Albert Bockarie describes civil service reforms after the end of civil war in Sierra Leone.  He focuses on recruitment procedures and training.  He reports that because of low public service pay, the country suffered from a “brain drain” and corruption.  He argues that these problems cannot be addressed without increasing salaries.  He describes the challenge of getting pay for retirees disbursed promptly.  He urges increased use of computers and other information technologies as essential because paper records can be lost or purposely destroyed.  He says international donors and consultants are helpful in meeting these challenges.     

Denyse Morin details the planning and motivation behind the civil service reform programs in Tanzania.  She talks about the changes in recruitment policy and procedure within the civil service and the difficulties of rolling out a performance-management system.  She describes the role and independence of the Public Service Commission, Tanzania's massive retrenchment program and attempts to tackle the difficult issue of pay reform and control of allowances.  She closes the interview with a reflection on the importance of strong monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

Case Study:  Creating an Affordable Public Service: Tanzania, 1995-1998

Ellam Tangirongo talks about the period of civil unrest from 1999 to 2000, when the collapse of the economy in the Solomon Islands affected the ability of the civil service to function.  The Regional Assistance Mission for the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), made up of Australia, New Zealand and some of the South Pacific Islands, helped restore order and reestablished the public service.  Tangirongo describes how, as part of RAMSI, the Public Service Improvement Program (PSIP), with the help of consultants and advisers, developed a vision and mission statement for a new public service free of corruption.  Tangirongo talks about methods the PSIP used to establish a human resource program to improve practices involving recruitment, training, equipment and promotions at the national and provincial level.  He discusses the problems that result when ministers try to influence the choice of members on the Civil Service Commission and the important task of the commission in serving as a coordinating organ to involve the ministries and senior officers.

Mohammad Mohabbat Khan details the challenges facing the civil service in Bangladesh at the time, chief of which was to restore credibility in the mind of the public.  He details some attempts at reform, which he characterizes as somewhat disjointed. He identifies the various commissions formed to assess and make recommendations for reforms, and describes their perceived failings and the obstacles they encountered.   He assesses the challenges to reform when high-ranking politicians and civil servants are comfortable with the status quo.

Case Study:  Energizing the Civil Service: Managing at The Top 2, Bangladesh, 2006-2011

Dwarika Dhungel describes Nepal’s experience with civil service reform as it transitioned from a unitary state ruled by a monarchy to a multi-party parliamentary state evolving toward a decentralized federal system. At the start of this transition, an Administrative Reforms Commission chaired by the prime minister was established. It prepared 116 recommendations to right-size and rationalize the civil service and the organization and functions of government. However, while the commission did its work a large number of civil servants were fired, throwing the reform process into turmoil and the commission chairman resigned. Officials from the political parties then began to politicize the civil service, removing long-time employees and elevating party supporters. At the time of the interview, the Asian Development Bank pressed for some reform and anti-corruption efforts and a new “good governance” law had been enacted, but whether it would be implemented was unknown.  

Sir Peter Kenilorea, speaker of Parliament, describes and evaluates recent efforts to rebuild the Solomon Islands public service, which was near collapse when external intervention ended five years of civil unrest in 2003.  Kenilorea gives a detailed account of his own efforts, together with Taeasi Sanga, clerk of Parliament, and a United Nations Development Programme adviser, Warren Cahill, to strengthen the Parliament Secretariat.  By hiring and training a cohort of recent graduates, Kenilorea and Sanga largely avoided the absenteeism and patronage problems that plagued other parts of the Solomon Islands government.

Case Study:  Starting from Scratch in Recruitment and Training: Solomon Islands, 2004-2009

Alfred Drosaye describes the push for pay and pension reform in 2006 after the inauguration of the new president, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson. He talks about the strategies to clear the civil service payroll of ghost workers. He describes the make-up and training of the teams sent into the counties to vet each worker and enroll the workers in the Biometric ID system which, among other benefits, enabled workers to receive pay via direct deposit.

Case Studies: Cleaning the Civil Service Payroll: Post-Conflict Liberia, 2008-2011 and Building Civil Service Capacity: Post-Conflict Liberia, 2006-2011

Marcílio Moreira of the Brazilian Public Ethics Commission details the nature of public ethics in 20^th century Brazil and discusses the commission's structure and functionality.  Moreira describes the commission as a sort of consulting board that works in the service of the president, with its unpaid members probing only ethical problems rather than addressing or investigating criminal matters.  Moreira contends that the central obstacle that practically any government struggles to overcome is the tendency for private or special interests to overshadow those of the common good.  In an attempt to curtail the level of influence that companies can have on members of government, particularly the legislature, the commission set up a well-enforced system of clear and robust rules to clarify and define ethical standards of behavior.

Case Study:  Ingraining Honesty, Changing Norms: Government Ethics in Brazil, 1995-2004