CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
The globally, various strategies and approaches have been adopted or used by government for the purpose of good governance and their effort at distributing the state resource to reach the people at the grassroots. At the course of discharging their official duties, elected officers invariably exercise considerable discretion which confers on them vast and pervasive power that can be susceptible to abuse. As Muir (as cited in Olawuyi, 2008) observed the power of bureaucracy is enormously strong, whether in administration, in legislation, or in finance under the cloak of democracy, it has thriven and grow”.
Thus, the control of public officials is necessary to check the dangers of bureaucratic power and facilitate correctives against despotic exercise of power by public servants (Laxmikanth, 2006). Moreover, given that elected politicians will inevitably suffer from the consequences arising from the maladministration of the unelected career administrative officers, it is clearly necessary to subject to public bureaucracy to effective political control. Citizens have to deal with public servants at various levels of government and their image of government is influenced by experience from such contacts.
In the words of Hughes (2008) “in any democratic system, the bureaucracy is presumed to be accountable to the citizenry. In the final analysis, the voter is supposed to be able to assess the competence of the administration, political and bureaucratic, and to cast a vote accordingly”. The control of administrative officials poses a fundamental problem in new democracies like Nigeria.
Riggs (2004) labeled the bureaucracy in developing countries as “prismatic-sala model” because there are no political institutions strong enough to control it. Since it is the task of the elected political leaders to articulate the popular will and determine the ends public power is to serve, their control of public administration is therefore imperative in democratic governance.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Local government administrations globally vary in size and structure and operate under different arrangements based on the system of government in different nations. However as observed by Mello, (2012) local governments globally strive to meet peoples’ demands for goods and services in a cost effective manner particularly at the lowest level of government or government at the grass root. Among the characteristics generally manifested by local government include that it is a subordinate system of government or subunit of a federal/central or state government and charged with powers to perform legislative, administrative and quasi judicial functions as the case may be. It also has the power to formulate policies, prepare budgets and a measure of control over its own staff, with a view that it is rightly position to ensure unhindered and efficient service delivery Otinche, 2014. In all institutional settings, leaders have limited time and information, and so cannot take informed actions to solve every problem and take advantage of every opportunity that confronts them. To expand their opportunities and accumulate information, leaders can employ others to work for them. The danger is that these underlings will perform these functions unfaithfully. First, underlings may “shirk” by failing to put forth sufficient effort to produce outcomes that serve the leader’s best interests. Second, underlings may pursue their own personal ends rather than the outcomes sought by the leader.
Therefore, this research tends to examine the political control of administrative officials.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to assess the political control of administrative officials, while the specific objectives are:-
To determine if elected officer have control over administrative officials
To identify the effect of political control over administrative officials
To identify the various means of political control over administrative officials
To identify the measures of internal control over administration
1.4 Research Questions
The following questions will guide the study;
Does an elected officer have control over administrative officials?
What are the effects political controls over administrative officials?
What are the various means of political control over administrative officials?
What are the measures of internal control over administration?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study will benefit many citizens, organizations and government officials on their powers, authority and controls over public administrations as few work have been done on the subject. Also it will serves as a starting point for other researchers who will be interested in the subject of this research, it will also be beneficial to communities and public relations experts as more knowledge has been gained from the research.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study covers, Oruk Anam local government area of Akwa Ibom State and specifically discuss causes political control of administrative officials.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
The study was limited by the following factors
Funds: funds were in very short supply to the researcher and the researcher could not purchase some valuable print materials needed for this project at the time they were most needed.
Another constraint faced by the researcher was limited time for the completion of the project and engagement in other academic activities which occupied most of the researcher’s time.
Material factor: shortest of relevant materials for literature review post a great difficulty.
Inability to retrieve all the questionnaire forms for good representative used for the anticipated sample.
The study was also limited to the information gathered from both primary and secondary sources.
1.8 Definition of Terms
The following definitions are considered within the context of this research.
Political control: is the control given through power of position held by influential political personnel which might give them the authority to appoint an individual to an office, allow or refuse participation in any formal group or to give additional benefits
Administrative official: an official of a bureaucracy
Bureaucracy: is a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives.
