Reforming the Parliamentary Commissioner

For the most part reforms in administrative procedures in England are not produced by rational argument. So the fact that a Committee of Justice has enumerated the deficiencies in the Parliamentary Commissioner legislation gives one no great confidence that the deficiencies will be remedied. Nevertheless the Committee chaired by David Widdicombe QC has performed a useful service by setting out the obvious flaws in the British Ombudsman machinery. * They can be summed up under five headings.     

ANTHONY HECHT,PRIVATE FIRST CLASS

This letter is written primarily to inform you that the war is over, and I have come through it unscathed. You had probably guessed as much by this time, but I am sure that my own confirmation can clinch the matter more firmly than anything else. Unscathed, of course, does not mean unaffected. What I have seen and heard here, in conversations with Germans, French, Czechs, and Russians — plus personal observations — combines to make a story well beyond the limits of censorship regulations. You must wait till I can tell you personally of this beautiful country and its demented people.     

THE FULTON COMMITTEE'S MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY GROUP: AN ASSESSMENT OF ITS CONTRIBUTION

Early access to the papers of the Fulton committee of 1966–8 and to the still unpublished oral evidence that the committee received, which has been Officially granted to the author, enables the contribution of its Management Consultancy Group to be studied fully for the first time, that study being complemented by interviews with the surviving members of the committee, its secretariat, and of the group. The article argues that the group was innovative in that, by means of its report, and through such impact as it had upon the Fulton committee and its report, it put the adoption of the bat private sector management practice into a prominent place on the Fabian socialist agenda for civil service reform and, hence, added an extra dimension to the Fabians' traditional concern about greater efficiency.     

Building sustainable professional capacity in African public sectors: retention constraints in Kenya

Significant investments are being made by aid agencies to increase Master's-level training of African professionals serving in the public sector. Yet no case studies present detailed data or analysis of past efforts to build sustainable human capacity in governmental institutions. The article reviews career and retention data on 169 economists, planners, and statisticians trained under funding provided by 6 long-term aid projects for targeted posts in Kenyan ministries. After reviewing retention constraints revealed by this data and other evidence, it offers recommendations that might assist governments and aid agencies to design and implement capacity building initiatives with a higher probability of ensuring that returned graduates serve for adequate periods of time in the positions for which they were trained. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Public Admin. Dev. Vol. 17 , 307–324 (1997). No. of Figures: 0. No. of Tables: 1. No. of Refs: 31.