Richard Panton describes the role he played in public sector reform in Liberia. Before the civil war, he explains, civil servants were adequate and well trained. But they began to take jobs in the private sector, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations after the war, leading to a decline in the public sector’s capacity. Also, due to transitional arrangements, recruiters did not consider education and professionalism when selecting public workers. Reform was necessary to resolve capacity issues. The Civil Service Agency was in charge of selection and recruitment, payroll and age structure, and promotion systems. The Liberia Institute of Public Administration designed a curriculum for training existing public workers. Panton was involved in designing and facilitating training programs in records management, project planning and management, human resource management, strategic management, and financial management. According to him, some of the challenges included a shortage of training equipment, budget delays and inadequate specialists in human resource management.  

Priscus Kiwango describes the challenges, successes and lessons learned from computerizing human resource management systems for the government of Tanzania.  He argues that it is essential to directly involve all the stakeholders, including ministries and other government agencies, in deciding what information is essential.  He says that the main challenge is to manage the vendor who designs and installs the software and to ensure that the vendor is held to clear milestones and standards of performance.  He stresses that vendors should provide on-site technical support and train government personnel to operate and maintain the system.  He describes the steps taken to computerize payrolls in Tanzania and then to computerize human resource management to meet the needs of ministries.  He then outlines the longer-term goals for e-government and government management information systems in Tanzania.    

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

Howard Tytherleigh describes his role in public sector reform efforts in Sierra Leone.  Sponsored by the U.K. Department for International Development, Tytherleigh’s team began a payroll-verification project that involved interviewing all members of the Sierra Leonean civil service.  The aim was to correct the payment anomalies, inefficiencies and abuses that were wasting the government's money. The reform was hugely successful, in large part because of strong communication efforts, effective project management, executive involvement through presidential decree, and stakeholder support.  Tytherleigh emphasizes the importance of stakeholder involvement, technical capability and physical preparedness for the success of the reform effort.