Liberia impact study (LIS) : civil service administration

Ex post impact evaluation covers the period 6/74-4/79 and is based on document review and interviews with GOL officials. Project targets were partially met. Most significantly, the newly created Civil Service Agency (CSA) undertook personnel policies based on merit and fair play rather than on patronage. A position classification plan covering 139 separate classes of employment and 18,000 (of 20,000 possible) positions was established and a personnel testing system was made operational. Fifty-seven separate examinations were created and 12,000 persons tested during the life of the project. Other achievements were to: adopt an integrated salary schedule; approve a salary administration plan; require all GOL agencies to use the salary schedule in their budget presentations; develop a salary-setting system; create a servicewide roster and a personnel transaction system; develop personnel manuals covering all CSA functions; and institute a seven-man board of appeals. Training was provided to GOL personnel in administrative, fiscal/professional, clerical, and general functions, and 23 senior CSA officials received Master's degree training in the United States in Public Administration. However, USAID/L failed to provide logistical support to the contract team and a personality conflict developed between the Chief-of-Party and the CSA's Director General. In addition, the CSA staff was depleted through attrition. The most serious problem was posed by GOL ministries and agencies which, sensing a threat, refused to cooperate with CSA or supply personnel data to it and bypassed the CSA in recruiting and promoting their staff. Many ministry and agency heads felt that the CSA's Director General had accumulated too much personal power. As a consequence, many of those interviewed felt that the CSA had not significantly aided civil service reform. The project's short-term approach to bolster existing public institutions should have been applied to the Institute of Public Administration project. While much was accomplished by the project, it occurred with such haste as to create counterproductive effects.