Presentation by H.E. Sum Manith,
Secretary of State, Council of Ministers and Secretary General of Council for Administrative Reform
I very much appreciate the opportunity to address this Education Round Table organized by Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MoEYS). I would like to express to the meeting the Government's commitment to reform in the social sectors, with the education sector as a priority.
As a starting point for my address, I would like to set out the main policy thrusts of the administrative reform program. The fundamental goal is to provide better public services to the people of Cambodia, while focusing on poverty reduction strategies. These policies have been set out by the Prime Minister, Samdech Hun Sen.
As many of you will be aware, the Government is in the process of detailing its administrative reform policies and plans for the medium-term. This reform program aims to establish a public administration which is neutral, transparent and responsive to the needs of the people. The common goal is to rationalise the management of public administration, while increasing the motivation of our civil service.
This program includes three steps. Firstly to establish a strong foundation for managing the civil service, to sustain the working process, and to rationalise the structure and develop our human resources in order to increase the productivity and quality of services. This program will be implemented in four complementary steps; strengthening the institutional and regulatory framework, good governance, human resource development, and change management.
On going commitments and plans for the immediate future, focus on the increased capacity of Government to rationalise the structure of the civil service and create the foundation for good governance.
The census of civil servants is almost finished, except for the provinces of Stung Treng, Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri. The next step will be to give identification cards to all civil servants. As a result of this census, we can create the database for our human resource management system and payroll system. Alongside this, the Secretary General of the Council for Administrative Reform has prepared a scenario of new incentives to increase salaries step by step. This incentive will encourage working productivity and improve the motivation of civil servants. We are still in the process of evaluating and improving this proposed system.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We face some problems in these reforms, especially in the redeployment of staff to meet the needs and resources of Cambodia. Changing the working habits of civil servants to improve productivity and efficiency and to get an appropriate salary is a key challenge. To achieve this, priority groups are being set up, in parallel with the other reforms. These priority groups will be linked to the principle of good governance in the public administration framework. This program will build the capacity of civil servants to help their ministries in their mission.
In the first step, we examined ways to establish the groups of civil servants working on priority activities in order to implement the program of pubic reform as set out in the Governance Action Plan. Without these priority groups we cannot sustain our reform. These groups can create the opportunity to sustain the reform initiatives.
The Government has made a strong commitment to provide services, especially to rural areas, as a main part of its poverty reduction strategy. The Government is also focusing on the decentralisation of public administration roles in order to strengthen our development plans. Deconcentration is moving forward gradually, in line with our commitment to decentralisation of authority and the process of democratisation. In fact, deconcentration will increase the capacity of provincial/municipality, and district authorities, and support the work of commune councils making them closer to the people and to provide services on time.
Good governance is essential to create trust and confidence in public institutions, and build sustainable human resource and economic development. In addition, good governance is a key to efficient and equitable allocation of resources to the people. It is the way to implement the rights and obligations of all stakeholders in order to reach the common goal. Good governance is the way to achieve sustainable peace and justice in society. It is based on a partnership of different actors working together to solve problems. Government is only one of these actors. There are many problems outside of the scope of Government, but Government is the actor with the largest responsibility to solve problems within its scope and provide leadership and coordination.
Success in the goals of development of Cambodia depends on all actors, including Government, the National Assembly and the Judiciary, local authorities, civil society, NGOs, private sector and donors agreeing to work together as partners.
The proposals of the CAR recognise that the education service has to be seen as a unique case. The Government acknowledges that the necessary expansion of education services, especially in primary and secondary schooling as set out in the MoEYS reform plans, will require an increase in the size and quality of the teaching service.
For this reason, the Council of Ministers has recently approved an increase in the annual number of teachers to be trained in the provincial and regional teachers' colleges. At the same time, the CAR forward plan makes provision for expansion of the education service. This will allow for a significant increase in the number of classroom teachers over the next five years.
Our Government is committed to enhancing the salaries and allowances of education managers and classroom teachers as quickly as possible. Clearly the pace at which this can be done is dependent on the volume of resources available to Government. I would therefore urge the international community to consider providing specific budgetary support towards administrative reform, possibly including targeted programs for the education service.
At the same time, Government recognises that there needs to be some flexibility within individual ministry budget ceilings for these ministries to respond to their special requirements. I therefore note with interest, the proposal within the education sector support program (ESSP) for a performance-based incentive program for specific groups of education managers, head teachers and classroom teachers.
In broad terms, these proposals are consistent with the CAR policy framework and are worthy of considered support. In particular, I am encouraged by the emphasis of the MoEYS proposals for significant efficiency gains in the use of teaching and non-teaching staff. In addition, the proposals to provide targeted incentives to head teachers, multi-grade and double-shift teachers will undoubtedly improve productivity.
I am especially encouraged by the proposals within the ESSP to accord the highest priority to improving the quality of education services in remote and difficult areas. The proposed balance between medium-term incentives to teachers in remote areas and longer-term recruitment of teachers from these areas is very appropriate.
Once again, it bears re-emphasis that Government cannot achieve these changes alone. I trust that the international community will consider providing complementary resources during this transition period of administrative reform.
Government and its development partners recognize that increased levels of remuneration are no guarantee of increased productivity and improvement in service quality. In education, increased pay will not, on its own, assure better performance and attendance at work of teachers and managers. A key platform of the CAR proposals is that individuals must assume greater personal accountability for their performance, including education service staff.
I therefore very much welcome the MoEYS proposals in the ESSP that the PAP for education service efficiency will be linked to both staff rationalisation and introduction of performance appraisal. Fair and transparent staff appraisal systems are a key lever in translating any pay rises into real productivity and service quality improvements. I would urge the international community to provide the additional resources needed to put these performance appraisal systems in place as quickly as possible.
Finally, I would like to commend the Minister, his Secretaries of State and senior staff for their commitment to administrative reform as part of their broader education reform plans. I can assure the Ministry that the Council for Administrative Reform will continue to co-operate in every way possible to assist the Ministry in its reform efforts.