Contenu du sommaire : La maladministration

The General Public and Misadministration. Relations between civil servants and the general public should be improved by reorganization, improved reception services, human relations training for civil servants who interface with the public and reduced processing time for user inquiries and applications ; and not by manpower cuts. Users' groups are valuable buffers between the civil service and the public. However, few are aware of their existence and their resources are limited. Official support is needed.

Business and Misadministration. The business community defines misadministration as a plethora of sometimes useless and often redundant red tape which they have to fill out, and as a growing body of legislation and regulations covering their particular fields. Furthermore, the administration is unable to simplify formalities or improve tax procedures and business information services. The current structure of tax investigation is under fire, especially criteria to select taxpayers for investigation and ‘productivity' quotas for tax inspectors. The situation would improve if chartered public accounts were to certify company books.

Civil Servants and Misadministration. Civil servants sometimes have cold feet about the need to modernize administration in the face of a hostile climate, government austerity policy and compartmentalized civil service structures. Public opinion has divined the causes : in criticizing administrative procedures, its target is not the civil servants themselves, but the tools at their disposal and the slow, complex nature of procedures. Civil servant labor unions have conducted surveys and two-way information campaigns in order to better understand the needs of civil services consumers and to suggest improvements. Modernizing the civil service goes beyond spreading such two-way channels on a routine basis, to include job mobility and personalized career paths for civil servants. at their disposai and the slow, complex nature of procedures. Civil servant labor unions hâve conducted surveys and two-way information campaigns in order to better understand the needs of civil services consumers and to suggest improvements. Modernizing the civil service goes beyond spreading such two-way channels on a routine basis, to include job mobility and personalized career paths for civil servants.

National Health Insurance and De Facto Non-Coverage. Between 5 and 1 million persons have difficulty accessing health care that covers the entire population, at least in theory. Misadministration in national health insurance is characterized by complicated procedures, difficulty in reaching certain categories of the public, regulation based on categorizing people, geographically dispersed institutions and outdated welfare legislation.

Taxpayers and Tax Collection. Citizens always feel uneasy about their tax-paying duties because of the coercive nature of the tax authorities. The authorities have undertaken a program to improve human relations through two-way information campaigns aimed at several types of communities using specially-adapted technics and regional programs to encourage innovation and concerted action.

Telephone Users and the PTT. Cryptic billing, threats of cut-off, burden of proof on users and restricted access to PTT corridors of power all make users feel powerless in the face of overbilling. The PTT are adopting modem technology to provide users with new services that will prevent complaints, or handle them more efficiently, thus alleviating the current State of affairs.

Administrative Reform and Misadministration. The government is pursuing a global strategy against ‘misadministration' in the face of bureaucratic resistance and the complex nature of administrative formalities. It seeks to simplify administrative structures by reducing staff and services as well as cutting red tape.

Efficiency and democracy. Public administration should be modernized by a reform program whose objectives would be to render government more user-friendly and more cost-effective economically and socially. Information campaigns should expand ; formalities should be simplifled ; users' rights, civil servant personal responsibility strengthened ; and advanced technology should be more available. economically and socially. Information campaigns should expand ; formalities should be simplifled ; users' rights, civil servant personal responsibility strengthened ; and advanced technology should be more available.

Ten Questions to Hervé Serieyx. Given the mission of ‘innovation for the civil service', Mr. Serieyx answers 10 questions about modernizing the administration in the context of French privatization policy. He underscores the importance of ‘idea resources' the government has, but is not exploiting due to lack of information flow and considers that tools such as ‘zero defects', training investment and realistic cost accounting will lead public and private bodies to modernize convergently.

From Fatalism to Voluntarism. Misadministration is always a topical subject among political leaders and citizens alike : fatalism will only reinforce the causes, e.g. public accounting procedures, overregulation, bureaucratie stonewalling, and distortions due to uncoordinated reform mechanisms. Suggested remedies often boil down to cosmetic reform or instant miracle cures, whereas a voluntaristic attitude would be based on a coherent strategy for change, action in concert with users, better civil servant training and more delegated responsibility that encompasses the diversity of services, technics and user needs as well as the human and political dimensions.