Kinshasa, April 27th, 2021 (CPA) -The rector of the Catholic University of Congo (UCC), Father Pr Léonard Santedi opened, on Monday, within this alma mater in the municipality of Limete in Kinshasa, the scientific seminar under the general theme « Political economy of public administration reform in the DRC ». Rector Santedi praised the importance of the theme chosen during this seminar organized on April 26th and 27th, 2021 by the Faculty of Political Sciences of the UCC in collaboration with the Institution of Development Policy of the University of ‘towards (UA) / Belgium. Six themes to be debated by the various speakers during these two days, are focused on the presentation of the project « Understanding the political economy of the recruitment system and the remuneration of the Congolese public administration », « Major challenges of the administration public service in the DRC and possible solutions ”,“ Banking without banks, the policy of reform of teacher payment in the DRC ”,“ The iron law of the oligarchy during the reform of public administration in the DRC ” , « Fragility of reform in a fragile state: Congolese public administrations in the whirlwind of multiple accountability » and « Stakes and challenges of public administration reform in the DRC ». These themes are led by university professors and researchers, Stylianos Mushonas, Pascal Isumbisho, Tom de Herdt and Albert Malukisa. The inefficiency of the administration slows the take-off of sustainable development in the DRC In addition, Professor Pascal Isumbisho in his intervention on “Major challenges of public administration in the DRC and possible solutions”, indicated that if the DRC is struggling to take off for its sustainable development, one of the causes among so many other, is the inefficiency of its public administration.
Several reforms on this subject, he said, have been announced and initiated, to make it effective and efficient but none have been successful so that the 80 million Congolese do not have access to quality public services. The major challenges facing this public administration are as numerous as they are complex, the main ones relating to the recruitment and retirement mechanism, the establishment of administrative decentralization and decentralized administrations in the new ones, he indicates. The speaker also mentioned in these challenges, the human resources and compensation management mechanism.
The effects of banking
Prof. Tom de Herdt of the University of Reverses (UA) / Belgium, focused his intervention on « Banking without banks, the policy of reform of teacher payments in the DRC ». “Using qualitative and quantitative data, we map the public policies accompanying the implementation of the reform. If the reform itself was officially considered a success, its expected effects were very uneven, varying between a certain progress in the city and a small disaster in the rural areas ”, he indicated.
For him, the added value of the public-private partnership with the banks could not ultimately constitute a real alternative to the historical division of roles between the State and ecclesiastical structures in this sector. He argued that banking has not been able to achieve more transparency in the governance of the payroll of state personnel and governance processes have been made more opaque through this reform, while deepening existing inequalities. the spatial and geographic configuration of the State.
Congolese public administrations in the vortex of multiple accountabilities
Professor Albert Malukisa will address, on the 2nd day of this seminar, the theme of « Fragility of reforms in a fragile state: Congolese public administrations in the vortex of multiple accountabilities ». Its text, according to the organizers, alludes to the impetus of donors to the DRC which has recorded several reforms to improve governance in key sectors such as the economy, security services, justice, health, transportation. In a context where civilian and uniformed officials (police and military) are deemed corrupt and unruly, the establishment or strengthening of office-based accountability mechanisms has received a lot of attention in recent years. However, the expected results were not achieved. To understand the persistence of corruption and indiscipline, the author’s research has focused on the relationships between state officials and users, state officials and their hierarchy, senior officials and political leaders. Another theme that will be explored on the 2nd day is that of the AU researcher, Stylianos Mushonas, on « Issues and challenges of public administration reform in the DRC ». According to the organizers, he mentions in his text that the process of reforming public administration in the DRC today faces enormous challenges. In its current configuration, the reform process was relaunched in 2012 by the government and partners, including the World Bank, through the public administration reform and rejuvenation project, which expires at the end of 2021.
Admittedly, the reform process has some notable advances such as the ENA and the competitive recruitment of young professionals, the creation of the CNSSAP, the revision of the legal framework, the work carried out on the integrated HR and Payroll management system, underlines the author in his text, although not all expected results have been achieved.
