Governance

LAWG 101

Dr. Mohammad El Said

 Accountability
Roles and responsibilities are clearly
defined

Authority
Designated leaders are empowered

Decision Process
Decision processes are unified, based on
best practices
Scope & Principles of
Good Governance
Governance ensures transparency which ensures strong

and balanced political, social, economic and

environmental developments. This also ensures that the

interests of all individuals are safeguarded.

Governance has a broad scope. It includes both public

and private aspects as well as global aspect ……

 Scope of Governance

Public Private (Corporate) Global

Governance Governance Governance
1- Public Governance :

refers to the formal and informal arrangements that

determine how public decisions are made and how

public actions are carried out, from the perspective of

maintaining a country's constitutional values when facing

changing problems.
  Definition of Sound Public Governance
• Sound public governance consists of the formal and informal rules, procedures,
practices and interactions within the State, and between the State, non-state
institutions and citizens, that frame the exercise of public authority and decision-
making in the public interest.
• Sound public governance constitutes a condition for democracies to give effect to
the respect for the rule of law and human rights, with efficient democratic
institutions lying at the core of sound public governance.
• Sound public governance is therefore the combination of three interconnected
elements:
• Values: context-dependent principles of behaviour that guide public governance
across all of its dimensions in a way that advances and sustain the public interest.
• Enablers: an integrated nexus of practices that supports the effective design and
implementation of reforms.
• Instruments and tools: a set of policies and management practices for efficient
governance and policy and service design, implementation and evaluation.
Public governance is the overseeing the administrative and process
elements of governing.

In general terms, public governance occurs in three broad ways:

 Through networks involving public-private partnership or with
the collaboration of community organisations.
 Through the use of mechanisms to allocate resources while
operating under government regulation.
 Through top-down methods that primarily involve governments.
 Values-based culture of sound public governance
• Canada uses the following statement of values within its public sector
code:
• "These values are a compass to guide public servants in everything
they do. They cannot be considered in isolation from each other as they
will often overlap. This Code and respective organizational codes of
conduct are important sources of guidance for public servants.
Organizations are expected to take steps to integrate these values into
their decisions, actions, policies, processes and systems. Similarly,
public servants can expect to be treated in accordance with these
values by their organisation."
• Source: Example of country practice provided by the Government of Canada as
part of the Policy Framework's consultation process
2- Private (Corporate) Governance;

the system of rules, practices and processes by which a

company is directed and controlled.

It deals with determining ways to take effective

strategic decisions. It gives ultimate authority and
complete responsibility to the Board of Directors or the
Governing Body.
In general terms, private governance occurs;

- when non-governmental entities, including private

organizations, or other third-party groups, make rules

and/or standards which have a binding effect on the

quality of life and opportunities of the community.

3- Global governance:

Global governance is defined as "the formal and informal

institutions, mechanisms, relationships, and processes between
and among states, citizens and organizations, both nationally
and internationally, governmental non-governmental, through
which interests on the global level are articulated, right and
obligations are established, and differences are mediated".
Principles of Good
Governance…..
What do we mean by Good Governance ?
Good governance means that processes and

institutions produce results that meet the needs of

society while making the best use of resources. The

concept of efficiency in the context of good

governance also covers the sustainable use of natural

resources and the protection of the environment.

Good governance is a way of measuring how…..

public and private (institutions) conduct public

and private (affairs) and manage public and

private (resources) in a proper way.

 Codes of conduct for civil servants in Denmark
• In 2007, the Danish government issued the Code of Conduct in the Public Sector to clarify the basic duties
and responsibilities of public sector employees. In 2015, the Danish ministry of Finance launched Code VII-
Seven Key Duties targeted more specifically at employees and managers in central government to
supplement the Code of Conduct. Code VII describes seven key duties of civil servants in central
government as follows:
• Legality
• Truthfulness
• Professionalism
• Development and cooperation
• Responsibility and management
• Openness about errors
• Party-political neutrality
• A revised edition of the Code of conduct in the Public Sector was published in 2017. It reflects Code VII
guidelines, as well as the Local Government Denmark’s Code of Quality and Ethics in the Public
Administration which contains recommendations for the relationship between local politicians and the
public administration. Additionally, reference is made to the Ministry of justice’s guide How to Avoid
Corruption.
• Source: Agency for modernization, Local Government Denmark and Danish Regions (2017)
UK Register of People with Significant Control

• On 6 April 2016, the United Kingdom became the first G20

country to require private companies to create a People with
Significant Control (PSC) register and make that information
publicly available.
• People with significant control, or beneficial owners, are the
person or persons who ultimately own or control the company
and benefit from it. The information is available in open-data
format on the Companies House website. Registers of
beneficial ownership aim to tackle crimes such as tax evasion,
corruption and money laundering by preventing people from
hiding assets and income.
 The importance of pursuing transparency
• Transparency is critical to include citizens in policy-making and to build
trust in public institutions. The opening-up of government processes,
proceedings, documents and data for public scrutiny and involvement is
a prerequisite to achieve better stakeholder engagement, inclusiveness,
integrity and accountability in public governance.
• In this regard, the OECD, through its Recommendation on Open
Government (2017), suggests that governments should make available
clear, complete, timely, reliable and relevant public sector data and
information that is free of cost, available in an open and non-proprietary
machine-readable format. The OECD also recommends governments to
adopt transparent practices in other public governance areas such as
public integrity, budgeting, public procurement and regulatory policy.
 • What mechanisms you
think should be in place to
Question in ensure that public
institutions hold each other
groups to account on behalf of the
people and that check and
balances are respected in
the country?
Terminologies …..

Scope
Principles
Private
Global
Public
Perspective
Proper
Develop
Partnership
Conduct