New Public Management: Lean State, Lean Government

(April 23-May 1, 2006)
By Atty. Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA

Atty. Jaime N. Soriano, CPA, MNSA

My participation in the “New Public Management (NPM)” seminar in Gummersbach was initially unwitting. I did not know about the program until I received a forwarded e-mail invitation from a long time friend, who is a Friedrich Naumann Foundation fellow.

After the acceptance of my application, I pursued the online phase of the seminar with much interest. For many years I have been fascinated with public administration. I do not have any formal education in this field. My exposure comes from my occasional readings and from my understanding of the workings of the bureaucracy as a lawyer and a keen political observer.

Interestingly, I found the reference materials during the online phase concise, comprehensive and thorough — enough for a neophyte like me. In fact, many of the ideas presented in the Website challenged me to pursue independent readings and to do additional research to personally satisfy my appetite for more knowledge about the workings of NPM. I found this particularly relevant when I prepared and submitted my electronic papers and reports, as well as during my participation in the online discussions with the other participants.

After completing the online phase, it occurred to me that much of the core philosophies of NPM are already integrated in the country’s governance. But how come people are still cynical, or perhaps skeptical, about reforms in public governance in this country? I concluded, and this was the main topic of my final online essay, that perhaps it is the lack of credibility of public officials. There is also a dire need for better social marketing of public services.

But I still had a lingering thought about NPM, does it really work? Or is it just another organizational or management concept made in or for heaven? Fortunately, I qualified, along with 24 others from around the world, for the Gummersbach seminar. I sat in the conference rooms and workshop groups trying to find out for myself, from the lectures, the discussions, and the group reports, the answer to my question.

It occurred to me, especially during the initial days of the seminar that the various maladies in public management are also common in the different countries represented in the seminar. Hence, NPM is global need. However, there was a point that I felt that we were gathered in the fine and excellent facilities of the Theodor Heuss Academy only to listen to the usual sob stories and soap operas from co-participants.

It was on the third day of the seminar that I felt that I was baptized as a disciple of NPM. It was after listening to the speech of Dr. Werner Becker-Blonigen, mayor of the City of Wiehl, Germany. The following statements of the good mayor somehow cleared my mind. It made me understand the practical application of NPM as a tool in public governance:

New Public Management is not a recipe to bake a cake but rather a process to balance law and public interest to achieve economic efficiency and promote private sector partnership in public governance.

The City of Wiehl has made it possible to have a very lean organization of 190 civil service employees by outsourcing every conceivable area of public service that can be effectively performed by the private sector, from social security to health services, government printing, city planning, financial management … even the administration of camping grounds, parks and tourist destinations.

By outsourcing these services traditionally in the hands of public administrators and implementers, the city was able to attain economic efficiency. Outsourcing provided the craftsmen of the city the opportunity to gain entrepreneurial freedom and ultimately receive back the taxes they pay their government. It has to be this way because politicking is generally the predicament of consumption spending societies.

Significantly, outsourcing also spared the city from the economic burden of maintaining a huge budgetary allocation for salaries, wages, social security and other labor-related cost[s] attendant to a bloated bureaucracy, especially at this time when almost every government around the world suffers from [a] huge deficit. With outsourcing, the city is then able to focus … [o]n making sure that public services are being delivered consistent with pre-determined plans and objectives.

There are times when formal laws make life difficult for public servants to bring about reforms. Usually bigger communities are stuck … [on] legal niceties rather than on practical considerations and economic efficiency. But since the rule of law cannot be disregarded, the mayor … always ensure that the efficiency of the law is achieved to serve public interest. Thus, the city does not compromise the basic requirement of transparency and accountability in public tenders, especially those involving outsourced services.

In instituting reforms, ‘change should always happen in a humane way.’ People react to change when it involves money. To [affect] reforms, the reason for the change is not enough. People must feel the need for change especially if the public servant is dealing with a constituency who refuse[s], or worse, is too lazy, to understand the rationale for the reforms. But when the need for change is felt, the natural course is for everybody to support everybody.

Inspired by the lessons and experience of the City of Wiehl under Dr. Becker-Blonigen, I decided to immediately capture his thoughts in my Sunday column “Note Verbale” in the Manila Sunday Times, which coincidentally was also published in Manila on the closing day of the seminar.

The short visit to the Gummersbach Burgerservice provided another living representation of how the constituency as customers should be treated as “kings” (and “queens”). The brand of public service in this office was indeed inspiring.

Overall, I believe that the entire program in Gummersbach would not have been as effective and successful were it not for the competence and commitment of Carina El-Nomany and Monika Ballin, and for the efficiency of their colleagues, Verena Gierszewski, Feline Frier, Pablo Caravia, and Camilo Salamanca. I also truly admire the leadership and sense of vision of Jorg Dehnert in putting the program together.

On board the service bus going to the Cologne airport, I could not help but feel melancholy because I sorely missed the company of the 24 other participants, with whom I spent and shared moments of fun, camaraderie, and pleasant experiences for a week, despite the language barriers with some of the Spanish-speaking delegates. My colleagues from the Philippines; Clare Amador, Isolde Amante, George Carmona, Manny de Vera, and Ted Francisco; became my instant siblings.

After the seminar, I proceeded to the City of Rome for a couple of days. Not only was I there to make a pilgrimage to the Vatican but also to have a feel of ancient Rome, which can be considered as one of the early forerunners of public governance. There I was nostalgic for my Gummersbach experience.

Now that I am back in Manila, I want to fulfill the third phase of the NPM program by being one of its committed disciples. This time I will wittingly talk about it. I will wittingly write about it. I will always keep in mind the practical exhortation of Monika and Carina to adopt the tools and concepts of NPM within our own sphere of influence and framework of competence.