Small government and better service delivery in liberia: an appraisal of the 2008 civil service reform

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p>Rebuilding<br>public administration becomes an urgent reform of government in nations like<br>Liberia recouping from civil war, insurrections, or outside military invasions.<br>Rebuilding a vibrant administration is at the crux of post-conflict<br>reconstruction (Rondinelli, 2006). The assertion offered by Rondinelli (2006),<br>is confirmed by the creation of the Governance Commission of Liberia in August<br>2003 amid the Accra Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). One of the central<br>guidelines of Governance Commission is to advance reform, proficiency, and<br>transparency in the public sector of Liberia thereby suggesting rationalization<br>of institutional orders and structures; coordination, capacity building and<br>designed an appropriate merit-based system (GC, 2003).</p><p>Anazodo,<br>Okoye, and Emma (2012) affirmed that countries throughout the world are<br>presently in the corridor to construct a resilient civil service that will<br>adequately give the proficient and viable service delivery that reinforces<br>establishments and add to the adequacy and efficiencies of a nation’s<br>developmental activities. Public sector reform of which civil service reform is<br>a subset is one of the critical elements that strengthens institutions and<br>contribute to the effectiveness and efficiencies of a country’s public sector<br>leading to developmental activities (Zazay, 2015). Kwaghga (2010) characterized<br>the civil service as a collection of men and ladies who utilized their<br>capacities on a non-political basis as ordered by the positions which they<br>occupy in the bureaucracy, fundamentally, they are charged to render basic<br>social services, and also plan and execute the approaches of the government.<br>Civil service as a body ought to be neutral in administering their assigned<br>obligations as far governance is concerned.</p><p>Civil<br>service reform is an activity that enhances the proficiency, efficiency,<br>refined skill, representativity and democratic character of a civil service,<br>which is premised on the enhancement of better public service delivery of<br>depended public goods and services, along these lines advancing accountability,<br>which is one of the elements of good governance (Rao, 2013). As indicated by<br>Repucci (2014) civil service reform is one of the most obstinate yet important<br>challenges for governments and their supporters today.</p><p>Mutahaba<br>and Kiragu (2002) asserted that the force that propelled the wave of Public<br>Sector Reform (PSR) in Africa, just like the case in other developing nations,<br>emerged out of the macroeconomic and financial reforms that were introduced and<br>supported by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).</p><p>Unlike<br>the first wave of reform that was instituted by the World bank and<br>International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was entrenched in the Structural<br>Adjustment Programs (SAPs), as was<br>asserted by Mutahaba and Kiragu<br>(2002,) in the case of Liberia, several<br>years of civil upheaval in Liberia decimated the agency and demolished the<br>merit instituted recruiting framework by<br>disregarding standards and methods of<br>employment thus recruiting unprofessional<br>individuals of different warring factions that exacerbated the civil decadence.<br>As the result of an unprofessional system, the civil service was evident by a<br>disorganized service delivery that negatively affected the full implementation<br>of policies and programs, consequently leading to inadequate service delivery<br>in Liberia (Nyemah, 2009).</p><p>This<br>predicament of the underserved and unqualified workers in the civil service as<br>indicated by Zazay (2015), led to an incompetent civil service that had a negative<br>influenced on service delivery in Liberia. The civil service was extremely<br>weakened and did not have professionals and the institutional systems expected<br>to accomplish the basic results for social improvement. In President Ellen<br>Johnson Sirleaf’s quest of restoring the Liberia Civil service from this<br>problem, the government of Liberia in June of 2008, implemented its civil<br>service reform strategy called the “Small government, Better services” that<br>consisted of five distinct orientations, namely: restructuring and rightsizing,<br>pay and pension reforms, develop leadership, gender equity in the service, and<br>improving service delivery (Nyemah, 2009.)</p><p>As<br>per Adegoroye (2006), civil service reform becomes a vital approach for<br>redesigning the institution for the attainment of their goals as a component of<br>a multi-sectorial to manage and propel good governance guaranteeing<br>maintainable democracy and speedy recovery. Zazay (2015) declared that the<br>underlying principle of such reform including the Liberia 2008 reform<br>interventions was, and has been, to enhance the adequacy and effectiveness of<br>civil service and to guarantee its execution, which is necessary to support<br>continual socio-economic growth. The main objective of these reform exercises,<br>as indicated by Zazay (2015), is to enhance the nature of service offered to<br>citizens and to improve their ability to carry out center government<br>capacities, which are basic to advance supported financial improvement. Omoyefa<br>(2008), posited that productivity, adequacy, and responsiveness of government<br>to the longing of its citizens must be gauged through the lenses of the public<br>sector reform.</p><p>In<br>spite of the gradual and systematic reforms, inclusive of restructuring and<br>rightsizing since June 2008, the ministries in Liberia are still faced with<br>immense challenges. To further validate<br>this statement, the Ministry of Health in its 2015-2025 policy paper captioned<br>“Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System in Liberia” &nbsp; expressed that the health service delivery<br>systems were already weak before the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Community<br>interventions and services were not well coordinated with many vertical efforts<br>ongoing ( the Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Health, 2015).</p><p><strong>1.2 Statement of the Problem</strong></p><p>Civil<br>service reform, a worldwide phenomenon has been an extensive challenge to<br>almost all developing nations and war-torn government like Liberia around the<br>globe.</p><p>Reforms<br>are intended to enhancing the competence and efficacy of the civil service.</p><p>&nbsp;The 14 years of civil decadence caused the<br>Civil Service to go into a recession that ruined the entire merit-based system<br>by disregarding its fundamental standard procedures and recruiting unqualified<br>individuals based on the patronage and generosity of various armed groups that<br>exacerbated the civil conflict. This situation created an inefficient public<br>service, thereby adversely affecting performance and contributing to poor<br>service delivery in Liberia.</p><p>Apparently,<br>several years of these rigorous reform exercises that were meant at<br>re-invigorating the civil service, there seem to be strong traces of<br>ineffective and inefficient service delivery in Liberia. This is evidenced by<br>the poor quality of educational and health systems in Liberia. The President,<br>Ellen J. Sirleaf, in an interview with the Reuters on 7 August 2013, branded<br>the educational system a “mess”, which requires a complete overhaul.<br>Additionally, the 2015 Ebola menace that claimed the lives of approximately 184<br>health workers and 1000 men, women and children, could have been attributed to<br>the poor delivery of drugs and combating accessories that were needed to tackle<br>the killer disease.</p><p>It<br>is against this backdrop, that the researcher was poised, to have investigated<br>those factors that militated against better service delivery in Liberia, as was<br>proposed in the 2008 civil service reform captioned “small government, better<br>service”.</p><p><strong>1.3 Objective of the Study</strong></p><p>The<br>main objective of this study appraised ways in which the 2008 Civil Service<br>Reform will lead to Small Government, Better service in Liberia. The specific<br>objectives are to:</p><ol><li>examine service delivery &nbsp;in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service<br>reform ;</li><li>identify<br>the concept of “small government” on service delivery in Liberia;</li><li>assess<br>the re-engineering of governmentministerial structures in Liberia on service<br>delivery and</li><li>identify<br>factors that &nbsp;militated against effective<br>service delivery in Liberia.</li></ol><p><strong>1.4<br>Research Questions</strong><strong></strong></p><strong><p>&nbsp;The researcher questions are based on the stated<br>objectives below:</p><ol><li>How<br>was service delivery engaged in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service reform?</li><li>&nbsp;How has the concept of small government led to<br>better service delivery in Liberia?</li><li>In<br>what way has there-engineering of government ministerial structures enhancedservice<br>deliveryin Liberia?</li><li>What<br>are factors that militated against effective service delivery in Liberia?</li></ol></strong> <br><p></p>