Performance Management Reform in Macao 523

agement, as well as strengthening interaction with the public, including using public opinion surveys for assessing the quality of civil services.21

The facts presented above clearly indicate that the Macao government had placed a heavy emphasis on performance improvement. The results, obviously, had not been satisfactory and old undesirable habits were resurfacing. An important reason for the unsatisfactory results is a stubborn conservative civil service culture.

25.4 Problems in the Civil Service Culture

The Macao civil service was found to be lethargic, non-responsive, and lacking meritocracy under colonial rule in the findings of numerous studies.

(1)Lethargy: Under colonial rule, the civil service was plagued by small-group politics. This could partly be a result of the Chinese emphasis on personal connections and partly a result of the colonial government treating civil servants of Portuguese descent favorably. Staff promotions in the civil service were based heavily on political factors and personal connections. This culture had led to civil servants refraining from making their opinions known (Lu, 2000). In addition, the civil service had problems of unclear jurisdictions and ambiguous responsibilities among government departments, leading to overlapping services, ambiguous jurisdictions, organizational redundancy, ineffective coordination, inefficient operation, and over-bureaucratic behavior (Yu & Lu, 2000; Ao Men Fa Zhan Ce Lue Yan Jiu Zhong Xin, 1999), resulting in a situation described as: “those mobilizing people had no authority and those having the authority did not mobilize people” (Ho, 2000). In such a situation, it is difficult to expect government departments to be proactive and enterprising.

(2)Lacking meritocracy/small-group politics: The recruitment and promotion systems in the civil service were merit-based on paper, but not in practice. The colonial government lacked a standardized system or a set of standardized criteria for recruitment in the civil service. This led to a common practice of people using the “backdoor” to get recruited into the civil service. Once in the civil service, civil servants had the habit of playing small-group politics, resulting in an organizational culture that marginalized talent and favored unfair competition in staff promotion (Yu & Lu, 2000).

(3)Corruption: The colonial government was also hampered by a serious problem of corruption within the civil service. Although this problem might be attributed partly to the gambling businesses in Macao, which provided temptations for corruption, the Macao government had to bear the responsibility for its “black box” operations (Yu & Lu, 2000). Government officials were given a lot of power without sufficient monitoring. With a lethargic and non-meritocratic culture, corruptive behaviors were largely ignored and rarely reported. Furthermore, the auditing and anti-corruption agencies in Macao at the time lacked sufficient authority to monitor government operations, hence limiting its ability to curtail corruption activities (Ao Men Fa Zhan Ce Lue Yan Jiu Zhong Xin, 1999; Luo, 2003). In December 2006, the arrest of Ao Man-long,22 then Secretary of Transport and Public Works,

21See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2008 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (Chinese version), November 13, 2007, pp. 15, 42–43, 45, 48.

22South China Morning Post, January 31, pp. A1, A3, A14.

©2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

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in a gigantic corruption case, gradually revealed the seriousness of the problems mentioned above. This caused the chief executive to promise in November 2007 to expand the resources and authority of the Commission Against Corruption and also to review the Commission’s organizational structure.23

(4)Non-responsiveness: Under colonial rule, communication between the government and the public was also a problem, partly because the official language of Macao was Portuguese while most Macao people were Chinese speaking (Yu & Lu, 2000). During this era, governors of Macao were not elected. Consequently, the government lacked political accountability and did not feel the pressure to be responsive to the public (Xin Ao Men Xue She, 1999). A historical study found that Macao people had a low rate of political participation (Yu, 1999). Furthermore, Macao also lacked a high-quality civic society (Yu & Lu, 2000). The lack of pressure from the public further induced the government to become non-responsive.

As indicated in the above discussion, the unhealthy culture was induced by systemic problems that undermined meritocracy and encouraged small-group politics in the civil service. These problems are further examined below.

25.5 Systemic Problems

Prior to 2009, Macao’s civil service system was unnecessarily complex. The complexity created different classes of employees and differential treatment among them, leading to inequity and low morale. Furthermore, the system lacked performance incentives to motivate employees to do better. Chapter 24 presents a detailed account of Macao’s civil service system.

The civil service system was established in the 1980s through a number of decrees. Due to rapid social changes, parts of the system were considered by a consultation report in 2006 to be incapable of adapting to the need for administrative reform (SAFP et al., 2006: 3). The system was revamped in July 2009.

In the old system, civil servants were divided into two career tracks and seven categories of appointment. The promotion arrangement for the two tracks could be different, thereby providing room for unequal treatment. The system was also very rigid and did not allow employees to change career track easily. The terms of employment and benefits were also different for some of the categories, thereby providing more room for unequal treatment. The unequal treatment would be justifiable if employees in different categories performed different duties. However, employees in different categories were frequently doing similar jobs.

Furthermore, civil servants were divided into two main types: vertical and horizontal. The vertical type allows promotion in rank (categoria) as well as in level (escalão). The horizontal type allows only promotion in level. In accordance with Decreto-Lei no. 86/89/M, promotion in either rank or level has to meet seniority (years of service) and performance requirements. The promotion scheme, however, did not apply to all civil servants. In principle, the promotion scheme was designed for staff employees only, although two types of contracted employees could also use this scheme as reference for promotion. There was, however, no promotion scheme for those in other categories (SAFP et al., 2006: 5–6).

23See http://www.gov.mo, “Policy Address for the Fiscal Year 2008 of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) of the People’s Republic of China” (Chinese version), November 13, 2007, pp. 86–88.

©2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC