Jordan Times
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Third phase of public sector reform programme begins
AMMAN (Petra) — The Ministry of Planning and
International Cooperation announced on Tuesday that it had embarked on the third
phase of the public sector reform programme.
The programme's coordinator, Khalaf Hadid, said the comprehensive reform plan
became essential after Jordan entered several international and regional
agreements under which signatories are committed to liberalising their national
economies.
He added that the ministerial committee, assigned to coordinate the public
sector reforms among ministries and other state agencies, is studying a plan to
re-draw the national strategy for administrative reform. The panel's
recommendations are due to be examined by the Council of Ministers in September,
Hadid said.
The amendments proposed include setting up a higher secretariat office at the
Prime Ministry tasked with coordinating the work of the various departments that
report directly to the council and implement restructuring plans of these
departments.
The official added that the government will establish a fund at the Ministry of
Administrative Development this year to finance micro-creative projects designed
by government agencies with the aim of facilitating services offered to the
public.
The public sector reform programme addresses four issues: Public administration
and civil service reforms undertaken by the Administrative Development Ministry;
modernisation of financial administration, which fall under the responsibility
of the Finance Ministry; judicial reforms, tackled by the Ministry of Justice;
and the e-government plan supervised by the Ministry of Information and
Communications Technology.
The Planning Ministry handles coordination of the programme, which is mainly
funded by Japanese and German institutions.