ABSTRACT
Kumasi has fast been growing into a big metropolis. Daily, it receives a very large number of people who come to transact businesses, attend workshops, conferences, seminars, funerals and other forms of functions. Businesses have rapidly sprang up over the last ten years, thereby bringing pressure on the few and available social amenities, as well as public service provided by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA).
KMA is the local administrative authority mandated to provide services for accelerated development and does this through bureaucratic procedures outlined by Max Weber. However, its bureaucratic machineries rather than fuelling development programmes through public service delivery is said to have hindered the growth expected due to excessive bureaucratization of business processes, coupled with corruption.
This study was therefore to, identify bureaucratic challenges that the Assembly encounters in service delivery and the extent to which these challenges impact on services to the people of the metropolis. It is also to develop measures to minimise excessive bureaucracy in the working process of officials of the Assembly. It employed structured, unstructured and interviews questionnaires to solicit views from respondents about the impact of bureaucracy on service delivery.
The study revealed among others that even though there is a clear practice of division of labour, departments lack technical equipment to effectively coordinate their activities, thereby resulting in delays in meeting the expectation of clients. Also, there was an overwhelming agreement to the fact that the Assembly‟s low productivity, due to excessive bureaucracy could negatively impact on the performance of the central government. The study concluded by recommending that KMA should be made to go through bureaucratic reforms and offer its staff regular training programmes on customer care and satisfaction. It is also to provide adequate offices to enhance service delivery.
TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… I
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………………………………….. II
DEDICATION …………………………………………………………………………………………………. III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………………………………………………………………… IVI
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. V
TABLE OF CONTENT……………………………………………………………………………………..VII
LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………………………..IX
LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………………………..XII
LIST OF ABBREVIATION………………………………………………………………………………XIII
CHAPTER ONE ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………….11.1 Background of Study……………………………………………………………………………………..1
1.2 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………………..4
1.3 The Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………..…..….7
1.4 Objective of the Study………………………………………………………………..9
1.5 Research Question……………………………………………………………………9
1.6 Limitation of the Study……………………………………………………………….9
1.7 Organisation of the Study……………………………………………………………10
CHAPTER TWO………………………………………………………………………11
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………….……………………..11
2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………11
2.2 Pre-Colonial Bureaucracy…………………………………………………………..11
2.3 Colonial Bureaucracy in Gold Coast………………………………………………..12
2.4 Max Weber’s Bureaucratic Model…………………………………………………..14
2.5 Criticisms of Bureaucracy…………………………………………………………..19
2.6 Bureaupathology and Technocracy…………………………………………………22
2.7 The New Public Management System………………………………………………23
2.8 Marketing of Public Services……………………………………………………….25
2.9 Roles of MMDAs in Service Delivery………………………………………………28
CHAPTER THREE……………………………………………………………………30
3.0 Research Methodology …………………………..………………………………..30
3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………30
3.2 Profile of Study Organisation……………………………………………………….30
3.3 Research Methods and Design………………………………………………………34 3.4 Research Instrument employed………………………………………………………35
3.5 Data Collection………………………………………………………………………35 3.6 Data Handling and Analysis…………………………………………………………35 CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………………………..36
4.0 Data Presentation and Analysis…………………………………………………..36
4.1 The Social and Demographic Background of KMA staff………………………….36
4.2 Division of Labour and coordination of work in Departments……………………..39
4.3 Effects of Rules and Regulations on Service Delivery……………………………..41
4.4 Authority Structure, Communication and Service Delivery………………………..44 4.5 Separation of Official duties from Private Affairs………………………………….46
4.6 Consideration of Technical Competence in Employment and Promotion………….48 4.7 Bureaucracy and Public Service Delivery…………………………………………..50
4.8 Social and Demographic Background of Clients/Customers……………………….56
4.9 Clients Perception of Bureaucracy and Public Service Delivery……………………59
CHAPTER FIVE………………………………………………………………………72
5.0 Findings, Recommendations and Conclusion……………………………………72
5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………72
5.2 Findings…………………………………………………………………………..72
5.2.1 Division of Labour and departmental co-operation………………………………..72
5.2.2 Effects of Rules and Regulations on Service Delivery……………………………73
5.2.3 Authority Structure and information dissemination………………………………73
5.2.4 Consideration of Technical Competence in Employment and Promotion………..73
5.2.5 Bureaucracy and Public Service Delivery…………………………………………74
5.3 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………75
5.3.1 Division of Labour and departmental co-operation…………………………………75
5.3.2 Effects of Rules and Regulations on Service Delivery……………………………76 5.3.3 Authority Structure and information dissemination………………………………76
5.3.4 Consideration of Technical Competence in Employment and Promotion………..76
5.3.5 Bureaucracy and Public Service Delivery…………………………………………77
5.4 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………77 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………79
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….83 LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.4(a) Distribution of respondents for the study ……………………………………………35
Table 4.1(a) Ages of respondents from the KMA…………………………………………………..36
Table 4.1(b) Gender of respondents from the KMA………………………………………………..37
Table 4.1(c) Educational background of respondents from the KMA………………………..37
Table 4.1(d) Key positions in KMA………………………………………………………………………38
Table 4.2(a) Departments of the KMA………………………………………………………………….39
Table 4.2(b) Coordination of activities in the departments………………………………………40
Table 4.2(c) Coordination of activities and productivity………………………………………….40
Table 4.2(d) Are departments equipped to carryout functions………………………………….40
Table 4.3(a) Established procedures for service delivery…………………………………………41
Table 4.3(b) Importance of rules and regulations in service delivery………………………..41
Table 4.3(c) Effect of rules and regulations on favouritism……………………………………..42
Table 4.3(d) Effect of rules and regulations on initiative and innovations………………….42
Tables 4.3(e) Are KMA staff held accountable for ineffectiveness?………………………….42
Table 4.3(f): Following procedures that delay service delivery…………………………………43
Table 4.4(a) Leadership style in KMA…………………………………………………………………..44
Table 4.4(b) Is information dissemination from MCE slow?…………………………………….44
Table 4.4(c) Strong coordination of activities between senior and junior staff……………44
Table 4.5(a) Commitment of KMA staff to public service delivery…………………………..46 Table 4.5(b) Fairness in public service delivery by KMA staff…………………………………46
Table 4.5(c) Favouritism characterises staff upgrading and promotion………………………46
Table 4.6(a) Is employment based on competitive recruitment? ………………………………48
Table 4.6(b) Procedure for promotion in KMA………………………………………………………48 Table 4.6(c) Is KMA equipped with required managerial and technical skills?…………..48
Table 4.6(d) Perception on fixed salaries……………………………………………………………….49
Table 4.7(a) KMA officials and awareness that citizens are clients…………………………..50
Table 4.7(b) Staff information and awareness about programmes……………………………..51
Table 4.7(c) Is KMA well equipped to impact on development? ……………………………..52
Table 4.7(d) Response to public outcry ………………………………………………………………..52 Table 4.7(e) KMA needs administrative reforms……………………………………………………53
Table 4.7(g): Effect of inadequate salary and remuneration on service delivery………….54
Table 4.7(i): KMA solicits public views to enhance service delivery………………………..55
Table 4.7(j): Public satisfaction of service delivery…………………………………………………56
Table 4.8(a) Age group of clients…………………………………………………………………………56
Table 4.8(b) Gender distribution of clients…………………………………………………………….57
Table 4.8(c) Educational background of clients……………………………………………………..57
Table 4.8(d) Occupation of clients………………………………………………………………………..57
Table 4.8(e) Length of stay in Kumasi………………………………………………………………….58
Table 4.9(a) Services obtained from the KMA………………………………………………………59
Table 4.9(b) Is the KMA well equipped to function well? ………………………………………59
Table 4.9(d): Processes and procedures in KMA and service delivery……………………….60
Table 4.9(f): Official friendliness in service delivery………………………………………………62
Table 4.9(g): Level of client‟s satisfaction in service delivery …………………………………62
Table 4.9(h): Time taken to deliver service…………………………………………………………….63
Table 4.9(j): Absence of KMA officials slows or halts service delivery…………………….64
Table 4.9(k): KMA staff accept citizens as clients…………………………………………………..65 Table 4.9(n) Effect of working environment on service delivery………………………………67
Table 4.9(p) Effect of low salaries and remuneration service delivery……………………….67
Table 4.9(r): Does KMA solicit public opinion on service delivery?…………………………69
Table 4.9(s): The public is not satisfied with level of service delivery………………………69
Table 4.9(t): How would you recommend the Assembly to others?………………………….70
Table 4.9(u): Overall rating of service delivery………………………………………………………71
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.3 A diagram showing KMA administrative structure………………………………….33
Figure 4.4(d) A figure showing expedition of information dissemination in KMA……..45
Figure 4.5(d) A pie chart showing whether staff absence affects service delivery……….47
Figure 4-6 (e) Political interference in staff recruitment…………………………………………..50
Figure 4.7 (f) Poor working environment affects service delivery…………………………….54
Figure 4.7 (h) Public reactions to service delivery and image of central government…..55
Figure 4.9(c) A pie chart showing relevance of rules and regulations ……………………….60
Figure 4.9(e) A bar graph showing rules/regulations equal attention to clients……………61
Figure 4.9 (i) A pie chart showing degree of favouritism in service delivery………………63
Figure 4.9(l) A bar graph showing whether KMA needs administrative reform………….65
Figure 4.9(m) A figure showing political influences in recruitment…………………………..66
Figure 4.9(q) Customer perception of service delivery and central government………….68
LIST OF ABBREVIATION
- ECG: Electricity Company of Ghana
- IRS: Internal Revenue Service
- KMA: Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly
- PEF: Private Enterprise Foundation
- PSM: Public System Management
- NGO: Non-governmental Organisations
- MPSR: Ministry of Public Sector Reforms
- SSNIT: Social Security National Insurance Trust
- VAT: Value Added Tax
- MMDA: Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies
- PNDC: Provisional National Defence Council
- PURC: Public Utility and Regulatory Commission
- GPHC: Ghana Population and Housing Census
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
In private-sector business environment, a customer will continue to purchase and consume a given product or service depending on the level of satisfaction derived from such a product and affordability in terms of price. Thus, maintaining high quality in products or services is an essential factor for the survival and growth of both public and private sector organisations.
Organisations all over the world are faced with the challenges of customer satisfaction and retention, which necessitate the application of series of management principles in order to remain in business. The need for quality service delivery appears to have been appreciated by businesses in the private sector. However, their counterparts in the public sector are not perturbed by the quality of services delivered and have for ages, remained unchanged, probably due to the fact that, public-sector organisations do not normally face the threat of competition by rivals providing similar services. This attitude gives bureaucracy a bad name, as evidenced by poor services offered by many of these public institutions. In order to win public confidence and make expected socioeconomic gains, governments have introduced administrative reforms in the public/ civil services.
Bureaucracy is a type of formal administration with the characteristics of division of labour, rules and regulation, hierarchy of authority, impersonality of social relationships and technical competence, etc. The essence of bureaucracy is to enable large organisations to be managed, to achieve efficiency and be more accountable to the people. In other words, bureaucracy is the coordination of organisational activities for effective, efficient and economical provision of services by public and private organisations.
Max Weber refers to bureaucracy as the ideal and rational type of administration useful for achievement of positive results. He however notes the dysfunctions of bureaucracy due to excessive application of its guiding principles by office holders. Indeed excessive bureaucracy negatively impacts on social and economic development especially in poor countries. Merton (1957) mentions that excessive bureaucracy makes public organisations more arthritic and self-serving, less able to achieve their core missions, and less responsive to service users are; nepotism. It is characterised by red tapeism, excessive paper work, fear of innovation, poor customer service, duplication of working procedures, strict adherence to procedures, weak management practices, low moral, etc.
In order to survive the challenges posed in a highly competitive environment, many businesses, especially private organisations have shifted focus and are de-
bureaucratising their administrative processes for better service delivery.
For any country to develop, it is very imperative for its government to provide goods and services that the private sector does not usually venture into, especially water, sanitation, waste disposal, road, health, housing, education, electricity, etc. These services, according to World Bank Report (1997), are usually those that the private sector does not want to provide or those that people cannot afford the price at the given market value (Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, 2006).
When public institutions fail to meet the expectations of consumers in service delivery, the ripple effects result in grave consequences on political, social and economic growth of a state. According to Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) (2008), the quality of utility service delivered to the private sector is generally poor and this results increasingly in businesses incurring huge unplanned costs.
Public services as referred to by PEF are water, electricity, waste management, health, housing, business registration and road networks. Further to this, making sure they reach the people and places they are intended to for social and economic growth. However, issues that resurrect public displeasure are the manner in which these services are delivered by public institutions concerned. Complaints from clients/consumers are that public officials are not responsive and mishandle businesses and people who approach them for services.
In Ghana for instance, it is very disappointing seeking the supply of water and electricity for domestic or industrial use. Consumers have to go through numerous bureaucratic channels before approval is given and in most cases, corrupt officials demand facilitation fees to hasten processes. Passport acquisition, registration of lands, law enforcement and judicial processes, health services, investment promotion, business registration, salary and pension processes have all been couched in cumbersome procedures that leave clients frustrated in their quest for services. In some cases, consumers abandon pursuit of these services in midstream, due to delays and other forms of bureaucratic
insensitivities.
The bottlenecks associated with service delivery have made bureaucracy very unpopular to the people, because excessive bureaucracy inhibits productivity and contributes to loss of large revenues to the government. The PEF emphasized that in spite of the ongoing public sector reforms, including the issuing of service charters by public sector agencies; the quality of public service delivery remains unsatisfactory, being very bureaucratic, cumbersome and open to petty corruption.
The recent increase in electricity and water rates by Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) was fiercely resisted by businesses, labour unions and the general public, with reasons that service delivery by these service providers does not merit the increments. Thus they (consumers) can expect a high level of satisfaction in products or services provided by public organisations. .
1.2 Statement of the problem
As the second largest city in Ghana, Kumasi is the hub of multi-ethnic settlement and nationals from other countries are engaged in diverse economic activities that thrive on services available in the metropolis. The increasing numbers of private businesses, coupled with well-established industries, required that the Metropolitan Assembly should provide services that are fast, timely and affordable. To provide services that are timely, fast and affordable, local authorities have to do away with rigid administrative practices.
Wise et al (1993) quoting March & Olsen (1989), state that demands for institutional reform suggest that public bureaucracies are too complex, centralized and rigid, as well as too little oriented toward the needs of citizens. This further suggests that a time has come for local authorities to reform their bureaucracy in service delivery.
According to Sarji, (1996), the primacy of the customer of public service dictates that the Civil Service provides services that are responsive to the needs of its primary customer and the public. The standards of service should be stipulated in line with customer expectations for efficient, fast and friendly services. Consumer concerns are for reliability, credibility, accessibility and timelines in service delivery (PSM, 2003).
The KMA is the pivot of public service delivery in the Kumasi metropolis. It is the basic unit of public administration. It is established as a monolithic structure, assigned the responsibility of maintaining law and order, public security and safety, provision of safe and clean environment and development administration support needed for economic take-off and creating wealth in the metropolis. It is the responsibility of the
KMA to provide services such as registration of births, marriages, divorces and deaths. It issues licences, registers businesses and building permits to estate developers. Its consumers consist of;
i. investors, ii. NGOs,
iii.estate developers, iv.corporate bodies like banks, insurance companies, etc
v.traders and others engaged in commerce vi.churches and other religious bodies vii.individuals, landlords and tenants viii.Government organisations and institutions such as ECG, SSNIT, IRS, VAT
SERVICE, etc which operate in the metropolis.
As an ideal institution for providing public services, KMA‟s quality of services has been characterized by numerous administrative procedures that do not project the ideals of a responsive administration. Administrative lapses in the Assembly can be traced to excessive application of rules, regulations, procedures, methods, stringent policies and decisions, poor attitude towards work, bribery and corruption. Administrative structures, rules and regulations that are to be implemented to make public service meet client satisfaction are procedurally oriented, inflexible, and apathetic to the needs of service consumers. It services, consumers have time and again began to question the effectiveness of KMA‟s bureaucracy. According to PEF report (2008), government payments go through as many as 13 steps at the minimum, involving several different officials acting in different capacities. Payment procedures tend to be rather unintelligible, non-transparent, unpredictable, cumbersome and full of excessive delays.
Excessive bureaucratic practices; are seen in the following:
- delay of clients and waste clients‟ precious time and effort;
- frustration of clients in their desire to invest;
- payment of bribes or gifts or tips;
- abandonment of service half stream;
- provision of inadequate, incorrect and inefficient service;
- discrimination of clients in service delivery;
Almere Gemeente (2005) observed that obtaining building permit from the KMA takes far too long, as documents and files need to go through the whole organisation before the permit can be granted. This results in erection of unauthorized structures on waterways, the massive development of slums, limited supply of social amenities, increase in crime and other social vices, bribery and corruption, lack of faith in the
Assembly and the government, low revenue generation, etc.
The issue that is of much concern to this study is that public service delivery in KMA has become very bureaucratic to the extent that consumers of public services in the Assembly have become frustrated. Consequently some useful investments in the metropolis are abandoned or suspended. Job creation has slowed down and, unemployment and under-employment are on the increase leading to all forms of social vices and under-development.
1.3 The Purposes of the study
In the traditional Weberian bureaucratic administration, public organisations are allocated with the responsibility of maintaining law and order, collection of revenue, and provision of service. Customer satisfaction was not considered an overwhelming priority. However, a contemporary organisation is required to make client satisfaction its primary objective.
It is generally accepted that public institutions most of the time, refuse to accept that they have consumers who need to be cared for and satisfied. Even though they accept that they have consumers, public institutions do not see the need to be accountable to them. Again, these institutions think they have no competitors and do not see it necessary to deliver timely and quality service to attract target consumers.
This research is intended to find out whether or not KMA has a client or consumer orientation and therefore has the desire to overcome or avoid bureaucratic tendencies that hinder good service delivery to consumers.
The time has come for public organisations especially Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to minimise and harmonise bureaucratic tendencies with the view to becoming market-oriented and consumer-focused in public service
deliveries.
This research is intended to emphasise that consumers of KMA services have the right to demand the best from KMA, its bureaucrats and technocrats. Therefore KMA officials should not hide behind rules, regulations, procedures, methods and bye-laws to delay services and engage in corrupt practices. The use of excessive bureaucracy belongs to the past.
