Fatally flawed?

Efficiency often plays
second fiddle to following
all of the rules

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

THE problem in getting government to be more efficient is that sometimes it wasn't designed to be that way.

Hawaii, for instance, has cumbersome procurement laws primarily to protect against abuses. The regulations require a lengthy, tedious process because of the need for checks and balances, current and former government officials say.

"It's almost designed inefficiency," said Robbie Alm, a former state commerce director.

Many government functions are set up for specific purposes -- like protecting the environment or inspecting for health hazards -- and efficiency is only a secondary consideration, said Alm, now a First Hawaiian Bank executive.

"Efficiency often is at best something you do after you do the main job," he said.

Robin Campaniano, former state insurance commissioner, said laws that hamper government efficiency need amending to bring more common sense and flexibility into the process.

"There's good reason for these laws, but in implementation government can get extremely cumbersome," said Campaniano, now president of AIG Hawaii Insurance. "It should be fair, but there's got to be easier ways."

The laws and rules, however, sometimes have nothing to do with the slowness in which government operates or changes.

Some managers are reluctant to take risks because they fear being subject to public criticism if their initiatives flop, officials say.

"When you make mistakes in the public sector, there's a good chance it will become public," Alm said. "That has people in some cases gun shy."

Another factor: management turnover.

Because department heads are political appointments, the long-time civil servants who have outlasted previous bosses wonder how long the current one will be in office.

In a recent seven-year period, for example, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has had five directors.

Consequently, managers can find resistance or indifference to their directives when they first get on the job -- at least until they win the trust and support of the staff, former managers say.

"It's harder to motivate someone if they don't believe you're going to be around in a while," Alm said.

John Radcliffe, an executive with the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the UH faculty union, acknowledges that motivation is a problem for some government workers.

"What you've got here is a kind of 'make-me-work' attitude," Radcliffe said. "But it can't be changed by a bigger whip. It's got to be changed by causing people to want to believe in their work."