Guidelines for effective service delivery systems in the public service in Africa and monograph on strengthening institutions of ethics and accountability in Africa public sector

Abstract

Civil service reform programs were limited in scope to trimming staff size to more manageable levels thus reducing cost. An additional objective was that the savings thus made, could be used to pay salaries that could motivate and retain those who remained, these reform activities were carried out with little success. In this paper, we shall make a comparative study of civil service reforms undertaken within the last decade or so in five (5) African countries. This paper shall dwell mainly on the reforms introduced in the civil service of Ghana. The reasons are two-fold: first, there is a great deal of literature to work on and secondly, it was possible to do a few structured interviews with civil servants as to their perception of the impact of the reforms.