This year, for the second year running, I have had the honour of sitting on the Technical Team that considers the applications to be considered in the “Good Practices in Public Management Prize”, a competition organised each year by Ciudadanos al Dia (CAD). As CAD explain on their website (www.ciudadanosaldia.org), the organisation is a private, non-for-profit body which creates incentives and tools to improve the relationship between the State and the people.
So a few weeks ago, I spent several hours one afternoon with some distinguished fellow members of the Technical Team assessing the merits of the submissions CAD had received in one of the various categories. There were lots of examples of good practice and we were all impressed by the quality, the scope and the creativity of so many employees in Peru’s public sector. The CAD Jury, who will give the prizes on 18 July, is going to have a difficult job deciding who will be the finalists and winners.
This year a record number of public bodies from all over Peru participated in the competition. In fact a remarkable 238 different projects have been recognised as “good practices in public management”. The projects have come from almost every region of the country, from municipalities and government ministries, from national institutes and health organisations, from the judiciary and many more. And you can see on the CAD website how diverse the categories of good practice are – from social inclusion to effective environmental management, from provision of services to the public, to education and public security.
The numbers are impressive. But for me what is much more impressive is what the numbers say about how many thousands of people in every sort and at every level of public service across Peru are determined to do their jobs not only well but really well, and who are determined that their teams should be not just effective but really effective.
Almost every day people talk to me about the problems being caused by and the issues going unresolved because of lack of capacity in local governments, because of corruption, because of poor use or non-use of resources. Absolutely – these are serious issues that are having serious consequences. At the same time it is in part because of the shortcomings that I feel that it is so important that we also keep in mind all the good things that are being done by so many committed and determined civil servants around Peru. “Nos quitamos el sombrero” – “Hats off to them”!