Honourable Mr. Dean Allison, esteemed representatives, honourable members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Parliament of Canada for organizing this important hearing on the partnership between the Canadian Public Service Commission and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, public service reform has taken place in Mongolia, and nowadays it is its fourth stage of reform. Stage one took place from 1990-95 and focused on the legal and policy framework for the state structure, during which Mongolia made the transition from a single-party-centred political system and centralized rule of the state to the delegation of power to the legislative and executive structures and the judiciary.
In 1995, Mongolia ratified a law on civil service for the first time, and since then the public sector in Mongolia as a whole has undergone a series of ongoing reform strategy initiatives.
In 2002, the Parliament of Mongolia passed the Public Sector Management and Finance Law. This law provides a mechanism to ensure budget discipline, as well as to establish a new, contractual, output-based system aimed at improved accountability, governance, and fiscal management. Since then, the Public Sector Management and Finance Law has provided a favourable legal environment for the modernization of public sector management and financing.
In 2008 the Parliament of Mongolia amended the law on civil service to strengthen public personnel systems and the professional civil service, which mandates civil servants to be non-partisan and free from any political activities. This was the beginning of the new period, making the professional civil service politically neutral in accordance with the merit-based principle.
At this important stage, we are very grateful that we have established relations with the Canadian Public Service Commission, which has a strong and experienced professional public service. The president of the Canadian Public Service Commission, Ms. Maria Barrados, visited Mongolia in May 2010. During this visit, we exchanged our experiences and views on the public service and laid down foundations for the future cooperation between our two institutions.
The Civil Service Council of Mongolia, which was established 15 years ago, has a lot to learn from the experiences of the Canadian Public Service Commission. In order to further support civil service reforms in Mongolia and strengthen institutions of democracy to support Mongolia’s development, we need much valuable experience and assistance from Canadian partners.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Public Service Commission of Canada and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia, during the first-ever visit of the Prime Minister of Mongolia to Canada in September, was an important event that provided the legal environment to further support bilateral cooperation in this area. This also signified an important event in the history of foreign relations and cooperation of the Civil Service Council of Mongolia.
We have much to learn from the Public Service Commission of Canada, which has over 100 years of history. During his visit to Canada, Prime Minister Batbold stated that Canada could be a role model for Mongolia’s development. We see that introducing the Canadian model of civil service into the practice of the Mongolian civil service is also important in terms of realizing this objective.
In this regard, we look forward to further develop and expand cooperation between our two institutions. Within this framework of cooperation, recently the Canadian side conducted a comparative analysis of mandates and functions of the Public Service Commission of Canada and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia. We see that the Public Service Commission and the Civil Service Council operate along similar lines in respect to their missions, objectives, and functions. However, the numbers of the functions are quite different and they will be a future discussion topic for us.
Since we are planning to introduce the Canadian model of development as well as the model of the Canadian Public Service Commission into Mongolia’s civil service, we need to work on this matter in a more active and effective way. The Civil Service Council has just sent its detailed proposal on future areas of cooperation to the Public Service Commission of Canada: in particular, cooperation and exchange of experience in the areas of public service reform; the merit-based principle; a code of conduct; the selection of public service senior and executive officials; and other applicable standards in the public service.
It is anticipated that, within the framework of cooperation, the activities shall be conducted step by step in accordance with the specified topics. Therefore, we need to make a comparative study, organize a workshop or discussion, work on specific documents, and, if necessary, conduct some pilot studies on the above-mentioned topics.
In order to accomplish these objectives, we see the need for a comprehensive program on public service reform, jointly developed by the Public Service Commission of Canada and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia. The Civil Service Council of Mongolia would greatly appreciate the Parliament and the Government of Canada, as well as other relevant public institutions of Canada, in their support and assistance provided to the Civil Service Council of Mongolia. We will work hard and in a timely manner to implement these objectives for the benefit of the two parties.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Ms. Maria Barrados for her contribution and hard work to promote relations between the public service institutions of our two countries.
I am confident that this hearing will lead to important results in the exchange of ideas on the ways to achieve the above-mentioned objectives and would greatly contribute to the development of Mongolia’s public service sector.
Thank you for your attention.
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