Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG3: Public Administration Reform in CEE and CA Author(s) Bakhytzhan Kurmanov University of Central Asia Bishkek Kyrgyzstan Title Local Drive for Optimisation of Public Services in Post-Soviet Transition Settings: The Case of Kazakhstan. File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Bakhytzhan Kurmanov Abstract In the recent years optimization of public services as the New Public Management (NPM) reform has been actively promoted in the Post-Soviet region both by governments and international donors. In the post-Soviet region, the optimization of public services was perceived as the major way to reduce red-tape and to increase quality of public services. Some post-soviet countries such as Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan decided to adopt Western best practices and to introduce one-stop-shops. Janenova & Kim (2013) stressed that one-stop-shops in Kazakhstan were introduced as the tool to reduce corruption and to introduce a more business-like environment in delivery of public services. The Kazakh Government introduced a law on public services in 2013-14 and aimed at streamlining all public services with its delivery through local state bodies, one-stop-shops and e-government portal. Most of such public service optimization initiatives were implemented through top-down approach where a centralized government agency would impose reform without much consideration of local authorities. Although the one-stop-shops in Kazakhstan and e-government development in Kazakhstan have been praised by academics and practitioners, the issue of public service delivery innovation at local level in transition authoritarian settings has been rather obscure. What factors drive optimization of public services at local level when the process of its design is highly centralized? How can local officials seek to customize public services in low accountability settings? These and other questions will be raised in this paper and investigated further based on the experience of optimization of public services in Kazakhstan. The Regional Development in Kazakhstan project, which was carried out by the European Union in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme, trained public servants of oblast’ level executive bodies to reengineer and optimize public service business processes between 2015 and 2017. The project contributed to bottom-up initiatives of local authorities to streamline public services. This paper will use the qualitative methods (interviews of public officials who underwent that training working at departments for delivery of public services) to uncover the reasons behind optimization of public services at the local level in Kazakhstan. This exploratory study will identify key motivation factors behind local optimization initiatives in a highly centralized settings of transition country. This paper will contribute to the NPM theory and generate new critical lessons for optimization of public services in the Post-Soviet countries.
