NN Project: Annex 20: 4TA :: NISPAcee Information Portal

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 Institute of Public Administration and European Integration, Bulgaria, Miroslav Iordanov Mateev
NASPAA partner	Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Randall Baker
NISPAcee partner	Odessa Regional Institute of Public Administration, Ukrainian Academy of Public Administration, Ukraine, Tatyana Pakhomova
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 Bulgaria there is a lack of equate professional skill and competences to provide effective and efficient public services. The introduction of best practice and successful benchmarking in the training of civil servants will increase the quality of public administration performance and introduce a spirit of competitiveness into the Bulgarian public sector.

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 Bulgaria. To reach this goal a number of interrelated activities were planned:

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 Bulgaria in order to improve the quality of the processes, the products and the service. Its goal was to meet the expectations of the customers and help public organizations develop their information-processing capacities and intellectual abilities to improve their performance, thus transforming them into learning organizations that are inspired by and learn from other organizations’ experiences, models, theories and stories. Other goals included helping public administration become customer-driven with competences based on the introduction of good practices and appropriate benchmarking techniques, and to help develop new forms of training of public administration through introducing customer-oriented, service-centered and business-like practices and approaches.

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 Bulgaria in the field of benchmarking in public sector (administration), with important outputs, outcomes and potential impacts. The main outputs are:

- 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 (Sofia University, New Bulgarian University and Varna Free University).

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. Sofia University, Department of Public Administration, has also expressed its willingness to develop a similar course for its MPA program. The IPAEI will continue to develop this approach and support the efforts of other institutions in this field at the national and international level.

As a follow-up to the project, a strong partnership between IPAEI, Indiana University and Ukraine Academy of Public Administration has been developed and sustained. IPAEI has been invited to become a partner in a similar project to be developed and presented by UAPA, and Indiana University will become a permanent partner in future IPAEI initiatives including research and training.

The additional benefits are related to the potential impact of the research on the state administration in Bulgaria for which benchmarking will gradually become a useful tool for improving quality management in the public sector. One of the most important critiques of the European commission in its regular report for Bulgaria is that the country lacks sufficent administrative capacity to implement the European directives and to provide high-quality administrative services to citizens and business. The strong efforts to develop and introduce benchmarking as a part of CAF and ISO tools should contribute to further enhancing the implementing capacity of the Bulgarian public administration.