CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE __________________________________________________________________________ 235. Some problems and failures were, however, recorded. These were: the rejection of the draft bill on promotion by merit, the acute staffing problem, obstacles to capacity building and social development caused by quota recruitment, ineffective governmental tools for assessing public officials, poor definition of the status of local authority officials, and lazy and incompetent public officials who are the result of impunity and inadequate control. 236. Most of the population expressed doubts about the transparency of recruitments, advancing reasons such as the extreme politicisation of the public service, corruption, favouritism and all kinds of irregularities. The procedures for staff promotion, training, management and assessment were also said to lack transparency. ii. Conclusions of the CRM 237. At the end of the stakeholders’ meetings, and after studying the documents, the CRM noted several problems in the public service. These confirmed the points raised in the CSAR. 238. The CRM found real problems in the implementation of administrative reforms. An opinion poll revealed that 70.69% of officials and local councillors interviewed thought the reforms were unsatisfactory. The stakeholders thought that the results of the reforms were not very visible. Box 3.7: An efficient public service A prerequisite for economic and social development The condition of the civil service led the government to compile an initial register of government employees in December 1986. This flushed out fictitious employees and helped to computerise personnel management. The public service and administrative modernisation meetings held in December 1994 kick-started Benin’s administrative reform (2000). This reform was an expression of the need to make the public service development-oriented by taking appropriate measures. Today, an analysis of the situation in the civil service reveals that the operations and quality of public services call for vigorous action, particularly in the area of promotions and human resource development. Special emphasis should be put on gender balance in top positions, and on transparent and attractive career management plans. In the same vein, considerable effort should be made to depoliticise the public service, to fight corruption, and to ensure the transparent and effective management of human and financial resources in order to reduce the yawning gap between citizens and the civil service. Thus, the few successes noted by the reform are hardly felt. The political will expressed time and time again is overshadowed by poor understanding of the reform activities. The misunderstanding is largely due to the implementation strategy itself, and to the red tape within the institutional mechanisms of the very reforms to be implemented. In order to meet the challenge of a developing administration, the APR Panel recommends that the government should find solutions to the following problems: delays in the implementation of the reform programme; lack of information and the low level of involvement of the Ministry of Public Services and Administrative Reform in the reforms initiated by the ministries themselves; loss of confidence by public service users and by civil society; lack of 100