The ombudsman plan: The worldwide spread of an idea. Revised 2nd edition. Donald C. Rowat. university press of America, 1985, viii + 199 pp.
| Date | 01 October 1987 |
| Author | Gavin Drewry |
| Published date | 01 October 1987 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070410 |
406
Book
Reviews
political consensus crumbled; the policy mix gradually ceased to be universally admired.
In part it was less suited
to
leaner economic times but, most important, its emphasis on
restraint, discipline, stability and responsibility
fell
foul
of
political pressures for growth,
and sectional and regional calls for larger shares.
It had been a subtle policy package, but in the public mind it increasingly became
identified with a high and rising international rate for the kina, and little else. Thus,
criticism of it focussed on the possibly adverse effects of such exchange rate movements
on the rural, export- and import-replacing sectors.
In
theory, exchange rate revaluation had been designed to lessen international inflationary
trends both as a means of reducing wage pressures and
of
keeping the local cost structure
in
line.
In fact,
in
achieving these goals it had some structurally adverse impact and possibly
added to the inducements to ruralhrban migration. Academic criticisms of exchange rate
policy rather than political reaction to the other elements
of
the package led to the
appointment
of
the review team.
Not surprisingly, their assessment of the strategy is favourable. and they assert that
departures from it, especially in the areas
of
fiscal responsibility and expenditure control,
rather than the package as such, was responsible for economic drift
in
the early
1980s.
They conclude that over-expenditure
in
the
1980
Budget in the face of looming balance of
payments problems, plus wage rises due to a price index-linked wage mechanism, were
major policy flaws.
They
advocate a return to the full policy package but suggest that to correct past mistakes
an adjustment is needed
of
the order of about
25
per cent
in
the exchange rate, preferably
combined with a de-linking
of
wages and prices. Overall they did not accept the major
criticisms of the strategy, but do claim that the exchange rate had been over-emphasized
by commentators and policy-makers as an element
in
the
package.
The report is well argued, stylishly written and is certainly the best available discussion
of
the
economic policy framework of Papua New Guinea. It does, however, continue the
bias
on
macroeconomics to the exclusion of sectoral policies
so
evident
in
Papua New
Guinea since Independence.
Later Government initiatives have attempted to correct this imbalance, and there is now
a stated intention both
to
promote growth and to concentrate
on
policies designed to
stimulate agriculture.
Also,
exchange rate policy has been modified
to
the extent that
devaluations have occurred with respect to the ‘export’ currencies-the yen and $US-while
the upward trend with respect to the major ‘import’ currency-the $Australia-has con-
tinued. The adjustment Garnaut and Baxter call for has been effected by a partial de-
indexation of the wage system, thereby reducing real wages and thus the real cost structure,
but not yet to the extent they suggested.
BRIAN BROGAN
Institute
of
National Affairs,
Port
Moresby,
Papua New Guinea
THE OMBUDSMAN PLAN: THE WORLDWIDE SPREAD
OF
AN IDEA. Revised
2nd edition.
Donald
C.
Rowat.
University Press of America,
1985,
viii
+
199
pp.
This
is
an updated version of book published
in
1973,
compiled from the author’s extensive
but widely scattered writings on ‘ombudsman’ themes. The result is not entirely satisfactory.
The proliferation, mainly since the early
1960s,
of
numerous kinds
of
ombudsman offices,
at national, state and local levels,
in
many countries is indeed an interesting phenomenon;
but the sheer diversity
of
these offices militates against coherent analysis. In this case
coherence is not improved by the book’s origins
in
a somewhat amorphous portfolio of
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