| 30 Jun 2010 |
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Hassan urges private-sector role in boosting state efficiency
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30 June 2010
BEIRUT: Finance Minister Raya Hassan called for a more sustained involvement of the private sector in improving the efficiency of public agencies while speaking during a panel discussion on organization and technology at the American University of Beirut.
Giving the keynote speech, Hassan called in particular for private universities to better accommodate the needs of the public sector.
“The academia has to step up to a role which I think has been less than adequately addressed so far,” she said.
“We ask that some of [the academic] research trickle down to [the public sector], and that some of these academic programs begin to cater to the needs of the public sector.”
Drawing on her long experience at managing large bureaucracies, the minister highlighted what she termed a “gap” in the public sector’s know-how when it comes to the design and implementation of programs.
“In all projects I [was involved in], I felt there was a need for education, training, and research knowledge. But it is somewhat different from the knowledge we are used to receiving from the academia,” she said.
While the minister said the government does not dispose of the sufficient resources to completely fill the knowledge gap plaguing the governmental sector, she said this was a challenge the private sector was better equipped to confront.
“It is … the assistance from the private sector which we are really craving,” she said, adding she however recognized that incentives to spur this assistance were currently “less than ideal.”
In particular, she asked private research institutions to provide non-degree programs aimed at public servants.
Hassan also lamented the frequent mismatch between the expertise produced by organizational experts in the academia, and the needs of public sector employees “caught in the heat of the action.”
Finally, Hassan reminded the audience that private entrepreneurs would eventually reap the benefits of taking higher responsibilities in improving the public sector’s competence given the inherent “partnership” between the two parties.
Following the talk, members of the audience expressed their reservations at the minister’s message and suggested that the prevailing practice of cronyism when hiring public servants enticed qualified Lebanese to seek employment abroad. “The government is not tapping our resources. We are exporting graduates and talent,” argued a member of the audience.
In answering the remarks, the minister said that while she took stock of the general concern for the so-called “brain drain” phenomenon, she put her trust in the strategy her government has devised to tackle the problem.
“How we address it? We think that to be able to keep the quality people in Lebanon, we need to do it through a growth agenda. To do that, we have to start addressing the barriers that are hindering growth.”
© Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
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