Civil Service Reform: Editorial

Full text of an article from DPMN Bulletin, 3(1) August 1995: pages 2-3

But it is not a concern which is limited to Africa. This is brought out very clearly by Kaul in his review of recent experience with civil service reform in Commonwealth countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Ghana and Zambia. The reforms have sprung from a variety of political and economic causes at both the macro and micro levels. Thus there have been major changes in views regarding the most effective role for the state in the economy, and at the micro level questions have been asked about the most efficient manner in which public services can be delivered while also investigating possibilities to commercialise government departments and work with the private sector and NGO's.

But it is with African countries that the contributors are predominantly concerned. For it is in Africa that a complex of factors has led to a situation in which almost all countries have civil services which are widely judged, first, to be far too large in terms of numbers employed, second, to be excessively costly in terms of budgetary outlays, and, third, to be inefficient in terms of delivering the public services which countries require. During the 1980's, and largely under the external influence of the IMF and the World Bank, it was the first two of these problems which were the primary focus of attention. Cost containment was the major objective although, as Yahaya points out, some attention was given to the efficiency issue.

It is interesting that, in contrast to the 1980's, all contributors to this Bulletin virtually ignore the first two problems of excessively high employment levels in the civil service and excessively high budgetary costs. This is certainly not because the actions taken in the 1980's effectively dealt with these problems. While considerable 'down-sizing' did in fact take place in some countries (e.g. Ghana, Central African Republic, Guinea, Mauritania, Uganda) in others staff actually increased (e.g. C“te d'Ivoire, Malawi, Niger, Tanzania). Moreover none of the significant reductions which had been expected in the budgetary cost of the civil service occurred even where staff numbers were reduced.

What these contributions seem to reflect is that during the 1990's the focus of attention in the discussion of civil service reform has switched overwhelmingly to the third problem namely that of the efficiency of the service. Not only is this because the focus on numbers and cost is now seen to have been too restrictive. What is of greater importance is that an efficient civil service delivering a high quantity and quality of public services, is now seen as a necessary condition for generating a more rapid rate of economic and human development. As Corkery emphasises "apart from the importance of the state in providing basic services of law, order and justice, defence, infrastructure, education, and health," it is now recognised much more widely and strongly than in the 80's, that "for the institutions of the free market to work, government institutions must also work."

It is in this context that Corkery and Fofana review experience with civil service reform programmes in Anglophone and Francophone countries respectively. It is of interest that they both come to roughly the same conclusions regarding the priority conditions for success in implementing these programmes. Three of these stand out: (i) ensuring the commitment of government both in words and in establishing technically and politically strong institutional machinery for undertaking reforms; (ii) ensuring the commitment of civil servants themselves through regular management-union machinery but also through other channels; and, (iii) ensuring the participation of civil society.

What is also of interest following the Corkery and Fofana papers, is that Rasheed's contribution on "Ethics and Accountability in the African Civil Service" also emphasises the importance of civil society in civil service reform. His paper presents a balanced but hard-hitting statement of the critical importance to be attached to eliminating the "outright bribery and corruption, the patronage, nepotism, .... moonlighting, absenteeism, abuse of public property" which have "become so pervasive and even institutionalised norms of behaviour in Africa that one may speak of a crisis of ethics in African public services." His analysis of the deep causes of this crisis leads him to conclusions which focus on issues of recruitment, of training including training in professional values and public service, and of establishing codes of conduct and effectively implementing them. In addition, his conclusions, as with Fofana, emphasise the need for "mass education campaigns," "establishing coalitions of business associations and other organisations to expose and fight corruption," and in general to mobilise civil society and to "foster popular participation to ensure the responsiveness, accountability and transparency of governancy."

Rasheed also takes developed countries to task for the active and initiating role which their businessmen play in the bribing of officials in Africa. Moreover, he does not exempt their governments from these strictures, many of which he sees as ignoring or even condoning corrupt practices in the interests of export objectives -- some even making bribes tax deductible. Transparency International he sees as a good beginning in "raising the alarm" on this set of issues. However, he very correctly argues for international conventions to be drawn up to ensure greater transparency in transactions and to punish those engaged in corrupt practices.

Yahaya concentrates his attention on the issue of training that is identified by the other contributors as an important element of civil service reform. He distinguishes between previous attempts at reform in Africa which focussed exclusively on the training of civil servants to provide a Weberian 'rational bureaucracy' from the new conception of reform that focusses on "building a capacity for good governance." This concept embraces not only the civil service itself but its relationship with the private sector and with civil society more generally. Yahaya then outlines the seminars, training programmes, and other activities which will be organised by the centres of policy analysis and management training which the Commonwealth Secretariat, UNECA and AAPAM are jointly establishing in six Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone countries.

What is clear from these papers is that governments throughout Africa are now fully aware of their need to create more efficient and highly motivated civil services on which they can depend for the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes and more generally for the effective administration of their countries. Moreover, the papers also demonstrate that reform programmes to reflect this awareness have already been initiated.

What has to be questioned is whether governments themselves are showing the degree of urgency which the situation requires or whether, indeed, the contributors to this Bulletin are expressing this urgency sufficiently strongly. There is obviously a fine balance to be drawn in this regard. As Corkery emphasises, reform measures which are introduced too precipitately can easily backfire because they are in danger of being both inadequately prepared and inadequately discussed with the representatives of civil servants and of civil society. Building constituencies for reforms within countries is a message which comes across strongly and its importance cannot be denied. Certainly reform measures imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions, as they frequently were during the 1980's, and which are not 'owned' domestically, seem doomed to failure.

However, the distortions which have arisen in African economies since independence are so deep that only major reforms sustained over many years and with adequate external assistance, will be able to address them and thereby generate rates of economic growth which at least keep up with rates of population growth of three per cent or more. The fundamental distortion since independence has arisen from the discrimination against agriculture and industry in pricing, fiscal, exchange rate, and other policies. Thus the only buoyant labour market for young people coming out of schools and colleges, has been public employment in the civil service, teaching, and other services. It was in these services, moreover, that trade unions developed which reinforced the interests of their employees as against those of people engaged in agriculture and in industry.

This distortion in income-earning opportunities was not seen in most other developing countries of the world. It led in Africa, amongst other problems, to a budgetary problem in which 40 per cent or more of government expenditure was on wages and salaries as contrasted with a proportion nearer to 25 per cent for other developing countries.

Some of this discrimination has been removed over the past decade or so by economic reform measures undertaken often as part of structural adjustment programmes. But the plight of civil servants particularly in some ex 'disaster' countries such as Uganda and Mozambique should not be permitted to hide the continuing discrimination in favour of public sector workers in many other African countries, both Francophone and Anglophone. Much still remains to be done.

Unfortunately, however, the economic reform measures have themselves created a problem for civil service reform because they have resulted in declines or inadequate rates of economic growth throughout most of Africa. Thus the job opportunities for redundant civil servants or for new entrants from schools and colleges to the labour market, have not been available in any significant numbers in agriculture or in industry.

The hope must now be that, having started down the road of civil service reform, countries will sustain and speed up these reform programmes. Building up constituencies of support, as argued in many of the contributions, will be important. But, at the end of the day, disciplined and politically courageous action by governments is inevitable. This is particularly the case where strong vested interests in favoured but inefficient institutions fail to give adequate support to the more rapid introduction of reform measures.

In his contribution, Rasheed emphasises the need for a "comprehensive agenda" for civil service reform. To his agenda can be added the fact that if these reforms are to be more willingly accepted and successfully implemented, they must be matched by macro-economic programmes which generate a more buoyant economy and labour market.

This is not simply a matter for national governments. If the IMF and the World Bank are as committed as they say they are, to economic reform programmes to remove distortions in institutions and policies including those in the public service, they should recognise that these programmes must be matched by growth-oriented macro- economic policies. Macro-financial discipline is essential for sound economic policies. But this has to be differentiated from continuous belt-tightening.

It is only in an expanding economy that civil service reform will become more acceptable. It is, moreover, only in such an environment that the whole raison d'ˆtre of civil service reform will be achieved, namely to contribute to a higher rate of economic growth and of human resource development in Africa.

Updated on February 20, 1996

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