Good Governance & Public Administration Strengthening Project (GGPAS)

DURATION: August 2013 - August 2016

FUNDING LEVEL: $ 12,927,495

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER: International Resources Group (IRG)

KEY PARTNERS: National and local GOK institutions, local capacity development specialists, civil society organizations.

ACTIVITY LOCATIONS: Nationwide

 

GOAL

The Good Governance and Public Administration Strengthening (GGPAS) program is a flexible, three-year initiative to help strengthen key public and private institutions critical to long-term stability and democratic growth. GGPAS provides targeted assistance for governance reform in order to:

  • Strengthen the abilities of public sector institutions to deliver key services more effectively and efficiently;
  • Help a range of public, private, and civil society partners expand access to and improve the quality of citizen services.

Employing a unique management model, GGPAS works across sectors as opportunities emerge, strengthening existing partnerships, and establishing new relationships with key institutions. Initiatives reflect the priorities of the government of the Kyrgyz Republic and the comparative advantages of USAID.

MAJOR FOCUS AREAS

  • Public Administration& Local Governance
  • e-Governance 
  • Education & Healthcare
  • Social protection and development
  • Citizen documentation
  • Public safety and security
  • Tax services
  • Electricity and energy provision
  • Agriculture and food security
 
Primary Tools and approaches used by the program include:
  • Employing inclusive institutional performance improvement processes including USAID’s Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD);
  • Supporting innovative pilot initiatives to “model” new processes and expand the quality and access to government services;
  • Enhancing capacity of local management consultants as service providers.
 

ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

Public Administration: Improving Local Government Functions
In June 2015, the Union of Local-Self Government (MSU) completed a detailed analysis of local institutional capacity and series of policy recommendations, based on their assessment of the degree to which a sample of six local governments are able to fulfill obligations with regard to the 23 issues of local significance, for which all local governments are responsible. The director of the Personnel Policy Department (PAPPD) called the work a critical step toward optimizing function and services within local governments.  They recommended replicating the approach in other communities.  The study was originally conceived by the Personnel Policy Department (PAPPD) and the State Agency of Local Self-Government and Inter-ethnic Relations (GAMSUMO).
 
E-governance: Laying the Foundation for Interoperability  
In May, the Government passed necessary regulations to create an E-Governance Central Coordination Unit (CCU), and in June announced the recruitment of its Director.  The Estonian e-Governance Academy helped to clarify the role of the CCU, developed a draft profile for a government Chief Information Officer (CIO) and drafted a scope of work for the E-Governance Implementation Unit, which will function as the e-government operator.  The personnel selection process is now underway for the E-Governance operator.  The E-Governance Academy is supported jointly by USAID and the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 
Education: Engaging Young Readers and Building Administrator Skills
Read Together TV Show In the summer of 2015, the production team from Balastan TV, the state-owned children’s television station, took steps to grow the young audience of the newly launched Read Together television show. Producers adopted a more team-based approach, began including the participation of celebrities, and integrated puppets and characters from the popular animated series “Adventure to the World of Books”. These changes help to encourage early-grade reading among children.  This TV Show is an initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF). The GGPAS program’s help to improve upon the pilot series, complements the multi-year USAID Quality Reading Program. 
 
Training for School Administrators Eighty-nine school managers and administrators from Osh, Jalalabad, and Batken have improved their knowledge of recent regulatory and legislative changes and learned modern techniques on school management.  The training was provided by the Osh Education Institute and a team of consultants from the Mountain Societies Development Program (MSDSP), a local NGO.  On average, participants demonstrated a 42% increase in knowledge and management skills after participation in the five-day module.  
 
Healthcare Provision: Improving Patient Experience in Osh 
In June 2015, representatives from Reverse Group Ltd. demonstrated the potential of a new software platform to managers at the Osh Regional Children’s Hospital. The 1C Enterprise v8.3 software solution is a highly flexible and adjustable software system that can be used to automate many of the hospital’s administrative processes. If selected for installation, this IT solution will improve the patient registration process and reduce wait times for patients at hospital.
 
Social Protection and Development: Low-cost Tools for Change Management 
By summer 2015, the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) has realized a number of key milestones along their institutional performance improvement road map. They have established a systemization task forces with clear roles, responsibilities, and sufficient authority to effectively manage the systematization process. A GGPAS-supported consulting team from the Experts of Central Asia procured, configured and installed a low-cost JIRA project management solution on the ministry’s intranet. The ministry  has identified ways to dramatically improve the IT Service Desk and the Public Reception Functions. The Human Resource department established revised Scopes of Work (SOWs) with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the documentation, strategic planning, M&E, and public procurement departments, and revised 20 job descriptions with individual KPIs in line with the new SOWs. 
 
Citizen Documents: Facilitating Greater Automation  
Citizen Awareness about the Biometric Process According to the State Registration Service (SRS), at the end of June 68% of the population over 16 years old had submitted biometric data. The establishment of a universal biometric registry (EGRN) is one of the government’s highest strategic priorities, and is a necessary step to facilitate greater automation of a wide variety of government services. To support these efforts, from September 2014 to March 2015, GGPAS supported Taza Shailoo, a non-governmental organization, to conduct a nationwide campaign to increase citizen understanding and confidence in the biometric registration process. The NGO, working with the SRS, conducted nearly 160 roundtables, reaching 5,800 local officials, community leaders, and citizens across the country. It launched two information centers in Bishkek and Osh staffed by 30 experts and 90 volunteers, and distributed 60,000 multi-lingual information leaflets.  The SRS lacked funds for outreach, and confirmed the NGO outreach was critical to their ability to meet data collection targets.
 
Renovation of ZAGS offices On June 18 Prime Minister Temir Sariyev allocated 15 million KGS ($250,000) to complement USAID-funded renovations currently underway to upgrade the electricity and climatization capacity of two critical SRS Registration of Civil Status Acts (ZAGS) offices. The upgrades of these two ZAGS offices,--where  citizens register births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths—will improve services for 915,700 Bishkek citizens and 348,645 Kara-Suu residents.  The existing electrical infrastructure is dangerously outdated and significant upgrades are needed to support the computers required to utilize the new automated information system (AIS) developed by the SRS.  Sariyev announced the government funding at SRS demonstration of the AIS.  This information system will ultimately be integrated with the state’s universal biometric registry.
 
Performance Improvement of the SRS On June 26, the State Personnel Service approved the finalized provisions of 13 structural units and six position descriptions, recently revised by the State Registration Service (SRS). The SRS revised regulations, with support from a team of consultants from Rich Research to eliminate duplication of functions within the departments of the central office. In addition to the six new position descriptions, the SRS revised individual job descriptions for 74 employees to reflect the revised departmental functions and responsibilities.  The SRS is expected to adopt the individual job descriptions with its internal decree in the coming months. 
 
In parallel, the SRS worked with ICT an consultant to identify the functional and technical requirements for a new e-communication and information management system for the central office which  can dramatically improve work processes. They also initiated the development of a strategy for 2016-2018 for the entirety of the registration system, including the central office, six sub agencies, and 251 territorial offices. Finally the SRS continues development of a revamped performance management (M&E) system and established a unified standard of services to be used across the system. These initiatives are all part of a 18-month institutional performance improvement plan developed with support from USAID GGPAS. 
 
Tax Services: Improving Customer Service & Human Resource Management (HRM)
Tax Service Centers Newly opened Tax Service Centers in Dordoi Bazaar issued eight times more patents and nearly 2.5 times more property tax payments  when compared with the first quarter last year, and were able to process 4,023 tax declarations, which is 523 more declarations than previous same quarter last year. Similarly, the management of the STS Service center in Aravan reported the average number of entrepreneurs registering increase by six fold per month in the first three months, and the number of patents issued in the first quarter was 57% more than in the first quarter last year. Additionally, they issued these patents and completed their reporting in almost half the time, reflecting a dramatic increase in efficiency. The State Tax Service has also developed a single revised package of materials to more effectively expand its network of nation-wide service centers.
 
Improving HR Management On June 1, the Chairman of the STS allocated 100 million KGS ($1.6 million) to be used, in part, to fund bonuses that will be allocated by a new employee incentive program. According to the head of the HR department, this fund double what it was in previous years. The new performance appraisal system will be used to allocate these funds with more transparency and objectivity to the highest performing employees, and is a model that could be easily adapted by other ministries and state agencies. Supported by a team from ISR consulting firm, in recent months the HR Department has developed a new recruitment, performance appraisal, and incentive systems. This unique system, currently being rolled out for the HR department itself provides a more objective appraisal of individual performance and will ultimately be expanded to the entirety of the tax service. Additionally they have taken steps to eliminate duplicate functions within the department, revised the functions and set key performance indicators (KPIs) for all ten employees of the HR Department employees.
 
Public Safety & Security: Assessing Police Performance and Improving Public Outreach
Using Data to Improve Performance During the summer 2015, the research firms Georgian Opinion Research Business International (GORBI) and El Pikir initiated data collection as part using the International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS). This initiative was launched by the Liberal Youth Alliance, a leading civil society actor engaged in security sector reform and key partner in the Civic Union for Reform and Results (CURR), with the support of the Ministry of Interior (MVD). Victims Surveys are a tool used around the world to help government and other stakeholders gain a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of criminal activity across the country than the picture painted by official crimes statistics alone. More importantly they are used globally by police departments to help validate and/or assess the reliability of their own crime reporting data. 
 
Also this summer, members of the Information Analytical Center and the Central Administration of the MVDbegan exploring ways to improve their own use of official crime data. Officials attended meetings and presentations by Dr. Georgi Glonti, a Georgian crime data analyst, concerning modern methods of managing crime-related data and different software platforms that can be used to improve performance in police departments.
 
Supporting Public Outreach of Police The MVD Juvenile Inspectors Unit finalized a training curriculum, training manual and pocket handbook for Inspectors about how to better engage young people and ultimately prevent crime. In parallel, consulting firm Centaura Dev continues to assist the MVD Neighborhood Inspectors Unit to develop a realistic and sustainable concept for a web-based public communication solution. If implemented, this communication solution will help the MVD to more accurately communicate to the public pertinent identifying information (e.g. name, photo, badge number, and contact information) about the neighborhood inspectors currently assigned to their communities.  
 
Supporting More Transparent Traffic Police  Consulting firm “IFS” provided the State Registration Service (SRS) with the detailed design of a single automated information system (AIS) that can integrate data about drivers, previous accidents, registered vehicles and owners, and registration plates. More importantly it will facilitate inter-agency data exchange, including with the State Tax Service and the Traffic Police. According to the SRS this is a necessary precondition for the successful launch of the MVD’s “Safe City” initiative.  Deputy Chairman of the SRS Dastan Dogoev was awarded with a Medal of the MVD "Sheriktesh" for fruitful interaction and active cooperation with the MVD. 
 
Energy Sector: Supporting International Standards to Protect Customers
In June 2015, GGPAS handed over 22 Electro Metering Standards with certified Russian translation to the Ministry of Economy’s Center for Standardization, the responsible state agency for officially adopting standards.  Oleg Ryaskov, an international energy expert developed a summary of recommended mandatory requirements for data exchange standards for the energy sector and presented this data to 25 representatives from key energy sector stakeholders on June 4. These standards are critical to the establishment of the independent settlement center, a critical component of the government’s plans to improve efficiency and reduce corruption in the sector. This support complements the long-term engagement in the energy sector by the USAID Energy Links program.
 
Management Consulting: Improving Consulting Services for the Public Sector
This quarter GGPAS initiated a nine-month capacity building program for 50 performance improvement consultants working with public sector institutions. The program will include an experiential learning practicum with six public sector institutions. It is designed to ensure access to a larger pool of high-quality and cost effective management consultants better capable of coaching client institutions to identify and implementing feasible performance improvement solutions.