An Assessment of Good Governance in Ethiopian Civil Service: The Case of Ethiopian Ministry of Civil Service

Abstract

The term good governance is defined as the power exercised for effective conduct of a country’s economy and social resources. Governance is good when it is able to attain this objective. The civil service is an essential sector for the functioning of government and has long been regarded as the frame of administration, seen as being critical to the growth and development of a nation. The objective of this study was to assess good governance in Ethiopian Ministry of Civil Service. Various good governance literatures were combined in terms of civil service delivery. Quantitative method is employed to find out the proposed objectives. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used to get comprehensive picture of the reality. The paper investigates the employees conceptual understanding about good governance; the perception of institutional good governance practice; the status of institutional service delivery; the practice of the characteristics of good governance; organizational information access; feelings on organizational shared values; feelings on institutional ethical based behaviors; views about the existence of well established structural arrangements and working procedures; and the introduction of citizen charter in the Ministry of Civil Service. The study argues that, equality and accountability should exist in the good governance. Good governance requires fair legal frame works that are enforced impartially. The rules and regulations should be clear and friendly enough to the general public and should also motivate the civil servants to follow. In rapidly changing context where efficiency, effectiveness and competence of government institutions are being questioned, it is imperative for the public service to strive for improvement in performance. Improving citizens’ access to information and their participation in the governance process would lead to greater accountability, transparency and improved service delivery mechanisms. Therefore, the study concludes that, good governance practice in Ethiopian Civil Service Ministry is in the infant stage, because effective and efficient mobilization of the human resource is not done significantly.