Assessment of the General Goals of Civil Service Reforms in the Gambia and Its Implementations

Abstract

This study examined the strategic goals of civil service reforms in The Gambia and its implementation in the Gambian civil service. This was aimed to identify challenges facing the implementations and policy options towards assisting the process. This study adopted primary data collection through the administration of questionnaires and interview guide. The population of the study comprises the senior and middle level staff of Public Service Commission (PSC), Personnel Management Office (PMO), Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) which were purposively selected. In all, there are 189 senior and middle management staff in the four Ministries/Departments/ Agencies (MDAs) which breakdown goes thus: PMO (37), PSC (6), MoBSE (87) and MoH (59). Questionnaire was administered on the staff of the four MDAs while interview was conducted with the Permanent Secretaries, Deputy Permanent Secretaries and a former Secretary General and Head of Civil Service.  Out of the 189 copies of questionnaire administered, 140 were retrieved. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods such as frequency distribution and percentages.The results of the study revealed that majority of the respondents identified reinforcement of meritocracy, due process and professionalism, enhancement of administrative culture, improvement of efficiency and quality service delivery, institutionalization of a system that engenders separation between politics and administration as goals and objectives of civil service reforms in The Gambia. The research has also shown that the Civil service sometimes adhere to meritocratic principles,  gives attention to diversity in terms of ethnic groups, , provide detailed policies and standard procedures, conduct induction programmes,, made available the General Orders and code of ethics to employees, conducts performance assessment, recruitment and selection  are encouraging, recruitment and promotion processes are reviewed at regular intervals and training programmes are based on outcome of need assessment.  Despite its performance, the four MDAs also continues to face challenges in terms of human and material resources as alluded to by the responses of numerous respondents during the study.  The performance of the institution was said to have been hindered by low commitment from government, lack of capacity at PMO, proliferation of public institutions, poor ethics management, lack of clarity of institutional roles, lack of appraisal system, unclear policies, lack of job fit and organization fit, among others.The main thesis of this study is that reforms of The Gambia civil service did enhance personnel administration systems and practices of the civil service institutions of The Gambia but only to a large extent.

Keywords: Civil Service, Reforms, Personnel, Recruitment, The Gambia.

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-7-02

Publication date:August 31^st 2021