Date Published: 02/14/10

Bayelsa: Strategies for Improved Productivity of MDAs (2)

by: Alamene D. Pereowie

The Public Service reflects the state of the nation and no nation has been able to advance beyond its Public Service. This statement is underscored by the fact that the bureaucracy provides the locomotive of administration. Basically, the ills of the Nigerian Public Service have been identified at various times and concerted efforts have been made at reinvigorating the service. Over the years, the Civil Service; has been characterized by crude politicking, lack of financial accountability and probity; perpetual breakdown of discipline and work ethics; virtual institutionalization of corruption at all levels and segments of the Service and disregard for rules and regulations.

At the national level, it was this unedifying state of affairs that prompted the Vision Statement of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation which, translates to the overall vision of the Civil Service is ‘to build a Public Service that works for the people’, while the Mission Statement is ‘to build a Public Service that is performance and results-oriented, customer driven, investor friendly, professional, technologically sensitive, accountable, fostering partnerships with all stakeholders and committed to a cautious improvement in government business and the enhancement of overall national productivity. Fifty years now, this national vision has not been realized.

According to M.K Jallow, ‘African bureaucrats have been described as artificial and comprising degreed and non-degreed bandits, who are out of touch with the people, operate through deception and abuse of power, and are perennially locked in combat with them’. The new administrative system that emerged out of post-independence African defined new governance rules that observed no rule of law, no accountability, and presided over chaotic governments. The tragedy, in which government institutions became the virtual properties of the ruling class, precluded the institutionalization of good governance and ensured that bureaucracies ran predatory states, which subverted the agenda of social and economic development for the majority poor.

The implication is that the system had entrenched vices such as corruption, embezzlement, capital flight, increased poverty, and tribalism, which continue to suck the continent deep into the vortex of internal conflicts, administrative failures, and increasing violent political implosions. The absence of accountability in government has exacerbated the problems of good governance, while the lack of skilled, knowledgeable and dedicated public administrators has continued to worsen the endemic corruption that has rendered the Civil Service Prostrate. This ugly scenario pervades the entire African Continent, even though there are pockets of States were civil service reforms are working.

Bayelsa State is unique in two senses. First, it is the cradle of the hydrocarbon industry but since her creation in 1966, no viable industry has been established, as federal presence is non-existent. Secondly, the State depends heavily on revenues from the Federation Account, while the State Government remains the highest employer of labour. Because of the legion of unemployed intermediate manpower, the State was the most notorious in terms of militancy during the pre- Amnesty era. Ever since, Bayelsa State has dominated the front burners of Nigerian socio-economic and political discourse. The character of the challenges facing Bayelsa state is technical slightly peculiar, the recommendations of the recently published Interim Report on the Performance Ranking of MDAs” in the State lend credence to this viewpoint. While the present administration is making efforts in restructuring the public service; one of which is the establishment of the Due Process Bureau – an agency which was scored lowest in that report. The policy thrust of the administration was said to be more focused on capacity building of the manpower that would ensure the efficient and effective utilization of scarce resources in realizing of set goals. The results of the ranking is as stated in table 1

Table 1: Results of ranking of MDAs in Bayelsa State

MDAs in Bayelsa State are plagued by three fundamental problems. First, is the that politics has undermined merit in terms of appointment. Secondly, there is an obvious resistance by the career civil service to change especially the new innovation system (NIS) designed to entrench transparency and accountability. This resistance stemmed from the tendency of government to under-reward public servants Thirdly, it appears that the political class is not very conversant with existing civil service rules. This practice seems to have continued for sometime hence it has become an entrenched tradition. The implication is that politics has overtaken merit in administration. This has also entrenched a patronage network of political jobbers in Bayelsa State whose stock in trade is peddle rumours and vicious propaganda to extract concessions from government. This should not be the case and it behooves career administrators to redress such anomalies.

The Timipre Sylva administration should initiate public service reforms, as administrative re-engineering has become necessary to change the status quo. One of the areas that calls for urgent attention is the area of Pensions Reforms. The implementation of the contributory Pension Scheme is very essential. T he Contributory Pension Scheme is designed and expected to take the stress, sadness, pains and frustration out of the lives of future pensioners in the State. where administrative change is insufficient to keep an administrative system abreast of developments and hence performance gaps appear, that is, when there is a significant discrepancy between what is being done and what ought to be done. Reforms begin with the intention of removing obstacles to change, or of improving on the results of change. Therefore, reforms are man-made, deliberate, planned and not natural or accidental. The need therefore to re-strategize the civil service system in the state is inherently tied to the entrenchment of good governance and global best practices in the conduct of government business.

At the heart of public sector institutions is the civil service, which in most countries, is the central administrative machinery of government, charged with the overall responsibility for policy initiation and formulation, project and programme implementation through various ministries, departments and agencies, and the coordination of these programmes and projects, including parastatals and semi autonomous institutions. Government corporations enhanced patronage and soils systems leading to massive cronyism and clientelism that in turn fostered maladministration. Maladministration meant that the state-owned enterprises were for building party elites economically rather than promoting national interest. The World Bank and IMF pays too much attention to the issue of economic globalization and the role of the market but fails to recognize the different stages of development of states and the differential capacities of economies to compete effectively internationally.

Ironically, the capacity of the private sector is exaggerated and its heavy dependence on the public sector is underplayed.  The Private Sector's presumed superior efficiency over the public sector has been gullibly accepted without reflection on the dismal performance of the private sector as reflected in the large number of failed banks and litany of other sundry unedifying issues that characterize our national live.

Proselytes often pretends ignorance of the near wholesale reliance of the "private sector" on inflated public sector contracts and other forms of unholy alliance between the public and private sector operators in defrauding the state and society at large. Similarly, public enterprises suffer from gross mismanagement and consequently resulted to inefficiency in the use productive capital, corruption and nepotism, which in turn weaken the ability of government to carry out its functions efficiently.

The major infrastructural challenge facing Bayelsa State is the high cost of developing physical infrastructure occasioned by the hostile environment. Thus the cost of constructing a kilometer of road in the State is almost quadruples the cost of constructing a kilometer of road in the hinterland. The Timipre Sylva administration’s reluctance to conduct local government elections almost three years since inception has grossly contributed to the dismal and near absence of grassroots development. Certainly, accountability suffers at the Local Government level because of lack of adequate supervision. Now, the LGAs suffer inertia because of lack of accountability in the system. The implication is that democracy dividends are scarcely delivered to the rural areas.

Targets and benchmarks, measurement, accountability and quality assurance are all very important ingredients in the quest to achieve performance management in the public sector. Emphasis must be placed on prioritization and completion of infrastructural projects which are essential for rapid economic restructuring and growth. It has been continually reiterated in previous articles the need for the entrenchment of a people-oriented development strategy that transcends ‘documents crafted with good intentions,’ emphasis should be placed on result-oriented programmes in terms of popular participation, good governance, employment generation and protection of the environment; promotion of prudent and scientific management of the state economy through capacity building of public sector manpower base. Another option is the privatization of revenue generation schemes at the local government level.

Release of funds to the various parastatals under each ministry should be made to the parastatals directly with only notification to the supervising Ministries.  The current practice of releasing funds to the parastatals through the supervising Ministries has tended to encourage profligate expenditure in both the supervising Ministries and in the parastatals. Effective training must be properly conceived and must therefore based on identified performance problems or gaps in the civil service. It is also crucial to distinguish those needs which may be addressed by training from those which have their root causes in other factors such as inappropriate policies or exogenous factors arising from the national economic environment.

Another significant occurrence is that public administration was confronted with other ecological forces that included orienting managerial capacity to engage globalization and embrace e-government systems; there has been a drive toward computerization of civil service systems in the state especially in areas such as payroll, human resource compliment control, tax management, data management, and dissemination of information. Human resource development aimed at providing appropriate skills for the Public Service, while job evaluation was meant to realign the job structures that had been inherited from the past governments.

The Sylva leadership of Bayelsa state should close the gap between the strategic formulation and implementation at the ministry level by defining the objectives, developing appropriate measures, targets, initiatives to be undertaken to deliver the objective and budget for each initiative, which links budget with planning. This requires providing each objective with the definition agreeable to all the implementers of the objective. This definition has to be recorded and stored in a defined template and made available for reference by all. This template also contains the measures for the short-term targets to be achieved and the long term goals. This administration cannot afford to fail in public service delivery.

The key initiatives in this area include reforming the bureaucracy to reduce the incentive for corrupt practices, monetization of fringe benefits to eliminate wasteful public expenditure practices to bring all hitherto hidden costs of maintaining government and public officers within the annual budget, instituting mechanisms for ensuring flatter administrative structures in MDAs and redesigning work processes to reduce avoidable delays which fuel unethical practices. Government is also supporting the passage of the Right to Information Bill to provide access to government information and records as a way of promoting openness. The on-going reforms is should also endeavour to strike a balance between the rights of MDAs to discipline erring staff.

The promotion of a sound ethical culture, in both the public service and the enlarged Nigerian society, has been the driving force underpinning every action of government and its agencies since the inception of the present administration in Nigeria. As enshrined in the Public Service Charter for Africa, ethical culture manifests in an officer, when among others, he performs his/her duty efficiently, displays discipline, dignity, integrity, equity, impartiality, fairness, public spiritedness and courtesy in his/ her actions. The Civil Service handbook in Nigeria prescribes the code of ethics in government business as discipline, loyalty, honesty courage, courtesy, cooperation, tact, industry, tidiness, helpfulness, kindness. On attitude to public funds, the code emphasizes frugality, conscientiousness in collecting government revenue, avoidance of waste of public funds on ill-advised purchases, especially near the end of the financial year and preparing appropriate financial reports. The code emphasizes efficiency, which comes through training and advises the judicious use of authority by the public servant in a way that promotes National interest.

Public Service officers who engage in over-invoicing in connivance with contractors to loot public treasury are diverting resources which should have been deployed to provide physical and social infrastructure to improve the living standards of the people. Those who engage in such unwholesome practices are certainly enemies of democracy and the people, but they flourish because most of the supervisors are on permanent sabbaticals.

The Timipre Sylva administration should entrench ethics and discipline in the civil service. This could be achieved through the creation and strengthening of anti-corruption agencies for strict enforcement of anti-corruption laws at all levels of the MDAs and to create more institutional platforms for enforcing standards. It is high time the administration initiated reforms to combat corruption and promote transparency and accountability. This must be pursued at the top hierarchy of the service to set the moral tone and ethical conduct in the Service.

The Bayelsa State Government has to be pragmatic in its approach by establishing a policy framework for change. The macroeconomic outlook for 2010 looks positive and the fiscal policy of government appears to be on a good track. The government's focus is now to further strengthen macroeconomic stability, improve public financial management, and further reduce the costs of doing business. More spending on social services and infrastructure is needed to support medium-term growth. Further structural reforms are also needed to help remove impediments to growth, promote private sector development and job creation, especially in the non-oil sector, and strengthen institutions. Principal avenues for further efforts should include planned civil service reform, a strengthening of public financial management, and the elimination of import bans. In addition, despite progress already made, the government still needs to breach the divestiture of various public enterprises-particularly in the power sector.

MDAs in Bayelsa State are is a pyramid that is massively crowded at the bottom layer and less crowded at the top stratum. This scenario that is conspicuous is lack of speedy progression at the top echelon, which is less crowded, has become a source of serious concern by immediate subordinates. The problem does not emanate from the structure of the service, rather it is the breach of the rules and regulations guiding the operation of the system. More importantly, politicians have been left to grossly bastardise the system. In Bayelsa State, the passion to work and the zeal to serve the State in the public service has been abandoned for greed thus organised looting of the public funds becomes the order of the day to the detriment of service delivery . MDAs should also evolve a Performance Reward System based on productivity. Thus promotion, fringe benefits and other tangible and intangible rewards should be based on measurable criteria.

The junior and intermediate staff reward should be based on objective and tangible criteria such as punctuality, adherence to civil service rules and regulations, diligence etc. The higher cadre of staff should be promoted and rewarded based on ability to initiate structure and consideration, budget implementation compliance, implementation of civil service rule with equity considerations, service delivery , efficiency and accountability in the expenditure of resources. Intensive capacity building and professional training of key personnel is imperative to the repositioning efforts of the MDAs in Bayelsa State.

Alamene D. Pereowie, a Policy Analyst, wrote from Port Harcourt