Fifth Global Forum on Reinventing Government Innovation and Quality in the Government of the 21st Ce

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Fifth Global Forum on Reinventing Government
Innovation and Quality in the Government of the
21st Century Mexico City Mexico 3 6 November
2003 Transparency Accountability in Governme
nt Case of Jordan Presented By Dr. Zuhair Al-
Kayed General Secretary for the Higher population
Council in Jordan Presented In Accountable
Transparent Government Workshop 5 6 November 2
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Jordan In Figures Selected Indicators 2002
Selected Indicators
2002
Total Population (000)
5.329.0
Total Civil Servants
152 373
Total Ministries
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Population Growth Rate ()
2.8
Population Less Than 15 Years of Age ()
37.8
Population Age 15-64 Years ()
58.7
Population Age 65
3.5
Total Fertility Rate (for Women 15-49 Years of
Age)
3.7
Infant Mortality Rate (Per 1000 Live Births)
22.1
Under Five Mortality Rate (per 1000 Live Births)
27.0
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Selected Indicators
2002
Life Expectancy at Birth (Year)
71.5
Male
70.6
Female
72.4
Female/Male Students Ratio University
98.8
Illiteracy Rate (Population Age 15 Years)
10.3
Male
5.4
Female
15.2
Unemployment Rate ()
15.3
Inflation Rate ()
1.8
GDP Growth Rate (Current Prices) ()
5.3
GDP Growth (Constant Prices) ()
4.9
GDP per capita (JD)
1.236.8
Ministry of Education Budget of Total Government
Budget ()
10.7
Ministry of Health Budget of Total Government
Budget ()
5.7
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1. Historical Background.
2. Introduction
In his letter of Designation to Prime
Minister-designate Faisal Al-Fayez, October 23,
2003 His Majesty King Abdullah stated
"We want honesty, accountability and
transparency. We want effective and real
participation by Jordanian women and Youth whose
potential should be activated and invested in the
different walks of life". "We want honesty,
accountability and transparency.
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".Reforms should also be accomplished through
adminis-trative reforms that reward the
hardworking, spur the reluctant and cast out the
corrupt".
"The principle of absolute transparency, coupled
with that of accountability and taking
responsibility for performance are the Basis of
success".
"The government which I want comprises of a prime
minister and ministers who act with
transparency, and responds with broadmindedness
to press ministers should respect
accountability and appreciate responsibility.
"This necessitates that government decisions are
made in a clear, institutionalized and
transparent manner through all the necessary
channels.
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3. Previous Efforts to Fight Corruption by the
Government
Article 3 in the 1952 Constitution.
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Prosecution Law No. 16 of 1960. Classified Crimes
against Public Mgt
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The National Charter of 1990.
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The Bureau of Administrative Control and
Inspection 1992. This Bureau had been merged with
the Audit Bureau in 2002.
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The Law of Economic Crimes 1993.
The Higher Procurement Authority 1994.
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The Anti-Corruption Department 1996
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The Higher Committee for Transparency
Accountability 2002.
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The National Committee for Combating Corruption
Favoritism
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Major Domains
1. Corruption (concept, causes, aspects and
results).
2. Legislations.
3. Monitoring systems and its role in combating
corruption.
4. Transparency and availability of data.
5. Finance and administration.
6. Criteria of the administrative performance
monitoring.
7. National system of values and integrity.
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Corruption is defined as the misuse of public
service in order to achieve private benefits,
whether done by an individual or a group of
persons by means of violating laws regulations.
Favoritism represents one form of corruption, and
is presented by means of prejudice, bias and the
unjust commitment to laws and regulations for the
benefit of individuals due to social, racial or
beneficial reasons.
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Corruption Phenomenon in Jordan
- TI Report on corruption showed that Jordan was
positioned below five out of the ten degrees
scale.
- The Arab Institution for Investment Guarantee
report issued on 1999 indicates that four Arab
Countries, including Jordan, has positioned
corruption combating as the highest priority for
the purpose of enhancing investment atmosphere
and environment in order to attract Arab
foreign investments.
- Several seminars, workshops and studies.
- Amendment of Legislations.
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Causes of Corruption
One Legislative Causes
- Exceptions in some Legislative Articles.
- Ambiguity of legal text in some cases.
- Failure of some legislations to follow up with
some local international economic social
changes.
- Numerousness of provisional laws and the lack
of its applicability due to several amendments.
- Non compliance to legislations, especially by
authority holding persons, as well as the
incorrect implementation of the discretionary
power granted by these legislations, and
violating instructions issued in accordance to
legislations or its incorrect implementation.
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Two Social Causes
- Social habits and norms.
- Make intermediary as an element of favoritism.
- Big companies has produced eventually new
social classes with specific interests.
- The lack of good citizenship attitude
- The lack of religious and ethical derivation,
poverty, greed, feeling of injustice, and non
equivalence of opportunities.
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Three Political Causes
- Lack of institutionalization of Political life.
Four Administrative Causes
- Administrative weakness.
- emergence of certain unethical norms among
employees under the absence of accountability.
- Weakness of decentralization.
- Non acceptance of internal and external
monitoring.
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Five Economic Causes
- Most administrative offenses and violence of
laws and regulations are caused by economic
reasons.
- From the beginning of eighties luxurious
consumption patterns inadequate with income
levels in Jordan became popular.
- Increase of poverty and decrease of actual
income of citizens.
- Implementation of some capital projects with no
priority
- Absence of feasibility study for some
implemented projects had led to wasting public
money.
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Aspects of Corruption
1. Bribery and illegitimate commissions as well
as larceny of public money in all aspects.
2. Favoritism, Intermediary in appointment
decisions.
3. Performance draw back and low productivity of
several governmental authorities accompanied by
the cost increase of services provided to
citizens, bad quality of these services, and the
complexity of procedures which led to the high
complaints of citizens.
4. Increase of the rate of Public Money Waste.
5. Variance of Conversion, Forgery, Misuse and
Bad administration of Public Money.
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6. Distributing granting well, transportation
lines, licenses, and telecommunication approvals
in contradiction with required conditions.
7. Granting loans and aids by National Aid Fund,
Development Recruiting Fund, Zakat Fund for non
feasible projects.
8. Non compliance to competition principle and
quality of services during purchase.
9. Utilizing parts of grants and foreign aids as
salaries and benefits rather than production
which serve the National Economy.
10. Evasion of tax and fees payments due to the
National Treasury.
11. Executing service projects such as road
constructions for private benefits in
contradiction with accredited fundamentals.
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Results of Corruption
1. Governments inability to implement its
programs and policies and achieve its objectives
as efficient and effective as requested.
2. Increase of the state's budget deficit.
3. Deprivation of poor in the society from
development and getting better life quality.
4. Creation of incorrect options by encouraging
competition to deal with bribery rather than
competing on the quality of low-price
merchandises and services.
5. Deformation of Government's procedures
decisions by citizens due to their lack of trust.
6. Deformation of economic social development.
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7. Increase in crimes and using violence as a
mean for change, as well as using arbitrary,
uncivilized methods which lead to more corruption.
8. Absence of trust from local foreign
investors with the Jordanian Investment
Atmosphere.
9. Undermining transparency, institutionalization
and the state of law principles.
10. Incompatibility of proposals expectations
with what really is achieved.
11. Undermining the principles of Administration
Ruling Institutions.
12. Supervisors' loss of control over their
employees as a result of loosing their moral
authority due to corruption at higher levels.
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13. Deficiency of equal opportunities between
citizens and/or receiving services.
14. Deficiency of equal opportunity in producing
goods services as well as delivering and
obtaining it.
15. Implementation of difficult un-coordinated
and unjustified reforms.
16. Corruption leads to the increase of cost
during goods services purchase.
17. Government's failure to attract civil society
private sector to reform process.
18. Loss of trust between government people.
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Transparency and the Availability of Information
Media Domain
- Transparency as a concept means the
availability and ability to freely access to
information supported by law. It is certainly a
major tool in setting up a national system of
integrity and in the success of combating
corruption favoritism.
- Media occupies main post in providing the
maximum limit of transparency and allowing
individuals and society to access information,
understand procedures and ensure its safety,
justice and integrity. It is also responsible for
revealing the practices of law violations and
public money wastes and has its role in disposing
and combating corruption and favoritism.
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Accordingly, activating the principle of
transparency and the role of media in disposing
corruption and favoritism requires the following
1. Developing and amending legislations and
systems to enhance transparency to publish
information and facilitate access to it as well
as understand procedures to achieve openness and
transparency that form a preventive measure for
favoritism and corruption.
2. Publish full details of information concerning
important cases to society and which constitutes
a public aspect of corruption and favoritism
3. Strengthening transparency as a factor would
not be integrated unless it is adopted and
publicized to become one of the national
integrity system rules.
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4. Amending laws pertaining to the freedom of
media and press.
5. Assuring the principle of press and media
independence.
6. The influence and interference practiced by
governments and official systems is not any more
the only factor to affect the independence of
media and the freedom of its personnel, where as
the influence of private sector enterprises and
powers are becoming more obvious through using
advertisement and monopoly ownership of media.
7. Reconsidering legal restraints which prohibit
publishing on going corrupt-related cases in
order to achieve trans-parency and openness and
not to conflict with law.
8. Assuring the principle of denouncing character
assassination.
9. Establishing a national center for
transparency.
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Finance Administration Domain
- Corruption leads to bad distribution of
government services as well as deformation of
economy through misallocation and waste of
resources.
- increases the burden of the country's foreign
debit.
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Proposals to handle types of administrative
financial corruption
1. Governments' preparing of flexible
organizational charts that interact with
variables and clear to simplify procedures.
2. Government's preparing a system for
administrative organization job description
that determine terms, practical educational
qualifications for job vacancies.
3. Enhancing internal auditing systems and
establishing internal audit units.
4. Introducing Training programs for government
officials to the principles of good government.
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5. Preparing a moral convention that complies
with the local environment to include moral
criteria and standard indication.
6. Establishing mechanisms for both auditing and
accountability.
7. Developing preventive strategies to limit work
hindrances.
8. Establishing an office of governmental ethics
affiliated to each department.
8. Adopting strategies mechanisms, methodologies
and that combat favoritism, discrimination and
coteries.
8. Enhancing the concepts of transparency,
accountability institutionalization and
participation in decision taking.
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Criteria of Administrative Performrance
Monitoring Domain
Administrative Monitoring
- Administration monitoring is the organized
effort to define performance criteria for
work-planned objectives, designing information
feedback, compare actual performance with those
pre-defined criteria, in order to determine if
there are any deviations, and taking all
necessary actions to assure that all inputs and
processes are used with the highest and the most
effective ways to achieve goals.
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- Providing accountability factor is vital to
achieve good governance, given the fact that it
makes the state concentrate on results, focus on
obvious goals, develop effective strategies and
set up accurate performance reports.
- Without the availability of information, both
private and public sectors would not become
transparent or become subject to accountability
from any party.
- Institutionalized Administrative Monitoring are
group of activities performed by directors in
order to assure that the processes and actual
result comply and harmonized with specified plans
and criteria.
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Criteria of Monitoring Administrative performance
1. Quantitative Criteria.
2. Qualitative Criteria.
3. Criteria of Qualitative Quantity.
4. Cost Criteria.
5. Time Criteria.
6. Value for Money Criteria.
7. Economy Criteria.
8. Efficiency Criteria.
9. Effectiveness Criteria.
10. Moral Criteria.
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Recommendations
Corporations need a performance measurement plan
which should include a group of criterion and
indicators and which could
- Contain balanced group of fundamental criteria
- Give us useful reports in suitable time and
reasonable cost.
- Show and give us ready information that could
be used widely, understandable and could be used
by the department.
- Support corporation's values and strengthen its
relationship with clients and persons who are
affected with the results of its transactions..
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Therefore, it is obvious that setting criteria
for monitoring administrative, financial or
technical performance require the presence of
strategic planning which include (Mission,
Vision, Strategic Objectives, Detailed
Objectives, measurable Activities), and then
setting up the criteria and standards.
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System of Values, National Integrity, and
Convention of honor Domain
1. Protecting and immunizing individual and
society against this phenomenon.
2. Eliminating causes and factors that could make
individual and society vulnerable to corruption.
3. Combating all aspects of corruption and
fighting corrupt people.
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System of Values and Civil Society Organizations
Civil Society organizations should adopt in its
social, economic and political programs and roles
(including political parties) the tasks of
deepening the values of civil society as well as
values of integrity, justice and the culture of
combating corruption and favoritism.
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System of Values, Culture and Education
- Religion has constituted the base in setting up
the values and rules of human and moral behavior
in its relationships and dealings at every aspect
of social and economic life.
- Islam constitutes the fundamentals of the
values and cultures of honesty, integrity,
justice, equity and is considered the main weapon
in combating corruption and favoritism.
- Education in the school educates and spread the
value culture which enable societies and people
to achieve progress, democracy, fighting tyranny
and corruption, as well as enabling integrity and
justice to form the base of its public life.
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Mechanism of generalizing the system of values
and national integrity
1. Preparing Islamic tutors who are capable of
propagate religious awareness of the above
mentioned Islamic social concepts, and deepening
these concepts
2. Achieving social justice, and stabilizing
citizens' rights and its immunity as well as
publicizing social security in order to give the
citizen safety feeling for his future and
family's future and repays good to his homeland.
3. Correcting deformation in some of the above
mentioned social concepts, by means of public
social awareness with participation from
educationalists, religious leaders, community
leaders and leaders of opinion.
4. Generalizing youth awareness centers such as
clubs, cultural centers and others in order to
become good houses for building integral future
generation.
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5. Applying transparency in all governmental
practices.
6. Activating civil society organizations.
7. Public participation and government openness
to civil society organizations.
8. Freedom of opinion and speech.
9. Continuous revision of plans and reform
course, as well as the transparency in
performance.
9. Media's following up and evaluating as well as
publishing all free commentaries pertaining to
the above mechanisms.
10. Behavior of authority persons, especially the
leaders, should be a model for people in terms of
integrity, honesty, and cleanness.
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Conclusion
"We need a government of ministers rather than
employees, a team acting in harmony with no
exceptions and one that embraces the principle of
transparency with no limits. The principle of
absolute transparency, coupled with that of
accountability and taking responsibility for
performance are the basis of success.
H.M. King Abdullah, in his letter of designation
the New Prime Minster H.E. Faisal Al-Fayez,
October 2003
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