MPA 215: Public Service Delivery

SY 2020-2021, First Semester

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY

A. Qualities of Good Governance

GOVERNANCE is defined as:

- It is the manner in which authority, control and power of government is exercised in

mobilizing the society’s economic and social resources to address issues of public
interest.

- It is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority to manage a

nation’s affairs.

The above meanings refer governance to the running of government affairs. However:

- In its wider and realistic application of the value free concept of governance, it also
applies in the non-governmental institutions since basically, it is the process of decision
making and the process by which decisions are implemented or not implemented.

- Also, it should be understood as the institutionalization of a system through which

citizens, institutions, organizations, and groups in a society articulate their interests,
exercise their rights, and mediate their differences in pursuit of the collective good.

Therefore:

- Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate governance,

international governance, national (state) governance and local governance.

-Good governance is responsive to the present and future needs of the organization,
exercises prudence in policy-setting and decision-making, and that the best interests
of all stakeholders are taken into account.

-With its value connotation, good governance is the right or just or moral judgments
made by those exercising authority in the public interest.

-Public interest, in this context, means an aggregation of the interests of the many,
but certainly not of all.

QUALITIES / CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE:

1.Participatory 5. Consensus Oriented

2.Accountable 6. Transparent

3.Responsive 7. Equitable & Inclusive

4.Efficient & Effective 8. Follows the rule of law

Participatory
- Participation by both men and women, either directly or through legitimate representatives,
is a key cornerstone of good governance. Participation needs to be informed and organized,
including freedom of expression and assiduous concern for the best interests of the
organization and society in general.

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Accountable
- Accountability is a key tenet of good governance. Who is accountable for what should be
documented in policy statements? In general, an organization is accountable to those who
will be affected by its decisions or actions as well as the applicable rules of law.

Responsive
- Good governance requires that organizations and their processes are designed to serve the
best interests of stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe.

Efficient & Effective

- Good governance means that the processes implemented by the organization to produce
favorable results, meet the needs of its stakeholders, while making the best use of resources
– human, technological, financial, natural and environmental – at its disposal.

Consensus Oriented
- Good governance requires consultation to understand the different interests of stakeholders
in order to reach a broad consensus of what is in the best interest of the entire stakeholder
group and how this can be achieved in a sustainable and prudent manner.

Transparent
- Transparency means that information should be provided in easily understandable forms and
media; that it should be freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected
by governance policies and practices, as well as the outcomes resulting therefrom; and that
any decisions taken and their enforcement are in compliance with established rules and
regulations.

Equitable & Inclusive

- The organization that provides the opportunity for its stakeholders to maintain, enhance, or
generally improve their well-being and provides the most compelling message regarding its
reason for existence and value to society.

Follows the rule of law

- Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced by an impartial regulatory
body, for the full protection of stakeholders.

TOWARDS IMPROVED GOVERNANCE:

Good governance is an ideal which is difficult to achieve in its totality. Governance
typically involves well-intentioned people who bring their ideas, experiences, preferences and
other human strengths and shortcomings to the policy-making table. Good governance is
achieved through an on-going discourse that attempts to capture all of the considerations
involved in assuring that stakeholder interests are addressed and reflected in policy initiatives.

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b. Characteristics of Public Service

PUBLIC SERVICE is defined as:

- activities of government in the public domain, such as policing and public health;

- activities done for the benefit of the public, like public service broadcasting or rubbish
collection; and

- “social services‟, like medical care, housing, education and social care.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC SERVICE:

Public services have been misunderstood. They are not simply services in the public sector,
they are not necessarily there because of “market failure”, and they cannot be analyzed by
the same criteria as market-based provision. They have four defining characteristics. They
exist for (1) reasons of policy; they (2) provide services to the public; they are (3)
redistributive; and they (4) act as a trust. They consequently operate differently from
production for profit, in their priorities, costs, capacity and outputs.

Reason of Policy
- The public services are not about provision by the state, or provision on behalf of the
state, but provision for the public, whether or not it is done by public authorities. They
may be linked to government activities, but they are not confined to government, and
government does not cover the full range of such activities. Some public services are
in the public sector, some are independent, and many straddles the boundaries - there
is a complex interplay of different approaches to regulation, finance and provision
(Judge, Knapp, 1985).

- Public services are intended, not to meet the objectives or preferences of consumers
or producers, but to further objectives that policy-makers consider desirable - whoever
those policy makers may be, because the term might include not just government, but
governing bodies, voluntary organizations, mutualist societies, philanthropists and
others. Bozeman suggests that “publicness” is “a characteristic of an organization
which reflects the extent the organization is influenced by political authority.”
(Bozeman, Bretschneider, 1994, p 197).

- Public services are public sector activities.

- “In principle, public services are the responsibility of public authorities.” (European
Commission, 2005, p 25)

Provide Service to the Public

- Public services “serve” members of the public - they provide goods or services to
individuals, families and communities.

- Public services are supposed to be motivated by a sense of mutual responsibility - a

sentiment often referred to in the European Union as “solidarity” (Spicker, 2006a, part
3). The examples of claims given so far seem to suggest that being a public service is
something praiseworthy, other- regarding (if not actually altruistic) and inclusive.

- Public role and public duty

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Redistributive
- Not necessarily: is either non-commercial or, in some sense, beyond the commercial.
For McKevitt, this is about “non-marketability” (McKevitt, 1998, ch 1); for Flynn, it is
about finance, that services are not evidently for sale (Flynn, 2007, p 8). This is
suggestive, but neither identifies the issues clearly. One of the recurring clichés in
claims for public service is that they are concerned with “a public service, not a
business”.

- Public services are redistributive, in the sense that those who pay are not necessarily
those who receive. A firm which sells soup to the public is not providing a “public
service”, even if it is very good soup, but an agency which distributes soup to homeless
people is. A commercial theatre is not providing a public service, but “public service”
broadcasting can carry a transmission of the play they put on to a non-paying
audience.

- Intention to redistribute is not the defining principle: rather, the process is that public
services allocate resources. Redistribution is an inevitable concomitant of that process.
(Redistributive allocation as a function of government: Musgrave, 1959, pp 6 ff.
However, the allocation does not have to be done only by government: any charity,
any mutual insurer, is also redistributing resources.)

Act as Trust
- The policy-maker, not the consumer, is the purchaser of services

- The characteristic nature of public services is that such services are operated as a
trust. What these examples all have in common is a mechanism in which A pays B to
provide a service for C. Although A and B are often parts of the government, this
mechanism is not unique to government

EXAMPLE OF “GOOD GOVERNANCE” OBJECTIVE AND PUBLIC SERVICE:

“Policy Reforms to Improve the Quality of Public Services in the Philippines” (a)

Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, DPA(b)

Note:

(a) Paper presented at the 2015 Korean Association of Public

Administration International Conference on “What is the
Essence of „Good Public Administration‟?” held at Sangmyung
University Hannurikwan, Cheonan, Korea on 16-18 July 2015.

(b) Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza is Professor and Dean of the

National College of Public Administration and Governance,
University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. She was formerly
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (2010-2013) of the UP
Open University. She is a Doctor of Public Administration and
specializes in public policy, regulatory governance, public
sector reform, governance of the government corporate
sector, curbing corruption and improving trust in the public
sector.

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SY 2020-2021, First Semester

ABSTRACT (GIST):
- The last decade has witnessed significant government focus on quality service
delivery and good public administration. Significantly driven by two broad factors:
public sector inefficiencies, and liberal economic ideology, these reforms have
emphasized public service that is high in quality, efficient, continually improving and
responsive to the needs of the people and provided in a manner that is transparent,
accountable, participatory and predictable, in terms of the application of the rule of
law.

- Against this background, this paper examines recent (2010-present (2016)) policy
reforms in the public sector in the Philippines, which aspire to improve the quality of
public services. These include governance reforms that aim to curb corruption, improve
the delivery of public services especially to the poor, and enhance the business and
economic environment of the country as a whole. Focus will be on reforms in
government procurement, bottom up budgeting, seal of good (local) governance, anti-
red tape, and citizen satisfaction index system.

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE ((E.O. 43 s. 2011)

1. Upholding transparency in government transactions and commitment to combating graft

and corruption

2. Strengthening of the capacity of government institutions to link their respective budgets

with performance outcomes and enabling citizens and civil society to monitor and evaluate
these

3. A professional, motivated, and energized bureaucracy with adequate means to perform

their public service missions

4. Improvement of public sector asset and resource management and revenue performance

5. Establishing an improved policy and regulatory environment that will reduce the cost of
doing business in the country and improve competition (E.O. 43 s 2011).

THE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK OF THE AQUINO III ADMINISTRATION NEDA 2010.

Good Governance Cluster Plan, 2011-2016

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 MPA 215: Public Service Delivery
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POLICY OUTCOMES FRAMEWORK OF THE PHILIPPINES, 2011-2016

Cabinet Cluster on Good Governance 2014 Good Governance Initiatives of the Aquino

Government 2013-2016 A Primer

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c. References:

governancepro.com/news/

Matola, Imran BA, MSC, Fundamentals of Public Administration Powerpoint presentation,

researchgate.com

Spicker, P., 20019. The nature of public service, International Journal of Public Administration,
32 (11), pp. 970-991

Villamejor- Mendoza, M.F., Paper presented at the 2015 Korean Association of Public
Administration International Conference on “What is the Essence of „Good Public
Administration‟?” held at Sangmyung University Hannurikwan, Cheonan, Korea on 16-
18 July 2015.

Images used for presentation taken from: canva.com

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