil servants, judges and military personnel in Gabon, Ministry of Finance, 1984. 


Programming staff of the Gabonese civil service for the 1984-1989 five-year Plan : 

Volume 1: By Ministry, by group and by category in December 1983.

Volume 2: Forecast on changes of available Gabonese human resources by year and by training level from 1984 to 1989.

Volume 3: Forecasts concerning recruitment in the Gabonese civil service by the extension of growth rates to the following four years.

 

Key words of my experience :

Public and parapublic management 


Reorganisation of ministerial departments or governmental, national or regional agencies and organisations: 

Functional analysis method: missions, objectives and strategy, breakdown into functions and homogeneous tasks. 


Organisation and procedures, development of procedure's manuals, computerisation, training and putting people on the job in the new systems.

 
Remodelling legislative and regulatory provisions in major "codes": framework of budget laws, general and special statutes of civil services, investment code, public procurement code, etc...

 

My working tools 


Functional analysis methodology 
In its complete form, the process involves four stages:

1. The first stage of functional analysis involves taking an inventory and organising the missions falling within the jurisdiction of the body studied (usually a State or one Ministry). This analysis must result in the creation of a general chart defining the body's : 
general missions (major objectives); 
functions (analysis and breakdown of the missions), and; 
operational tasks corresponding to its functions. 
 
2. Then, we obtain a register revealing the service(s) that is/are responsible for each task and we evaluate the appropriateness and the " fit " between the structures and operations (diagnosis). Examination of this register ought to reveal a certain number of dysfunctions.

3. The third stage is a proposal for reorganisation. In proposing a new organisation, it is advisable to remedy the revealed defects, possibly even to the extent of implementing new options and variations (fill in the deficiencies, by assigning unallocated tasks; eliminate the overlaps, or, when several units must cooperate in the same task, define a leader and the forms of collaboration; regroup the scattered missions, functions and tasks).

4. Design of an organisation development plan. After the description of each unit's functions and tasks, we can define positions by type, as well as profiles required of incumbents. At this stage, the development plan is able to include:

Short- and medium-term training and advanced training programmes for personnel; 
A list of material means (premises, equipment, etc.) required in order to facilitate the smooth execution of missions and tasks.

Method of the 100 homogeneous blocks of competence

This method is a practical application of functional analysis to the structuring of the activities of a government of a country. It constitutes a tool of thought preliminary to the division of public administration between several ministries. Indeed, to have an effective public administration: 
Each block of competence should not be separated into several pieces and distributed between several ministries. 
The blocks of competence must be gathered with larger homogeneous sectors.

 
As an example, the five major homogeneous sectors of activity of any government are:
Sovereignty and Security; 
Economy and Finances; 
Infrastructures; 
Production; 
Human Resources. 
 
These 5 sectors can be divided into homogeneous departments, inside of which the blocks of competence are placed.

It is like a set of cubes. There are many possible combinations. All the combinations are not effective, some of them are better than others. The assemblies also depend on political forces, on the history of the country, its geography and the political and economic problems that need solving at a certain time. The method constitutes a tool of thought useful before very high-level decision-making resulting in the formation of a new government.