Universidade Católica de Moçambique

Institut of Distance Education

Bonifácio Daniel Samuel

Codigo: 7082234092

Curso de Licenciatura em Administração Pública

The main challenges faced by public administrators in Mozambique

today

Nampula

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 2023
Bonifácio Daniel Samuel

Degree in Public Administration

The main challenges faced by public administrators in your Mozambique

today

Academic Work to be presented at the Department

of Distance Learning, as a requirement for
evaluation in the Chair of English, Degree in
Public Administration
.
Tutor: Daniel Francisco Muando

Nampula
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2023

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Índex
Introduction.................................................................................................................................4
1.The new public management in the context of the debate.......................................................5
2.Mozambican public administration and the emergence of bureaucracy..................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This work presents concepts and principles of public administration, as well as reports on its
formation process in Mozambique, with the aim of helping to understand the current context
of public management. The study theme of the work is “The challenges faced by public
administration in Mozambique”.
The work only intends to present a reflection by the author, on a topic as vast as it has been
repeatedly addressed by various scholars, and greatly inclined to continue to be studied. Its
importance, its proximity to people's lives and its permanent topicality are suitable fertilizers
to pique the interest of many, including academics and professionals.
Our reflection intends to consider training, framed in a challenging organizational
environment with permanent changes. Its use in different models, environments and
methodologies should be considered an important and contributing instrument for
professional and management development for society in general and for organizations in
particular.

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 1. The new public management in the context of the debate
The emergence of the so-called New Public Management (NGP) reflected important
theoretical and empirical analyzes in the public administration literature and intensely
influenced the profound administrative reforms carried out in the last two decades of the 20th
century. The emergence of these reflections, as HOOD (1994) explains, can be understood as
a result of the difficulties faced by the progressive public administration model, whose
emphasis focused on the application of procedural controls and bureaucratic rules that guided
the functioning of the public sector. Progressive public administration proved ineffective in
dealing with the challenges of that time, related to the expansion of the public sector and the
growth in the rate of public expenditure, as well as the difficulty in controlling an
administration that had become more expensive and inefficient.
According to THOONEN (2010), with the emergence of this reformist movement, the aim
was to drive changes in the management of public policies and in areas related to
organizational methods, provision of public services and labor relations, planning and
expenditure, financial management, provision of accounts, management by the private sector,
auditing and evaluation. The administrative changes made are based on obtaining better
results in the organization and functioning of public administration and the adoption of a
series of mechanisms to change the essential values of administrative culture from the typical
bureaucratic ideal, such as legality, impartiality and equity, for renewed principles of
efficiency, effectiveness and quality. As LARBI (1999) argues,
However, in general, it can be understood that NGP modifies the emphasis of traditional
public administration by moving the State towards new standards of public management,
which, according to THOONEN (2010), are oriented towards: reducing costs and maximizing
the efficiency of public administration; reduction of hierarchies and decentralization with
actions such as the abandonment of standardization processes characteristic of Weberian
public administration; control over results and increased performance; and guidance on the
quality of services provided to citizens.

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 2. Mozambican public administration and the emergence of bureaucracy
The transformations inherent to the State's form of administration began shortly after the end
of the period of Portuguese occupation and colonization that ran from 1498 to 1974 and the
rise of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) as the political entity that took
over the government and basic political orientation of the State.
Therefore, in the period between 1975 and 1986, in the public administration component,
several administrative measures were introduced that were legitimized with the aim of
guaranteeing the institutionalization of the typical model of bureaucratic public
administration, which concentrated all decision-making power at the central level.
Government and relegated the local level to the simple implementation of centrally made
decisions. The central character of this model was marked by the reduced autonomy of local
governments (HANLON, 1991), in this specific case, the provinces and districts.
New trends in public management and interactive governance in Mozambique
The changes introduced within the framework of the implementation of the Global Public
Sector Reform Strategy (EGRSP, 2001-11) from 2001 onwards have significant differences
when compared to the administrative reforms carried out previously. EGRSP's capacity
includes concepts that disseminate reformist measures in the State administration component
and in public management processes, in order to respond to the challenges imposed by the
need for administrative modernization and the creation of processes and organizational
structures adapted to contemporary public management. In fact, the analysis of the
assumptions and principles of this reform (CIRESP, 2001) shows that they are based on the
doctrines of New Public Management (NGP), which claim, on the one hand, the need to
modernize management processes through the implementation of new concepts regarding the
functioning of public administration in order to promote greater efficiency and effectiveness
of government actions and increase the performance of State institutions. On the other hand,
they are based on the concepts of Interactive Governance (IG), as they highlight the
importance of adopting new management practices such as transparency, participation and
accountability in the actions of state bodies.
Some reformist measures, as shown in the last column of the table above, prove this tendency
to replicate NGP doctrines, principles and practices from the NSP and GI in the Mozambican
context. From 2001 onwards, administrative mechanisms were created to guarantee fiscal
discipline, such as the Technical Unit for the Reform of State Financial Administration
(Utrafe) and the State Financial Administration System (Sistafe). These constituted major

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innovations regarding the way in which public financial resources are organized and managed
and aim to increase administrative efficiency. In the same vein, in a more intense way, from
2006 onwards, public institutions at all levels (central, provincial,
Thus, it can be stated that the new approach to public administration reform suggests the
introduction of an administrative system characterized by a new post-bureaucratic paradigm,
according to the perspective of O'FLYNN (2007), within public management in Mozambique,
in which new values and a new consciousness are constructed. However, although the notes
presented indicate a positive trend in the introduction of new management practices and
principles in the national context, it is important to highlight that the changes caused by the
administrative reform also came, in practice, to pose new problems related to the objectives of
efficiency and effective participation of society in the management of public policies.
In reality, the changes taking place are being accompanied by significant changes, namely,
changes in the values and behaviors of employees, in the administrative culture, in the
competencies and responsibilities of public bodies, in the form of action, relationships and
institutional coordination between governmental spheres (for example, the approval of Law
no. 8/2003, of 19 May, made it possible to assign exclusive powers to local bodies, somewhat
eliminating the problems of double subordination).
The current context of the functioning of public administration in Mozambique highlights a
new vision of public service as a result of the pressures imposed by the new paradigm of
Interactive Governance. Observation of reality shows, for example, the new process of
contracting and offering goods and services implemented by Decree no. 15/2010, of 25 May,
in which rationality in resource management and organizational flexibility require that the
role and the qualities of the public manager are aligned with the perspective of an operational
administrator more focused on defining strategies. The perspective is that these public
management strategies must link their tasks with the principles of monitoring and evaluating
compliance, for example, with established contracts and programs, which shows that in the
new context of public administration, action based on in the standardization and rules of the
bureaucratic model to achieve the fulfillment of the organizational objectives intended in
management. To this end, the public sector must open itself to positive influences from
outside, interacting with citizens individually or collectively with the aim of building more
participatory decision-making processes. It is understood that citizens must be taken as the
foundation and reason for public administration.

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Conclusion
The introduction of what are considered renewed management models from the 1980s
onwards, namely New Public Management, New Public Service and the application of
Interactive Governance practices, has profoundly shaken the structures of traditional public
administration and has confronted the various governments to carry out administrative
reforms that give rise to new institutional configurations, the purpose of which is to respond
more adequately to the demands of the process of providing public services and requests from
communities.
As for the Mozambican context, new public management practices aimed at increasing
Interactive Governance gained greater centrality at the beginning of the 2000s, with the
emergence of administrative reform translated by the Global Public Sector Reform Strategy,
which aims to modernize the sector public. These reforms focus on the implementation of
new management practices to improve efficiency, effectiveness, control, public participation
and good governance in the public sector at all levels, central, provincial, district and
municipalities.
However, an assessment of the assumptions and practices that have been adopted indicates
that the implementation of this reform has been marked by some limitations of a structural
and functional nature that are, in practice, imposed by the adopted model itself. The major
dilemmas arise in relation to efficiency goals and the achievement of results and participatory
processes.

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References
CIRESP. Estratégia global de reforma do sector público: 2001-2011. Maputo: Ciresp, 2001.
HANLON, Joseph. Mozambique: who calls the shots? Londres: Indiana University Press,
1991.
HOOD, Christopher. Explaining economic policy reversals. Buckingham: Open University
Press, 1994.
LARBI, George. The new public management approach and crisis states. United Nations
Research Institute Social Development, Discussion Paper n. 112, set. 1999.
O’FLYNN, Janine. From new public management to public value: paradigmatic change and
managerial implications. The Australian Journal of Public Administration, v. 66, n. 3
THOONEN, Theo. Reforma administrativa analítica. In: PETERS, Jon; PIERRE, Jon (Org.).
Administração pública. São Paulo: Editora Unesp, 2010.

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