Liberia impact study : government reorganization and management

Ex post impact evaluation is based in part on interviews with key informants. Although not all project-wrought reforms were institutionalized by the GOL, the project did effect a major shift in Liberia's governmental functioning - toward economy, simplicity, and efficiency. The establishment of a Special Commission on Government Operations (SCOGO) resulted in a comphrehensive inquiry into the functioning of the Executive Branch and its personnel, and led in turn toward legislative acts reorganizing and streamlining 19 executive departments. Major improvements were achieved in fiscal management, administrative procedures, tax collection, and personnel management. Fiscal benefits resulted from cost savings, increased productivity of personnel, and increased revenue. Also, the project provided training to numerous Liberians who have since occupied important GOL offices, it enhanced social services and their accessibility, and it gave impetus to a long list of subsequent technology transfer projects. The dramatic change in Liberia's political philosophy was strengthened by President Tubman's interest in all aspects of governmental organization and management. Unfortunately however, many of the principles enunciated by SCOGO were ignored by subsequent GOL administrations, even by former SCOGO members who later rose to high government offices. Project reforms - during implementation stages and later - were hampered by bureaucratic resistance to change, by a lack of continous broad-based political support, and to a lesser degree, by SCOGO's overinvolvement with techncial and operational concerns. Lessons learned were: the project had too many objectives for its planned length (2 years); its objectives were more regulatory than developmental; little consideration was given to the civil service's absorptive capacity; no attempt was made to put forward an integrated performance improvement plan; preoccupation with day-to-day problems affected implementation of key innovations; and too little attention was given to the psychocultural needs of a tradition-oriented civil service.