Factors Affecting Application of New Public Management Oriented Reforms in Nepal

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Factors Affecting Application of New Public
Management Oriented Reforms in Nepal Presented
By Bharat Gautam PhD Student Central Department
of Public Administration Tribhuvan University,
Nepal At the International Conference On
Challenges of Governance in South Asia In the
Sub-Theme Application of New Public
Management Kathmandu, Nepal December 15-16,
2008 Jointly Organized by Central Department of
Public Administration, Tribhuvan University,
Nepal And Department of Administration and
Organization Theory University of Bergen, Norway
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• METHODOLOGY
• Main Purpose To asses factors affecting
  application of NPM oriented reforms in the
  Nepalese context,
• Focus Reforms initiatives after 1990
• Dependent Varaible- Application of NPM oreinted
  Reforms
• Independent Varaible- Factors afffecting
  application of NPM (political, bureaucratic,
• policy process, institutional, and economic)
• Mixed Method- Quantitative and Qualitative Data,
• Data Collection
• Primary- Questionaire Survey- November, 2008
• Ministry of General Adminostration, MOGA
• Section officer, Under Secretary, Joint
  Secretary, Secretary
• Central Department of Public Administration, CDPA
• Visiting Faculty, Lecturer, Associate
  Professor, Professor
• Secondary- Reform Reports, Policy Documents,
  Civil Service Acts and Rules

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REFORM INITIATIVES IN NEPAL
Before 1990 1952- M. N Buch Committee 1956-
Administrative Reorganization Planning
Commission 1968- Administrative Reform
Commission 1975- Administrative Reform
Commission After 1990 1991- Administrative
Reform Comission, ARC 2001- Governance Reform
Program, GRP 2006- Vision Paper for Civil
Service, VPCS 2008- Commission on Administrative
Reforms and Restructuring, CARR
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MAJOR NPM RELATED REFORMS AND IMPLEMENTATION
STATUS

• Reviewing the role of government- Not effectively
  implemented
• Privatization of Public Enterprises- Partly
  implemented, 30vs63
• Rightsizing public organizations and number of
  employees- Poorly implemented.
• Procedural simplifications and reducing layers of
  decision making and paper works- Poorly
  implemented
• Managerial decentralization- Not implemented
• Improving performance of the Ministries to
  deliver better services to citizens based on NPM
  work culture- Not implemented
• Performance contract- Not implemented
• Application of Citizens Charter- Structure is
  implemented, spirit is not followed
• This
  implementation status indicates that application
  of NPM related reforms is not effective.

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DISCUSSION ON QUESTIONAIRE Factors Affecting
Application of NPM in Nepal
Questionaire Survey Conducted
in November, 2008
First questions was Which factors do you think
are the major for ineffectiveness of NPM oriented
reforms in Nepal ? Please ranks in order 1, 2,
3, 4, 5(1 is high value) A. Political Factor B.
Economic Factor B. Bureaucratic Factor D.
Institutional Factor E. Policy Factor F. If any
other, please specify
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RANK ORDER MADE BY RESPONDENTS SPSS software
program is used and mean value is explored to
interpret the data 1 is high value and 5 is least
value in 1-5 rank order
Factors Working Organization Working Organization Total Mean Value
Factors Civil Service Ministry of General Administration MOGA University Central Department of Public Administration CDPA Total Mean Value
Political 1.40 1.50 1.45
Bureaucratic 2.44 3.10 2.79
Policy 3.11 3.22 3.17
Institutional 3.78 3.11 3.44
Economic 4.22 3.56 3.89
If any other... Bhavioural- rigid mindset (specified by two repondents from MOGA) Bhavioural- rigid mindset (specified by two repondents from MOGA) Bhavioural- rigid mindset (specified by two repondents from MOGA)

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FINDINGS
1. Political Factor may be the most important
factor for making application of NPM related
reforms effective. Political instability may
hinder the application process of NPM oriented
reforms, but it is not major factor if
politico-administrative leaderships (Prime
Minster and Ministers) are committed to lead the
reform programs.
2. Bureaucratic Factor may be the second
important factor for the application of NPM
oriented reforms. Supports from bureaucratic
actors, relationship between senior and junior
level employees, and relationship between
administrators and general public is important to
implement NPM based work culture and NPM orient
service delivery.
3. Policy Process may be the third important
factor for making NPM related reforms effective.
There may be a causal relationship between
policy transfer process of NPM and its
effectiveness. If there is voluntary process of
policy learning from NPM approaches of reforms,
it may be effectively implemented. If policy
process of reforms is hurriedly made with out
taking sufficient time to analyze implication of
certain reform policy this may not effective.
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FINDINGS CONT.
4. Institutional Factor- (Performance of Reform
leading and Monitoring) may be the forth
important factor for making NPM oriented reforms
effective and successful. Causal relationship
between reform leading/monitoring institutions
and effectiveness of reform programs. Success
story of reform programs may largely depends on
performance of reform leading/monitoring
institutions. If reform leading institutions are
active and work centred they can make difference
for making reform process successful.
5. Economic Factor may be least influential in
comparison with other factors for introducing NPM
oriented changes in public sector. It may not
necessary to have strong economic condition of
the country to apply NPM approaches for reforming
public administration. There is also minimal
relationship between application of NPM oriented
reforms and donors support. In other words, NPM
related reforms may apply effectively without
supports from donor agencies.
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CONCLUSION
A number of reform measures- review of the role
of State, rightsizing public sectors, procedural
simplification, performance contract, and use of
citizen charter related to NPM have been
introduced after 1990 for modernizing Nepalese
bureaucracy. However, application process of
NPM related reforms is not effective. There are
many variables related to political,
bureaucratic, policy process, institutional, and
economic sector that have affected reform
trajectory of Nepalese public sector. From our
experience, we may conclude, to make reform
programs effective, strong political commitment
from plitico-administrative leaderships Prime
Minister and Ministers may require.
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Thank You