SERVICOM and Public Service Delivery in Nigeria: A study of Akwa Ibom State University

Abstract

The quality, efficiency and impact of public service delivery remains an issue of grave concern in Nigeria as the Nation is known for its endemic poor public service delivery and productivity. To tackle this vice, its former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in March 2004, using its administrative powers ordered the establishment of SERVICOM Units in all Federal government ministries, departments and parastatals. This would later extend to the National Universities Commission and all Federal and State Universities in Nigeria. A synthesis of the SERVICOM charter shows that its central focus is on enhancing quality and measurable service delivery. The literature review and the theoretical framework grounded on Douglas McGregor’s famous Theory X and Y revealed that a third party inspector such as SERVICOM is a necessity in the public service delivery chain to ensure public services are delivered in a quantitative, qualitative, customer centric, affordable, accessible and predictable manner. Using a survey research and ANOVA, the researchers found that 93.80% of the respondents have not received the necessary awareness on the services of SERVICOM while 88.08% confirm that SERVICOM has not been monitoring their services. The study concludes that the inability to provide the needed awareness and monitoring had a significant negative effect on staff service delivery. It then made useful recommendations such as immediate commencement of a structured awareness programmes, monitoring and alignment with its sister unit in the institution towards the realization of the SERVICOM mandate.