This course is intended to deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of relevant contemporary issues that tend to impact on administrative efficiency. It delineates important features of bureaucratic organizations and determines their impact on government activities. The discussion also focuses on some conceptual issues that influence the functioning of the civil service such as independence, anonymity, permanence, impartiality, and neutrality. It also examines the Merit System Verses the American Spoil System and how they affect the performance of civil servants. It further evaluates the relevance of administrative reform to the efficient functioning of the public bureaucracy. Attention is given to analysis of issues such as ethics, accountability, morality and codes of conducts or rules for civil servants and measures how they influence the performance of civil servants. The discussion moves towards issues such as public-private partnership, performance appraisal, public finance/revenue mobilization and public expenditure and measures their influence on the functioning of the government. Finally, it examines some of the challenges that militate against the efficiency of the civil service such as bureaucratic corruption and civil service accountability complexities. Emphasis is given to critical issues regarding gender in administration, particularly the decision-making process and the gamut of the service delivery system within the public sector institutions. The discussion is extended to new issues that impact on global administration such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), AGENDA 2063 and gauges Ghana’s policy responses to these imperatives. The mode of delivery for this course is lecturer-led and student-participatory approaches. It adopts audio and visual forms of instructions to improve on students’ understanding of the essential issues. At the end of this course, students would be able to comprehend the fundamental issues that militate against or influence the efficient performance of the civil service and the public sector generally.
LEGON CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND DIPLOMACY.
