CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS: A CASE STUDY OF THE GAMBIAN CIVIL SERVICE
CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS: A CASE STUDY OF THE GAMBIAN CIVIL SERVICE

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the Civil Service Reform (CSR) agenda in The Gambia from 2008 – 2015. The study identifies the motives for the civil service reforms in the country during the study period. The paper reviewed theoretical concepts to provide context and clear understanding of terms and concepts used in the paper. CSRs have been undertaken across the world for various reasons. The civil service is an important machinery for the delivery of services to the citizenry and development of the society. Initial attempts on civil service reforms focused more on affordability in terms of the wage bill. This has been a key pillar of the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the 1980s. The focus has evolved to include performance management, capacity building, and improving service delivery. The paper employed desk review and documentary analysis as research method in analysing CSRs in The Gambia. The study reviewed CSR strategy 2008 – 2011 and the CSR programme 2012 – 2015 with a view to establishing the objectives of the reforms and the extent to which these objectives were achieved. As part of its efforts to reform the Gambian civil service and to control the wage bill, the government conducted a nationwide staff and/or payroll verification exercise to eliminate ghost workers and enhance the integrity of the payroll. However, this paper established that some of the key objectives of the civil service reform agenda have not been achieved. The objectives of improved pay and pension, control of the wage bill, the establishment of a performance management system and culture, and capacity building of key institutions have not been achieved.

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