OBJECTIVE 5: i. ENSURE THE ACCOUNTABILITY, EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CIVIL SERVANTS AND OTHER PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS Summary of the CSAR Measures to improve public service institutions 279. The CSAR notes that the 1999 reforms in the civil service departments have not yet yielded satisfactory results in ensuring the quality of the civil/public service and in ensuring the accountability of civil servants. This is due to the time factor and the inability of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) to effectively play its critical role in the demilitarisation and transformation of the civil/public service that had been eroded and mismanaged under the long period of authoritarian military rule. 280. All in all, civil service reforms such as staff retrenchment or ‘rightsizing’, due process, pension schemes, auditing, etc. have not improved the capacity for service delivery. The civil/public service is generally perceived as corrupt and inefficient, with top officials accused of practising ethnoreligious favouritism in the promotion and appointment of civil servants. 281. According to the CSAR, the 1999 reforms were designed principally to ‘downsize’ or ‘rightsize’ the public sector and change its role to make the private sector the engine of growth and development. Other key aspects of the reforms include the Public Procurement Act (2007), the Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007), the Service Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM), monetisation of certain benefits of civil servants, civil service pension reforms, etc. The CSAR also notes that the reforms have been slow to produce the desired operational and attitudinal changes in the service for many reasons. Salaries in the public sector still fall far short of those in comparable positions in the private sector, thus serving as a continuous source of frustration and disincentive to public-sector workers. 282. The effectiveness of the reforms has been undermined by the slowness of the bureaucracy at the federal, state and local government levels to embrace the reforms. ii. Findings of the CRM Challenges faced by public service institutions 106 283. Although the CSAR refers to Nigeria’s vision “to create an effective, efficient and accountable public service that is able to deliver quality service to Nigerians”, the 1999 constitution does not attribute due importance to the invaluable role of the civil service in the performance of government and in the implementation of its policies and programmes. 284. The civil service is expected to be one of the ultimate institutions of good governance, and is the most critical mechanism of governance as far as