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Public Administration

According to Dzimbiri, L. B. (2008), Public administration is the implementation of government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the public service.

Public administration has a diverse scope its fundamental goal, is to advance management and policies so that government can function.

Public information is defined broadly as encompassing all information that is recorded and documented on the performance of public duties. Private persons who carry out public duties are considered holders of public information.

Some of the various definitions of public administration offered by other scholars include, the management of public programs, and translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day, and the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies.

In 1947 Paul H. Appleby defined public administration as public leadership of public affairs directly responsible for executive action. In a democracy, it has to do with such leadership and executive action in terms that respect and contribute to the dignity, the worth, and the potentials of the citizen.

Public administration is centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct, Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including heads of city, county, regional, state and federal departments such as municipal budget directors, human resources (H.R.) administrators, city managers, census managers, state mental health directors, and cabinet secretaries. Public administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of government.

The progress in public administration practices during the 1980s and 1990s has been the ‘golden age’ of administrative reform throughout the Western world (Wright: 1994, as quoted by Kickert, 1997). Wright (1997) said that the reform of public administration has been placed on the policy agenda of almost every European government whatever their political complexion although the timing, pace, extent, nature, reasons and impact vary greatly across European countries.

However Just like public administration, public policy has various definitions as defined by different scholars, these include;

Public policy is the principled guide to action taken by the administrative executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues, in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs (Michael, 2005).

According to (Thei, 2010), The foundation of public policy is composed of national constitutional laws and regulations. Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations which are generally authorized by legislation. Public policy is considered strong when it solves problems efficiently and effectively, serves justice, supports governmental institutions and policies, and encourages active citizenship.

Public policy can also be defined as the means by which a government maintains order or addresses the needs of its citizens through actions defined by its constitution (Sony 2015).

Other scholars define public policy as a system of courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives. Public policy is commonly embodied in “constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions

Public policy making can be characterized as a dynamic, complex, and interactive system through which public problems are identified and countered by creating new public policy or by reforming existing public policy

Public problems can originate in endless ways and require different policy responses (such as regulations, subsidies, quotas, and laws) on the local, national, or international level.

Public policy making is a continuous process that has many feedback loops. Verification and program evaluation are essential to the functioning of this system.^[6] The public problems that influence public policy making can be of economic, social, or political nature.^[7] Each system is influenced by different public problems and issues, and has different stakeholders; as such, each requires different public policy.

In public policy making, numerous individuals, corporations, non-profit organizations and interest groups compete and collaborate to influence policymakers to act in a particular way.

The large set of actors in the public policy process, such as politicians, civil servants, lobbyists, domain experts, and industry or sector representatives, use a variety of tactics and tools to advance their aims, including advocating their positions publicly, attempting to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue. Many actors can be important in the public policy process, but government officials ultimately choose public policy in response to the public issue or problem at hand. In doing so, government officials are expected to meet public sector ethics and take the needs of all stakeholders into account

Service delivery is a contemporary issue for most governments and researchers alike. Most scholars are in agreement that public service delivery is critical to ensuring the national welfare and stimulation of economic development. This is because oftengovernments undertake a number of activities to provide citizens with services and at the same time guarantee that these services are provided in accordance with the service delivery requirements within the rule of law(Mampe, 2012; Bola, 2011).

Government parastatal bodies are realizing that efficient service delivery improves value for money (Dugganetal, 2008). Accordingly, parastatal bodies must find ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.In public procurement, service delivery management is concerned with meeting fully the deliverables that were agreed upon in the contract, (Shah, 2005).This however requires supplier’s close monitoring by way of implementing contract management in line with the agreed upon deliverables set out in the contract. While the Clackmannanshire Council (2013) emphasizes the need for service delivery to be managed throughout the lifetime of the contract to ensure that goods/services are delivered in line with the performance or service level expectations as identified in the original contract.

Public administration in Africa

As developing countries emerged from their colonial status after the Second World War onwards, the transition from dependent territories to independent nations was greatly facilitated by the existence of colonial civil service institutions. The post-colonial administrative machineries had to grapple with a new ethos, reflecting new aspirations demanded by their citizens. The inherited public administration system emerged as the natural choice through which the struggle toward development and national building could be achieved. This gave rise to the emergence of public administration as a field of study in post-colonial African designed to reverse the socio-economic and political imbalances created by colonialism (Vyas-Doorgapersad, 2011).

A cursory examination of literature on developing countries’ managerial capacity or incapacity leads one to speculate that most developing countries seem to lack a well-coordinated central policy making machinery of government which has the capacity to set major objectives of government and ensure their consistency. In other words, most developing countries lack an administrative body capable of responding to the needs of accelerated development (Vyas-Doorgapersad, 2012). The central government machinery (central agencies, ministries and departments) in developing countries have tragically failed to initiate and maintain the economic development the people seek despite its rapid expansion over the years. Vyas-Doorgapersad (2011) explains that:

Most African countries have experienced the crisis of political turmoil, intolerance and harsh dictatorship; others have a military regime with highly centralised government processes. To name a few, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Libya, Ethiopia and Uganda are in dire straits, resulting in a marked degree of social disintegration and economic stress throughout the continent.

Tragically, the feeling of failure of developing countries management institutions is pervasive in the “poverty belt” of sub- Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America which today account for a large percentage of the world’s population. According to Omoyefa (2008), Africa has a population of a billion people but its contribution to global trade in low. African economies are an outpost of underdevelopment with most of them experiencing structural repression and structural regression. Africa in particular, has been hard hit by a series of devastating shocks.

The weaknesses of public institutions have, in turn, led to subdued legislatures and judiciaries which are essential to check on bureaucratic power. Bryant and White (1982) have called this phenomenon the paradox of development administration. Their thesis is that an effective administration is essential to accomplish development, and yet it is also that very effectiveness that can stifle and retard the political and social development of alternative centers of power. Political leaders are therefore put in an ambivalent position; whereas they need a capable bureaucracy to implement policies, highly skilled autonomous administrators are a threat to them. For that reason, politicians are reluctant to expend more resources on creating an effective and efficient bureaucracy (Helmsing, 2005; Awortwi, 2011).

Most observers of developing countries generally agree that bureaucrats are a strong pressure group because of their technical competence advantages over politicians. Their strength also stems from the permanent nature of their positions and their superior knowledge of government operations. In most countries, the minister and his/her political aides change with every change of government (Uwizeyimana, 2013)

African elites, it could be argued, are forced by their patronage and social obligations to assist their poorer kith and kin. This patronage and the strength of moral pressure which they feel to fulfill them partly explain why state organizations are used in Africa to pursue informal, personal goals rather than collective ones that are formally proclaimed.

Public administration of Uganda

Following a decentralization policy adopted in 1997, Uganda’s Public Service (the state machinery paid for by the government) can be grouped into two major groups, namely, those at the central government level and then at the local government level.16 The Public Service is also divided into many subgroups. These include the ‘traditional civil service’ recruited by the Public Service Commission, teachers appointed by the Education Service Commission, health workers recruited by the Health Service Commission and workers in semi-autonomous entities recruited by boards of these respective entities such as the Uganda Revenue Authority, the Uganda Electoral Commission and public universities, among others. The 1995 Constitution outlines the recruitment and management of public servants (Chapter 10) and assigns the President the power of appointing all persons above the level of head of department into the Public Service. Thus, apart from appointing the executive, which includes cabinet ministers, the head of state appoints all those with a position of responsibility in public administration

Remuneration in most public positions is relatively low and the distribution of allowances and non-monetary benefits is inequitable in the sense that, while most people are poorly paid, a few people are in well-paying public jobs with various amenities including motor vehicles, housing, and medical facilities, among others. Another challenge relates to staff retention, as people leave Public Service jobs for better pay in the private sector or in international engagements.

The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index places Uganda amongst the most corrupt countries in the world, and the Public Service is perceived as the third most corrupt institution in the country.

The majority of adults in Uganda have attended formal school (ROU, 2010d). However, many do not complete primary school. Retention in primary school is lower for females at 42 percent as compared to males at 53 percent. More boy children transition from primary to secondary school than girls. Similarly, there are more men who are able to read and write than women. Urban areas also exhibit higher literacy rates than rural areas – a situation that has persisted over time University and tertiary education enrolment is still male-dominated, particularly in science and technology, though the situation has improved following the introduction of an affirmative action policy in favour of women in the early 1990s.19 For instance, Makerere University, the largest university (whose motto at its founding in 1922 was “in all things let us be men”20), has adopted affirmative action policies from the 1989/90 academic year. These policies have raised women student’s enrolment from an average of about 25 percent at the start of the policy to about half of the entire student population in 10 years (Makerere University, 2009). In its January 2010 graduation, the university presented graduates where women outnumbered for the first time (Mugagga, 2010).

On health, while Uganda has registered tremendous progress on the national AIDS response, HIV prevalence is higher for women than for men. According to the 2006 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS), the total fertility rate is high, at 6.7 births per woman. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Statistical Abstract 2011 indicates the following: deliveries in health facilities decreased from 34 percent in 2009 to 33 percent in 2010; defilement, which is illegal sex with underage girls, was the most serious crime in 2010, accounting for over 46.7 percent of all crimes in 2010; maternal mortality, though still high, fell from 505 in 2002 to 435 per 100,000 live births in 2005/2006; the proportion of births attended by skilled health workers was about 41 percent and the unmet family planning need was 40.6 percent in 2005/2006; and child bearing for most women in Uganda starts early. The UDHS found that, overall, 25 percent of teenagers had begun having children and that, by the age of 19, nearly sixty percent of women had begun to have children. This implies that the childcare role for women comes early and may affect their progress in the public administration, in turn implying that programmatic interventions aimed at strengthening family planning services and advocating for flexible working conditions could be necessary.

However public administration and public policy has the following similarities;

The relationship between public administration and public policy

Colonialism in Uganda has an influence in the way it has executed it public policy and administration this was observed by Lubanga (1996) who stated that British rule of Uganda, as a British Protectorate was on the basis of what came to be known as indirect rule. The colonial system of administration relied upon traditional local chiefs to run the local government system. At independence in October 1962, the country inherited a dual system of local government. The country was divided into 13 administrative units: four kingdoms (Buganda, Ankole, Toro, Bunyoro) which had a federal status and nine districts. The kingdoms had council ministers who with their assemblies ruled their areas of jurisdiction with considerable autonomy. The districts had district councils with the central government exercising considerable control over them through district commissioners. Notwithstanding the dual system, the district and kingdoms had local authorities which were by and large directly elected and accountable to the people. In addition, they enjoyed corporate status; they locally raised substantial revenue in addition to central government grants and employed their own staff. In 1996, following a political crisis concerning the issue of local autonomy between the Buganda Kingdom and the Central Government; the independence Constitution of 1962, which provided for autonomous local government was abrogated. Under the new constitution of 1967, Uganda was declared a republic and a unitary state, political and administrative power was centralized. The kingdoms assumed district status and under the Local Government Act of 1967 all district councillors were to be nominated by the Minister of Local Government which, in real terms, substantially reduced their political power and administrative capacity (Tidemand 1994).

Both public policy and public administration encourage transparency in the economy, According to Freedom House, (2012), The lack of transparency and accountability regarding how the money is spent, combined with the government’s failure to investigate and punish high profile corruption cases, has raised doubts among donors as to whether direct budget support can generate the reforms and improvements the country badly needs. For instance, in August 2012, the Office of the Auditor General reported that approximately 12 million Euros in aid channelled through direct budget support were allegedly transferred to private bank accounts of officials from the Ugandan Prime Minister’s Office (Auditor General, 2012; Transparency International, 2012b). These funds were supposed to support the Ugandan government’s plan for peace-building and development in the Northern region. As a result, Denmark, Norway, and Ireland suspended their assistance to the country, requiring the Ugandan government to repay the allegedly stolen money (Foreign Policy, 2012). Therefore the above shows that both policies in public administration and public policy are desighned to encourage transparency in the system.

Anti-corruption initiatives often focus on abuses and illegal practices at the national level. Yet significant power is also vested in local government; for allocating state resources to citizens and delivering public services directly. As a result, it is likely that in the course of their daily lives citizens have more contact with local agencies than with the national government. This proximity to the people and the discretion that local officials have in exercising their functions can make local government highly vulnerable to corruption.

According to Krappe and Kallayil, (2003), the complexity and volume of contract drastically increased globally in the recent years, this has been brought as a result of changes in public administration and policy making in different countries across the golabe. Some of the causes that can be attributed to this include globalization, out sourcing, intense competition for existing markets as well as complicated and numerous partnership. Over the last fifty years many, of the world’s largest firms have advanced from being simple manufactures of hard goods, or providers of basic services, to being sophisticated vendors using advanced business models. This means that commitment of customers and suppliers to contractual obligations has increased, thus, the need for sustainable contract management polices.

Good public administration is an essential prerequisite for governments and institutions to achieve competitiveness and growth and fully functioning national public policy is also a prerequisite for effective democratic system. When a country has a strong public policy and administration it is able to achieve better economic performance and growth , this can be observed in the instances of some economies like in Botswana which has a strong and effective model public policy . In Botswana, the political leadership has been committed to the conception that proficient management of the economy depends on the quality of the public service. To achieve their development objectives, the political leadership made efficiency and effectiveness their major overriding goal. They set out to build a strong nucleus of top and middle level managers. Botswana’s system of public management has been commended as one of the most successful in Africa. Since its independence in 1966, the government of Botswana adopted various reforms in the form of decentralization, computerization of personnel management systems and human resource development under the ambit of New Public Management (NPM) (Dzimbiri, 2008). This led several studies to conclude that although Botswana is still a developing country, its bureaucracy stands out in several aspects (Hope, 2002; Dzimbiri, 2008; Marobela and Boy, 2012). Botswana has been commented for establishing a sound democratic system, separation of powers clearly specifying lines of authority, accountable bureaucracy and a strong foundation for prudence in the management of public finance.

It is therefore evident that effectiveness in public administration and executing the public policy well is essential in enabling a country achieve growth and development.

Both public policy and public administration are designed to help reduce poverty and improve the standard of living , according to Shan (2005) In an interrelated global society, governments must take on new roles in creating and sustaining viable economies, reducing poverty, and raising standards of living. Over the past decade, an increasing body of knowledge has emerged to describe a set of fundamental roles or functions that innovative governments perform effectively in a globalizing society. These roles and functions can all contribute to achieving the equitable, sustainable, and participative economic and social development reflected in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and in other international declarations of human aspirations. The Millennium Development Goals define the fundamental role of governments as achieving sustainable economic and social progress that leads to higher standards of living for all people. The United Nations sustainable development goals Declaration calls for states and international organizations to promote freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility in working towards these goals. Although governments have a crucial role in achieving sustainable human development and reducing poverty, they cannot achieve these goals alone. Effective governance in a global society implies cooperation or partnerships in which national governments work collaboratively with lower levels of public administration, the private sector, organizations of civil society, other states, and international organizations through democratic, transparent, and participative processes.

Weak public policy and public administration leads to corruption in the government institutions, for Uganda weak public policy and administration has led to corruption this was stated by Transparency International’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Uganda 130th out of 176 countries and territories, with a score of 29 out of 100, indicating a perception of widespread and endemic corruption. The country ranks 30 out of 48 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Uganda has also consistently scored poorly in the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). In 2011, it scored 19.9 on control of corruption, on a scale from 0 to 100 and it has shown no improvements across the years. Uganda scores relatively better, but still below the 50th percentile, on the rule of law, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and voice and accountability indicators. Consistent with these findings, 82% of the respondents to the East Africa Bribery Index 2012 believe that corruption levels either remained as bad or increased in compared to the previous year (House, 2012), however the local governments have also been found to be corrupted, according to (Onyango Obbo 2007), Local Governments have recently been reported as corrupt institutions, with its senior and low rank cadres cited in embezzlement, misappropriation and falsification of transactions.

Besides, the Auditor General, the Public Accounts Committee and The Inspectorate of Government have raised allegations of mismanagement in district procurements. This is in spite of the fact that procurement law is in place as well as the presence of PPDA as a regulatory authority. The accusations by the central government and the media suggest that District Local Governments conduct in the management of public procurement affairs is questionable. The test for integrity in the conduct of Kiruhura District Local Government officials lies with compliance or non compliance with the PPDA Act (2003).

Therefore the government has to implement effective public policy and administer them well to ensure that there is elimination of corruption.

Both public policy and administration are designed to ensure efficiency in service delivery by the government to the people, according to (Mampe, 2012; Bola, 2011; Nandain, 2006), Service delivery is a contemporary issue for most governments and researchers alike. Most scholars are in agreement that public service delivery is critical to ensuring the national welfare and stimulation of economic development. This is because often governments undertake a number of activities to provide citizens with services and at the same time guarantee that these services are provided in accordance with the service delivery requirements within the rule of law.

Government parastatal bodies in Uganda are realizing that efficient service delivery improves value for money, accordingly, parastatal bodies must find ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.In public administration, service delivery management is concerned with meeting fully the deliverables that were agreed upon in the contract.

Globalization has affected public policy and public administration in most of the countries in Africa including Uganda, the movement toward greater interaction, integration, and interdependence among people and organizations across national borders is increasing transactions among countries in trade and investment and in the international flows of capital, people, technology, and information. It is evident in the growing levels of international political interaction and widespread social and cultural interchange that have occurred over the past quarter of a century. Globalization has brought both benefits and challenges to countries around the world. Globalization offers new economic opportunities but also imposes new political, social, technological, and institutional complexities, especially on poorer countries, that governments must address in order to stimulate more equitable economic and social development. In order to benefit from more open and widespread economic interaction, governments must support an economic system that promotes and facilitates the ability of business enterprises to compete effectively in international markets and of people at all economic levels to earn a decent livelihood.

But rapid globalization over the past two decades assured that governments could no longer carry on as usual, at least in terms of the functions and roles many of them played in the 1960s and 1970s. As the OECD has pointed out, by the 1980s governments were widely “criticized for their lack of capacity to respond quickly and effectively to strategic issues and for failing to leverage off opportunities in emerging markets offered by, among others, new technologies. Conflicts inherent in combining multiple roles (for instance, policymaker, regulator, monitor, competing service provider, funder), often with conflicting objectives, became obvious.”10 Globalization and technological advances have been and will continue changing the “rules of the game” for government. The roles of the government as a central planner and controller of the national economy, as the primary provider of goods and services, and as the engine of economic growth, have largely been discredited as functioning effectively in countries seeking to promote national competitiveness. Indeed, even the ability of states to exercise sovereign control over internal economic activities and transactions across their borders is changing in the face of relentless globalization.

Globalization has therefore had an effect into the way the government desighns its public policies and the way they are administered.

The need to improve governance and public administration and to enhance the State’s capacity to carry out new functions and roles is now widely recognized. The United Nations Millennium Declaration calls for respect for human rights and the promotion of democracy and good governance (including efficient and effective public administration). Good governance is a necessary condition for the achievement of each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and promoting global partnership for development. Governments in developing countries and their international development partners have significantly increased their financial support to strengthen governance and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration.

Both public policy and public administration face a challenges with bureaucracy , which has hindered efficiency in public administration Uganda however In a dynamic and turbulent environment where social, economic and political problems mount and the demands of society increase faster than the capacity of available resources to provide for, government, especially the administrative organization for carrying out policies and implement projects and programs, is called upon to adopt appropriate mechanisms to cope with this concerns.

Conclusion

From the above it is evident that public policy and public administration exist concurrently therefore they are created to provide service to the citizens of a given country to ensure that there is efficiency in governance of a given country.

Corruption in Uganda has hampered the government’s attempts to deliver quality service to the citizens of the country , this is because the country’s political elite swindle the government resources that could have otherwise have been used for national development hampering with the government ability to deliver its commitment and ensure that it meets the needs of the citizens.

Colonialism in Uganda also has an influence in the way the government designs its public policies and the way they are administered to the benefit of the citizens of a given country.

The government main goals are to desighn policies that encourage transparency ensure that there is efficiency in service delivery.

Both public policy and public administration policies are designed to reduce poverty among the citizens of a given country this helps to improve the livelihood of the citizens of a given country.

REFERENCES

Dzimbiri, L. B. (2008). Experiences in new public management in Africa: the case of performance management systems in Botswana. Africa Development, 33(4).

Fatiu, A., Abubakr, S., Muzamil, H., Aderoju, G., Funmilayo, O., Bola, O., & Adewale, A. (2011). Undiagnosed hypertension and proteinuria in a market population in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Arab journal of nephrology and transplantation,4(3), 141-146.

Helmsing, A. H. J. (2005). Governance of local economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: who are the dancers and do they act’in concert’?. Institute of Social Studies.

House, F. (2012). Freedom of the Press, 2012.

McDonald, D., Vodicka, M. A., Lucero, G., Svitkina, T. M., Borisy, G. G., Emerman, M., & Hope, T. J. (2002). Visualization of the intracellular behavior of HIV in living cells. The Journal of cell biology, 159(3), 441-452.

Nandain, C. (2006, March). Strategic management and use of government information in Africa: the case of Kenya. In international seminar of strategic management and democratic use of government information in Africa, Addis Ababa (pp. 27-30).