Posted by Lubin Doe
The authors structured their work in three parts: the role of the government, public sector management challenges and civil service reform in Ghana
Role of government. The debate is presented as a choice between two theories: public interest and public choice. The public interest theory considers the law of supply and demand as unable to yield sustainable real economic growth, high social welfare and optimal equity. Therefore, government intervention is necessary to eliminate/reduce the effects of market failure. The public choice paradigm attributes public sector failures to the inability of governments to deliver quality public goods and services efficiently and transparently because of rent-seekers.
Public sector management challenges. A reference is made to a notion of new public management (NPM) that mixes procedures, policies and institutions (rent-seeking, job rotation, total quality management, project teams, strategic planning, performance budgeting, reformers, privatization, regulation, civil service reform, decentralization, procurement, human resource management, service delivery, information technology, good governance, etc.). A review of the literature is embedded in the discussion of both the role of the government and the public sector management issues.
Civil service reform in Ghana. The objectives of this reform are to : "(i) ensure ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) develop performance improvement plans (PIPs), which specify their output and service delivery target, against which performance is monitored; (ii) motivate civil servants towards results oriented practice and performance linked to appropriate reward schemes; (iii) improve responsiveness to the needs of the public and private sector and contribute towards supporting national development agenda; (iv) and encourage all MDAs to discharge their functions efficiently and in a transparent, competent, accountable and cost effective fashion" (p. 258).
According to the authors, the design process was "consultative and participatory" (surveys, interviews, workshops, press conferences and numerous meetings with a host of stakeholders). A pilot program was implement in 1994 and extended in 1996. In terms of result, the paper reported that capacity development teams were created as planned, beneficiary surveys were conducted, PIPs were developed, a newsletter and a handbook on the reform were published and performance agreements were signed though not implemented. The deficiencies in the reform strategy included the lack of budgetary provisions to finance the necessary incentives, frequent personnel changes, concurrent implementation of several reforms, targeting of too many institutions for reform, and lack of adequate review and correction mechanism as the reform unfolds.
The paper concludes with a list of seven factors considered to be critical for the reform of the civil service: "(1) wholehearted political commitment; (2) wholehearted bureaucratic leadership commitment; (3) thoughtful synergistic planning/preparation; (4) patience for implementation and evaluation; (5) capacity to convince, neutralize and/or accommodate reform-phobias and critics; (6) sustainable financial and technical resource availability; and (7) conscious nurturing of general public support "(p 262).
Comments
Review of the literature. The selected literature is not closely related to the topic. Discussions of the role of government or the theories of public choice are hardly relevant to issues of hand-on reform of the civil service. A more relevant literature would be papers and books that discuss practical issues in overhaul a bloated, inefficient and graft-prone government work force. A detailed presentation of the case study for India referred to in the conclusion would have provided more relevant insights into the design and implementation of the civil service reform than the presented literature.
Policy message. The paper does not state clearly whether the objectives of the reform have been achieved or not. This is due to the fact that the paper does not link the outcome of reform to its stated objectives. As a result, the policy implications of paper are hard to know and act upon. An "enlightened" decision-maker could vaguely sense that his attention might be solicited on three issues: commitment, budgetary resources and stability presumably of reform managers. "Enlightened" is in quotation marks because these three issues are not discussed in detail in the paper (analysis and recommendations) so as to retain attention.
Understandably, the definition in broad general terms of the objectives of the reform could complicate the assessment and make it hard to reach clear-cut conclusions. However, this difficulty should not have precluded efforts in this direction.
Bearing the above mentioned difficulty in mind, a clearer policy message could have emerged if the research were focused on one or a few ministries that had well-defined PIPs with well-defined and monitorable final and intermediate targets. Progress toward achieving these objectives would have then be assessed and specific suggestions made to this end (prioritization, better sequencing, limitation of institutions, adequate financial support and monitoring, etc.). For instance, a significant reduction in the processing time of an application for admission into a government school or for delivery of a driver’s license, or a business’s permit (assuming that the application is complete) would be a good indicator of progress in reforming the civil service. Such an analysis would have a stronger policy implication than the present one.
Finally, on form, the reading of the paper is handicapped by an excessive use of abbreviations. In the future, it is better to insert a list/table of abbreviations in the paper to avoid having to fish in the previous paragraphs for meanings.
