WORKSHOP FOR ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE

AFRICAN PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONS AND OTHER

APPOINTING COMMISSIONS/AUTHORITIES, KAMPALA, UGANDA, 7
– 11 APRIL 2008

TOPIC: EFFECTS OF INADEQUATE FINANCIAL AND MATERIAL

RESOURCES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE DELIVERY

BY: MRS. C. CHIGWAMBA, SECRETARY, PUBLIC SERVICE

COMMISSION, ZIMBABWE

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INTRODUCTION

One of the cardinal roles of any Public Service is to ensure that

the state functions. Failure to deliver affordable services to the
public, timeously, in the right quantity and quality undermines
public confidence in the state institutions. However, it is common
knowledge that many public services negotiate a tight rope
between effective service delivery and limited financial and
material resources. This paper seeks to highlight how limited
financial and material resources can adversely affect service
delivery and what strategies can be used to deliver quality
services within a tight fiscal environment.

2.0 EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY

The citizenry of any country views the state as a company in which

they are shareholders. They expect a fair return on their
investment (taxes) through effective service delivery of goods and
services in a timely manner. Accordingly, Public Services are
viewed as vehicles through which Governments can respond
meaningfully to the expectations of their citizens in terms of
service delivery. It is thus critical for Public Services to apply their
minds to issues of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and
affordability as they strive to deliver goods and services to their
clients. Accordingly the state has an obligation to meet the
expectations of the citizens in order to remain credible. However,
such responses to the expectations of the society take place
within a context of limited financial and material resources.

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3.0 THE IMPACT OF MATERIAL AND FINANCIAL RESOURCE
CONSTRAINTS ON SERVICE DELIVERY

As alluded to above, service delivery takes place within a context

of limited financial and material resources. Accordingly, Public
Services are faced with challenges in attracting and retaining
competent personnel and providing affordable, acceptable and
accessible services.

3.1 Attraction and retention of competent personnel

Most Public Services are faced with a challenge of attracting and

retaining personnel in fields such as Engineering, Medicine and
Accountancy among others. Most Public Services offer inferior
conditions of services relative to the private sector. As a result
staff is lost to the private sector. This adversely affects the
operational efficiency and effectiveness of ministries and
departments as some critical posts can be vacant for long periods.
The situation is exacerbated when brain circulation turns into
brain drain or brain reserve. In order to mitigate the impact of
staff attrition, Public Services can improve the conditions of
service for their staff and implement staff development
programmes since the harvesting and retention of human capital is
dependent upon how well Public Services manage conditions at
their work places.
3.2 Quality of services

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 Every government is mandated to ensure that quality services are
made available to the public. However, because of limited
material and financial resources, quality at times is compromised.
The reason is that the public sector is expected to deliver
regardless of the fact that financial and material resources are
limited. The focus shifts to the number of people who access
goods and services while little attention is paid to quality. The
media are replete with stories about the deterioration of the
quality of services in such critical areas as education, health,
transport and communication. The list is endless.

3.3 Affordability of services

The ambition of any Public Service is to deliver services which are

affordable to the public. However, most Public Services are faced
with spiralling costs in delivering goods and services. This makes
the goal of delivering affordable services unattainable. It should
be noted that in order to deliver quality and adequate services
many material and financial resources are required. Usually these
resources are beyond the capacity of the public sector. In
addition, most governments’ policies now emphasize cost
recovery. This means that government departments have to
charge market driven prices which in most cases are beyond the
reach of their citizenry. Need I mention the escalating costs of
education and health services in most of our countries!

3.4 Accessibility of services

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 Public goods and services have to be accessible to the public.
However, inadequate financial and material resources have a
negative bearing on the efficiency and effectiveness of the
delivery of goods and service. Most governments have devolved
power to local authorities to ensure that services are accessible to
the populace. However, such decentralised services need to be
supported financially and materially. It is common to find local
authorities referring clients to the central government because
resources have failed to trickle down to them. This usually
happens in situations where financial resources are limited.

In most countries, the health sector is highly decentralised. Most

governments on attainment of independence sought to ensure that
health facilities are accessible to all. Provincial Clinics, District
Clinics and Local Clinics were established. However, due to
diminished resources most clinics and hospitals have become white
elephants. Drugs are in short supply and specialised care is only
available at private hospitals and referral hospitals which are
expensive. Roads are poorly maintained and the transportation of
clients to health centres has become a nightmare. The poor
transportation system has a negative impact on agro-based
industries, mining, and tourism among others. Ultimately the
fiscus suffers and this in turn undermines the capacity of the
government to deliver quality services.

3.5 Acceptability of services

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 Effective service delivery demands that services have to be
accepted by the target group. However, in some isolated cases,
services are not accepted by the target group. Due to top down
planning, some Public Services ‘impose’ projects on the citizens
resulting in lack of ownership by the intended beneficiaries. This
may be due to inadequate consultation. Cases of some religious
sects discouraging their members from seeking treatment at
clinics or hospitals are familiar to us. Consequently, clinics and
hospitals built in such areas are under-utilised. Effective service
delivery demands that issues relating to the acceptability of Public
Services should merit higher priority in public service delivery.

3.6 Completion of projects within acceptable time- frames

Incomplete projects because of inadequate financial and material

resources are the bane of many development agendas in many
developing countries. Delays in project completion or
abandonment of some projects as a result of re-prioritisation
undermines people’s confidence in public institutions. It raises
questions about equity in development which in some instances
can attract ethnic insinuations!

4.0 STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SERVICE

DELIVERY AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF INADEQUATE FINANCIAL
AND MATERIAL RESOURCES

In spite of inadequate financial and material resources, Public

Services cannot abrogate their role of ensuring effective service

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 delivery to the public. Several strategies can be adopted to
mitigate the adverse impact of limited financial and material
resources. These include:-

4.1 Enhancing the participation of non-state actors

The challenge of limited financial and material resources being

faced by many developing countries has revealed that effective
service delivery should be a shared responsibility between the
state and non state actors.

Participation of non-state actors should thus be encouraged. This

can be achieved through promoting public-private- partnerships
and the involvement of non-governmental organisations in
development issues. This enables the state to tap into the
resources of such partners. In Zimbabwe, a Skills Attraction and
Retention Fund to curb skills flight was established through public-
private-partnership. A civil service housing scheme has been one
of the outcomes of such partnership.

4.2 Monitoring and evaluation

Accountability is a sine qua non of effective utilisation of limited

financial and material resources, hence the importance of
monitoring and evaluation. Resources have to be accounted for
and the progress of projects has to be monitored continuously to
ensure compliance with the agreed time-frame. Monitoring and

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 evaluation should not be treated as an after-thought, but as part
and parcel of project planning.

4.3 Strengthening the public sector oversight institutions

Strengthening public sector oversight institutions is essential to

ensuring effective service delivery. Public Service institutions
mandated to oversee the performance and operations of the
public sector need to be capacitated with requisite skills and
adequate resources. This will enhance their performance in
monitoring the performance of state institutions. Care should be
taken to ensure that there is no duplication of effort among public
sector oversight institutions as this would result in dissipation of
energy.

4.4 Skills development

The state must lead the way in skills development if effective

service delivery is to be attained. Members of the public service
need to be capacitated with the requisite skills in order for them
to execute their duties effectively. Secondment, attachment, job
rotation and enrichment and regrading to ensure job fit may
ameliorate the situation.

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4.5 Improvement of conditions of service

In a tight fiscal environment, conditions of service are usually

compromised. This results in low motivation and skills flight as
staff is disenchanted. This implies that there is a need to
continuously and consistently review the conditions of service of
the public servants. This can help to curb skills flight. Salaries for
public servants need to be reviewed regularly. Public servants
need to have access to affordable transport in order to ensure
their attendance at work. A civil service housing scheme can also
assist in boosting the morale of the public servants and ultimately
their performance at work.

4.6 Performance Management

Performance management is critical to the performance of any

institution. In a tight fiscal environment there is need to have an
effective performance measurement system. This helps in
measuring the performance of institutions and individuals.
Programmes such as Results Based Management (RBM) can be
implemented. RBM ensures that the performance of individuals is
linked to performance of government departments and ministries
and that results are achieved using available resources. Under RBM
the performance of individuals is measured, developed and
rewarded. However, whatever the performance measurement
system is used, it must have a high degree of communicability for
it to retain its credibility.

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4.7 Information Technology (IT)

The use of IT as a human resource management tool can go a

long way in enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in public
sector management. The challenge is how to procure both the
hardware and software when Public Services are operating in
contexts of financial and material constraints.

4.8 Networking

Networking with members from other Public Services creates an

opportunity to share knowledge and experiences about public
sector management. It is out of such exchanges that best practices
are forged and disseminated. Our being here today speaks volumes
about our desire to learn from colleagues and friends.

5.0 CONCLUSION

The foregoing demonstrates that the effectiveness of service

delivery is a function of various factors most of which revolve
around availability of financial and material resources. Availability
of financial and material resources affects staffing, and
affordability as well as accessibility of services. However, there
are various ways of ensuring effective service delivery in such

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environments. These include, encouraging the participation of
non- state actors, continuous and constant review of conditions of
service of public servants among other things. It cannot be over-
emphasized that Public Services cannot abrogate their role of
ensuring effective service delivery because of inadequate financial
and material resources. Ways and means have to be continuously
sought and implemented to ensure that service delivery is not
interrupted.

Public Services must modernise themselves, adapt to the needs of

their citizens and ensure that a framework for excellence in
service delivery is created. It is only by so doing that challenges
can be turned into opportunities.

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