Delivering Public Services that Work: Vol 2

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This is because it holds potential to move beyond the historical context of paternalistic, colonial-derived development policies, in the context of broadband systems development. We argue First Nations broadband projects offer on-the-ground examples of a First Mile approach, and call for more research in this area. The authors would like to acknowledge and offer our thanks to everyone who participated in the discussions and research leading to this paper.

The authors would also like to thank our partners for the Putting the last-mile First report: These partners offered valuable feedback and ideas throughout the project.

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Finally, the authors thank the anonymous reviewers who provided constructive and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 2 2.

Skip to main content. The International Indigenous Policy Journal. Authors Rob McMahon Mr. The public service is therefore, viewed as a transformational institution because of its responsibility of executing government policies and programmes, transforming them to concrete essential services and ensuring that they are delivered to the public Kwaghga, ; Gundu, In this regards, the public service is a fundamental instrument to the survival of any government and as noted by Adegoroye , no nation has been able to advance beyond its public service.

In fact, the efficiency of the public service is a principal determinant of the effectiveness and productivity of any government. Like most African governments, the country has attempted improving the performance of its public service through various reforms with the ultimate goal of boosting the capacity of the Nigeria Public Service for quality public service delivery and effective performance of core governmental functions regarded as pivotal to sustainable socioeconomic development of Nigeria ECA, In spite of all these efforts aimed at repositioning it for effective and efficient service delivery, the Nigeria Public Service remains inefficient and incapable of delivering its responsibility.

The question of what new strategy capable of enhancing efficiency, productivity and service delivery in the Nigerian Public Service should be adopted for the desired economic cum political development of the country therefore imperative.

It is in recognition of the importance of ICT in the modern administration nomenclature — e-administration, that the European Union advocates the elimination of constrains to e-administration at all levels of governance, including local level authorities, as well as between public administrations, businesses, and citizens, through which the principle of good governance and public service delivery should be achieved Hodos, The critical questions of to what extent can ICT be adopted for enhanced public service delivery in Nigeria and what are challenges of the strategy for enhancing service delivery by the Nigeria Public Service constitute the concerns of this paper.

Public Service Delivery and E-administration: Governments, all over the world, are concerned with how to provide reasonable public services to all citizens regardless of their financial means, and at an affordable cost Prado-Lorenzo, This is because citizens are entitled without restriction, access to public services which are prepared for the benefit of people living permanently or temporarily within an area Zajdel, It is pertinent to note the lack of a common nomenclature in relation to preferred definitions of public services and what constitute the concept may differ from countries to countries Martin, ; Anwar, In a similar dimension, Obaro reinstate the importance of quality public services in determining the health of an economy.

He pointed out that the assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of public service delivery is vital to the formulation of policies, the designing of plans and strategies for good governance. For Humphreys and Prado-Lorenzo therefore, the pivot of public service involves taking action by the government in order to provide citizens with certain assistance which are funded by taxation and differ remarkably from private sector commercial services.

While the private sector provides private goods efficiently, the public sector steps in to provide public goods and services. The provision of public service is therefore, a core function of government. Anwar identifies equal treatment of persons and the allocation of resources according to needs as the guiding principles of public service delivery.

In a broader and inclusive dimension however, OECD , identifies the key components of quality public service delivery as consultation, openness, information, transparency, participation, satisfying user requirements, accessibility, accountability, availability, timeliness and convenience. Throughout history, governments have had to tackle the problem of how to provide reasonable public services to all citizens regardless of their financial means, and at an affordable cost Prado-Lorenzo, This situation is more precarious in Africa given the low quality of service provision and the pressing needs of the poor.

As observed by Omotosho , p. The major challenge confronting governments anywhere in the world is not only how to make public service functional, effective, efficient, and flexible but also how to make it accountable and accessible to the people.

Acta Universitatis Danubius. Administratio, Vol 7, No 2 (2015)

This is with a view to making it result oriented, capable of rendering service to the people. Thus, for most countries in the continent of Africa, challenges like inequitable access, poor quality of public services, and weak governance remain unresolved. Pivotal to the wider moves of reforming the traditional approach to public service management is improving service delivery systems Kohlborn, Previous approaches dominant in public service organizational form has been regarded as 'bureaucratic' which although, might seek to ensure fairness and impartiality in public service delivery systems, were often characterized by inflexibility and typified a top down professional client relationships and often with insensitive outcomes Nam, In this regards, emphasis would be placed on the needs of communities and the strengthening of the voice of the people and increase their involvement in those services and their development Humphrey, A new and more modem system of public service delivery that would replace the traditional approaches should therefore be flexible, inclusive, responsive and be tailored towards the needs of clients citizens.

The new approach must be more responsive to the competing pressures of the international system and equip the public service more effectively to meet changing needs for sustainable development. The need for the transformation of public institutions for improved service delivery necessitates Information Communication Technology United Nations Development Programme, Information and Communications Technology ICT has been seen as an important tool for empowerment of public institutions for public service delivery improvement.

This is because of the potentials of ICT to enhance consultation, openness, information, transparency, participation, accessibility accountability, availability, timeliness and convenience all which have been identified as key components of public service delivery OECD, According to Hodos , e-administration involves improving internal operational efficiency of the public institution, computerization of the relationship with citizens and corporate entities, as well as allowing direct access of the end users, by electronic means to the services offered electronically by the public institution.

It entails mechanisms which convert traditional administration processes into electronic processes with the goal of creating a paperless office, introducing total transparency and accountability, reducing costs and improving productivity and performance leading to better governance.

Olson and Lucas however, see the concept as the method of automating key administrative functions using information communication technologies. The various operations of e-administration include e-services aimed at improving the delivery of public services, e.

E-administration is becoming a common practice in the business world as more professionals use electronic mail, word processing, and social media networking. In this regards, a critical component of e-administration is its communication functions. Communication technology is the most significant factor in the redesigning of organizations through e-administration.

These electronic methods of communication allow people to share information, documents and records seamlessly via the Internet instead of waiting for traditional mail and courier services. The use of ICTs, especially the Internet to enhance the provision of information and interactive and accessible services over different channels, is thus, the foundation of e-administration.

This paper adopted a qualitative approach of systematic literature reviews as the method for data collection and analysis Silverman, Extensive and analytical review of literature made up of published and unpublished works of scholars in both Political Science and Computer Science was carried out to generate data for this paper. The systematic literature review involves a rigorous and well defined procedure applies to an existing literature Okoli, The review involved a systematic selection and perusal of 4 suitable previous studies from which the search key words pertinent to the paper emerged.

We then searched electronic databases for relevant peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, report documents and conference proceedings on these key words. Publications, based on their relevance to the study, were then selected for the analysis. Modern public service in the country is, however, an evolution of the British colonial rule Okotoni, At independence however, Nigerians, following the indigenization programme, have to be trained to take over most of the workplaces in the Nigeria public service left behind by the departed foreign personnel Ogunrotifa, Amidst the challenged scarcity of local skilled manpower, Nigerian governments had to expand the role of the public service beyond the colonial legacy of tax collection to community service delivery and nation building.

There was the need to build a public service with a capacity to support the new government to plan and hasten the pace of the needed socio-economic development of the country. In fact, machinery of government that would promote accountability, transparency, predictability, participation, and efficiency and effectiveness was very much desired Okotoni, At independence therefore, the powers of the Nigerian civil service were rooted in the constitution of Nigeria to accomplish the function of appointments, advancement and discipline in the public service, predominantly as government business were planned under the departmental establishments such as Public Works Department, Health Department, Treasury Department, Forestry Department, the Nigerian Railways, the Electricity Board, the Telecommunication Board and the Nigerian Harbour Olowu, There have been several reforms aimed at addressing the crisis of corruption and inefficiency in the delivery of quality services in the public sector Olaopa, Despite these reforms, there has been no significant and appreciable improvement in the Nigerian public service.

Critical assessments have shown that these reforms have had little effects in making Nigeria Public Service effective and offer quality service delivery to the citizens Salisu, ; Anazodo et al.

Empirical investigations have pointed out that government, perhaps more than any other organization, can benefit from the efficiencies and improved service delivery that stem from electronic administrative processes Nam, E-administration has the potentials to positively affect administrative effectiveness, efficiency and equity in services delivered to the citizens. The last decade has witnessed a marginally improved ICT adoption in public institutions in Nigeria.

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Following the promulgation of the promulgation of the Telecommunications Act in July which further democratized the telecommunications space in Nigeria, the diffusion of mobile technologies have continued unabated Owens-Ibie, The telecommunication landscape is steadily changing with the introduction of GSM services, which has increased accessibility and provided opportunity for people to connect.

In early , over million of the population have subscribed to mobile technologies Budde, There is therefore an urgent need to employ electronic mediated administration in all public agencies in view of prevailing concerns about the quality of service delivery in Nigeria. The adoption of e-administration has the potentials of improving the internal workings of the Nigeria Public Service. This is because efficiency and effectiveness are key success criteria of government involvements and ICT driven processes increase the efficiency of government administration.

This is a direct result of the replacement of the traditional bureaucratic approach by electronic information devices largely characterized by citizen-centric approach Nam, ; Kohlborn, Furthermore, e-administration enables citizens to have access to relevant information which will boost their wider participation in the decision process in the form of continuous opinion polling, instant referenda, tele-conferencing, digital cities, and discussion groups Snellen, In this regards, e-administration enhances an interactive policy-making process for effective democratic and good governance in Nigeria.

In the observation of Arjan de Jager , however, the adoption and the successful application of ICT in the operation of any government will depend on the awareness and understanding of the cost involved and the assurance of continued funding that result from a careful analysis of its opportunity costs. This follows that the Nigerian Government must be genuinely committed to funding the adoption of ICT in its agencies. It is pertinent to state that the paucity of committed leadership with the capacity to articulate broad e-government vision and also galvanize the necessary resources needed to implement e-government in Nigeria Oni, et al, , constitutes great hindrance to e-administration adoption.

Furthermore, as observed by Oni, et al. It also depends on the skills and culture of the public service. It follows therefore, that public servants in Nigeria must be ready for this paradigm shift of administrative process to change and programme management through ICT and support e-administration. They must also be willing to build their ICT skills or at least be eager to learn and change. The ICT infrastructure requirement for e-administration takeoff in Nigeria is still rudimentary despite its increased diffusion in the country.

The cost of internet usage in Nigeria remains on the high side for majority of the people. The high costs of internet usage must be brought down in order to enable the people for whom the government is going online for to be able to benefit from it. Moreover, the epileptic power supply in Nigeria poses a great hindrance to e-administration in the country.

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