Question 5
(a) What is a state agency?
(b) Suggest to your government four possible ways of improving public corporations so as to make them competitive
Observation
This was a popular question and many of the candidates who answered it didn’t perform well. They didn’t understand the demand of the question and scored poorly. The candidates were expected to give the following points as their answers
.
- Provision of adequate funds
- Strengthening the administrative capacity
- Insulation from political interference/partisan politics
- Adequate supervision/regular monitoring
- Ensuring financial responsibility and accountability
- Periodic auditing
- Provision of adequate logistics
- Improved conditions of service of staff
- Insistence on the merit system in both recruitment and promotion of staff
- Reduction in red-tapism/bottlenecks
- Reduction in wastage
- Adoption of appropriate marketing strategies to maximize revenue
- Adequate independence and autonomy of the Board of Directors
- Recapitalization of non-performing corporations
- Regular capacity building for staff to improve on service delivery