The Bumpy Road to Good Governance and Public Service Delivery : Analysis of the Challenges to Strategic Plans Implementation in Public Organisations in The Gambia

Abstract

Scholars have long established the connections between strategic plans and service delivery and how lack of dedicated plans to clinically bypass the attendant complexities and intricacies tends to undermine the efficacy of the implementation process. Most research on the crucial antidote against bad governance, which is often attributed to arbitrary policy making, dearth of accountable leadership and uninformed decisions have been conducted in the developed climes where public service delivery are comparatively better served. Research about strategic plans in Africa, where most public institutions grope in the dark for lack of strategic torchlights to navigate the bumpy road to delivering public goods at a challenging time when citizens are becoming more demanding of governance dividends, is commensurably low. The paper, therefore, analysed the challenges to strategic plans implementation in achieving the objectives of public service organisations (PSOs) in The Gambia. Cross-sectional data about institutional challenges to adopted strategic plans were collected from relevant authorities and key informants, and descriptively analysed. The study revealed a range of challenges confronting implementation of strategic plans by PSOs in the country, namely, poor public service emoluments resulting in low staff morale and systemic corruption (RII = 3.90), political interference (RII = 3.88), inadequate facilities (RII = 3.86), lack of top management commitment (RII = 3.81), lack of political will (RII = 3.81), inadequate strategic management professionals and expertise (RII = 3.67), and insufficient budgetary allocations (RII = 3.66). Added to this, negative employee behaviour and attitude, negative and unfavourable internal and external environmental changes and conditions, and corruption and mismanagement of funds among others were the challenges that confronted PSOs during strategic plans implementation. The research validates strategic plan as a good governance tool for public service delivery in The Gambia.