Ever heard of a Red Tape Commissioner?

John Richard Lloyd coordinates the work of more than 155,000 Australian federal public servants under Australia’s Public Service Act. He oversees wealth declarations, attendance management, performance, and so on.

Lloyd says his job is to make and maintain Australia’s federal public service. Australia's public service is efficient, effective, professional and impartial, so he seems to be managing. 

For Lloyd, example is one of the most important aspects of leadership. He lives in Melbourne and works in Canberra, the capital, but does not approve his own travel expenses. In fact, he pays for his own weekly trips.

Lloyd does not want his employees to see him leaving the office earlier than the official time. He turns in gifts and rejects anything that may pose a conflict of interest, such as holidays, or goods and services paid for by anyone who could influence his thinking.

Before becoming the Public Service Commissioner, Lloyd worked as Red Tape Commissioner for the Victorian Government. It seems ironic and contradictory that there should be a red tape commission to combat red tape, yet the State of Victoria, in Australia, has one.

Lloyd explains that regulators are wildly excited every time a new regulation is issued. The performance of parliaments, assemblies and regulatory bodies is judged by the number of laws, by-laws and regulations they produce.

Most regulators tend to lose touch with the reality of the business they intend to regulate. The intended result is irrelevant to them, yet they drink, eat and sleep regulating and legislating. Every new experience must be regulated, every mistake dealt with.

Law for them is like blood to Dracula. This approach makes efficiency secondary and as a result, regulators are judged per kilogram of regulation produced per year.

Kenya is no exception to this pain. Many of our MCAs thought they could save the world by legislating. Little did they know that this would add to their woes, for the more the laws, the less the justice.

RIBBON-BOUND FOLDERS

According to Lloyd, the government of Victoria woke up to this "red-tape" reality a few years ago, when a German mining company found so much red tape in Victoria that they withdrew a 900 million Australian Dollar (Sh68.3 billion) bid and invested the money in Europe instead. The Victorian red tape defeated desirable investment.

“Fighting red tape was exciting. It entailed auditing systems and aligning them to the intended results,” says Lloyd.

In Victoria, they found so many unnecessary steps and permits that they could have invented a new subject: permitology, the study of permits.

Raphael Ng’etich, one of my brilliant graduate assistants, says that the course outline of permitology could be based on Barry Bozeman’s definition of red tape: “excessive or meaningless paperwork, a high degree of formalisation and constraint; unnecessary rules, procedures and regulations; inefficiency; unjustifiable delays; and as a result of all this, frustration and vexation.”

I recommend here the reading of Bozeman’s "A Theory of Government 'Red Tape'".

Herbert Kaufman, writing on the origins, uses and abuses of red tape, traces the term to the ribbon used to tie up legal documents in old England. The common law practice of judicial precedent requires that every decision made is informed by prior decisions for authority and guidance.

Records of every transaction are punctiliously filed and cross-filed. Clerks and lawyers would take a huge amount of time "tying and untying the ribbon-bound folders".

KIBAKI'S COMPROMISE

Red tape is corruption’s growth medium. In red tape systems, corruption is perceived as the "grease in the wheels", easing a rigid system as "speed money" gets things done; it reduces delays in inefficient administrative procedures.

Kenya’s red tape increased substantially with the introduction of our devolved system when a new player, county governments, came into the game.

This was expected, and Kenyans could have dealt with it if MCAs had controlled their gluttony, but it was their "time to eat".

Sadly, local government administration, which was the old player due for retirement, was unduly kept in the game purely for political convenience.

Certainly, if the new constitution had attempted to phase out local leaders they would have told their constituents to vote in favour of the “No” side. At the time, President Kibaki saw it fitting to compromise. This created confusion and a duplication of roles that is still unresolved. 

In a good attempt to curb red tape, the current administration has introduced Huduma Centres, "one-stop-shops" where a number of essential public services can be easily obtained.

For example, in 2012, it took an average of 10 procedures and 45 days to start a business in Nairobi while it now takes an average of seven procedures and 22 days. The centres offer 45 government services and serve 30,000 people daily.

EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

Huduma Centres are the type of initiative we should all support. Both government and opposition should back the idea, nurture and protect it. 

Huduma Centres are the "smart tape" that should spread to cover all public services. Their impact is evident. According to Brian Ngugi, Kenya is among the world's top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken.

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey agrees that Kenya has been improving in service delivery in some key areas. For example, getting connected to power in Kenya requires fewer procedures and days than the world average, but the same does not happen with construction permits.

Interestingly, when it comes to paying taxes, we are almost twice as efficient as the average country in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, the government got it right.

When it comes to taxes, the end result is priority number one and every procedure is aimed at increasing efficiency in revenue collection.

If we applied to service delivery the criteria we apply to revenue collection, our country would function as smoothly as any developed nation. Huduma began this change, and it is worth supporting.

Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected]; Twitter: @lgfranceschi