Policy formulation: a case study of the employee compensation act, 2010

The success and failure of many countries in Africa, particularly Nigeria in relation to economic, political and social growth has been traced to its policy formulation and implementation. In the light of this, this work-Policy formulation A case study of the Employee Compensation Act, 2010 looks at the efficiency-challenges to effective policy formulation, improvements and recommendations of which sincere implementation of these policy by its practitioners will bring the needed development in every facet of the country. This study shows that public administration as a discipline has undergone a lot of transformation over the years by successive government with the influence of politics. To this end, General Hospital, Orile – Agege, Lagos, was chosen as the organization of study. For a purposeful study to be conducted, some relevant books and research works of many authors are reviewed. This research work looks at the employee compensation act, 2010 in line with employee welfare in both public and private establishments. It also takes a critical view at the policy’s bottlenecks in terms of implementation- providing recommendations to the impediments faced at implementation stages. Research hypothesis were formulated to avoid any form of deviation from the main purpose of the study, using Chi- Square method. Exploratory research design and questionnaire were employed reason that it enhances the research objectives of identifying problems or opportunities, developing a more precise formulation of an uncertain identified problem or opportunity gaining of various variables operating in a situation; giving the research a perspective about the character of the problem. Methods used to collect the data were secondary and primary data Secondary data sources were published materials like- books and annual report; while primary data sources were questionnaire (see Appendix) and personal interview. Findings from this study reveal that public policy is a course of action which has been consciously preferred and adopted after an examination of all possible and available alternatives or options. The government (politics) does the “choosing”, the our task as social scientists is to clarify the value-choices embedded in public policies, the cost of policies and the social consequences of not taking a politically difficult or wrong choice. Further revelation of constant review of departmental programmes, procedures and processes by top government function and heads of departments contribute positively towards efficiency and maximum productivity or the resource available. This study therefore recommends that policy formulation and implementation should be the exclusive preserve of the public administrators that have the breed for it. It also suggests a positive and conscious attempt to identify a number of administrative specialism (social services, economies, statistics and finance, public relations, diplomatic assignments etc) in order to bring professionalism and heather talents amongst individuals to develop administration. It also suggest that a leaf should be borrowed from U.S.A and other economically advanced countries by not only sponsoring research into measures of public service, but setting up a national commission on efficiency and productivity to assess the if policies formulated matched implementation. Finally, it suggest that successive governments should sustain policies meant and see to it improvement rather than trying to be more “Catholic than the Pope”.