“THE COLLABORATIVE ROLE OF CIVIL AND PUBLIC SERVANTS IN FACILITATING EFFECTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE SERVICE DELIVERY IN A DEMOCRACY” BY MAHMOOD YAYALE AHMED CFR FORMER HEAD OF THE CIVIL SERVICE OF THE FEDERATION, FORMER SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION

Protocols

I am particularly pleased to be part of this yet another epoch making retreat organized by the Savannah Centre with the support of the Ministry of Aviation and taking place in this beautiful city of Uyo at a unique location with wonderful facilities including a first class Golf Course. I am confident that the Participants will unwind and interact freely and know each other better within the few days they will be together. Let me therefore thank both the Ministry of Aviation and the Savannah Centre for organizing this retreat and inviting me to lead in the discussions lined up and aimed at engendering efficiency and effective service delivery to the Nigerian people.

• Democratic form of government is considered universally as the most effective way of ensuring development and popular participation by citizens in matters that concern their wellbeing and progress. No government, whether Democratic or otherwise, can survive without Administration or Civil Service which refers to different group of people with different enterprise expertise woven together in a complicated process to achieve the objectives of government. Hundreds of thousands of workers brought together and distributed for work among various departments of government and to be supervised and directed by superior officers at different levels in the hierarchy. Democratic system of government has succeeded in many countries, especially the developed nations and it is making varying progress in developing nations due to so many problems. From 1999 to date, Nigeria can rightly claim that it has been practicing democracy satisfactorily, despite the usual system abuses by the Democratic Institutions such as political parties and electoral bodies.
• A democratically elected Government is an expression of the will of the people and a veritable means of achieving their mandate for good life, social upliftment, enduring peace and security as well as general development. It is universally acknowledged that the Civil Service is the bastion or bulwark of the government. If it is effective and efficient, the government’s performance will be adjudged excellent. In order words, the successes or otherwise of any government is largely dependent on the quality of service of its Civil/Public Service.
• As we all know the main purpose of Governments is to entrench conducive atmosphere for political and socio economic development of the countries, thereby enhancing the social wellbeing of the citizens. Governance is epicenter of the interplay between various forces within local and international environment where decisions at all times are based on consultation and consensus within the confines of the laws of the land. It therefore follows that Government should be concerned with issues of respect for the rule of law, accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness in the management of resources for the general good. To that extent, it is imperative to establish strong institutions manned by competent and patriotic Servants, who usually possess sufficient qualifications and skills and as they progress, acquire experience through training and supervision and eventually, they become professionals in the various areas of competence related to the nature of their duties and responsibilities.
• It is clear that in any organization, administration must exist because organizations are set to achieve their declared objectives through the expert management of the system and process by various qualified men and women who are brought together via hierarchical set-up, making use of tools, equipment and other materials towards realizing the objectives of the organization or government in this case. These employees have to be coordinated, supervised ad controlled and graded in different levels of authority in a bottom up structure, each assigned a specific function as schedule of duty. Administration is the keystone to the success and indeed to the very existence of government. It is concerned with planning, co-ordination, supervision and control of the establishment (Adebayo 2004). Due to expanding role of government and the dynamics of delivering quality service to the electorates, democratic governance require the appointment or election of another set of servants to complement the regular professional with a view to jointly work towards realizing the objectives of government. This category of workers may or may not have specified qualifications or professionalism as they are usually appointed for a fixed term by the government of the day and they go with the government at the end of its tenure. In effect, both the elected and appointed and Civil Servants are Public Servants.
• Let me make a clarification here, a Public Servant is essentially a government employee, functionary or office holder who is usually elected or appointed to perform certain functions for the government. Civil Servants on the other hand, are officials of government who are employed to work for government in developing and implementing its policies and programmes. They are supposed to be politically impartial and independent but loyal to the government irrespective of its political affiliation because they are professionals and trained to serve the generality of the citizens of the country, i.e, the PUBLIC. They belong to an established tenured career service provided for in the Scheme of Service, covering all Officers in the employment of government from head of Service to Cleaners.
• One undisputed fact is that, irrespective of their distinguished characteristics, the Public Servants and the Civil Servants have the same mission of achieving the common goals of implementing the programs of the government they work under. Herein lies the necessity for the two categories of Servants to collaborate and work together under a mutually agreed framework that will systemize their strong attributes for the development of the country. Therefore, they cannot afford to be working at cross purposes or under the negative factors that I will state shortly. The Civil Servants should always provide institutional memory, informed advise and continuity of governance for policy formation and implementing. For effective and sustainable service delivery by any democratic government, there must be serious and purposeful collaboration between the Civil and the Public Servants and this can be instrumentalized through deliberate strategic partnership, whereby the Civil Servants promotes its professionalism and performance while the Public Officers provide their political will and influence. In this regard, for any such partnership to materialize and succeed, the perception of their respective roles must change such that there is a deliberate commitment to cooperate and collaborate with each other under an atmosphere of mutual respect and loyalty to political authority. Also, the reward system should also be reviewed in such a way that the glaring disparities are narrowed so much so that the mainstream Civil Servants do not feel short changed. The prevailing disproportionate reward system has a direct negative impact on the performance of most Civil Servants whose morale is adjudged to be low.
• To a significant extent, social pressure on both the Public and Civil Servants from the general public invariably push the Servants to engage in untoward activities which grossly hamper development. Similarly, most Public Servants, whether elected or appointed, consider their office as means of making money hence they also often engage in corrupt practices, sometimes with the support and collaboration of the Civil Servants. Where the cooperation of the Civil Servant to divert public funds is not forthcoming, there is always a crisis. Many of such incidents have made big headlines in our national dailies and the electronic media. A situation like this certainly negates efficient and sustained service delivery to the public by any democratic government. Both the Civil and Public Servants must be motivated and committed in order to realize the desired development of the country. It should be understood that development is a process of improvement in quality, quantity, structure and wellbeing of a society, thereby changing it into a better, safer, healthier and more productive one. As the process rolls on the Civil Servants in view of their “performance”, become more proficient, efficient and effective in policy formation, formulation, review and implementation.
• Any society’s capacity to secure and deploy resources in addressing its challenges and improving opportunities usually accelerates its development. Thus the pace and scope of development are pendant upon the availability of physical, social and most importantly, human resources. It is imperative for government to build the capacity of its Civil Servants through structured training and retraining. Perhaps, another area that usually generates friction between the Civil and the Public Servants is total disregard or ignorance of the rules and regulations. In a typical Ministry of Government, everybody knows that the Honorable Minister who is a political appointee of Mr. President is the Chief Executive of the Ministry, whereas the parastatals under the Ministry enjoy quasi-independence and this in some cases, makes the Board and Chief Executive Officers of the parastatals who are also political appointees, to prefer to operate independent of the Ministry. This attitude is contrary to the rationale behind the establishment of the parastatals. The Honorable Minister has a supervising and oversighting role over the parastatals, under his Ministry because he/she presents and defends the parastatal’s budgets and other expenditure of certain thresholds at the Executive Council of the Federation. In many cases, both the Board Members and the Chief Executive Officers of the parastatals hardly care to read the laws establishing the parastatals, let alone to internalize their provisions so that they know their limits. In other cases, the disposition of some of the Chief Executive Officers also lead to infighting between them and their Boards. Conversely, some Board members also make impossible and outrageous demands from the Chief Executive Officer which could only be granted by breaking the Laws.
• Let me at this juncture, mention some of the roles of the Civil Servant in relation to the Minister as enumerated by Augustus Adeboye in his book titled Principles and Practice of Public Administration in Nigeria (2004)
  a) He/she should realize that decisions are taken by the Minister and it is the duty of the Civil Servants to supply the Minister with the information necessary to make a right decision.
  b) The Civil Servant must place before the Minister, the arguments on both sides of the case, fully and fairly, whatever his own sympathies may be, he must put before his Minister all the arguments which may be argued against the view which is taken in the office
  c) Once the decision is taken, the Civil Servants must carry out loyally, the policy chosen, even though he may have preferred a different one.
  d) The decision once taken, it is that of the Minister or the Government as a whole, and it is contrary to tradition for a Civil Servant to take credit for any measure accepted by government and of which he is the author. Since the decision is that of the Minister, he must take full responsibility for it. If the decision happens to be wrong or unpopular, the Minister must not protect himself by blaming his officials. It is also expected that the Minister should defend his officials if they are attacked in public. A Minister who cannot observe this tradition is normally expected to resign.
  e) The Civil Servant must observe absolute silence and be discreet as to what takes place in the office, since responsibility for policy rests upon Ministers and Civil Servants are the instrument, not the masters, of policy. The Civil Servant is concerned with the formulation of policy as directed by his Minister
  f) The Civil Service is responsible for continuity of policy or such continuity as is possible under a parliamentary system of Government. Its concern is therefore the good of the nation irrespective of Party. He must submit the national point of view
  g) It is imperative that Civil Servants strictly observe the triple maxim of impartiality, neutrality and anonymity. As the expert adviser of his political boss, he/she must be “on tap and never on top”.
• While he must carry out the decisions and policy laid down by the political boss, he/she must resist illegitimate political demands or pressures. To succeed in doing this, and to develop the capacity for resisting illegitimate in improper demands, the Civil Servant must learn that it is in his own interest to resist political encroachments upon the internal self-regulations of the Civil Service system. For example, such matters as financial accounting, award of contracts, assessment, promotion and discipline of staff, there are Civil Service rules for the Civil Servants to obey and follow, and no Minister or Political boss should be allowed to encroach, interfere, or in any way influence the Civil Servants in the discharge of such functions. “There will always be some degree of conflict between the politician’s interest to promote his political fortunes and the Civil Servant’s duty to apply impartial, rules and procedures. Fortunately, the Civil Servant is sufficiently protected by rules and regulations made under the laws and should have nothing to fear so long as he remains honest and impartial (Adebayo 2004)”
• One of the cardinal principles of Public Administration is Accountability. Therefore, in carrying out the directive of the Minister, especially in cases where the Civil Servant adviser has disagreed with the Minister and the Minister nevertheless has overruled, the Civil Servant will be well advised to ensure that the Minister reduces his directive to writing. Every Public Officer is accountable for his action in the course of his official duties and a wrong decision of today may become a subject of inquiry tomorrow. When the Minister refuses to reduce the directive to writing, the Civil Servant adviser is put in a difficult situation with regards to his relations with the subordinate and colleague who may not trust him again. In this circumstance the Civil Servant should reproduce the directive in a minute to the Minister seeking his endorsement (Adebayo 2004)
• Generally, Ministers seek to enforce a Master-Servant relationship in their dealings with civil Servants advisers which becomes counterproductive thereby seriously impairing efficiency and productivity. In order to ensure collaboration, the relationship between Minister and Civil Servant should be that of colleagues working together in a team; cooperative partners seeking to advance the public interest and the efficiency of the Ministry. The relationship should be one of mutual respect on the understanding that the Minister’s decision is final.
• All these unwarranted frictions and infighting can be avoided and overcome if both the Board and Chief Executive Officers collaborate and work together in accordance with laws, rules and regulations governing their operations. The Hon. Ministers and Permanent Secretaries, Civil Servants should lead by example by insisting on compliance with the established rules and regulations in all business of the Ministry and its parastatals which will enforce discipline and professionalism at all levels. They should ensure an all-inclusive governance which will guarantee peace and development. They should also encourage open and honest communication at all levels in order to build and sustain mutual trust and respect which will in turn strengthen collaboration for efficient and sustainable development.
• Another suggestion for successful collaboration between the public and Civil servants is continuous training of the two categories of servants. Immediately after their election or appointment into office, the Public Servants should be subjected to an intensive training about their expected roles, their limits and the roles of the Civil Servants. The Government must always demonstrate its will to bring the Public and Civil Servant to work together as a team in order to provide effective and sustainable development to the country. Also, the government should concentrate more attention in building strong institutions and not powerful individuals.
• Our cultural and societal values and ethnics are being disregarded by both the youth and the older persons, which gave rise to moral decadence, unprecedented corruption, injustice and wide range of acts of criminality. “The entire public must commit themselves to moral Rejuvenation and Ethical Reorientation as a philosophical foundation necessary for advancing sustainable governance in a democratic setting”.