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The MSAR government emphasized the customer-oriented principle of NPM to change the attitude of civil servants and to improve bureaucratic performance. In 2001, 16 departments launched a performance pledge system that promised high quality service to the public (Macau Yearbook 2002, 65), and all government departments established their performance pledge program at the end of 2003 (Lam 2005, 33). Government agencies were also encouraged to adopt the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) system to guarantee their performance by constructing a standardized work procedure. By 2007, 60 public agencies had acquired ISO certification (Government Policy Plan for the Year 2008 Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China 2007, 1013). Departments conducted opinion surveys on the public’s attitude toward public services, and those with poor results were pressured to improve their services. Also, one-stop service centers were introduced so that residents could apply through a single gateway for services that involved multi-departments (Reschenthaler and Thompson 1996).7 Finally, the MSAR authorities developed e-government applications, including an Intranet in 2004 and a website for civil servants in 2007 to improve communication among departments as well as with civil servants (Government Policy Plan for the Year 2004 Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China 2005, 1011; Government Policy Plan for the Year 2008 Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China 2007, 1010). Specific details of these efforts are discussed in the chapter on performance management reform.
From the perspective of civil service reform, the importance of these efforts has been in training, rather than reward structures. Although the MSAR government adjusted the pay scale of civil servants in the 2009 reform, it emphasized the training of civil servants. Before the handover, the training of bureaucrats focused mainly on language, but this may have been insufficient to enhance managerial and administrative capacity. After the handover, the MSAR government launched different programs to train middleand upper-ranking officials for leadership advancement. For instance, the Management and Development Program for Middle and Upper Rank Civil Servants was initiated in 2001; 255 officials were sent to Singapore and Beijing to study (Macau Yearbook 2001 2002, 66). In 2007, over 500 middleand upper-ranking officials were invited to study in Beijing. The SAFP also organized various annual conferences and seminars for all civil servants to enhance their knowledge of public administration. Indeed, the MSAR authorities launched training programs to improve attitude as well as managerial capacity of civil servants and thus improve the performance of the administration. Some streetlevel bureaucrats told the author that their attitude toward the public had changed since the handover. They admitted that they had been unreceptive to public demands in the colonial era; whereas under the MSAR regime they were encouraged to be responsive and polite to residents. Indeed, the authorities trained civil servants to treat residents as customers, to be receptive and accommodating to their demands.
The customer-oriented reform changed the layout of government services and improved the public image of civil servants to an extent. MSAR’s various initiatives won some public recognition
7For instance, receiving a restaurant license application involved many departments: the Civil and Municipal Affairs Bureau; the Fire Services Bureau; Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau; Labor Affairs Bureau; Macao Economic Services; Macau Government Tourist Office; the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau; and the Health Bureau (Government Policy Plan for the Year 2004 Financial Year of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China 2003, 1005–6). In the past, businessmen applying for restaurant licenses had to visit the above-mentioned departments and submit documents to individual offices for license approval. In 2003, these government agencies inaugurated a one-stop service gateway. Various one-stop service gateways have been established for 26 services, involving 11 departments (Macau Yearbook 2005, 67).
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556 Public Administration in Southeast Asia
of the civil service reform. The average mark on government performance was 3.28 on the 5-point scale; only 13.7% of respondents were dissatisfied and very dissatisfied with the performance. However, those measures did not greatly enhance government efficiency and performance; they aimed to change the public perception of public authorities.8 Like the puzzle of reform contended by Osborne and Gaebler (1992), the authorities introduced various reform plans and projects but failed to recognize objectives. The emphasis on the use of labor and service contracts is a good example. As discussed above, the civil service system allowed departments to use contractual terms to hire civil servants. However, the system was misused so that most civil servants on contractual terms were employed in the bureaucracy for many years. A new contract system that used labor and service contracts was favored after the handover. Labor and service contracts allowed officials to circumvent the personnel system, which had become complicated and triggered division among government workers. Departments were encouraged to initiate reform programs but many lost sight of the goals of reform.
In a nutshell, after the handover, the government’s reform focused on enhancing the caliber and attitude of the civil servant. The MSAR authorities sought to legitimize themselves through various reforms in the new political era. Therefore, they favored programs that were easy to achieve. In this way, they sought to win public support and to stabilize the MSAR regime (Leng 2002, 6). Reforming the attitude of civil servants as well as the organization of public services was undertaken with few difficulties (Tian and Leong 2009), while the rooted irregularities of the bureaucracy and the problems of parochialism went unheeded. Chief executive Edmund Ho seldom criticized Macao’s civil service. Rather, he recognized its contribution to society in the early years after the handover. However, he did mark the various bureaucratic problems that plagued the civil service in his platform during the 1999 election. The Hong Kong SAR’s experience suggested that bureaucratic reform immediately after the handover might antagonize civil servants, thereby triggering instability in the administration (Scott 2005, 29–62). Not until various government scandals (the Ao Man-long case and overspending in the East Asian Games) caused a public outcry did the government initiate reform of bureaucratic irregularities. Indeed, these events compromised the legitimacy of MSAR’s authorities.
To tighten bureaucratic controls, the government revised and improved the civil service appraisal system, which was implemented in 2005. The old appraisal system was seen as unfair as the appraiser may have been biased toward individual subordinates due to a personal relationship (Chan 2007, 37–46). The new system aimed at: (1) motivation, (2) improving performance, (3) improving communication between managers and subordinates, (4) improving human resources management, and (5) advocating good public services (Appraisal System for Public Servants, Article 2, Law 8/2004). It introduced various elements to reduce the influence of preferential treatment and motivated officials to improve their performance by using the carrot and stick approach. It is noteworthy that the old appraisal method adopted a 4-point scale (excellent, good, fair, and poor). If a civil servant received a fair or poor grade in his/her
8For instance, Iong (2004) illustrated that e-government development had not yet facilitated interdepartmental cooperation in Macao. José Maria Pereira Coutinho, a legislator and the president of the Macao Civil Servant’s Association, indicated that one-stop service gateway had failed to improve interdepartmental cooperation (Personal Interview with José Maria Pereira Coutinho, November 8, 2007). Departments still examined each application on an individual basis. There was no interdepartmental communication even when problems arose. Kwan Tsui Hang, another legislator, argued that the government established a company to organize the Games and aimed to allow flexibility for the management, but, in reality, the company abused its autonomy, resulting in serious overspending. The government failed and lacked capability to check and balance the public corporations.
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