Public service can be defined as a service which is provided by the government or an authorised body for the benefit of all the people in a particular society or community.
Public service is also a body of government employees entrusted with the administration of the country, and mandated to carry out the policy of the government.
In other words, it is a body or department of the executive arm of government responsible for the implementation of policies and programmes of the government.
Public service is also referred to civil service, and people who work to provide the service are called civil servants or public servants. Examples of civil servants include: teachers in government schools, immigration officials, etc.
Note that Public Service does not excluding defence or judiciary sectors, i.e., military, judicial branches or elected politicians.
Features of the Public Service
1. Permanency: The civil service is a permanent government establishment and employees enjoy security of tenure. The civil service remains intact while government changes periodically.
2. Neutrality: Civil servants are required to be politically neutral so that they can serve faithfully, any government in power, no matter the controlling party. The Law requires them to resign their appointment where they are interested in partisan politics.
3. Impartiality: This implies that civil servants should discharge their official duties fairly to all the people they are serving, without religious, class, gender, ethnic or any other sectional biases.
4. Anonymity: Civil servants may neither disclose government official secretarial nor speak to the press on government matters, except they are authorised by the minister supervising the ministry. They cannot be held responsible for their official actions. The minister and director-general are politically accountable for the success or failure of their ministry.
5. Expertise: The civil service consists of highly qualified and professionally experienced experts in various fields. The formulation and implementation of government policies and programmes depend largely on these specialists, while political office holders may not themselves be specialists in the areas they supervise.
6. Bureaucracy: The civil service is characterised by very strict adherence to established rules Bureaucracy: and regulations; this sometimes causes delays in the implementation of government policies and programmes.
7. Merit System: Recruitment and promotion in the civil service is often based on merit. Only qualified and competent candidates are recruited by the civil service commission. Promotion is also carried out in accordance with the established rules and regulations.
Functions of the Public Service
1. Formulation of Policies: The senior administrative and technical civil servants help to formulate the policies and programmes of the government. These are presented to the ministers and commissioners for consideration and final decisions.
2. Drafting of Bills: Experts in the civil service, especially lawyers, assist the government in the drafting of bills which eventually become laws.
3. Advice to the ministers/commissioners: The top civil servants act as advisers to the ministers and commissioners in charge of their ministries. Their relevant expertise and experience afford them the opportunity of providing dependable guide and information on complex government policies and programmes. They also help the political appointees to furnish the legislature with relevant information requested on their ministry.
4. Implementation of government policies: The top civil servants coordinate and supervise their subordinates to ensure the smooth execution of the policies and programmes of government. This ensures the provision of amenities to improve the health, education, social and general life of their people.
5. Preparation of annual estimates and budgets: The civil servants draft and prepare the annual budget and estimates of government ministries, departments and corporations.
6. Keeping government records and property: Civil servants gather and supply very useful information on which government policies and programmes are based. They keep and preserve government property.
7. Collection of revenue: The civil service assists the government to generate funds through the collection of taxes paid by citizens and corporate organizations, fines from the courts and duties paid by exporters and importers. This revenue enables the government to achieve its goals and objectives.
8. Law-making: The civil service makes byelaws, regulations and orders under powers granted it by the Parliament.
9. Quasi-judicial functions: The civil service performs some quasi-judicial functions such as the arrest and prosecution of smugglers (by custom officials). Public health and rent control officers often inspect residential and commercial houses to ascertain their level of cleanliness and curb exorbitant rent demanded by landlords.
10. Public Enlightenment: The civil service helps to explain government policies to the members of the public. They carry out public enlightenment especially through the mass media to enable the people to appreciate government policies and programmes, and problems facing the government.
Classes of the Nigerian Civil Service
1. Administrative Class:
This comprises of the most senior civil servants who organize and coordinate the activities of the ministries. They execute high-level administrative work, advice ministers in formulation and implementation of policies and serve as communication link between the minister and other civil servants.
Recruitment to this class is based on university education and very competitive written examinations and interviews conducted by the civil service commission. In this class are directors-general, other directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, etc.
2. Executive Class:
The executive class implements the general policies and programmes of the government on a daily basis. They supervise and control the activities of their subordinates and help to collect facts that aid in making policy decisions.
This class comprises of executive officers, senior executive officers and senior technical officers who are recruited after possessing professional diplomas and certificates as well as G.C.E. A-level or its equivalent.
3. The Professional Class:
These classes of officers are recruited as a result of their specialized training, skills, scientific and technical knowledge. The professional class includes lawyers, medical doctors, engineers, architects, accountants and teachers.
They offer professional advice on the technical policies of the government and supervise sensitive projects undertaken by the government. Recruitment into this class is based on professional or university education.
4. The Clerical Class:
This class of workers includes typists, clerical officers, clerical assistants and secretaries who help staff in the other classes to carry out their functions. Their job involves keeping records, movement of files, preparation of data and vouchers and payment of claims. They are holders of secondary school certificates and G.C.E Oliver or equivalent professional certificates e.g. in typing.
5. The Auxiliary Class:
The categories of workers in this class include cleaners, drivers, painters, messengers, porters and gardeners. This work involves manual labour, while the qualification for entry is the first leaving school certificate.
Relationship between the Various Classes in the Civil Service
- The administrative class of the civil service formulates and initiates policies and programmes which the executive class would generally implement. (Dedicated and hardworking employees from the executive class may be periodically promoted into the administrative cadre.)
- The executive class supervises and controls the activities of the clerical class, and stores information which the administrative class utilizes in the process of policy planning and implementation.
- The clerical class comprises clerks, typists and secretaries. They undertake the clerical work of their departments such as record keeping, movement of files, preparation of vouchers, accounts examination and payment of claims to all categories of staff.
- The auxiliary class refers to the drivers, messengers, gardeners, porters, security men, painters, cleaners, etc. They provide various services such as driving of top civil servants, protecting them from criminal attacks, building and painting of government offices and general cleaning.
- The professional class offers useful advice on the technical policies to be formulated and implemented by the administrative and executive classes in the civil service.
Reasons for Short Comings in Nigerian Public Services
1. Lack of expertise and poor capacity building: The civil service in Nigeria is suffering from inadequate qualified personnel, due to the mass movement of competent and experienced professionals who move to the private sector or go abroad where there is better remuneration.
2. Alienation from the public and they do not have good understanding of what people want.
3. Inefficient incentive systems that do not appreciate upright and outstanding civil servants but reward the corrupt and the incompetent.
4. Outdated rules and procedures that restrict the civil servant from performing successfully.
5. Lack of performance culture and focus on outputs and outcomes and inappropriate performance appraisal.
6. Lack of adequate transparency and accountability procedures. There is also no safety for whistle blowers.
7. Political interference: The intervention of the government in the day-to-day administration of the civil service does not give the civil servants the necessary freedom to carry out government policies effectively. This is especially because successive governments change head of departments as well as policies and programmes at will.
8. Negative attitude exhibited by public servants: Most civil servants regard their job as government work that does not require seriousness or major attention. Civil servants are known to display poor attitude to work due to inadequate salaries, poor working conditions and absence of job security.
9. Political instability: Continuous change of government brings along a change of political appointees like ministers, commissioners and career top civil servants such as the head of service and sometimes the directors-general. These usually come up with their own policies and programmes disrupting those formerly being implemented in the civil service.
10. Tribalism and favouritism: Sometimes, the unqualified person is appointed or promoted to a position he cannot perform well, while the qualified person is passed over due to favoritism in the civil service.
11. Waste of manpower and resources: Nigerian Public Service is known to employ more staff than is needed, leading to redundancy and wastage.
12. Inadequate training facilities: The government needs to provide more training facilities to the staff so that they can improve in carrying out their duties and functions.
13. Corruption: Bribery and corruption has eaten deep into some of the public servants. Many civil servants demand monetary and other gratifications before carrying out their duties to the citizens.
Ways of Improving Public Service.
1. Refresher of courses and training programmes : The introduction of fresher courses and training programmes home and abroad for public servants on the various skills they need to improve their jobs and Nigeria.
2. Teaching political education in schools : The introduction of political education into the school curriculum like the learning of civic education, government, diplomacy and other political thoughts to all levels of education.
3. Use of code of conduct bureau and public complaints commission : Government should establish some disciplinary codes of conduct which will watch the affairs of public servants.
4. Participatory budgeting: Participatory Budgeting project encourages accountability by actively reminding local authorities of their commitments while ensuring that citizens are getting services they deserve.
5. Transforming relationship between citizens and public services: this will help to provide efficiency, equity and transparency of services by reducing the burden of physical visits to separate agencies, providing ready access to information, diminishing the discretion of officials, curtailing leakages and corruption in services delivery.”
6. Providing feedback: there should be a mechanism that allows citizens to provide feedback to government. An open conversation with individuals or citizens of the country to note their challenges in their daily lives.
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