Getting your kilo of tomatoes

On 29^th March, the Deputy Head of Mission, Paul Edwards, spoke at a national conference to discuss the effectiveness of the state and public administration. The conference was part of an ongoing UK funded programme on monitoring administrative justice. This is what Paul said about the link between public services and tomatoes:

The UK has been working with Macedonia for 15 years on Public Administration Reform. This national conference, and the project behind it, is just the latest example. We’re pleased to be working with the Centre of Change Management to help raise the awareness of administrative justice as one of the main pillars of democratic governance.

That phrase “administrative justice” is something I’d like to focus upon today. It is at the heart of what it means to have an effective state and public administration. But let’s be honest – these are two words that are not understandable to the ordinary person on the street. Administrative justice is not something that civil servants come into work saying they are going to deliver today. And they are certainly not the words used when people talk about how or whether the government delivers what they need.

So let’s accept that administrative justice is a short-hand that we use to encapsulate something really very simple: that what it really means is “getting what you pay for”.

Just imagine for a moment that you go into your local market one morning to buy tomatoes. You go up to the stall and ask for a kilo of tomatoes and hand over your 80 denars. The stall holder says good morning, takes your money, and gives you half a kilo of tomatoes.

Obviously you complain. You’ve paid for a kilo of tomatoes and only received half a kilo. You demand that she give you the other half.

But the stall holder says that she doesn’t have more tomatoes. There’s nothing she can do.

Naturally you ask for your money back, but she refuses. Once you’ve paid, she says, the money is gone and can’t be returned.

You’d be angry – wouldn’t you? And you’d certainly go to another stall next time. But here’s the real kick in the teeth…the law says that you can only buy your tomatoes from that stall and no other.

This is a simple example, but I think it’s not too different from how government works for citizens. If you want treatment in a state hospital, you’ve already paid for that treatment in advance through your taxes. When you fall ill, if the state hospital doesn’t have the drugs you need – you don’t get your money back, and you can’t go to another state hospital for treatment. In essence you’ve not got what you paid for and you are right to be angry.

In an effective state administration you would get the treatment you need, and if you don’t, then there is a way of complaining… a legal mechanism for complaining… so that you can address the problem.

Ultimately there is the ballot box where you can vote out a government – whether local or national – if they continually fail to deliver what you’ve paid for.

This is why the work being done under this programme is so important.

Yes it’s about justice – about the mechanisms in place for ordinary people to get what they are entitled to from the administration.

Yes it’s about getting the laws right, and explaining to citizens in simple terms what they should expect from government.

And Yes it’s about monitoring accurately whether those expectations are met or not.

But at the core of all this is the simple concept of getting what you pay for – whether it’s education for your children, or healthcare for your mother, or streets not full of rubbish.

These examples are the governmental equivalent of tomatoes – and you deserve to receive the kilo that you’ve paid for.