The business of reengineering government bureaucratic process has finally arrived at the doors of the city municipality. Kuma Demeksa, whose reign of the Addis Abeba City Administration is clocking 100 days, is trying to train an army of bureaucrats so that he could deliver on his promises. They are plenty of them, although mainly focused on housing, employment and good governance.

A series of groups have now been sent for training to Alage Agricultural College, farther west from the town of Zeway, disclosed gossip. This is part of an attempt to create a team spirit among members of the rank and file, claims gossip.

The most crucial meeting is yet to be; close to 210 of them will camp inside Civil Service College for five days, beginning Monday, July 28, 2008. They will be busy talking about how to implement the business process reengineering (BPR), fancy buzzwords that have become almost synonymous with the administration of the Revolutionary Democrats.

As is the case with many of the agencies, both on federal and regional levels, Mayor Kuma’s team aims at introducing a bureaucratic procedure that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the constituency. These are noble causes provided that they succeed. It appears that the Revolutionary Democrats are determined to show their political might in Addis Abeba, according to gossip.

The way BPR is to be implemented in the capital will not be an affair limited to its newly elected officials. There will be the involvement of far too many senior officials, both from the Federal Government and the regional states. In a way, Addis Abeba will not have an in-house developed roadmap for bureaucratic reform. It will rather have a “misto” of reforms proven to be successful elsewhere.

According to gossip, the guys who will confine themselves at the Civil Service College will be supported by their seniors from elsewhere: For instance, someone from the Ministry of Trade and Industry will be helping out with the reform efforts of the city’s Trade, Industry and Tourism Bureau, or from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and so on. A city administration that is racing against time seems to be less keen wasting any more time developing a new plan, when there are plenty that it can simply take off the shelf of many of the regional states.

One model is the town of Burayu, one of the townships in the Oromia Regional State where a pilot project in implementing BPR is reportedly an overwhelming success. Its former mayor, Daba Debelle, is credited for the remarkable changes he has brought in service provision and applications of technology to the municipal services of Burayu. Little did gossip wonder when the ruling party brought him onto the cabinet of the Addis Abeba City Administration, and appointed him to head the bureau for capacity building.

Nevertheless, gossip looks forward a lot more as senior government officials chip in to help Mayor Kuma deliver Addis Abeba back to the folds and spheres of the Revolutionary Democrats, come the next national elections.