SMALL GOVERNMENT AND BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY IN LIBERIA: AN APPRAISAL OF THE 2008 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Rebuilding
public administration becomes an urgent reform of government in nations like
Liberia recouping from civil war, insurrections, or outside military invasions.
Rebuilding a vibrant administration is at the crux of post-conflict
reconstruction (Rondinelli, 2006). The assertion offered by Rondinelli (2006),
is confirmed by the creation of the Governance Commission of Liberia in August
2003 amid the Accra Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). One of the central
guidelines of Governance Commission is to advance reform, proficiency, and
transparency in the public sector of Liberia thereby suggesting rationalization
of institutional orders and structures; coordination, capacity building and
designed an appropriate merit-based system (GC, 2003).

Anazodo,
Okoye, and Emma (2012) affirmed that countries throughout the world are
presently in the corridor to construct a resilient civil service that will
adequately give the proficient and viable service delivery that reinforces
establishments and add to the adequacy and efficiencies of a nation’s
developmental activities. Public sector reform of which civil service reform is
a subset is one of the critical elements that strengthens institutions and
contribute to the effectiveness and efficiencies of a country’s public sector
leading to developmental activities (Zazay, 2015). Kwaghga (2010) characterized
the civil service as a collection of men and ladies who utilized their
capacities on a non-political basis as ordered by the positions which they
occupy in the bureaucracy, fundamentally, they are charged to render basic
social services, and also plan and execute the approaches of the government.
Civil service as a body ought to be neutral in administering their assigned
obligations as far governance is concerned.

Civil
service reform is an activity that enhances the proficiency, efficiency,
refined skill, representativity and democratic character of a civil service,
which is premised on the enhancement of better public service delivery of
depended public goods and services, along these lines advancing accountability,
which is one of the elements of good governance (Rao, 2013). As indicated by
Repucci (2014) civil service reform is one of the most obstinate yet important
challenges for governments and their supporters today.

Mutahaba
and Kiragu (2002) asserted that the force that propelled the wave of Public
Sector Reform (PSR) in Africa, just like the case in other developing nations,
emerged out of the macroeconomic and financial reforms that were introduced and
supported by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Unlike
the first wave of reform that was instituted by the World bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was entrenched in the Structural
Adjustment Programs (SAPs),  as was
asserted by Mutahaba and  Kiragu
(2002,)  in the case of Liberia, several
years of civil upheaval in Liberia decimated the agency and demolished the
merit instituted recruiting  framework by
disregarding  standards and methods of
employment thus recruiting  unprofessional
individuals of different warring factions that exacerbated the civil decadence.
As the result of an unprofessional system, the civil service was evident by a
disorganized service delivery that negatively affected the full implementation
of policies and programs, consequently leading to inadequate service delivery
in Liberia (Nyemah, 2009).

This
predicament of the underserved and unqualified workers in the civil service as
indicated by Zazay (2015), led to an incompetent civil service that had a negative
influenced on service delivery in Liberia. The civil service was extremely
weakened and did not have professionals and the institutional systems expected
to accomplish the basic results for social improvement. In President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf’s quest of restoring the Liberia Civil service from this
problem, the government of Liberia in June of 2008, implemented its civil
service reform strategy called the “Small government, Better services” that
consisted of five distinct orientations, namely: restructuring and rightsizing,
pay and pension reforms, develop leadership, gender equity in the service, and
improving service delivery (Nyemah, 2009.)

As
per Adegoroye (2006), civil service reform becomes a vital approach for
redesigning the institution for the attainment of their goals as a component of
a multi-sectorial to manage and propel good governance guaranteeing
maintainable democracy and speedy recovery. Zazay (2015) declared that the
underlying principle of such reform including the Liberia 2008 reform
interventions was, and has been, to enhance the adequacy and effectiveness of
civil service and to guarantee its execution, which is necessary to support
continual socio-economic growth. The main objective of these reform exercises,
as indicated by Zazay (2015), is to enhance the nature of service offered to
citizens and to improve their ability to carry out center government
capacities, which are basic to advance supported financial improvement. Omoyefa
(2008), posited that productivity, adequacy, and responsiveness of government
to the longing of its citizens must be gauged through the lenses of the public
sector reform.

In
spite of the gradual and systematic reforms, inclusive of restructuring and
rightsizing since June 2008, the ministries in Liberia are still faced with
immense challenges.  To further validate
this statement, the Ministry of Health in its 2015-2025 policy paper captioned
“Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System in Liberia”   expressed that the health service delivery
systems were already weak before the Ebola virus disease outbreak. Community
interventions and services were not well coordinated with many vertical efforts
ongoing ( the Republic of Liberia, Ministry of Health, 2015).

Statement of the Problem

Civil
service reform, a worldwide phenomenon has been an extensive challenge to
almost all developing nations and war-torn government like Liberia around the
globe.

Reforms
are intended to enhancing the competence and efficacy of the civil service.

 The 14 years of civil decadence caused the
Civil Service to go into a recession that ruined the entire merit-based system
by disregarding its fundamental standard procedures and recruiting unqualified
individuals based on the patronage and generosity of various armed groups that
exacerbated the civil conflict. This situation created an inefficient public
service, thereby adversely affecting performance and contributing to poor
service delivery in Liberia.

Apparently,
several years of these rigorous reform exercises that were meant at
re-invigorating the civil service, there seem to be strong traces of
ineffective and inefficient service delivery in Liberia. This is evidenced by
the poor quality of educational and health systems in Liberia. The President,
Ellen J. Sirleaf, in an interview with the Reuters on 7 August 2013, branded
the educational system a “mess”, which requires a complete overhaul.
Additionally, the 2015 Ebola menace that claimed the lives of approximately 184
health workers and 1000 men, women and children, could have been attributed to
the poor delivery of drugs and combating accessories that were needed to tackle
the killer disease.

It
is against this backdrop, that the researcher was poised, to have investigated
those factors that militated against better service delivery in Liberia, as was
proposed in the 2008 civil service reform captioned “small government, better
service”.

Objective of the Study

The
main objective of this study appraised ways in which the 2008 Civil Service
Reform will lead to Small Government, Better service in Liberia. The specific
objectives are to:

1. examine  service delivery  in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service
   reform ;
2. identify
   the concept of “small government” on service delivery in Liberia;
3. assess
   the re-engineering of governmentministerial structures in Liberia on service
   delivery and
4. identify
   factors that  militated against effective
   service delivery in Liberia.

Research Questions

 The researcher questions are based on the stated
objectives below:

1. How
   was service delivery engaged in Liberia prior to the 2008 Civil Service reform?
2.  How has the concept of small government led to
   better service delivery in Liberia?
3. In
   what way has there-engineering of government ministerial structures enhancedservice
   deliveryin Liberia?
4. What
   are factors that militated against effective service delivery in Liberia?