Annex 20:
4TA: Developing Benchmarking in the Bulgarian Public Sector (Administration)
1. Project description
Project number |
4TA |
Project title |
Developing Benchmarking in the Bulgarian Public Sector (Administration) |
Responsible institution |
The |
NASPAA partner |
|
NISPAcee partner |
Odessa Regional Institute of Public Administration, |
Budget: planned |
$7,000 USD |
Budget: resources really used |
$7,000 USD |
Project period: |
1.2.2003 – 16.7.2004 |
2. Project purposes and goals
The project proposal states that over recent years public sector organizations across the world have been gradually turning to benchmarking their public services. In the European public sector, benchmarking has been acknowledged as a powerful tool for improving and bringing about the sort of step changes needed to deliver modern public services. In
The main goal of the project was defined as the development and introduction of benchmarking as common practice for public (state and regional) administration in
1. Identification and assessment of appropriate benchmarking techniques in the public sector.
2. Developing extensive knowledge of applied policy studies and research methods/techniques in benchmarking.
3. Developing common criteria for quality assessment of products and processes within different public organizations when comparing their performance.
4. Developing Bulgarian cases on best practice in public administration and their introduction to the training programs of the IPAEI.
5. Organizing a competition within the state and regional authorities to compare and share good practices in public administration.
6. Publishing and dissemination of a manual on how to perform successful benchmarking in the public sector.
The implementation phase was expected to include organizing a competition within the central and regional administration to compare good practices and share positive experiences in public administration, and organizing a closing conference with the participation of the team partners in order to get public administration officials acquainted with the results of our research and to disseminate the outputs of the project.
The project was expected to promote the development of a set of activities at all levels of public administration in
3. Project realization
The project objectives have been fulfilled and the determined goals fully met. The intermediate and final results have been achieved in a timely and cost-effective way. The only delay that has occurred is related to the design of a new course on benchmarking to be included in the IPAEI training program. It was postponed until August 2004 as this is the usual time when the new catalogue with IPAEI training courses is prepared. A new course titled “Benchmarking in Bulgarian Public Sector” will be included in the 2005 edition.
No problems occurred during the project realization; the project timeline was kept on target; and all team members and other participants actively cooperated in the project, fulfilling their roles and responsibilities on time and with quality work.
4. Project outputs, outcomes and impacts
This project represents the first pilot study in
- Developing common criteria for quality assessment of products and processes within different public organizations when comparing their performance.
- Developing Bulgarian cases on best practice in public administration and their introduction to the training programs of the IPAEI.
- Publishing and dissemination of a manual on how to perform successful benchmarking in the public sector: a new textbook that presents the basic principles, approaches and benefits of using benchmarking in public sector. The IPAEI has published 500 copies, and they have been distributed free of charge to all ministries. They become a part of our printed materials for all courses that are related in some way to this area. There is strong interest in the textbook from our lecturers and academic partners teaching public administration courses (
As the outcome, capacities of all participants and government strengthened. The experience gained and the cases developed help the IPAEI and other involved institutions accumulate a general knowledge of the benchmarking approach and how it can be implemented in the public sector. The target institutions realized this instrument should become an integral part of the quality management and assessment of public organizations’ performance. Thanks to the project, a strong partnership has been developed between IPAEI, government institutions, state agencies and universities. The Directorate “State Administration” at the Council of Ministers much appreciated the results and took the responsibility of ensuring further implementation of the benchmark approach in other interested state agencies and ministries.
As a follow-up to the project, a strong partnership between IPAEI,
The additional benefits are related to the potential impact of the research on the state administration in