George M. Guess

Transformation of bureaucratic states in eastern europe: public expenditure lessons from latin America

Creation of functioning public administration systems in Eastern Europe is made difficult by the need to tear down the centralized, state-owned economy of the past 45 years, deal with existing fiscal and security crises, and build new administrative systems and analytic capabilities. This paper suggests that the core of such an effort should be a focus on public expenditure management improvements through innovative training and technical assistance. In Latin America, too often aid was focused on supplying information technology without attempts to overcome obvious constraints to demand for its use. Comparative analysis of public administration systems in both regions reveals the same problems of (1) overcentralization of management and intergovernmental relations which destroys decision-making legitimacy, and (2) legalistic and compliance-oriented administrative systems which destroys incentives to manage effectively. To avoid these problems in Eastern Europe, technical assistance should stress incentive...

ROLE CONFLICT IN CAPITAL PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: THE CASE OF DADE COUNTY METRORAIL

The theory of incremental budgeting holds important implications for evaluating the success of capital budget projects. Guardian and spender role conflicts influence the performance of complex federal projects, such as urban rail transit. When one or more of these roles is weak or absent, the project tends to suffer construction delays and cost overruns. Rail transit construction management presents stresses local control and self certification as it has historically. According to the proposed regulatory authority theory, persistently unbalanced role conflict indicates absence of mutual trust and tends to require more stringent regulatory responses. Dade Metrorail evolved from persistent role imbalance to shifting power balances. Application of role conflict regulatory theory to Metrorail provides four lessons: (1) Project managers/designers should guard against the consultant tendency to innovate for innovations sake and shroud tasks in excessive complexity; (2) Designers of multi-year capital projects should first build up internal capacity for technical oversight; (3) Indifference to the first two lessons will leave roles permanently imbalanced unless there are radical changes; (4) Capital project efficacy depends on successful monitoring. It is concluded that Congress should balance guardian and spender roles at the outset, and that UMTA should take the lead in clarifying such roles. Unless UMTA assumes this role, the choice is between consultant domination or federal encroachment. UMTA has defined four policy options based on Dade Metrorail experience: (1) Increase number of UMTA engineers; (2) Utilize FHWA engineers, recognizing that they do not have expertise in areas such as signaling, controls and electromagnetic interference; (3) UMTA-retained consultants could oversee projects; (4) Require grantees to use capital grant funds for contract oversight.

Planning, Budgeting, and Health Care Performance in Ukraine

Abstract The Government of Ukraine has not pursued health care reforms now commonplace in the rest of Europe and Central/Eastern Europe that rely less upon centralized, state delivery of services and more on decentralized operational responsibilities and competition for services that increase patient choice. The Ukrainian health sector suffers from personnel overspecialization and facility overcapacity, resulting in high-cost, low productivity services. Budget funds are unavailable for operations and maintenance resulting in poor quality services. The state provides health care as a constitutionally-protected monopoly, relying on the traditional command and control model which ignores cost/quality competition options and responsibilities to patients. Overall, the system which produces these results is over-centralized, requiring achievement of physical service norms without providing sufficient funds. The centralized system does not monitor or evaluate services beyond narrow financial accountability and control requirements. The health care system is paradoxically over-centralized but unable to regulate or control local health care official decisions to ensure compliance with national standards. Needed are reforms in the health care policy and operational areas to produce the supply of services needed for national economic recovery. In the short-term, the budgetary framework can be improved as an operational/management guide through development of comparative information on results. Most of this information can be based on the economic classification consistent with the chart of accounts. Funding stability can be increased to improve expenditure control by implementing a new fiscal transfer formula that provides discretion (i.e., block grants) and performance criteria (i.e., outcome measures). In the medium-term, building on the technical foundation of physical norms and statistical reporting, the health care budgeting and financial management system should shift emphasis to: program planning, policy and management analysis, and public communications. The results of these reforms should lead to decentralized health care operations, service analysis, and delivery responsibilities. At the same time, the reforms should lead to proper centralization of responsibilities for strategic policy decisions, safety regulation, national standards, and program evaluation.

Critical perspectives on the federal budget deficit debate

While the current political process is adjusting somewhat to the problem of persistently growing federal deficits, the authors, nevertheless, argue that major constitutional and legal changes are needed. The problem is serious and the authors believe that many of the solutions advanced are not likely to be successful. However, they do offer a possible solution of their own. Airing this complex issue should help others understand the problem and the debate about possible alternative solutions. The organization of this article stresses (1) the federal budget deficit problem, (2) major solutions advanced to meet the problem, and (3) the recommended solution of the authors.

Profitability Guardians and Service Advocates: The Evolution of Amtrak Training

The 1970 Rail Service Passenger Act established the twin objectives of service and profitability for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC or Amtrak). These objectives reflect distinct clusters of values in the American political culture that have been in historic conflict. They also represent different roles of the branches of government as expressed in the doctrine of separation of powers. Though synthesis of these values is not possible without affront to a basic tenet of American politics, guided policy conflict can narrow the range of differences between both values to benefit the public. Assuming that national rail passenger service is a viable policy, where either value is allowed to prevail, efficiency and effectiveness suffer. Uncontrolled service expansion implies a welfare operation; rigid emphasis on full cost pricing would shut down the entire system. While competitive tension between advocates of the two values must be encouraged, prolonged imbalance or forced synthesis seems to affect performance negatively. The lesson of the Amtrak experience (1972-1983) strongly suggests that where traditional service and profitability values conflict, Congress must exercise oversight by tightening fiscal controls and increasing managerial discretion. This permits direction of institutional resources toward improving policy performance.