Strategies: Overlapping powers and multiple committees weaken the ability to take decisions
Amman Today
publish date 2021-08-15 18:40:17
The Jordan Strategy Forum issued a policy paper entitled: “The Governance Framework and Strengthening the Decision-Making Mechanism in Jordan,” in which it outlined the Kingdom’s performance within global governance indicators.
The paper, in which a number of local experts participated in reviewing its initial version, reviewed the most important challenges faced by government institutions in implementing good governance practices, and the main possibilities for enhancing their work within a comprehensive framework that clarifies the roles of all actors and the mechanisms used in decision-making.
The forum paper, which was announced by the forum today, Sunday, indicated that governance is a basic requirement to ensure the development of the government sector and to take rational decisions that take into account the requirements and expectations of all stakeholders and beneficiaries of government sector services, as the decline in the efficiency of government performance and hesitation in decision-making, for many reasons, Contributed to the deterioration in the level of confidence in public institutions, which is indicated by the poor performance of Jordan on the relevant international indicators.
In the context of Jordan’s performance on the global governance index, which consists of 6 main sub-indicators, the paper’s data indicated that Jordan’s performance was weak within the various axes of the global governance index, indicating the importance of looking at these indicators in preparation for taking remedial measures, as Jordan’s performance declined within the “axis” The rule of law” in recent years, in addition to the decline in Jordan’s performance in the “quality of legislation” axis, and Jordan’s score in the “government effectiveness” axis is still low. Despite the progress of Jordan’s performance in the axes of “participation and accountability” and “political stability and absence of violence” compared to the Arab countries, Jordan’s score is still low.
The policy paper issued by the forum dealt with two main axes, namely “Strengthening the Governance Framework” and “The Decision-Making Mechanism”, as it discussed the available ways to enhance the governance framework and suggested appropriate formulas to define a clear mechanism to be followed in the decision-making process based on sound and comprehensive foundations. This is in order to enhance the values of justice, equality, rule of law and transparency, which in turn will contribute to preserving public money and achieving quality and excellence in performance.
With regard to strengthening the governance framework, the paper clarified the most prominent points related to this axis, which in turn limits the application of best governance practices in the public sector, represented in the absence of a clear reference for framing governance on the basis of building a unified and comprehensive framework for all stakeholders, as the process of implementing and following up the principles Governance in Jordan lacks the presence of a body or institution that monitors the implementation of the instructions issued in this regard, which results in defective outputs, in addition to the lack of continuity and sustainability of most efforts and initiatives related to public sector development and institutional work. This is a result of the rapid change in successive governments, which made the institutionalization of the development of government work ineffective or of tangible impact, as the paper attributed the reason to the change of strategies followed or due to the integration of ministries and institutions concerned in this field sometimes or the formation of independent committees and units in isolation from the ministries and the relevant institutions at other times, which made the level of progress in framing the concept of governance limited.
The paper also showed that the public administration in Jordan was marred by some defects as a result of weakening the role of some administrative leaders in implementing the concept of governance (such as general secretaries), in addition to not giving them sufficient powers or tools that would enable them to exercise their leadership role, as the minister was given authority independently of the general secretaries. Although, in practice, they are the executive directors of the ministries.
The paper also indicated that the system of incentives and bonuses followed in the public sector no longer achieves the desired goals, and contributed to reducing the culture of competition and productivity among public sector employees, indicating that the incentives became part of the salary worthy of a large number of employees and are not given based on performance evaluation.
The paper showed that the lack of clarity in the legislative environment regulating the work of government institutions and departments, and the overlap of laws and references in some cases, hinders the level of coordination between the relevant official authorities, and contributes to the emergence of institutional conflict, and this problem appears clearly with regard to the business and investment environment in Jordan.
In a related context, and to ensure that the decision is not held accountable after it was taken, the official has become dependent in his decision on the recommendations of the committees, so that the formation of the committees has become a prominent feature of any issue raised in the public sector, which in turn constitutes an obstacle to the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, in addition to the fact that poor information The availability and the lack of sufficient studies related to policies at the level of departments and institutions, affects the ability of the committees to rule or take decisions in a sound manner.
The paper also indicated that the confusion between the supervisory and executive role of the supervisory authorities contributed to a negative impact on the development of institutional performance and delaying it, by interfering with some practices that concern the competent authority, which in turn constitutes an additional burden for the decision-making process in Jordan.
In its paper, the forum recommended the need to build an integrated framework based on a number of basic pillars that guarantee comprehensive reform, transparency, independence, and consistency between different institutions, represented in the development of a comprehensive national strategy based on its application on the principle of “top to bottom,” through which initiatives are formed. It can be implemented at the level of different ministries or economic sectors, with the necessity of networking between the concerned ministries such as the ministries of planning and finance to achieve the plans and strategies of the various ministries, and in a manner that facilitates securing the necessary budget for various projects and initiatives in the short, medium and long term, and refocusing the Ministry of Planning on internal coordination in a balanced manner, The Ministry’s greater focus is on international cooperation rather than its role in local planning.
The paper stressed the need to enhance the enabling environment in Jordan, as ministries and government institutions adopted the role of the service provider more than the enabling role, which is concerned with setting strategies and defining legislation and organizational structures on the basis of cooperation with the private sector and specialists from different spectrums of civil society and government units, which contributes, In turn, in identifying talents and skills that align with responsibilities; In order to achieve strategies that suffer primarily from continuous change.
In another context, the paper stressed the need to adopt an agile and flexible organization to enhance the relationship between all institutions, and facilitate the flow of information and decision-making, so that the focus becomes on the final outputs required, which will lead to ease of prioritizing plans according to importance and applying them in all institutions, through Automation of government services, as the automation of operations means adherence to specific procedures that apply to recipients of all government services.
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Source : اخبار الاردن