Open AccessEMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM IN NIGERIA: A TREND ANALYSIS BETWEEN 2000 AND 2015
Author(s) -
Vincent A. Onodugo,
Ifeoma Nwakoby,
Grace N. Ofoegbu,
Obiamaka P. Egbo,
Chinwe Okoyeuzu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
african journal of business and economic development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2782-7658
DOI - 10.46654/ajbed.1218
Subject(s) - accountability , incentive , public sector , transparency (behavior) , pension , business , promotion (chess) , politics , new public management , public administration , private sector , public service , public economics , economics , economic growth , finance , political science , market economy , economy , law
This study assessed the impact of public sector reforms programmes on the human resources management and civil service of the Nigerian public service. Data for the study were mainly secondary data complemented with primary data collected from stakeholders in the public service that have experienced various reforms in their career. Findings suggest that the impact of reforms on HRM and CSR were largely marginal. The positives of the reforms are mainly in the areas of improvement in salaries and functionality of pension and retirement benefits by making it contributory. These improvements in emoluments narrowed the incentives between public and private sectors and tend to attract skilled hands to the public sector that otherwise would not have been the case. However, all other policy initiatives that were aimed at ensuring effective and efficient use of scarce resources, transparency and accountability by civil servants, incentives and promotion by merit and value for money were at various stages of policy reversal, delayed implementation, and outright abandonment by compromising civil servants that selectively implement only those reforms that suits and benefits their interests. Further, successive regimes after that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2007) who initiated most of the reforms, did not have or could not provide enough political will to sustain the benefits and the tempo of these reforms.