Public Administration in Nigeria
Nigeria – Evolution, Philosophy and Ethics of Public Administration, the Civil Service, and Reforms.
TRADITIONAL POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION
Many of you would have learnt in literatures that the country called Nigeria never existed before colonial contact. The various peoples and ethnic groups that made up Nigeria today were politically independent of each other.
Ethno-political groups such as the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Junkun, Tiv, Nupe, Kalabari, Ibibio, Urobo and others were living independently of each other groups in terms of political organization and administration. For instance, the Yoruba traditional political administration centered around the town (“ilu”) with the “Oba” (king) at the helm of administrative affairs. He had a council of chiefs made up of quarter chiefs. The council of chiefs made decisions that were presented to the “Oba” for ratification. There were chiefs in- charge of specific portfolios in the town’s administration. The Bashorun was the prime-minister, the head of the council of chiefs. The Are-Ona- Kakanfo was the head of the army.
The town had a judicial system right from the family level to the quarters, and at the apex was the “Oba” who had power over life and death.
In the same way, the Hausa-Fulani, Tiv, Igbo and the others had their own elaborate administrative system.
In general, the respective administrative systems, besides judicial administration, conduct of wars and maintenance of law and order, they also performed the functions of collecting taxes, carrying out community projects such as construction of markets, bridges and maintenance of streets.
COLONIAL CONTACT AND INDIRECT RULE
European colonial contact with the pre-colonial peoples of Nigeria started in the 14th Century, first by British explorers who wanted to find out about River Niger, and later followed by Christian Missionaries who were later followed by administrators when effective occupation had taken place. The area called Nigeria today was allocated to Britain at the 1884/85 Berlin Conference.
The mode of administration met on ground by the colonialists were not comparable to what obtained in Europe and consequently, it was labeled traditional administration to reflect its non-conformity with modern administrative system that obtained in Britain. Therefore, the system had to be discarded.
Britain had the difficulty of putting direct administration on Nigeria for the problems of shortage of personnel and language barrier among others, she therefore had to introduce indirect rule system by making minimum use of British administrators while traditional chiefs were put in the fore-front of the system officially also referred to as Native Authority, a form of rudimentary local administration.
The rise of modern local government system began in the early 1950s. This was as a result of unrelenting criticisms of the indirect rule system by nationalists. Before this period, in a constitutional reform, the 1946 Richards constitution introduced the civil service at the central level, while the Foot Commission was set up in 1948 by the colonial governor to provide modalities for the Nigerianization of the civil service. A process which continued till 1960 when Nigeria had independence.
In essence, the Nigeria public administration as known today was a colonial creation.
ERA OF NIGERIANIZATION AND INDEPENDENCE
Effective Nigerianization of the civil service did not take place until Nigeria attained independence. The top positions of the service at the Federal and regional levels were occupied by expatriates. The four existing civil services, and later five when Mid-western region was created embarked on a much more drastic Nigeianization drives, though with varied speed at the regions.
There was also re-structuring of the services to suit the needs of federal level and the regions.
The major character of public administration in the country today can therefore be summarized as follows:
(i) It has a foreign origin having being a British colonial legacy.
(ii) The most prominent concern of the colonial administration was the maintenance of law and order so to provide a conducive atmosphere for their stay and economic activities.
(iii) Another concern was the exploration, exploitation and appropriation of the country’s natural resources which were their primary motive of colonizing Nigeria.
(iv) Increasing recruitment of Nigerians into the service was facilitated by decolonization.
(v) Nigeria inherited the British style of personnel management.
(vi) The country also inherited the British pattern of public service with the basic and enduring character principles of hierarchical structure, permanent tenure, impartiality, political neutrality and anonymity.
THE CIVIL SERVICE
CHARACTERISTICS
Let us recall some of what you learnt on the evolution of the Nigerian Public Administrative System. You learnt that before colonial contact the various peoples and ethnic groups were independent and had their own systems of administration that the British colonial administrators later called traditional political system. European contact started about 1400 AD for varied reasons including principal economic reasons. Nigeria was ceded to Britain but could not impose direct British administration for reasons bordering on language barrier, shortage of British, personnel and lack of adequate funds. British administrators had to adopt indirect rule by engaging local traditional rulers and chiefs in administration. Educated nationalists opposed indirect rule and by 1940s, colonial administrators stated a policy of Nigerianizing the public service and continued after independence in 1960.
In this unit, you will now learn in details the characteristics of Nigeria’s civil service. As you have just learned, the Nigeria civil service was a legacy of British colonial administration. The structure of the service was designed by Britain, so also were the operational procedures such as the General Order and Financial instructions. While some of these rules, regulation and instructions have been amended, a large portion of them remain unchanged. The civil service share similar characteristics with the British model since it was its creation. What are these characteristics?
These includes:
i. Hierarchical structure. Nigeria’s civil service is vertically structured with a flow of positions from top to bottom with different layers of positions. The chief civil servant is the Head Of Service to whom all other top civil servants in each cadre reports. He carries out the posting of top civil servants. in each ministry, the permanent secretary occupies the apex position. Followed by directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, chiefs, principal, senior, higher and other personnel in that order down to messengers, gardeners, cleaners and gatemen. Communication flow follow the same upward-downward, downward- upward order. The civil service also has a horizontal structure indicating the different job divisions in each ministry. Each ministry is structured into departments, units, sections, divisions and field offices. The permanent secretary co-ordinates all departments in the ministry. Directives follow both the horizontal and vertical order.
ii. Written rules and regulation. The civil service relies on written rules and regulations for its daily duties. In this regard, the service relies on the General Order (GO) and financial instructions to guide it. The GO contains the guiding laws and professional ethics for civil servants. Civil servants are not expected to operate outside the law. Beside the GO, there are other regulatory instruments that can be found in the successive reforms by regimes.
iii. Impartiality principle. Civil servants are by regulations not expected to be partial or show undue favouratism in the performance of their official assignments. This is so because, they are being paid from the tax payers money whom they cannot afford therefore discriminate against. The service is therefore considered to be epitome of fairness and justice.
iv. Political neutrality. Civil servants are not expected to engage in partisan politics. They are no servants to any party in power. Therefore, if civil servants are members of the opposition losing party in the election, they cannot be loyal to the ruling party and will not be loyal or committed to the execution of the party polices. Civil servants are therefore expected to be neutral and insulated from partisan party politics.
v. Permanence. Civil servants enjoy permanent tenure. Their job is guaranteed until retirement age. Civil servants can only be fired before attaining retirement age if they commit any serious crimes. Or they can take voluntary exist from service. The service is only guaranteed if civil servants remain loyal and politically non-partisan, and abide by the law.
vi. Principle of anonymity. Civil servants are expected to do their job like loyal servants. They are neither supposed to be heard, praised or blamed on governmental policies. They must not talk to the press on official issues or express personal opinions unless so directed from above. They do not take blames for the failure of government policies and neither are they praised for their success. The minister/commission is the chief policy-maker and official spokesman of government in each ministry. He therefore takes the blame or praises on official issues as the case may be.
FUNCTIONS
You learnt above that the traditional functions of public Administration included planning, organizing, staffing, directing, co- ordinating, reporting and budgeting. Nigerian civil servants perform all these functions.
In addition to these general functions they are also perform specific responsibilities which include:-
a. Assist in policy formulation. Policy formulation is the exclusive preserved of politicians and political officers. But they may not be able to do this without the assistance of civil servants who usually provide the necessary data and information which will guide policy choices by political masters. Civil servants go to the field to collect data, analyse them and provide policy alternatives with supportive arguments on each. The final policy choice and decision are not the responsibilities of civil servants.
b. Policy execution. The primary function of civil servants is to carry out government’s order and directives, without complaints. Official policies are practically implanted by civil servants. And they are expected to perform such function to the best of their administrative and technical ability.
c. Assist in law making. The executive, under a democratic regime, presents bills to the parliament for legislation. Before it is duty of civil servants to draft the bill and flesh it up with the necessary details before presentation to parliament for debate. After becoming law with the assent of the president, it is also the duty of civil servants to work out modalities for its operationalization.
d. Provision of social amenities and services. Civil servants engage in the provision of some social services as their official assignments. For instance, employees of water corporations, he Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) telecommunication (NITEL), street cleaners, road menders and railway men are all in a civil servants coffers.
e. Continuity of government. Civil servants in the past, especially during the numerous coup detats Nigeria witnessed, civil servants had always played prominent roles in maintaining the continuity of government. Many of you may recall that during such coups (1966-1983, 1985 and 1993), the constituted governments were sacked, and for days after, they were always uncertainties to who was the new leader to give policy directions.
PROBLEMS OF CIVIL SERVICE.
INEFFICIENCY AND INEFFECTIVENESS
The first of these problems is identified as attitudinal factor leading to the problems of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Derome Mc Kinney and Lawrence Howard (1979:339) conceive efficiency as “spending less to gain more” a definition based on economic criterion. Efficiency can be further simplified as obtaining maximum outputs with minimum inputs. McKinney and Howard (Ibid, 345) also perceive effectiveness as impact, adequacy, performance and achievement in terms of productivity.
Nigerian civil servants are adjudged as lazy. Many of them play truancy and absenteeism. They seem to hate work because files are piled up without being attended to thereby undermining desired productivity. Nigerian civil servants believe in the slogan of “we do not sweat on government work”, that is “you are not expected to put in your maximum best on government job.”
INDISCIPLINE
Many civil servants are indisciplined as they disobey the basic ethics of civil service. Many come late to office, while others engage in selling of goods rounds offices, sleeping on duty, gossiping, loitering about and reading of newspapers or texts in preparation for examinations. They also engage in insubordination by flouting superior directives.
CORRUPTION AND BRIBERY
Civil servants across hierarchies abuse their offices by engaging in official corruption and bribery. Top civil servants collude with contractor’s defraud government, present fictitious receipts for journeys made (and not made) and for goods and services procured. Revenue collectors embezzle revenues collected or print private receipts for revenue collection. The public has to offer bribes before civil servants perform their official duties. In essence, bribery, corruption, graft, manipulation of accounts are the hallmarks of the civil service.
Among the reasons adduced for corruption in the service is poor remunerations which is a major problem on its own. Civil servants are poorly paid, salaries are not paid as at when due. Many civil servants at all levels; federal, state and local governments are owed salary arrears up to nine months thereby giving non for servants to make ends meet at all costs.
To induce and promote efficiency and accountability the salaries of workers need be reviewed upward and paid promptly.
ETHNICITY AND FAVOURITISM.
Nigeria civil servants suffer from lack of national out look like the general civil society of which the civil servants are a part. The civil service is supposed to be a national institution promoting national unity. Primordial relations underscores everything in the civil service. The merit system, which is part of the American model, is supposed to be the guiding principle in appointments and promotion in the service. This has not been so. Appointments, promotion and other privileges in the service are determined by ethnic considerations. The ethnic groups are all interested in who becomes the head of service, permanent secretary and other key positions. Co- operation or lack of it in the service depends on the ethnic origin of the officials. Co-operation is guaranteed among the immediate subordinates if they are from the same ethnic bloc with the superior, while it is denied if the contrary is the case. The service is also marked with favoritism. Administrative favors are extended to ethnic bloc members, friends, relations and those generally known, while others are denied of the service needed out rightly, unless they can bribe their ways out. Favoritism, as you learnt earlier when treating the characteristics of the civil service, violates the principles of impartiality and impersonality of the civil service.
REFORMS
3.1.1. CONCEPT OF REFORM.
You should recall what you learnt in the last unit on problems of the Nigerian civil service. You learned in the unit that service is suffering the following:
a. Inefficiency and ineffectiveness b. Corruption and bribery c. Ethnicity and favouritism
These problems need to be resolved and remedied, or else, the service will not be able to perform the expected roles in the socio-economic development of the nation. Successive leaders have tried one way or the other to provide remedial measure by coming with some reforms.
Let us ask a question; what is meant by reform? Reform is about changing from bad to good. Improving the quality of a thing, practice or structure. Reform is an acknowledgment of a problem, a problem that need to be resolved. Reform is about creating a new life for something. Adding new energy to be able to perform better. Overall, reform is about creating improved opportunities for better performance, improved efficiency for enhanced productivity. Reform is an all life exercise and not just a one- time surgical operation. This is so because no condition is permanent. No engine can permanently work efficiently unless it is also being constantly serviced and repaired. So also are administrative institutions like the civil service. They need to be oiled regularly by way of reforms in order to make them constantly be in good shape and in good working condition.
REFORMS BETWEEN 1948 AND 1973
Between 1934 and 1948, we had the
1. 1934 Hunt Commission
2. 1942 Bridges Committee
3. 1945 Tudor-Davies Commission
4. 1946 Harragin Commission
5. 1946 Smaller Commission
Introduction of reforms to the Nigerian civil service is to direct acknowledgement of the problems of the service at some particular times, and therefore, a way of correcting the perceived inadequacies by the authorities The colonial authorities which heralded the British patterned administrative model to the country itself flagged off reforms in the system. The reforms were initiated by way of commissions. The first of these commissions to be so recognized was the 1948 Foot Commission. It came about as a result of meeting nationalist demands.
The major pre-occupation of the Foot Commission was the Nigerianization of the civil service. Hitherto, the middle and top levels of the service were occupied by colonial administrators, while educated Nigerians and nationalists were not recruited to the service. Prolonged agitations by the nationalists brought about the recommendations of the commission for the recruitment of educated Nigerians to the service and the training of Nigeria and higher institutions in Nigeria and abroad to replace the expatriates.
The 1954 Phillipson commission followed the foot commission. The commission’s recommendations heralded the abandonment of the united civil service, leading to the decentralization of the service on regional basis. The central and regional governments had a separate public service commission each. Nigerian officials were given the options to join either the federal or regional service.
At independence in 1960, and up till 1966 when the first coup took place, the Nigerianization process continued at all levels but at different speed. Almost immediately after independence, the Western region announced the complete Nigerianization of its top civil service cadres.
The military took over in 1966 and ruled till 1979. The Gowon regime instituted the 1972/73 Udoji commission to recommend among other things, how to boost efficiency and productivity in the service. The commission recommended drastic improvement in the salary structure of civil servants and granting car credit loans to all senior civil servants in order to boost their morale. The Gowon regime was toppled by the Murtala regime which perceived the civil service as very corrupt and inefficient and therefore, there was the need to sanitize the institution by getting rid of bad eggs. The regime, within weeks of assumption of office, retrenched more than 10,000 civil servants of all cadres. Not much was done by succeeding regimes in terms of restoring the confidence and permanence of tenure in the service until 1988.
THE 1988 REFORMS
The 1988 civil service Reforms could be regarded as the most fundamental in the annals of administrative re- organization. The reform was instituted by the Babangida administration based on the recommendations of the Dotun Phillips committee on the civil service.
The reforms brought about the following:
i. The minister/commissioner as chief executive and the accounting office of the political head of the ministry became the executive head rather than the permanent secretary under the earlier arrangement. Before this new arrangement, the permanent secretary had effective control over all human and non-human resources of the ministry. The minister/commissioner was more or less a mere figure head whose leadership often caused squabbles between him and permanent secretary. The reforms corrected this situation.
ii. The official nomenclature of permanent secretary changed to director- general. The appointment became political as one could be appointed by government to occupy the position and his tenure ends with that of regime that appointed it.
iii. Professionalization of the civil service. The service became professionalized as the departments and sections are re-arranged lased on professional lines and personnel in each department and its other sub-units are to have professional qualifications that accord with their duties in the department. Moreso, transfer of servants across ministries and departments becomes a thing of the past.
iv. New promotion criteria were set up for advancement of officials. Merit system and other criteria such as promotional examination and additional qualification replaced the old system of length of service for promotion.
v. Accountability control. The Audit Alarm was set up to expose misappropriation of funds and corrupt.
3.1.3. POST 1988 REFORMS
The Babangida regime was succeeded by the Shonekan-led interim government in 1993 but was shortly toppled by the Abacha regime. The Abacha regime had its greatest impact on the civil service by its reversal of the nomenclature of the director-general back to permanent secretary and thereby depoliticizing the office and making it once again permanent. The Abubarkar regime that succeeded the Abacha regime in 1998, the office of secretary to government and head of service hitherto combined by one person was separated into two by the regime as one secretary to government and two, head of service. The two offices are occupied by two different people.
The secretary to government is political, while the head of service is appointed from among the most senior civil servants.
In May 1999, Abubakar regime handed over to a democratically elected regime headed by Olusegun Obsanjo. The regimes most impact on the civil service in the areas of enhanced remunerations and purging of the service of “ghost” workers. The regime increased the salary package of civil servants by 45%, a development that has enhanced the economic power of many civil servants. At inception also, various seminars and conferences, particularly on corruption and accountability were organized for senior civil servants.
Since the Return to Democracy in 1999, Civil Service Reforms: Highlights of Federal Government Reform Programmes
One major preoccupation of the present administration has been Policy Reforms aimed at improving the machinery of government and service delivery generally.
A compelling reason for the reforms was the parlous state of the economy of the nation, and the erosion of public confidence in government
and its institutions to deliver the much expected dividends of democracy. Beside the internal pressures, there were external factors as well, especially those of NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the urgency of attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Reform agenda focused on:
- Public Sector Reforms;
- Privatization/Liberalization:
- Governance, Transparency and Anti-Corruption;
- Service Delivery.
The main goals are:
- Wealth Creation;
- Employment Generation;
- Poverty Reduction; and
- Value Re-orientation.
Salient features of the reforms include economic development strategies, public service reforms, pensions overhaul, national Health Insurance Scheme, Bank recapitalization, service delivery (servicom) and anti-corruption campaigns.
The underlying philosophy of the Reform is change. Indeed, change for the better for too long, has been evasive in Nigeria. Our living condition is characterized with poverty, poor service delivery, corruption, environmental degradation, etc, amidst increased oil revenue.
This paper is therefore timely as the reform measures aim to address a host of national malaise.
Listed below, are a summary of the reform measures being undertaken by the Federal Government. They have implications for both States and Local Governments. The challenges to readers include acceptance, adaptability and the resolve to turn things around for the good of all.
SUMMARY OF GOVERNMENT REFORMS
Implementation of the Monetization Policy
The Monetization of fringe benefits of public servants and political office holders was launched by the President in June 2003, to take effect on 1st July, 2004. It was justified by the uncontrolled proliferation of perquisites of office in government over the years, costing the public treasury huge and growing sums of money. The most notable of such fringe benefits in the past were: -
Provision and maintenance of furnished residential housing (over 30,000 units in Abuja alone);
- Maintenance of fleets of motor cars for entitled officers;
- A retinue of domestic servants for certain senior officials;
- Limitless free medical services, including overseas check-ups for senior officials.
The aims of the exercise was to free government from the administrative burden and financial cost of these services and financially empower officers to provide themselves these facilities from their enhanced financial remuneration. This was to bring the system in line with the practice in other parts of the world. The Monetization Policy was given effect through the passage of an Act: the Certain Political, Public and Judicial office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) Act 2003, by the National Assembly. Drawing from the Act, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission issued a Circular spelling out the provisions, as they affect federal Civil Servants, with effect from 1st October, 2003. Under the Policy, services now monetized include residential accommodation, furniture allowance, leave grant, meal subsidy, duty tour allowance, motor vehicle loan, fueling/maintenance of official vehicles and transport allowance. Arising from the Monetization of Fringe Benefits, a total of 7,487 Government official vehicles are being disposed of through outright sale to civil servants.
The implementation of the policy has led to:
i. more frugal use of government utilities;
ii. Curbing of the excesses of public officers in the use of government amenities;
iii. Equity in the receipt of government welfare benefits by civil servants;
iv. Elimination of all hidden costs of running the system;
iv. enhancement of the remunerations of civil servants and political office holders to enable them provide themselves the perquisites now monetized;
v. vi. Improved culture of prudence in managing resources; and vii. Opportunity for Civil Servants to own their homes.
The policy has been implemented in almost all Government Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies. In this regard, a total of 20,452 government vehicles had been disposed of across the 444 Parastatals / Agencies. Outright Purchase of Government Quarters by Sitting Tenants: One major aspect of Monetisation Policy which has excited Civil Servants is the opportunity it has provided for them to buy off from government, the houses they currently occupy. This is being done using rates that take account of only the replacement value of the housing units, discounting the cost to Civil servants, land and infrastructural facilities. Political Office Holders on the other hand are being made to bid for their own houses in the open competitive market taking into account the cost of land and infrastructural facilities. Civil Servants desirous of purchasing their houses are being assisted to approach mortgage institutions by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria which has issued to every Civil Servant a contributor’s passbook under the National Housing Fund based on their contributions over the years. Government intends to keep the Programme going through the Owner-Occupier Scheme which is currently being implemented as an incentive to retain the loyalty and commitment of serving Civil servants who may not have benefited from the current sale of government quarters and to provide a secured future for new entrants into the Service.
Implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was launched on Monday, June 6, 2005 by President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, signaling the commencement of the scheme in both the public and organized private sectors. The primary objective of the Scheme is to ensure that all Nigerians have access to good health care services through putting in place a health care system which reduces dependence on government for funding a healthcare delivery, and of provision of health facilities. The scheme also seeks to integrate private health facilities and expertise into the nation’s healthcare system. In line with the Monetisation Policy of the Current Administration, Civil Servants are to pay 5% of their basic salaries as their contributions to the scheme which guarantees them and their dependants’ quality healthcare in their preferred primary healthcare outlets. They are at liberty to choose from a comprehensive list of available providers participating in the Scheme. To ensure effective take-off of the scheme for public servants, government provided the sum of N2.6 billion and deductions from Public Servants did not begin until January, 2007. Universal coverage of the Scheme is expected to be achieved by 2015 in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals target of 2015. Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23)
Sustained Crusade against Corruption: The crusade against corruption which is personally being led by the President has yielded good dividends. Civil Servants are now more than ever before required to be more accountable and transparent in conducting government business. So far, no public officer, however highly placed, who ran foul of the law across all cadres had been spared; and this is sending the right signals not just to the Service but to the entire nation regarding the seriousness of the government in waging a relentless war against corruption and all its associated vices. Anti-corruption units have been set up in all Government Ministries with direct links to the key Anti-Corruption Agencies, namely the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Since we are also tackling corruption as a management problem which needs to be effectively managed, Permanent Secretaries and others at the top echelon of the Service are increasingly being tasked on the need to institute management systems to combat the malaise.
Overhaul of the Procurement System: Through collaboration with the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) in the Presidency, the procurement system has been realigned to be more transparent with emphasis on quality management and value for money in all government transactions. Recently, in order to internalize in the Civil Service the gains recorded under the programme, a separate cadre of procurement officers was created within the Civil Service, comprising officers with the appropriate qualifications and dispositions.
Restructuring of Government Ministries, Agencies and Department (MDAs) The restructuring exercise of MDAs which commenced with the pilot Ministries has been extended service-wide. Leading the way is the Federal Ministry of Finance which has conducted its restructuring exercise, and has received approval of the Head of Service to put in place its new organizational structure. The restructuring exercise in other pilot Ministries is in progress and both the Management Services Office and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms continue to guide the efforts of other MDAs in their restructuring exercises.
Parastatals Reform: The organization of parastatals numbering 444, in terms of re-aligning their functions vis-à-vis their supervising Ministries, merging some and scrapping others, has already started. For example, investment/entrepreneurship finance organizations were merged to form the Bank of Industry and unnecessary institutions such as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) and the Education Bank were scrapped. Recently also, six parastatals under the National Planning Commission were merged into three bodies. At the same time, the privatization of commercial- oriented parastatals, such as the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Steel Plants and other industrial projects, is proceeding according to plan. Government is aware that parastatals are the primary centres of mismanagement and waste in the public services system hence the need to reform them in a profound manner.
Capacity Building: Following the orientation workshops organized for the Directorate Cadre from 1999 through 2001 which were extended to the middle level Officers from 2002 onwards government has improved on service-wide training and capacity development through the organization of series of programmes targeted at officers across all levels and cadres. The capacity of the Service was further enhanced through additional knowledge and experiences gained from Study Tours to Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc, by delegations led by and comprising mainly Permanent Secretaries, the DirectorGeneral, Bureau of Public Service Reforms and other Heads of Agencies key to reform. This is in order to remodel our Service through guidance by global best practices in Public Administration obtained from interactions provided by such tours. Government is also focusing on Executive Leadership Training and Development which will be further enhanced with the take-off of the Civil Service College Abuja very soon. The Administrative Staff college of Nigeria (ASCON) and other training institutions have now been rehabilitated through improved funding to be able to deliver training programmes more competently. The Bureau of Public Service Reforms is also developing a Virtual Library through the Support of the Education Trust Fund (ETF) to serve as an intellectual storehouse for the reform programme.
ICT Development: The provision of an ICT enabled work environment in the delivery of improved services is a key issue in the reform agenda. Accordingly, work processes are increasingly being computerized through provision of computer systems to officers for their daily operations and for the enhancement of data storage and analysis, easy retrieval as well as dissemination of information. This had led to the generation of accurate and reliable information for decision making on policy issues as well as improvement of record management system. There are sustained efforts in the provision of internet and intranet linkages to harness knowledge form all sources in all Ministries and Agencies. The frame work for the realization of eGovernment is getting increased attention through the guidance of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
Review of the Public Service Rules, Regulations and Procedures: A review of the Civil Service Rules, and Financial Regulations was undertaken in 2000 to make them applicable to the entire Public Service. A more comprehensive review is currently being carried out by the Presidential Committee on the Review and Revision of Public Service Rules, Regulations and Procedures (PC-RPSRT) which was inaugurated by the President in February, 2005. The committee which is chaired by the Principal Secretary to the President and Permanent Secretary, State House, has as members two Ministers, one retired and six serving Permanent Secretaries, Auditor-General for the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation, Director-General, Administrative Staff college of Nigeria (ASCON) and the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR). The Committee submitted an Interim Report in April 2005 in which it proposed Transitional Arrangements for fast tracking the Implementation of the Reform Programme, which has similarly been approved by the President. Rightsizing the Civil Service: Government is currently rightsizing the Civil Service in line with the approved criteria developed by both the PC-RPSRP and PSRIC and approved by the President. Among these criteria are the following; (a) Appointment without authorization; (b) Attainment of 60 years of age and 35 years in service; (c) Disciplinary cases involving gross misconduct; (d) Entry into cadres without mandatory skills to progress on the career ladder; (e) Failure to acquire mandatory skill to progress on the career ladder; (f) Monetized jobs or jobs contracted out e.g. about 5,500 Drivers have already been disengaged and paid off at a cost of N2.5 billion. (g) Redundancies arising from scrapping of organizations; and (h) Exceptionally bad officers adjudged unfit for continued service.
Pension Reforms: The Pensions Act of 2004 instituted a new pension scheme which is a departure from the “Pay As You Go” system to a contributory scheme. However, there is a transitional arrangement where the old pay-as-you-go system will run concurrently with the new one for 3 years. Pursuant to the Act, the National Pensions Commission was established as the Administrative Machinery for managing the process. The key feature of the Scheme is that Civil Servants contribute 7½ of their salary deducted from source while Government matches it with the same rate of 7½ counterpart contribution. The new Pension Scheme: i. provides the private sector a reliable institutional framework for staff pension or terminal benefits; ii. offers the economy a harmonized pension system, which will expand the country’s social security and allow easy mobility of labour among sectors and employers; and iii. provides the economy a veritable source of saving and capital formation.
Service Delivery The Service Delivery Programme is aimed at achieving excellence in the delivery of services to the public (citizenry) and other customers by government agencies. It is being run as a British Government Technical Assistance Programme under its Department for International Development (DFID) to the Federal Government. Its modus operandi is to reach out to MDAs to enlighten them on service delivery concepts and encourage them to undertake management innovations aimed at enhancing quality service to the public, which is backed up by obligations to be imposed by a “service charter” with the public. Some achievements have been recorded so far by way of sensitization of MDAs on the new concept and making them to develop vision and mission statements and articulated outline of objectives and functions. The appreciable effect on real service delivery to the public is expected to manifest rather gradually. Increased Collaboration with International Development Partners: In spite of government commitment to own the reform, it has not lost appreciation of the need to gain the support of International Development Partners. Consequently, government is collaborating with the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) in the implementation of the World Bank assisted Economic Reform and Governance Project (ERGP). The project component includes: (a) Public Resource Management and Targeted Anti-Corruption Initiative; (b) Civil Service Administrative Reforms; (c) Strengthening Pension Management and Accountability; (d) Strengthening of Statistics and Statistical Capacity; and (e) Project management: Under the Civil Service Administrative Reform component of the ERGP, government will be seeking to achieve the following: - strengthening the Bureau of Public Service Reforms to lead and co-ordinate the system-wide reform; - designing and implementing an integrated personnel and payroll system to improve the management of human resources and reduce fraud; - consolidating the restructuring of MDAs; Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23) - Carrying out diagnostic studies and dialogues on key service –wide reforms to build broader support for the process; - designing and implementing a Performance Improvement Facility to support innovative capacity building. Government is also engaging the Commonwealth Secretariat in other capacity building initiatives mainly targeted at the Directorate Cadre, and middle level officers who have the potential of emerging as future leaders in the Service.
Critical Success Factors: The experience in managing the on-going Public Service Reform programme in Nigeria indicates that the following are critical to its success:
i. Support of the political leadership, as exemplified in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s uncommon leadership in driving the process during his tenure;
ii. Robust leadership by the Head of the Civil Service whose commitment to reform must never be in doubt, as he sets the tone;
iii. Clear goals and strategy which are mutually shared by all relevant stakeholders;
iv. Institutionalization of reform through the establishment of an agency for coordination and implementation, as exemplified in the creation of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms in Nigeria;
iv. Active involvement of MDAs in the reform process, especially on issues that particularly relate to them in order to take cognizance of individual peculiarities and avoid the generation of uniform solutions to diverse problems.
v. Timely and effective communication;
vi. Openness to admit wrongs and take corrective steps;
vii. An effective monitoring and evaluation process;
ix. Sustained partnership with all relevant stakeholders;
x. Commitment and greater commitment on the part of all stakeholders to make it work notwithstanding obvious difficulties; and
xi. Adequate funding of the process. Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS OR ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS IS AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGNISATION AND PRACTICES OR TO INCULCATE A DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR IN ORDER TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OR GOVERNMENT MACHINERY.
REASONS FOR LIMITED SUCCESS OF REFORM
1. LACK OF SENSE OF OWNERSHIP BY PUBLIC SERVICES
2. AD-HOC APPROACH TO REFORM EFFORTS
3. POLITICAL COMMITMENT
4. LEADERSHIP OF THE REFORMS
5. LACK OF A PERMANENT AGENCY/FOCAL POINT FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE REFORMS
6. ABSENCE OF WINDE CONSULTATIONS WITH OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
7. LACK OF INSTITUTIONSL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REFORMS AGENCY AND PUBLIC SECTOR TRAINING INSTITUTIONS
8. POLITICAL INSTABILITY
CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS
1. IT IS A DELIBERATE AND CONSCIOUS EFFORT.
2. MAJOR REFORMS ARE POLITICAL IN NATURE AND USUALLY SUFFER INTERNAL RESISTANCE.
3. IT CHANGES BEHAVIOUR OF ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WHOLE CITIZENRY.
4. IT USUALLY NEEDS TIME TO YIELD RESULTS.
PREVIOUS REFORMS IN NIGERIA
1. HUNT COMMISSION - 1934
2. HARRAGIN COMMITTEE - 1946
3. FOOT COMMISSION - 1948
4. PHILIPSON/ADEBO REPORT - 1949/50
5. GORSUCH COMMITTEE - 1954
6. NEWNESS COMMITTEE - 1959
7. MBANEFO COMMITTEE - 1959
8. MORGANSALARIES & WAGES COMMISSION - 1963
9. WEY PANEL - 1968
10. ELWOOD GRADING TEAM - 1969
11. ADEBO COMMISSION - 1973
12. UDOJI REPORT - 1974
13. PHILIP REORT - 1985
14. KOSHONI REPORT/PHILIP REPORT - 1988
15. AYIDA REPORT - 1995
16. OBASANJO PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS - 2003
SOME KEY ISSUES OF THE REFORMS
1. EMPHASISE ETHICAL STANDARDS
2. EMPHASISE ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY
3. EMPHASISE ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADE
4. EMPHASISE SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT REFORMS
5. RECONCILIATION OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTEREST
6. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO CONFLICT OF INTEREST
7. ADDRESS FEARS, INCLUDING WHATS IS IN IT FOR ME (WIFM)
8. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO PARTY POLITICS
9. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO POST RETIREMENT EMPLOYMENT
TRADITIONAL POLITICAL ADMINISTRATION
Many of you would have learnt in literatures that the country called Nigeria never existed before colonial contact. The various peoples and ethnic groups that made up Nigeria today were politically independent of each other.
Ethno-political groups such as the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Junkun, Tiv, Nupe, Kalabari, Ibibio, Urobo and others were living independently of each other groups in terms of political organization and administration. For instance, the Yoruba traditional political administration centered around the town (“ilu”) with the “Oba” (king) at the helm of administrative affairs. He had a council of chiefs made up of quarter chiefs. The council of chiefs made decisions that were presented to the “Oba” for ratification. There were chiefs in- charge of specific portfolios in the town’s administration. The Bashorun was the prime-minister, the head of the council of chiefs. The Are-Ona- Kakanfo was the head of the army.
The town had a judicial system right from the family level to the quarters, and at the apex was the “Oba” who had power over life and death.
In the same way, the Hausa-Fulani, Tiv, Igbo and the others had their own elaborate administrative system.
In general, the respective administrative systems, besides judicial administration, conduct of wars and maintenance of law and order, they also performed the functions of collecting taxes, carrying out community projects such as construction of markets, bridges and maintenance of streets.
COLONIAL CONTACT AND INDIRECT RULE
European colonial contact with the pre-colonial peoples of Nigeria started in the 14th Century, first by British explorers who wanted to find out about River Niger, and later followed by Christian Missionaries who were later followed by administrators when effective occupation had taken place. The area called Nigeria today was allocated to Britain at the 1884/85 Berlin Conference.
The mode of administration met on ground by the colonialists were not comparable to what obtained in Europe and consequently, it was labeled traditional administration to reflect its non-conformity with modern administrative system that obtained in Britain. Therefore, the system had to be discarded.
Britain had the difficulty of putting direct administration on Nigeria for the problems of shortage of personnel and language barrier among others, she therefore had to introduce indirect rule system by making minimum use of British administrators while traditional chiefs were put in the fore-front of the system officially also referred to as Native Authority, a form of rudimentary local administration.
The rise of modern local government system began in the early 1950s. This was as a result of unrelenting criticisms of the indirect rule system by nationalists. Before this period, in a constitutional reform, the 1946 Richards constitution introduced the civil service at the central level, while the Foot Commission was set up in 1948 by the colonial governor to provide modalities for the Nigerianization of the civil service. A process which continued till 1960 when Nigeria had independence.
In essence, the Nigeria public administration as known today was a colonial creation.
ERA OF NIGERIANIZATION AND INDEPENDENCE
Effective Nigerianization of the civil service did not take place until Nigeria attained independence. The top positions of the service at the Federal and regional levels were occupied by expatriates. The four existing civil services, and later five when Mid-western region was created embarked on a much more drastic Nigeianization drives, though with varied speed at the regions.
There was also re-structuring of the services to suit the needs of federal level and the regions.
The major character of public administration in the country today can therefore be summarized as follows:
(i) It has a foreign origin having being a British colonial legacy.
(ii) The most prominent concern of the colonial administration was the maintenance of law and order so to provide a conducive atmosphere for their stay and economic activities.
(iii) Another concern was the exploration, exploitation and appropriation of the country’s natural resources which were their primary motive of colonizing Nigeria.
(iv) Increasing recruitment of Nigerians into the service was facilitated by decolonization.
(v) Nigeria inherited the British style of personnel management.
(vi) The country also inherited the British pattern of public service with the basic and enduring character principles of hierarchical structure, permanent tenure, impartiality, political neutrality and anonymity.
THE CIVIL SERVICE
CHARACTERISTICS
Let us recall some of what you learnt on the evolution of the Nigerian Public Administrative System. You learnt that before colonial contact the various peoples and ethnic groups were independent and had their own systems of administration that the British colonial administrators later called traditional political system. European contact started about 1400 AD for varied reasons including principal economic reasons. Nigeria was ceded to Britain but could not impose direct British administration for reasons bordering on language barrier, shortage of British, personnel and lack of adequate funds. British administrators had to adopt indirect rule by engaging local traditional rulers and chiefs in administration. Educated nationalists opposed indirect rule and by 1940s, colonial administrators stated a policy of Nigerianizing the public service and continued after independence in 1960.
In this unit, you will now learn in details the characteristics of Nigeria’s civil service. As you have just learned, the Nigeria civil service was a legacy of British colonial administration. The structure of the service was designed by Britain, so also were the operational procedures such as the General Order and Financial instructions. While some of these rules, regulation and instructions have been amended, a large portion of them remain unchanged. The civil service share similar characteristics with the British model since it was its creation. What are these characteristics?
These includes:
i. Hierarchical structure. Nigeria’s civil service is vertically structured with a flow of positions from top to bottom with different layers of positions. The chief civil servant is the Head Of Service to whom all other top civil servants in each cadre reports. He carries out the posting of top civil servants. in each ministry, the permanent secretary occupies the apex position. Followed by directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, chiefs, principal, senior, higher and other personnel in that order down to messengers, gardeners, cleaners and gatemen. Communication flow follow the same upward-downward, downward- upward order. The civil service also has a horizontal structure indicating the different job divisions in each ministry. Each ministry is structured into departments, units, sections, divisions and field offices. The permanent secretary co-ordinates all departments in the ministry. Directives follow both the horizontal and vertical order.
ii. Written rules and regulation. The civil service relies on written rules and regulations for its daily duties. In this regard, the service relies on the General Order (GO) and financial instructions to guide it. The GO contains the guiding laws and professional ethics for civil servants. Civil servants are not expected to operate outside the law. Beside the GO, there are other regulatory instruments that can be found in the successive reforms by regimes.
iii. Impartiality principle. Civil servants are by regulations not expected to be partial or show undue favouratism in the performance of their official assignments. This is so because, they are being paid from the tax payers money whom they cannot afford therefore discriminate against. The service is therefore considered to be epitome of fairness and justice.
iv. Political neutrality. Civil servants are not expected to engage in partisan politics. They are no servants to any party in power. Therefore, if civil servants are members of the opposition losing party in the election, they cannot be loyal to the ruling party and will not be loyal or committed to the execution of the party polices. Civil servants are therefore expected to be neutral and insulated from partisan party politics.
v. Permanence. Civil servants enjoy permanent tenure. Their job is guaranteed until retirement age. Civil servants can only be fired before attaining retirement age if they commit any serious crimes. Or they can take voluntary exist from service. The service is only guaranteed if civil servants remain loyal and politically non-partisan, and abide by the law.
vi. Principle of anonymity. Civil servants are expected to do their job like loyal servants. They are neither supposed to be heard, praised or blamed on governmental policies. They must not talk to the press on official issues or express personal opinions unless so directed from above. They do not take blames for the failure of government policies and neither are they praised for their success. The minister/commission is the chief policy-maker and official spokesman of government in each ministry. He therefore takes the blame or praises on official issues as the case may be.
FUNCTIONS
You learnt above that the traditional functions of public Administration included planning, organizing, staffing, directing, co- ordinating, reporting and budgeting. Nigerian civil servants perform all these functions.
In addition to these general functions they are also perform specific responsibilities which include:-
a. Assist in policy formulation. Policy formulation is the exclusive preserved of politicians and political officers. But they may not be able to do this without the assistance of civil servants who usually provide the necessary data and information which will guide policy choices by political masters. Civil servants go to the field to collect data, analyse them and provide policy alternatives with supportive arguments on each. The final policy choice and decision are not the responsibilities of civil servants.
b. Policy execution. The primary function of civil servants is to carry out government’s order and directives, without complaints. Official policies are practically implanted by civil servants. And they are expected to perform such function to the best of their administrative and technical ability.
c. Assist in law making. The executive, under a democratic regime, presents bills to the parliament for legislation. Before it is duty of civil servants to draft the bill and flesh it up with the necessary details before presentation to parliament for debate. After becoming law with the assent of the president, it is also the duty of civil servants to work out modalities for its operationalization.
d. Provision of social amenities and services. Civil servants engage in the provision of some social services as their official assignments. For instance, employees of water corporations, he Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) telecommunication (NITEL), street cleaners, road menders and railway men are all in a civil servants coffers.
e. Continuity of government. Civil servants in the past, especially during the numerous coup detats Nigeria witnessed, civil servants had always played prominent roles in maintaining the continuity of government. Many of you may recall that during such coups (1966-1983, 1985 and 1993), the constituted governments were sacked, and for days after, they were always uncertainties to who was the new leader to give policy directions.
PROBLEMS OF CIVIL SERVICE.
INEFFICIENCY AND INEFFECTIVENESS
The first of these problems is identified as attitudinal factor leading to the problems of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Derome Mc Kinney and Lawrence Howard (1979:339) conceive efficiency as “spending less to gain more” a definition based on economic criterion. Efficiency can be further simplified as obtaining maximum outputs with minimum inputs. McKinney and Howard (Ibid, 345) also perceive effectiveness as impact, adequacy, performance and achievement in terms of productivity.
Nigerian civil servants are adjudged as lazy. Many of them play truancy and absenteeism. They seem to hate work because files are piled up without being attended to thereby undermining desired productivity. Nigerian civil servants believe in the slogan of “we do not sweat on government work”, that is “you are not expected to put in your maximum best on government job.”
INDISCIPLINE
Many civil servants are indisciplined as they disobey the basic ethics of civil service. Many come late to office, while others engage in selling of goods rounds offices, sleeping on duty, gossiping, loitering about and reading of newspapers or texts in preparation for examinations. They also engage in insubordination by flouting superior directives.
CORRUPTION AND BRIBERY
Civil servants across hierarchies abuse their offices by engaging in official corruption and bribery. Top civil servants collude with contractor’s defraud government, present fictitious receipts for journeys made (and not made) and for goods and services procured. Revenue collectors embezzle revenues collected or print private receipts for revenue collection. The public has to offer bribes before civil servants perform their official duties. In essence, bribery, corruption, graft, manipulation of accounts are the hallmarks of the civil service.
Among the reasons adduced for corruption in the service is poor remunerations which is a major problem on its own. Civil servants are poorly paid, salaries are not paid as at when due. Many civil servants at all levels; federal, state and local governments are owed salary arrears up to nine months thereby giving non for servants to make ends meet at all costs.
To induce and promote efficiency and accountability the salaries of workers need be reviewed upward and paid promptly.
ETHNICITY AND FAVOURITISM.
Nigeria civil servants suffer from lack of national out look like the general civil society of which the civil servants are a part. The civil service is supposed to be a national institution promoting national unity. Primordial relations underscores everything in the civil service. The merit system, which is part of the American model, is supposed to be the guiding principle in appointments and promotion in the service. This has not been so. Appointments, promotion and other privileges in the service are determined by ethnic considerations. The ethnic groups are all interested in who becomes the head of service, permanent secretary and other key positions. Co- operation or lack of it in the service depends on the ethnic origin of the officials. Co-operation is guaranteed among the immediate subordinates if they are from the same ethnic bloc with the superior, while it is denied if the contrary is the case. The service is also marked with favoritism. Administrative favors are extended to ethnic bloc members, friends, relations and those generally known, while others are denied of the service needed out rightly, unless they can bribe their ways out. Favoritism, as you learnt earlier when treating the characteristics of the civil service, violates the principles of impartiality and impersonality of the civil service.
REFORMS
3.1.1. CONCEPT OF REFORM.
You should recall what you learnt in the last unit on problems of the Nigerian civil service. You learned in the unit that service is suffering the following:
a. Inefficiency and ineffectiveness b. Corruption and bribery c. Ethnicity and favouritism
These problems need to be resolved and remedied, or else, the service will not be able to perform the expected roles in the socio-economic development of the nation. Successive leaders have tried one way or the other to provide remedial measure by coming with some reforms.
Let us ask a question; what is meant by reform? Reform is about changing from bad to good. Improving the quality of a thing, practice or structure. Reform is an acknowledgment of a problem, a problem that need to be resolved. Reform is about creating a new life for something. Adding new energy to be able to perform better. Overall, reform is about creating improved opportunities for better performance, improved efficiency for enhanced productivity. Reform is an all life exercise and not just a one- time surgical operation. This is so because no condition is permanent. No engine can permanently work efficiently unless it is also being constantly serviced and repaired. So also are administrative institutions like the civil service. They need to be oiled regularly by way of reforms in order to make them constantly be in good shape and in good working condition.
REFORMS BETWEEN 1948 AND 1973
Between 1934 and 1948, we had the
1. 1934 Hunt Commission
2. 1942 Bridges Committee
3. 1945 Tudor-Davies Commission
4. 1946 Harragin Commission
5. 1946 Smaller Commission
Introduction of reforms to the Nigerian civil service is to direct acknowledgement of the problems of the service at some particular times, and therefore, a way of correcting the perceived inadequacies by the authorities The colonial authorities which heralded the British patterned administrative model to the country itself flagged off reforms in the system. The reforms were initiated by way of commissions. The first of these commissions to be so recognized was the 1948 Foot Commission. It came about as a result of meeting nationalist demands.
The major pre-occupation of the Foot Commission was the Nigerianization of the civil service. Hitherto, the middle and top levels of the service were occupied by colonial administrators, while educated Nigerians and nationalists were not recruited to the service. Prolonged agitations by the nationalists brought about the recommendations of the commission for the recruitment of educated Nigerians to the service and the training of Nigeria and higher institutions in Nigeria and abroad to replace the expatriates.
The 1954 Phillipson commission followed the foot commission. The commission’s recommendations heralded the abandonment of the united civil service, leading to the decentralization of the service on regional basis. The central and regional governments had a separate public service commission each. Nigerian officials were given the options to join either the federal or regional service.
At independence in 1960, and up till 1966 when the first coup took place, the Nigerianization process continued at all levels but at different speed. Almost immediately after independence, the Western region announced the complete Nigerianization of its top civil service cadres.
The military took over in 1966 and ruled till 1979. The Gowon regime instituted the 1972/73 Udoji commission to recommend among other things, how to boost efficiency and productivity in the service. The commission recommended drastic improvement in the salary structure of civil servants and granting car credit loans to all senior civil servants in order to boost their morale. The Gowon regime was toppled by the Murtala regime which perceived the civil service as very corrupt and inefficient and therefore, there was the need to sanitize the institution by getting rid of bad eggs. The regime, within weeks of assumption of office, retrenched more than 10,000 civil servants of all cadres. Not much was done by succeeding regimes in terms of restoring the confidence and permanence of tenure in the service until 1988.
THE 1988 REFORMS
The 1988 civil service Reforms could be regarded as the most fundamental in the annals of administrative re- organization. The reform was instituted by the Babangida administration based on the recommendations of the Dotun Phillips committee on the civil service.
The reforms brought about the following:
i. The minister/commissioner as chief executive and the accounting office of the political head of the ministry became the executive head rather than the permanent secretary under the earlier arrangement. Before this new arrangement, the permanent secretary had effective control over all human and non-human resources of the ministry. The minister/commissioner was more or less a mere figure head whose leadership often caused squabbles between him and permanent secretary. The reforms corrected this situation.
ii. The official nomenclature of permanent secretary changed to director- general. The appointment became political as one could be appointed by government to occupy the position and his tenure ends with that of regime that appointed it.
iii. Professionalization of the civil service. The service became professionalized as the departments and sections are re-arranged lased on professional lines and personnel in each department and its other sub-units are to have professional qualifications that accord with their duties in the department. Moreso, transfer of servants across ministries and departments becomes a thing of the past.
iv. New promotion criteria were set up for advancement of officials. Merit system and other criteria such as promotional examination and additional qualification replaced the old system of length of service for promotion.
v. Accountability control. The Audit Alarm was set up to expose misappropriation of funds and corrupt.
3.1.3. POST 1988 REFORMS
The Babangida regime was succeeded by the Shonekan-led interim government in 1993 but was shortly toppled by the Abacha regime. The Abacha regime had its greatest impact on the civil service by its reversal of the nomenclature of the director-general back to permanent secretary and thereby depoliticizing the office and making it once again permanent. The Abubarkar regime that succeeded the Abacha regime in 1998, the office of secretary to government and head of service hitherto combined by one person was separated into two by the regime as one secretary to government and two, head of service. The two offices are occupied by two different people.
The secretary to government is political, while the head of service is appointed from among the most senior civil servants.
In May 1999, Abubakar regime handed over to a democratically elected regime headed by Olusegun Obsanjo. The regimes most impact on the civil service in the areas of enhanced remunerations and purging of the service of “ghost” workers. The regime increased the salary package of civil servants by 45%, a development that has enhanced the economic power of many civil servants. At inception also, various seminars and conferences, particularly on corruption and accountability were organized for senior civil servants.
Since the Return to Democracy in 1999, Civil Service Reforms: Highlights of Federal Government Reform Programmes
One major preoccupation of the present administration has been Policy Reforms aimed at improving the machinery of government and service delivery generally.
A compelling reason for the reforms was the parlous state of the economy of the nation, and the erosion of public confidence in government
and its institutions to deliver the much expected dividends of democracy. Beside the internal pressures, there were external factors as well, especially those of NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the urgency of attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Reform agenda focused on:
- Public Sector Reforms;
- Privatization/Liberalization:
- Governance, Transparency and Anti-Corruption;
- Service Delivery.
The main goals are:
- Wealth Creation;
- Employment Generation;
- Poverty Reduction; and
- Value Re-orientation.
Salient features of the reforms include economic development strategies, public service reforms, pensions overhaul, national Health Insurance Scheme, Bank recapitalization, service delivery (servicom) and anti-corruption campaigns.
The underlying philosophy of the Reform is change. Indeed, change for the better for too long, has been evasive in Nigeria. Our living condition is characterized with poverty, poor service delivery, corruption, environmental degradation, etc, amidst increased oil revenue.
This paper is therefore timely as the reform measures aim to address a host of national malaise.
Listed below, are a summary of the reform measures being undertaken by the Federal Government. They have implications for both States and Local Governments. The challenges to readers include acceptance, adaptability and the resolve to turn things around for the good of all.
SUMMARY OF GOVERNMENT REFORMS
Implementation of the Monetization Policy
The Monetization of fringe benefits of public servants and political office holders was launched by the President in June 2003, to take effect on 1st July, 2004. It was justified by the uncontrolled proliferation of perquisites of office in government over the years, costing the public treasury huge and growing sums of money. The most notable of such fringe benefits in the past were: -
Provision and maintenance of furnished residential housing (over 30,000 units in Abuja alone);
- Maintenance of fleets of motor cars for entitled officers;
- A retinue of domestic servants for certain senior officials;
- Limitless free medical services, including overseas check-ups for senior officials.
The aims of the exercise was to free government from the administrative burden and financial cost of these services and financially empower officers to provide themselves these facilities from their enhanced financial remuneration. This was to bring the system in line with the practice in other parts of the world. The Monetization Policy was given effect through the passage of an Act: the Certain Political, Public and Judicial office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) Act 2003, by the National Assembly. Drawing from the Act, the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission issued a Circular spelling out the provisions, as they affect federal Civil Servants, with effect from 1st October, 2003. Under the Policy, services now monetized include residential accommodation, furniture allowance, leave grant, meal subsidy, duty tour allowance, motor vehicle loan, fueling/maintenance of official vehicles and transport allowance. Arising from the Monetization of Fringe Benefits, a total of 7,487 Government official vehicles are being disposed of through outright sale to civil servants.
The implementation of the policy has led to:
i. more frugal use of government utilities;
ii. Curbing of the excesses of public officers in the use of government amenities;
iii. Equity in the receipt of government welfare benefits by civil servants;
iv. Elimination of all hidden costs of running the system;
iv. enhancement of the remunerations of civil servants and political office holders to enable them provide themselves the perquisites now monetized;
v. vi. Improved culture of prudence in managing resources; and vii. Opportunity for Civil Servants to own their homes.
The policy has been implemented in almost all Government Ministries, Parastatals and Agencies. In this regard, a total of 20,452 government vehicles had been disposed of across the 444 Parastatals / Agencies. Outright Purchase of Government Quarters by Sitting Tenants: One major aspect of Monetisation Policy which has excited Civil Servants is the opportunity it has provided for them to buy off from government, the houses they currently occupy. This is being done using rates that take account of only the replacement value of the housing units, discounting the cost to Civil servants, land and infrastructural facilities. Political Office Holders on the other hand are being made to bid for their own houses in the open competitive market taking into account the cost of land and infrastructural facilities. Civil Servants desirous of purchasing their houses are being assisted to approach mortgage institutions by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria which has issued to every Civil Servant a contributor’s passbook under the National Housing Fund based on their contributions over the years. Government intends to keep the Programme going through the Owner-Occupier Scheme which is currently being implemented as an incentive to retain the loyalty and commitment of serving Civil servants who may not have benefited from the current sale of government quarters and to provide a secured future for new entrants into the Service.
Implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme: The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was launched on Monday, June 6, 2005 by President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, signaling the commencement of the scheme in both the public and organized private sectors. The primary objective of the Scheme is to ensure that all Nigerians have access to good health care services through putting in place a health care system which reduces dependence on government for funding a healthcare delivery, and of provision of health facilities. The scheme also seeks to integrate private health facilities and expertise into the nation’s healthcare system. In line with the Monetisation Policy of the Current Administration, Civil Servants are to pay 5% of their basic salaries as their contributions to the scheme which guarantees them and their dependants’ quality healthcare in their preferred primary healthcare outlets. They are at liberty to choose from a comprehensive list of available providers participating in the Scheme. To ensure effective take-off of the scheme for public servants, government provided the sum of N2.6 billion and deductions from Public Servants did not begin until January, 2007. Universal coverage of the Scheme is expected to be achieved by 2015 in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals target of 2015. Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23)
Sustained Crusade against Corruption: The crusade against corruption which is personally being led by the President has yielded good dividends. Civil Servants are now more than ever before required to be more accountable and transparent in conducting government business. So far, no public officer, however highly placed, who ran foul of the law across all cadres had been spared; and this is sending the right signals not just to the Service but to the entire nation regarding the seriousness of the government in waging a relentless war against corruption and all its associated vices. Anti-corruption units have been set up in all Government Ministries with direct links to the key Anti-Corruption Agencies, namely the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Since we are also tackling corruption as a management problem which needs to be effectively managed, Permanent Secretaries and others at the top echelon of the Service are increasingly being tasked on the need to institute management systems to combat the malaise.
Overhaul of the Procurement System: Through collaboration with the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU) in the Presidency, the procurement system has been realigned to be more transparent with emphasis on quality management and value for money in all government transactions. Recently, in order to internalize in the Civil Service the gains recorded under the programme, a separate cadre of procurement officers was created within the Civil Service, comprising officers with the appropriate qualifications and dispositions.
Restructuring of Government Ministries, Agencies and Department (MDAs) The restructuring exercise of MDAs which commenced with the pilot Ministries has been extended service-wide. Leading the way is the Federal Ministry of Finance which has conducted its restructuring exercise, and has received approval of the Head of Service to put in place its new organizational structure. The restructuring exercise in other pilot Ministries is in progress and both the Management Services Office and the Bureau of Public Service Reforms continue to guide the efforts of other MDAs in their restructuring exercises.
Parastatals Reform: The organization of parastatals numbering 444, in terms of re-aligning their functions vis-à-vis their supervising Ministries, merging some and scrapping others, has already started. For example, investment/entrepreneurship finance organizations were merged to form the Bank of Industry and unnecessary institutions such as the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) and the Education Bank were scrapped. Recently also, six parastatals under the National Planning Commission were merged into three bodies. At the same time, the privatization of commercial- oriented parastatals, such as the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Steel Plants and other industrial projects, is proceeding according to plan. Government is aware that parastatals are the primary centres of mismanagement and waste in the public services system hence the need to reform them in a profound manner.
Capacity Building: Following the orientation workshops organized for the Directorate Cadre from 1999 through 2001 which were extended to the middle level Officers from 2002 onwards government has improved on service-wide training and capacity development through the organization of series of programmes targeted at officers across all levels and cadres. The capacity of the Service was further enhanced through additional knowledge and experiences gained from Study Tours to Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc, by delegations led by and comprising mainly Permanent Secretaries, the DirectorGeneral, Bureau of Public Service Reforms and other Heads of Agencies key to reform. This is in order to remodel our Service through guidance by global best practices in Public Administration obtained from interactions provided by such tours. Government is also focusing on Executive Leadership Training and Development which will be further enhanced with the take-off of the Civil Service College Abuja very soon. The Administrative Staff college of Nigeria (ASCON) and other training institutions have now been rehabilitated through improved funding to be able to deliver training programmes more competently. The Bureau of Public Service Reforms is also developing a Virtual Library through the Support of the Education Trust Fund (ETF) to serve as an intellectual storehouse for the reform programme.
ICT Development: The provision of an ICT enabled work environment in the delivery of improved services is a key issue in the reform agenda. Accordingly, work processes are increasingly being computerized through provision of computer systems to officers for their daily operations and for the enhancement of data storage and analysis, easy retrieval as well as dissemination of information. This had led to the generation of accurate and reliable information for decision making on policy issues as well as improvement of record management system. There are sustained efforts in the provision of internet and intranet linkages to harness knowledge form all sources in all Ministries and Agencies. The frame work for the realization of eGovernment is getting increased attention through the guidance of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
Review of the Public Service Rules, Regulations and Procedures: A review of the Civil Service Rules, and Financial Regulations was undertaken in 2000 to make them applicable to the entire Public Service. A more comprehensive review is currently being carried out by the Presidential Committee on the Review and Revision of Public Service Rules, Regulations and Procedures (PC-RPSRT) which was inaugurated by the President in February, 2005. The committee which is chaired by the Principal Secretary to the President and Permanent Secretary, State House, has as members two Ministers, one retired and six serving Permanent Secretaries, Auditor-General for the Federation, Accountant General of the Federation, Director-General, Administrative Staff college of Nigeria (ASCON) and the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR). The Committee submitted an Interim Report in April 2005 in which it proposed Transitional Arrangements for fast tracking the Implementation of the Reform Programme, which has similarly been approved by the President. Rightsizing the Civil Service: Government is currently rightsizing the Civil Service in line with the approved criteria developed by both the PC-RPSRP and PSRIC and approved by the President. Among these criteria are the following; (a) Appointment without authorization; (b) Attainment of 60 years of age and 35 years in service; (c) Disciplinary cases involving gross misconduct; (d) Entry into cadres without mandatory skills to progress on the career ladder; (e) Failure to acquire mandatory skill to progress on the career ladder; (f) Monetized jobs or jobs contracted out e.g. about 5,500 Drivers have already been disengaged and paid off at a cost of N2.5 billion. (g) Redundancies arising from scrapping of organizations; and (h) Exceptionally bad officers adjudged unfit for continued service.
Pension Reforms: The Pensions Act of 2004 instituted a new pension scheme which is a departure from the “Pay As You Go” system to a contributory scheme. However, there is a transitional arrangement where the old pay-as-you-go system will run concurrently with the new one for 3 years. Pursuant to the Act, the National Pensions Commission was established as the Administrative Machinery for managing the process. The key feature of the Scheme is that Civil Servants contribute 7½ of their salary deducted from source while Government matches it with the same rate of 7½ counterpart contribution. The new Pension Scheme: i. provides the private sector a reliable institutional framework for staff pension or terminal benefits; ii. offers the economy a harmonized pension system, which will expand the country’s social security and allow easy mobility of labour among sectors and employers; and iii. provides the economy a veritable source of saving and capital formation.
Service Delivery The Service Delivery Programme is aimed at achieving excellence in the delivery of services to the public (citizenry) and other customers by government agencies. It is being run as a British Government Technical Assistance Programme under its Department for International Development (DFID) to the Federal Government. Its modus operandi is to reach out to MDAs to enlighten them on service delivery concepts and encourage them to undertake management innovations aimed at enhancing quality service to the public, which is backed up by obligations to be imposed by a “service charter” with the public. Some achievements have been recorded so far by way of sensitization of MDAs on the new concept and making them to develop vision and mission statements and articulated outline of objectives and functions. The appreciable effect on real service delivery to the public is expected to manifest rather gradually. Increased Collaboration with International Development Partners: In spite of government commitment to own the reform, it has not lost appreciation of the need to gain the support of International Development Partners. Consequently, government is collaborating with the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) in the implementation of the World Bank assisted Economic Reform and Governance Project (ERGP). The project component includes: (a) Public Resource Management and Targeted Anti-Corruption Initiative; (b) Civil Service Administrative Reforms; (c) Strengthening Pension Management and Accountability; (d) Strengthening of Statistics and Statistical Capacity; and (e) Project management: Under the Civil Service Administrative Reform component of the ERGP, government will be seeking to achieve the following: - strengthening the Bureau of Public Service Reforms to lead and co-ordinate the system-wide reform; - designing and implementing an integrated personnel and payroll system to improve the management of human resources and reduce fraud; - consolidating the restructuring of MDAs; Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23) - Carrying out diagnostic studies and dialogues on key service –wide reforms to build broader support for the process; - designing and implementing a Performance Improvement Facility to support innovative capacity building. Government is also engaging the Commonwealth Secretariat in other capacity building initiatives mainly targeted at the Directorate Cadre, and middle level officers who have the potential of emerging as future leaders in the Service.
Critical Success Factors: The experience in managing the on-going Public Service Reform programme in Nigeria indicates that the following are critical to its success:
i. Support of the political leadership, as exemplified in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s uncommon leadership in driving the process during his tenure;
ii. Robust leadership by the Head of the Civil Service whose commitment to reform must never be in doubt, as he sets the tone;
iii. Clear goals and strategy which are mutually shared by all relevant stakeholders;
iv. Institutionalization of reform through the establishment of an agency for coordination and implementation, as exemplified in the creation of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms in Nigeria;
iv. Active involvement of MDAs in the reform process, especially on issues that particularly relate to them in order to take cognizance of individual peculiarities and avoid the generation of uniform solutions to diverse problems.
v. Timely and effective communication;
vi. Openness to admit wrongs and take corrective steps;
vii. An effective monitoring and evaluation process;
ix. Sustained partnership with all relevant stakeholders;
x. Commitment and greater commitment on the part of all stakeholders to make it work notwithstanding obvious difficulties; and
xi. Adequate funding of the process. Source: Journal of Professional Administration; vol8, No.1. April 2007 (pages:14-23)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS OR ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS IS AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORGNISATION AND PRACTICES OR TO INCULCATE A DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR IN ORDER TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OR GOVERNMENT MACHINERY.
REASONS FOR LIMITED SUCCESS OF REFORM
1. LACK OF SENSE OF OWNERSHIP BY PUBLIC SERVICES
2. AD-HOC APPROACH TO REFORM EFFORTS
3. POLITICAL COMMITMENT
4. LEADERSHIP OF THE REFORMS
5. LACK OF A PERMANENT AGENCY/FOCAL POINT FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE REFORMS
6. ABSENCE OF WINDE CONSULTATIONS WITH OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
7. LACK OF INSTITUTIONSL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REFORMS AGENCY AND PUBLIC SECTOR TRAINING INSTITUTIONS
8. POLITICAL INSTABILITY
CHARACTERISTICS OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS
1. IT IS A DELIBERATE AND CONSCIOUS EFFORT.
2. MAJOR REFORMS ARE POLITICAL IN NATURE AND USUALLY SUFFER INTERNAL RESISTANCE.
3. IT CHANGES BEHAVIOUR OF ADMINISTRATORS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WHOLE CITIZENRY.
4. IT USUALLY NEEDS TIME TO YIELD RESULTS.
PREVIOUS REFORMS IN NIGERIA
1. HUNT COMMISSION - 1934
2. HARRAGIN COMMITTEE - 1946
3. FOOT COMMISSION - 1948
4. PHILIPSON/ADEBO REPORT - 1949/50
5. GORSUCH COMMITTEE - 1954
6. NEWNESS COMMITTEE - 1959
7. MBANEFO COMMITTEE - 1959
8. MORGANSALARIES & WAGES COMMISSION - 1963
9. WEY PANEL - 1968
10. ELWOOD GRADING TEAM - 1969
11. ADEBO COMMISSION - 1973
12. UDOJI REPORT - 1974
13. PHILIP REORT - 1985
14. KOSHONI REPORT/PHILIP REPORT - 1988
15. AYIDA REPORT - 1995
16. OBASANJO PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS - 2003
SOME KEY ISSUES OF THE REFORMS
1. EMPHASISE ETHICAL STANDARDS
2. EMPHASISE ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY
3. EMPHASISE ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADE
4. EMPHASISE SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT REFORMS
5. RECONCILIATION OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTEREST
6. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO CONFLICT OF INTEREST
7. ADDRESS FEARS, INCLUDING WHATS IS IN IT FOR ME (WIFM)
8. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO PARTY POLITICS
9. ADDRESS ISSUES RELATING TO POST RETIREMENT EMPLOYMENT
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