Mechanisms to promote reform Public management reform is an effort that needs to be promoted. Portugal uses different instruments to keep reform on the daily agenda. Conferences on modernisation are organised, in which around 1000 public officials participate. Quality awards are given to public bodies. Directors-General participate in meetings to discuss initiatives.
Special exhibitions are organised.
The effectiveness of the administration largely depends on the capacities of its employees, as well as their environment and morale. Improving this environment is not necessarily limited to interventions related to remuneration. In Portugal, the role assigned to public officials during the years of authoritarian rule had given them a negative image in society. After the Revolution, it became urgent to create a sense of respect for public service in order to attract capable people to the administration, to retain them, and to improve their capacities. Selection procedures have been modernised and made transparent.