Agencification of Public Service Delivery in Developing Societies: Experiences of Pakistan and Tanzania Agency Models

Friday Francis Nchukwe,Kehinde David Adejuwon

doi:10.4102/apsdpr.v2i3.61

Abstract

Agencification is not a new phenomenon in the public sector. However, since 1980s in developing societies, not only the number of new agencies has gone up but, the existing agencies have also been revitalized under the rubric of New Public Management capsulated in World Bank/IMF’s guided governance and administrative reforms. These agencies have been created in an administrative system which has weak political institutions but well entrenched bureaucracy with strong colonial bureaucratic traditions such as centralization of power exercised by a class of senior bureaucrats occupying top positions in federal ministries. The article examines agencification in developing countries with particular reference to Pakistan and Tanzania agency model. It noted that agencification in developing countries was rarely, if ever, pursued within a systemic conceptual and legal framework, but agencies are often seen as an alternative to already existing state-owned companies which are plagued with corruption. The article therefore draws some observations and remedial actions for improvement in the performance of public sector organisations in developing countries in general and Africa in particular. It concludes that while most government ministries in developing societies cannot trigger public sector transformation due to a lack of performance improvement, agencies are unlikely to do so because of the particular autonomy of the administrative systems in which they are embedded. <br /><br />

Highlights

Since independence, most civil service reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa have failed
PEPCO was assigned the power to revamp and instil a commercially oriented corporate culture based on efficiency, economy, responsibility and accountability within the power distribution companies created as a result of the process of agencification in the power sector
While the New Public Management (NPM) ideas seem to be very important for the management of public services, the public sector in Africa needs to address both institutional and capacity issues if it is to benefit from the NPM reform doctrines

Summary

Introduction

Most civil service reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa have failed. Effective regulation and public service delivery hardly exist in many countries in the continent (Michael, 2011:3). Agencification is the process of creating semi-autonomous public organization (thereafter- execute agencies) In many cases this is done by splitting up ministries or major departments into corporate units with specialised tasks and resources. WAPDA's Power Wing was based on the new strategic policies of the Government of Pakistan approved and supported by the lending institutions The objective behind this transition was to inculcate a corporate and industry culture by adopting good business practices, increasing productive efficiency, including customer orientation and service culture, improving quality of services, setting performance targets, curtailing costs, theft and wastage (http://www.pepco.gov.pk/). PEPCO was assigned the power to revamp and instil a commercially oriented corporate culture based on efficiency, economy, responsibility and accountability within the power distribution companies created as a result of the process of agencification in the power sector Another Industry in Pakistan, where restructuring of organizations was realized years ago is the energy sector. In Tanzania regulatory authorise are more autonomous than executive agencies and they have their own separate legal personality

18 Tanzania Institute of Accountancy

Conclusion