PHILIPPINES
The Philippines Government has called on the World Bank for funds to modernise the country’s Public Service.
The Department of Finance wants to secure US$100 million (A$146 million) from the Washington-based multilateral lender for the full cost of the proposed Civil Service Modernisation and Human Resources Management in the Philippines project.
However, the money, if it comes at all, will not be immediate.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) will not put its case to the Bank’s board until October and a decision could not be expected before March 2020.
The World Bank noted that, while the Philippines had already put its economic house in order with a combination of structural reforms and institutional stability, institutional reforms had not been fully implemented.
“For example, the country remains a challenging place for private investment, with a ranking of 124th out of 190 countries on ease of doing business,” the World Bank said.
“The inability of the bureaucracy to effectively perform its policy/program implementation and service delivery functions are also a cause for concern.”
It said there needed to be a significant improvement in the bureaucracy and the way it delivered services.
“The Philippines’ Civil Service suffers from institutional fragmentation, politicisation, low digital penetration and administrative risks,” the World Bank said.
“There is a need to modernise the Civil Service if it is to play the role expected of it in a country that aspires to be an upper/higher income economy in the next two decades.”
Manila, 13 June 2019
