Igbuzor: 2015, civil service and public admin reform

THE 2015 elections are close by. Political parties and candidates are moving across the country – campaigning. They are making a lot of promises and commitments. The fulfillment of these promises requires an effective, efficient and performing civil service. But the civil service in Nigeria has been faced with a lot of challenges leading to failures in service delivery, a lack of accountability and poor performance of the machinery of government.  

    Three main fundamental root causes of the dysfunction in public administration in Nigeria have been identified by analysts, namely weaknesses in accountability; patronage and corruption and weaknesses in the machinery of government. The weaknesses in accountability manifest in weakness of oversight institutions, weak external demand, lack of transparency, weak monitoring and evaluation and lack of internal control. On patronage and corruption, it is well known and documented that corruption is widespread, deep and endemic in Nigeria. Weaknesses in machinery of government manifest in overlap and duplication of institutions; weak human resource management including misuse of the federal character principle; inappropriate appointment/posting; non-existent performance management; overlap and conflict between planning, policy and budgeting; lack of strategic focus on policy; poor public finance management; weak capacity and poor strategic and operational management. 

    In order to address the challenges, there is the need for civil service reform especially in the areas of human resources management, inter-agency workings, planning, policy, public financial management and service delivery. In human resource management, there is the need to make recruitment more systematic and transparent, improvement in deployment and development of human resource, proper application of federal character and performance management. On interagency working, there is the need to avoid overlap and duplication between institutions. On planning, ensure alignment between planning, policy and budgeting is also necessary. On public finance management, there is the need to remove inconsistencies in revenue flow, build capacity for budget implementation and ensure transparency and accountability. On service delivery, improving strategic and operational plans, evidence based decision-making and strong monitoring and evaluation are equally significant. 

    In the past few years, the Federal Government has implemented some civil service reforms to address the challenges of the civil service. Two important initiatives that have been implemented are the employee mobility policy and Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). 

     The employee mobility policy was formulated to foster the professional development of civil servants through career progression and deployment that engender creativity and motivate officers to render service with competence, objectivity and integrity. It is to, among other things, ensure a structured and ordered movement of government’s human resources within and across its various ministries and departments and ensure efficient resource utilization and the development of a competent, virile and motivated workforce. The policy is meant to address the dissatisfaction, mistrust, abuse and loss of confidence in the system of postings and deployment in the civil service. The objective of the policy is to, among other things, provide all employees with a clear understanding of the types of employee movements available within the system and the rules, principles and procedures guiding such. Moreover, it is to provide uniform guidelines to ensure that the movement of employees within the service is well planned, structured, executed and administered to ensure that the stated objectives are met.  Not the least is to enable a consistent approach to employee mobility and ensure that the process is fair and transparent to all, and also perceived to be so; facilitate employee’s personal and professional development through acquisition of new skills and varied experiences and the development of organizational networks leading to a “whole of civil service” work experience and enhance productivity and efficiency through the timely placement of employees with the right skills and competences in the right jobs for which they are best suited. 

    The policy covers the lateral movement of all staff cadres within and across the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the Federal Civil Service. It provides for fairness to all employees and to ensure that employee movement does not result in the loss or significant erosion of institutional memory. The policy provides clearly that all officers responsible for managing any activity relating to employee mobility must do so with the highest sense of responsibility, integrity and competence, and should immediately declare in writing to their immediate superiors (or higher authorities where need be) any conflict of interest or undue influence which may have potential to impair their ability to effectively, transparently and impartially discharge their duties if and when such arises. 

    Part of the policy provisions is that posting of employees shall take place twice a year in March and September, and every pool officer on GL 15-17 of the Federal Civil Service shall spend a minimum of twenty four months (24) in a post whilst those on GL 07-14 shall spend a minimum of thirty six (36) months in a post and thereafter can be posted. 

    To guide the posting of pool employees across MDAs, the MDAs were grouped under four categories, namely Social Services (Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Education, Health, Sports, Women Affairs and Social Development, Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Police Affairs, and Youth Development); Finance and Economy (Finance, Industry, Trade and Investment, Budget Office of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAuGF); Infrastructure, Science and Technology (Communication Technology, Science and Technology, Environment, Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Power, Water Resources, Aviation, Works, Transport, Niger Delta Affairs, Petroleum Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development) and Governance (State House, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), Defence, Foreign Affairs, Information, Interior, Justice, Labour and Productivity). 

    The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was formulated by the Federal Government to improve the effectiveness and efficiency in the storage of personnel records and administration of monthly payroll with the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The objectives of the system include among other things to facilitate planning and decision making; aid budgeting; monitor monthly staff emoluments and eliminate payroll fraud. 

    There is no doubt that the two initiatives described above are good policies and can help to address some of the root causes of the challenges of the civil service in Nigeria. But as theorists and practitioners have argued, implementation is the graveyard of public policies in Nigeria. There are many good policies that have been formulated to address problems in Nigeria but implementation has made the policies ineffective. For instance, in the implementation of the IPPIS, there have been frequent changes of consultants, non-involvement of civil servants in the design and implementation of the system and alleged manipulation of the system. 

    Meanwhile, it has been shown that implementation/execution of any policy/programme can be improved by focusing on the three core processes of strategy, operations and people. Every policy should have a strategy for execution. The policy makers should give attention to the how of executing the policy. Even at the time of crafting the policy, the question must be asked: can we execute this policy? The monitoring and evaluation framework for executing the policy should be put in place with clear milestones. In addition, the policy should be broken into operating plan in terms of how it will be implemented. 

    A budget for implementation should be considered.  A clear procedure for follow through should be put in place with a clear timetable for reviews. Finally, the people to implement the policy should be properly trained and re-oriented. The plan for recruitment, deployment and development of people should ensure that there are adequate talents over time to meet the needs of the service. The people provide the linkage between the policies and the milestones in the operating plan including the budgetary requirements. There should be a definite process of developing a leadership pipeline through continuous improvement, succession depth and reducing retention risk. There should also be a concrete plan on how to handle non-performers. 

    From the above, it is clear that the promises being made by politicians and political parties require more reform of the civil service. There are some ongoing reforms that are necessary to reposition the service but there are challenges with their implementation. Politicians and political parties need to tell Nigerians how they will continue to implement civil service reform and what new policies and programmes would be introduced in the civil service reform. 

• Dr. Igbuzor, pharmacist, human rights activist, policy analyst and development expert is Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD).