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epartmental secretaries are on the boundary between politics and administration. They are responsible for ensuring a close and productive partnership that delivers effective public services.

The distinction between politics and administration in democratic forms of government has a long history. For those in parliamentary democracies, the Northcote-Trevelyan Report to the British Parliament in the 1850s is often seen as the foundation for our professional civil services. It certainly had a huge and lasting influence on Indonesia’s neighbors, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

Woodrow Wilson writing in the US in the 1880s had a similar impact many democracies with presidential systems. Indonesia’s proposed law on the civil service adopts this same distinction.

Democracies need a professional civil service, to loyally administer the policies of the elected government, and to protect the public from the “tyranny of the majority” and the dangers of corruption and maladministration. Checks and balances of “responsible government” require some separation between the executive and the legislature. The executive requires authorization from the legislature, and is accountable to it for administering the policies and programs of the elected government, with effective systems of oversight and assurance.

The characteristics which distinguish administration from politics include employment based strictly on merit; decision-making that is impartial and procedurally fair; and non-partisanship, being loyal to whichever party is in power.

Other values of the administration include being non-corrupt and highly ethical; being efficient and effective, and courteous and responsive, in delivering government services; and being openly accountable.

The responsibilities of secretaries are onerous and managing them requires great skill.

As community expectations increase, the responsibilities are likely to increase. As the community participates more and technology gives them more opportunities to do so, the constraints on secretaries’ authority also increase.

The formal responsibilities of secretaries are usually set out in financial management and public service legislation. These specify authority to spend money and to employ and direct staff. They hold secretaries accountable to ministers and the parliament for the expenditure of public money and the management of their departments. The key roles in practice are set out below.

The minister is the boss. Yet secretaries also have a degree of independence because they must be non-partisan, impartial and professional. A former head of the Australian Prime Minister’s Department described the relationship well when he said that, while he worked very closely with all the ministers he had had, none was his friend.

The secretary informs a new minister about the department’s programs and policies that the minister, as the policy-maker, can shape or reshape. The secretary needs to marshal expert advice from the department to ensure the minister’s decisions are well-informed. Because the minister is the boss, the secretary must communicate to the department the minister’s objectives and priorities, and the decisions that must be implemented, drawing to attention the minister’s personal style and preferences.

As the prime minister is the one who appoints secretaries in Australia, I call him “the real boss”. The President is “the real boss” of secretaries in Indonesia. In practice this means that each secretary has a responsibility to help the government with its collective responsibilities, as well as with the specific responsibilities of the minister. Secretaries must support cabinet processes and help in coordination and priority setting.

As legislatures become more expert in overseeing the executive, they can seem like the “lion’s den” to secretaries. This is not just because they ask tough questions and shine lights into embarrassing corners, but because in asking bureaucrats questions they are really gunning for the minister.

My experience is that a secretary must always show respect for the parliament and recognize that the parliamentarian who is asking tough questions today may be your minister tomorrow.

The major part of the job is to ensure the department delivers its programs efficiently and effectively, has the capacity to do so into the future and provides truly expert advice in a timely and useful way. Important elements include: Using a good strategic planning; having a robust performance management framework; fostering a productive culture so that the department achieves more than just the sum of its parts; and ensuring the systems that underpin operations are robust and reliable.

Achieving results these days nearly always involves working closely with external stakeholders. Secretaries set the tone in this area, demonstrating by their personal styles whether such relationships are viewed positively or defensively. While extreme openness might be naïve, an inward-looking approach presents even greater long-term dangers of failing to identify changes, missing new ideas and ignoring the needs and preferences of clients.

Secretaries share leadership responsibility for promoting integrity across the public service. They demonstrate by their personal behavior the values of professional, non-partisan and impartial administration. They promote public service values through training, appropriate management structures and processes, and rigorous monitoring and policing.

In this era of change in the role of departmental secretaries in Indonesia, I trust these simple insights will encourage secretaries to lead the reform in creating a professional
bureaucracy.

The writer is a professor of public policy at the Australian National University and a former Australian public service commissioner. The article is taken from his address to the Indonesian Bureaucratic Reform Conference recently.