Director of the Central Inspection, Georges Attieh said: "It is no secret that reforming the Lebanese public administration has become a matter of urgency and necessity rather than a choice." Reform paves the way for economic and social prosperity and constitutes the foundation upon which a modern State can be built," he added. Speaking at a press conference on the findings of the first stage of the "sectoral and organizational performance assessment" project for six pioneering administrations at the Grand Serail, Mr Attieh said: "The public administration is the government's executive arm. Therefore, it is necessary to build its capacities by modernizing its structure and functions, developing its human resources, devising strategic plans and reinforcing oversight committees."
"Public administrations suffer from weak oversight and accountability, and the lack of periodic reports on performance and achievements, that can provide a basis for oversight and accountability. It was therefore necessary to reinforce the role of the Central Inspection by adopting the 'sectoral and organizational assessment' approach. As is the case of many other oversight authorities, the Central Inspection was established almost fifty years ago, during the term of President Fouad Chehab. The experiences of oversight authorities around the world have shown that inspection is not limited to the traditional approach of oversight (i.e. ensuring the proper enforcement of laws and regulations); nay, it includes oversight over the performance of public administrations by monitoring the proper use of financial and human resources put at their service to implement projects and achieve goals. In fact, the purpose of such oversight is to identify and address weaknesses and deficiencies."
"For all these reasons together, 'institutional, sectoral and organizational performance assessment' was incorporated as a key element in the proposed amendment of Legislative Decree No. 115/59 on the establishment of the Central Inspection. The Central Inspection, in cooperation with the office of the Minister of State for Administrative Development, has already begun to implement the pilot stage of the project in six administrations. These administrations are: Economy and Trade, Industry, Finance (Directorate of Revenues), Public Works and Transport (Directorate-General of Urban Planning), Energy and Water (Directorate-General of Hydraulic and Electrical Resources) and Education and Higher Education (Directorate of Primary Education). In coordination with both the office of the Minister of State for Administrative Development and the Central Inspection, these administrations have developed the first template related to identifying the main sectoral and organizational areas of performance. They have also identified key and secondary performance indicators for these areas and required sources of information, while setting targets and measures for each indicator to conduct proper assessment and benchmarking."
"Today, we have completed the final report on the first pilot stage for 2017, which includes an assessment of administrations' sectoral performance. A number of recommendations were proposed to improve performance, in hopes that we will be verifying in the coming years the progress of the relevant administrations in implementing these recommendations. We will also make sure that automation is happening across the board with full data entry and processing, through coordination between the IT Departments of the Central Inspection and the office of the Minister of State for Administrative Development. This will enable the relevant administration and the Central Inspection to track the stages of performance assessment and provide feedback to enhance performance remotely and instantaneously."
"I must commend the level of cooperation shown to us by the administrations that participated in the first pilot year of the project and their willingness to work more effectively in the coming years. This demonstrates their belief in this project and in the need for reform. Through this project, the relevant ministries would have the ability to conduct an internal assessment of their activities, have internal oversight of their operations and endeavor to achieve their goals, with a view to providing the best possible service to the citizens to recover their trust in the State and its institutions. I should also mention that the performance indicators set for each administration will form the basis of the semi-annual report prepared by the Director-General on the work of their administration. This report will be submitted to the minister, with copies thereof sent to oversight authorities as per Decree No. 111/59."
"As for the findings of this first pilot year, they can be summed up as follows:
1) The lack of strategic plans in some administrations, which negatively affects the allocation of required funds to achieve their set goals.
2) The lack of information required for some indicators, mainly due to the lack of communication and coordination between different administrative units within each ministry; between the central administration and its regional units; between the administration and the public institutions within its remit; or between the different administrations working on common issues, which negatively affects public interest.
3) The need to reinforce internal, hierarchical oversight within the administration and to instill and apply the concepts of self-evaluation, by submitting quarterly reports on the functioning of the administration and holding periodic meetings between the officials and their subordinates in the different units.
4) The lack of plans that are based on the capacity building and regular training needs of human resources.
5) The lack of a clear job description in some units.
6) The lack of a performance evaluation system for employees and the need to develop a new system for evaluation that takes into consideration the changes in administrative missions and how to perform them.
7) The lack of mechanisms to measure citizens' satisfaction with the provided services.
8) The need to adopt yearly public budgets to facilitate the work of ministries.
9) The severe understaffing, which exceeds in some administrations half of the cadre specified by law, that compromises the ability to achieve their desired goals.
10) The shortage in logistics in some administrations.
11) The absence of a digital archive in some administrations, which makes it impossible to track the flow of information and data and weakens the credibility and efficiency of performance assessment and organization.
12) The obsolete organizational structures of the administration and the need to modernize them to keep up with recent developments.
13) The need to reinforce administrative decentralization."
"The pioneering public administrations that took part in the first pilot stage of the project will become a role model for other administrations. I would like here to thank the team of the office of the Minister of State for Administrative Development and her Excellency Minister May Chidiac, who invested herself fully in order to forge ahead with the second pilot stage. They worked hard to include new ministries in the project, revisit some indicators with representatives from the concerned administrations and add new indicators, like risk assessment and management indicators. One motive drove all those efforts: promoting the performance of our public administration. Yes, this project requires concerted efforts by all stakeholders. Allow me, in this regard, to salute all inspectors, nameley the administrative Inspector-General, Mr Fadi Haydamous, the Central Administration Inspector-General, Mrs. Houry Dersarkissian, and all other specialized inspectors of the Central Inspection. I encourage them to keep up the hard work and put in more effort in this journey of reform for the better of our beloved country, Lebanon. We do not lack anti-corruption laws, although some do require some upgrading; what we do need is to enforce the laws we already have in place adequately."
"The international community is awaiting reforms on our part as a prerequisite to extend assistance that would help revamp and support our national economy. This will all be enabled through the structural support promised by the "All-for-Work" Government, headed by his Excellency Prime Minister, Saad Hariri. What we wish to see through this support, your Excellency, is more efforts to reinforce the Central Inspection at all levels, like addressing the severe shortage in its personnel, meeting its logistical needs, honoring its circulars and decisions, preventing measures that would impede its work or undermine its authority and independence, and eliminate legislative obstacles that compromise its power to perform its missions."
"Finally, I must stop at one essential need: it is extremely important to take the administrative cadres to a higher level that puts the performance of the public sector on the same outstanding par with the private sector. This can be achieved by embracing news systems for evaluation and assessment, which would create the required level of trust to promote partnerships between the private and public sectors."
"Last but not least, I would like to thank you for accepting our invitation and to express my gratitude for your support, which greatly contributes to the betterment of our public administrations and our beloved Lebanon."
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