Appraisal of Human Resourcing and Utilization in Kogi State Public Service (2004 – 2009)

Abstract

Public bureaucracies are usually established to facilitate effective and efficient delivery of public goods and services. However, evidences have shown that most of these outfits have characteristically failed to meet these expectations. Though several reasons have been advanced by scholars and analysts, this work has spotted manpower resourcing defects as a major cause of these performance failures, noting that the productivity of any institution is a function of the quality of its personnel. The general objective of this study was to examine the human resourcing procedures and their effects on manpower resource utilization in Kogi State. The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) examine the extent to which the workforce resourcing activities in Kogi State Public Service (2004 – 2009) adhered to the relevant guidelines (ii) assess the effectiveness of the state’s Civil Service Commission in the enforcement of the stipulated guidelines for workforce recruitment, selection and placement in the state’s public service; and (iii) evaluate the influence of socio-political factors on staffing decisions in Kogi Sate Public Service and their effects on the needs/carrying capacities of the MDAs. Given the heterogeneity of the Nigerian public service environment, Fredrick Rigg’s Prismatic – Sala model was adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. This study adopted survey design and made use of purposive sampling technique in order to adequately capture respondents with pre and post - 2004 – 2009 service experiences. The data for this study were drawn from primary and secondary sources. While the former comprised of the use of questionnaire, interviews and personal observation of the researcher, the later were drawn from text books, journals, newspapers, panel reports and budget, etc. From this study evidences of procedural abuses in which merits were compromised for political, ethnic, religious and family affinities were established among the understudied MDAs between 2004 and 2009. This study has also established that the state’s Civil Service Commission was too weak to enforce effective control on the MDAs’s staff procurement activities. Consequently, the state’s workforce was sub-standardly procured, under-motivated and under-utilized. From the above findings, it was recommended that: (i) MDAs should be properly monitored and controlled to adhere strictly to the standard codes and procedures of personnel procurement; (ii) the capacity (personnel, funding, independence and logistics) of the state’s Civil Service Commission should be strengthened to enable it exercise full and effective control on employment matters; (iii) the delegation clause of section 170 of the 1999 constitution as well as Rule 02202 of the Nigerian Public Service Rule (2000) should be amended to eliminate the existence of multiple centres of employment; (iv) stakeholders should be adequately conscientized to demand for process accountability and transparency from relevant personnel resourcing agencies; and (v) measures should be put in place to guarantee certainty of apprehension of offenders of resourcing procedures as well as the swiftness and severity of the sanctions.