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86/89/M, and 87/89/M). These laws combined to form the civil service regulations prior to the Handover, in which Chapter 7 stipulates the rules and regulations for performance assessment. After the Handover, under the call of “Macao people governing Macao,” the government was facing an increasing public demand for a more accountable government.2 This demand surfaced as a result of cumulative dissatisfaction toward a conservative and non-responsive government during the colonial rule. The problems with the Macao civil service were many-fold, including lacking transparency, corruption, and lacking meritocracy, which led to an unhealthy civil service culture. This chapter examines the problems in the Macao civil service, the efforts in performance management reform, how the problems in the civil service had hindered the reform, and future development.
25.2 Theoretical Basis of the Reform
The government’s reform strategy was based on the reform experiences in other countries, including: the United States, Canada, the UK, Portugal, France, Germany, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and New Zealand.3 The reform, including performance management, was based on some well-known theories and concepts originated from these countries, including New Public Management, Citizen’s Charter, re-inventing government, and Total Quality Management (TQM).
Macao’s reform strategy has evolved since its inception after the Handover. To begin with, it adopted an approach similar to the performance pledges in Hong Kong, which was modeled on the UK’s Citizen Charter. The reform emphasized the importance of forming a client culture, with the slogan of “putting the people’s interest first,”4 and incorporated many features of the British reform, such as using performance indicators, program performance review and evaluation, performance-based rewards for staff,5 and output and outcome emphases.6 The need for new concepts and a new system of management was recognized7 and heavy emphasis was placed on core, consequences, customer, and culture strategies (Lam, 2005). The government revised the system for employee performance assessment. Performance incentives were introduced. Recently, the reform effort has stressed a holistic approach, emphasizing improving management process as much as program results, hence moving toward TQM (see later analysis). So far, the reform has not linked budget to program performance or used the market as a benchmark for performance comparison. The government is still executive led and decentralization has not occurred on any significant scale (Lam, 2005).
2See http://www.gov.mo, “Government Policy Plan for the Year 2000: Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), March 29, 2000, p. 2.
3A study of the reforms in these 12 countries, entitled “A Comparison Analysis of Civil Service Systems, 2003,” was conducted by the University of Macau for the Macao government.
4See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2002 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 20,
2001, p. 18.
5 Macao’s civil service executives are already on fi xed-term contracts.
6For example, public opinion surveys would be used in 2008 to assess the performance of all government departments with external services.
7As indicated in the chief executive’s inaugural policy address, it was the government’s prime concern to introduce a new culture with a new model for public services. See http://www.gov.mo, “Government Policy Plan for the Year 2000: Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), March 29, 2000, pp. 11–12.
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Numerous scholars have indicated that hasty reform without adequate consideration for the impacts on employees and civil service culture would bring opposite effects. Boston (1999) warns that constant restructuring would subject employees to a long period of uncertainty, consequently damaging morale, commitment, and productivity. Kernaghan and Siegel (1999: 554–574) indicate that reforms can have adverse effects since employees frequently view performance assessment with trepidation. Hughes (2004: 149–164) points out the difficulties in designing adequate, meaningful, and parsimonious performance indicators, and warns that reforms can damage morale as employees might consider job security to have been eroded. Metcalf (2004), in a study of police management, found 45% of the study respondents disagreed with a new performance improvement scheme because it subjected the employees to increasing monitoring, surveillance, and control. Chief executive Edmund Ho was obviously aware of the potential downfall of reform and frequently urged caution in the reform process. For example, in his policy address for 2001, he indicated that ideal should not be expected to be realized overnight8 and, in his policy address for 2003, he said, “Haste makes waste,”9 when referring to civil service reform. However, despite his cautiousness, the reform still encountered serious resistance (Lam, 2006), as the following analysis indicates.
25.3 Historical Background
Ever since the Handover, the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has emphasized improving performance management as a significant part of its civil service reform. Shortly after the Handover, the government issued a dispatch (Despacho da Secretária para a Administração e Justiça no. 1/2000) requiring civil servants to identify themselves in dealing with the public in order to improve public relations. In October 2000, the government issued another dispatch (Despacho da Secretária para a Administração e Justiça no. 13/2000) requiring all government departments to improve their administrative systems, including collecting suggestions from the public and handling complaints and disputes. These changes started Macao’s civil service reform.10
In his policy address for 2001, the chief executive emphasized that “serving the people” as not only “a basic concept in international public administration,” but also “the essence of traditional Chinese administrative culture.”11 He stated that the morale of civil servants should be boosted through objective and scientific performance assessment and a corresponding reward and punishment system. He emphasized the need for service commitment and that government departments should seek ISO9000 quality management certification. This certificate, issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is granted only to organizations having
8See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2001 of the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 9,
2000, p. 3.
9See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2003 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 20, 2002, p. 15.
10See http://app.safp.gov.mo/qs.
11See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2001 of the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 9, 2000, p. 12.
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met the international consensus on good quality management practices.12 The certificate is issued only after detailed examination of the applying organization’s performance management system and practices. Furthermore, the chief executive emphasized the importance of fighting corruption and promoting value-for-money auditing.13 Performance pledges were introduced subsequently, and the government indicated that the implementation should be comprehensive and include all government departments.14 In the policy address for 2002, he advocated “putting the people’s interest first” as the principle for performance improvement and stated that civil service laws and regulations would be reviewed to improve the mechanism for evaluating, promoting, and rewarding civil servants. He also warned that, once the review was completed, “action will be taken against personnel who underperformed,” so that the reward and disciplinary system would help Macao’s civil service culture to keep pace with best international practice.15
In 2003, the government commissioned a study by an academic institute to examine the international practices in civil service reform, in particular in the recruitment, career development and promotion, retrenchment, and retirement of civil servants.16 The study examined civil service personnel systems in twelve governments, including some countries well known for their reform strategies, such as the United States, the UK, and New Zealand. The report of this study presents a number of recommendations for improving Macao’s civil service, including improving civil service performance incentives.17
In the policy address for 2005, chief executive Edmund Ho indicated that conservative bureaucratic culture still stubbornly existed in some government departments and that their service delivery had derailed from the concept of putting people first. Furthermore, he indicated that “Certain undesirable and bad administrative problems have resurfaced.”18 Subsequently, the government revamped the civil servant performance assessment system.
In the policy address for 2006, he indicated that “the enthusiasm and fighting spirit of some Government officials… has begun to wane.”19 In the policy address for 2007, he criticized civil servants for working “mechanically without self-revaluation or reflection,” and indicated that certain government officials neglected their duties and cared only about self-interests.20 In the policy address for 2008, he emphasized the importance of performance assessment and personnel man-
12See http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000/iso_9000_essentials. htm.
13Ibid., pp. 13–14.
14See http://app.safp.gov.mo/qs/pledge_intro.
15See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2002 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 20, 2001, p. 18.
16The study, entitled “A Comparison Analysis of Civil Service Systems, 2003,” was conducted by the University of Macau.
17This study report was classified as confidential at the time of writing this chapter.
18See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2005 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 16, 2004, p. 5.
19See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2006 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 15, 2005, p. 5.
20See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2007 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (English translated version), November 16, 2006, p. 6.
©2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC