Performance Management Reform in Macao

Macao’s ¹ current reform in public sector performance management was initiated by chief executive Edmund Ho after the city’s reunification with China in December 1999 (the Handover), as a part of a comprehensive civil service reform effort. Prior to the Handover, the colonial government had done very little to reform performance management in the civil service, although a number of decrees were passed after 1985 to strengthen the civil service regulations (e.g., Law no. 85/89/M, 52086/89/M, and 87/89/M). These laws combined to form the civil service regulations prior to the Handover, in whichChapter 7 stipulates the rules and regulations for performance assessment. After the Handover, under the call of “Macao people governing Macao, ” the government was facing an increasing public demand for a more accountable government. ² This demand surfaced as a result of cumulative dissatisfaction toward a conservative and non-responsive government during the colonial rule. The problems with the Macao civil service were many-fold, including lacking transparency, corruption, and lacking meritocracy, which led to an unhealthy civil service culture. This chapter examines the problems in the Macao civil service, the efforts in performance management reform, how the problems in the civil service had hindered the reform, and future development.