Monday, December 23, 2019

Essay on Fight Aganist Transnational Organized Crimes

1. Introduction Human Rights passed the important stages of development since 2nd World War and became an influential factor in international relations. At the same time, transnational crime has showed a significant increase. In this sense, the international community has reacted by establishing strong legal mechanisms and intensifying the preparation process of international agreements for the creation of a more favorable climate. Extradition is regarded as an effective tool in the fight against transnational organized crimes. Inevitable, there are divergences on the inclusion of human rights through the extradition process in terms of international treaties and domestic laws of the countries. More importantly extradition process†¦show more content†¦With the inherent difficulties of bilateral mechanisms and implications of obligations, there has been an increasing resort to regional and possible universal regulation systems in the context of extradition. Notwithstanding important points, there are significant controversial arguments, divergences between regional and bilateral treaties which cover basically human rights aspect of extradition procedure. However, main regulations of current treaties play an important role to define the categories of extraditable offences, obligations of states and human rights aspect of extradition at international and regional level. As one of the first regional instruments for extradition, European Convention on Extradition signed in 1957 serves for harmonization of extradition relations and development of mutual assistance amongst European states. Under this regional mechanism, states have to be more sensitive for human rights factor while extraditing suspects more than ever. Article 11 of the European Convention on Extradition which excludes extradition unless the requesting Party gives reasonable assurance that death penalty will not be executed. Furthermore, the fact that this convention is unable to limit the political applicat ion of political crimes which opens opportunities to abuse by subjects. The European Union Members achieved to tackle this problem by signing the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism which entered into force in 1977. Outside

Sunday, December 15, 2019

What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana Free Essays

string(187) " for settlements with populations above 15 000 and which are cosmopolitan in character, with urbanisation and management problems, though not of the scale associated with the metropolis\." gStructure of the new local government system The new local government system is made up of a regional coordinating council (RCC) and a four-tier metropolitan and three-tier municipal/DAs structure. Composition of structure The RCC consists of the regional minister as chairman and his deputies, the presiding member of each DA and the district chief executive of each district in the region, two chiefs from the regional house of chiefs and the decentralized ministries without voting rights. A DA consists of the district chief executive,   two thirds of the members directly elected by universal adult suffrage, the members of parliament (MPs) representing constituencies within the district, and not less than 30% of the members appointed by the president in consultation with chiefs and interest groups in the district. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana or any similar topic only for you Order Now The district chief executive is nominated by the president, approved by two-thirds of the members of the DA present and voting, and appointed by the president. The assembly has a presiding member who is elected from among its members by two-thirds of all the members of the assembly. The sub-district structures include: †¢ The sub-metropolitan DCs which consist of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members, made up of all elected members of the assembly in that   sub-metropolitan district and such other persons resident in the sub-metropolitan district appointed by the president. †¢ The urban council consists of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members made up of not more than eight persons elected from among the members of the relevant DA, not more than 12 representatives from the unit committees in the area of authority of the urban council and not more than 10 persons ordinarily resident in the urban area. The zonal council consists of not less than 15 and not more than 20 members made up of not more than five persons elected from among the members of the relevant municipal assembly, not more than 10 representatives from the unit committees and not more than five persons ordinarily resident in the zone. †¢ The town/area councils consis t of not less than 15 and not more than 20 members made up of not more than five persons elected from among the members of the relevant assembly, not more than 10 representatives from the unit committees and not more than five persons ordinarily resident in the town or area. The unit committee consists of not more than 15 persons made up of 10 elected persons ordinarily resident in the unit and not more than five other persons resident in the unit and nominated by the district chief executive, acting   on behalf of the president. Elections to all local government bodies are on a non-partisan basis; the elections are state-sponsored and conducted by the electoral commission. Regional coordinating councils (RCCs) RCCs are established for each of the 10 regions of Ghana. An RCC is an administrative and coordinating rather than a political and policy-making body. Its functions are to: monitor, coordinate and evaluate the performance of the DAs in the region; †¢ monitor the use of all monies allocated to the DAs by any agency of the central government; †¢ review and coordinate public services generally in the region †¢ perform such other functions as may be assigned to it by or under any enactment. Metropolitan/municipal/district assemblies DAs in Ghana are either metropolitan (population over 250 000), municipal (one town assemblies with populations over 95 000) or district (population 75 000 and over. ) There are three metropolitan assemblies, four municipal assemblies and 103 DAs. A metropolitan/municipal/DA is: †¢ created as the pivot of administrative and developmental decision-making in the district and is the basic unit of government administration †¢ assigned with deliberative, legislative as well as executive functions †¢ established as a monolithic structure to which is assigned the responsibility of the totality of government to bring about integration of political, administrative and development support needed to achieve a more equitable allocation of power, wealth and geographically dispersed development in Ghana constituted as the planning authority for the district. Functions of the assemblies These are deliberative, legislative and executive. Section 10(3) of Act 462 lists them as follows: a) be responsible for the overall development of the district and shall ensure the preparation and submission through the regional coordinating council for approval of the development plan to the commission and budget to minister of finance for th e district b) formulate and execute plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilization of the resources necessary for the overall development of the district ) promote and support productive activity and social development in the district and remove any obstacles to initiative and development d) initiate programmes for the development of basic infrastructure and provide municipal works and services in the district e) be responsible for the development, improvement and management of human settlements and the environment in the district f) in cooperation with appropriate national and local security agencies, be responsible for the maintenance of security and public safety in the district ) ensure ready access to the courts and public tribunals in the district for the promotion of justice h) initiate, sponsor or carry out such studies as may be necessary for the discharge of any of the functions conferred by this Law or any other enactment perform such other functions as may be provided under any other enactment. Sub-district political/administrative structures These being subordinate bodies of the DAs, they perform functions assigned to them by the instruments setting up by the assemblies or delegated to them by the assemblies. They are constituted by the sub-metropolitan DCs, urban/town/ zonal/area councils, and unit committees. Sub-metropolitan DCs These structures are immediately below the metropolitan assemblies. There are 13 of these structures established by law. These are shown below: This arrangement has been dictated by the complex and peculiar socio-economic, urbanisation and management problems which confront these three metropolis. Urban councils Urban councils are peculiar to settlements of â€Å"ordinary† DAs. They are created for settlements with populations above 15 000 and which are cosmopolitan in character, with urbanisation and management problems, though not of the scale associated with the metropolis. You read "What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana" in category "Papers" Thirty-four of these councils are established by law. Zonal councils The zonal councils are in the â€Å"one-town† municipal assemblies of Cape Coast, New Juaben, Tamale and Tema, for which the establishment of town/area councils will raise problems of parallel administrative structures. There are 108 of such zonal councils for the four municipal assemblies. They are based on the electoral commission’s criteria of: commonality of interest, population of 3000 and identifiable streets, land marks, etc. as boundaries. Sub-Metropolitan District Council under Respective Metropolitan Assemblies Assembly Accra Metropolitan Assembly Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly Ablekuma Asokwa Sekondi Ashiedu Keteke Bantama Takoradi Okaikwei Manhyia Shama Ayawaso Kpeshie Osu Klottey Subin Town/area councils These are found in the metropolitan assemblies and DAs. In the DAs, town councils are established for settlements with populations between 5000 and 1500. Area councils exist for a number of settlements/villages which are grouped together but whose individual settlements have populations of less than 5000. They cover areas with predominantly rural populations and in some cases can be identified with spheres of influence of a particular traditional authority. They are essentially rallying points of local enthusiasm in support of a new local government system. A unit is normally a settlement or a group of settlements with a population of between 500–1000 in the rural areas, and a higher population (1500) for the urban areas. Unit committees being in close touch with the people play the important roles of education, organization of communal labour, revenue-raising and ensuring environmental cleanliness, registration of births and deaths, implementation and monitoring of self-help projects, among others. Committees of District Assemblies In the performance of its functions, the DA works through the executive committee and its subsidiary committees of development planning, social services, works, finance and administration, and justice and security. Executive committees The functions of the assembly are performed by the executive committee, which is presided over by the district chief executive and consists of not more than onethird of the total number of members of the assembly excluding the presiding member. Heads of departments of the assembly attend the meetings of the relevant sub-committees and advise them on the execution of their functions, but may not vote. A sub-committee can also coopt persons to attend its meetings but also without a vote. The functions performed by the executive committee are to: coordinate plans and programmes of the sub-committees and submit these as comprehensive plans of action to the DA †¢ implement resolutions of the district in collaboration with the office of the DA †¢ oversee the administration of the district in collaboration with the office of the district chief executive †¢ recommend where it considers necessary – in the case of departments outside 364 the supervision of the assembly wh ich are in the district – to the appropriate government ministry/department/agency the appointment and replacement on stated grounds of officers within the area of authority of the assembly adopt measures to develop and execute approved plans of the units, areas and towns and sub-metropolitan districts within the area of authority of the assembly †¢ recommend to the DA the coordination, integration and harmonisation of district development plans and policies. Sub-committees of the executive committee The sub-committees of the executive committee and the functions they perform are shown below: Development planning sub-committee †¢ takes a comprehensive look at the district †¢ identifies the economic resources/potentials of the district †¢ develops an information base on the resources identifies opportunities and constraints for the exploitation of these resources †¢ prepares exploitation and phasing plans and strategies †¢ consults with other sub-committees and the private sector for the implications that the proposed district plan may have on other sub-committees’ plans †¢ submits the plan to the executive committee for harmonisation with other sub-committee plans. Social services sub-committee †¢ takes a comprehensive and long-term look at areas of social development in the district, in particular education, health, social welfare, sports, culture, etc. develops the information base on these areas of social development †¢ prepares a social development plan (long-, medium- and short-term) for the district Sub-Committees of the Executive Committees of the Assembly District Assembly, Executive Committee Development Planning Sub- Committee, Social Services Sub- Committee, Works Sub-committee, Finance Administration, Justice/ Security †¢ identifies the strengths and weaknesses in the social services areas †¢ examines the implications of the social development plan on other sub-sectors of the district economy submits the plans to the executive committee for harmonisation. Works sub-committee The functional areas of the works sub-committee includes roads, electricity, sanitation, water, etc. Within the general framework of Act 462 and the specific functions in the legislative instruments that establish the various assemblies, this sub-committee: †¢ takes a comprehensive look at the infrastructure needs and problems of the district †¢ develops an information base on each of these p rogramme/functional areas †¢ maps out, initiates and phases out programmes for their development and/or provision examines the implications of such actions for the other sub-committee proposals †¢ submits the programmes to the executive committee for harmonisation and action. Finance and administration sub-committee This sub-committee †¢ examines the general financial position of the assembly †¢ examines the revenue mobilisation and expenditure trends of the assembly †¢ maps out strategies to improve revenue mobilisation in the present and sets targets for the future †¢ submits financial plans to the executive committee for harmonisation with other sub-committee plans identifies strategies to ensure judicious utilisation of available resources. Justice and security sub-committee This sub-committee is set up to resolve intra-district and inter-district conflicts and to consider issues that pertain to the enforcement of by-laws of the assembly. To achieve these purposes, the sub-committee: †¢ examines these and other related conflict areas †¢ recommends to the executive committee ways and means to resolve disputes †¢ ensures ready access to the courts and tribunals for the promotion of justice in the district, e. . making sure that premises are available for use by community tribunals and that police logistics are adequate. A DA can form any other sub-committee, depending on the peculiarities of its environment or its area. The committee’s discussed above are, however, mandatory. They can be dissolved and reconstituted but cannot be replaced, for example by a task force. Sub-committees of metropolitan assemblies These and their subject areas are shown in Appendix 2. Boards of metropolitan assemblies For the efficient performance of its functions, a metropolitan assembly has three metropolitan boards: †¢ Metropolitan Planning Board †¢ Board of Metropolitan Works †¢ Board of Administration. The Sub-districts – New Decision-Making points for Poverty Reduction using the Sub-district Development Fund Saboba Introduction At the design stage of DSDA II, an Economic Development Component (Sub-district Development Fund) was suggested as a means to support economic development at the district and sub district levels. An amount of 14. 87 million DKK (US $ 2. 25 million) was earmarked over four years, to support activities of this component. This was designed to reduce poverty through the provision of social infrastructure and improved incomes, while strengthening the institutional and human capacity of the districts and economic stakeholders to manage these resources in an efficient and accountable manner. During the implementation stage a great number of lessons and experiences with regards to the Sub-district Development Fund (SDDF) herein after referred to as the Fund were accumulated and documented. The processes undertaken to reach these are highlighted in this chapter. The Best Practices and Lessons at the Design Stage dentifying and Establishing the Guiding Principles and Objectives Lesson One:Prior to the implementation of the Fund, an exercise was undertaken to establish guiding principles and objectives. The Fund, over the four-year period, operated around a number of principles which comply with the overall framework of Ghana’s decentralisation and poverty reduction programmes and these were: * Broad stakeholder participation in decision making; * Demand-driven;   Need and commitment; *   Viability and ownership; * Equity in resource allocation and targeting; * Decentralised development; and * Local capacity building and sustainability. The objectives which guided the support activities and the developed systems were: * To support social and economic development investments that will serve as catalyst for further economic opportunities in ruru mmunities. * To s trengthen the existing local government structures and institutions to provide services for decentralised development (financial, training, business development, project management, etc).   To enhance local decision making in project selection and implementation involving relevant stakeholders; * To deepen the sense of community ownership and responsibility for projects, especially post delivery operation and maintenance; and * To promote effective monitoring and evaluation of project implementation, utilisation and management for sustainability. Developing Effective Core Strategies and Approaches Lesson Two: For the SDDF, several strategies were developed through broad stakeholder consultation and validation. These consultations culminated in the formulation of specific strategies for implementation. A model strategy for poverty reduction, focusing on economic and social development was developed to guide implementation. In principle, three-tier strategy model proposed the targeting of economic funds towards projects with the highest potential to serve as catalysts for economic growth. Option 1: Regional economic promotion facility located at the regional level to cater for activities that seek to integrate economic development. Option 2: A district economic development policy and promotion facility, to support D As to establish district-based strategies and policy for economic development; and, Option 3: Community economic development facility categorised into: (a)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Economic Associations targeting those engaged in common economic vocations requiring common facilities and services to enhance their production activities; and (b)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Entire communities: where they require a common asset to broaden economic opportunities for all its residents. Each option was allocated a certain percentage of the total funds on the basis of major principles. Stakeholder Consultation and Decisions Lesson Three: Following the formulation of an entry strategy, stakeholders reached agreement on the feasibility of the strategy and made inputs towards owning it. Participating stakeholders included personnel of the Regional Coordinating Council and other regional institutions, personnel of the District Assembly and other district institutions, community level opinion eaders, representatives of women groups and credit/business advisory bodies. These consultations were organised first at the regional level and later at the district level. Involving stakeholders in project conception and inception was found to be critical for purposes of ownership and sustainability. The Best Practices and Lessons at the Implementation Stage At the implementation phase a number of lessons were learnt and some best practices emerged as follows: A Well Defined Impleme ntation Plan and Process Lesson One: The project cycle of the SDDF, was perceived as something beyond a mere list of activities. The processes were defined and shared to ensure their feasibility in relation to anticipated outputs. The instruments to facilitate effective implementation were pre-designed, discussed and modified appropriately. (i) Orientation of beneficiaries on SDDF as an Entry-Strategy: Following stakeholder validation of the economic development model and strategy, detailed orientation sessions in the two regions were organised. How to cite What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

McDonald Service Analysis-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Discuss about the McDonald Service Anaysis. Answer: McDonald service analysis McDonald is a known brand in different parts of the world. The company operates in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry and it has number of outlets in Australia. McDonald has to ensure that its customers get the same experience across any of the stores. The organization ensures this thing through product and service standardization. Over the time, the management of McDonald has realized that it is easy to do product standardization. However, it is difficult to do service standardization. The management has to focus on various front stages and back stages operation for service standardization (Harris, 2009). The overall customer experience would depend on the way McDonald can manage its internal and external operations. It is imperative for McDonald to have standardized back stage and front stage operations across its stores. For example, the company cannot afford to have different front stage process in Sydney stores and Melbourne stores. It would result in a bad customer exp erience. The flowchart of the back-stage operations of McDonald can be shown as: Flowchart: Back Stage operations of McDonald The front operations of McDonald are more people dependent. Therefore, it is important that the company must invest on the training of people. The flowchart of the front-end operations of McDonald restaurant can be shown as: Flowchart: Front Stage operations of McDonald Significance of Service Encounter The above diagram shows the front stage operations of McDonald are complex in nature. There is a dependency on number of people encounter. Therefore, it would be correct to say that the service encounter is the key for McDonald to ensure service standardization. The definition of a service encounter is broad and includes a customer's interaction with customer-contact employees, machines, automated systems, physical facilities, and any other service provider visible element (Helgesen, 2008). It would be correct to say that the absolute customer satisfaction would come only when McDonald is able to improve the service encounter between its employees and its customers. In turn, the service encounter can be improved only when the touch points are improved. The above diagram shows that there are multiple touch points of service encounter for McDonald. The organization must take measures to improve the service encounter with consumers. The key steps of methods that McDonald can take to imp rove the service encounter can be listed as: Invest on training and development of people: Helgesen (2008) argued that the quality or customer experience in service industry depends a lot on the type of people that organizations can get. The organizations can ensure the service quality through adequate training and development programs. It is recommended that that McDonald should have a allotted budget for its training and development programs across Australia. Kwortnik (2009) suggested that generally organizations should have 1% to 2% of revenue as their training budget. The training and development plan should be developed and implement for employees and staff at different levels. With respect to McDonald, the training should be developed for senior management, mid level management and wait staff. Process standardization: Lusch (2008) argued that organizations could improve service encounter through process standardization. McDonald has taken various steps to improve process standardization. For example, organizations uses a full fledge ERP system so that its processes are standardized. Various processes of the organization like vendor management, procurement, and inventory management are interlinked through ERP system. Benchmarking: It is important to mention that benchmarking is also an important tool that could be used to improve the service encounter. Kwortnik (2009) suggests that the approach of benchmarking is particularly useful when the organizations want to adopt the best in industry fundamentals. With this approach, McDonald can learn from the service delivery mechanism of other players in the industry. Taking feedback into consideration: Lusch (2008) highlighted that customer feedback is one of the most effective method to improve service encounter. As a part of feedback process, McDonald should try to understand the pain point of customers. The strategy to tackle the service encounter should depend on the pain point of customers. The entire idea of improvement in service encounter is that the management of McDonald should understand that its employees are the first line of customers. The wait staff may appear as a low level employee. However, he or she is the one who eventually deals with employees. Therefore, it is imperative that McDonald should have a common code of conduct that should be used to manage its different stores. Managerial Implications I personally believe that organizations in service sector must focus to improve the service quality. There could be serious managerial implications if the service quality is not up to mark. It is important that the management of McDonald must keep continuous watch over its service offerings. The first thing for McDonald would be to plan a budget for its service improvement plans. It is recommended that the management should develop a group or formulate a committee that would initially assess the current quality of service offerings from McDonald. The management can use the Service Gap model. The gap model (also known as the "5 gaps model") of service quality is an important customer-satisfaction framework (Lancastre, 2008). It is important that the management should have a close watch over all the five gaps. The supply chain analysis of McDonald suggests that the company has a vast eco-system. The suppliers of McDonald are spread across Australia and in fact across the globe. Therefo re, any compromise in any of the service gap can affect the operations of McDonald badly (Voima, 2013). If any of these gaps do not support the organizations strategy and purpose, it needs to be addressed. The knowledge of the service encounter has some important implications for managers. It is important that the managers of McDonald should realize the importance of service encounters and the impact of service encounters on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. It is recommended that the management of McDonald should take a top-down approach to inculcate the knowledge to mid level management. The senior leadership can arrange various learning sessions where the seniors can pass on the importance and criticality of service encounters to executives. It is important that the focus on service quality should be established as a culture within the organization. Employees at different levels should equally practice the culture. Another option for McDonald is to take the services of external consultants to provide training to employees. In this era of Internet, McDonald can also utilize the power of social media. The management can have online training modules. In fact, there should be training plans that can be made mandatory for employees (Bechkoff, 2009). The bottom line is that all the executives of McDonald should have a 360-degree view of the service encounters and service relationship marketing. The long term planning of service relationship marketing would help McDonald to improve its relationship with customers and in long term it would help McDonald to improve customer retention (Preston, 2013). The customers should be treated as advocate of McDonald so that customer can also market the offerings of the company. References Baron, S., Harris, K., Hilton, T. (2009).Services marketing: text and cases. Palgrave Macmillan. Broady-Preston, J. (2013). Changing Marketing Concepts: Contemporary Theories and Paradigms in Services Marketing.Marketing Library and Information Services II: A Global Outlook,159, 23. Gronroos, C., Voima, P. (2013). Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,41(2), 133-150. Helgesen, O. (2008). Marketing for higher education: A relationship marketing approach.Journal of Marketing for Higher Education,18(1), 50-78. Kwortnik, R. J., Thompson, G. M. (2009). Unifying service marketing and operations with service experience management.Journal of Service Research,11(4), 389-406. Lages, L. F., Lancastre, A., Lages, C. (2008). The B2B-RELPERF scale and scorecard: Bringing relationship marketing theory into business-to-business practice.Industrial Marketing Management,37(6), 686-697. Palmatier, R. W., Jarvis, C. B., Bechkoff, J. R., Kardes, F. R. (2009). The role of customer gratitude in relationship marketing.Journal of marketing,73(5), 1-18. Vargo, S. L., Lusch, R. F. (2008). From goods to service (s): Divergences and convergences of logics.Industrial Marketing Management,37(3), 254-259.