Public Sectors Reforms

Public Sectors Reforms

Introduction

Public sector reforms undertaken since 1980s have seen public organizations become more accountable and transparent to a certain degree. However, it is clear that the overall objectives are yet to materialize. Indeed, public organizations can now be called upon to account on their use of funds and overall provision of services to the public (World Bank, 2011). However, cases abound of misappropriation of fund, corruption, and poor services in most departments. In Ghana, for example, the Civil Service Reform Program (CSRP), which lasted for 6 years (1987-1993), shows that little success was, realized (Ayeni, 2001). After most African states got independence, the World Bank and other international monetary supporting institutions have been at the forefront in advocating for reforms in the public sector. The main aim of the reforms is to align the public service so that it can deliver services to the people. This however has been the global agenda for not only developing and countries on transition, but also the developed countries (Ayeni, 2003). Most African countries have been caught up on the crossroads in reformation of public institutions, which actually can be perceived as the measuring rod for the success of any public service institution. The Nigerian PSR for instance has had the reform debate for several years despite showing some signs of improvement during the early years after independence. Signs of deterioration started showing in during the 1980s when it failed to withstand the “challenges of modern, complex and development hungry society” (Adegoroye, 2006).

The rationale behind public sector reforms was to do away with medieval methods of running the government businesses in terms administration and other service delivery related issues and adapt to new methods which could see countries self sustain themselves in socio- economies, politics and technology development (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). The reform could now pave way to New Public Management, NPM (Vetterlein & Park, 2010) which eventually could look at primary issues of internal reorganization for maximized outputs in effective service deliveries.

World Bank initiated NPM to some African countries like Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia in an effort to reform their public service through donor support (Ayeni, 2003). There has been several failures and success recorded from these countries, with some states reversing the gains from this program like cancelling the bill to check on wages in countries like Ghana. In Kenya on the other hand, the program was reversed between 1994 and 1996 by hiring of teachers despite retrenching of civil servants through early retirements in an effort of reducing the costs of the public administration. These measures reflect some of the efficacy measures advocated by the World Bank to many development countries (Vetterlein & Park, 2010). The reforms have been of great importance to most African countries with most leaders embracing it with a perception that the reforms would be effective in overhauling the whole public sectors and brining the desired change that can appease the public as well as the development partners (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009).

Indeed, it is only a change of management that occurred, but little was achieved in terms of accountability and minimizing corruption. Accordingly, there is a need for a thorough evaluation of these programs to determine the causes of failure and what should be done to fully liberate the public sector. A set of recommendation is provided to lead public sector reforms in this direction.

Discussion

It was increasingly clears in the early 1908s that investment projects would achieve low levels of success in an environment where policy frameworks are distorted. I the 1990s, it was also established that neither good policies or any investment that is essentially good can succeed in an environment that is full of dysfunctional institutions as well as poor governance (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). The realization that most countries were not making progress in development prompted development partners to shift their assistance, especially to the developing economies, from financing infrastructural development to pushing for reforms in the financial sectors. The rational for the shift in this approach was mooted by the realization that developing countries were held back virtually because of ineffective or poor policies. Accordingly, development partners nowadays peg their lending based on certain conditions (Svensson & Dollar, 1998, Peng, 2008, Holzmann, 2009). However, as has been acknowledged by many writers as well a s the World bank and other financial institutions, reforming the public sector is not an easy task because of the political inclinations as well as technical glitches (The World Bank, 2000). For instance, reforming the pubic sector would require a whole lot of changes that might include retraining of civil servants, retrenchments or downsizing which might be resisted largely by the civil servants. Indeed, to effect such radical changes in the public sector would require more commitment as well as consultations among the different players in the government, a majority of whom might have vested interests.

It is the agenda and duty of any country to spearhead and see success of its development projects, either supported or financed from the public docket or the World Bank. For the public to enjoy quality and better services, then the country has to make sure that its resources are managed in the rightful way. Such goals can be achieved through proper management of finances, laying policies effective to civil service and administration, willful delivery and payment of taxes, and coming up with methods of service delivery, which are fair and not corrupted. However, cases abound of failure of reforms to yield results among many countries. For instance, in the Italian public sector, reforms failed because of the failure of the leaders to grasp the purpose of the intended reforms. This is not a new situation since it is also the case with the private sectors.

The World Bank as well as other development partners have sacrificed their efforts in advising the central governments on the already existing projects, those that needs to be improved and those that are not there through such practices like increment of shares. A case issue is that of the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) (Nashat & Blindenbacher, 2010), which has studied the lending, and supporting of public sectors by other banks in the years between 1999 and 2006 on reform in various government institutions. The key areas were the management of public money, the civil service and administration, revenue, and finally anticorruption and transparency.

For the developing countries, the highest expenditure and employment is from the public sector, which sets the phase for the rest of the economy. In the recent past, the World Bank has pegged its lending on institutional reforms. It is not easy to access loans from the Bank if a government does not show seriousness in carrying out public-sector reforms. The reforms in the public sector mainly focus on accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency in the delivery of services (Ayeni, 2003). Because of this concern, it is important to note that effective support by the World Bank on development is actually dependent on improved governance practices. In most African countries, corruption has been deep-rooted and has consequently not seen any improvement in most core governmental sectors. This has seen the most vital government projects, especially in service provision to the public, become ineffective simply because of diversion of funds intended for development to personal accounts (Nashat & Blindenbacher, 2010). The sole cause for all this has however not been fully established though it has been associated with greed and poverty among leaders and individuals in the developing countries. This can be termed as lack of transparency of the highest order despite interventions of World Bank in putting aid sanctions in some of these countries. As pointed out earlier, expenditure just like employment comes from the public sector but the latter has been so much rampant in most developing countries. This has resulted because of the existence of unfinished government projects, which could create employment for the jobless or due to corruption.

Corruption of course has been common in most governmental employment sectors whereby people who do not qualify and incompetent to some job positions corrupt their way through. To some extent, corruption has contributed to misappropriation of the development funds making some of the government projects come to a halt. Commissions such as anticorruption commissions have been created in most developing countries but have realized little success in curbing out corruption in the public sector. In addition, the taxation sector has also failed in most developing countries to deliver fully and transparently. Indeed, the taxation regime is one of the most key government agencies in collecting and remitting income to the government coffers. However, it has not succeeded in many countries because of several issues. The central governments have failed to come up with strategies to harness taxes both from simple and multi investors. The issue of tax evasion by individuals or companies has been common due to failure of government check and balances within the public sector. This of course is a big failure despite the fact that the World Bank has been keeping a keen look on the improvement of these core central sectors dealing with the control of the public finances.

The failure of reforms in public sector can be attributed to fear among those who are entrusted with reforms. Indeed, implementers have to content with the fact the reforms might not run as expected (Boffey, 2012). This is mainly the major cause of failure in the reforms agenda. The next problem is the related stakeholders who would like the status quo to remain. The second biggest challenge for reformers is to get all stakeholders to agree on any anticipated changes in the pubic sector (Boffey, 2012). This is the most problematic since most people reject any change that might affect them in one way or the other.

Summary

In summary, public sectors reforms have experienced little progress over the last 20 years, especially in developing countries. Reforms and implementing reforms is geared at changing relationships between society and the state or between governmental institutions. Therefore, the means by which the reforms come in go “to the heart of who governs” (Bekke et al, 1996:6). The PSR introduced by World Bank in the 1980s has been of little success, since out of the projects it supported in most developing countries only about a third of them have shown some success though with no promises of sustenance from the mother donor. A good case study of a country that has bought and succeeded concerning the PSR is Mauritius, which has shown improvement in service delivery to the public (Sacks & Apostolov, 2003). From reports, the workers salaries’ are paid as earlier as two days before last day of the month. The country has actually won itself a prize in 2007 as country number two in the pan-African Public Service Excellence Awards. The rest have just but recorded failure simply because in most countries it was only treated as paper work with paper work solutions. Though the project had a span of about 20 years, it was hastily introduced in these African states. The World Bank approach to this issue failed to address such factors like politics brought about by behavioral and local circumstances of man and cultural change in the whole system. The New Public Management has not gone without criticism, even from the World Bank officials. The first criticism is that it was outdated. In addition, it has been accused of being ineffective in delivering the desired changes. This however has brought some mixed reactions since in most case studies; there have been reported cases of decrease in unemployment and corruption going down.

Indeed, according to the World Bank, although most countries borrowed a lot of funds to institute public sector reforms, most of the funds were misused because of corruption by government officials as well as inefficiencies in procurement procedures. Further, the World Bank indicates that performance only improved in some sectors such as in tax administration, financial management, and transparency. However, with respect to the public service, nothing tangible ever changed. Moreover, measures undertaken to curb corruption like the setting of anticorruption laws and commissions only resulted in lip service since nothing really changed.

Recommendations

Because of the failure of reforms in the public sector, it is imperative for countries as well as the development partners to design PSR with the recognition that political and sequencing issues usually influence their full implementation. In addition, it must be appreciated that each country has its unique attributes when it comes to the management of the public sector. Without understanding these features, it will be futile to design a comprehensive reform package to be applied across the board. Indeed, what works in one country might not work for another country.

This means, strategies for dealing with PSR, for instance tackling corruption, it is mandatory to undertake an assessment of what types of corruption are detrimental to public sector reforms so that funds can be channeled though different organizations. Additionally, there is a need to strengthen the public service so that it can execute it mandate fully. This can be achieved by providing a framework and setting parameters for determining success levels in the public sector reforms. Moreover, attention should be given to proper financial management by public institutions as they go on with their work. This will lead to more accountability and reduction of corruption in these institutions otherwise endless agony will continue being felt by individuals and the country as a whole.

 

 

Reference List

Ayeni, V. (2001). Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries: a handbook of Commonwealth experiences. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

Ayeni, V. (2003). Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries: a handbook of Commonwealth experiences. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

Boffey, D. (2012). NHS Chief Raises Fears that Health Reforms will end in ‘Misery and failure’ Retieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/13/david-nicholson-fears-nhs-reforms

Holzmann, R. (2009).Social Protection & Labor at the World Bank, 2000-2008. New York: World Bank Publications

Nashat, R. & Blindenbacher, B. (2010). The Black Box of Governmental Learning: the learning spiral-a concept to organize learning in governments. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Peng, W. M. (2008). Global Business. New York: Cengage Learning.

Sacks, C. C. & Apostolov, M. (2003). Trade Facilitation: The Challenges for Growth and Development-Volume 763. New York: United Nations Publications

Svensson, J. & Dollar, D. (1998). What Explains the Success or Failure of Structural Adjustment Programs. World Bank: World Bank Publications

The World Bank, (2000). Reforming Public Institutions and Strengthening Governance. Washington DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction. Retrieved from http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/Reforming.pdf

Vetterlein, S. & Park, A. (2010).  Owing Development: Creating Policy Norms in the IMF and the World Bank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

World Bank. (2011). Public Sector Reforms. Retrieved from
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTOED/EXTPUBSECREF/0,,menuPK:4664077~pagePK:64829575~piPK:64829612~theSitePK:4663904,00.html

 

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