Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go?

Transcription

1 The 10 th NISPAcee Annual conference April 2002 (Cracow, Poland) "DELIVERING PUBLIC SERVICES IN CEE COUNTRIES: TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS" Working group on better quality administration for the public Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Iveta Reinholde Teaching Associate EuroFaculty, University of Latvia Latvia

2 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 2 of 20 Introduction Latvian public administration has experienced many procedural changes. Due to the complex transition process at the economic, social and political level, there is high pressure to strengthen and complete reform initiatives in the short term. Quality management has been recently introduced as a new tool for improving the general performance and quality of public administration. Introduction of quality initiatives in Latvia can be analysed into three categories. First, the approved legislation for quality management in the Latvian public sector will regulate the quality issue. Second, there are already some public institutions that have introduced quality management an their experience can be relevant for others. Third, the development scenario for quality issue can be explained taking into account the first two categories. The objective of this paper is to describe the current situation regarding the introduction of quality management in the public sector in Latvia. As the ISO 9001 standard is very popular in the Latvia, the reasons for this popularity will be explored in comparison to other quality accreditation systems. Along to the analysis of practice, the normative regulation of quality management will be explored. The author will focus on the motivation of institutions to introduce quality management system as well as the expected benefits. Organisational changes (e.g. in the organisational structure, personnel policy, strategic planning, internal audit) initiated by quality management system will be discussed. The conclusion reveals the motivation for public institutions to choose one or another quality initiative. The overall tendency regarding quality initiative in the public sector in Latvia will be covered allowing making a prognosis regarding possible development scenarios. 1.The state of play Already in 1995, the Public Administration Reform Conception approved by the Cabinet of Ministries foreseen an establishment of public administration, which would efficiently carry out the functions. Much advancement has been developed since 1995, but efficiency and accountability in public administration are still far from being implemented. However, some recent incentives can be observed that would lead to further improvement. The Declaration of

3 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 3 of 20 the Latvian government shows the intention to increase capacity and efficiency of public administration. Finally, the government approved the Public Administration reform strategy in July The objective of the strategy is to ensure the continuity of the reform process taking into account previously defined tasks and principles. Bringing administration closer to citizens and development of professional administration are the goals that have to be achieved in the medium term. In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the legislative basis for introduction of quality management system in December At the moment, two state institutions have received an ISO 9001 certificate the Bank of Latvia (the central bank) and Latvian Maritime administration. A number of institutions are on their way to introducing quality management systems: Road Traffic Security Directorate, State Social Insurance Agency, the municipality of Liepāja city, the Administration of the Saeima (administration of the parliament). All these institutions are quite unique, because they are either representing high institutions in the administrative hierarchy or are responsible for implementation of the particular government policy. 2.Legislative basis. In the context of quality management system, the normative regulation of the issues should be analysed. The history of the normative development might explain the way in which state policy on quality issues was formulated. The working group for elaboration of the concept paper On introduction of quality assurance system in public administration was established by decree of the Prime Minister in April The working group consisted of representatives from the all ministries 1, State Audit Office, Bureau of Public Administration Reform and European Integration bureau. As the very first idea on quality management in public administration came from State Civil Service Administration, it was logically that the head of it chaired the working group. 1 Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Regional Development and Environmental Protection, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Welfare.

4 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 4 of 20 The concept paper approved January 18, 2000 recognises the one single quality management model based on ISO 9001 standard as the appropriate for public sector. The issue of quality management system was included in the governmental agenda because of a real need to achieve an improvement in the procedural activities of public sector institutions. The management of procedures and satisfaction of client needs are the basic cornerstones of the concept paper that does not fully pay attention to the hidden problem of service delivery the change of mission of public institutions and change of administrative culture. The decision of the Cabinet of Ministers actually means that all institutions are introducing one model despite the location of the institution in the administrative system, the functions performed or other factors that might be possibly relevant for consideration on quality management model. In addition, the Cabinet of Minister decided that it is necessary to establish a new interministerial working group, which should work on the detailed normative regulation of quality issues in the public administration. On February 4, 2000, the Prime Minister issued the decree for the establishment of such a working group. The task of the working group was to elaborate the draft normative act in order to regulate the introduction of a quality management system in the public administration, based on the ISO The working group was chaired by the Secretariat to the Minister on special assignments of public administration reform. There were also representatives from the State audit office, Ministry of Justice, State Environmental inspection, State construction inspection, Latvian Academy of Science, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Welfare and the private company Zygon Baltic Consulting. As far as the decree stated that there shall be elaborated a normative act, the working group during the first meeting decided that such a normative act should be in the form of recommendations. The form was chosen because of two relevant factors. First, the common practice is that the introduction of quality initiatives and models are voluntary. Following such logic, it was necessary to find the mildest form of the normative regulation. Second, the members of the working group considered that recommendations would give a space for institutions, which do not want or like to introduce the ISO 9001, to choose another accreditation system or model. Actually, in such a scenario, institutions would have a lot of discretion to decide on quality models and on the ways in which it will be introduced.

5 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 5 of 20 In the first drafts of the normative document we can find ideas taken from the CAF (Common Assessment Framework). Later documents become more legal by language and structure. The draft normative act included the interpretation and explanation of the relevant quality management terms (e.g. clients, quality, quality policy, quality manual, internal quality audit, quality management etc.). The draft recommendations stated that ISO 9001 series standards should be used for introduction into the public administration institutions (Draft normative act, ). The draft normative act also determined the role of the head of institution in quality management system stating that the head will make the decision whether an institution will introduce quality management system or not. In the draft version, Ministry of Economy is named as the coordinating institution. The function of the Ministry is to deliver methodological support to institutions as well as to elaborate the register of institutions that decide to introduce quality management system. A point providing the introduction of the Quality Award for public sector was included. If approved, the mechanisms of quality awarding will be as follows. Once a year, institutions will apply for quality award, and only one institution can be awarded. The Award is given to an institution according to the EFQM model. The Prime Minister or his representative gives the Award every year during national quality conference. Those regulations are still not accepted. On December 4, 2001, the Cabinet of Ministers accepted the regulation No. 501 On introduction of quality management system in public administration. The regulations provide the general guidelines for introduction of quality management system in the public administration institutions. The regulations state that quality management system should be introduced according to the Latvian national standard LVS EN ISO 9001 or well-known ISO 9001 as far as it is applicable for the particular institution. The head of the institution is responsible for the introduction, implementation and continuous improvement of the system in the institution as well as he/she approves the quality manager. The institution voluntarily decides on the introduction of quality management system. This norm is contradictory to the legal form - regulations. According to the internal procedures of the Cabinet of Ministers (Regulations No. 160, 1996:2), the regulations as a form of legal documents consist of norms binding for all legal entities and persons. Recommendations of the Cabinets of Ministers are the internal normative act, which by its substance provides right to choose only for persons

6 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 6 of 20 mentioned in the recommendations. Therefore, from one side, by the substance of the regulations No 501, institutions can choose whether to implement ISO 9001 or not, from the other side all public administration institutions shall introduce the ISO 9001 as it is stated. The detailed description for the introduction of quality management system is spelled out in the recommendation of the Cabinet of Ministers. The methodology for introduction of quality management system is as follows. 1. Quality management system shall be introduced according to the plan approved by the head of the institution. The quality manager is responsible for elaboration of the plan. 2. The head of the institution: Approves the quality manager and auditors. Establishes a quality audit group and a group for introduction of quality management system. Provides training for the quality manager, heads of the units and internal audit unit. Is responsible for the elaboration of quality policy and quality goals. 3. The quality manager in co-operation with heads of the units identifies processes and codifies all documented activities. 4. The heads of the units are responsible for the preparation of the description of activities, elaboration of the information flow chart as well as development of the processes. 5. The auditors are responsible for conducting the audit. 6. Once a year, the head of the institution conducts a management review where effectiveness of quality management system, and results, as well as analysis of quality policy implementation is provided. By approving the recommendations, the Cabinet of Ministers decided, that the Latvian School of Public Administration should provide training in quality management issues (The minutes, 2001: 19 ). The whole process how normative regulation were elaborated emphasise the bureaucratic and legalistic approach to the administrative reform. It also shows governmental efforts to keep control over all type of management innovations in public administration. Thus it is doubtful,

7 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 7 of 20 that such efforts will be successful and by such governmental approach the basic idea of quality management has been discredited. If this initative would leave as a management toll for institutions without any normative regulation, then public administration would use it much more. Currently, public administration is showing resistance to regulations No. 501 and also to the idea of quality management because it is enforce by the government. The idea of quality management was taken up by government because it was possible in short period of time by approving normative regulation to achieve results which in the reports on public administration can be described as significant. In addition, this could be done with a minimum or resources, because idea on quality management was already spilt among institutions responsible for implementation of public administration reform. 3.Practice of quality management The empirical information in a form of interviews and/or questionnaires was gathered from representatives 2 (mostly quality managers) of the institutions, which already have or will have quality management system in the nearest future. Such institutions are - Latvian Maritime Administration, Road Traffic Security Directorate, State Social Insurance Agency, the municipality of Liepāja city, the Administration of the Saeima (administration of the parliament) as well as Civil Service administration, which was the initiator for development of quality issue. The information was gathered with the aim to outline the main tendencies regarding quality management in Latvian public administration, in particular to find out the general experience of those few institutions, which are first one in country introducing the new type of a management model. The author basically used the questionnaire (see Annex No.1) with open questions in order to receive opinions and detailed explanations. These interviews and questionnaire can be called as a pilot project, later on when the overall level of education on quality issues will be higher and more institutions will introduce quality management, the questions can be modified according to the situation and research needs. In the further subchapters, information received from institutions is incorporated in the text. 2 Interviews do not reflect the official opinion of the institution.

8 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 8 of Reasons Institutions, which already have introduced quality management, have chosen ISO 9001 because of the flexibility of this system and its applicability to the all type of organisations. In the standard ISO 9001 the term service appears and it requires investigating details of the client s needs (Quality management system, 2000:7) Basically, institutions are oriented to establish a client-oriented organisation using tools provided by ISO It is argued that elaboration of the Citizens Charter can serve for the establishment of the client-oriented organisation. The question is - how can an institution demonstrate its client orientation? The standard ISO 9001 requires certain documentation of the processes while the Citizens Charter can be perceived declaratively without a real need to change habits and processes in the institution. In addition to this, the ISO 9001:2000 standard has become more general. Institutions, which have still not made a final decision on their preferences regarding quality management, are trying to analyse positive and negative aspects of each model and consider whether they would like to introduce a mix of models or a single one. The mix might consist of, for example, ISO 9001 and EFQM, or ISO 9001 and 5S, or even ISO 9001 and Citizen charter. Anyway, in the case of mixed models, only the best characteristics of each model are implemented. The reasons for introducing quality management system can be divided into three major categories. First, institutions would like to identify internal processes and improve quality of operations as well as fulfil all international requirements in the specific policy sector. The questions of responsibility and accountability in the organisation are considered. Institutions already having some depositions for progressive management (processes management, strategic planning, human resource management etc) would prefer to continue their development building within a single and coherent organisational and management system. Second, the introduction of quality management is connected with necessity to improve service delivery to clients. In this case, a change of the mission from bureaucratic institution to an institution working for the clients has been identified. Therefore, investigation of the client needs and drives is conducted regularly. However, it is hard to measure to what extent

9 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 9 of 20 all clients are satisfied, especially in case of public administration when clients do not have a real choice as it is in market. The third category deals with some aspects of marketing. It is noticed that the popularity of the particular model in the country might influence the decision of which accreditation system to introduce. This aspect is relevant in case of public service delivery. Other relevant aspects to be mentioned are introduction of modern management techniques in the institutions and to prove that respective institution in the transitional countries can work on the international level. All institutions mentioned in the paper can be described as progressive and willing to achieve improvements in the operation. Logically, they decide to introduce quality management in order to have an effective management system. It is possible when pressure for implementation of ISO 9001 and regulations No.501 will increase, ISO 9001 will became a part of the annual reports. This approach is quite popular in the private sector, where an ISO 9001 certificate, issued by external certification organisation, serves as a requirement for participation in public procurement tenders. In such a case, it is hard to evaluate in which organisation the system is working well and where it is only an issue of having certificate. Pollitt and Bouckaert explains, that one of the reasons for the recent epidemic of standard setting and guideline formulation is a recognition within public sector that normal commercial reasons for improving service often do not apply, and that additional controls are therefore necessary (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2000:168). The Bank of Latvia and administration of Parliament are actually out of the usual term administrative system, because the administration of Parliament is the administrative apparatus of the parliament, but the Bank of Latvia as the central bank is responsible for state monetary policy. If these two institutions choose to introduce SO 9001 then one can assume that this fact will serve as a guideline for what accreditation system to be chosen by other institutions. Also, due to the their status in the country, the administration of Parliament and Bank of Latvia are in the centre of mass media attention. Thus, every action of these institutions are analysed in the press, radio and TV as well as in the Internet. The fact that they introduced ISO 9001 should have a major impact on other public institutions. For example, almost 1000 comments were received in a virtual public discussion on quality management system in the administration of parliament organised by the Internet portal Delfi in October 2001.

10 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 10 of Benefits The motivation for introducing quality management system is connected with benefits received from the system. The most common benefits mentioned by institutions are: Professional development of employees; Improvement of day-to-day operations; Improvement of the information flow; Continuous improvement of an organisation; Qualitative service delivery. It should be mentioned that a system as such could be a proof of the continuous improvement of the institutions as well as an instrument for marketing and public relations. Quality management also can serve as a tool in hands of bureaucracy when explanation for particular activities is required. In long-term perspective, quality management can be used for provision of greater autonomy of the institution. According to Kirkpatrick and Lucio, improving quality was seen both as a justification for and an outcome of radical organisational change (Kirkpatrick and Lucio, 1995:7). As far as too short time has been passed since quality management has been used in the institutions, therefore it is hard to identify benefits. 3.3.Changes and goals Usually, the introduction of quality management system is connected with structural changes within an organisation. In most cases, quality management system has helped to an institution to define the goals to be achieved as well as to improve and significantly speed up the flow of documents. However, quality management system reduces the amount of documents operated and makes internal communication more efficient. During the introduction of quality management system, organisational units and their tasks are restructured. Because of the need to define quality policy and quality goals, the changes in strategic planning also has been identified. It is hard to say to what extent processes has been improved. At least currently, there is no a link between process improvement and final outcome (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2000:116).

11 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 11 of 20 As a special type of changes, changes in human thinking should be mentioned. The institutions recognise that their personnel often thinks about quality as such and that the attitude towards tasks and clients has been changed gradually. Starting to work on the introduction of quality management system, institutions define the goals to be achieved in the nearest future. Usually those goals are closely connected with ideas of quality management system. First of all, the stated goals are connected to better service delivery to clients or to the improvement of internal, organisational processes. The definition of goals varied from the improvement of service delivery to continuous personnel training and development. It is very interesting to focus on the reasons why the goals have not been achieved or achieved only partially. For justification, the institutions refer to the lack of personnel resources and the lack of higher management support. It is clear from the standard, that the system can be introduced only when higher management decides so. In some cases, the goals stated are unclear and vague and it is hard to measure whether or not they are achieved. The objective of quality management in private sector is to formulate, institutionalise and manage intended and continuous improvement. If the same objective is applied to public sector, the same activities should be implemented. But taking into account, the traditional tendency of bureaucracy, by formalisation of all kind activities and improvements quality management system in public administration may become an additional burden for state budget. 4. Popularity of ISO How do the public administration institutions evaluate regulation No.501? The institutions evaluate more or less positively the regulations on quality management system in public administration. At the same time, they are a bit resistant as it is usual when new ideas come in. Institutions might ask why they need other types of requirements for the introduction of quality management system than others organisations, why quality issues should be determined by the top-down approach? Latvian approach to quality management in public administration can be described as a governmental technology top-down efforts to introduce change and increase managerial control (Kirkpatrick and Lucio 1995:9). While the higher management of institution will not fully understand the necessity and positive aspects of quality management, the implementation of the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers will be

12 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 12 of 20 based on the enthusiasm of officials interested in the system. It is recognised that the introduction of quality management has quite high expenses and complicated tasks, but at the same time all unqualitative operations are more expensive. It is popular opinion that quality methods from private sector can be directly applied to public sector, but to the limited extend and on the aspects how service is delivered (Towards a European Vision of Quality, 2000:49). The combination of top-down approach and private sector management elements will lead to the focus on how processes are regulated which automatically will result in no improvements of service delivery. Latvian public administration will not be so resistant to quality management if the experience of other countries will be popularised and explained. Public sector modernisation in the world has started more than 15 years ago, and conclusions of success and failures are available. Therefore, share of experience can be one of key factors defining opinion of public administration towards quality management. What are the reasons for the popularity of ISO 9001 in comparison to other accreditation systems? The main reasons are as follows. First, ISO 9001standard is flexible and it can be introduced in the public administration. Second, introduction of quality management system offers the possibility to receive an international certificate proving the existence of such a system. This factor is most important in the Latvian situation. According to information received from the Latvian Quality Association, till March 23, 2002, the 162 organisations, both private and public have received the ISO 9001 certificate. Third, the mass media also has an important role to play in informing society about quality management issues. Therefore, if we are analysing information available in the one of the biggest news agencies in Latvia LETA, then the issue of ISO 9001 is a dominant one in comparison to other accreditation systems. In the electronic archive of LETA ISO 9001 is mentioned 496 times in news publications and press releases during time period from January 1 st, 1993 till March 23, While, CAF is not mentioned at all, but TQM only 8 times. Following this data, we can wonder, how many people in Latvia could have heard the term

13 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 13 of 20 CAF, and how many know the substance of CAF. The author assumes that few persons know what CAF is and its role in respect to public administration. Trying to explain popularity factors why Latvia is on its way to introduce one single quality assurance model despite its voluntary nature, the author should refer to the situation in the market in the beginning of the year Which model was popular at that moment when a government decided that ISO 9001 is the most appropriate for public administration? At the beginning of the year 2000, there were already 51 ISO 9001 certified organisations. Most of those organisations can be described as a relevant in their industry sector. Therefore, a governmental decision is a natural and logic step. Table No. 1 shows also a tendency of popularity of ISO Table No.1. Correlation between certified organisations and popularity of ISO in news service. Year Total number of certified organisations Total number of certified public administration institution How many times the ISO 9001 is mentioned at the news service Before (the Latvian Bank) (The Latvian 155 Maritime Administration) 2002, (till March 23) total number: 162 Together with popularity of ISO 9001, a new type of profession has been created quality manager. During the introduction process of quality management, the official quality manager will receive local and foreign training for successful work as the quality manager. Taking into account the salary level in public and private sector, it is expected that a part of

14 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 14 of 20 the trained quality managers will leave the public sector after some time in order to work for private sector especially, if private enterprise can offer 2 or 3 times higher salary. The way in which quality manager is recruited is left under decision of institution. It decides to recruit quality manager from outside or to authorise the internal auditor to perform those functions. For private sector, the quality award are the issue of competition and publicity, that mean also more clients and income. The quality award for the public sector can work only if together with an award some more incentives will be provided. For the public sector, issues of competition are completely senseless, there is no competition, and an award as such does not play a big role. There is a need for more motivators, possibly some grant from the state budget, especially in the situation when salaries are several times lower than in the private sector. Public administration institutions are left without additional incentives. At the same time, for example, private companies which are producing high technology products can receive the discount of 75% for enterprise income tax, if those enterprises have received ISO 9001 or ISO certificate (Law On Enterprise Income tax, 1999:20). Shortly speaking, enterprises that are producing new IT products or pharmacy can receive the discount. During the last two years, the tendency to require ISO 9001 certificate has become visible in public procurement tenders. This factor should not be underestimated in the context of other popularity factors. For example, in February 2002, the Saeima administration published an invitation to tender. The subject of the tender was introduction of the ISO 9001:2000 in the Saeima administration (Invitation to the tender, ). The basic requirement for companies was to have ISO 9001 certificate. Introduction of quality management system is quite expensive. There are required financial investments in training on quality questions, introduction as well as certification of quality management system. Introduction of quality management system for an institution with 150 employees might cost approximately lats or USD (A concept paper, 2000:9).

15 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 15 of Strategic development In order to provide strategic guidelines for the possible development of quality issues in the Latvian public administration, it is necessary to look in the strategic documents. In July 2001, the Cabinet of Ministers approved Public Administration Reform Strategy from 2001 till The strategy states that the basic values of the modern public administration are quality, reliability, accessibility and effectiveness (Strategy, 2001:12). Regarding quality management system in the public administration institutions, the strategy emphasises quality and accessibility of the services and operational quality of the institutions. This by the words of the strategy is so called client dictatorship, not bureaucracy dictatorship (Strategy, 2001:18). At the same time, the contradictions between strategy and regulations No. 501 should be noted. Regulations state that quality management system shall be introduced in public administration institutions with main function elaboration of legislation while the strategy emphasises the introduction of quality management system in the institutions whose main function is service delivery. More details on implementation of the strategy, we can find in the Implementation plan of the public administration reform strategy. Under the objective Introduction of quality management principles and good practice in the public administration, the following tasks can be found (Implementation plan, 2001:17,18): Service delivery institutions should elaborate the citizen s charter and once a year conduct client satisfaction surveys. To elaborate a concept paper on independent evaluation of the service delivery institutions. At least once in five years, the independent expert will evaluate effectiveness of the service delivery institution according to the concept paper. To elaborate system of the performance indicators. To introduce quality management system according to the regulations No.501 and ISO To promote the involvement of the institution in the quality award. To elaborate the training programme on quality management issues.

16 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 16 of 20 The above-mentioned tasks are relevant for coherent quality issue development. It is very positive that the Implementation plan looks at the quality issue within an organisation together with quality of public services. At the same time, for implementation of those tasks no additional budget is allocated. The more institutions will introduce quality management, the greater efficiency should be achieved. Especially, it will be evident regarding operations and activities that can be statistically measured. At the same time problem regarding lack of coordination between units in the institution and between institutions might increase. The integration of processes in public administration should be established, because performance based management, employed in a total quality management environment of continuous improvement, must be linked strategically to the resource management and budgetary processes (Boland and Silbergh, 1996:352). Looking to the real costs of introduction of quality management system in Latvia and real budgetary allocations for public institutions, we cannot prognoses the rapid growth of enthusiasm for quality management. Currently, probably some 10 institutions will make that step. But in the Latvian public sector there are approximately 360 institutions, 10 make up only 2.8% of all institutions. Following the pessimistic scenario, only such a small amount of institutions can implemented the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers if there will be no support from the government. Conclusions Till that moment, Latvia has tried to resolve issues of quality management only by legal and top-down approach which effectiveness is doubtful. Legally, all necessary norms for introduction of quality management have been created. Practically, the substance of those legal norms allows not implementing them. Legalistic approach to public management reform may create a situation when formally reform is implemented, but practically no results are achieved. Thus, the governmental policy regarding public management should be reconsidered. It is possible that government will use quality management system in order to legitimate change in public administration in economic as well as in political terms. It is also can be used as a justification for governmental plans for decentralisation and centralisation in public

17 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 17 of 20 administration. For bureaucracy, quality management can serve as an explanations and excuse in case of claims for too bureaucratic, resources and time consuming procedures. Only a few public institutions have introduced elements of quality management in their management. The experience of those institutions is sufficient for evaluation of general applicability of quality management in public sector, especially regarding ISO Following the popularity path of ISO 9001, the more institutions will probably choose ISO 9001 as a background for their management systems. This tendency might improve operations of public administration, but then at least half of all institutions should introduce quality management. The other alternative is that this tendency will create technical and process related management, not outcomes relevant to public.

18 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 18 of 20 List of references. 1. Declaration of the planned activities of the Cabinet of Ministers, Invitation to the tender. ( ). The newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis. 3. Kirkpatrick I., Lucio M.M. (1995). The politics of quality in the public sector. in Kirkpatrick I., Lucio M.M. (ed.) The politics of quality in the public sector. Routledge. 4. Pollit C., Bouckaert G. (2000). Public Management Reform. A Comparative Analysis. Oxford University Press. 5. Public Administration Reform Conception (1995), 6. Quality management systems Requirements ISO 901:2000. European Committee for Standartisation, Towards a European Vision of Quality The way forward. (2000) Helsinki, Ministry of Finance, Finland. 8. The archive of the news agency LETA, List of legislation. 9. Decree No. 45 by the Prime Minister, On the inter ministerial working group for elaboration of the single quality management system for public administration, Decree No 149 by the Prime Minister, On the working group for introduction of quality assurance system in the public administration institutions, Draft normative act On introduction of quality management system in public administration, Secretariat to minister on special assigment for public administration reform, Implementation plan for public administration reform strategy ( ), Law On the enterprise income tax, Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers No.60., Public administration reform programme, Public administration reform strategy Recommendation of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 1 Recommendations for introduction of quality management system in the public administration institutions,

19 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 19 of Regulations of the Cabinet of Minister No. 160 Internal regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, Regulations of the Cabinet of Minister No. 501 On introduction of quality management system in public administration, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers The concept paper On introduction of quality assurance system in the public administration institutions

20 Quality in Latvian Public Sector: Where to Go? Page 20 of 20 Annex 1. QUESTIONNAIRE INTRODUCTION OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 1. What quality models your institution has choose or will chose to introduce? a) ISO 9001; b) TQM (Total Quality Management) c) EFQM (European Foundation of Quality Management) model; d) CAF (Common Assessment Framework); e) Citizen s charter; f) Other, (please note)? 2. Why that particular model has been chosen? 3. What was the main the reasons why your institution to decide to introduce quality management system? 4. What kind of benefits your organisations expects to receive from quality management system? 5. What kind of changes has occurred in the organisation during introduction of quality management: a) organisational changes; b) changes in personnel; c) changes in strategic planning; d) other (please note). 6. Please describe in details the nature of changes. 7. Did organisation stated goals to be achieved by introduction of quality management system? Please describe those goals. 8. To what extent the stated goals are achieved at the moment? 9. Why stated goals have not been achieved? 10. Your evaluation on regulation of Cabinet of Ministers No. 501 On introduction of quality management system in public administration, which provide the general approach how quality management system should be introduced? 11. Your prognoses regarding usefulness of quality management to public administration?