Subject 1 — Technical Assistance in Public Administration : Lessons of Experience and possible Improvements
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236102700417 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
468
one of the most up-to-date at Lisbon, and
ty to visit some of the famous sights around
most of the participants were accommodated
Lisbon including the castle and gardens of
th,ere. The Round Table was thus of a re-
Pena, at Sintra, and the sunny sands of
sidential nature which encouraged frequent
Cascais and Estoril. The day ended with a
personal contacts and greatly helped towards
dinner in the Estoril Casino.
the success of the conference.
A guided tour of Old and New Lisbon, a
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 Sep-
reception by the City Authorities and a final
tember, a coach excursion offered by the
dinner in a typical restaurant made up the
National Secretariat for Information, Culture
lighter side of the Round Table programme.
and Tourism gave the delegates an opportuni-
Subject 1 — Technical Assistance in Public Administration :
Lessons of Experience and possible Improvements.
Chairman : Mr. Tahsin Bekir Balta (Turkey)
General Rapporteur : Mr. Fernand Vrancken (Belgium)
Minute-Writer : Mr. Yves Chapel (IIAS)
In his introductory statement, as well as
I.
Classification of Data
in the introduction to the general report,
the General Rapporteur -
who had accept-
The General
ed
Rapporteur asked for the
to replace Mr. V.K.N. Menon (India),
who had wished
meeting’s opinion on the following points.
to be excused from acting
in that capacity - expressed his desire to
work
(1) Technical assistance in public admin-
on practical lines.
He felt sure that
istration has
all the participants
specific features which it would
were of the opinion that
be advisable to
the valuable information contained in the
clarify in order to delimit the
field of research as compared with the wider
twenty-two replies already received to the
questionnaire should be used for
field of technical assistance in general.
a thorough
examination of the problem of technical
The item
assistance in public administration. To be
was adopted. The specific na-
worth
ture of technical assistance in
while, the examination would have to
public admin-
istration
make it possible to deduce definite proposals
was, however, doubted by several
representatives of recipient countries.
In
as to the improvements felt necessary.
their opinion, it was part of a larger complex
For the success of such a programme, it
since a good administration was the founda-
was essential first to classify the different
tion of economic and social development.
aspects of the assistance in question and to
The fact was then confirmed that different
distinguish their forms and main features.
countries had divergent ideas about admin-
Only on such bases could practices for
istration and administrative functions.
It
making technical assistance in the field of
was agreed that, in order to narrow the
public administration more effective be
question down to its essentials, the general
examined.
report would systematically study those
aspects so as clearly to show up the specific
The Working Group adopted that point of
features of technical assistance in public
view, and the general report will be in two
administration.
parts, one of which will aim at classifying
the basic data, and the other at explaining
the
(2) In view of the close co-operation im-
ways in which improvements might be
made
plied by technical assistance in
as a result of the international survey
public admin-
conducted by IIAS.
istration, the term « technical assistance
»
probably ought to be replaced by
« technical
The discussions of the Working Group may
co-operation ».
best be summarized under those two head-
ings.
The reason adduced by the General Rap-
469
porteur, and supported by many participants,
plied and the question of fellowships and
was that the latter term tended to prevail,
scholarships also arose.
and was justified because technical aid in
public administration
(c) Making available the technical and
most frequently re-
quired close co-operation between
physical means for facilitating the introduc-
two or
tion of sound administration. -
That form
more parties that were juridically on an equal
should be viewed as documentation in the
footing in their dealings with one another.
widest
If the
sense.
Its aim was to encourage
new term were preferred, two facts
would be made
teaching, research and studies in public ad-
more apparent : that the
ministration, and also to disseminate infor-
success of technical assistance depended on
mation and documents of
those who received it
general interest,
as well as on those
for instance those
who provided it, and that both parties should
describing foreign experien-
take
ces.
care that the work should be effected
under the best conditions. The term also
The general definition of those three forms
indicated the frame of mind in which the
of co-operation was approved. The first
assistance was given, while emphasizing that
was, however, commented upon.
Several
responsibility for success rested with both
speakers observed that too clear-cut a dis-
parties. Besides, it stressed the association
tinction between « advisory experts
»
and
in common tasks for administrative purposes.
« operational experts
»
was misleading and
Those
liable to
arguments were steadfastly opposed.
vary widely in each case. In many
The supporters of the term « technical assist-
cases, the experts were responsible not only
for preparing projects to be submitted and
ance maintained, first, that it had the
advantage of being traditionally accepted by
approved by the Governments concerned
all countries
but also for
and, second, that there
implementing them. There were
was no
valid
at most two
reason for preferring
separate stages in the work for
any other term.
True
the
co-operation was only possible between
programmes : preparation and implemen-
tation.
parties which, if not technically equal, hand
at least reached a similar stage of develop-
The General Rapporteur explained the
ment, so that the services they. rendered one
significance of the distinction he had made.
another were roughly equivalent. While the
One set of problems was faced by experts
importance of close co-operation should be
with a definite mission for a certain time,
admitted, it was only secondary when com-
another was faced by technical operational
pared with the leading idea of assistance.
personnel, whose tasks were not specifically
As the
defined
two opinions
or limited in time and were
were supported both
perform-
by countries providing and receiving techni-
ed in the civil service of the country con-
cal assistance, the Group decided that the
cerned. Within the framework of the techni-
general
cal assistance
report would set forth the arguments
supplied by the United Na-
tions,
on both sides, and...
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