18 July
U Min Thu, Union Minister for the Office of the Union Government, met with staff of the Yangon Region General Administration Department at the Yangon Region Government office (2) yesterday.
During the meeting, U Myo Htay Aung, Deputy Director-General of the regional GAD, reported on its progress and performance.
Speaking at the meeting, the Union Minister said that although the country has experienced six different administrations, the GAD was the one taking the responsibility for governance in successive eras.
He said that in order to build a democratic federal republic, Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan-MSDP has been established for its sustainability. There are three pillars in the plan and the first aims of the first pillar are peace, national reconciliation, security and good governance.
To implement this, GAD has been transferred to Ministry for the Office of the Union Government, and it has been operating for more than 6 months.
After the move, three tasks were assigned at a workshop for decentralization, public-oriented governance and efficient workforce.
These three tasks of reforms are reforming policies, reforming regulations and managerial components, and establishing regional development and good practices. Building good governance has been set as the vision of GAD.
He stressed that the staff of GAD need to be competent as the department is not only a vital component to retain harmony in Myanmar society but a department that prevents conflicts. For this reason, upgrading Institute of Development Administration is being prioritized.
In doing so, he and the officials of GAD went to Japan from July 7th to 13th 2019 to set up curriculum and exercises that suit the situation of the country and to work in conjunction with international universities for technical support to conduct administrative courses.
During the trip, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affair, Japanese Minister of Defence, Chairman of Japan – Myanmar Friendship association, Chairman of JICA and officials of JICA and officials of Kansai Office discussed transition of Myanmar governance and building public oriented administration.
For governance studies, they met with officials of Graduate School of Governance Studies which is under Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities( JISM), Local Autonomy Collage, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and officials from Graduate School of Governance Studies under Meiji University . There they observed constitution, visions and teaching methods.
For Institute of Development Administration, a curriculum that suits Myanmar governance will be written, administration and teaching methods will be reformed, and more subjects concerning governance will be added . These processes will be carried out stage by stage.
Along with upgrading of IDA, reformation of policies and regulations will be carried out by Regulatory Review Unit, within its designated time frame. RRU comprises two consultant from Ministry and functionaries from ministers’ offices and GAD.
For the departmental administration, systematic promotions and transfers, four region based groups were formed and draft policy on transferring government staff to headquarters, Nay Pyi Taw, region, state, district, region and township, in turn. Initially, 65 Township General Administrative Officers and Deputy Directors-General were transferred with this new administrative style.
In implementing the draft policy, whether it is convenient, fair and practical for the staff is being discussed with consultant team and GAD Former Staff Association.
The departmental Facebook has been launched to handle public complaint and suggestion. The department also follows up email and fax of complaints.
A website will be launched soon for people to know the performance of the department. A section to leave complaint will be included in it too.
Implementation plans for the third three month period have been confirmed by the country’s senior officials.
The plans are as follow:
1.According to the guidance of the President, the list of voters is being collected for eligible citizen not to lose their right to vote and correct list of votes for the 2020 General Elections. Making the list of basic population must be completed by the GAD within designated constraint. 2.As Administrative Officers of GAD were tasked with main responsibility in committees concerning re- examination land confiscation, re-examined cases are being solved in designated time. 3. Plans are being made to upgrade OSS, to bring about simple service system and relax restrictions. 4. Since there is no particular course for junior clerks, a project is being planned to give training to them and to write a staff manual.
The department will keep up the changes made in second three month period at regular pace and the plans mentioned above will be implemented successfully. He urged GAD staff to improve their daily tasks.
In conclusion, he urged the staff to set good example to build Public Oriented Governance, not to be self -seeking, be one with the public and to work in accordance with law, rules, procedures and instructions, not to burden the public. Then, he greeted staff of GAD cordially.—MNA
(Translated by Alphonsus)
