Chapter One

1.0 Background to Research Content

The issue of civil service administration and management is linked to the role and
responsibilities of the state as an employer (Esman, 1988: 132). Regardless of the scope of the
civil service or the civil service model (career or position-based), in its capacity as an employer
the state requires rules and policies that introduce common standards of human resources
management across the civil service and sound management mechanisms and capacities that
guarantee the uniform application of these standards (Dwivedi, 1989; ODA, 1989; Wunsch,
1991; UN, 1992).

Competent and professionally experienced civil service is a cornerstone to a country’s economic

growth and development (Chazan, 1983; Rimmer, 1989). Good government requires good
people. This has always been true, but its importance to the international community has
probably never been more critical than it is today (Nti, 1978). Seldom, if ever, have the world’s
governments confronted a more daunting set of challenges that affect every nation, regardless of
geographic location, political system, social structure or level of development (Rothchild, 1991).
Powerful forces - globalization, economic competition that cuts across national borders, social
and political upheavals, technological change, threats of terrorism, and a rapidly changing labour
market - place enormous burdens on governments (Ahiakpor, 1985). The success of any
government to respond effectively to these challenges is dictated largely by its ability to recruit
and retain a talented workforce. Nati

ons that fail to compete successfully in the global quest for talent are likely to suffer dire
consequences, while those that excel will be well positioned to succeed. This challenge is
coupled with the need for new skills, attitudes and behaviors among public officials at all levels
in order to respond effectively to the increasing complexity and number of demands placed on
governments. It is not surprising then that the core competencies for the public sector of the 21st
century differ in many ways from the past.

In the EU member countries with well-developed professional and merit-based civil service
systems, in general, there are consolidated institutional arrangements for regulation and

1
supervision of the personnel management in the civil service (Rothchild, 1991;
Herbst, 1993). In some EU member countries, these institutional arrangements are defined in the
civil service laws (primary legislation) and in other countries the institutional set-up is regulated
by other legislation. There is a different mix of institutional players in different countries charged
with the management and administration of the civil services (Herbst, 1993). In general, the
management of the civil service involves relationship and division of roles among three
institutional actors: a central civil service management capacity, an independent civil service
commission and the individual ministries/agencies that employ civil servants. Depending on the
level of centralization/decentralization of the civil service system, there are different roles
assigned to these institutional actors. What is commonly found, however, is that the central civil
service management capacity is in charge of the overall civil service management issues, which
usually involve proposing legislation and personnel policies, coordination and monitoring of the
implementation of human resources management rules and policies at individual agencies level,
organising or monitoring of recruitment, negotiating with civil service unions on behalf of the
government and organisation and management of training for civil servants. The central civil
service management capacity is usually part of the executive, i.e. accountable to the government.
Its institutional character differs from country to country, but in general, it is either a ministry or
part of the institutional structure of the “centre of government”.

With the emergence of modern states, the civil service in developing countries evolved not only
to formulate policies but also to effectively implement them (Chazan, 1983; Rothchild,
1991; Herbst, 1993). In other words, the civil service is often associated with the effective and
efficient management of development policies and programmes. In this connection, it is seen as
the main, but not the only, instrument by which development activities in developing countries
are implemented (Esman, 1988: 132). Consequently, civil service reform programmes, supported
by donors, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the British
Overseas Development Administration (ODA), have emphasized questions of organizational
structure, financial and human resource needs, and basic administrative competence appropriate
to the performance of the development function (Dwivedi, 1989; ODA, 1989; Wunsch, 1991;
UN, 1992). Such programmes increasingly occur in the context of structural adjustment together
with an extensive reduction of the size of the public sector.

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The Government of Sierra Leone, with the support of development partners, including DFID, the
World Bank, the Commonwealth Secretariat, The European Union, and UNDP, launched several
reform measures in the area of Civil Service reform at the end of the conflict. A number of
reform initiatives were undertaken using varying strategies at both the broad macro level and at
the thematic and institutional levels. However, donors and development partners intervened
utilizing multi-layered and multi/cross-sectoral strategies, some of which government-wide in
scope (public sector management support), some sector-specific, while others were institutional;
but all of them largely uncoordinated and lacking in synergy. The Public Service Commission
(PSC) is the principal policy institution with the constitutional mandate to formulate, implement
and enforce civil servants recruitment policies. It is composed of human resource management,
standard setting, disciplinary, transparency, and accountability institutions in the Sierra Leone
public service. This pre-independence institution has gone through many challenges and changes
since it was created in 1948.

Following Sierra Leone’s independence in 1961, the Commission graduated from being an
advisory body to the Governor, to becoming a fully executive and constitutionally entrenched
institution with a clear mandate in the first [1961] Constitution of Sierra Leone - an
entrenchment that has persisted through the country’s three (3) subsequent sequence of
constitutional reviews. However, whereas it is the single constitutional authority for recruitment
and selection, and the institution of standards of performance and discipline, the Commission
actually underwent progressive erosion of its institutional capacity and standards of ethics and
credibility over the decades, which to a large extent explains the deterioration of the public
service itself.

The Commission has however undergone significant internal restructuring in recent years, whilst
simultaneously embarking on a massive recruitment drive to fill critical positions in the civil
service starting in early 2009; and by mid-2012, about 1,000 critical vacancies had been filled,
almost doubling the staff strength at the middle to senior professional and managerial levels.
Also, recruitment procedures for the Sierra Leone Public Service aimed at open, competitive and

3
merit-based recruitment have recently been finalized. The Commission’s approach to reform and
change has been multidimensional, yielding quality returns.

1.1 Statement of the Research Problem

Sierra Leone emerged in early 2001 from a decade of brutal civil war, which destroyed the
country’s economic and social infrastructure. The protracted conflict led to a substantial
contraction in the economy and a sharp increase in poverty, as a result of which 82 percent of the
population lived below the poverty line. Among the main legacies of the prolonged conflict is a
severely impaired administrative capacity, particularly in the management of public finances,
attributable to huge loss of skilled personnel from the Civil Service and a general weakening of
key institutions.

The public sector in Sierra Leone suffered progressive depletion of skilled manpower in both the
middle- and upper-level cadre of professional and technical staff. Initial attempts at staffing the
missing middle suggest that while the talent pool in Sierra Leone‘s labor market is limited, it is
possible to find suitably qualified candidates with the right pay incentives. However, the pay
incentives are lacking - low remuneration appears to be one of the major reasons why Sierra
Leone’s civil service has not been able to attract technical staff back from the private sector, and
back to the country that were lost during the civil war when many left Sierra Leone. Pay levels
have deteriorated so far that the lack of extrinsic rewards overwhelms any intrinsic factors
derived from the work itself.

Sierra Leone‘s civil servants are thus often de-motivated after decades of government neglect.
Incentives to perform and to reform are, therefore, also low. While the responsibility for public
service reform is fragmented in many countries, in Sierra Leone the fragmentation is immense.
This exacerbates the challenge for collective action in a government characterized by weak
coordination and poor information sharing. The human resource based remains lopsided, with
85% of staff in the junior grades and very few technical staff in the middle level grades. Whilst
policies exist, these are for the most part, outdated and require substantial review. Various labour
policy formulation works have been ongoing by the government and donor partners but
implementation has been rather weak. Pay and incentives remain relatively low and there is no
performance management system in place.

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Furthermore, there is an acute shortage of suitable equipment, space and network facilities in
most public institutions including the Ministry of Labour and the Public Service Commission,
with the consequence that communications is poor and not conducive for an effective working
environment. Whilst some public institutions have been supported in the past, there is evidence
of underemployment or misdirected use of these equipments. Whilst there is little compliance
with financial and procurement regulations, these systems need to be further strengthened to
ensure that resources are efficiently allocated. Overall, the civil service continues to need
substantial restructuring, the refocusing to ensure that it plays a full and proper role in the
development of Sierra Leone.

In the aftermath of the devastating civil war, level of poverty driven by a collapsed Civil Service
and poor governance was identified as one of the key underlying causes of the war. To that end,
the government, since that time, with supports from donor partners, have undertaken several
reform programmes whose underlying theme has been the improvement of the Civil Service
particularly, and the Public Sector in general. These reforms have yielded significant gains in
addressing some of the key deficiencies in the governance structures and processes. Often,
however, the reforms have been regarded as uncoordinated and to a large extent, reflect a donor
driven agenda rather than as part of a coordinated, comprehensive and holistic approach to
improving the Civil Service and Public Sector in Sierra Leone.

Furthermore, the quality of public service institutions in most Sub-Saharan African countries
remains abysmally poor, severely undermining governments ‘capacity to provide public goods
and services to the majority of the poor citizens. A growing consensus has emerged among
researchers and development practitioners that past reform efforts have largely failed because
they did not take into account the political environment and other context-specific constraints
that are often binding. Most conventional explanations of failed reform efforts suggest that PSM
interventions failed due to lack of ownership and political commitment, over-ambition in the
presence of low local implementation capacity and inadequate technology, embedded
patrimonial practices, and other context-specific constraints (Crook 2011; Evans 2008; Wescott,
1999; Langseth et al. 1995). The above conclusions are largely consistent with the findings of a
recent literature review on public sector governance reforms (Scott 2011), which emphasizes the
importance of understanding the incentives that drive politicians and civil servants when

5
identifying feasible reform options. In addition, the World Bank‘s new approach to Public Sector
Management and other recent contributions (World Bank 2012a, Andrews 2010, Grindle 2007,
2004) have noted that reliance on isomorphic or best practice approaches - often based on the
historical experience of OECD countries has often produced rigid, externally imposed models
unsuitable for replication in the context of most developing countries. Despite this general
understanding that context and politics matter, there are significant challenges in translating
these lessons into operational practice. As Goetz (2007) noted, past reform experiences are so
context-sensitive that it remains extremely difficult to identify solutions and reform paths based
on these. In addition, as Scott (2011) forcefully put it, the PSM literature has mainly focused on
presenting failure rather than explaining success. This is especially the case for most cases of PE
analysis of PSM reform, which provide ex-post explanations of why reforms failed in most
African countries.

The preceding challenges identified with the Civil Service has basically inspired the researcher
to embark on research into this field of study.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of this study is to explore how effective are the administrative and management
practices of the Sierra Leone Civil Service, a case study – the Sierra Leone Ministry of Labour.
The specific objectives include:

 To assess the various reform programs and policies aimed at improving the efficiency
and service delivery capacity of the civil service.

 To identify the challenges faced by the Ministry of Labour and the Public Service
Commission of Sierra Leone in carrying out their statutory mandate.

 To assess the policy formulation, implementation and enforcement of the Sierra Leone
Ministry of Labour.

 To assess the recruitment and appraisal management of civil servants by both the
Ministry of Labour and Public Service Commission.

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  To proffer recommendations that would be of immense importance for the productivity
and service delivery capability of the Civil Service.

1.3 Research Questions

In order to achieve the aim and objectives of this study the following research questions were
asked through personal interviews and questionnaire administration.

 What are the various reform programs and policies formulated by the government aimed
at improving the efficiency and service delivery capacity of the Civil Service?

 What are the major challenges faced by the Ministry of Labour and the Public Service
Commission of Sierra Leone in carrying out their statutory mandate?

 How has policy formulation, implementation and enforcement improved the service
delivery capacity of the Civil Service of Sierra Leone?

 To what extent the recruitment and appraisal management practices utilized by the Public
Service Commission has contributed towards attracting highly skilled and technical
personnel into the Civil Service?

1.4 Significance of the Study

The Civil Service of Sierra Leone has over the years experienced progressive reduction of
skilled manpower and deterioration in performance and ethical standards. This situation has
consequently necessitated various policy reforms by the Government of Sierra Leone, with the
support of its Development Partners, to initiate a range of reform measures with the overall
objective of transforming the country’s Civil Service into an effective, efficient and service-
oriented organization. The first phase of reforms at the Public Service Commission centered
around internal restructuring of processes, procedures and systems; institutional strengthening;
and capacity building to enable the PSC carry out its constitutional mandate effectively. On the
other hand, the current phase of reform by PSC is to provide leadership, direction and support in
the process of transforming the rest of the Public Service into a performance oriented and
disciplined organization. It is the researcher’s utmost conviction that the findings and
recommendations that may be deduced from this study will be taken into consideration and

7
incorporate into feature policies and reform programmes aiming at strengthening the capacity
and performance of the Civil Service in particular and the Public Sector in general.

For the researcher, the study will help him uncover critical areas that many researchers have not
been able to explore yet. Thus, the researcher anticipates that the findings of this study will add
more knowledge to the existing body of knowledge in the field. The study will also stimulate
further research in the study area.

The study will as well add to the researcher’s personal professional development.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study basically intends to assess the administrative and management practices of the Sierra
Leone Civil Service, a case study – Ministry of Labour. This study is completely limited to the
period 1990 – 2015, and will exclusively focus on examining Civil Service administrative and
management practices in relation to effective, efficient and quality service delivery. The
fundamental purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the several Civil Service
reform programmes, including labour policies formulated by Ministry of Labour and Public
Service Commission as well as the various challenges confronted by the Civil Service.

1.6 Limitations of the Study

It is almost impossible to undertake research of this nature without encountering some amount of
limitations. This study is of course no exception. The researcher encountered certain limitations
in the course of undertaking this study. Key among these include:

 Unavailability of data: - one of the greatest challenges the researcher encountered in this
study relates to the access to and collection of hard data due to extreme data gaps, since
much research work has not been undertaken in this field, as a result there are limited
written materials available to write a more detailed research work.

 Resistance of respondents: the researcher was also limited by the reluctance of some
respondents, especially senior civil servants at PSC, to help the researcher with most
needed information regarding the administrative and management policies of the Civil
Service. This as a result limited the number of respondents involved in the study despite

8
 the researcher’s enthusiasm and approaches in explaining the potential benefits of the
study to them.

 Time and funds: another serious limitation of this study relates to time, funds and
logistical constraints, which severely limited the intensity of the spread or areas of
coverage of the study. The study was initially designed to include sample size from Civil
Service policy implementation in the provinces (Bo, Kenema, and Makeni) but due to
time and funds constraints, the study is fundamentally focused on Civil Service
administrative policies in the Freetown municipality.
1.7 Organization of the Study
1. Chapter one basically looks at the introductory part of the study which generally
examines the major challenges evident in the Civil Service. It also includes the research
problem statement, the research questions, the research objectives, the fundamental
research questions, definition of basic terminologies, and significance of the study.
2. Chapter two critically reviews the available literature that encompasses both the
theoretical and empirical aspect of the study which are obtained from books, journals,
manuals, and the internet.
3. Chapter three analyzes the research methodology/design adopted in data collection and
presentation on this study.
4. Chapter four expands on the presentation and extensive analysis of the accumulated data
on this study and findings analyzed. In terms of data analysis and interpretation, the
researcher was able to draw conclusions of the study, and put forward recommendations
as indicated in chapter five.
5. Chapter five is the last chapter of this thesis. It provides the abridged summary of the
study. In the same vein, it also draws conclusions based on conceptual framework,
literature review and analysis of empirical data. This chapter provides recommendations
in order to assist beneficiaries of this study.

1.8 Definition or Description of Key Terminologies

Key terms which are predominantly used in this study are defined and clarified to provide a
succinct and explicit understanding of these terms or phrases and the context they are used in this

9
study. Contextualizing these terms are indispensable to understanding the basic fundamentals of
the effective administration and management practices of the Civil Service as a cornerstone to
country’s economic development. In other words, defining and clarifying key terms are very
crucial in any scientific study because it guides potential readers to contextualize the issues under
consideration. If readers understand the context in which key terms are utilised they would be
able to put the study into perspective. The following terms are defined or described in the context
of this study.

Civil Service – the branch of government that takes care of the business of running the
government and its programs but that does not include the legislature, the military, or the courts.
Compensation: Salary and benefits provided to an employee for services rendered.

Cut off score - the test score used as an employment requirement wherein those achieving that
score or higher are eligible for selection.

Diversity - a heterogeneous work environment that values individual employees' differences.

Education and Experience - Examination method whereby an applicant's education, experience

and/or other qualifications are compared to a scoring standard and assigned a ranking based upon
this standard.

Eligibility – a person who is qualified for employment or reemployment.

Equal Employment Opportunity - Includes, but is not limited to, the right of all individuals to
expect fair and equal treatment by an employer in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation,
and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment.

Grievance - an employee complaint regarding any term or condition which is beyond the
employee's control and is remediated by management.

Hostile Work Environment - a work environment consisting of discriminatory intimidation,

ridicule and/or insult to the extent that it interferes with an individual's work performance or
creates a direct or indirect offensive work environment.

Indefinite Suspension -the separation of a permanent employee for an unspecified period of

time when criminal charges are pending.

Job Analysis - analysis of a position to determine i) the specific tasks required to be performed
by persons holding the position ("task analysis"), ii) the frequency, importance, etc., of these
tasks and iii) the knowledge, skills and abilities that a job incumbent must possess to perform
successfully.

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Job Title - a descriptive name that identifies a position or group of positions with similar duties,
responsibilities and qualifications.

Layoff - the separation or demotion of an employee from his/her permanent title or an employee
in his/her Working Test Period for reasons of economy or efficiency or other related reasons but
not for disciplinary reasons.

Mediation - an informal and confidential process in which a neutral third party assists opposing
parties to reach a voluntary and mutually acceptable resolution of a complaint.

Permanent Employee - an employee in the career service who has received a regular
appointment and has successfully completed a Working Test Period.

Position - a collection of duties and responsibilities assigned to a job.

Promotion - in Local Service, an advancement in title and in State Service, an advancement to a

title having a higher class code than the former permanent title.

Provisional Appointment - employment in the competitive division of the career service

pending the appointment of a person from an eligible list.

Reevaluation - the study of an existing State job title to determine if there have been changes in
duties and responsibilities sufficient to justify an increase or decrease in salary range.

Suspension - temporary separation from permanent employment for disciplinary reasons.

Unfair Practice - any action of an employer or union which would interfere with, restrain, or
coerce employees from exercising their guaranteed collective bargaining rights.

Reprisal – a threat or retaliatory action against an employee due to an employee's permissible

activities or affiliations or an employee's lawful disclosure of information on the violation of any
law, rule, government mismanagement or abuse of authority.

1.10 Summary

The completed chapter provides a general introduction to the study which basically examines the
significant challenges associated with the management and administration of Civil Service in
Africa in general and in Sierra Leone in particular. This took us through detailed statements of
the research problem, the objectives for conducting this research, the related research questions,
definition of key terminologies, and significance of the study. Scope of the study, and how the
study is being chronologically organized, are all being considered. Subsequent chapters will be
dealing with the details of the structures mentioned above.

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 Chapter Two
Literature Review:
2.0 Introduction
This chapter provides a detailed coverage of literature review and theoretical framework of this
study; defining and demonstrating significant concepts about civil service administration and
management, public administration, public sector reform, and human resource management. This
part of the study is about getting an in-depth understanding on the current situation regarding
effective management and administrative practices of the civil service, challenges encountered
and the role of national governments in implementing public sector reform. This section is a
mirror of various research works conducted by past researchers in the field of effective and
efficient administration of civil service, public sector reform, and public administration service
delivery enhancement. This will work as an aid to understand the topic under discussion from
different sides and perspectives, and relate it with the primary data that have been collected from
questionnaires administration and interviews conducted with the concerned parties.

2.1 Study Context:

Wettenhall, R. (1992), explained that civil service is a subdivision of government which includes
the Executive Branch, and without which governments cannot function. These are men and
women who comprise of the permanent staff of the departments of governments. They are expert
administrators. Some academicians refer jointly to these employees as public administrators or
the bureaucrats, or public service providers. Olaopa (2008) stated that civil service, although
commonly used, is usually misinterpreted. According to Lawson, (1974), the civil service is the
term used to designate servants of the state or the central government civilian employees. It does
not include ministers or cabinet members or the Judiciary. In some countries, it usually does not
cover local government employees nor the staff of public enterprises. In this framework, the civil
service will embrace civilian employees of state and federal governments only, excluding cabinet
ministers and the judiciary. Idode, (1986), referred civil service to as the "array of administrative
and professional staff employed, on permanent and pensionable basis to established posts, by the
state, to advise on and execute its policies.

12
The Civil Service of Sierra Leone is an institution committed to the highest standard of integrity,
honesty and effective service to the people of Sierra Leone. No person who has been convicted
of an offence involving fraud, theft, violence, or rape for which he has not been pardoned shall
be appointed or re-appointed to the Civil Service in any capacity whatsoever. Persons dismissed
from the Civil Service shall not be reappointed in any circumstances.Civil Service arrangements
have emerged as important institution which interfaces between the state and its citizens.
Traditionally these were monolithic, centralized, powerful structures with immense power over
the management of the affairs of a nation, and often not very responsive to the changing needs of
governance and public management (Voltmer & Rawnsley, 2009, pp. 243-4). However, in recent
times, many governments have realized the importance of greater efficiency (both economic and
functional) in the delivery of services to their citizens. Thus, governments in different parts of
the world have initiated large-scale reform in their civil services to achieve greater efficiency,
effectiveness and responsiveness (DeGraff, 2003).

The definition does place emphasis on the professional character of the service as against work
performed for the state on a sporadic, voluntary, or forced basis. As used in Great Britain, and to
a certain degree elsewhere, the term “civil service” refers to officials serving the central
government or its agencies rather than local units of government (Diamond, 1999, p. 15). Even
when “civil service” is considered to include officials in local units, it is customary to exclude
teachers, despite the large number of people engaged in this government-supported profession.
The term itself does not specify conditions as to professional preparation, methods of
recruitment, social and economic origins, or other crucial matters, but it is now customarily
associated with a merit system, as contrasted with a patronage system, and with a service open to
all citizens on the basis of talent and proved capacity (Kapstein & Converse, 2008, p. 26).

Despite the vagueness in accepted definition and variations in its usage, “civil service” does
identify the expanding corps of trained manpower that must be maintained by every modern
polity to carry out governmental functions. The trend is world-wide, despite differences in
cultural, political, historical, geographic, and other factors, for the scope and range of these
governmental functions appear to be increasing (Diamond, et al., 1987). The result is usually
described by such terms as “welfare state,” “administrative state,” and “big government.”
Inevitably, the civil service plays a crucial role in the operation of modern governmental

13
systems, whether in Western or non-Western states, in countries in the communist or
noncommunist blocs, and in developed or developing nations. Lindblom (1977, pp. 161-9) has
opined that, the civil service is the core of modern government, growing in its power position
vis-à-vis other political organs and therefore posing grave problems of control and
accountability. At the same time that its contributions have become more essential, the question
of the proper placement of the civil service in the governmental system has grown more difficult.
While the external relationships of the civil service have been changing, its internal
characteristics have also been modified in ways that transcend differences in the political
systems generally. A consistent trend is that the proportion of the total work force that is
encompassed by the civil service has been growing in most countries. Another is that the
requirements of the civil service call for the services of a constantly expanding variety of
occupational and technical specialists, representing all or most of those available in the society.
These developments, in turn, have led to a trend toward professionalization among civil servants
that affects their attitudes and behavior in ways that are significant both for the conduct of civil
service activities and in the relationships of the civil service with other political groupings.

Lipset (2012, p. 75) has stated that the effective performance of a civil service depends on sound
recruitment, selection and retention practices. Low morale, high turnover, extreme civil service
wages bills and poor service quality are endemic to government administrations that fail to
attract, retain and motivate high quality civil servants (Nunberg, 1995). Civil service in
developing countries face the major problems of professional incompetence and lack of
motivation among their employees (Vijayaragavan and Singh, 2004). Furthermore, civil service
of these countries do not have a well-defined system of human resource management. Proper
planning and management of human resources within the civil service is essential to increase the
capabilities, motivation and effectiveness of civil servants.

2.2 Public Personnel or the Civil Service Definition

The term public personnel is often used interchangeably with such terminologies as the
civil service, government employees, public sector employees and the like. It is, therefore, very
useful to define what a career civil service is to understand public personnel administration. A
Hand Book and Public Administration, UN (1961) defines a career civil service as follows:

14
  Career civil services are corps of public officials and employees with tenure of office
longer
than that of the ministers and who are not charged with ultimate political responsibility. It
is also known as the ‘civil service’ or the ‘public service’ or ‘classified service’ and
sometimes the ‘public administration’. In modern systems of public administration, the
members of the career service are appointed and promoted on the basis of objective tests
of competence and are assured of protection against arbitrary dismissal (p.18).

 A career service (referred to variously as a civil or public service) is the non-political,

permanent corps of officials which forms the backbone of a national administration. To
be
competent and effective such a service should offer the prospect of a dignified and
respected career on a full-time, life-time basis, which will attract and retain persons of
superior capacities in the service of their country (p35).

Civil servants work for the ‘civil’ as opposed to the military, ministerial or judicial arms of the
state. Members of the armed forces, governmental ministers and judges are not civil servants
(Pyper: 1995, p1).

The civil service or public personnel are also some times interchangeably used with the
term bureaucracy, although different meanings are attached to it depending on the context in
which it is used. In its generic sense, a bureaucracy is ‘government by unelected, career
officials’. The term was popularized by Weber, who associated it with the exercise of ‘legal-
rational’ as different from ‘traditional’ or ‘charismatic’ authority (Balogun and Mutahaba, p192).

According to Cox et al (1994, p53), public personnel is more than a series of steps or
organizational constructs. It is more than recruitment, hiring, retention, job analysis, evaluation
and promotion. It is a cluster of activities that are changing and evolving, with some activities
changing more rapidly than others. Thus, our definition of the public personnel administration
follows. Public personnel administration refers to the administration or management of the
human resources engaged in the civil service through systematic, pragmatic and flexible
approach towards the planning, attracting, development, maintaining, coordinating, motivating

15
them in such a way that enhances employees quality of life and creates sustainable commitment
to serve the public and promote social, economic and social development.

2.3 The Public Sector and the Civil Service

The public sector is a broad concept that includes all sectors of the government as opposed to the
private sector. It embraces three main categories: the government with all its subsidiaries
(government, departments/ministries, commissions, agencies, and authorities), the public
enterprises, and the social security. The public sector also includes the judiciary, the security and
the national defense. In general, it refers to the three branches of government: the legislative,
executive, and the judiciary, TizianoTreu (1967:p15).

In other words, it embraces the wide range of activities where government directly operates by
employing people of different capacity at different levels including policy making, regulatory
bodies, policy implementation, maintenance of law and order and the provision of public goods
and sometimes private goods (as in the case of developing countries).

The size of the public sector in a given economy depends on many factors including the political
ideology, level of economic development, and the global environment. The definition of the
public service, therefore, could be different from country to country depending upon the specific
condition of each country. Tiziano Treu (1967:p4) said, the concept of public service varies in
different countries in terms of the employing authorities and the services covered on the one
hand, and the personnel covered on the other. In fact, the concept and the scope and determined
by the overall constitutional, political and social system on which the organization of each state
is based.

2.4 Historical Overview of the Sierra Leone Civil Service

At independence, Sierra Leone’s Civil Service was one of the best in West Africa, and
government records were well managed. Over time, political interference and military
conflict led to a breakdown of government processes, and bribery and corruption were
institutionalized; this had a serious consequence for the quality of recordkeeping systems.
An eleven-year long internal war, between 1991 and 2002, accelerated these trends, as

16
burning and looting contributed to the deterioration of Sierra’s official evidence base. By
the end of the war, records systems had collapsed.

Payroll control was seen as crucial to re-establishing political order, but a series of efforts,
from the 1990s onward, to establish control were undermined by persistent problems in
verifying information about civil servants. These problems stemmed from the breakdown
of recordkeeping and the consequent loss of control of documentary evidence.

When the war ended in 2002, corruption remained a major impediment to the country’s
development, and peace and stability remained fragile. As development reforms in the
areas of public finance and administration got underway, records management was
recognized as part of the reform programme. By then, records systems in all areas of
government had decayed into informality and there were no common policies, standards or
procedures for recordkeeping. Controls were so weak, and the records were so incomplete
that it was almost impossible to retrieve accurate and reliable information.

This situation contributed significantly to the downward spiral of corruption and inefficiency
and affected the Government’s ability to manage key resources, establish accountability,
and protect citizens’ rights and entitlements. Records staff were untrained and severely
demoralised by the lack of equipment and supplies, leaving wide scope for bribery. These
problems were especially severe in Sierra Leone, but they are nevertheless similar in
essence to those experienced in other African countries in the same period.

2.5 Overview of the Sierra Leone Ministry of Labour and Current Labour
Market Situation.

The fundamental mandates of the labour ministry encompass the formulation and
implementation of labour laws and policies, promotion of harmonious relations between
employers and employees by investigating grievances of employees and presenting them to
employers for an objective timely resolution as opposed to using the court system which is
usually very time consuming. Placement service is also the direct responsibility of the ministry
of Labor, Social Security and
employment. All government advertisements and vacancies pass through this ministry. But

17
for the wider private sector, this service is the responsibility of the individual himself with
the support of his or her qualification.

The major functional areas of this Ministry include but not limited to the following:

 It serves as the primary coordinating and control point for liaison services for those
looking for jobs and businesses offering jobs.

 The Labour Ministry promotes harmonious relations between employers and employees,
investigate grievances of employees and present them to employers for an objective
timely resolution as opposed to using the court system which is usually very time
consuming.

 It serves as the first point of contact for employers for a swift resolution of any grievance
on account of employee behaviour or lack of responsibility that may warrant their
dismissal.

 It conducts regular training on work ethics, employee responsibilities and workers’ rights.

 It provides assistance in identifying and applying for available jobs in the country.

 The Labour Ministry ensures that each person who is employed through the Ministry
employment office is required to sign an Ethics agreement to be enforced by the Ministry
on behalf of the companies that hire these workers.

 It recommends the formulation and implementation of labour laws and policies to the
government of Sierra Leone.

The bleak job picture in terms of outright unemployment and underemployment is

practically one of the most urgent destabilizing problems in Sierra Leone. However, during
the past years, UN agencies, other international agencies and local NGOs have
established micro enterprises through skills training for a large number of Sierra Leoneans.
The agricultural sector employed 65% of the labor force. Productive potential is limited by

18
land tenure system and is mostly in the hands of smallholders engaged in subsistence
farming. The mining sector employed 10% of the work force.

2.6 Historical Background and Statutory Mandates of the Public Service

Commission.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) of Sierra Leone was established in 1948 by publication
in the Sierra Leone Royal Gazette No. 4112 of 16th September, 1948. It assumed the functions
of two committees which were then in existence: the Promotions & Transfers Committee and
the Appointments Committee. The then PSC was a non-executive entity with limited executive
powers, serving primarily as an advisory body to the then Governor on matters of appointment,
promotions, and transfers until Independence in April 1961 when it gained Executive status. It is
the oldest Commission in Sierra Leone and one of only four Constitutional Commissions as at
1991. The others are the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the Judicial & Legal Service
Commission (JLSC), and the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC). An
independent entity with similar status is the Audit Service Commission.

The Sierra Leone PSC derives its current mandate, including the parameters of its jurisdiction,
autonomy, and independence, from the provisions made in Sections 151-154 and 159-164 of the
1991 Constitution. The jurisdiction of the PSC expanded progressively after Independence up
until
1991, when limitations on its scope were introduced. The following includes the fundamental
mandates of the PLC:

 Specifically, sub-section (1) of Section 152 of the 1991 Constitution vests in the PSC
“the
power to appoint persons to hold or act in offices in the public service (including power
to make appointments on promotion and to confirm appointments) and to dismiss and to
exercise disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in such offices” Under the
provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 152, the PSC can perform Executive appointment

19
 functions delegated to it by His Excellency the President as the Chief Executive of Sierra
Leone and Minister for the Public Service.

 In sub-section (5) of Section 152, the Constitution, with some exceptions, also empowers
the PSC “to transfer persons holding or acting in offices in the public service from one
department of Government to another, where such transfer does not involve promotion”.
Section 152 (10) empowers the PSC to delegate its functions to any other authority or
body. A good example of this occurred in 2008 when the PSC delegated the appointment
to Grade 1-5 positions in the Civil Service to the Human Resource Management Office
(HRMO), the successor organ to the Establishment Secretary’s Office.

 Finally, the PSC is consulted by His Excellency the President in the exercise of his
powers of Executive appointment to superior State Offices. This includes appointment to
the positions of Cabinet Secretary (who is also Head of the Civil Service), Secretary to
the Vice President, the Financial Secretary, Auditor General, Director General in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director General of HRMO (formerly Establishment
Secretary), Development Secretary, Provincial Secretary, and Permanent Secretary.
Significantly, this excludes appointment to the sensitive positions of Secretary to
President, Ambassador and High Commissioner, Inspector General of Police, Chief of
Defense Staff, Judge of the Superior Court of Judicature, and the Director of Public
Prosecutions.

Put in the modern context, the PSC develops systems, standards and procedures for the
management of the Public Service; has responsibility for performance improvement of the Public
Service; holds regular consultation with the President on the performance of the Public Service;
acts as adviser to government on public service management; and advises on and monitors the
implementation of employment policies across government institutions.

2.7 The Civil Service in Sierra Leone: Defining the Functional Challenges.
Despite strong economic growth of 4.57 % between 2008 and 2010, Sierra Leone still faces
serious development challenges: over 62 percent of the population lives below the poverty line of
$1.25 a day, and almost two-thirds of the population is illiterate. Life expectancy is 49 years,

20
well below the regional average of 54 years. Available evidence suggests that the Sierra Leone‘s
performance on the delivery of services and the provision of basic infrastructure – such as road
and power, is below par with respect to other similarly placed countries in the region, and not
commensurate with the resources being expended (World Bank 2010).

While the link is not easily established, it is generally accepted that in addition to its capability
for policy making/coordination and regulation, the quality of upstream public sector institutions
has an impact on the downstream performance of government on the provision of services and
infrastructure (World Bank 2012a). Consequently, the poor status of the civil service, reflected in
Sierra Leone‘s poor ranking on WGI’s Government Effectiveness’s indicator, remains an issue
of serious concern for development partners and has been often identified by national
government as an area requiring urgent reforms (World Bank 2012b).

Over the years during and after the civil war, the public service in Sierra Leone experienced a
progressive depletion of professional and technical staff at the middle and senior levels. This is
starkly evident when comparing the composition of Sierra Leone‘s (core) civil service to other
African countries. In Sierra Leone today, over 87 percent of the personnel are in the lowest (blue
collar) grades 1-5. While this is an improvement on the 92% three years ago, it is still very low.
Top management grades represent only slightly over 1 percent of civil service employment.
Professional and technical staff constitutes only about 11 percent of the total civil service
workforce. Comparable numbers for professional and technical staff in Gambia (in 2007) were
26 percent and even in Sudan (in 2004) 14.3 percent. This is commonly referred to as the
problem of the missing middle.

Several problems characterize the current state of the civil service in Sierra Leone, including:

 extremely low levels of remuneration that are inadequate for attracting and retaining
staff;
 patronage based appointments, promotions and remuneration levels; and
 the virtual absence of intrinsic or extrinsic incentives for performance. In addition,
internal inequities which engender frustration and dissatisfaction are not conducive to
establishing an esprit de corps. While it is difficult to disentangle the impact of each
of these, it is more than likely that together they act as binding constraints, the lifting

21
 of which would be a necessary (if not sufficient) condition to improve overall civil
service performance.

The major challenges associated with the current Civil Service are explicitly described below:

2.7.1 Low Remuneration

Low remuneration appears to be one of the major reasons why Sierra Leone‘s civil service has
not been able to attract and retain suitably qualified technical and professional personnel. Current
levels of remuneration are extremely low for many professional and managerial jobs. One
indication that low remuneration is a key constraint to attracting qualified staff is that entry level
personnel recently recruited for certain technical positions (budget officers, procurement
specialists, internal auditors) had to be offered an average of US$1000 above the regular civil
service wage (approximately $200) to accept these positions. Other indications that low levels of
pay are a key constraint to filling technical and managerial positions include a plethora of coping
arrangements that circumvent the low public pay scale. These include:

 the relatively well paid local technical assistants (LTAs) in line positions, often
funded by donors;
 the prevalence of project implementation/management units (PI/MUs);
 donor funded line agencies such as the Decentralization Secretariat and, till recently,
the Local Government Finance Department; and
 other ad-hoc salary top-ups.

2.7.2 Patronage Based Appointment and Promotion

The quality of staff in the middle and upper grades poses an additional problem as appointments
to these positions have not been made on the basis of merit and competency. Even if these
practices were to change the pool from which promotions to leadership positions can be made is
weak. During the civil war, it was generally the most qualified and competent people with
marketable skills who left. With some exceptions, the civil servants remaining are those who
lack the skills and competencies to find jobs overseas or in the private sector. As noted above,
LTAs often fill critical gaps. While, in recent years, the integrity of the lateral entry recruitment
process has improved, these new appointees will take a while to make their way through the
system even if they were to stay. This has happened for two reasons. Competency based

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promotions are a challenge because the appraisal system had fallen into disuse; Permanent
Secretary (PS) level appointments are made by the President; and the Public Service
Commission has, in spite of good intentions, lacked the capacity to undertake the necessary
selection exercises. Promotion decisions have therefore been effectively made by the senior
management of ministries with the recommendations ratified by the HRMO and the PSC.

Compounding the selection problem, no training is provided to enable those who have been
promoted to perform their new responsibilities because there is no public service management
training capacity or tradition for training for senior management. The assumption is that
personnel promoted to these positions would know how to perform their functions by virtue of
their seniority. As a result, many civil service managers today lack the basic skills and
competencies for their jobs.

2.7.3 Lack of Incentives for Performance.

The virtual absence of any intrinsic or extrinsic incentives for performance has led to a lack of
accountability and demoralized and demotivated civil servants. Intrinsic motivation and a public
service ethics are also largely absent. This ethos is no longer evident in Sierra Leone, where real
pay levels (including salaries and benefits) have deteriorated so far that the lack of extrinsic
rewards overwhelms any intrinsic factors derived from the work itself. Unfair pay (internal
inequity) is also an important demotivating factor. This is especially true in a situation where
some civil servants/LTAs are very highly remunerated in a non-transparent way, creating
tensions and resentment among staff. Moreover, individuals and jobs are wrongly graded at
levels that are higher/lower than they should be. Unfortunately, for many years, government has
failed to introduce a pay structure in which relativities are based on the relative worth of the job.
Instead, ad-hoc pay adjustments for a selected few have created significant anomalies and
distortions which are resented by the majority of civil servants. Donors have contributed to this
problem by directly adopting short-term solutions to the capacity gaps that aimed to create
temporary capacity (McKechnie 2004) by promoting special contract arrangements (e.g. LTAs).
Over time, these coping arrangements have produced severe negative side-effects for staff
motivation, engendering tensions between the regular civil servants and LTAs and undermining
team spirit and cohesion within the civil service. Overall, this has had an adverse effect on
professional cooperation both within and between functions and departments. In this

23
environment, neither government nor civil service managers have demanded much in the way of
performance from civil servants. And the lack of a functioning performance appraisal system has
created a culture in which poor performance is tolerated and good performance is not
encouraged.

2.7.4 Mistrust/Poor Coordination amongst MDAs

In addition to the complex distribution of responsibilities and multiple reporting lines, the
relationship between the MoFED and the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs)
– including those directly responsible for civil service reform – has historically been
characterized by mistrust. The MoFED often views budget submissions from MDAs as
unreasonable “laundry lists” of requests rather than prioritized proposals to meet strategic needs.
The MDAs, in turn, view the the MoFED’s apparently resource allocation decisions as arbitrary
and high handed and which they feel leaves them without sufficient resources to fulfill their
basic mandates. To push urgently-needed programs, the government, with donor support, has
often implemented reforms that have, in the process, undermined the central agencies formally
responsible for the process. For example, the World Bank, through its Institutional Reform and
Capacity Building Project (IRCBP) established the Decentralization Secretariat, the Local
Government Finance Department (LGFD) and the Public Finance Reform Unit as units within
the Ministries of Local Government and Rural Development and the MoFED with
establishments and salaries determined by the project and significantly in excess of the regular
civil service pay scales. Similarly, a large number of highly paid Local Technical Assistants
(LTAs) were financed by the World Bank and other donors in the MoFED and, to a lesser extent
in other ministries. (Note 21) More recently, to strengthen the health sector and implement the
Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI) launched in 2010 the government bypassed the HRMO and
the PSC and offered salaries outside of the civil service pay and grading structure to hire
additional staff. Other donor efforts have also exacerbated inter-agency rivalry by supporting to
individual agencies (such as DfID support to the PSRU and EU and UNDP support to the
HRMO), providing financial independence without providing complementary incentives to
effectively engage with counterpart institutions. The World Bank was seen to be traditionally
aligned to the MoFED making its engagement with the other MDAs more difficult.

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2.7.5 Fragmentation:
While the responsibility for public service reform is fragmented in many countries (by its very
nature), in Sierra Leone this fragmentation is greater and, in practice, exacerbates the collective
action problem in a government that is characterized by weak coordination and poor information
sharing. Coordination between a large number of offices, ministries and agencies is required for
implementing various reform policies. These include, at a minimum, the Secretary to the
President, the Cabinet Secretary (Head of the Civil Service), the Public Service Commission
(PSC), the Human Resources Management Office (HRMO) and the Strategy and Policy Unit in
the office of the President. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) has a
key interest in the fiscal impact of pay reforms and is responsible for providing the funding
necessary for the reforms.

The Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU), located in the Presidency, is responsible for
coordinating and supporting public sector reforms but has no executive authority or
implementation responsibilities. Given this web of interlocking and overlapping responsibilities,
reforms of the public sector always require complex inter-agency action. In Sierra Leone the
challenges are exacerbated by poor communications and mistrust and by the fact that there is no
minister responsible for this as the President is the Minister for Public Services.

2.8 Features of the Civil Service:

In Sierra Leone, the Civil Service consists of the executive arm of the Government and
comprises of all employees of Government, whether appointed on permanent or on contract basis
(other than holders of political positions, members of the Judiciary, Armed Forces, Police,
Teachers in Schools and Tertiary Institutions and staff of Parastatals) that advice the Ministers
and implement all decisions and policies that are formulated by Government or enacted by the
Legislature. The Civil Service is characterized by the following features:

 Professionalism – Civil Servants are bound to always be loyal to the Government and
to the best of their ability, implement Government’s policies and decisions impartially,
transparently and diligently at all times and must not seek to frustrate or impede the
implementation of the decisions or actions of the Government; in so doing, they are
expected to exhibit a high degree of competence and best practices in the discharge of

25
 their duties. Civil Servants should strive for professional excellence, strengthening
individual capabilities, encourage professional development of others and continually
improve the quality of service delivery.

 Selflessness – the fundamental role of the Civil Service is to assist the Government in
formulating its policies, in carrying out its decisions, and in administering public
services. To this end, Civil Servants must take decisions solely in the best interest of the
country. They should not take such decisions in order to gain financial or other material
benefits for themselves, their families or their friends, but for the benefit of the people of
the country.

 Permanence – this means that the Civil Service can be a career. Civil Servants, once
appointed, are sure of their post even if there is a change of Government or Ministers;
except in cases of misbehaviour, corruption, or gross inefficiency. This is to ensure that
there are permanent, experienced Civil Servants available to ensure continuity and assist
the Ministers, who are political appointees (and therefore likely to change). Public policy
today has become a difficult exercise requiring in-depth knowledge and expertise in
public affairs. A permanent civil service offers continuity and develops expertise as well
as institutional memory for effective policy making.

 Impartiality - Civil Servants are at all times expected to serve the Government of the
day and must therefore not get involved in party politics.

 Anonymity – the fact that Civil Servants are anonymous means that they can advise
on, and carry out policies and decisions of Government without fear of censure from the
public. In the process of executing its mandate the civil service is guided by values of
high morals. It should create a platform upon which the government could execute its
functions with high level of integrity. Among the principles of the Sierra Leone civil
service code include: impartiality, professionalism, selflessness, integrity, transparency,
and accountability.

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  Integrity - Civil Servants must demonstrate strong moral principles, be honest, faithful,
dedicated and just in the discharge of their duties and should not act in a manner that
would demean the honour and dignity of the Service. They are highly expected to
demonstrate at all times personal/professional integrity and should not place themselves
under any financial obligation to individuals or organisations that might influence or
compromise their judgment, impartiality or integrity in the performance of their official
duties; they are to discharge their duties within the framework of the law and should not
knowingly follow a directive that is contrary to the law. A Civil Servant must not
sexually harass a fellow Civil Servant or a member of the public.

In carrying out their public functions, civil servants should not display partiality.  Being partial is
a red light for corruption. Some of the variables that breed partiality are family ties, gender,
religion, ethnic background and party politics.  In Sierra Leone, the common form of partiality is
by aligning oneself or being faithful to a political party.  Such attitude in most expert’s opinion,
has trickled down to the civil service as well.  Partiality is presumed to be a contagious plague in
Sierra Leone that even when people take the universal colour black for white they will still have
a large following in that line not because they are right, but because one of them believes so. 
The civil service as an institution should be devoid of political affiliation. Its loyalty should be to
the State and not to any individual or group of individuals.  Above all, it shall at all times
diligently serve the government of the day and its people.

The civil service is a professional institution and professionalism must be prevalent in every
sector.  As humans, we are all coming from different backgrounds and affiliations. At times the
decisions we take are either directly or indirectly guided by our background. No matter what, as
civil servants the decisions we take must not be subjective but objective.  A safe way to sail
through the issue of subjectivity and objectivity is by putting the interest of the State above all
else at all times.  Moreover, in the discharge of duties, civil servants must exhibit a high degree
of competence and best practice.  If professionalism is lacking in an institution that is the hub of
governance, it will be very difficult to tackle corruption.

On the issue of impartiality as above, the civil service should also be a selfless institution.  In
other words, civil servants shall take decisions that border around the best interest of the

27
country.  Decisions should not be taken with an intention to gain material or financial
remuneration for self, family, friends or any other affiliation. Integrity should be the watch word
of every civil servant. If you cannot uphold your integrity to the highest level, the civil service is
not a place for you.  That institution should be one laden with people of integrity.  Integrity
should not only be limited to one’s professional life but also to one’s personal life.  Civil servants
should drink, eat and sleep integrity all the time.  With such positive attitude, corruption will be
scared away from our civil service.

If one is transparent and accountable for one’s actions, then one could boast of living an upright
life-a life with integrity.  That is exactly what should constitute the civil service.  In handling
public resources for example, corruption should not be allowed to prevail.  Corruption will never
make headway wherever there is transparency and accountability.  Civil servants should be
personally and institutionally accountable to the government who is the employer and the public
who is the customer.

2.9 Management and Administrative Structure of the Sierra Leone Civil

Service

The Civil Service of Sierra Leone is currently headed by Dr. Ernest S.A.Surrur, who also double
as secretary to the cabinet. The Civil Service management and administrative structure is
classified by grade levels ranging from grade 7 to 14, in which grade 14 is the highest level. All
positions within the Civil Service are classified by professional or occupational job category and
by grade levels. The grading system is the basis for determining salaries and other remuneration.
Classes of positions are usually assessed to determine their relative levels in terms of
qualifications required, complexity of work, impact and other relevant factors, and on the basis
of this assessment classes of positions are eventually allocated to appropriate grades. The
structure, including the number of positions and their grading is reflected in the personnel
emoluments estimates of each Ministry or Department.

The appropriate grade for a position is determined based on the following factors:

 responsibility of work;

 risk involved in the job;

28
  consequences or effect of error or work failure;

 independence of action and initiative expected in accomplishment of work;

 supervision over others;

 special qualifications required for successful performance of work;

 nature, extent and availability of detailed guidelines for the work.

For senior positions, the following factors are considered as significant indicators in addition to
the above stated factors, and should be given appropriate weight:

 knowledge required for performance of complex duties at senior level;

 complexity of work;

 scope and effect of decisions and actions.

Management of the Civil Service is linked to the responsibilities of the state as the employer of
civil servants. Common standards of human resource management throughout the Civil Service
are required to maintain uniformity. However, the manner in which a nation structures these
responsibilities can vary considerably. As Trendafilova (2008, p. 2) states, “there is a different
mix of institutional players in different countries charged with the management of civil services”.
Trendafilova (2008, pp. 2-4) clarifies that the management function involves the interaction
among three institutional actors:

 a central management capacity that is usually part of the executive charged with
the responsibility of the overall management issues such as proposing legislation
and personnel policies, monitoring of rules and policies, and management of
training;

 an independent civil service commission that at times acts as a regulatory body or

ensures that personnel management functions are implemented in a fair, open
manner and on merit principles; and

29
  individual ministries whose minimum responsibilities include initiation of
recruitment and selection or initiation of salary increases in centralised civil
service systems.

Employees of the Sierra Leone Civil Service are categorized under the following administrative
and management structure:

 Administrative Service – this comprises of senior employees referred to in the First

Schedule of the Public Service Commission’s Regulations I (I) of 1982 that carry out
administrative duties of the Ministries/Departments/Agencies (MDAs) and include: the
Permanent Secretary (Head of the Ministry), Deputy Secretary, Senior Assistant
Secretary and Assistant Secretary who:

 implement the policies and decisions of the Government;

 co-ordinate, manage and control the administrative duties of the Civil Service;

 assist the Minister in the formulation of Government policies.

 Permanent Secretary- this refers to an Administrative Officer appointed by the

President under Section 154 Subsection 2 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone (Act
No.6 of 1991).

 Executive Cadre – this is the immediate subordinate group that support the
Administrative Staff and includes Higher Executive Officers and Executive Officers,
who:

 carry out the policies of Government within the limits of specific instructions;

 keep records of the details of the decisions and work of Government.

 Head of Department – this means the category of officers listed in the Second Schedule
of the Public Service Commission’s Regulations 1 (1) of 1982 and include the

30
 Professional Head of a Ministry or Department who provide technical and professional
advice to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister.

 Sub Professional and Technical Cadre - this means a varied middle group of posts that
support the Professional Cadre and include sub-professional staff in the Engineering,
Medical, Agricultural, Forestry, Fisheries, Accounting, Surveying, Country Planning,
Social Welfare, Tourism, Sports etc.

 Clerical Cadre – this group includes Staff Superintendents, Stenographers, Graded Clerks
and Clerical Assistants. Their duties call for intelligence, smartness, accuracy, handling
of documents and typing correspondence.

 Minor Cadre - this includes Staff in Grades I and 2 that invariably have little education,
training or experience. Training for their responsibilities is elementary as their duties are
simple.

 Pensionable Officer - means an officer in the permanent establishment.

 Non-Pensionable Officer – this is an officer serving under a contract or agreement which

does not provide for the payment of a pension.

2.10 Promotion, Transfer, and Secondment of Civil Servants:

2.10.1 Promotion - this means the elevation of an officer from a lower post to a higher post
resulting in an increase in salary. All promotions must be based decisions as to the fitness of an
officer to undertake duties at the higher level. In assessing officers for promotion, Heads of
Departments and the Commission are guided primarily by the criteria of merit and ability which
must be regarded as the over-riding consideration, and secondarily by seniority, experience and
official qualifications of the officer. An officer is eligible for promotion only under the terms set
out in the rules governing promotions, and these rules including promotion procedures and

31
criteria are made known to all civil servants. Promotions are linked to an increase in
responsibility and authority.

To implement a promotion, there must be a vacant post available at a level higher than the
substantive grade level of the officer to be promoted, and the officer promoted is assigned to that
post and made responsible for carrying out the duties attached to it. Heads of Ministries are
required to ensure that the list of officers eligible for promotion are transmitted to the Director-
General annually before the Manpower Hearing is conducted by the Human Resource
Management Office. When considering officers for promotion, due regard must be paid to two
elements:

 merit;

 seniority

Merit is the primary consideration to be taken into account when deciding on promotions. Merit
means demonstrated competence in the past as measured by an officer’s performance appraisal
reports. Merit also means objective assessment that the officer is competent to perform the tasks
attached to a post at the higher level, including a review of successful completion of required
pre-promotion training if any, and that the officer has a potential for future career development.

Since the acquisition of experience is expected to give an officer a higher level of competence,
the minimum level of seniority is always taken into account for promotion. However, the
promotion of the most senior officer(s) for a position cannot be considered a foregone
conclusion, and no promotion is to be given solely on grounds of seniority; rather merit is
regarded as the main criterion for promotion. When two or more candidates for promotion have
equal merit, the most senior among them is often selected for promotion. Selection of a candidate
to be considered for normal promotion to the next higher grade in the Sierra Leone Civil Service
on the basis of seniority within the Civil Service grades of 7, 8, 9, and 10 must be subject to a
minimum period of five years.

2.10.2 Transfers - Civil Servants may be transferred within Departments, between

Departments and or between duty stations according to the needs of the Service. Transfers of

32
Administrative Officers are mostly initiated by the Administrative Officers’ Posting Committee,
while transfers of Professionals within a Ministry are authorized by the Permanent Secretary
based on recommendations from the Professional Head. Clerical and Executive staff are
transferred by the Director-General.

2.10.3 Secondment – this means the temporary release of an officer to the service of a
Local Government, approved body or any recognised International Organisation or body for a
specified period.

2.11 Theoretical Framework

The Principal-Agent theory which is also described as agencifiction, in the submission of
Yamamoto (2003) explains a reform methods within the government which is designed to create,
within the public sector, autonomous or semi-autonomous organisations in which the
implementation function is separated from the policy-making function’. In other words,
agencificaton is the separation of the provider and user of public goods. Basically, the recipients
of public services are the government (which usually also provides them) and the public. The
intention of agencification is to demarcate the two roles. This is done by creating a contractual
relationship between the two parties, the principal and the agent. The principal is the party
requiring a service or goods, and the agent is the party supplying the service or goods. The
principal pays the agent. The agent is expected (or is assumed) to have expertise and to be able,
hopefully, to provide the service at a price lower than it would cost if the principal were to
provide it personally. In the public sector, the government – at any level, becomes the principal
contracting to buy public services from the agent. The agent could be an external body or a semi-
autonomous organ that is part of the public sector. Yamamoto (2003) says that in Britain, the
Thatcher government, out of fear of the reaction of labour unions, retained the agencies as part of
the government; whereas in Japan, Independent Administration Institutions were established to
execute the policies. Most often, anyway, it is a combination of the two options.

The relationship between the principal and the agent is usually rooted in a contract. Such a
contract could be implicit, obligational or relational, depending on how much mutual trust exists
between the parties (Boston et al, 1996). The aim of the principal–agent theory would thus be to
provide an intellectual and legal framework for working out ‘the most satisfactory way of

33
negotiating, specifying, and monitoring contracts so as to minimize the likelihood of violations
resulting from opportunism on the part of the agent (e.g. due to shirking, deception, cheating and
collusion)’ (Boston et al, 1996, p. 18). As is the usual nature of contractual relationships, rewards
accrue to the agent, but there may also be penalties for breach of contract. Since the principal
may not have all the information necessary to make the best selection, safeguards may be taken
in the form of bonding or the stipulation of penalties for non-performance.

2.12 The Performance of Civil Servants

For a considerable time at least, public authorities were never questioned as to

whether and how they reached (or failed to reach) their objectives and whether they
were performing well. Instead they were more concerned with the implementation of
programmes and the application of rules until – in the late 1970s. Personnel costs were rising
drastically in many countries and efficiency issues became more important. This was a strange
development because the instrument of public sector measurement originated as early as the late
1800s. In the United States, Woodrow Wilson (1887) proposed a new business-like approach to
government which was later elaborated by scientific management theories in the early 20th
century.

The question of whether civil services are performing well or otherwise is also related
to our understanding of the quality of services, efficiency and politics. Today, the
Lisbon process, in particular, has turned attention to the role of the public services in
the context of the competitive situation of Europe (with respect to the United States).
According to a report of the British Chartered Institute of Personal and Development,
“the performance challenge is likely to be particularly marked in the public sector.
Managers will be caught between the Treasury’s objective of improving public sector
productivity and keeping the public pay bill in check in order to contain public borrowing and
trade union pressure to improve the pay of their members”.

In particular, the “understanding of what constitutes ‘quality’ has greatly changed in

the course of time, both in the private and public sector”. Whereas in the 1980s and
1990s, the term quality was very much connected with the term efficiency, today it is

34
also more and more linked to the “ability of public institutions to contribute to the
quality of life of citizens” and to the competitive situation of the European economies.

2.13 Job Satisfaction in the Civil Service

Today, the public’s perception of work in the public sector is that working procedures
in public organisations are more formalised, employees have less job autonomy in
decision-making and pay is often no higher than in comparable positions in the
private sector. Consequently, many expect civil servants to be less satisfied than their
colleagues in the private sector. However, in reality, public-sector respondents
actually report somewhat higher levels of general work satisfaction than do private sector
respondents. “On questions about general work satisfaction such as, ‘do you like your job?’
public-sector respondents have consistently shown higher levels of satisfaction levels
comparable to private-sector respondents”.

These high levels of expressed job satisfaction are a common feature of employment
research and are not altogether unsurprising. Firstly, one would expect that those who
are relatively dissatisfied with their job will seek to change it (within the constraints
of available job opportunities), while those who are satisfied will remain longer in that
job. Secondly, there may be some response bias, as admitting to tolerating high
dissatisfaction levels may appear irrational or humiliating.

2.14 Historical Overview of the Role of Civil Servants

For a lengthy period, European societies believed that civil servants were linked to the
authority of the state and could not be compared to employees in the private sector.
Civil servants were seen as a specific category of public employees who were
supposed to prepare, implement and execute government policies. For many years,
almost all Member States designed their public organisations in specific ways because
they expected a certain behaviour on the part of civil servants would result from
specific organisational features. Traditionally, a hierarchical and formalised
organisational structure, clear and rigid career paths, life-time tenure, full-time
employment, seniority, advantageous pension systems and rigid remuneration systems

35
were introduced in order to reduce as far as possible the risk of too much political
influence, corruption, misconduct, the exercise of private interests and instability of
government. Consequently, the traditional argument for a specific organizational structure was to
produce a certain ethical status for civil servants who should be committed to the public good,
neutrality, impartiality and to observing confidentiality and displaying expertise.

In many countries, therefore, civil servants were working in hierarchical organisations, had very
specific recruitment procedures, specific ethical obligations, little mobility, varying working
conditions and specific social security systems. Within this structure, where public service was
closed off and separated from society and citizens, it was not possible for civil servants to have
the right to strike or the right to engage in collective agreements relating to working conditions.
In other words, civil servants were seen as a different category of staff. Because of the specific
treatment of civil servants, public perceptions arose of civil servants having different
personalities, being motivated by different incentives, working less hard than employees in the
private sector, being more security-minded, more rule-oriented and not very innovative.

At present, despite all differences in culture, tradition, ideology and in detail between
proponents of alignment and a specific career civil service, all Member States seem to
take the position that at the beginning of the 21st century, civil servants are no longer
people who give and take orders and implement and execute laws. For example, the
right to safe and healthy working conditions, the right to fair wages, the right to
freedom of expression, the right to participate in the formulation of working
conditions, the right to strike (not in all positions), equal treatment issues and working
time issues should not vary too much between the public and private sector. In
addition, the right to take autonomous decisions in appraising, recruiting, training and working
procedures still differ from those in the private sector. The Spanish response
for this study found that recruitment is harder, agreed working conditions are more
respected by public employers than by private ones, e.g. number of working hours,
retribution is generally lower, security is taken for granted, personal and professional
lives are more readily compatible, career and status are valued differently by society.
Despite the above and the historical development of national public services,
surprisingly little is known about the effects of organisational and human resource

36
management reforms on the attitude of civil servants. Surprisingly, however, in reply
to the question “have there been recent human resource management reforms and if
so, what has been their impact on the work (performance) and attitudes of civil
servants?” some Member States stated that the impact was positive and reforms are
likely to increase the performance of civil servants. This optimism is in contrast to the
results of various studies in the academic sector which conclude that many “reforms
are paradox and have unintended consequences” and that the era of unrestrained
enthusiasm for comprehensive “big ticket” or grand reform has probably run its
course.

2.15 The Neutrality and Impartiality of the Civil Service

The fact that civil servants should be neutral is still one of the most important
prevailing principles in national civil service laws. For example, as Pochard writes,
“The foundations and principles, linked to the fact that the public employer – which
due to its missions and prerogatives is not an ordinary employer, are today as in the
past necessary in order to equip civil servants with a "state", and to shield (protect)
them from favouritism and from the arbitrary and to allow them to dedicate themselves with
impartiality and autonomy to the public service.”

Strangely enough, the word neutral is rarely defined. What form does neutrality take?
Is neutrality possible at all? Does status produce neutrality and are those employees
who do not benefit from a status non-neutral? How important is lifetime tenure in this
respect? One could probably agree about the need to have neutral officials in the sense of
absence of corruption and political indoctrination. But what about neutrality in the
sense of absence of personality and individual political opinion? Would it not be
better if civil servants followed their own personal values rather than adopt “cold-fish
indifference but responsiveness to political direction, an acknowledgement of democratic
political supremacy?” Or to put the question differently, “In dealing with public administration,
including police, in which types of functions or positions is it better to have Weber’s
bureaucrats?”

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Apparently, civil servants must differ in various positions. Like employees in the private sector,
public officials are never neutral in their work. They bring their social origin, socialisation
experience, attitudes and behaviour (elite officials, upper class, women are different, minorities)
although it is still not clear whether social origins or administrative culture matter more. Total
neutrality is impossible (Kingsley). “One need not be surprised to discover that the Civil Service
also reflects the basic inequalities of the social structure and the prevailing temper of
the nation.

But the fact that civil servants are not neutral does not mean that they are politicised.
The principal activity of public officials is still drafting and implementing laws, regulations and
programmes. Every day, public officials must advise ministers on important decisions to be
taken. In addition, civil servants also carry out a growing number of other activities. The growing
volume of secondary legislation (or in EU terms, comitology) and trends towards
decentralisation and agencification raise not only important questions about the neutral role of
civil servants, but also about democratic accountability, fairness and control of civil servants’
executive decisions.

In addition to implementing legislation, civil servants also play a growing role in

advising politicians in the policy-making process. Moreover, the EU decision-making
process has become a forum for civil servants who initiate community legislation. In
addition, one of the most remarkable developments in the past few years has been the growing
contact and opportunities for communication between citizens and administrators.

Finally, neutrality may also conflict with the need to staff the civil service according
to the composition of the population. “Representative bureaucracy is desirable
because it makes government as a whole more representative” and “promotes equal
opportunity and equality.” However, it also creates permanent tensions between the
principles of merit and neutrality. Despite this, there is an important question about
whether representative bureaucracy in terms of race, sex, demography, etc. produces
different outcomes, e.g. an administration with more women might produce different results than
the same administrative unit with more men. According to a recent study published by
Rosenbloom et al., the answer seems to be affirmative.

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2.16 The Emergence of the New Civil Service Management and
Administration

The historical shift in state ideologies in the late 1970s in advanced nations toward a neo-liberal
framework was one of the most influential factors leading to the emergence of New Public
management. This model discouraged welfare state practice, opposes public sector championing
the economy, blames public bureaucracy. This ideological transition takes place in major western
countries especially Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States of
America irrespective of the difference in their forms of government and political leaning. At the
micro management level, the neo-liberal nomenclature of New Public Management is reflected
in its neo-managerial administrative setup based on organizational principles, leadership styles
and corporate experience borrowed from the business sector (Dibie, 2014).

Originating from the United Kingdom, and the United States NPM model has been embraced by
developing counties in Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as the transitional societies in
Eastern Europe such as Ukraine, Serbia etc. The main components of the New Public
management includes the principle of market competition, business management, customer
orientation (clientele) and value for money can be observed in these countries and regions
(Gelas, 2014). In some developing countries, the New Public management model has not only
taken root in relatively advanced economies in Asia and Latin America, but also in African
countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria etc. However, scholars such as Pfiffner
(2005), Polidano (1999), have argued that in the last two decades NPM has assumed the status of
a global model of public sector reform. The rationale behind the emergence of New Public
Management cannot be far fetch. The most common explanation that can be offered for adopting
the approach is the weakness or failure of traditional state bureaucracy, especially in term of its
unmanageable size, managerial inefficiency, public inaccessibility, corruption and self-serving
agenda. Nevertheless, these allegations against state bureaucracy were always there in the past
but it was not as intense as it is in today. The new order is to reduce the scope and role of pubic
bureaucracy, transfer resources and services from the public to the private sector, and to
restructure the public sector in the image of business management, because it is undisputed that

39
the private sector looks more competitive, productive, efficient, innovative, responsive (Dahida
& Ahmed, 2013).

In the words of Dibie (2014), the new public management arises from a critiqu of traditional
public administration. This is borne out of the inflexibility of the system and its emphasis on
control. This is very pervasive in Africa and other developing nations, where politics and
administration are inseparable. Most of the public institutions are subjected to strong political
control thereby by making it possible for government to meet the needs of the citizens. But with
new public management it will usher that platform for public sector operators to take initiatives
and express themselves without overbearing government intervention, making public
bureaucracies becoming strong without necessarily being big, increasingly proactive than being
reactive, tasked to mobilize scarce resources for achieving more with less (Efficiency) and relied
upon to provide services that are faster, more responsive and caring.

2.7 Summary

This chapter has basically reviewed relevant literature in order to explore a detailed insights into
the core concepts relating to Civil Service management and administrative practices. This section
broadly covered variables associated with the effective management of the Civil Service with
respect to its statutory responsibilities to the state. The literature review showed that there is
strong theoretical background to the management and administrative practices of Civil Service,
but analyses of practical examples in connection with developing countries are weak.
Theoretical framework on the agency relationship between Civil Service and government of a
country is presented with discussion on its relevance to Civil Service management and
administrative practices. The concepts discussed in this chapter are further contextualized in
chapter four in order to vividly analyze the impact of Civil Service effective management and
administrative practices on the economic development of sub-Saharan African countries, with
special consideration to Sierra Leone.

Chapter Three

Research Methodology

3.0 Introduction
40
This chapter fundamentally focuses on research design, approach and the methodology adopted
in accumulating and analysing both primary and secondary data relevant to the achievement of
this study’s objectives. It also explains the research population, sample size, and the ethical
consideration of the research process. This is an exploratory study that assessed the
administrative and management practices of the Sierra Leone Civil Service and analysed the
impact of effective and efficient administrative and management practices of the Civil Service on
service delivery to the citizens. The scope and nature of this research required that empirical data
are collected, analysed and interpreted in order to put into perspective and explain the current
status of the Sierra Leone Civil Service. This chapter, therefore, provides a systematic research
approach and methodology utilised to collect information necessary to answer the various
research questions so as to address the identified research problem statement. A Qualitative
research design was adopted to solicit primary data from the selected participants.

The purpose of collecting primary data through qualitative research design was to obtain
insiders’ view on the strengths and weaknesses of the Civil Service in terms of sustainability in
quality service delivery. Insiders in the context of this study refer to senior civil servants,
parliamentarians, labour union members, ombudsman, civil society activists, and government
policy analysts who directly influence the management and administration of the Civil Service.
The collected data was scientifically explored, examined, analysed, and interpreted in chapter
four of the study in order to ultimately publish out an accurate findings and recommendations.
Brynard and Hanekom (2005:36) argue that “research methodology, as a group or body of
collection, requires reflection on the planning, structuring and execution of the study to comply
with the demands of truth, objectivity and validity’. Likewise, Mouton (2011:3) maintains that
research methodology explains the technique, method, process as well as the type of research
instruments and measures to be utilised to successfully achieve the objective of the study.
Finally, the chapter spells out ethical issues which were considered and adhered to throughout
the research process.

3.1 Research Design and Approach

Research designs are plans and the strategies for research that span the decisions from broad
assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis (Trochim, 2006). This plan
involves several decisions, and they need not be taken in the order in which they make sense to

41
me and the order of their presentation here. The overall decision involves which design should be
used to study a topic. Informing this decision should be the worldview assumptions the
researcher brings to the study; procedures of inquiry (called strategies); and specific methods of
data collection, analysis, and interpretation, Donnelly (2008). The selection of a research design
is also based on the nature of the research problem or issue being addressed, the researchers’
personal experiences, and the audiences for the study.

Academic research requires that a correct and relevant research design is selected and utilised to
ensure a successful execution of the study. In the context of this study, research design denotes a
systematic approach and procedures used by the researcher to collect data in order to put into
perspective issues under consideration. The issues referring to in this study include the
assessment of the administrative and management practices of the Sierra Leone Civil Service.
These issues were properly evaluated, and data was collected in order to determine the nature,
scope and the extent to which they affect quality service delivery and sustainable economic
development of Sierra Leone. It must be noted that sound administrative and management
practices of the Civil Service is a precondition for a sustainable quality service delivery and
economic development. Thus, to understand and explain the Civil Service administrative and
management practices in relation to quality service delivery, an explicit exploration and
description as well as proper analysis of data were necessary. For this reason, qualitative research
design was adopted to collect data relevant to answering the research questions and eventually
address the research problem.

It is pointed out in the introductory paragraph that this study is exploratory which fundamentally
utilised qualitative research design. As discussed in chapter one, the purpose of this study is to
assess the administrative and management practices of the Sierra Leone Civil Service using the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security as a case study. This selected research design was
necessitated by the nature and type of data to be collected and the problem statement to be
addressed. The research problem identified in this study does not only require extensive
examination of the issues under consideration, but it also needs scientific exploration of themes
in order to provide an in-depth understanding of those issues, and to explain the extent to which a
performance oriented, professional and well-disciplined Civil Service can foster quality service
delivery and rapid economic development.

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Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2011) described the use of qualitative design as useful method to
gathering data necessary for descriptive and analytic study. In this regard, the use of this research
method can “create a synergistic research project in which one technique enables the other to be
more effective” (Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2011). With reference to the preceding explanation,
qualitative design enables the researcher to ask questions such as:

 What are the various reform programs and policies formulated by the government aimed
at improving the efficiency and service delivery capacity of the Civil Service?

 What are the major challenges faced by the Ministry of Labour and the Public Service
Commission of Sierra Leone in carrying out their statutory mandate?

 How has policy formulation, implementation and enforcement improved the service
delivery capacity of the Civil Service of Sierra Leone?

 To what extent the recruitment and appraisal management practices utilized by the Public
Service Commission has contributed towards attracting highly skilled and technical
personnel into the Civil Service?
Though, not the purpose of this study, Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2011) advise that researchers can
also use “mixed methods” for triangulation and complementarity purpose. In other words, mixed
methods are employed in the service of assisting the researcher’s total understanding of the
research problem. However, in the case of this research, and due to the descriptive nature of data
needed to put the study into context, only qualitative method was utilised.

Exploratory study, as a method of investigative research, has recently gained wider momentum
in social sciences research (Esman, 2006). It provides good ground for thorough examination of
social issues in order to generate information necessary to contextualise the situation under
investigation. In particular, issues related to Civil Service management and administration in
relation to sustainable service delivery and economic development can be understood better
through evaluative and exploratory study. Essentially, the approaches referred to above suit
qualitative research design. Bachman and Schutt (2011:43) defined exploration as a method used
in research to investigate social phenomena without prior expectations, to develop explanations
of them. Likewise, Heigham and Crocker (2009:141) maintain that the weight of the exploratory

43
study is typically given to qualitative data, because it provides the foundation for the qualitative
exploratory on the topic. Other authors such as Snape and Spencer (2012:28) could not be far
from reality when they explained that exploratory study is concerned with determining and
explaining why certain things happen and the conditions and circumstances that make them
happen. Accordingly, Snape and Spencer (2012:28) argue that, “qualitative research provides a
unique tool for studying what lies behind, or underpins a decision, attitude and behaviour”
because the method enables researchers to analyse the topic intensely and profoundly.

3.2 Study Population and Sample size

Sierra Leone Civil Service has an estimated total population of 200,000 personnel of which less
than 50% are officially registered on the government’s pay-roll, with the majority accounted for
or classified as ‘ghost workers’ (2014 World Bank report on Sierra Leone public sector reform).
The population of this study represents the entire estimated 200,000 Civil Service personnel from
which a manageable sample size was selected. According to Brink, Van Der Walt and Van
Rensburg (2009), research population refers to the total number of people or objects which are of
interest in terms of data collection. In other words, research population is that category of
persons that meets the criteria in which the researcher is interested in studying. Brynard and
Hanekom (2005) stated that in the research methodology population does not refer to the
population of a country, but rather to the objects, subjects, phenomenon, cases, events or
activities specified for the purpose of sampling. According to Fox and Bayat (2011) the research
population is the object of research and consists, among others, of individuals, groups,
organisations, human products and events or the conditions to which they are exposed.
Furthermore, Fox and Bayat (2011:52) note that population is the full set of cases from which
samples are taken, and in research these cases need not necessarily be people. In the context of
this study, research population refers to the total estimated figure of personnel currently
occupying various cadre of the Civil Service of Sierra Leone. These include administrative cadre
personnel/permanent secretaries, Professional heads of MDAs/directors, the commissioner of
Ministry of Labour and Social Security, public sector policy analysts, commissioner of Public
Sector Commission, parliamentarians, ombudsman, the media, civil society activists, drivers and
security guards of government ministries.

44
However, because the size of the population is so large, and that the researcher could not study
each element in the population due to time constraints and cost, a sample size was chosen. In
essence, this confirms Brink, Van Der Walt and Van Rensburg’s (2009) observation that,
“studying each element in the population would generally take long and be impractical and
costly”. It must be noted that scientific research requires that the population size of the study is
pre-determined and collection of data is made according to the pre-determined research
population. Virtually, it was not convenient to use the entire population in this study. Therefore,
a manageable research sample size was chosen. It is indicated earlier in this section that a
manageable research sample was selected. By selecting the research sample, non-random
methods or non-probability sampling techniques were utilised. In this regard, a total number of
25 respondents were identified for personal semi-structured interviews. These respondents are
categorised as follows:

 Commissioner of labour (1);

 Commissioner of Public Service Commission (1);
 Administrative cadre officials/permanent secretaries (3);
 Professional heads of government ministries/director generals (5);
 Parliamentarians (5);
 Media practitioners (5);
 Civil society activists (5).

Public Sector Reform policy analysts (2) (1) research sample size includes parliamentarians who
make laws that are enshrined into our constitution, public officials who take decisions on policy
implementation, Private sector investors, media practitioners, and the ordinary citizens who are
directly or indirectly affected by governance practices respectively. This study acknowledges
that owing to the big size of the research population, the selected sample size might not mean
representing the views and opinions of each element of the research population regarding civil
service management and administrative practices in Sierra Leone. However, for the purpose of
this study, the selected sample size has provided insightful information that was cautiously
analysed and interpreted in chapter four to provide coherent exposition of the impact of civil
service sound performance on quality service delivery.

3.3 Data Collection and Analysis

45
This section provides detailed discussion on the various sources of the relevant data utilized in
this study. In this regard, the researcher does not only limit the collection of data to primary
sources or empirical evidence. In social sciences, interviews and observation may precede
comprehensive review of literature. Review of literature refers to the accumulation of data from
secondary materials and includes published and unpublished sources of information. This allows
general conceptualisation of issues concerned. Only then, interviews can be conducted in order
to contextualise those issues. Naidoo (2004:51) states that, “an exploration of secondary
resources can begin with a search of published data and the identification of unpublished data
that is relevant to the topic or problem area. It is therefore essential to explore all the possibilities
of secondary data sources before proceeding with the remaining steps of research process.”

Theoretically, there are limited secondary sources of data on Civil Service management and
administrative practices. However, the researcher was able to extract some relevant secondary
data from textbooks, journals, academic works and dissertations as well as internet sources and
newspapers. According to Matthews and Ross (2010:152) one of the first questions researchers
need to address when thinking about how they are going to choose their data sources is how they
will want to use the data when they have gathered it. Possibly, this is a central point in data
collection and obviously influences the researcher’s decision on the types of data collected.
Moreover, the collected data influenced the manner research results were presented and vice
versa. In this regard, the researcher consulted various sources of data in order to collect not only
sufficient but relevant data necessary to answer the research question and address the problem
statement. Data collection was done in a manner discussed in the ensuing paragraphs.

Firstly, this study made use of secondary sources. In so doing, a comprehensive literature review
was conducted in order to collect data to provide a broader overview of Civil Service
management and administrative practices and how it may impact a sustainable quality service
delivery. That was done through desk study (library visits and internet search). The researcher
has extensively reviewed and explored the following sources of information:

 Books on Public Administration, Civil Service management and administration, public

sector reform policies, socio-economic development and sustainable service delivery
available in libraries and resource centres, as well as website documents;

46
  Government gazetted legislations (Acts of Parliament, National Development Plan
documents, as well as Policy documents);
 Journals and other scientifically researched articles;
 Daily newspapers;
 Internet sources.

The above sources of information have provided useful data relevant to the research question of
this study. It assisted the researcher to conceptualise and put into perspective Civil Service
management and administrative practices and the impacts on effective and efficient service
delivery to the citizenry.

Secondly, the researcher consulted and carefully analysed primary sources of information in
order to obtain primary data. This data collection strategy includes the researcher’s personal
interactions with respondents in the form of personal semi-structured interviews with the selected
respondents. Collecting primary data was crucial because it enabled the researcher to obtain first-
hand information on Civil Service management and administrative, thereby analysed and
interpreted such information to put into perspective and explain the current situation in Sierra
Leone. Van Der Walt and Van Rensburg (2009:141-156) maintain that the research tools to be
used to collect data, should be well planned and designed based on the research design and
research question to be answered. According to Matthews and Ross (2010:181) the history of
social research has included the development of a range of research tools to help social
researchers to organise and manage the task of data collection. The researcher, therefore, utilised
the data collection instruments as mentioned in the next paragraphs: These research instruments
are appropriate to this study because they generate data necessary to conceptualise and put into
context Civil Service management and administrative practices.

I conducted personal interviews with Commissioner of Public Service Commission, permanent

secretaries, professional heads of ministry, Commissioner of labour, policy analysts, civil society
activists, and media practitioners in Freetown. According to Yin (2003), an interview is a
qualitative tool for collecting information or data and can be either unstructured (without a plan
for directing data collection), semi-structured (with a plan for collecting data using open-ended
questions and allowing for probing), or structured (with a plan for collecting data without
allowance for probing). The interviews were semi-structured, which, according to Yin, indicates

47
the use of open-ended questions to probe the how and why behind conditions, perceptions, or
experiences. I chose this method because it promotes the opportunity to ask immediate follow-up
questions to clarify issues (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008); an advantage unavailable with
questionnaires in quantitative study methods. Also, this method was appropriate for interviewing
the Civil Service officials so that lower cadre civil servants might feel comfortable speaking
freely without fear of disciplinary action or intimidation for voicing concerns about the
management and administrative practices of the Civil Service. According to Creswell (2007), the
quality of data collecting using interviews depends to a great extent on the framing of the
interview questions and the experience of the interviewer in recording and transcribing
information from the interview. In addition, the presence of an interviewer may influence the
opinion or expression of perceptions of study participants (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). To
ensure the highest possible quality of collected data in this study, I sought feedback from experts
in the field regarding the appropriateness of my interview questions and made adjustments as
needed.

3.4 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants in this study varied based on participant type.
However, all participants were required to be of legal age (18 years and older) to participate in
the study. Typically, the age limit I used in this study for inclusion of participants was 20 years
and above. In addition, participants must have been willing and able to give informed consent
and participate fully in all aspects of the study. No potential participants were excluded on the
basis of race or gender.

Civil servants who held senior administrative or executive positions and are routinely involved in
decision making regarding the management and administrative practices of the Sierra Leone
Civil Service were eligible to participate in this study. This criterion helped ensure that only
those thoroughly knowledgeable about all aspects of Civil Service management and
administrative practices recruited for this study and thus, that I collected, as well as possible, the
most accurate and detailed data about the impact of sound management and administrative
practices on sustainable quality service delivery and national economic development.

3.5 Role as a Researcher

48
As the researcher, I was the key instrument of data collection. For the purpose of this study, and
as indicated by Creswell (2007) and Fink (2000), I served as an interface for interactions
between participants who experienced the problem or phenomenon under study. I was
responsible for designing semi-structured interview questions and meeting with the participants
to conduct personal interviews with civil servants, policy analysts, media practitioners,
parliamentarians, and civil society activists at their respective offices in Freetown. In addition, I
made assumptions, set delimitations, analyzed, interpreted, and presented the findings and
recommendations of the study. As suggested by Yin (2003), to indicate the accuracy of the
evidence, I used multiple sources to collect data on participant perceptions about the
management and administrative practices and quality service delivery to the citizenry. Because
qualitative research involving a human element such as the researcher and participants is subject
to bias, to validate the data, I considered its credibility, dependability, conformability, and
transferability. Qualitative research may be open to human or researcher bias due to influences
such as prejudice and personal beliefs (Abusabha & Woelfel, 2003). To address this problem, I
adhered to good conduct and behaviour during the interview. As recommended by Fink (2000),
Trochim and Donnelly (2008), I:

 did not indicate agreement or disagreement with participants during the interviews;
 did act as an active observer, listener, and recorder;
 did record only the expressed opinions of the participants;
 drew conclusions inductively from observations; and
 summarized findings, identified patterns, and corroborated all information to form an
accurate representation of participant perspectives.

3.6 Protection of Human Participants/Ethical Considerations

I commenced the research process of this study by sending information request letters along with
the dissertation proposal to targeted Civil Service institutions including the Ministry of Labour
and Social Security; Public Service Commission; Ministry of Social Welfare, Children and
Gender Affairs; and the House of Parliament. I first received approval from the management of
these respective institutions before I finally took off the research works. In the information
request letter that I wrote, I promised to strictly adhere to the confidentiality policies of the
institutions should any official documents were made visible to me in the course of the research

49
process, and I also assured interviewees of anonymity during presentation of the study findings
and recommendations.

Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias (2008) stated that there are many barriers in balancing the
demand for scientific integrity in the research process with the demands of policy makers who
want to know if the program worked, and what its associated costs were. This research provides
useful information for both policy makers and the scientific community by analyzing secondary
data on Civil Service management and administrative practices. Thus, this research could
ethically be used by policy makers to make informed decisions regarding the current status of the
Sierra Leone Civil Service. During the gathering of data, I had the obligation to make sure that
results are clearly presented with all limitations articulated. It was my responsibility to explain
the results of the research to policymakers who may want to use the results of this research to
support a policy position.

3.7 Summary
This chapter has been designed to broadly cover the different methods, techniques and tools
(instruments) that the researcher tested and proven to be appropriate in soliciting answers to the
various research questions outlined in the introductory chapter of this study. In this chapter, I
used qualitative research design to explore the impact of the Sierra Leone Civil Service
management and administrative practices on a quality service delivery. I used personal
interviews with open-ended interactive questions in order to allow the respondents provide more
information on the subject; this gave a better chance to understand the situation from a larger
focus than that which was represented by the theoretical framework alone and both means of
collecting information together, substantiated the data collected. This process allowed me to
identify the themes and patterns of perspectives among participant responses.

Chapter Four: Data Presentation and Analysis.

4.0 Introduction:

50
This chapter gives a highlight of responses received from respondents as a result of
questionnaires administered and interviews conducted to solicit information about the impact of
civil service management and administrative practices on quality service delivery of MDAs.
These responses were analysed through the use of tables, bar graphs and pie charts, to depict the
correlation between sound and effective management practices between the civil service and
sustainable service delivery, as well as the views and opinions of respondents on the
professionalism of the civil service. This chapter primarily focuses on addressing the critical
research problem of this study by providing credible answers to the various research questions
stated in the previous chapters. Upon conclusion of this chapter, I would be sure to have
adequately exhausted all the relevant points that are crucial to achieving the objectives of this all
important academic work.

A total of 25 respondents suitably participated in this research, and comprises of Commissioner

of labour, Commissioner of Public Service Commission, administrative cadre officers/permanent
secretaries, professional heads of government ministries/director generals, parliamentarians,
media practitioners, and civil society activists. Having conducted semi-structured interviews and
administered both open and closed-ended questionnaires to the respondents, both qualitative and
quantitative data were obtained. This exercise was done with the objective of thoroughly
assessing and evaluating the effects that civil service management and administrative practices
have on the quality service delivery ability of MDAs.

Table 1: Results Obtained From Interviews With Top Level Civil Servants In
Regard the Management and Administrative Practices of the Civil Service.

Government No of Respondents Position Response

51
Ministry, Interviewed Rate (%)
Department and
Agency
Ministry of Labour 2 i. The commissioner of 26%
and Social Security labour,
ii. The permanent secretary
Public Service 1 Commissioner of Public Service 40%
Commission Commission
Ministry of Finance 3 i. Director of Human 10.%
and Economic Resource Management,
Development ii. Permanent Secretary
iii. Accountant General

Ministry of Education, 3 i. Chief Education Officer 24%

Science and ii. Public Relation Officer
Technology iii. Director of Inspectorate
Division.
Total 100%

Figure 1: Interview Responses Obtained from Respondents of selected Civil

Service Institutions.

52
 Percentage Responses

24% 26% Ministry of Labour and

Social Security
Public Service Commission
Ministry of Finance and
Economic Development
Ministry of Education,
10% Science and Technology

40%

Table 1 and figure 1 above illustrate the percentage response rates generated from interviews
conducted with senior civil servants of selected civil service institutions in regard the effective
management and administrative practices of the civil service. As shown above, the pattern of
responses differs considerably according to the respondents’ perceptions of the professional
management and administrative practices of the civil service. About 40% of respondents from
Public Service Commission, representing the largest response rate obtained, agreed that the civil
service is professionally and ethically managed. In their opinion, the current civil service is
characterised by high integrity, impartiality, transparency and accountability. 26% of the
respondents from Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the second largest response rate
expressed similar opinion. This is immediately followed by 24% of response rate obtained from
respondents of Ministry of Education, Science and Technology; also expressing strong view on
the effective and efficient management of the civil service. Less interview response rate (10%)
was obtained from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development due to very busy
schedule of personnel in that ministry.

The Impact of Social and Demographic Characteristic of Civil Servants on

the Effective and Efficient Service Delivery of the Civil Service.
In this section the researcher sought to ascertain the link between demographic features of civil
servants on the effective, efficient, and sustainable service delivery of the civil service. This is

53
done by investigating the gender, age, and academic background of civil service employees
through the selected sample size.

Table 2: Gender Distribution of Respondents Interviewed

Civil Service Gender Frequency of Percentage
Institution Respondents Response Rate (%)
Ministry of Labour Male 2 26%
and Social Security Female 1
Public Service Male 1 40%
Commission
Ministry of Finance Male 2 10%
and Economic Female 1
Development
Ministry of Male 2 24%
Education, Science Female 1
and Technology
Total 10 100%

Figure 2: Age Bracket of Respondents Interviewed

54
 Response Rates from Respondents in various age brackets

100%
90% 2
Frequency of Response Rate

80% 2
3 5
70%
60%
50% 25% 40%

40%
4.4
30% 2.4
20% 1.8 2.8
10% 0% 0%
0% 10% 24% 20%
30 - 35 36 - 40 41 - 45 46 - 50 51 - 55 56 - 60 60 - Above

Age bracket

Table 2: Educational Background of Respondents

55
Government No of Position Academic
Ministry, Respondent Qualification
Department and s
Agency Interviewed
Ministry of Labour and 2 i. The commissioner of Masters
Social Security labour, Masters
ii. The permanent
secretary
Public Service 1 Commissioner of Public PHD
Commission Service Commission
Ministry of Finance 3 iv. Director of Human Masters
and Economic Resource Management, Masters
Development v. Permanent Secretary Masters
vi. Accountant General

Ministry of Education, 3 iv. Chief Education Officer PHD

Science and v. Public Relation Officer Masters
Technology vi. Director of Masters
Inspectorate Division.
Total

Table 1, 2, and figure 2 above depict the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents
and their frequencies. The age bracket of 56 – 60 years as illustrated in figure 1 has the highest
response frequency of 40% and 36 – 40 years was the lowest with 10% frequency response. Out
of the 10 respondents interviewed, 10 were males and 3 females. This is shown in table 2. Two
(2) respondents out of the 10 interviewed had PHD. The remaining 8 had master’s degree.

Table 3: The Composition of Civil Service in Sierra Leone (2008-2015)

2008 2015
Category Grade Number % of Total Number % of Total
Low 1-5 13,255 92.2% 11,881 87.3%

56
Middle 6-10 995 6.9% 1559 11.4%
High 11+ 134 0.9% 177 1.3%
Total 14,384 100% 13,617 100%

Table 1 above depicted the composition of the Sierra Leone civil service from a period range of
2008 – 2015. Over 87 percent of the personnel are in the lowest (blue collar) grades 1-5. While
this is an improvement on the 92% seven years ago, it is still very low. Top management grades
represent only slightly over 1 percent of civil service employment. Professional and technical
staff constitutes only about 11 percent of the total civil service workforce. Comparable numbers
for professional and technical staff in Gambia (in 2007) were 26 percent and even in Sudan (in
2004) 14.3 percent. This is commonly referred to as the problem of the missing middle.

Table 4: Sierra Leone in Comparative Perspective.

Country Literacy Ratio Mortalit Mortalit Improved Improved GNI
Name rate, of y rate, y rate, sanitation water per
adult young infant under-5 facilities source (% capit
total (% literate (per (per (% of of a
of females 1,000 1,000) populatio population (PPP)

57
 people to live n with with const
ages 15 males births) access) access) ant
and (% 2005
above) ages (HD)
15-24)
Sierra Leone 40.9 71.1 113.7 174 13 49 737
Burundi 66.6 99.2 87.8 141.9 46 72 368
DRC 67.0 84.7 111.7 169.9 23 46 280
Mozambique 55.1 81.6 92.2 135 17 47 898
Rwanda 70.7 100.5 59.1 91.1 54 65 1133
Liberia 59.1 114.9 73.6 102.6 17 68 265
Guinea 39.5 61.7 81.2 129.9 53 19 863
SL Rank 6 6 7 7 7 4 4

While the link is not easily established, it is generally accepted that in addition to its capability
for policy making/coordination and regulation, the quality of upstream public sector institutions
has an impact on the downstream performance of government on the provision of services and
infrastructure (World Bank 2012a). Consequently, the poor status of the civil service reflected in
Sierra Leone‘s poor ranking on WGI‘s Government Effectiveness indicator - remains an issue of
serious concern for development partners and has been often identified by national governments
as an area requiring urgent reforms (World Bank 2012). Over the years during and after the civil
war, the public service in Sierra Leone experienced a progressive depletion of professional and
technical staff at the middle and senior levels. This is starkly evident when comparing the
composition of Sierra Leone‘s (core) civil service to other African countries as depicted by table
4 above. In Sierra Leone today, over 87 percent of the personnel are in the lowest (blue collar)
grades 1-5. While this is an improvement on the 92% three years ago, it is still very low.

4.1 The Civil Service in Sierra Leone: Defining the functional problem
 Several features characterize the current state of the civil service in Sierra Leone,
including extremely low levels of remuneration that are inadequate for attracting and
retaining staff;
 patronage based appointments, promotions and remuneration levels; and
 the virtual absence of intrinsic or extrinsic incentives for performance.

58
In addition, internal inequities which engender frustration and dissatisfaction are not conducive
to establishing a result-oriented civil service. While it is difficult to disentangle the impact of
each of these, it is more than likely that together they act as binding constraints, the lifting of
which would be a necessary (if not sufficient) condition to improve overall civil service
performance.

Figure 3: Percentage of Respondents View on Major Factors Affecting the

Effective Performance of the Civil Service.

Interview Respose Rate from Respondents

40%
30%
20%
Percentage Response

10%
0%
on on ce
r ati oti an
e om rm
un pr rfo
m e
Re nd rp
w ta o
Lo en
esf
in
tm tiv
po cen
ap f in
se
d
cko
ba La
ge
o na
tr
Pa Major Factors Affecting the Civil Service

Figure 3 above analysed responses obtained from questionnaires issued out to respondents at the
Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Respondents were requested in the questionnaires to
highlight major challenges affecting the effective performance of the civil service administration.
As depicted in the figure, respondents who were of the opinion that low remuneration is the
cause for low performance of the civil service were 40% while those who attributed low
performance of civil service to patronage based appointment and promotion, and lack of
incentives for performance were 35% and 25% respectively. It was strongly asserted that Low
remuneration appears to be one of the major reasons why Sierra Leone‘s civil service has not
been able to attract and retain suitably qualified in technical and professional personnel.

4.2 Recruitment and Appointment into the Civil Service

59
Recruitment means the appointment of persons into the Civil Service. Appointment to the Civil
Service, at whatever level, is an opportunity, granting the selected candidate membership in a
unique group selected for their individual talents and abilities and joined into a corps of
employees dedicated to the service of the People of Sierra Leone. The paramount consideration
in the appointment of members of the Civil Service must be fundamentally based on merit.

Figure 4: Responses to Whether Recruitment and Appointment into the Civil

Service is based on Sentiment or Political Affiliation.

Percentage of Respondents

5%

12% 21%

Agree
Strongly agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree

62%

Figure 3 above shows that 62% of respondents, representing the largest, strongly assert in their
own view that recruitment and appointment into the civil service of Sierra Leone is based on
sentiment or political affiliation, and followed by 21% of respondents, second largest, who also
were of the same view. However, Respondents representing 12% of the total responses strongly
disagreed that recruitment and appointment into the civil service is neither based on any
sentiment nor political affiliation. This view is also supported by 5% of the total respondents,
representing the least.

4.3 Enhancing the Civil Service Capacity:

4.3.1 Appointments to Critical Vacancies in the Civil Service (Grades 6 - 14)
Against the background of its mandate, the Public Service Commission has a proportionately
high focus on ensuring that the civil service has the right size of personnel and the appropriate
skills mix required to deliver good quality services to the people of Sierra Leone. It remains the
60
responsibility of the PSC to ensure that other agencies now executing aspects of that mandate
attach similar premium to this undertaking. In 2014, the Public Service Commission filled a total
of 442 vacancies in various MDAs in the Civil Service. Out of this figure, a total of 389 critical
vacancies in Grades 7 & 8 (the missing middle) were filled.

The Commission received a total of 2,965 applications. A total of 2,551 applicants for Grades 6,
7 and 8 were shortlisted to take the Civil Service Entrance Examination. Of this number, only
20% (a total of 552) applicants passed the Examination for the reporting period and were
shortlisted for interview. In the case of Grades 9 and above, a total of 48 applicants were
shortlisted for interview. This is illustrated in Table 5 above, which is an analysis of applicants
by Grades and in Charts 1 and 2, which is an analysis of appointments by Grades and Gender
respectively. Chart 3 is an analysis of total percentage of appointments by gender.

Table 5: Analysis of Applicants by Grades

Grades Total Applications Total Shortlisted Total Shortlisted for

Received for Examination Interview
6 57 50 32
7 2,614 2,334 400
8 205 167 120
9 42 - 23
10 21 - 16
11 10 - 9
13 0 - -

61
Others 16 - 7
Total 2,965 2,551 607

Table 5: Analysis of Applicants by Grades

Appointments
350
No that Received Appointment

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Grade 13 Others

Civil Service Grades

Figure 6: Total Percentage of Appointment:

62
 Gender

17%

Male
Female
3rd Qtr

83%

Grades Total Applications

A key observation by the PSC in the recruitment exercise for 2014 is the persistence of the
disturbing trend of disparity in the gender balance between men and women appointed to critical
vacancies in the Civil Service. This is instructive for policy and decision makers in the context of
broader Government policies on both gender empowerment and gender mainstreaming. An
inconclusive debate at the PSC currently rages around the imperative to strike a balance between
affirmative action for women and keeping strictly to one of the PSC’s values of Equal
Opportunity in the Commission’s endeavour to recruit the best skills for the Public Service.

4.3.2 Appointments under Delegation Direction (Grades 1 – 5):

In 2008, in line with a Cabinet Directive dating back to 2006 and the provisions of sub-section
(10) of Section 152 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991 (Act No. 6 of 1991), the PSC
delegated to the HRMO the mandate for appointing to positions in Grades 1 to 5 of the Civil
Service. HRMO, which is the successor organ to the Establishment Secretary’s Office and
charged with the day-to-day management of the Civil Service, now submits Quarterly Reports to
the PSC on the execution of this mandate. At this stage, the reports are almost entirely
quantitative. It is hoped, however, that from 2018 onwards, HRMO Reports to PSC will also
encompass qualitative data detailing compliance with PSC policies, processes and procedures.

63
Table 6: Analysis of Appointments and Promotions to Grades 1 – 5

Grades Appointments Promotions

1 85 -
2 181 1
3 28 5
4 25 51
5 21 4
Total 340 61

4.4 Summary
This chapter has essentially focused on presentation and analysis of data obtained from both
questionnaires and interviews conducted with the study participants. Views from various
respondents with regard civil service management and administrative practices were critically
examined and analysed. The researcher also sought the perception of respondents on major
factors affecting the effective performance of the civil service.

Chapter Five:

Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations.

5.0 Introduction:

64
This study is being conducted with the view to assessing the administrative and management
practices of the Sierra Leone civil service in relation to quality and sustainable service delivery
to the citizenry. Sierra Leone’s Civil Service is principally responsible for facilitating the day-to-
day affairs of the country. Over the years, the institution has largely demonstrated maturity in its
activities and operations.  But candidly, much has not been achieved and there is little or nothing
to write home about.

Improved capacity of the civil service is critical to deliver services for citizens. The government
is currently tackling challenges of poor performance through a flagship public sector reform
program (improving productivity through management and pay reforms), a part of which
involves reform of the civil service. The World Bank has been very supportive to the government
on this civil service reform through a lending project on pay and performance. The project
fundamentally targets changes in three key areas:

 competitiveness in the pay of civil servants;

 performance management and accountability of civil servants; and
 recruiting and staffing to fill key positions.

The World Bank leadership practice is supporting a collaborative leadership process to advance
the pay and performance project results. They provided rapid results approach (RRA) coaching
to approximately five inter-agency implementation teams to achieve the indicators set by the
project, and facilitated discussions with the teams and the leadership team for the civil service
reform agenda, in order to review progress and conduct problem-solving that will address
implementation challenges.

This is the final chapter of this study and it basically outlines the various constraints which were
consistently encountered by the researcher during the course of undertaking this research work in
order to adequately satisfy the fundamental objectives of this study. This chapter concludes the
study by providing a valid conclusion on the basis of findings, analysis, and discussions. Finally,
recommendations are reasonably suggested for policy formulation and further research work in
the field by subsequent researchers.

5.1 Summary of the Findings:

65
This section of the chapter reveals relevant findings from the entire study which are the direct
aftermath of the meticulous review of theoretical materials and rigorous analysis of empirical
data in chapter two and four respectively. I was able to discover that the efficiency and
performance of the Sierra Leone civil service in delivering services is crucial to attracting and
retaining investment in the private sector and, by extension, the overall performance of the
economy. In turn, suffice to note that the performance of the civil service depends largely on the
quality and efficiency of the public workforce. The quality of staff in the civil service depends
significantly on the capacity of the public service commission to deliver on its mandate and the
credibility of the recruitment process. There are substantially clear indications to justify that the
quality of the management and administrative practices of the civil service, especially in the
aspect of human resource management, is critical to improved service delivery and a sustainable
economic development.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is the oldest constitutional and constituted human
resource management, standard setting, discipline, transparency, and accountability institution in
the Sierra Leone public service. This pre-independence institution has gone through many
challenges and changes since it was created in 1948. Constitutionally, the PSC has general
responsibility for recruitment and personnel management for the public service of Sierra Leone,
in which the civil service is a sub set. Although the country is geographically relatively small in
size the operations of the PSC historically has been centralised in Freetown, due in part to the
fact that there is where the greater proportion of the government’s administrative and functional
machinery is based. Worse still, eleven years of civil war and the post-war logistical
inadequacies has kept the PSC still centralised in Freetown.

Since the end of the 11-year civil war in 2002 several policy changes have occurred in the public
sector environment with direct consequences for the PSC. Several new institutions have emerged
whose prescribed functions run parallel or overlap (with blurred jurisdictional lines) with those
of the PSC. The decentralization process for instance has created a Local Government Service
Commission (LGSC) with direct responsibility for public personnel who fall under the
jurisdiction of the Local Councils. Also, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), another post-
war creation, inadvertently disregards the PSC’s authority (to administer discipline and deliver
administrative justice) in its investigations of allegations of corruption involving public officials

66
who are under the jurisdiction of the PSC. The most recent change in the public sector with
direct implication for the operation of the PSC is the creation of a Teaching Service Commission
(TSC) and a Health Service Commission (HSC).

In view of the above developments, a need for clarification of roles and effective coordination of
efforts has emerged. With role clarity and effective coordination, these new structures and
institutions provide an opportunity for the PSC to further delegate some of its functions, and
allow it to focus on providing policy direction on public sector personnel issues.

5.2 Limitations of the Study

It is almost impossible to undertake research of this nature without encountering some amount of
limitations. This study is of course no exception. The researcher encountered certain limitations
in the course of undertaking this study. Key among these include:

 Unavailability of data: - one of the greatest challenges the researcher encountered in this
study relates to the access to and collection of hard data due to extreme data gaps, since
much research work has not been undertaken in this field, as a result there are limited
written materials available to write a more detailed research work.

 Resistance of respondents: the researcher was also limited by the reluctance of some
respondents, especially senior civil servants at PSC secretariat, to help the researcher with
most needed information regarding the administrative and management practices of the
Civil Service. This as a result limited the number of respondents involved in the study
despite the researcher’s enthusiasm and approaches in explaining the potential benefits of
the study to them.

 Time and funds: another serious limitation of this study relates to time, funds and
logistical constraints, which severely limited the intensity of the spread or areas of
coverage of the study. The study was initially designed to include sample size from Civil
Service policy implementation in the provinces (Bo, Kenema, and Makeni) but due to
time and funds constraints, the study was fundamentally focused on Civil Service
administrative policies in Freetown.
5.3 Conclusion:

67
With regard the findings discovered on the basis of data generated from both primary and
secondary sources and subsequently analyzed and interpreted in chapter four of this study, I can
fervently state that, Sierra Leone as a country with an estimated total population figure of 7.1
million people (2015 population census) and GDP per capita 496.05 USD (2016 estimate), the
existence of a results-oriented civil service management and administrative system is critical to
the delivering of quality and sustainable service to the public. The appropriate measure of a
country’s strength lies in the ability of its civil service management and administrative practices.
This is a central idea in the World Bank's Public Sector Management (PSM) Approach (2011-
2020). A developed civil service system calls for the installation of well-established procedures
for the conduct of common personnel transactions, such as selection, promotion, compensation,
performance evaluation, discipline, and separation. These standardized methods are intended to
provide objectivity in the choice of entrants to the civil service from citizens who compete and to
provide equity in treatment for those who already belong to the service.

Finally, the role of the civil service must be defined in the political system generally. The
universal expectation is that the civil service should be neutral in the sense that it is loyal to the
basic political order in the state but at the same time is amenable to shifts in political leadership
from time to time. Devices for trying to achieve this vary a great deal from country to country,
but responsiveness by the administrative staff to the directives of political leaders is an objective
commonly sought, even among political regimes that differ greatly in other respects.

5.4 Recommendations:
From the systematic analysis and meticulous discussion of data generated in the preceding
chapter, the results of the study have reported that sound management and administrative
practices of the civil service is indispensable for quality and sustainable service delivery to the
citizenry of Sierra Leone. In recent times the civil service has focused more attention on the need
to set standards for service delivery through the development of a cost-consciousness attitude
among civil servants in the treatment and utilization of assets and resources put at the disposal of
civil service institutions so that such institutions can operate within their budget. These are
intended to ensure and measure operational efficiency, cost effectiveness and quality of service.
The basic rationale is that until the civil service begins to measure performance in this area, it
does not know whether it is becoming more efficient, or not, in delivering services. Furthermore,

68
in some areas there is a concern that quality of services may be deteriorating rather than
improving. Measurement of the quality and quantity of services is, therefore, essential.

The Public Service Commission is the constitutionally authorized institution with the
responsibility of regulating the performance of the public service in Sierra leone. It provides
leadership, supervision, oversight and guidance to development and management of
the human resources of the civil service through merit-based recruitment and retention of the best
skills to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to the people of Sierra Leone. The
government of Sierra Leone in recent time, has recognized the imperative and urgent need to
rebuild the civil service to enable it achieve its ambitious objectives of improved service delivery
and the development of infrastructure as laid out in the Agenda for Change and as reinforced in
the Agenda for Prosperity. The urgent task of recruiting civil servants to fill critical skills gaps in
the middle level professional/technical and management levels on the basis of merit through
transparent and competitive processes has been regarded as a prioritized public sector policy area
and managed by the Commission as provided for in its mandate under Section 152(1) of the
Constitution.

Notwithstanding the above policy development, the civil service of Sierra Leone continues to be
characterized of inadequate skilled and experienced personnel both in the top and middle level
cadre, subjective recruitment and promotion practices, devoid of integrity and professionalism,
and above all poor service delivery. Whereas the PSC is the single constitutional authority for
recruitment and selection, and the institution of standards of performance and discipline, the
Commission actually underwent progressive erosion of its institutional capacity and standards of
ethics and credibility over the decades, which in large measure explains the deterioration of the
civil service in particular and the public service in general. Unfortunately, rather than restructure
and strengthen the institution and recognize its role, the Commission was completely set aside in
the decade-long reform endeavors of the 1990’s into the dawn of the millennium mainly because
it did not show up on the platform of credible partners and authorities in the process.

Starting in the late 1970s the quality of recruitment into the Sierra Leone public service
began to deteriorate. An examination of trends in the quality of recruitments shows that a greater
proportion of civil servants recruited between 1978 to 1991 were of particularly low quality

69
compared to those recruited prior to 1978 or after 1992. Based on 2009 civil service verification
data, the analysis revealed that out of nearly 15,000 existing civil servants, about nearly 7,000
were recruited between 1978 and 1991, and that of this latter category 62 per cent could show no
evidence of any qualification. The analysis further reveals that over half (53 per cent) of all
unqualified civil servants currently in the service consists of those recruited during that period.
The period in question coincides with a period of politicization of recruitment into the public
sector, an erosion of the integrity of the recruitment and selection system, and progressive
deterioration of the capacity and credibility of the PSC. With regard the findings of this study,
the following recommendations are worth considering:

5.4.1 Recruitment and Promotion of Staff

Recruitment means the appointment of persons into the Civil Service by the Public Service
Commission. Selection and appointment of members of the Civil Service should be done on the
basis of fair and open competition without unnecessary distinction based on race, gender,
religion or region to ensure that the appointments are made on the basis of merit. Due procedures
including vacancy advertisement by appropriate notice within the Civil Service or through the
Gazette, the press, other media, employment exchanges, or other appropriate means for the
information of the general public, should be followed and there must be a reasonable period of
time, with a minimum period of one month, between the date of advertisement and the deadline
for applications to be received. Promotion on the other hand means the elevation of an officer
from a lower post to a higher post resulting in an increase in salary. All promotions in the civil
service should be based on the over-riding decisions as to the fitness of an officer to undertake
duties at the higher level. In assessing officers for promotion, Heads of Departments and the
Public Service Commission should be guided primarily by the criteria of merit and ability which
must be the principal consideration, and secondarily by seniority, experience and official
qualifications of the officer.

5.4.2 Salaries and Allowances as Motivation for Improved Performance

70
Adequate compensation for civil servants, particularly in the higher categories, is essential for
driving effective and efficient performance as well as attracting and holding qualified people. It
is empirically proven that low salary scales are a major factor in explaining prevalent conditions
of petty corruption, staff dissatisfaction, and low productivity. There should be a salary and
allowance structure made up of salary scales for each approved grade in the Civil Service.
Differences in salaries and allowances should be based on recognizable differences in the work
performed, the responsibilities assigned, and the qualifications required.

5.4.3 Staff Training and Development

The quality of the human capital in the civil service is critical to the effective and performance-
oriented civil service in ensuring quality and sustainable service delivery to the citizenry.
Government should adopt a Civil Service Training Policy that will serve as a guide for the
development of the capacity of employees in the Civil Service to enhance their functional
effectiveness. In addition, Government shall establish the management and funding mechanisms
necessary for the effective implementation of the Civil Service training policy. The technical
capability, innovative ability and integrity of the top and middle level of the civil service are
fundamental to the effectiveness and management practices of the civil service. Indeed, bulk of
the public service reform policies being formulated to boost the development of the public sector
should be designed with the attraction of high-quality personnel into the civil service. The
indispensability of technical and high-quality people for enhancing the competitiveness of the
civil service has forced most sub-Saharan African countries to reform their civil servants salary
structure and other conditions of service.

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies:

Considering the limitation highlighted above clearly indicates that this study is by no mean
exhaustive. There are obviously rooms for conducting future research in the same field for more
extensive coverage of the sample size. This research was basically conducted in Freetown and
primarily targeted selected MDAs. Civil service institutions located in the provinces were not
visited as a result of funds and time constraint. Adequate knowledge and data can be obtained if
this research could be extensively done inclusive of all civil service sub offices located in the
provinces.

71
Reference:
1. Andrew Matt. 2010, how far has Public Financial Management Reforms Come in Africa?
Faculty Research Working Papers Series Cambridge, Mass., John F. Kennedy School of
Government – Harvard University.
2. Booth, David. 2009. Elites, Governance and the Public Interest in Africa: Working with
the Grain - Africa Power and Politics Working Paper No. 9.
3. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), 2011 - Sierra Leone Country Report, September
2011.
4. Englebert, Pierre. 2000. Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic
Development in Tropical Africa, in: Political Research Quarterly, pp. 7-36.
5. Evans A. 2008. 'Civil Service and Administrative Reform: Thematic Paper', Background
Paper to Public Sector Reform - What Works and Why?
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