Public sector management improvement

Effective decision-making processes at the core of government are a prerequisite for a well-functioning public sector. But conflicting lines of authority, poor evidence and analysis, weak central coordination and ongoing battles for resources all detract from a government’s ability to set and implement policy - which has obvious consequences for the rest of the public sector. So how can the right management structures and processes be established?

The key is to look beyond the obvious manifestations of a problem in a particular policy area, and through careful analysis to unravel the real underlying issues. These may lie in organisational systems and processes – for instance where there is a disconnect between planning and budget-setting – or in institutional structures, for example where overlaps in jurisdiction lead to confusion on the ground and the dilution of responsibility for results. In some cases there is simply a lack of the government machinery needed to translate a ministerial decision into detailed policy and legislation and then implement it. Understanding and resolving these issues is not merely a technical matter, but will also often require sensitivity to personalities, to process and and to the political context.

For example, in Grenada, analysis showed that decisions made in Cabinet were not being taken forward consistently and comprehensively. In some cases, it was unclear who had responsibility for driving a policy forward; in others, a lack of detail in the policy proposals put to and approved by Cabinet was leading to inertia.

Working closely with the Minister, the Cabinet, the Senior Managers' Board and the Cabinet Secretariat, OPM helped address this, building the capacity of policy advisers, recommending a reorganisation of government structure to remove overlapping responsibilities and supporting the introduction of new approaches to strategic planning and budgeting.

Steps such as these can be vital to improve government decision-making and to underpin administrative reform more widely, in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector as a whole and to introduce a more performance-based approach to management.