Accountability
Content
University of Exeter coursework header sheet
POLM002M
Management and Governance: Comparing Public Administration
around the World (A, TERM1 2015/6)
1021025
018647
Coursework: Essay
Submission Deadline: Tue 20th Oct 2015 14:00
Personal tutor: Professor Oliver James
Marker name: N/A
650056576
Word count: 2642
By submitting coursework you declare that you understand and consent to the University policies regarding plagiarism and mitigation (these can be
seen online at www.exeter.ac.uk/plagiarism, and www.exeter.ac.uk/mitigation respectively), and that you have read your school's rules for submission
of written coursework, for example rules on maximum and minimum number of words. Indicative/first marks are provisional only.
Student comments:
First marker:
Indicative
mark
First Marker's initials:
Second marker:
Second mark
Second marker's initials:
Reconciliation:
External's comments:
Agreed mark
Department of Politics
POLM002M: Management and
Governance:
Comparing Public Administration Around
The World
Program of study: Master of Public Administration
Module Leader: Professor Andrew Massey
Student’s name: Vu Bao, HUYNH
Student ID number: 650056576
Assessment 2: Core challenges dealing with Public sector
managers around the world and an illustration in Vietnam.
Word count: 2,642 words
1
Table of Content
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3
PUBLIC SECTOR ....................................................................................................... 4
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS ......... 5
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS ................................. 6
Modernisation ................................................................................................... 6
Accountability in a complex age ...................................................................... 6
Ethical actions ................................................................................................... 7
Oversight............................................................................................................ 7
Audit ................................................................................................................... 7
Private-Public partnerships ............................................................................. 8
Corruption ......................................................................................................... 8
SOLUTIONS FOR THE CHALLENENS ................................................................. 9
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS’ CHALLENGES IN VIETNAM ..................... 11
CONCLUSION
. .................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 14
2
INTRODUCTION
Public Administration has gradually been considered as the main point of
government development all around the world. Public sectors, or public goods, also
play essential roles in Public Administration and a significant insight into the roles
and responsibilities of Public sector managers is considerably obtained. In order to
demonstrate and advance the administrative competences, efficiency and public
performance, Public sector managers are set to focus on common core issues, public
insistences for higher and better qualities of public services, public servants and
engagement of improvements.
This writing encompasses several core challenges that Public sector managers
are dealing with around the world, including progressive Modernisation, democratic
Accountability, matters of Ethics, Oversight, Audit, Private-Public partnerships and
widespread Corruption. To work towards these solutions, Public sector managers are
required to take on and exercise effectively their outstanding leadership, to gain
eagerness to explore possible solutions and to control successfully Human resource
Management. Furthermore, this paper produces certain solutions for Public sector
managers to overcome and to have these challenges tackled.
Moreover, to illustrate clearly the challenges, the assessment would take into
consideration of what Public sector managers in Vietnam have done to respond to
these significant challenges in order to both improve the quality of public products
and services and meet the gradually higher and higher citizens’ expectations.
3
PUBLIC SECTOR
Public goods (products and services) are gradually considered as an essential
part of Public Administration and are being defined in proper ways which not only
make sense politically but also socially and capture comprehensive descriptions. Pure
public goods are produced and delivered by the state instead of the market whereas
pure private goods are created and consumed by the market in which they can be paid
for or not. Economically, public goods have certain characteristics which are opposite
of private goods: they are available to all, non-divisible (the benefits for individuals
seem the same and cannot be specified), non-excludability (the benefits cannot be
confined to people who paid for the goods) and non-rejectable (the provision of public
goods cannot be rejected by citizens).
There are particular examples of pure public goods: flood control systems,
television broadcast, national defence services, public water supplies,… Public goods
are regularly paid for by taxes and government borrowing. Additionally, it is the
public sector that the government and policy making are concerned about even
although there are certainly several public policies that aim to regulate the private
sphere. It is said that there is no automatic link between public goods and public
sectors and with the means of assistance, public goods are supplied by public sectors.
“The concept of the Public sector includes both what kinds of activities public
institutions carry out and how decisions are made and implemented by these
institutions” (Jan-Erik Lane, 2000). Besides, Public sectors are very labour intensive.
Therefore, the management of Human Resources has a high priority not only because
of the labour cost but also because Human Resources are the agents of all
government.
4
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SECTOR
MANAGERS
There is a clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of Public sector
managers with appropriate instruments, which ensures public sector principles. It is
essential for managers to lead and apply specific duties to most public bodies, ensure
efficient operations, maintain public strategic targets, monitor overall performances
and manage primary relationships. Basically, Public sector managers have
responsibilities for the establishment of strategies and objectives for implementing
procurement policies and for the development, dissemination and coordination of
public procurement both policies and practices for public sectors. It is often claimed
that managers should improve and develop the quality and quantity of public services
they supply by declaring on management innovations and the most suitable practices
within public sectors.
Human Resource Management is the most important and necessary part of any
organisation. “At its heart, an organisation is simply a collection of people. Finding
employees, nurturing them, and motivating them form the essence of all effective
management strategies. Compared with the private sector, public sector managers
often find it difficult to attract top-notch people for the job” (Steven Cohen, 2008).
Hence, Public sector managers must be effective in not only finding, hiring,
rewarding and keeping the good people but also getting rid of inadequate staff
members. Besides, Public sector managers are now playing vital roles to make sure
that all members, including other senior public sector managers, working in Public
Administration have confidence, leadership and discharge of necessary functions.
5
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS
Modernisation
Modernisation is the act of development, the change for the contingent
environment and the necessity for the survival in organisational systems today,
especially for public sectors. Public sector managers no longer ignore the changes in
Modernisation. It is significant changes in structures, processes and agencies that
sometimes seem either radical or incremental. However, under both circumstances,
Public sector managers are ready to accelerate constant processes to encourage and
guide the changes onto right tracks and tap sources of innovations for managing and
accomplishing the accompanied variations in the task for the survival and
development.
In addition, the gap of differences between the modern policy and the
traditional one is about to the general characteristics of modern and traditional
societies. The process of Modernisation is studied to be so revolutionary, complex,
systemic, global, lengthy, progressive,… that Public sector managers ought to find
methods to control and balance its impacts.
Accountability in a complex age
In
recent
years,
the
term
of
Accountability
(synonymously
with
“Responsibility”) has been used more and more in articles, journals, research reports
related to Public Administration: the state apparatus, administrative reform, anticorruption,… since it conveys an image of transparency and trustworthiness.
Accountability is known as the acknowledgment of responsibility for every
action, product, decision or policy that public sectors offer in leadership,
management, and implementation work. Politically, Accountability implies to the
obligation of public sectors to provide information, explanations, justification for their
public performances in excursions and their functions, internally and externally.
The performances of Public sector managers and Public sector organisations
are in principle indicated for three things to ensure accountability: “that money has
been spent as agreed and in accordance with procedures; that resources have been
used efficiently; that resources have been used to achieve the intended result”
(Norman Flynn, 2012).
6
Ethical actions
Ethics is said to provide adequate standards for behaviour that shows how to
decide the ways people ought to act in a variety of situations. Ethics are properly
regarded as a synonym of “moral” or “well-behaved” and today really concerned with
values and guides to behaviour. Moreover, Ethics should be interested in all respects
of life: behaving properly individually, creating responsible organisations and
governments, making decisions and building the society as a whole more ethical.
Ethical actions are these actions that are morally right and that reflect cultural context
and follow rules of engagement. However, Public sector managers are confronted
with ethical dilemmas in which public organisational trusts are not built up any more.
Oversight
Oversight in Public Administration “refers to the ability of an external body to
review the conduct and decisions of government agencies and public officials. Such
review may be by way of investigation, inspection or audit and can be based on a
complaint, a legal obligation, or the oversight body’s ‘own motion’” (Ombudsman,
2010). Furthermore, Public sector managers have to take “oversight of corporate
governance, accountability, operational effectiveness and monitoring of the financial
performance of the department and its programs” (Meredith Edwards, 2012). They
also connect those related aspects to extend growing influences from the external
global and societal environments upon public administration. Public sector managers
who should bear responsibility for the oversight of public sector governance fear for
the lack of oversight of a privatised body with public policy roles.
Audit
Audit has historically considered as the practice of public control processes or
even policy making. The role of Audit is supposed to verify the accuracy of financial
declarations and to examine if the money has already been spent for the public
purposes declared. In this narrow sense, Audit is an attempt to ensure safe financial
management and to stop and prevent fraud and corruption. “The role of auditors is to
provide shareholders with an external and objective check on the directors’ financial
statements, which form the basis of that reporting system.” (Meredith Edwards,
2012).
7
Private-Public partnerships
Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) are the heart of the government's efforts to
revive public services. “Any collaboration between public bodies and private
companies tends to be referred to a Public-Private Partnership” (BBC News, 2003).
PPP is also defined as “a long-term contract for supplying a public asset, good or
service, where the private party bear significant risk and management responsibility,
as remuneration is linked to performance” (Worldbank.org, PPP overview).
However, there are some areas where Private-Public Partnerships may
ultimately be proved unsuitable: the flexibility, different focuses, funding priorities,
lacks of accountability, autonomy, conflicts,… This can cause a distrustful
partnership. Therefore, Public sector managers should firmly set the advantages and
disadvantages when considering any PPP.
Corruption
The impacts of corruption generally have a large number of dimensions
related to politics, economy, society, environment,… Political corruption is the act of
using the legal power of government officials for illegitimate private gain. Types and
forms of corruption vary dramatically, including bribery, theft and fraud, grand
corruption, petty corruption, political corruption, administrative corruption, systemic
corruption,… The cause of corruption are various and should be studied under
particular contexts. For example: ambiguous rules, laws and regulations; poor
enforcement of property rights; culture, manner and tradition of the governance;
problems of accountability;… Public sector managers have to bear devastating
consequences of corruption, especially in developing countries.
8
SOLUTIONS FOR THE CHALLENENS
From these challenges that Public sector managers all over the world are facing,
certain explicit solutions are to be brought.
Modernisation
Under the rising of such considerable pressure from technological
enhancement and global policy making of modernisation, Public sector managers are
required to adopt alternative approaches and special multitasks of modernisation to
manage, handle and create effective ways of accomplishing the tasks. Public sector
managers believe that “even if anti-modernisation parties are in power, their success
in reversing modernisation will not be permanent so long as other societies are
modernizing” (Charlton, 2003).
Accountability in a complex age
Public
sector
managers
are
planning
to
measure
performance
of
Accountability. These essential resources consist of quality data, funding, and
expertise. Achieving these resources demonstrates another challenge of accountability
in a complex age. Indeed, Public sector managers must need more accurate attention
and strict regulations to close accountability gaps.
Ethical actions
It is the fragile boundary between to be ethic and to be unethical that
sometimes confuses Public sector managers on the way to make decisions, design and
enforce law and apply ethical judgments or actions. Furthermore, Public sector
managers control and influence the behaviour of all the staff under the organisation's
appropriate expectations. They also hold duties to respond rapidly and appropriately
to minimize the impacts of suspected ethical violations.
Oversight
Public sector managers design and implement effective systems of oversight
and exercise regularly oversight roles by establishing internal controls meeting the
government requirement. The oversight would exist both internally and externally.
9
Audit
Public sector managers have to find appropriate audit tools and auditors
suitable to government environment. Moreover, the position and roles of Audit must
be dedicated and established clearly in each organisation.
Private-Public partnerships
Public sector managers should carry out a specific analysis of if the PPPs are
appropriate or not and how they can be structured in win-win relations. A friendly
communication between the private and public bodies should be set on the PPP terms,
future deals expected and the capacity of each side to implement them. Understanding
government missions and objectives, choosing the most suitable kinds of PPP models
and evaluating the host country’s legal framework are properly taken into Public
sector managers’ account.
Corruption
To manage corruption risks, Public sector managers have to make clear
theories on the term of corruption in public administration, focus on the world
governance indicators including a research data analysis to control corruption and
evaluate and conclude what they have done.
10
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS’ CHALLENGES IN
VIETNAM
Like other countries, Vietnam has nowadays taken small steps on the long
road to promote the sustainability and improvement. We once have obvious objectives
for the overall development program, which is that to facilitate the improvement of
democratic governance, the public management and the accountability in Vietnam.
For example: Public Administration reform, Human Rights Education and Research,
Public Participation and Accountability,… Nevertheless, Vietnamese Public sector
managers have significant challenges to deal with and we are now utilising and
contributing resources to achieve possible results to gain more sustainable and
equitable development.
It has been suggested that we have objectives to promote participations of all
citizens, the accountability in law-making and policy development processes.
However, the misunderstanding the meanings of the objectives, combined with
inexplicable reasons behind their presentation may actually reserve an unwillingness
to stand with long-term issues confronting Vietnamese political structures. In certain
situations, there are issues arguing that Vietnamese government, or particularly,
Public sector managers must address and produce suitable solutions, but they have
failed to do so. As a result, the accountability in Vietnamese government has
constantly been like the old one for a long time.
In Vietnam, although improvements have been carried out over the last few
years, corruption has still remained endemic, widespread throughout the country and
had potential to generate further shocks to the politics. Several reports have released
that in Vietnam while then petty corruption has been decreasing dramatically, the
grand one has significant increased uncontrollably. Evidence shows that there are
considerable influences of corruption on certain public sectors in Vietnam, such as:
Judiciary, Police, Education, Health sector, Land management,… Public sector
managers have taken enormous efforts to combat corruptions by setting up anticorruption initiatives and bodies; restructuring the Government Inspectorate, the
People’s Procuracy, the State Audit of Vietnam,… and even issuing anti-corruption
laws but the expected results have hardly been brought about since they are said to be
11
complex and to take ages to be put into practice or because of a large implementation
gap and enforcement lacking.
Against these backdrops, Vietnamese government has seriously taken a
number of steps and methods to address the governance, coordinate accountability
and fight corruption fiercely. Furthermore, Public sector managers need to try to set
out clearer and into details government missions and objectives, to authorise more
concrete roles and responsibilities to line managers and implementing agencies and to
implement fundamental reforms towards modernized and more professional public
administration systems.
12
CONCLUSION
Public sectors comprise a plenty of institutions for making and implementing
decisions with regard to interests of various public kinds. Public sector managers
often face severe challenges in accessing even the most basic public services.
Modernisation, Accountability in a complex age, Ethical actions, Oversight, Audit,
Private-Public Partnership and Corruption are now facing Public sector managers as
long as they wish to deliver excellent performances and public services’ excellence.
With the comprehensive knowledge, essential skills and remarkable abilities, Public
sector managers easily understand their roles and responsibilities and work effectively
towards to the solutions for the challenges. Additionally, in Public sectors, senior
managers tend to identify the young talented basing on their contribution and then let
them have change to deal with the current challenges of the organisation so that their
ideas or thinking towards these challenges can be shone out bright from different
point of views and approach the more suitable solutions in the future. As a developing
country, Vietnam has also had the sample challenges with others. In this regard, both
public sectors and Public sector managers in Vietnam need to be approached more
professional, transparent and accountable. Vietnamese Public sector managers have to
find ways to change the challenges into the opportunities of development by
reformations and to demonstrate the remarkable abilities of Vietnamese Public sector
managers.
13
REFERENCES
Massey, A and Johnston, K. (2015), The International Handbook of Public
Administration and Governance, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.
Doorgapersad, S. (2013), Public administration in Africa performance and
challenges, Boca Raton, CRC Press.
Edwards, M. (2012), Public sector governance in Australia, Australia, ANU E
Press.
Flynn, N. (2007), Public sector management (5th ed.), London, SAGE.
Massey, A., and Pyper, R., (2005), Public Management and Modernisation in
Britain, Basingstoke, Palgrave.
Rosenbloom, D,. and Kravchuk, R, (2004), Public Administration :
Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector, McGraw-Hill.
Charlton, B., & Andras, P. (2003), The modernisation imperative (p. 16),
Exeter, UK, Imprint Academic.
Cohen, S., & Eimicke, W. (2002), The effective public manager achieving
success in a changing government (3rd ed.),San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Lane, J. (2000), The public sector concepts, models, and approaches (3rd ed.),
London, Sage Publications.
Adamolekun, L (1999), Public administration in Africa: Main issues and
selected country studies, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Parsons, W. (1995), Public policy: An introduction to the theory and practice
of policy analysis, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.
14
Schofield, P. C. (2008), Key challenges facing public sector leaders: themes
from the Ashridge Public Leadership Centre essay competition 2007, The Ashridge
Journal.
Retrieved
from
https://www.ashridge.org.uk/Media-
Library/Ashridge/PDFs/Publications/KeyChallengesFacingPublicSectorLeaders.pdf
Acuña-Alfaro, J (2012), Incentives and salaries in Vietnam’s public sector,
January
&
February.
Retrieved
from
http://www.snap-
undp.org/DemocraticGovernanceTempDocumentLibrary/Incentives%20and%20salari
es%20in%20Vietnam's%20public%20sector.pdf
What are Public Private Partnerships? (2003, February 12). Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1518523.stm
What are Public Private Partnerships? (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/overview/what-are-publicprivate-partnerships
Oversight of public administration (2010), NSW Ombudsman, November
2010. Retrieved from
https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/3709/FS_PSA_15_Oversi
ght_of_public_administration.pdf
Managers Role in Ethical Conduct - Boundless Open Textbook (Boundless).
Retrieved
from
https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-
management-textbook/ethics-in-business-13/maintaining-ethical-standards97/managers-role-in-ethical-conduct-456-3504/
15
POLM002M
Management and Governance: Comparing Public Administration
around the World (A, TERM1 2015/6)
1021025
018647
Coursework: Essay
Submission Deadline: Tue 20th Oct 2015 14:00
Personal tutor: Professor Oliver James
Marker name: N/A
650056576
Word count: 2642
By submitting coursework you declare that you understand and consent to the University policies regarding plagiarism and mitigation (these can be
seen online at www.exeter.ac.uk/plagiarism, and www.exeter.ac.uk/mitigation respectively), and that you have read your school's rules for submission
of written coursework, for example rules on maximum and minimum number of words. Indicative/first marks are provisional only.
Student comments:
First marker:
Indicative
mark
First Marker's initials:
Second marker:
Second mark
Second marker's initials:
Reconciliation:
External's comments:
Agreed mark
Department of Politics
POLM002M: Management and
Governance:
Comparing Public Administration Around
The World
Program of study: Master of Public Administration
Module Leader: Professor Andrew Massey
Student’s name: Vu Bao, HUYNH
Student ID number: 650056576
Assessment 2: Core challenges dealing with Public sector
managers around the world and an illustration in Vietnam.
Word count: 2,642 words
1
Table of Content
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3
PUBLIC SECTOR ....................................................................................................... 4
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS ......... 5
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS ................................. 6
Modernisation ................................................................................................... 6
Accountability in a complex age ...................................................................... 6
Ethical actions ................................................................................................... 7
Oversight............................................................................................................ 7
Audit ................................................................................................................... 7
Private-Public partnerships ............................................................................. 8
Corruption ......................................................................................................... 8
SOLUTIONS FOR THE CHALLENENS ................................................................. 9
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS’ CHALLENGES IN VIETNAM ..................... 11
CONCLUSION
. .................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 14
2
INTRODUCTION
Public Administration has gradually been considered as the main point of
government development all around the world. Public sectors, or public goods, also
play essential roles in Public Administration and a significant insight into the roles
and responsibilities of Public sector managers is considerably obtained. In order to
demonstrate and advance the administrative competences, efficiency and public
performance, Public sector managers are set to focus on common core issues, public
insistences for higher and better qualities of public services, public servants and
engagement of improvements.
This writing encompasses several core challenges that Public sector managers
are dealing with around the world, including progressive Modernisation, democratic
Accountability, matters of Ethics, Oversight, Audit, Private-Public partnerships and
widespread Corruption. To work towards these solutions, Public sector managers are
required to take on and exercise effectively their outstanding leadership, to gain
eagerness to explore possible solutions and to control successfully Human resource
Management. Furthermore, this paper produces certain solutions for Public sector
managers to overcome and to have these challenges tackled.
Moreover, to illustrate clearly the challenges, the assessment would take into
consideration of what Public sector managers in Vietnam have done to respond to
these significant challenges in order to both improve the quality of public products
and services and meet the gradually higher and higher citizens’ expectations.
3
PUBLIC SECTOR
Public goods (products and services) are gradually considered as an essential
part of Public Administration and are being defined in proper ways which not only
make sense politically but also socially and capture comprehensive descriptions. Pure
public goods are produced and delivered by the state instead of the market whereas
pure private goods are created and consumed by the market in which they can be paid
for or not. Economically, public goods have certain characteristics which are opposite
of private goods: they are available to all, non-divisible (the benefits for individuals
seem the same and cannot be specified), non-excludability (the benefits cannot be
confined to people who paid for the goods) and non-rejectable (the provision of public
goods cannot be rejected by citizens).
There are particular examples of pure public goods: flood control systems,
television broadcast, national defence services, public water supplies,… Public goods
are regularly paid for by taxes and government borrowing. Additionally, it is the
public sector that the government and policy making are concerned about even
although there are certainly several public policies that aim to regulate the private
sphere. It is said that there is no automatic link between public goods and public
sectors and with the means of assistance, public goods are supplied by public sectors.
“The concept of the Public sector includes both what kinds of activities public
institutions carry out and how decisions are made and implemented by these
institutions” (Jan-Erik Lane, 2000). Besides, Public sectors are very labour intensive.
Therefore, the management of Human Resources has a high priority not only because
of the labour cost but also because Human Resources are the agents of all
government.
4
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC SECTOR
MANAGERS
There is a clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of Public sector
managers with appropriate instruments, which ensures public sector principles. It is
essential for managers to lead and apply specific duties to most public bodies, ensure
efficient operations, maintain public strategic targets, monitor overall performances
and manage primary relationships. Basically, Public sector managers have
responsibilities for the establishment of strategies and objectives for implementing
procurement policies and for the development, dissemination and coordination of
public procurement both policies and practices for public sectors. It is often claimed
that managers should improve and develop the quality and quantity of public services
they supply by declaring on management innovations and the most suitable practices
within public sectors.
Human Resource Management is the most important and necessary part of any
organisation. “At its heart, an organisation is simply a collection of people. Finding
employees, nurturing them, and motivating them form the essence of all effective
management strategies. Compared with the private sector, public sector managers
often find it difficult to attract top-notch people for the job” (Steven Cohen, 2008).
Hence, Public sector managers must be effective in not only finding, hiring,
rewarding and keeping the good people but also getting rid of inadequate staff
members. Besides, Public sector managers are now playing vital roles to make sure
that all members, including other senior public sector managers, working in Public
Administration have confidence, leadership and discharge of necessary functions.
5
CHALLENGES FACING PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS
Modernisation
Modernisation is the act of development, the change for the contingent
environment and the necessity for the survival in organisational systems today,
especially for public sectors. Public sector managers no longer ignore the changes in
Modernisation. It is significant changes in structures, processes and agencies that
sometimes seem either radical or incremental. However, under both circumstances,
Public sector managers are ready to accelerate constant processes to encourage and
guide the changes onto right tracks and tap sources of innovations for managing and
accomplishing the accompanied variations in the task for the survival and
development.
In addition, the gap of differences between the modern policy and the
traditional one is about to the general characteristics of modern and traditional
societies. The process of Modernisation is studied to be so revolutionary, complex,
systemic, global, lengthy, progressive,… that Public sector managers ought to find
methods to control and balance its impacts.
Accountability in a complex age
In
recent
years,
the
term
of
Accountability
(synonymously
with
“Responsibility”) has been used more and more in articles, journals, research reports
related to Public Administration: the state apparatus, administrative reform, anticorruption,… since it conveys an image of transparency and trustworthiness.
Accountability is known as the acknowledgment of responsibility for every
action, product, decision or policy that public sectors offer in leadership,
management, and implementation work. Politically, Accountability implies to the
obligation of public sectors to provide information, explanations, justification for their
public performances in excursions and their functions, internally and externally.
The performances of Public sector managers and Public sector organisations
are in principle indicated for three things to ensure accountability: “that money has
been spent as agreed and in accordance with procedures; that resources have been
used efficiently; that resources have been used to achieve the intended result”
(Norman Flynn, 2012).
6
Ethical actions
Ethics is said to provide adequate standards for behaviour that shows how to
decide the ways people ought to act in a variety of situations. Ethics are properly
regarded as a synonym of “moral” or “well-behaved” and today really concerned with
values and guides to behaviour. Moreover, Ethics should be interested in all respects
of life: behaving properly individually, creating responsible organisations and
governments, making decisions and building the society as a whole more ethical.
Ethical actions are these actions that are morally right and that reflect cultural context
and follow rules of engagement. However, Public sector managers are confronted
with ethical dilemmas in which public organisational trusts are not built up any more.
Oversight
Oversight in Public Administration “refers to the ability of an external body to
review the conduct and decisions of government agencies and public officials. Such
review may be by way of investigation, inspection or audit and can be based on a
complaint, a legal obligation, or the oversight body’s ‘own motion’” (Ombudsman,
2010). Furthermore, Public sector managers have to take “oversight of corporate
governance, accountability, operational effectiveness and monitoring of the financial
performance of the department and its programs” (Meredith Edwards, 2012). They
also connect those related aspects to extend growing influences from the external
global and societal environments upon public administration. Public sector managers
who should bear responsibility for the oversight of public sector governance fear for
the lack of oversight of a privatised body with public policy roles.
Audit
Audit has historically considered as the practice of public control processes or
even policy making. The role of Audit is supposed to verify the accuracy of financial
declarations and to examine if the money has already been spent for the public
purposes declared. In this narrow sense, Audit is an attempt to ensure safe financial
management and to stop and prevent fraud and corruption. “The role of auditors is to
provide shareholders with an external and objective check on the directors’ financial
statements, which form the basis of that reporting system.” (Meredith Edwards,
2012).
7
Private-Public partnerships
Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) are the heart of the government's efforts to
revive public services. “Any collaboration between public bodies and private
companies tends to be referred to a Public-Private Partnership” (BBC News, 2003).
PPP is also defined as “a long-term contract for supplying a public asset, good or
service, where the private party bear significant risk and management responsibility,
as remuneration is linked to performance” (Worldbank.org, PPP overview).
However, there are some areas where Private-Public Partnerships may
ultimately be proved unsuitable: the flexibility, different focuses, funding priorities,
lacks of accountability, autonomy, conflicts,… This can cause a distrustful
partnership. Therefore, Public sector managers should firmly set the advantages and
disadvantages when considering any PPP.
Corruption
The impacts of corruption generally have a large number of dimensions
related to politics, economy, society, environment,… Political corruption is the act of
using the legal power of government officials for illegitimate private gain. Types and
forms of corruption vary dramatically, including bribery, theft and fraud, grand
corruption, petty corruption, political corruption, administrative corruption, systemic
corruption,… The cause of corruption are various and should be studied under
particular contexts. For example: ambiguous rules, laws and regulations; poor
enforcement of property rights; culture, manner and tradition of the governance;
problems of accountability;… Public sector managers have to bear devastating
consequences of corruption, especially in developing countries.
8
SOLUTIONS FOR THE CHALLENENS
From these challenges that Public sector managers all over the world are facing,
certain explicit solutions are to be brought.
Modernisation
Under the rising of such considerable pressure from technological
enhancement and global policy making of modernisation, Public sector managers are
required to adopt alternative approaches and special multitasks of modernisation to
manage, handle and create effective ways of accomplishing the tasks. Public sector
managers believe that “even if anti-modernisation parties are in power, their success
in reversing modernisation will not be permanent so long as other societies are
modernizing” (Charlton, 2003).
Accountability in a complex age
Public
sector
managers
are
planning
to
measure
performance
of
Accountability. These essential resources consist of quality data, funding, and
expertise. Achieving these resources demonstrates another challenge of accountability
in a complex age. Indeed, Public sector managers must need more accurate attention
and strict regulations to close accountability gaps.
Ethical actions
It is the fragile boundary between to be ethic and to be unethical that
sometimes confuses Public sector managers on the way to make decisions, design and
enforce law and apply ethical judgments or actions. Furthermore, Public sector
managers control and influence the behaviour of all the staff under the organisation's
appropriate expectations. They also hold duties to respond rapidly and appropriately
to minimize the impacts of suspected ethical violations.
Oversight
Public sector managers design and implement effective systems of oversight
and exercise regularly oversight roles by establishing internal controls meeting the
government requirement. The oversight would exist both internally and externally.
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Audit
Public sector managers have to find appropriate audit tools and auditors
suitable to government environment. Moreover, the position and roles of Audit must
be dedicated and established clearly in each organisation.
Private-Public partnerships
Public sector managers should carry out a specific analysis of if the PPPs are
appropriate or not and how they can be structured in win-win relations. A friendly
communication between the private and public bodies should be set on the PPP terms,
future deals expected and the capacity of each side to implement them. Understanding
government missions and objectives, choosing the most suitable kinds of PPP models
and evaluating the host country’s legal framework are properly taken into Public
sector managers’ account.
Corruption
To manage corruption risks, Public sector managers have to make clear
theories on the term of corruption in public administration, focus on the world
governance indicators including a research data analysis to control corruption and
evaluate and conclude what they have done.
10
PUBLIC SECTOR MANAGERS’ CHALLENGES IN
VIETNAM
Like other countries, Vietnam has nowadays taken small steps on the long
road to promote the sustainability and improvement. We once have obvious objectives
for the overall development program, which is that to facilitate the improvement of
democratic governance, the public management and the accountability in Vietnam.
For example: Public Administration reform, Human Rights Education and Research,
Public Participation and Accountability,… Nevertheless, Vietnamese Public sector
managers have significant challenges to deal with and we are now utilising and
contributing resources to achieve possible results to gain more sustainable and
equitable development.
It has been suggested that we have objectives to promote participations of all
citizens, the accountability in law-making and policy development processes.
However, the misunderstanding the meanings of the objectives, combined with
inexplicable reasons behind their presentation may actually reserve an unwillingness
to stand with long-term issues confronting Vietnamese political structures. In certain
situations, there are issues arguing that Vietnamese government, or particularly,
Public sector managers must address and produce suitable solutions, but they have
failed to do so. As a result, the accountability in Vietnamese government has
constantly been like the old one for a long time.
In Vietnam, although improvements have been carried out over the last few
years, corruption has still remained endemic, widespread throughout the country and
had potential to generate further shocks to the politics. Several reports have released
that in Vietnam while then petty corruption has been decreasing dramatically, the
grand one has significant increased uncontrollably. Evidence shows that there are
considerable influences of corruption on certain public sectors in Vietnam, such as:
Judiciary, Police, Education, Health sector, Land management,… Public sector
managers have taken enormous efforts to combat corruptions by setting up anticorruption initiatives and bodies; restructuring the Government Inspectorate, the
People’s Procuracy, the State Audit of Vietnam,… and even issuing anti-corruption
laws but the expected results have hardly been brought about since they are said to be
11
complex and to take ages to be put into practice or because of a large implementation
gap and enforcement lacking.
Against these backdrops, Vietnamese government has seriously taken a
number of steps and methods to address the governance, coordinate accountability
and fight corruption fiercely. Furthermore, Public sector managers need to try to set
out clearer and into details government missions and objectives, to authorise more
concrete roles and responsibilities to line managers and implementing agencies and to
implement fundamental reforms towards modernized and more professional public
administration systems.
12
CONCLUSION
Public sectors comprise a plenty of institutions for making and implementing
decisions with regard to interests of various public kinds. Public sector managers
often face severe challenges in accessing even the most basic public services.
Modernisation, Accountability in a complex age, Ethical actions, Oversight, Audit,
Private-Public Partnership and Corruption are now facing Public sector managers as
long as they wish to deliver excellent performances and public services’ excellence.
With the comprehensive knowledge, essential skills and remarkable abilities, Public
sector managers easily understand their roles and responsibilities and work effectively
towards to the solutions for the challenges. Additionally, in Public sectors, senior
managers tend to identify the young talented basing on their contribution and then let
them have change to deal with the current challenges of the organisation so that their
ideas or thinking towards these challenges can be shone out bright from different
point of views and approach the more suitable solutions in the future. As a developing
country, Vietnam has also had the sample challenges with others. In this regard, both
public sectors and Public sector managers in Vietnam need to be approached more
professional, transparent and accountable. Vietnamese Public sector managers have to
find ways to change the challenges into the opportunities of development by
reformations and to demonstrate the remarkable abilities of Vietnamese Public sector
managers.
13
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