Information current to September 1995

Thanks to the vigorous efforts of all government agencies, the Administrative Reform Program has generated concrete benefits since it went into effect in September 1993. Among the findings of a public opinion survey conducted by RDEC (May 1995) are that more than 82.3% of respondents approve of the implementation of administrative reform; the number of respondents who are aware that the government has instituted an administrative reform program has risen from 20.6% a year ago to 64.4% this year; and 52% of respondents approve of the program and 39.5% disapprove. According to this year's "Global Competitiveness Report" issued by the International Management Development Institute (IMD) in Lausanne Switzerland, in terms of overall competitiveness the R.O.C. has already leapt to eleventh place among 48 leading countries and regions of the world (the R.O.C. had ranked only eighteenth out of 41 countries during the previous year). The positive results of administrative reform are clearly shown by the fact that the R.O.C. had climbed from eleventh place a year ago to fifth place this year (1995) in the section of this report concerning government efficiency.

I. Major Benefits of Implementing Administrative Reform

2. Putting government agencies on a sound organizational basis; trimming current personnel rosters: After preliminary deliberation of reports reviewing the organization structure and personnel rosters of 22 central government agencies (including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and organizational adjustment reports concerning 13 categories of regional and central government agencies (including environmental protection units), one agency, 14 units, nine task forces and three public enterprise organizations were abolished, one unit was reorganized, two agencies were put under a different jurisdiction, four agencies had their function modified, and another ten agencies, one unit and six task forces were reorganized and merged to form six agencies and one task force. As for the regularization of the organizational structure of government agencies, eight draft laws including the "Organic Law for the Central Personnel Administration, Executive Yuan, Civil Service Personnel Development Center" were completed and submitted to the Legislative Yuan for scrutiny. In the area of
3. Putting government finances on a sound basis; reducing budget deficits: The sale or rental of public land generated additional income to the national treasury of NT$10.3 billion in fiscal year 1995. As far as the annual budget surplus are concerned, in 1994 there was a small surplus of NT$100 million, and in 1995 this had greatly increased to NT$88.6 billion. The total national debt at the time of the final accounting for fiscal year 1995 was NT$1.1238 trillion, or NT$131.2 billion less than the projected NT$1.2550 trillion 1995 debt and NT$73.1 billion less than the projected NT$1.1969 trillion 1994 debt. As part of an effort to rationalize the collection of fees, review and adjustment of government agency fee- collection standards has covered 3,724 different items, and the review of service functions has added 48 new items for which fees will be collected. In order to encourage private investment in public construction projects, the "Statute for Encouragement of Private Participation in Transportation Projects" has been drawn up with the goal of reducing the government's financial burden through the promotion of BOT (Build--Operate--Transfer) projects in which ownership is transferred to the government after construction and operation by means of private capital. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is planning to put management of the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport Hotel in private hands; the CAA's evaluation committee has already selected the Yi Fu Securities Company to assume operations, and will fully transfer the hotel to this firm's control in June 1996. The Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is entrusting the development of the Yunlin Industrial District and the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park to private contractors. The Taichung Harbor Bureau has privatized the operation of wharf and warehouse facilities, and the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau has allowed the private sector to build and rent the fifth containerized cargo center at Kaohsiung harbor. The Taipei and Kaohsiung municipal governments are offering financial incentives to encourage private investment in the construction of parking areas and other facilities. As far as the privatization of public enterprises is concerned, stock has already been issued for Farmer's Commercial Bank, the China Steel Corporation, and the Yangming Marine Transport Corporation; privatization of the China Petrochemical Development Corporation, the Chinese Engineering Corporation, the Chung Kuo Insurance Co., Ltd., and the China Steel Corporation was completed recently.

4. Raising administrative efficiency; enhancing the effectiveness of administrative work: The government's administrative efficiency has seen a distinct improvement since the implementation of administrative reforms. According to the "1995 Global Competitiveness Report" issued by the International Management Development Institute (IMD) in Lausanne Switzerland, in terms of this report's government efficiency index the R.O.C. rose from eleventh to fifth place over the last year. In March of 1995 the American Commercial Environment Risk Assessment Organization ranked the R.O.C. third, behind only Singapore and Switzerland, in the results of its government efficiency assessment for 1994. Apart from drafting the "Administrative Procedures Law" and submitting it to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation, the Executive Yuan has also made the following efforts in the area of administrative efficiency: Civil servants have been encouraged to actively participate in reform and take the initiative in contributing their suggestions. In order to improve the quality of services and operations, government agencies have organized "service improvement task forces" that have adopted methods similar to the industrial sector's "quality control circle" activities. In order to streamline government services, fifty service items have been selected from lists compiled by government agencies and commissioned or contracted to private enterprises. At the same time, office automation and the computerization of paperwork is being promoted among administrative agencies; in order to foster a fully computerized environment, the "Official Document Handling Modernization Program" has been announced. On a related note, the transmission of digital documents between networked agencies has raised the efficiency of paperwork and enabled document search work that previously required several hours to be completed in ten or twenty minutes. With the automation of front-line offices, the great increase in document handling efficiency has enabled such agriculture-, civil administration-, or construction-related services as land zoning checks, rice paddy conversion or fallowing, and "3-7- 5" land rental agreements to now be completed in three to five hours instead of the former one to three weeks.

5. Effecting institutional reform; enhancing public service: The Administrative Reform Service Task Force is comprehensively reviewing such areas as "manpower evaluations," "low-level residential administrative services," "food safety and sanitation management," "public construction quality improvement," "convenient automated public services," "land registration and changes in land use," "industrial and commercial registrations," and "building administration," and has come up with 226 detailed suggestions for improvement--an increase of 141 suggestions over 1994. Institutional reform committees organized by individual agencies have been actively formulating ways to improve and simplify such matters of direct concern to the public as regulations, administrative frameworks, and application procedures; a total of 165 specific suggestions for improvement have been submitted to the Executive Yuan. The implementation of inter-agency computer networks has primarily targeted such public-oriented services as residential administration, land administration, finance, taxation, and health care. The use of computer networks will help integrate existing computerized services, allowing agencies to offer convenient public application and retrieval services. The full installation of information systems in residential administration offices throughout the various districts of Taipei and Kaohsiung now allows convenient inter-office service. All land administration offices in Taipei are currently able to conduct inter-office information retrieval. In Kaohsiung land and residential registration records can be easily retrieved via computer networks. In order to improve civil servants' service attitude, all government agencies are actively conducting courtesy activities. In an attempt to collect citizens' suggestions, agencies have installed B. In order to review and diagnose service problems of immediate concern to the public, Executive Yuan's "Administrative Reform Service Task Force" will conduct on-site visits with front-line personnel in daily contact with the public, and will invite specialists and interested citizens to hold discussion meetings on the subject. This "bottom to top" soliciting of outside opinions will be followed by "top to bottom" planning and implementation of reform measures. The fact that many suggestions have been adopted and accepted shows the value of this process. Nevertheless, this reform method is only being planned and executed at the Executive Yuan level, and it remains for agencies at various levels to follow suit, form a consensus on the necessity of change, and carry out the most important reforms through measures at the grassroots level. According to public opinion surveys taken by RDEC over the last few years, in the eyes of the public the three problems it would most like to see the government resolve are those of traffic, environmental protection, and public order. Accordingly, in 1996 the Administrative Reform Service Task Force will focus its attentions on the efforts of county and municipal governments to improve traffic, environmental protection, and public order, and will encourage grassroots-level personnel to actively participate.

3. Stepping up Efforts to Eliminate Corruption and Malfeasance; Giving Government an Image of Honesty

Since the implementation of the "Corruption Elimination Plan," there has been a considerable increase in the nation's corruption and malfeasance cases, the number of cases and persons prosecuted after investigation, and the proportion of cases ending in convictions. In spite of this success, there still a clear gap between what has been achieved and what is expected by society. At present the Executive Yuan has already approved changing the name of the "Corruption Elimination Action Plan" to the "Rectification of Government Ethics Action Plan," has agreed to establish the "Clean Government Commission," and has instructed executive agencies to adjust their anti-corruption organizational frameworks as soon as possible. The anti-corruption or corruption-prevention laws that have already been drawn up or amended include such aspects as lowering the threshold at which punishment is required in corruption cases, the possible change of "profit-seeking offenses" to the "resulting crimes," and transparency in cases of requests for mitigation of customs. In order to maximize the success of the anti-corruption program, it will be necessary to collect suggestions from all sectors, achieve a consensus among the various parties, and formulate suitable measures. Agency heads should be entrusted with setting a personnel example for those under them, cooperating fully with efforts to bring to light and stamp out corruption, supervising and guiding investigations at successive levels, and actively tracking down administrative negligence on the part of suspected personnel who cannot yet be prosecuted. From now on implementation of the government ethics plan will employ the strategies of "equal attention paid to uncovering and preventing corruption; simultaneous implementation and revision of laws." In addition, corruption-prevention education will be augmented. It is hoped that a variety of measures proceeding simultaneously will gradually lead to the elimination of the afflictions of corruption and misconduct.

4. Rationally Readjusting Human Resources and Organizational Structures in Order to Effectively Utilize Civil Service Manpower

In the two years since the implementation of administrative reform began, positive results have already resulted from efforts to reduce personnel and readjust the organization structures of various agencies. Nevertheless, the attempt to cut personnel in all government agencies by five percent over three years has been hampered by the persistent importance placed on traditional human relationships. While the methods of making across-the-board cuts at certain levels or simply not filling vacant positions have been used to deal with this situation, it has been difficult to uphold the principle of "employing people where they are needed and cutting them where they are not." In addition, while all agencies have been conducting manpower evaluations, positive results have not been apparent. Fair and accurate results must be sought through the institution of scientific and objective methods that can insure that manpower is allocated or transferred where it is truly needed. Petty departmentalism must be eliminated and the tendency of personnel to resist transfers overcome. Retraining for personnel who are transferred to jobs outside their area of expertise must be planned and implemented as soon as possible so that these personnel can quickly adjust to their new responsibilities. In order to establish a highly-efficient, "lean and mean" government, efforts to coordinate structural reorganization and the trimming of personnel must be stepped up.

5. Employing Business Management Concepts to Put Government Finances on a Sound Basis

While the lease and sale of public land to increase revenue to the national treasury, the rationalization of fees and fee-collection standards, the encouragement of private investment in public construction projects, the accelerated privatization of public enterprises, and the introduction of a zero-based approach to budgets have all generated considerable successes since the beginning of the Administrative Reform Program, the review of results still requires additional efforts in many areas: Apart from ongoing review and reform of taxation and public debt, there must be active efforts to locate new sources of revenue and appropriate incentives to encourage personnel to do so; secondly, because the current management of existing public property has generated low added value, in the future methods adopted from the private business sector should be employed. The methods that the private enterprise sector employs to create income and maintain flexibility should be emulated in order to maximum revenues. In the wake of public criticism of privatization as selling state enterprises cheaply or turning them over to industrial syndicates, future privatization policy must attempt to separate ownership from operating rights. Diverse feasible privatization schemes must be formulated to facilitate the smooth progress of privatization. Furthermore, while the BOT format has already been devised to encourage private participation in government undertakings, implementation is still in the initial phase and clearly positive results are still being awaited. At this juncture the government must make a determined effort to find ways to fully employ private resources in public construction projects and in the development and utilization of public resources.

6. Promoting Convenient Automated Public Services and Raising Service Quality

The full-scale implementation of administrative automation is a major part of the R.O.C.'s Administrative Reform Program. While the various levels of government have enjoyed remarkable success in promoting the computerization of administrative tasks over the last few years, the computerization of township, town, and city district offices must be accelerated in order for truly convenient public services to be realized. An increase in the use of information technologies including telephones, fax machines, computer work stations, and cable television will further promote the rapid dissemination of information throughout the government and enable citizens to enjoy convenient access to services.

7. Delegating Responsibility to the Right Level and Effecting Control of Key Areas Through Simplification of Assessment Work

While assessment of the results of administrative reform in government agencies during 1994 was conducted employing a point system, in addition to the fact that standards for assigning points for different items are not uniform, because different agencies have different sizes, provide different types of services, and are responsible for different numbers of tasks, the results of assessments have been obscure, unfair, and often superficial. Consequently, assessment of the results of administrative reform during 1995 will use greatly simplified reporting forms, and will no longer employ a point-style evaluation method. The new assessment method will address selected salient areas, and will be conducted according to the principles of assigning responsibility to the correct level and effecting in-depth control and assessment. To enhance results, all material gathered will be computerized. The simplification of assessment procedures will enable the results of administrative reform in all government agencies to be fully assessed, thus laying a foundation for continued efforts to improve the review and evaluation of reform results in the future. In addition, the "Executive Yuan Year-End Public Service Review Procedures" has already been merged with the Administrative Reform Program's enhanced public service measures, and in order to avoid overlap, agencies at all levels will conduct assessment work in accordance with the new merged regulations.

8. Strengthening Computer Skill, Legal Knowledge, and Service Attitude Training for Civil Servants

In light of the fact that full computerization of the civil service is an inevitable trend, ongoing computer skills training for civil servants at all levels must be planned and implemented in a thorough manner. Familiarizing government employees with computer operation at an early date will enable work to be simplified, time to be saved, and the public to be better served. Apart from this, the rapid transformation of society demands that government measures, laws, and regulations must be accordingly revised or adjusted, and the government's affairs must be administered in a manner consistent with the law. Therefore, in order to effect lawabiding government administration and provide citizens with enhanced service quality, such preliminary tasks as the training of civil servants in the legal framework must be planned and carried out prior to the enactment of the "Administrative Procedures Law." In addition, the impression civil servants give citizens is just the impression the government gives citizens, and while the Administrative Reform Program has already begun to change the ingrained public image of civil servants, the attitude of frontline government employees in constant contact with the public still receives many complaints. Agencies at all levels must consequently continue to step up their efforts to train employees to have a good service attitude, and must strive to offer optimal service by instilling a correct service attitude in all employees.