Micronesia, Federated States of : Public Administration Review of the National Government

Public sector management / Public administration

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has long recognized the importance of having a public administration that is responsive, effective, efficient and accountable. The "Development Framework - Looking to the Future", which was presented at the Development Partners Forum in November 2012, reiterates this notion once again. The track-record of past efforts to achieve this objective has, however, been mixed.

In the late 1990s, FSM embarked on a program of public sector reform, with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This initiative emphasized the need to (i) sharply reduce the number of public servants and (ii) shift the balance of economic activity away from the public to the private sector. The reform reduced the number of public servants by 22% and while the size of the civil service has been modestly increasing since, the total number of civil servants is still 16% lower than it was prior to the reform.

At the same time, the Government has noted that the approach taken was not sufficiently balanced, in that it was too one-sidedly focused on incremental, unprioritized expenditure cuts without sufficiently considering the need to link the downsizing to a strategic plan for a future public service, focused on retaining critical numbers of qualified staff. Finally, the employment capacity in the private sector did not grow as expected, and did not absorb the separated civil servants to the extent anticipated.

Restrictions imposed upon the public service in order to reduce wage and salary costs, have impacted adversely on morale of civil servants, and have reduced incentives to perform at high standards. This has induced difficulties to maintain acceptable standards of service delivery and to perform core governmental functions, including planning and budgeting.

It is in this context that the national government has articulated the need to (i) carefully revisit the organizational set-up of its public administration and the management of the National Public Services System; and (ii) develop options to strengthen the institutional and human resource foundations to enable more responsive, efficient and accountable public service.

The proposed technical assistance (TA) is aligned with the Pacific Approach 2010-2014 , which identifies public sector management as a driver of change in the Pacific, and is included in the 2012 TA program in the FSM COBP 2012-2014.

Overall political and administrative consensus on the need for revising the NPSS, and adoption of the recommended approach

OPR endorses measures to strengthen the national public administration and public service for submission to Congress

1. Assessment of the rationale for the national government's public administration set-up, and National Public Service System.

2. Options for alternative institutional and organizational arrangements in the national public administration submitted to OPR

3. Options for revisions to the NPSS operational manuals submitted to OPR.