University of Nigeria Research Publications

Aut

hor

OKPE, Mbakpone

PG/MPA/99/OP/0112

Title

Bureaucratic Corruption and Underdevelopment: A Case study of Federal

Ministry of Works and Housing , Port Harcourt (1995-2000)

Facu

lty

Social Science

Dep

artm

ent

Public Administration

Dat

e

March, 2002

Sign

atur

e

I 1

BUREAUCRATIC CORRIJPTIOPI AND tJNDERDEVELOPMENT. A CASE S T ~ J D Y

01: FEDERAL MINESTRY OF WORKS AN^ HOUSING, PORT IIARCOURT (1995 - 2000)

1

OKPE MBAKPONE KEG. NO. MPA/l999/OP/Oll2. ,

I I . I

I

A 'Thesis S~~bmitted to the Department of Public Administration and Local Governmen:-

University of Nigeria, NSUKKA.

I n j~;.rtinl fulfillment of the requirements for the aw srd of the Fq. ec MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIOP (M.P.A.)

(SPECJA1,lSED IN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

MARCH 2002

DECLARATION i t

I, Mr. Mbakpone Okpe do hereby declare and re-affirm as fdllows: I

(I) That the research contained herein is an original resebrc11 conducted single

handedly by me under the supervision of Dr. Nnanh N! lilclcwa. I

(2 ) 'l'l~at this research prqject has not been/is not submitted !to a~~ybodyiinstitution

-For [he award of any other honour/Degree except for t \ ~ e award of master of I

public Administration it1 the Department of Public Adhinistration and Local I

Govcr~ment, llniversity of Nigeria, Nsukka. March, 2d02. I .

( 3 ) I'liat I stand liable for all i~lformation contained in the r&xrch project. i

CERTIFICATION

iii

' I l l I ' hereby certify that this research work has been read and approved as meeting the ? I / ' ! + ! I

I! ' * $:',:project ../ 4 requirement for the award of the degree Master of public Administration a I t . I r ! I,: :'(blP~) in the Department of Public Administration and d c a l Government,

' 'I 1 -'

' f L I I I University of Nigeria, Nsukka. i I I

I ' 1

1

................. ...................... . . . .

~t I F A D ~ E A N , ' a

DEPA RTMCNT OF PUBLIC ?;;?.! . ADMINISTRATION & LOCAL FACULTY OF SOCIAL,'SCIENCE , GOVERNMENT I

I

DEDICATION:

I

'This work is dzdicated as follows: i

( 1 ) To God, Almighty, in appreciation of his inestimable love Jsd favoar.

(2) To my name sake Mbakpone ((Jr.) Precious G.Okpe for deing worthy and

(3) To my futul'o wife and children. 1 I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

1.11 :ask of writing this project work was tedious and rig&oas as i n the case of

searching for crude oil. There have beeh doubts, disappointments,' anxieties, insecurities,

tel.~sion and frustrations. At a stage, all hope of accomplishing thk work was completely

lost-. But these problems and difficulties would have beet1 much /nore overwhelming, if I

~iot for the invaluable contributions of many individuals. I , ' I

Tliis development further goes a long way to confirm the netion and assertion that

"scholarly work is a cpllective e'ndeavour, ratldthan a personal effort". In this regards, I

have i~icurred the debt of gratitude to. many persons. ~ i r s t among tllcm is my project

supervisor: Dr. Nnanta N. Elekwa who slowly, patiently; but meticl:loasly read through

the wlwle work. It has been wonderful, interesting and memorable experience working

under his supervision.

Again, 1 remain indebted to my mother Mrs. Cecilia A. Okpe, (;rand Mother, Mss, I

Nbule Nkponieiiyie and Miss Maiy Nmde who cooked and serve ine all through the

duration of the course. They never allow me feel inucli of the stress tli; t culminates out of

rhe sttidy. They as well never enjoy any good child's care all througA the period of iny

. study. 1 wish God will reward them in abundant.

I .I. : s t ; 1 forget, I appreciate the concern of my Elder hotl~t I-, Mr. Ohenekpigi,

Qicpe, i h ~ . wife, Mrs. Gift D. G. Okpe, My Father, Elder Okpe M-e-e my younger ones

rra~llely, ,ohn, M. Okpe, Yirabari Okpe, Caroline Okpe, Akpobar, O k x, Cliristinii Okpe

who conat: around me often I arrived home. They assisted me tr':metldously in terns of

advice arid financial support.

I also remain indebtec 1 to m y colleagues i!

vi

n the oflice namely, Barnlabas C. Arch, Obiora, I

I atld others numerous to mention who assisted me greatly in supply I f materials that 'led to

'

the cotnpletion of this noble work, I say bravo to all of them. I

1 I am equally grateful to my friends and course mates in partiiular Mr. Azigaloate I.

I

Haaber t!;..: was instrumental to the putsuit of this noble goal. I-le demonstrated this,

tl~rougl~, tlw purchase of my post graduate application form. Besides, lie kept encouraging

aud supporthg me with reading materials all tluough the programme.

I rcmaitl grateful to the Management of Mopac services1 at No. 191, ~ g i n i i b a

i Village, 'I'rans Amadi Industrial Layout, Port Harcourt, far careful typing of the

I

mal~uscript. 'rhe bontributioi~s of numerous interviewees tmd i n f o h d discussants whose

names are not mentioned here are sincerely acknowledged. Finally, 1 remain liable for all

. faults, et1.or.s and misrepreset~tations as contained in this work.

Marclt 2002.

Okpe M ba kpone Dept of Public Administration and Local Governmentl, I .N.N.

vi i

ABSTRACT

Rcmucratic corruption and Underdevelopment has been !a poleinic discourse in I

I 1 .

Nigeria's stunted history, in spite of its abundant naturd and financial resources, which I

ai: pre-condition for national development. It is based on this [evil and its destn~ctive I

tentlcncy that every successive government in the country often they come into power,

proposed measures and strategies to curb the evil. They demonstrated this through decrees

~indet- the niilita~y era and constitutional procedures under tlie civilian regimes. This

measure is presently tagged Anti-corruption Law.

I Again, the recurring tl~cme in Nigeria political history lhas bccn the issue Of

development, its probleniatic and its proper orientation. It is also obvious that

I developnient is the means and the end of every society. Indeed, the social contract into

which Inen entered voluntarily, is predicated on the believe &at certain development

wliich individual or few groups could not provide for themselves, ban be achieved through

LII orgn. i~ed form of administration in the society. heref fore, in modein societies

irtcluding Nigeria, the bureaucracy is designed to perform this noble role. Following tlie

nhove, i f is unfort~~nate that the noble intehtiol~ of bureaucrncy i n bigrria and Rivers Slate 1 I

i n particular is being marred by cormpt practices perpetrated by pyblic office holders. I

This work on bureaucratic corruption and underdewlo~mei~t in Nigeria with I

particular reference to Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, tort tlarcourt is aimed at I

analy7,i.ig the changing phase of buriaucratic corruption in ~ i ~ e r i - i and how its impacts

viii

undel-tninebotli liuman and infrastruotural development in the country arid in pariicular a

hostile eavhonment like Rivers State. The work is divided irito five chapters. The first,

the inti-oductory chapter covers the background of the study, which embraces the overview

of the w o ~ k. I t further covers the statement of problems, objective of stady, significance

of tlie study, scope and limitations encountered in the study. I

The second chapter is in attempt to review some relevant litdrature on blireaucratic

comlption and underdevelopment in Nigeria, starting from 1900OO/ to this contemporary

time. Rrthemore, the theoretical framework used in analyzing this research was

discussed. the hypothesis wliicli formed the focus of the findings was clearly stated.

C'erlniti key concepts that are useful to this study are also cover~d in this chapter. In

cliaptci~ three, efforts were made to trace the evolution of bureaucracy (Federal Ministry of

Works tmd flousing) in Nigeria. 'The administrative structures atid frmtiotis of Federal

Mitiistry ~f Works and Housing Port Harcourt were also covered. Again the environment

and factors that afkct the beliaviour of bureaucrats in Nigeria burelaucracy, tllc Weberain

ni:me! of brireaucracy aiid tlie conditions for effective performance of bureaucratic

organizations were also discussed. 1

('onsequently, chapter four discusses method of data collection and varioils

deviations fi-oin prescribed pattern of bureaucratic behaviow by I operators of Federal

Minist~y of Works and Housing Port Harcourt. Also, the findings and implication of I

findings :or administrative efficiency and effectiveness was also dibcu! sed in this chapter.

Finally chapter five deals with the summary, conclusion atid rekornl rendations of the

work. i

Certification

Ikdication

Table of contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

- 1 i i i I

- - I List of Tiibles/Figures - xiv

Appendixes - - - I

!

CIIAP'TER ONE - INTRODUCTION

1 . I 13ackgound of the study - - I I

1.2, Statement of Problem - .. 5 1

1.3 Objectives cf the Study - - ! 1 .

r :I Sigiiificarlce of the Study - - 8

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study - 9

('IIAP'TER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW & RESEARCH ME1'HOI.l

2 .C) Literature Review - - 12

2. I l'lre Vicissitudes of Bureaucratic - C'otntptioa and u~~derdevelopment

in Nigeria - - - I 12

2.1 . : I3 ,.:-eaucratic Corruption in Colonial I

Nigeria, 1900 - 1960 - - ' 12 1

2.1.2 Cases of Bureaucratic Conuption in the I

I ' I .

Post Colonial Era. 1960 - Date - - i . - 18 1

2 2 'l'hcoretical Framework . - - I I - 26

2.4 Operationalization of Key Concepts . - 1 - 1 - 3 1

,

References - - - - 36

CHAPTER THREE - THE STUDY AREA AND GENERAL INFORMATION

3.0 Background information of Federal Ministry of Works and ! !

Housing, Port Harcourt - - - I

3. I The Origin of Public Bureaucracy in Nigeria - 1

3.2 The Colonial Phase: 1900 - 1960 - -

3.3 .'l'lie Post Colonial Phase:. 1960 - 2000

Cllalleiiges and Responses - -

Adw inistrative Structure/Organorgram I

of Fedeel Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt

Rureacrcracy and Environment in Nigeria.

Factors Affecting Bureaucratic Behaviour

I An Analysid o '

I

- 1 \ I

xii

3.6 Bureaucracy: The Weber Model - I - 52

3.7 Corditions for Effective Performance of Bureaucratic

Organisations . - - 54 I

References - - - 60 I i

4.0 Method of Data Collection - - i - 63

4.1 L)eviations from the Prescribed Patters

I of Ih~reaucratic Behavionr in Federal Ministry of Works

1

and I lousing, Port I-larcourt, 1995 - 2000 - I - 63 I

4.2 Cases of Corruption Based on Partiality and Non I

I I

Universality of Rules in Federal Ministry of I

I

Works and Housing, Port EIarcourt - - - 65 I ' ~

I 4 3 Cases of ~ure~ucra t ic Comlption in .

. .

Dalivery in Federal Ministry af Works &

lklc:tsing, Port Harcourt: 1995 - 2000 - - 7 1

4.4 Cases of Misappropriation, Embezzlement, Graft I

of Public Funds by Officials of Federal Ministry of

Works and llousing and Underdevelopment in

Rivers State - - - - - 84

xiii

1.5 Cases of over Invoicing, Pre-negotiated Kickbacks for !

Contract Awarded for Goods and Services and i

I

Ondcrdevelopment in Rivers State - - - 98 I I

4.6 Findings - - - - I - 109 1

4.7 lm~licatioa of Findings for Administrative I

Efficiency and ~ffeectiveness - - - I - 109

5.3 Recornmendations - - . - - - - j - - J 13 1

xiv

, LIST OF TABLES I FIGURES

TABLES *

Corrupt sales of Government plots

Buildings and Discovered and Revoked

By Rivm State Government - Several Cases of Corrupt Practices done

in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing

Quarters Estate by both Staff of FMW&H

and Occupants in the State .

Detailed Analysis of Total Amount Realised

fi ~m Sales of Form and Deposits Collected

from people to Date and Remitted to the

Federal Government - Summary of Payment Approved for Abortive

works at Trans An~adi site in Port Harcourt,

Rivers State - Summary of location, Contractors and Tender

Sum Approved for the Completion of Bridges in

Rivers State by Tender Board of FMW&H,

Port Harcourt

Swirn;:,ry of Unexecuted Projects in Rivers State

and funds meant for them were shared between

contractors, vote spenders in Federal Ministry of

Works and Mousing, Port Marcourt

FIGURES;

I I . Organisat ional Structure of Federal I

Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt - . - 50 I

!

APPENDIXES:

Letter of Rivers State Government issuing

lnstri~ction uf payment for the Abortive

National Housing Pro-jects in Rivers State.

Current Financial Summary of the Abortive Proto-

type Mousing Projects in Rivers State. , I

I

I

Minute of Tender Board Meeting of Federal

Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt ,

Map ui' Rivers State.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.

The bureaucracy is seen as a mixed blessing for the administration of all

types of organisation in the world. Both the public and private sector realised I

there goals through its defined principles of legitimacy, authority, selection, I

rigid procedxes etc in the conduct of affairs. Consequently, 'merton defined I

bureaucracy us a rationally organised social structure which involves a clearly I

defined patterns of activity in which ideally, every serieb of action is

fundamentally related to the purpose of the organisation (Merton 1952) Cited in I

Chinyere N wosu 200 1 .p, 1.

lt is also fundamental that bureaucracy operates in the! mid'st of other

institutions and social structures of the society that has sbme diversifies.

Therefore, to actualise the goals of the people, bureaucraciek are set up to '

provide essential services to residents which individual or few/ groups can not

a!iord. It is also responsible in the co-ordinations of efforts of individuals and

communities to secure survival through provision of food, clothing and shelter I

to people within a hostile environment. The bureaucracies actualised the above

through its rational legal rules and regulations. Fundamentally, a fully

developed bureaucracy has the advantage of bringing Speed, Precision,.

Unambiquity, Continuity, strict' subordination and reduction of friction and cost

into an administrative process. Therefore, Peter Blau in Eab Onah, sees

bureaucracy as an organisation that maximises efficiency in .xlrninistration or an

institutionaliscd method of organised social conduct in the interest of

administrative efficiency. (2001 :I 1)

However, the operations of the bureaucracies are affected by the culture

of the operatives that in turn affect the bureaucratic performace. Meanwhile,

culture according to E.B Tylor in Ongu Otite and N. Ogionwo, is a symbol for

the totality of the peoples way of life-how they dress, marry, make love or war,

religious activities, beliefs, pattern of work and leisure and thought patterns of

the people. 1990:44. All these conducts and attitudes are transformed into

bureaiicratic institutions.

A bureaucratic institution in Nigeria is alien. 'IXs W.her means that the

missionaries transported to African Continent and in particular Nigeria the

emerging concept of bureaueracy and Colonial masters. At the beginning, it

was restricted to governmental functions which sole operators were the British

officials. Subsequently, the concept filtered into the various levels of

governmenl, public enterprises, Tertiary institutions and even private

organisatiotis. Presently, bureaucracy has become the panacea for the

adminis trknmn of all formal organisat ions in Nigeria. I

1 Nigeria as a traditional African Society binded on a sound cultural

i background with other social institutions, the bureaucracg here as well

I interplays with them for smooth goal attainment. Therefore, the systems

approach may view any explainable phenomenon such as the bureaucracy as a

system that composed of several parts, each part interacting hith each other.

Each system functions in its environment and there contithing interaction

between the system and its environment. The environment inflluences the

system in the form of "inp~ts" which are converted into "outp@ by the system. '

I

The interaction between a system and its environment is characterised as

ecological interaction. Fred Riggs ecological approach emphasised that "

institutions are shaped and administrative behaviour conditioned by certain

crucial variables in the political, social, economic, cultural and physical

environment within which bureaucracy fimction. 196 1 :

From the foregoing, if the bureaucracy is inefficient or bureaucrats

corrupt in the discharge of public duties or services, it then mdans that certain I

variables ill the society has contributed. I I

Interestingly, with the introduction of bureaucracy whidh was view as

alien to Nigeria, conflicts arised at the point of applying t'be bureaucratic I

principles of impersonal and Universal lyles in a predominant'ly pre-industrial

society w it1 a set traditional values of kinship and reciprocity. (Etnezie 1 998 s).

The mixture of this case is everywhere present which produced a new form of

characteristics of naither the western nor traditional institutions! systems (Ibid).

'TI:? fiising of bureaucratic imperatives of irnpersonaiit$ rigidity and I

Universality of norms with tranditional values of kinship, ~ h u - e primodial

attachment to social groups are eminent and reciprocity, the end results are

ernbezzlernent, favowitism, graft, misuse of official property, povertj, declining

standard of living, nepotism, non accountability etc in the system. The other

name for this unsavoury practice is bureaucratic corruption and

underdcvelopment. . .

The syndrome has become so prominent: in Nigeria to 2 , . poi'lt where it

pervades all levels of government including the economic, political and social

Me of the ordinary folks. The growing poverty scale, hardcihip, fiustration-

conti-onting millions of Nigerians are the result of ',ad leadership,

mismanagen~cnt and buieaucratic corruption. This support the view of general

Olusegun Obasanjo while describing the "HallMark" of Nigerian Civil Service

as lethargy uncaring attitude, godfatherism, bossiness, egocentricism, gross

erosion of morality, indolence, corruption, impropriety, loss of interity, poverty, !

illiteracy, lack of shelter, poor 'health etc. (Newswatch 1990:40) ;

To this end, the average Nigerian finds it difficult to rdconcile his /her

' abject poverty with the huge revenue base of the country which; accrue fiom oil

economy. Beside, every year the country makes elaborate bud& .with the view

of providing adequate services needed for development but the reverse is people

living in squalor habitats, abandoned public projects, suffering among members

in yuicha~e of essential commodities such as petrol, kerosene etc even when the

raw rtlateriaks came from the environment. I

These negative result is realised through mismanagement, neglect; I

' j embezzlement graft, bureaucratic corruption. i

Furthermore, burreaucratic corruption constitute the greatest waste of natural

resources in any society and' a s yell leads to irrational and inefficient

performance of responsibilities and allocation of scarce resources. Investments

in projects are not so much determine by their profitability or utility but by the

amount of spoils that the officials would realise fiom the deal, public money is

directed to private use. This constitute a big loss of money for providing public

goods and services henced yield the absence of basic amenities for the society.

'The truth about this situation as applicable to Federal, State, Local

government and other institutions, in Nigeria is also present in Federal Ministry

of Works and Housing Port Harcourt. The fact that ubiquity and growing I

protninence of fraud and coiruption that negates the financial tegulations, Civil

Service rules, government circular papers and other operational ;memoranda that I

contain adequate provisions and instrucions for Judicious /management of

personnel, finance and other materials persist in Federal ~ in i s t iy of Works and

,Mousing Port Harcourt. It further shows that, the operatois of ihis bureaucratic

setting have enharked on. the normal Nigerian uncanny and ingknious means or

ways of sabotaging the well-intentioned provisions and instructions.

Therefore, the result in River State has been the, inability of the Ministry

to deliver public services needed for human development. Again, there have.

been fear arid erosion of confidence on the part of personnel of the Ministry and

otiw citizens ir, the integrity and effectiveness of the organisation. There is also

rising cases of uncompleted projects embarked upon by the mininstry that litters

every where in the State. People living in squalor abode due to none availability

of IIouses beside the Jingle of government "Housing for all by the year 2000".

Salaries, promotion and other incentives are not granted to Workers as at when

due which effects yielded underdevelopment. This study is dying to find out I

how, why, extent and effect of bureaucratic corruption in ~ i & r i a with specific

reference to Federal Ministry of Works and H.ousing Port Harcourt in River

State. I

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The bureaucracy with its formal design was adopttxl in Nigeria with the

view of maximising eficiency in administration and del..very 01' services. As

stated by : 2ter Blau Cited in Fab Onah, 200 1 : 1 1, a hlly de veloped bureaucracy

has the advantage of bringing speed precision, unambiquky, col.tinuity, I unity,

strict subordination and reduction of friction and cost intc bn administrative I

i

i process. l'his further implies that, with its application in Nigeria! contex, higher

productivity, aud development were the expectations of i{s citizens. I

As an agents or instrument of government that service' this role, they. I . enjoy the contribution of the public in terms' of revenue generdtion and other

supports needed foi devdopent: Federal Ministry of Works arid Housing Port

Harcqurt enjoy the services, which other bureaucratic organisat;ons in Nigeria

enjoyed rrom government. On this note, there has been ircreasing scale of

abandoned Federal government projects in River State beside the huge

budgetory allocation of government to the Ministry every year.

Furthermore, the Government announce every year good policies along

with its budgct to enhance the living standard of people and in particular areas

like educaticm, shelter etc through it's implementation Ministries but in Rivers

S!ate people are still languishing in illiteracy, lack of accommodation, etc.

A@ ivspite i t Government budgetary allocation to the ~ i n i s t r ~ , there has

been high state of disrepair of public facilities such as Highways, (roads), I

electricity, Communication and transport facilities, Health Facilities Water

Supply etc in the State.

Though, people and other Scholars often stressed that, the non realization of

government goals is due to large scale mismanagement of human, Money and

Material resources through fraudulent practices, looting of treasury, out right

irresponsibility bothering on corruption but what conditions this behaviours is

often ignored. Therefore the main concern of this study is to find out the reasons

for improverished status of the state and personnel of federal mikistry of Works 1

and Housing, Port Harcourt while government continue to redit allocation to !

them every year. I

I I I I

This research will help us find out why Federal Ministry of Works and

I-lousing ("bureaucracy") Port liarcourt failed to complete projects embark upon

in Rivers States. Furthermore, it will explain critical cases of misappropriation,

embezzlement, fraud, dishonesty of public fbnd by operators of the ministry.

The study will help us to ascertain the underpining dictates of bribery, over

invoicing of (. .:mtract value by workers of federal ministry of works & Housing

Port Harcourt.

Consequently, this work will help the readers to understand why there is

moral laxity, truancy, and lateness, dishonesty on the part of workers of the

Ministry. The study will also investigate the effect or damage which corruption

perpertracted by public officers of the ministry has caused to the said-political

environment of Riveis State. In addition the work , will re-awaken the

consciousness of workers toward their statutory role of policy formulation and

implementation in the Country. It will aslo analyse why public officsrs of the

Ministry could not maintain already existing Federal public infraitrucures sited

in the state beside the (A.I.E.'S). Authority to incure expenditure scnt to the I

fid& I Ieadquarters every quarter of the year.

Finally, the study will help us know how some public o 4 I C ~ S got their

riches that are demostrated in our Communities and other ceremodal occasions.

1.4 SIGh i PICANCE OF THE STUDY

Federe1 Ministry of Works and Housing is one of the functional units of ,

bureaucracy in Nigeria. It has its statutory fmctions and responsibility in the

developn~ent of our society. However, scholars have written works on

bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopment in Nigeria generally, but there

had never been a comprehensive work.as such on Federal Ministry of Work and

Housing Port Harcourt.

Thus, the significance of this study lies in the fact that it will serve as a

guide to both policy planners, implementators on the ,mechanisms of I

checkmating excessive abuse of power by public ofice holders, in Rivers State.

Equally; this will help in bringing good policies that will yield to the

completion of projects embarked upon by the Ministry. It shall further stress

the model for emancipation and integration of Rivers people ihto development

paradigm of the country. I

r70urthly, the work shall be an academic contribution on rural integration

and deveIc,.ment administration. Agaic, it will become a stimuli and basis for

future rese~ich in the field. This work will also served as a foremost recorded

document in its entirety, particularly in Rivers State. Both scholars, policy

planners and implementators including the general public whose aim geared

toward improving their research desire as well as transforming the society will

find the work relevant. 1

The research shall provide a model of inculcating the righthl

bureaucratic ethics into workers that will yield to swift deliveky of services to

the peoplc in the country. Finally, the work will provide recohmendations that

may enharice or liberate the ~ i v e i s people fiorn t h e shackles of > , I

underdevelopm~nt as well as integrating them into proper development agenda

of the count~y.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Since corr~iption is a monster that debases the society, the research will

look at 'bureaucratic corruption and its resulting effect on the socio-political

environment of Nigeria with particular emphasis on Rivers State. The state

comprised of twenty-three local government Area with several ethnic groups.

'I'hcy includes, Abua IOdua, Ahoada West, Ahoada East, Akuku-Toru, Asari-

Toru, Andoni, Bonny, Degema, Eleme, Etche, Emma, ~ e h u a , Gokana,

Ikerrre, Khana, Oyigbo, OpoboINkoro, Ogu/Bolo, Dkrika, I Ogba

EgbemaflVdoni, ObioIAkpor, port Harcourt City and Tai L & ~ I government : ,

Areas. Coi-l.xquently, the ethnic groups are Ogoni, Ikwerre, dalabari, Okrika, I

Ogba, Egbeti~a Ndoni and Etche etc. I

As a cross dimensional and cross pollinational study, it will involved all

officers of the organisation. Under this circumstances, emphasis will be placed

on cases' of misappropriation, embezzlement, over invoicing hnd violation of

contract procedures, non, compliance to bureaucratic principles by public

officers of the ministry in discharged of their legitimate duties, Fraud, neglect, I

cases of abandoned Federal government projects in the ;state and non- I

maintenance of Federal public facilities example, Federal 1 roads, Bridges I

Flouses, Lalld etc will also be examined. i

Due to the difficulties encounter in collecting long period

comprehensive data for this study which arose from the oath df secrecy sworn

by every public officer when employed into the service, the study will cover

I bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopment in Nigeria ; using Federal

Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt with a particular reference to five I

years. Consequently, the study will rely on c,cmtent analysis, oral*

intcrviewiobservat'ons as the basis of analysis, Moreso 1 am an C&C participant.

I

CHAPTER ONE REFERENCES

Emezie (19955) Cited in Chinyere Nwosu 20 2 Bureaucratic Corruption in Nigeria. A case study of Port Harbourt City local Government Area of River State. A, Ph.D. Seminar Paper.

Taylor E.B. (1990:44) Cited in Ongu Otite and W. Ogionwo. & 1ntroduc:ion to sociological studies, Heinemann Educational Books -

- (Nig,) Ltd., Ibadan.

Fred Riggs, (1969) The Ecolow of Public Administration. Asia Publishing House London. :

Newswatch Magazine (1 990:40) February 19, Lagos.

Peter Blau Cited in Onah Fab (2001), ~ecture: monograph on comparative public Administration, University of Nigeria Nsukka.

I I

Merton R.K. et'al. eds (1952), Reader in ~ureahcracy, the Free press, New York. I

I

CHAPTERTWO .

LITEMTURE REVIEW . - I

2.0

The philosophy behind literature review as applied I to my research

work, is to ascertain the views of othei. scholars on the 'subject matter. I

The revien will also show whether my views are in total support of the

work .J others or in dissent. In summary, this will give me the impetus of

breaking a new ground on the subject matter that shall be useful in future I

research.

2.1 THE VICISSITUDES OF BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION

AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.

Nigeria had recorded several phases of bureaucratic corruption and

undedevelopment since its inception as a State. It is wohhy to note that

corruption imperils every society in which it occurs, espercially young

arid fragile developing countries. It disconnects reward Eom ability and

effort - and undermines competitive eaciency. Cormptidn subverts the

rule of law, erodes confidence in the Justness ofthe political order and

renders patriotism impossible. However, this developmcrit cut across all

facets of our society but this paper is interested in bureau~ratic corruption l

and unde~development in Nigeria. Furthermore, it shall be discussed in I

1 2.1 1 RUREAUCRA'TIC CORRUPTION IN COLONIAL NIGIERIA.; 19OO-l96O.

Before the advert of colonial rule in Nigeria, !e?der$ through their

traditional institutions and pattern of administation cresdd methods of

checkmating the excesses of public office holders. However,,

strong traditional beliefs, cases of abuse of power were a 3

inspite of the "

L

;o uncovered.

Therefore, Beattie observed. ! I

"Like other men, ruler is .bound to be actuated sometime by his

private iriterests and to use his power to gra& this interest. Chiefs

who abused their @ce at Mgiunja were dealt with in two ways.

1959: 101.

The above proves that cases of corruption existed in the pre-Colonial

Nigeria but the system has its deterent devices. Interestingly, if it was an action

that was serious enough to warrant removal from office, the council of Chiefs in

Co~nmunily would call a general meeting of the whole community and by

popular approval remove a corrupt or recalcitrant Chief from office and appoint

or elect a new one to take over. If the case involved misappropriation of

Community funds, the Chief in question was threatened with a "Conditional

norms," the invocation of a "Juju" to kill him or visit him with an incurrable

sickness" if such misappropriated h d s were not returned to the community

coffers, Chiefs responded possitively to the threats to invoke "~uju" if they

commited acts contrary to their traditional oath of oEcs: First, because of the

strong belief in the effectiveness of "~uju" to kill or inflict badly harm when

invoked; second; in order to avoid the numerous and ofierl expensive

ceremonies required to appease the bbjuju" if invoked.

In general, the methods adopted by various communiti d ,s jvere largely

effective. The reasons were the strong beliefs, social customs and the norms that

sustained the traditional authority of the people and the sociai sahction that were

im~med, sanctions being a reaction on the part of a society 1)r o f ; considerable , I

I

number of its metnbers to a mode of behaviour which is thereby approved

(possitivc sanctions) or disapproved negative sanctions ibid:103 i I

Consequently, the introduction of colonial rule into the Niheria traditional*

'setting Juxtaposes the mini decent accounting proceduces that were in existence

and further superimposed it with colonial policies that has an inherrent seed of

discord"corruption" that bedeviled the administrative system , "bureaucracy"

henr.4 imperil thz state. In this analysis, the period within 1900- 1950 can be

classified ' as the classical colonial rule. Bureaucratic corruption and

underdevelopment were at a higher crescendo because the regimes were not

responsible or accountable to the will of the people. Ademolakun A, adduced I . ,

three reasons thus: I I

"the colonial services was neither intended nor designed, by its

modality of rule and raison d'etre to responsive or accountable to

the people in the colonies. A superior race on a mission to civilise

the subject, people in the colonies could not have been expected to

account for its actions. 1986: 45

During' this period, the colonial adimistrators who nu, the affairs of the

country i.e the governor, the lieutenant-governors, the residents Divisional

Officers and Assistant Divisional officers, were all British and representatives

of the colonial secretary in London who in turn was accountable to the British

Crown. This further means that they were not accontable to thc, people as well

as their development beside the huge resources generated fiom the society and

expropriated them to western economy. M.Mc. Mullam 1961 :I92 state thus:

"during the early years of colonial rule, the colonial governments were

morv responsive to British than to West African piBessure group.

pracicable to do so, by the systemic, if some Judicious use of military or Para-

Military Violence. R.T Dudley described colonial rule as ~iot been responsible

to the people rather to the crown colony thus:

"the Resident I V L I S LI higher OI-L/CI* t f I ~ I L I ~ , //c W L I S infi~ct god 1 1 : / 2 0

ciescenu'ed Jiom his oly~npicui /icights ye~ic)~/icully to survey his

"hnzuirz " inaster o j crll he su-rv. MUIY SO //7an //7e District CY~~CC'I-S, the

Resident was not t-egc~t-~ied CIS ~ ~ n ~ + v e ~ u h l e to unyone. One cozrld

son7etimes "crppecrl"fr.o177 //7e Disfrict O ~ ~ ~ C C ' I * . . to the Resideizf, bz[/ wi/h /he

Ic~tte/- everything ended. The 1~~11lj1igs of / /ZC gods CII-e JinuI, mzd L I I Y

questioned only at dire per.vonu1 and collective ~ ~ ~ s k . 1973 : 25

Thirdly, Ladipo Adamolekun averred that; thoughout the period betwcc~l

19 14 and 195 1 the colonial government in Nigeria functioned as though all the

key officials endorsed lord I.,ugard's assertion that representative ins ti tutions

and legislative councils are . . . . . . . . . . . .unsuited to Akican peoples I C ) 8 5 : ~ . l'his

further means that the constitutional development that took place within the

time could not gurantee public accountability rather it orchestrate the pace of

bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopment in Nigeria.

Within 1952-1960 Witness a number of cases of officia! bureaucratic

corruption and underdevelopment in Nigcria. This period adopted the "Wcst

Minister model". There Mias a lot of co~istitutional changcs o n the British

parliamentary system. Dicltson Agedah 1993:viii-ix maintained that one o S the

cases was the indictment and subseqent scn- oval from ol'fice of Alhaji Aclegoke

Adelabu (NCNC) as Chairman Ibadan District Chuncil in 1956. I t must bc notcd

that Adelabu was Simultaneously a Minister ill Government. I Ie was accuscd on

the incidence of'Mal- adminisration and corruption within the council.

that Adelabu was Simultaneously a Minister in Government. H$ was accused on b

the incidence of Mal- adminisration and corruption within the c o k i l .

Furthermore, in July 1955, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe reacted tb the finding oca

Commission of inquiring into bureaucratic corruption thus: "it boes no credit to

fill local Government bodies and the legislatures of the land k ith crooks who

have stain hands. Ibid. Another commission of inquiry h$aded by Chuba I

Ikpeazu, C C Mujekwu, E. E. Koofrey after their various sittings held in various

ciiics came up with the "land Minister Mr. M.C. Agwu who was accused of

impropriety in the allocation of urban plot while he was the ~ i n i s t e r of Finance,

Mazi Mbonu Ojike was accused of corruption while he was a Minister of I

I works in 1954. (Ibid.) I . ' i

This development took place over the famous Onitsha market1 Another similar ,

case of bureaucrittic corruption was leveled against Dr. dnamdi Azikiwe. I

Agedah observed, I

"Thclt in April 1956, Xr. E'ong 0. Eyo, former Government Chief whip and Chairman of development Co-oporation made another accusation of corruption against the Eastern ~ i ~ e r i a Premier, Nnanzdi dzikiwe. He alleged that the premier grossly abused his o'ce in connecl'ion with the investment and deposit ofpublic funds in a private bank of which he was the principal Shareholder. 1bid.k. Though the premier reacted by filling a suit of libel against the accuser.

Again, the colonial bureaucratic operators relied strictly on the orgmisational

rules: such as "General order" (G.O), and financial' Instructions (F.1) which was 1

meticulously enforced and sanctioned promptly as applied for iasesof improper .

bellaviour and deviations from bureaucratic rules. Beside this,, :corruptions were

still perpetrated. J.D lsaiahavered through an interview o i l the case of one I

Rufirs lyanimgba, a Court clerk in the colonial service in a village called

Oporama in Rivers State thus:

"lyanimgbn was building a "conerete block house in his village he was

dismissed by the colonial divisional oficer (DO) in charge of the Area on

/he ground that, with his meagre Salary as a Court Clerk, without

ahlrsirx his position such as demanding and receiving bribes from

Members of the publiche could'nt have heen able to put up the house.

(Ministry of Youth . sport and Culture,Port Harcourt ~ i v e k s Bate). I

These and other vital issues as profered by M.J. ~ a l o ~ u n ' Shows that the

Colonial Scrvices were not for Nigeria development rather it &as 1 an activities

that were vital in achieving the colonial policy objectives in Nigtria. The British

were here to exploit the resources of the Country fix the bknefit of British

finance and industrial capital. The "police protection" was to /ensure law and

order., the electricity, railway and road network were vital infrastrutural

facilities intended to facilitate the easy extraction and evacuatioh of Agricul twal I produce to foot British Industrial need. 1983 :chapter 8. I I

Furthermore, the colonial bureaucracy were not con:enied with matters

of social development or economic planning to promote development in

Nigeria. As A I Ado clearly stated:'

"the old colonial administration and technical de 7artments were

concerned with' such matters as maintenance cf 121.1, and order,

local administratration, the provision of a moderate level o f social

.services, elementary communications netwbrk.~ and the

ht~shandary of natzwal resourse. There were no five or ten years

plans, no major policies on industrialization, nc) talking qf

I

I 1

providing economic i@astructural services, nor uny f u l l

development of rhe economy; izo balance ofpaymet~t dijficzilties, rzo

money rnatket and no e.tteintll re2ai;om whether political,

2,1*2 CASES OF BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION IN 'THE POST

CO1,ONIAL ERA 1960 -DATE.

Aller the demise of colonial rule, a dawn of a new eri came up in the

adn~i~i is t r~~ive settngs o f Nigeria. At this point, Nigeria elites took over

leadership of' our Scverign State. They as well occupied both the political and

huwauiratic position$ in the country as a means of bringing deVelopment to our

people. i Paiadoxically, on assun~ption of this civic role instead of dismatitling

the old colonial bureaucratic structures, they maintained the Btat~s-~uo which I

was build on strick imperial rules. i.e. Civil Service rules ( c .~ .R) and financial

reulatii)r~s (,F.R). e.t.c. Consequently, as a transplantation of an old order into a

new one, b~~reaucratic corruption was turbo charged in this dispensation

coupled with the Joy of independence and self agrandise~ncnt. 'The

government also demostrated this by not showing strick commitment to public

service accountability.

Instead of holding those responsible to account for their actions, the

government did everything within Its powers to shield pudlit,: officers fiom I

answeriil.de to their actions while in public ofice. ! I ~

13illy Dudley 1982:59 observed that: in 1962, the report o f ' the Director of

Federal Adit , queried Government 'for overspending and waste. They included

car md travel allowances for Senior Officials and Ministers and unauthorised

rxpencii ture o f public fimds. Instead of investigating and holding public officials

involved ii, the financial improprieties, the Federal Minister of finance

dis~nissccl i;.e Auditor General for ineffective discharge of hi; constitutional

duties. 1

A siwilar experience was the one cited by Adebayo A. thus: !

"the incident on House of Representatives in 1964 when the house was

considering the report of the Director of Audit on govbrnment jhnnce

and expenditure. The Report had highlighted a ndmher qf gross I

irregularities in the spending of large sums of public firnds c nd hadfozrnd

that most of this irregularity occurred in the federal ministry of finance.

As the deb~zte on the report was gething into full swing, the federal

minister offinance stood up and launches an attack on the Director of

Audit and his Report. He condemned the whole document and' called on I I

the house to reject the Report and the whole matted ende~ ' and was I I .

forgotten.

~rlrthermore Agedah opined that, excessive bureaucratic corrui~tion and

underdevd~~prnent in Nigeria was the reasons adduced by the militar~t for the

termination of the Erst Republic. In the word of Ironsi in Agedah:

"The Ironsi administration in justzfiing the Army take over of

Government not . only insisted that there were widv-spread

incidence of corruption during the Jirrt republic but also promised

to probe such incidence and bring guirty parties to book. IF similar

and dishonesty in our public life with ruthless eflieciet~cy and

i-estore inte. gr-ity and se&-espect in our public! rrjuir~. Iiz the a

ytrhlic services, efficiency and merit will he the o-iteriu jbr 1

ucivai7cernent. The Government will study veiy ~'u~vful ly the

q tiestion posed by those who recklessly abused thkii- plrblic oflcczc-

through the ucyuisitioil of state lands and ~ ~ I I L I ~ Z L . ~ ~ LIL'uls. 7he

1;'ederal Goverr.trnerzt will introduce adn~inistrative rvfi~i-im. I t will

U/SO restore the laid down procedures for tenderbs czrzd uwcrr-dv o f

~.:ar~tr.ucts so as to eradicate corrupt practices triirl er~sim herzejit

Ji.om the expenditure of the tax payers money. (1 993: 13- I 4).

Ma.jor C'liukwurna Nzeogu also express his dismay over bureauct-atic

cot-1.11ptiot1 3 r d underdevelopment in our polity as his reasons h r taking over

Go\ c l ~ ~ i i e n t in 1966. As Cited in Ibid,

"Oru. erzemies are political profitews, the swindler, tlzc i i w ~ ir~ Izigiz und

IOVV 1)Iulces that seek bribes and demand ten percent, thoc-e tlzut seek to

keep tile courztry dividedperntarzently, so that they can r-eittuiu ir~ ofice us

Mii~istei-s, C'Il')s at least, the tribalist, the nepotist, tllosc tr'zut wake the

( hiztr y look big fir nothing before intei-nutioizal circale; tl7o.w titat I

corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political qulrlnder buck by

thcii- rvor-ds and deeds. I I

I; ! 966, colonel Odurnegwu Ojukwu State that; the draina. ic culnlination

of ten wasted years of planlessness, incompetence, ineficien d j y j gross abuse of

office, corruption, avaricc and gross disregard of

11lan.. .'l'he Financial institutions a d statutory

the interest c: f

co rporah i s I

I I

!

the common

have been

colnlpletely misused for the self aggrandisement of a number o f adventurers in

the position of power and influence. Under this syste% mediocrities were

trarlsplanted overnight from the situation of obscurity into positions of affluence l

and corrupt power. With these excessive wastage of public f~!nd disrupted the

economy, depressed the standard of living of the toiling massed, spiralled prices . I I

and made the rich richer and the poor poorer. Internal squabL)les for parochial

and clel~nisIi patronage to the place of purposeful co-ordinatkd service in the

sel \.ice of the people.. . ..land, the basic heritage of the people was converted

in to the private estates of rapacious individuals, who thus trampling on the

rights o f ihe people violated their sacred trust ' under this system !.he public

service was being increasingly demoralised. Ibid.p, 15

'l'lierefore,the coming of the military into political scene, brought to the

fore a new despotism" of faceless mandarins who were not responsble or

wc s ~ l ~ ~ ~ t a b l e to myone but themselves. All through the Militay regilnc, top

(:kit Servants as a group did not only consolidate their poker ba:~: but kxterld

their influence and power over government decisidns. Alex Gljoyega et'al

1 c)8O:3 I .

. . 'l'he second Republic also record several cases of 'bureaucratic corruptiofi

:ml undcrdevelopment, Traceably is the Avennent of Agedah op cit. .18

cmwe probity and crccoutubility in publil : life, his adinii7is/i-t rtiort nmy

pwlzcrps, corztitzue for a long time to rep/ esent the t l twst corr upt, i~zosl

elevating pqfligacy undpublic treasury 1oo:ing to an ar-/.

The?? development cut across all angles of the regime. Hence the period

also witnessed the h i l d up of the nations foreign debt from a lowly N3 billion

in i979 to a substantial and staggering N2 1 billion by the fall of 1983. With the

increasing pace of corruption by public oflice holder in Nigeria, the Babangida

. regime set up a Judicial tribunal of inquiry to try them and those tbund guilty be

purnished. On this directive, Agedah State that I

"An overview of the entire exercise however revealed that cases of 67

formal public office holders were reviewed and penalties given which

rtmnged porn ban from holding public ofice or participating in polities

either ,for ten years or for life, forfeiture or refund of , jkls, imprq~erly

utilised and minimal jail terms. In most cases, jail sentences were

rdtrced drastically but others were upheld. Ibidp 27:

Similarly, Alex Gboyega reported that bureaucratic corruption and

underdevelop~nent was abysmal in the third Republic. Hwce 'bureaucrats got

tllemselvc involve in improper documentation and disbursement of money to

contraclo~*s and other runnings of the system. New Nigeria newspaper

Observed that there was no proper documentation of loans dkhursement and

money paid to contractors for the supply of equipment to graduate farmers

through various state Ministry of Commerce and Industry might have been

inflated. Oct. 5,1988.

Most wrikrs opined that the Shagari regime indulge much in corruption

and financial indiscipline. These were practically demostrated dy :.ome political

and bureaucratic class in the state. Dele Olowu emphasised that f bw examples

of the above assertion is reported by the Judicial Tribunals thdt illvestigate the

'regime after General Buhari Overthrew the government. It stateb.tt at the regime

characterised extensive abuse of power both at the Federal, State and Local

Government levels during the period.

All but two of the elected civilian governors of the states were found.

guilty bf various oflences ranging from the mis-use of public finds, mlawfi~l

importation of foreign currencies. This amount of public knd kisappropriated

by individuals ranged between N50, 000.00 ($50,000.00) and N10 million

($lOmillion) to that of state Government that signed a fake water project

contract of N99 million. (1985:7-12).

This hrrn of corrupt behaviour afllected almost all public sector agencies

inc!!lding the military contracts, particularly, the Nigerian external

telecomminications, federal Housing Authority, Delta Stell Company, National

Youth Service Corps, the Central Bank. In one case a State Governor was found

to have made payments of N100, 000.00 each to 42 Legislators of the state

House of Assembly and N2 million to himself. One writer described t5e Shagari

regime as nat a democracy but "contractocracy" which he detined as R

9 i government of contractors by contractors and for contractors, adding that ' the

'entire essence of government was to award contract and at highly balootn costs,

and after they had been awarded. I t doesn't really matter whetht:~ such contracts

are executed and to the required specifications. Ray Ekpu. News watch 1956:11 I

1,arrry Diamond also observed that, the meetings of Shagari Cabir-et and I

party counc',k became bazaars where the resources of the State! were put up for

auction. 1988:67. The following estimates provide support f6r these claim.

Conservative estimate shows that during the four years period uf Shagari regime'

between 1979 to 1983, about $547 billion was embezzled or r&appropriated by

public officers. Stephen wright. 1990: 589.

Secondly, the government was not only corrupt but also displayed a high

degree of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the implementation lof its policies, I

projects and programmes. One indicator of this was the large scale.

abandonment of projects. Newswatch described the abandonmbnt of housing

projects as follows: Gone, Gone, Gone; Abandoned low-cost ho&es at various

Cities of Nigeria show monuments of money washed away in the drain. 1991.

3 1-32. 1

. I n 1987, the abandonment o f projects all over thk count& was rampant

due to cot-rutjon by public ofice holders. Newswatch fbrther state thus:

"But the abandoned Lagos metroline project is not an isolated case.

ow ever its abandonment, inspite or the acute transportation problems

in the City, has brought into sharp focus the vexed issue of abondoned

projecis in the country. From Lagos to Maiduguri and,fi.orn sokoto to

Cdaber, variolrs projects of high economic and social values, worth

hillions of naira, lie fallow. Rotting, rusting and crum bling under rain

clnc? slrn. Other abandoned Projects are Hospitals, Clinics, Markets,

Dams, Airports ofice-blocks, housing projects, Schools Buildings,

Factories, Industries, Libraries, Theatre Complexes, krotels hi-tech

equipment to mention just cr few 1987:14.

All these were clear manifestation of abuse of public power having taken

into cognisance the implications of investing public f h d into projezts without

completion. In the process, some finds were diverted for personal mrichrnent

while others were wasted on flabouyant projects that have no ;bearing on the

citizens. Certain biuerrucratic decisions taking by public office holders base on

subjective sense of responsibility contradicts objective accduntati~ity The

abuse of and other form of corruption is a deviation from bureaucratic

norms which is anti-development. The' above levels of corruption were

perpetrated by prof. Tam David West when he was made ad oil minister in

Nigeria. Newswatch report that:

"In I990 he w m called uopn by a tribunal set up by thC military under

the "recovery of public property (special military trihuvtal) Decree 3 of

1984 to answer for decisions he took and his actions ad minister in the ,

petroleum ministry. The decision was that he allowed hi7 American oil

Cbmpany Stinnes interoil to withhold $57,117, 443 million dollars (US).

The outstanding balance of $157, 117,443 which represents the total

;:due with interest of Nigeria crude oil Liffed by the cbuntry under on

offshore , , processing agreemeni between it and Nigeria National

Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). 1991:27.

Evidewe to this eflect, shows that the public officer keddled himself I .

with this level of corruption just because he had a tea with stinnes President.

Mr E.R Janson and accepted a gift of wrist watch from stinnes inter Oil director

Fred Rocky. I

Democratic principles in Nigeria which was suppose to be a tool of

development undermine and disempowered non-elites, espercially the rural.

dwellers . who are mostly peasants in our societies through corrupt

implementation of democratic policies.

This support the view of Claude Ake thus:

Basically, the Afficans including Nigeria who a1.e slated for democracy is

. a rurh dweller, who lives a society which is still predominrhtly commercial.

She is a subsistence farmer toiling for precarious existence shd has virtually no

= .

access to save Drinking Water, Health Services and she is illiterateor nearly so,

hence what does democratization mean therefore to this p{ople. 1994:14.

Furthermore, their elections into representative offices are characterised by

excessive election malpractices and rigging by bureaucrets that Are supposes to

be neutral in electoral competition. Ibid. All these sum, together invaded our 1

society and stagnate development . I

I

In summary, bureaucractic corruption and underdevelopment in Nigeria

prior to the above analysis proved that it is a visual circle beacauke every regime

demonstrated similar traits of the evil conduct that destroys our society. In this

direction, I share the same view with other scholars on the sub-iect matter and I

will make recommendations if adopted by the governernment and bureaucrats

will b 1 . i ~ ~ ; our society from the dol'drum of social-political and econonlic

underdevelopment.

2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. I

I

The theoretical framework chosen to be usehl for this research is "The

systems Analysis and Ecological approach". The relevance of thbst theories lies

in the fact that they emphasis on the study of a set of interrelaked variables as

distinguished from the environment of the set and the way in which tbs set is

maintained under the impacts of environmental disturbances. This definition

emphasises on the articulation of system and its components and the behaviours

by which it maintains itself over time. Morton A Kaplan ir James C. I

Charlesworth (1 953 : 1 S O ) . I

Consequently, systems theory regards the environment a I a system with

many sub systems and each sub-system interact inputs- outputs!fui the eficient

1 and effective performance of the whole system. This environrnelnt compiised of

intra and extra societal variables. The intra entails the ecological systems,

biological system personality system, political system social: systems while

extra contain the International political systems. International ecological

systems and International social systems J.A. Egomnwan 1384:47: I . In addition

the ecological approach view public bureaucracies as one of the several basic

institutions in a society, viz, political. system economic system, social system

and cultural system. .Thus an administrative system is influence by the society,

of which it is a part and in turn influences. the society at large. Nnanta N.

Elekwa 200 1 : 1

Therefore, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing field Headquater Port

1- l i r luwrt is herein considered as a sub-system within other systems in the

bureaucracy as well as Nigeria i.e, the local, state, federal political enviroment.

The precussors of the above theories are "Almond and powell, Talcott parson,

Fred Riggs, Levy, William Mitchel, David Easton, Gabriel ~ lmbnd etc. William

Flamigan IEdwin Forelman in Op, cit PP 75-77.

Talcott Parson Stated that an organisation "like all Lhing System is an

Open system engaged in the process of interchange (input and output

relationship with its environment as well as its internal units. l'alcott Parson vol

15 ed by D;L Sills. Furthermore, as a political society, (Nigeria) is wen as a

system of i~lterelated activities. This activity derived the relatedness or :;ystemic

ties from the fact that they all influence the way in vvtrich authocitatives

decisions are formulated and executed in the society. rherefore Federal

Ministry of works and Housing as a bureaucratic network plity the role of policy

formulation and implementation in Nigeria political setting, hence as a sub-

system, i f it fails to perform her responsibilities, there is the tendency that ' I

instability and underdevelopment will creep into the whole system: I

Though systems analysis is not ambitiously aimed at a genkral theory, but.

how a political S Y S ~ ~ ~ I I and its components with other interelated units work to

persist under change, stress or disturbances within itself or other social,

cultural, re,ligious or external enviroment. This is realistic because any distortion

or malfuction in one of the sub- units affect the capability and effeciveness.of

the whole. I

In addition, systems aqlysis help us to understand the (i) Components of a

political system (legislative, Executive and Judiciary. (ii) he' character and i

dynamics of pressure groups, political parties, electmrates, and political

aspirations. (iii) Input.-Output functions which shows how' demand and Support

are Converted by the system to effect allocation of resources (iv) The Feedback

function of which is a vital conlrnunication network to enable assessment of

stress, performance efficiency or failure. The opep Univetsity set book

1970.~~493-494,

From the foregoing, Our picture of system analysis becomc clear that it

is chiefly, concerned with order, stability and persistence of a poliiical system,

therefore, with the increasing pace of lack of shelter, poor health in Rivers State I

inspites of. our support through payment of taxes, obedient to elect01 a1 processes

etc to the .system, "systems analysis will help us know the role of the

bureaucracy and why they have failed to provide the needed se;-vices to the I

;mL!ii: ar~d in particular Federal Ministry of works and Housiilg Port l-larcourt

field IIeadqunfiers, moreso, they are the bridge between the p~litcal class and I

the general masses in Nigeria, (ibid.)

Furthermore, political system has certain properties, which help to I

present the overall view of the whole approach. The major attributes are: ,'

Properties of identification of a system and intergration of a system. Among the

input of a political system, there are two basic kinds, demand and support. This

input give a political system its dynamic character. They furnished the both,

with the raw materials or information that the system is called upon to process

and the cnergy to keep it going. Consenqently, why men enghged in political

activities is that demand are being made by persons or grours in the society

that cannot be fully satisfied. Interestingly, one thing become clear about

political life in all society, scarcity prevails with regard to molt of the valued

things. However , some of the claims of those relative scarce things never find

their ways into the political system but are sometimes satisfied! through private

negotiations of or settlement by the persons or groups involve. (ibid.)

J.A Egonmwon 1981:48 opined that input support is an important

ingredient of systems analysis because input demand are mostly raw material

out of which finish product called decision are manufactured. E,lergy in , the

form of actions or orientations, promotions and resisting a political system, the -

,demand arising in it and the decision insueing from it most also be llut into the

system to keep it running without support demand could id t bis satisfied.

S y y r ! , is rendered when groups and individuals abide by election results, pay

taxes, obey laws and otherwise accept the decisioris a n t actions of the

authoritative political system made in response to demands, ; which Nigerian

Citiiens including Rivers People have met as a precondition foi development. .'

According

system analysis , , I to David Easton in Ake 1982:3, Conver ion process in

also refer to internal woiking of the systenli or the way by

which demands and support input transformed autlienticative debisions I I and their

implemcn~aiion. ~urthdrmote,, ' Capacity in systems 'analysi$ refer to tlis

perfivmance of a system within a given environment. Effective ipcrforniatice of

a system depends on two variables namely regulative capacity[ i.e law making

ability i o distribute goods and services and finally, respons jvc: capacity i.e

ability to respotlse to dernands such as participation and material deinands.

111 this regard, corruption therefore hampered the perforn~ancc or

ad~i~inistrative efficiency in Federal Ministry of works and lousing at the

cotiversion chambers against her responsibility of delivering go and services

to h e public as well as its internal administrative role in tlk state because

political decisions are suppose to be harnionised here within the dictate of I

burca~tcratic principles. I

The output of the system is a political decision or policy that comes out of

the system. I t constitute a body of specific indr~ce~nent for the'nie~nbers or the

system to support that system. This output is satisfactory, strenghten the ties of

tiiembcr of the system. The maintenance and adaptation function refers to tlie

process by which the system Keep itself in repair in accordawe with changing I

co~ditioiis. The feedback relates information to members fTcm1 the system as to

detcr~iiitie adequate performance and relevance of the system, (ibid) I

"l+m the above analysis, it is obvious that orga~izatioris arc in

co~ltiiiuous interastions with the environment as idell 1 influenced the

jxri'o:*~,tancl: and activities of an organisation. Therefore,

Works and I lousing field Ereadquarters Port Ilarcourt is

I

i Peder~. ~ ' i n i s t r ~ of

a s~b- : ,~s tem in the

bureaucratic settings of this Country. It is also a sub-system within other

systems in :he political environrnent of Nigeria. Corruption perpetrated in this I sub-system bas a derogatory effixt on its environment and the1 yearning desires

and aspirations from the environment, which have in turn affe b ted the efficient I

performance of the sub-system. i I

In this study the following hndamental assumptions/ shall serves as

hypu thesis:

Hureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Port

I-larcuurt is the cause of abandoned Federal capital projects in Rivers I

State. I

! Hureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Works: and Housing is

caused by poverty arising from inadequate remuneration Jackage.

'Ihe will to satisfy selfish social desire of our communities by bureaucrats

i s the cause of poor administrative performance of Federal Ministry of I

Wo; ks and Housing Port Harcourt. I

Bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port

Harcourt is the cause of poor public service delivery and

underdevelopment in Rivers State.

OPEIUTIONALIZATION OF KEY CONCEPTS

The following key concepts as applicable to my resdarch need to be

uperatiordized as to give clarity and better understanding to our readers. The

ri~wepts are: (hrruption, underdevelopment, development and bureaucracy.

CORRUPTION A i

The t m n corruption poses conceptual clarifications to: scholars. This I

further connotes that the term means different thing to differelt people and at

different time and place. However, it is a direct product of the bocial system. It

is a creatio!~ of the society and it does not exist in a vacuum, rather it spread, is

dictaied by pervasive norms and values as acknowledge and :practice by the

people. rherefore, for the interest of this paper, Dickson Agedah 199337 sees

corruption as all about dishonesty, about influencing situation of- people with or

without monetary inducement to gain and undeserved favour.

Consequently, the lexicographer of Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary of

English describes it as " the act of corrupting, dishonest, immoral behavior, the

state of being corrupt; decay; impurity; movement away fiom the pure original

form; to influence a person, especially, a public official idproperly, bribe.

(ibid). From the above, one is clear that corruption spells dish&nesty, decay or i

even impurity whether viewed fiom the theoretical or political berspective. It is

therefore usually perceived as a crime, an enemy of progress. 1 I . I

Beyond this, it is an orge, an incubus or mcnstrosityl of sorts which I

debases a people, their culture, value etc corruption is retrbgressive and it

stagnate $evelopment. I

I

BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION

This is a form of corruption perpetrated by public oficers in the

bureaucracy. lt involves the act of looting public treasury by people in authority,

to collecti-xly regard election manipulation as a way of life, to mischievously

embraced h e act of offering and accepting ten percent on tota! contract sum,

inflation o r census figure, to wrongly deliver court Judgement in order to

receive undue favour from government, others include accepting bribes or 'tips,

embezzletnent, misappropriation, tax evasion, under invoi$ing o r conrract ' I

valut-, printing of fake currencies aiding and abetting of smuggling activities, I .

immigration of illegal action, drugs trafficking amongst other negal ive sharp

practices like "4 19. Ibid, 68.

I iqually, this term has posed conceptual problem to scholars. I lowcvet-,

l i ~ rhe purj3ose of this research, we will adopt the detinition by I'rof. Mark

Allikpo thus:

"Dc t.elupnter~t is the extent to which u group qf people /ILLY ~~~~~~~~01 o VCI-

llze 111-oductive for-cc.s irzclucii~g ihe ntode of &it-ibutiott prd coruurrzption

of ~I~eir so~iety. Ilfurk A i ~ i k p ~ in Naanec ei ' ul. 1954: 33. , I~urtl~ertnore, Walter Rodney 1972:0-11 see development in l~u~iian

society as many sided process. At the level of the individuiil, i t implies

increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self- discipline,

responsibility and material well being. At the level of social grc ups therefore,

deve lopn!ei~t implies an increasing both internal and external relationships.

I-~inall>, development is seeing fron~ the economic perspective ss "a society

tievelops economically, as its member's increase jointly their capacity hi-

dealing with the environment.' i

Accordingly , this capacity for dealing with the environment is dependent

on the extent to which they understand the laws of nature 1(~cic.ncc), on the 1

extend to which they put that understanding into practices :by devising tods

(technology) and on the manner in which work is orgaiiised. Again, S.1

Udoidem 1992: 110 stated that development has it root from the Fre~icli word I I

k "veloper " meaning to wrap. To "de-velop" thus means to dekwrap or tounfold

gradually, to cause to grow gradually fuller, larger, stronger and better.

Ileveloprnent therefore is a process or a state of being developed or unSolding

fc)r better mode of being.(! 992)

lniplicit in this definitions is that lnan is the end produ~t of' development

which is to be,judge by what it does to him or her at the time. ;It embraces both

the econolnic, social, political and teclinological dimensions of the society.

I3xelopnient, according to Fred Riggs in Elekwa ~ n a n t d , is a process of

incrc;lsillg aulonomy, discretion of social system, made Assible by risihg. I

I.e\cls of JefYactions. Development is not the same as An , ecological view of development is an increasing ability to

collective decisions. Riggs hypo;hesizes that the more differentiated and

htegrated a society the higher their level of development that it car, attain and

tnose cayl,.lblc it becomes of making and implementing decisibns which involve

eITec~ive control cver it environment. Development, as ~ i & has observed,

must hc sometiling that everyone likes, although one can scal!cely l i ~ d anything,

, in life that can be concretely identified and that can1 please evel-yone. i

Therelbre development in brief is a kind of change that can bk *cleasly idmtified

but whicl~ o r r rnay approve or disapprove for various reasork. I t may combine

beneficial with harmful consequences and it may affect some more favourably

than others. 200 1 2 - 3

'The concept have

UNDERDEVELOPMENT, i become more problematic than the kery issues they

I

connote. ,Many scholars defined it in several perspectives. dwever , Rodney I

statcd that underdevelopment is not absence of development: because every I

peuplc Ilavc cleveloped in one way or the other and to a greater 1)r lesser cxtcrld. . I

- Uut il I I M kcs more sense only as a means of comparing levelsl o T (levelopmcnt

ill both politicat, economic and social systems of different ~ r~ah i sa t ions , slates,

Colilltrics and crdnents . 1972:21. It is vely much tied to the tact that human,

social d~vclopment has been uneven acid from a strict'econoinic view point,

soine Iii~n~an groups have advanced further by producing more and becoming

nu-e wealthy.

I laving viewed from the liberal democratic perspective~hirhis suppose

to bring dcvclopment to all aspects of our society; Aker averred thus:

"tlze stale of &velopment of the for-ces maintairzs 11ze a-isfeitccr of

fiztiicd relufiorzs urzd pafr-urz-clier~f rclutiorzs urzd r<izcl-c bulk of the

popzr la f iorz ill$ed illiterate, is isolated witlz w y poor- if arty I

cho~mzmicatiur~ linkages 1981: 12 1

CHAPTER TWO REFERENCES

1 ) J .H.M Beattie, (1 959) checks on the abuse of political power in some African States. A .preliminary framework for Analysis, sociologus,, Val. 5, NO. 2.

2 ) A. Ademolakun, (1986) Politics and Administration in ~ i ~ e r i a , Al-.i.ctrurn Rook Ltd, Ibadan. ..'f' '

3) M. Mc Mullan; (1961) "A theory of corruption". he sociological Review, Vol. 9.

4) R. '1'. Dudley (1 973) mabili ty and political order; politics and crisis in Nigeria, lbandan University Press Ibadan.

5) Ladipo Adamolakun; (1985) Politics and Administration in. Nigeria, Spectrum Rooks Ltd, (Ibadan).

6) Dickson Agedah, (1993), Corru~tion and the instability of the Third Rgublic Perception Communications Lagos. - ---3

7) J . 1 ) . Isaiah, (2001), A staff of Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture, Port Flarcourt. ' ,

8) M. J. Balogun, (1969) Public Administration Nigeria: A Developmental Approach, Macmillan Publishers (London).;

9) A. Ti Adu; (1969) "The Civil Service in ~ommonwcalthj~fiica; George Allen and Unwin (London). i

I

10) Billy Dudley, (1982) An introduction to Nigerian ~ ' o v e r m e n t and politics, Macmillan Press, London,. 1

I I ) Alex Gboyega et'al; (1989) Niperia since independen&; The first 25 years Vol.Viii Public Administration I-Ieinemann Educational Books Nig. Ltd. lbadan.

12) New Nigeria Newspaper, (1 988), October 5.

13) Dele Olowu. (1990) "Policy Developments and AdniniStrative changes in WestLQh; in 0. P. Dwivedi and Keith M I-lendersor,, cds, public Administration in World Perspective: (lowa State Univc ni ty press), A~nes. I

I I I

14) Ray Ekpu; (1986) "The prime and crumbs" (~ewswatch August 25, Lagos.

15) [,any Diamond, (1 988) "Nigeria ~luralism statism and the , struggle for . Democracy" in Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, 'Seymour Lipset eds.

Dc:nccracy in Developing countries, Afirica Boulder; Lynne Rienner Pub.

16) , Stephm Wright; (1990) "The ~overnmknt of Nigeria in M. Curtis, et'al introduction to comparative Government, Harper and Row New York.

Newswatch (1 991) Magazine June 24 (Lagos). I

1

Newswatch, ( 1987) April 13, (Lagos).

Newswatch (1 99 1) Jan 27. (Lagos).

Ake Claude, (1 994) Democratization of Disempowerment in Africa, Cass Occasional Monograph No. 1, Malthouse press Ltd

Morton A. Kaplan in James C Charlseworth (1953) Contemporary Political Analysis. The Free Press, A Division of Machillan Pub. Co. -- Inc. New York.

Egonmwan J. Agharese; (1 991) Public Policy Analysis S. M. 0. Aka & Brothek s Press, Benin City.

N. N. Elekwa, (200 1) Lecture Monograph on Theories of Development, Lhiversity of Nigeria Nsukka 200 1 ., Talcot Parson International Encyclopedia of Social Science Vol. 15 (ed) by D.1 Sills.

The Open University set book, (1970) Reading in Stcial Science Fo~mdation Course Team Macmillan and Coy Ltd, London and - Uasingstoke . Walk1 Rodney; (1992) How Europe under developed iifiica, Bogle L70uverture Pub. 141 Coldershaw Road W 13, London. ;

27) M ~ s k Anikpo, (1984). The peasantry and the Dileinmij of under development h ~iger i a , in Naanee et'al, Uniport PASSSR Nu. 1 October, Port Warcourt. I

!

28) S. lniobong Udoidem, (1 992) Values and National develbpnent, Afiican Heritage Research and publication, Lagos. !

i I 3 8 I

I

29) Aker 1 Adu, (1 969) The Civil Services of Commokwealth Africa- George Allen and Unwin, London. i I .

CHAPTER THREE 1

3.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF FEDERAL MINISTRY OF. 1

WORK Si IIOUSING PORT HARCOURT.

Federal Ministry of works and Housing is an important department of the

bureaucracy in Nigeria. This department has been in existence since the

colorial adminish-at~on in Nigeria. It was an established department by

constitution of the country to enforce policy formation and ihplementation for

the well being of it's citizens. Within this period under review, the ministry was

called (P. W .D) Public works Department.

They were used by the colonial bureaucrats, political class to construct

roads, railway lines, schools, Hospital, water supply etc for the perpetration of

Colonial interest. However, this role were not distinct from ot4er systems due

to the structure of government in place, both politics and administration were

fused together. Consequently, for clarity of the above case stud$ we shall take a

cursory look at the background which takes it root fiom tdr formation of

bureaucracy in Nigeria, the administrative structure/organo &am of Federal

Ministry of works and Housing Port Harcourt. It is within this paradigm that 1

the background of study . will be analyzed.

I ,

3.1 THE OR~GIN OF PUBLIC BUREAUCRACY IN N I ~ E R ~ A I

The origin of public bureaucracy in Nigeria including ~ e d e r a ~ Ministry of

works and Housing c d be described as the history of the development of public

service frcin the nucleus of the colonial Civil service establishxi in '914 with a I

I personnel of over 1000 to the present Federal Civil Servide, 30 state Civil

I , services, over 500 local government and numerous statuthry corporations,

i boards, authorities, coinmissions and government owned co~npanies, Adebayo 1

Adcdcj i 1968. !

The structure, organisation and the role of the public serviccs have

cliargrt! continually in response to historical, constitutioha~ and political

r l ~ a ~ g c s . The origin of public bureaucracy in Nigeria can be divided into two

pliases. I

( 1 ) 'I.he period of British Colonial rule from 1900 - 1960;did i

( 2 ) 'I'he Post C~lonial period fiom 1960 - 2000. , 1 .

According to Kirk-Green, the development of public service including

Pcdcral Ministry of works and I lousing underwent five stages during the period.

These were,

(a) '('he law and order or pacification stage from 1890 - 19 10. ( 1 965).

Iluring ;!!is period "all administrative officers were charged with the duty

ol' enforcing the law and maictenance of good order in t ie district or I places under their immediate administration

(b) The ctinsolidation stage fi-om 19 10 - 1925. This stzgc is considered the

"heyday" of indirect rule when "the primary duty and objective of the

administrative officers" was to educate thc native a~~tlrorities and their

duties as rulers of the . people .............. And to inculcate the

unspeakable benefit of justice, fiee fiom bribery and open to all. P. D

I ,~igard. Political memoranda, 2 1 6.

(c) The stage of modest economic development from 1925 tb 1945 in which

task of the administrative officer, among other things was to assist the

African to build up efficient institutions of local government which

satisfy their wishes and are at the same time adequate for modern needs

1 hid 2 1 7

* (d) (hnscquently, the period under 1945 - 1952 represent the stage of urgent

social and political development and

(c) 'l'he period c)f transitional administration from 1952 - 1960. This last

elage rcprr;xnts the period in which government combined thc traditional

fi~nctions of maintaining law a~ldaorder with the modern lil~ictions of

twmomic development and provision of social services. J. 0. Cldo.ji cited

ill 1 bid 218.

I ,adipo Adamolekun further added that at this last stage "there was an

elite of several thousarlds of Nigerian clamouring for constitiltional advance,

fix career opportunities economic development for "demokacy", fieedom I

independence; self-government, socialism and progress 1985 : 45.

I lowever, since the aims of Colonialism was not for the de+lopment of' our

Coulltry rather for the development of our resources and repatr/ation of same to

their home land. Therefore, the needs of the Colonial governlnent, the British

industrial classes and the missionaries for educated ~ i g e r d n to ~erforni a

variety o f duties prompted the government of Western education. Siivilarly, the

devclop~ncnt in the fields of transportation, communica',ihn, I11::alth was

rcsponsible to the progress being made in the field of trade wilicll no Nigerian

could compete with them. I bid. . I .. . I

I

This period under review, Federal Ministry of Worl/s and Housing

formerly cailed public works department (P.W.D) was the fore runner

bureaucracy used. Furthermore, there was a remarkable e)tpansion in the

volume of cxport crops such as cotton, cola, timber, hides arid skin etc from

Nigeria to UK through rail transport. 1 bid. I I

On an enlarge scope, during this period there were three Aspects of British

Colonial administration which is particularly significant for mQ purpose. The

first is the British philosophy of public administration bdfore the major . , constitutional changes of the 1 9509s, which was called "indirect; rule". This was

1 a ruling according to one of the Colonial Officials in Nigeria,,through existing I

Chiefs to raise them in the administrative scale, to enlist them on our side in the

work and progress of good government. Michael Crowher 1962: 193.

Several reasons were adduced for their introduction. ; These included

financial and personnel constraints; the existence of impressive apparatus of

local rules before the period of effective Colonial rule such as well developed

procedures of direct taxation and a system of administration of justice. Another

interesting operation of indirect rule was to dislocate the traditional

administration without adequate knowledge of local conditions. C.S Whitaker

1970:40. The second aspect of British rule was the reliance ,on the public to

implement sudh Colonial policies as well as managing bJigeri!i7s incorporation

into the world capitalist orbit.

- Walter Rodney recorded the actuality of the above assekic n in his book

"How Europe underdeveloped Afiica. 1972. However, the ob::ession of the

Colonial bureaucracy with the maintenance of law and order was to ensure that

the process of integration and exploitations were not disturbed or upset by

I '

v i o h e . The thi; d significant aspect of the period of Colonial administration

relates to the legacies of imperial .rule. The imposition of effective control

1960, the introduction of indirect rule and the amalgamation of the country in.

1914 pave the way for the gradual process of transplanting British political and

administrative institutions in Nigeria. One of the Colonial admitiistrators put it

unambiguously that:

"During most of the niheteenth century, the local of Colonial I

miministration was to create Colourable cbunterfeits of motherland, its institutions, its idiosyncrasies and it present the

King, a judge to represent the rule of law, and ! a chaplain to

represent the established.church. Sir Richrnon Pulmk. 19343 7.

The system of government left three important legacies w 1 th implications

for public service efficiency, responsiveness and accountability in post Colonial

Nigeria. First. It transplanted administrative institutions, structures, practices

and principles that closely approximate the attributes of weberihn type legal -

rational bureaucracy. It introduces such norms as formalistic imbersonn~it~, the

use of merit criteria in recruitment and promotion and the 1 application of

rationality and universalistic rules. To protect the merit principli in recruitment

and promotion, i" established public service commission a! the 17ederal and I

regional levels to select, appoint, promote, discipline and dismise cbil servants.

Omoregbe Nwanwerie in D. J. Murray ed 1978, : 177 - 208.

The second legacy was the introduction of British parliamer4a-y system

of government, ministerial organisation and a civil service that was career

oriented, lopl, and made to observe the norms of annoymity, imy ortiality and

political nec;rality. 'The third legacy was the creation of public burl :aucracy that

was divided into broad based classes, the most important 05 which was the

division between the generalist (administrative) class and the professional class

with tlrc gcx~eralist 'administrators placed in a superior positiJn Allison Ayida 8

I 1.579. !

I

'l'ropically, the inherited administrative structute,practices and principles

have not worked as intended in post Colonial Nigeria for varjous reasons; one

the imposed structures, principles and practices were at variance with the socio-

cultural conditions of Nigeria Society. For instance, the parliamentary system

collapsed five years after independence for a number of reasons, in addition to

the t~ature of,the Federal structure, ethnicity and regional tfisbarity, corruption

generated strains in the political system. 'I'herefore, the quest for rational

burgaucracy that relies on impersonality and universality rules has not really

materialiied becar~se these bureaucratic norms are in conflict with s&ietal

norms, Values and demand. . 'The conflict between generalists arid professionals,

tlie wide diverger~ce between bureaucratic norms .and sociel.al values, arid the

unsuitability of the parliamentary system adversely affect public service

productivity efficiency and accountability. I

3.3 'I'H E POST COLONIAL PHASE 1960 - 2000: CHALLENGES AN1) RESPONSES.

I i i

Interestiiig to note, the political and bureaucratic structures jr~troduced by the I

, . !Iritish during the i 900 -- 1960 and their underlying principlek were maintained

and inherited a t independence. lhese structures and pindip les became the

source of a variety of political and administrative problems a:~d the focus of 1 civil service reforms after independence. I lowever, the development of public

1

adrnini stration during this period was different fiom the former. Emphasis were

shilted to development administration.. George F. Gant 1979: to enhance Socio-

ecot~ornlc r!evelopment.

l3nseit on the above, two major significant attributes of development were

recorded; public service reforms to enhance administrative capacity, and the I

phenotncnnl growth of public enterprise to lay the infiastri~ctuy of industry and

cwmomy. Ojetunji Aboyade in Paul collins 1980:83-98. On h e attainment of 1

indepenrlence in 1960, the developmental needs and aspiration o f Nigerian

citizens were very high therefore made the educated elites whc/ took over power

to make bogus promises but they remember, that to make good on the promises

and hasten the pace of development required a public service that was

development oriented.

C:onsequently, public administration during this period became an

Instrunlent of economic development. Since the Colonial public service was '

development oriented, the post Colonial leaders took a number steps to shape

:trd reshape the public service ti-om one that was geared toward tmditional

iilnctions r ) f collectio~~ of taxes and the maintenance of law and order to one that

col~ld cope with tho new role of development adrniniktration. This ineant that,

r : i k i : l ~ y , :dvmtage of development in such area as science, tichnologp and

modern lilanagement techniques to enhance the capacity to undcrtake

development and welfare activity J.O. Udoji 1973: 12 -- 17. I

Sinreon Adebo reiterated the noble commitment of /he period to the

Nigerirznization of the public service, which was stated thus:

" The decision wus taken by our leaders thut the British Officials , . sltould

he repluced, not because they hated the British or didrihuted thest, but

. hecot~se tltoylfilt that puliticul independence w& a sltu,';~ rutless yotr ltud I

LIIW il great measure qf ~~dininistrative independence. You, just corrld not

hc politically indepeitdent urtd renzain athtainistruti~vly depende~tt, ovei- a

long period qf time, without rtt isurtderstanding artd j tensions urisirpg

hetween the exyotriute,aJministrutor und his indignotri politicul rnclsters .

I'urtliermore, to enable them actualised the above obje'ctives, a number e~

reforms were introduced by post colonial leaders aimed at the iransformation of

the ir111eri:ed Colonial structure into a development oriented national piiblic

service committed t:, promoting socio-econmic development but the end result

have tiern paracloxical. Dele Olowu in O.P. Dwivedi and Keith in I-fenderson

' eds 1990: 76.

The reform effort focused primarily on those aspect that were considered

critica I to public service productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and

accountability. These included itnprovernents in salary and wages, personnel,

budgeting, planning, organization and training function arid internal

mechanisms of administrative control. Notable reforms of this period are:

"/lte iirtplententation of the 1970 Adebo wages drtd sdary review i

conintission report whose cfurt was on salary / j~~rgc's iitcr-mse'of

~vorkers in the public sectors. Another, t k ittzp,npleheritiltion of' 1973

ptrhlic service review conrnission report (othdi-wisc ccdled the

Udoji The Woji commission report stcr;ed tha/ "otrr- main

message irz this report is the need for introducihg a new slyk of I

ptrhlic smvice ~4zose tenets was on eflciency uhd acmuntuhility. I

( 'I 9 74:). I I

, . Flowever, measures enunciated in their recommendatioi if followed by

public servants in Nigeria would have brought about developmint in our polity

btit were proportionately negated.

The third reform of the period was the 1988 civil service reform by

Ibrahirn R. Babangida and emphasis was on three key areas: structural

organisation that defined authority and responsibility; professiobalization of the

public service in which public oRcers were required to make their career in one

ministry; and new provisions for the enforcement +of publid I accountability.

Civil service (re-o-rganisation) decree of 1988. fnterestinily, the overall

objectives of all the reforms discussed here were intended to1 increase public

semice efliciency, effectiveness, pr~ductivity and accountabilitb but in practice

they rrtidemine the development of our society.

FEDERAL MINISTRY OF, WORKS AND MOUSING, PORT ,

HARUOI IRT. I I

Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt ii a field mit of a

formal bureaucratic organisation in Nigeria, which it parent Headquarters is at

Abuja. This further means that, operators in this unit t.&es directive from t l ~

Hedquarters on certain matters beFore executing them. They don't have the

comdete power to hire and fire on certain-decisions that requ~red approval.

However, once approval have been granted, they esecute of iniplement the

decision without delay and successful report sent back immedi~tely.

Fundamentally, a$ a formal organisation, the system ctrmprised of both

the line and staff officers (generalist) in consonance with, their respective

design6 !i on a I id responsibilities. Therefore, the organizatio& structtue /

organorgram drawn below indicate the line of authority anb how public

decisions that enters into the system have been harnessed through it instrument

and executed for public development inspite of environmental chinges.

The line officers here, are those that takes vital decisions 6 behalf of the

parent ministry in Port Harcourt. In addition, they issue insthction to staff I

oficers on matters that affect the institution, and as well received compliance in

the form of advice, loyalty, support etc from them for a full realization of the

organisational goal. The line officers in this regard, are the one that spent the

vote or money that are disbursed fiom the Headquarters for projects and other

runnings or operational cost on behalf of the ministry in Port Harcourt. The

staff officers only assist in ensuring that goals ire achieved.

From the organisational structure drawn below, it indicates that the

ministry in Port Harcourt is grouped under three fimctional departments with its

sub-sections due to their respective functions and role to the Society. These

developments create room for specialization of functions. At the apex, we have

the Federal controller of works and Housing. He is the general overseer of all

operations in tlie field Headquarters on behalf of Federal ministk of works and 1

Housing Abuja, He represents the Hon. Minister of Works and Housing in Port

I-Iarcourt .

Consequently, decision flow fiom him to the three functional departments

namely; personnel management department, fiance and supply departdent and

works department. The personnel department comprised of subsections such as

the Registry, Security, typing pool and sanitation sections. Finance and supply

has, Accounts and Stores as its sub-sections and finally, the works department

has public building, Lands, Sutvey, Urban/Regional development flown

Planning, Illectrical, Mechanical, Highways, Material and research, (Civil (and

Structural s~ctions.

Specifically, the personnel department and its officers, ctrordinate all

human resource mahagelnent functions in all departments. They perforin this

function on pool capacity. This means that, they are not direct staff of there

respective sections they serve. They are also withdrawn by their Head of

department whenever he or she wants change in operation. The finance and

supply dc,.artment takes care of all in coming and outgoing stock of goods,

woilting i~~aterials that comes into the tninistry. The finance section with their

staff further under take all financial and other related matters as it affect the

ministry.

Finally, the works

supervised and maintain.

These projects include;

I

1 department, it sub-sections and slaK co-ordinates,

all Federal Government projects 4 ited in the state. 1 construction and maintenance 1 of all Federal

Governnmt roads and bridges, construction and maintenadce of all Federal

Government public buildings sited in the state, survej of all Federal I

Governlnel~t Lands and Area in the state, speculation, acquisition, allocation and

maintenance of all Federal Government lands in the stale, installation and I

maintenance of all Federal electrical works as well as Federal Government. '

buildings in the state, maintenance of all projects and ser;iicing of vehicles

attached to the ministry and control of flood and erosion a~d environmental

protection services in the state.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF FEDERAL MINISTRY OF WORKS & HOUSING, PORT HARCOURT Fig. I I FEDERAL CONTROLLER OF

: WORKS AND HOUSING

- ~PERSONNELMANA~MENT F~NANCE AND SUPPPLY--- 1

I DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT

'30'3 Z Z Z 1-1

C L L

S~ururce: The Crqanizationa! Manual of ZOO? Plavning1S:atistics Dep!, F. M. W & ;! Ab~je

3UKEAUCRACY AND ENVIRONMENT IN NIGERIA AND

ANALYSIS OF FACTOW AFFECTING BUREAUCRATIC

BEHAVIOUR.

'The basic issues to be discussed in this study, is to why Federal Ministry

of Works and Housing and other Nigeria public bureaucracy organised

according to the Weberian Legal-rational bureaucratic rnodkl deviates, in I

administrative practice and behaviour, from the principle?, norms and I

.requirement of the model. This deviation is demonstrated in prdctice in Nigeria

public bureaucracy; inefficiency, corruption, lack of probity was'tefulness, weak

reliance on utliversality and impersonality rules and achievement criteria in

recruitment and advancement.

Thk relationships shall be examine between the factors in political,

ecnrmmic, social ana cultural environment and Nigeria public administration

and burenuc ratic behaviour and practice, using the ecological approach as the

basis of atxljsis. This will help us understand the failure of basic mechanisms

of public sel-vice accountability in Nigeria.

Fred Rigs in his theory of prismatic society come up with a comprehensive

forinidat ion of the approach thus:

" Institutions are shaped, and administrative behaviour

corjditioned by certain crucial iariables in the political, social,

economic, cultural and physical environment within which

11ur.euucracy function 1966:45 - 433.

From the foregoing, if the bureaucracy is ineficient or bureaucrats are

corrupt or mechanisms fail to achieve public service accountability, it is because

of the influence of certain crucial variables in the environment of public

bureaucracy. To understand the dynamics of this construct, . . 1 $i 11 analyse, the ? .

characteristics of the Weberian ideal-type bureaucracy and the conditions for

bureaucratic organisation to function properly. I will also idedify the ways in

which actual bureaucratic behaviour and practice in Nigeria deviate f'om the

formal legal rational rules and procedural norms of the public sehice.

'l'hirdl~~, I will show how variables or conditions in ihe; polity , socio-

4 cultural and ccnnon~ic environment of Nigeria public administr tion explain the

gap between ibrrnal bureaucratic requirements and norrhs and actual

bureaucratic behaviour and practice. I I

3.6 BUREAUCRACY: THE WEBER MODEL I i

It will be proper to start with the exposition of Max Weber's notion of

bureaucracy since the study is on public bureaucracy. In his analysis of the

ideal-type threaucracy, Max Weber specifies the structural kquirements,, the

et2:os and standard of bureaucratic hehaviour in public bureaucracies: the basic

c hmacterist is of Webers ideal type bureaucracy which do not require

elaboration are the one 11.13 Gerth and C. Wright Mills 1946 state thus:

(1) Bureaucratic officials are personally fiee and subject to authority. Only ,

with respect to their impersonal official obligations. I I

' ( 2 ) Each office has a clearly defined sphere of competence ir( the legal sense.

(3) Officials are selected on the basis of technical qualifications, usually

testeif by examinatiori or guaranteed by diplomas, certifying technical I

training. 1.n sociological terms, the bases of recruitment broadly based

thioughout the society and cuts across class ethnic and digious lines,

since it is determined largely on objective bases bf training 'and

con,~etence. Recruitment on subjective, class oriented bases is called I

particularistic. I

l h e officials is subject to strict and systematic disciplilne and control in 1

the conduct of his office. I

i His office constitutes a career: only under defined circumstances can the

8 .

employing authority terminate his appointment. I

Bureaucratic may be either "charismatic" or legal rational" but the former

is r~ierely a transitional stage in an inevitable movement toward the later.

Bureaucratic structure is legally and rationally based, and , is thus merely

and instrument controlled by some authority outside, itself Robert V. I

I I'resthus (1959: 104 - 105).

Webcr further stressed that any organisation that clo ely approximates

these features of the ideal-type bureaucracy will hlfill its goals with procession,

unambiquity, knowledge of the files, continuity, discretion, unity, strict

subordination, reduction of friction, ' material and personal costs. 1 bid.

llowever, a great number of social science scholars have criticised

Wcber's fbrmulations on several grounds. Accordingly Robed K. Merton's and

others emphasized on the pathological or dysfbnctiori of bureaucracy, in

particular, how the need for adherence to regulations wlikh induce timidity,

conservatism and technicism 1.940: 564. Consequently, Weber neglect the role

of in forma 1 organisat ions or workers relationships operating within the formal I

set up of structure of rules and regulations. Philip Selznick 1943:42-54. Some

went further to the extend of suggesting that the ~ e b j r rian bureaucratic

:ozs:ruct is utiable to adapt easily to a turbulent and changink ~mvlronrnent and

for this it is obsolete as a form of organisation and on its way out: Warren Benis

and Philip E. Slater 1968.

Furthermore, Merton stressed that the inherent pathologi&l element such

as "buck-passing" red-tapism, unwillingness to delegate authority, extreme

secretiveness and a thirst for power hindered the performance of the

bureaucracy. R. Merton op cit 565. Most of the criticisms of t k Weber Model

is valid but they tend to forget the fact that Max Weber presented the

characteristics of bureaucracy not as an accurate description or i-eality but as an

ideal-type construction to guide the design of t'ntional and effective

bureaucracies. This can be actualise in the word of Arora thus:

" H'eber seemed to clear his mind that the ideal type does not

i.epilesent reality" per se, hut is only an abstractiq ~ ~ e a v i ~ g an

exaggeration of certain elements of reality into a locally precise

concept 1972: 51.

3.7 COWDIl'lOXS FOR EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE OF

BUREAUCRATIC ORGANISATIONS. I

I t is evidenced from the construct of Weber that to a 1 tain the highest

degree of efficiency from the bureaucracy, public officers are rdcpired to adhere

to secular bureaucratic values norms and ethos. Base on thi:, we use the

achievement criteria for recruitment into and advancekeent within the

bureaucracy; impersonality in interactions and application kf formal rules

without regard to persons; and universality in the applicatiob of rules. The !

reasons adduced to this effect is that, this criteria will help ds get competent 1

I

I personnels into the organisations than usihg ascriptive methcds;base on, state of

I origin, family background, status, ethnicity, race, religious affiliations.

When the above criteria is over look, there is the ten#ency of getting

incompetent, unqualified personnels into the system to perform duties with

high responsihi lities and expectations. Therefore, Robert price underscored this

point wllen he stated that. 1 I

" in order these structures (bureaucratic institutions) to function

eflectively, the behatriour oj'actors within them had to be bused on , I

stundoids dejined in compieteiy abstract and gsneralized terms,

rather than on specijk personal relationshiy that rn ight exist

between the actors outside of the organizatiunai context 1975.24.

From the foregoing, bureaucracies to function effectively, other

conditions need to be fulfilled with the normal secular bureaucratic values of

impersonality, and universality. This condition is implicit in the 'I'alcott

. parson's sociology called congruence between the norms and values of the

society and that of the bureaucracy. It is base on this paradigm that the

bureaucracies of the "advance modem'' societies is more "efficient" than the

bureaucracies in the traditional societies.

In parsons taxonomy, he identifies five variables in describing the pattern

of behaviour-in both the modern and traditional societies. kcording to him,

modern societies is characterized by:

(a) thc use of achievement criteria for role recruitment and allxation instead

of scription in the case of the tradition societies.

(b) impersonal loyalty in official relationships instead of pel.soital loyalty.

I

universalistic criteria for membership and participation instead of

particularistic criteria;

performance, skill contribution to objective goals as critcri of I

distribution of rewards instead of privilege and status and

inno :ation instead of prescriptive orientation toward ekahlished socio-

political institutions, rules and arrangement: C. S. Whitakcr Jr. 1970: 8- 9.

C h of the implications of the above, is that, there is dongruence in the

pattern of behaviour in the relationship between the bureaucracy arid society in

the inodern ones than that of the traditional societies, hence creating

inefficiency in there bureaucracies too. However, there are certain problems

and limitations with the general requirements for bureaucratic efficiency and

theory of congruence because not all nations undergo the same congruent

principles rather some foreign principles were imposed un $the1 institutions

which deviate fi-otn the development focus of the societies. 'I'raceably, were

model, Donald Kingsley state, when describing Colonial administration in 1

Nigeria fi-om 1900 to 1960 thus: I

I

Since the institutions of Administration have been imiorted, since they I

are not African but European in origin, their etho.;, ' structure, arid

jirzctional dtaracter all reflect European more than African conditions.

InaL~d, tire organisation of oflces, the demeanour of the civil servants,

,?VC17 the general appearance oj'a bureau, strikingly mirror the national

characteristics of the bureaucracies of the former Colohiul power. 1963:

302 - 303 i Following the attributes of the Weberian ideal - fype bureaucratic

construct, the Nigerian public service is organised accordind to the imposed

I 1

universalistic criteria for membership and particip&on instead of

particularistic criteria;

performance, skill contribution to objective goals as criteria of

distribution of rewards instead of privilege and status and

inno..:ation instead of prescriptive orientation toward established socio-

political institutions, rules and arrangement: C. S. Whitakcr Jr. 1 970: 8- 9.

One of the implications of the above, is that, there is congruence in the

pattern of behaviour in the relationship between the bureaucracy and society in

the modern ones than that of the traditional societies, hence creating

inefficiency in there bureaucracies too. However, there are 'certain problems

and limitations with the general requirements for bureaucratic efficiency and

theory of congruence because not all nations undergo the same congruent

principles rather some foreign principles were imposed on $the1 institutions

which deviate 60m the development focus of the societies., 'l'raceably, were

model, Donald Kingsley state, when describing Colonial hdministration in

Nigeria from 1900 to 1960 thus:

Since the institutior~s of Administration have been imljorted, since the-y I

are not African but European in origin, their ethoh, structure, arid

jinctional character all reflect European more than Afiican conditions.

i i m l ~ d , h e organisation of ofices, the demeanour of the civil servants,

c2vc11 tlic general appearance oj'a bureau, strikingly mtrror the national

char-acteristics of the bureaucracies of the former Coloj~ia? po tver. I 9 63:

1

Following the attributes of the Weberian ideal - type bureaucratic

construct, the Nigerian public service is o&anised Hccordini to the imposed

structuie arid principles. The legal rational rules and beha J ,ioral norms for its ! .

operations are embodied in several public documents and legislations. Tliree of *

this documents are the Nigeria Constitution, Financial ~ e ~ u l d t i o n s (F. K) and the

civil service Rules (C.S.R) 1 !

.'l'hc 1979 constitution made provision for a code of'conduct for public

official administered by a code of conduct bureau. Th k purpose was "to

establish and maintain a high standard of morality in the conduct of

d - Government business and to ensure that the actions and ehaviour of public 1 .

officers conform to the highest standards of public morality 'and accountability,

it further provides that public officers should put himself or herself in a position

v:hcrc his pei-sonal interest will not conflicts with his official duties and

responsibilities.

'I o ensure that this is done, the code of conduct bureau providegthat all

public officers should declare their assets and liabilities and those of their

spouses and unmarried children under 21 years of age. Secondly, the code

proliibit ;r wide range of behaviour including

( I ) Maintenance of bank account abroad;

(2) Receipt of emoluments or salaries fiom any othei public office or I

business activity while on full time employment in the public sector;

(3) Not accept more than one remunerative position while receiving pension

from public funds

(4) Abusing in any way powers conferred by service position;

( 5 ) Acceptance of property' or benefits such as bribes, and loan fiom

companies, contractors or business and

(6) Prohiting non-public servants from offering inducements to public

officers aimed at influencing the performance of their duties. Code of

c o n d d bureau handbook l99O:2.

Again, the civil service Rules (CSR) provide among other things,

qualifications and procedures for employment in the public sqctors that place

empllasis on the recruitment of the best qualified person for the job based on

considerations of technical merit and professional competence and not

necessarily on ascriptive considerations. As stated by A.H.M Kirk - Greene the

following advertisement is typical of public service recruitment procedures and

recpirernent thus :

( 1 ) I t i s I-.utified for general information that entry into the administrative and

special departmental classes of the public service will be by competition

(2) 'I'he competition will con~prises; I I

A qualrfLing written examination, condtrct'ed by the west I

Afi ican Exam inations Council; 1 I

Series of tests and interviews conducted qy departrnentd

services boards; I I

An interview before the public servide . conrmission,

Candidates who reach a qualzfiing standard in the written

examination will be invited to the department service boards.

7he public service commission will subsegueIdy select in the

light of candidates performance at the depa.trnen!ul boards

aizd their records, those whom it will itself i ~ , rterview. (1 965: I

236- 23 7). I

'I'he financial regulations (FR) as another operational, manual of the I

public service made provisions on how all monies from the be spent. It

s further specified penalties or deterrents h n the laid down nrle or principles of I

I

the burea~cr&~. Thk regulation also providepways of collectink revenue for the

Govenlment of the place. Finally, it is expected that b t h tecr?lnent, into the

bureaucracy, promotion, advancement, working relationships li mong members

and the envirtrnrnent of work and financial. relations should be done on merit.

'l'herefore, Rderal Ministry of Works and Housing as onk of the Nigerian

burcaucrkc settings hold its root in the aforemention backgrdund. Ihese will 1

form the basis of my data analysis,. I I

I

CHAPTER THREE REFERENCES i

A. M. M Ki:k-Greene; (1965), "The Higher public service in L. Franklin Blitz, ed, The politics and Administration of Nigeria Government, Frederick, A Praeger New York.

F.1) Lugaard, "Political memoranda" cited in 1 bid

I , . Adamolekun, (1985) Nkerian civil service: 2" West Africa February 4

J. 0. Udo-ji, (1973), Administrative Reform in Emergent African Countries; 'The Bureaucrat; A quarterly Magazine of the public service of thr Midwestern State of Nigeria: No. 3, July - Sept.

Michael Crowther, (1962) The story of Nigeria, Faber and Faber, 1,ondon.

C . S . Whitaker, (1970) The politics of Tradition continuity and change in NorthemNigeria 1946 - 1966, Princeton University Press, h e w Jersey.

Walter Rodney; (1972) How Europe underdeveloped African, Bogle L'Ouverture publications / Tanzanian Publishing, Lonuon / Dar es Salaam. I

Sir Richard Palmer, ( 1934) Journal of Royal A i c a n ~ o c i e h , January 33.

Dele Oiowu, ( 1 990) Policy Developments and Administrative, changes in West Afiica, in 0 .P Dwivede and Keith M Hendersdn, eds. Public -- A. --- Admii~istration world perspective, Iowa state University press, Ames.

H. 1-1. Gerth and C Wright Mills, from Max Weber, (1946) Essay in sociology, oxford University press, New York. -

I

R o h t P.V. Presthus, The Social bases of Bureaucratic organisation; social forces Vol. 38, No. 2.

I 1

R. K. Merton. (1 940) "Bureaucratic Structure and ~erionality" Social Forces, Vol. 18, May. I

i

Philip Selznick, (1943), An Approach to the theory of Bureaucracy; " America Sociological Review Vol. 8, February. I

Warren Benis and Philip E. Slater, (1968) The ~emporary Society: Harper and Row, New York.

Rarnesh K Arora, ( l972), comparative oublic ~dministrationi Associated Publishing House New Delhi.

Robert M. Price, (1 975), Society , and Bureaucracy id - contemporary Ghana, llniversity of California Press Los Angeles. --

I

'I'alcot Parsons, (1960), structure and process i n mbdern societies (Glencoe, 111. I

(1 8) J. Donald Kingsley, (1963) "Bureaucracy and political Development. . . With particular Reference to Nigeria in La, Palombara, ed, B u r e a u c r - and political Development, Princetan University Press, New Jersey.

(I 9) Code Of conduct Bureau, Public officers Handbook, (1990) Research and Statistics Department Abuja.

(20) Allisw A Ayida, April - July 1979, The Federal civil service and_Nation Buildkg; "Quarterly Journal of Administration,

(21) F.G. Gant (1979) Development Administration; Concepts, Goals Methdds, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. I

!

(22) Ojeturiji Aboyade, (1980), Nigerian Public ~ n t e r ~ r i s e s as an organisational Dilenrna in Paul Collins, Administration for Development in -Nigeria, Afiican Education Press (Lagos).

(23) D.J Murray ed. (1978), Studies in Nigerian Administration, Iiutchinson & Co. Ltd, London.

(24) S. 0. Adebo, (1964), "Public Administration in Newly Independent Countries in Burton A Baker, Public Adminisbation: & Key to Develoqment U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C - ---, Graduate School.

(25) Adebayo Adedeji, ed, (1968), Nigerian Administration and its Political Setting, Hutchinson Educational, London. - --

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

The methodology of data collection in actualizing the aims of this

research is mainly through the primary and secondary sources. 'The primary

sources inclr~de; oral interview with some head of sections and other members

of staff of the ministry. This is done only to maintain the dignityt of the oath of

secrecy, which every member of staff of the bureaucracy sworn whcn entering

into the service. This become imperative because, if violated, such staff is

subject to dismissal.

Furthermore, personal observation of the administrative structure, Federal

Government projects and public infrastructures sited in the state

which has diect bearing on the lives of the people were also used. 'The

seconchry sources include; journals, magazines, oElicial documents, gazette

publications, govenment circulars etc were also used. Casual co~~versations

with the people was another valuable method that were used having known that

the researcher is an emic participant. I

BUREAUCRATIC BEHAVIOUR IN FEDERAL MINISTRY OF

WORKS AND HOUSING PORT HARCOURT. 1995 --! 2000.

Obviously, the actual bureaucratic practice and behaviour in Nigeria and

Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt in particular deviates

from the generally accepted norms of official behaviour. This deviations have

great effect on the bureaucratic efficiency and accountability because they

adopted ihe fonnal aspect of bureaucracy, but instead of operating according to

!hc i b : d requirements, they circumvent the procedural norms. P. Guy Peters

01' cit P, 41. I

I llowever, Fred Riggs in his detail studies of bureaucracies in developing

countries described developing societies as "prismatic" socidties because of

their diffuse features and their bureaucracies as Sala or Baazar ;canteen Model.

In his cor;tention, he claimed that the "Sala bureaucracy in a prismatic society is

ck1aractcti7.:.:,i by formalism. lie defined "formalism" as the gap between what

is prescribed in the formal structure and what is actually practiked. (1964). He

fixlher identified the deviations from the prescribed patterns of bureaucratic

.behaviour in Sala bureaucracies as institutionalized corruption, recnkitment and

promotion based on ascriptive criteria or nepotism, inefficiency in rules

application, bureaucratic enclaves domihated by motives of self protection.

Fred Riggs in Nelson Kasfir l969:3 13. '

Resides it criticism, the operation of Fred Riggs theory of prismatic

society and i t , bureaucracy fits perfectly into many aspects of the operating

characterislics of the Nigeria public bureaucracy including Federal Ministry of

Works and Housing Port Harcourt. 'The various description and character

reveals chat, there is a yawning gap between what is prescribed in the legal

rational rule as 3cceptable standards of behaviour and the ac!ual behaviour of

burea'ucr-ats.

In analyzing the deviation in Nigeria bureaucracy, our: fo:mer Head of

S taiz CIv: .. gun Obasanjo expressed thus:

"lmtead of the prescribed bureaucratic value' of' probity and

integrity in public ofice we have corruption, imprq viety m c l loss

of integrity; instead of precision we have an uncwirtg altitude,

instead o f impartiality and universality we have god .fatherism,

fribaibm and nepotism and inslead of eficiency we :have indolence

and lethargy. (Newswatch 1 WO:4O).

. Therehre, it is imperative here to show in some detail the nature and

extent of deviations from the prescribed standards of behaviour and to assess the

extent to which this deviation in Federal Ministry of Work and Housing and

Housing Port Harcourt has enhanced underdevelopment in River State.

However, thc analysis will be splitted into sub - headings for clarity of purpose.

4.2 CASES OF CORRUPTION BASED ON PARTIALITY AND NON-

UNIVERSALITY OF RULES IN FEDERAL MINISTRY OF 4

WORKS & HOUSING, PORT NARCOURT. I

As a formal norm, the burcaucracy in Nigeria is guided ih operation by a

legal clocunients called the Civil service rule, financial regulati d ns, government 1

circulars. a d publications etc as to guarantee impartiality and ;niwrsality rules

when dealing with members of the public and staff in matters' of employment

and promotion. Ironically, it practice here is based on the basis of personality of I

relationsl~ips in interactions with the bureaucracy either as a client or job seeker.

Furihermore, in theory, bureaucrats are expected to serve: members of the

pobric and stafl. of the system in~personally but in pactice, how you are '

attended t.o by public officials and your.accessibility to some catego~y of public , .

oficials depend on :your status :in society a i d i n other instance your particular

ethnic background, moreover, when the rules pescribe "merit" deiermined by

educational qualification and expertise for recruitment into and rdvancement

within the bureaucracy, personnel officers here operate in the cot trary and in

addition to merit, non merit or ascriptive criteria is used in prombtion and hiring

practices such as ones religious status, region of origin and godfat h ers

According to Nnamoku Sunday, a staff in the Highways department of

the tni~~istry n\)served that, from January to June 2001, he was displaced of his

legitinlate dinLy by the Head of department Eng. U.C Ekenna when he used non-

nierit procec!ure in recruiting four officers that were not employee of the

ministry to run the administrative setting of the section. Again, the same officer

through .the same procedure recruited two drivers to drive official vehicles of

the ministry thereby rendered official drivers and clerks of the ministry

redundant.

Consequently, to compound wastage of resources of govtrnme~lt that are

needed for development, the redundant workers were on payroll receiving

salaries evely month. The conscripted worker that got into the ininistry through

non-merit means still received pay hence replicated double payment for the

same service. In another development, the said engineer brought in several

workers from his place through the same non-merit procedure to work on one of

the Highwsys construction job that was undertaken by JuliusRerger in the State.

011 inquiry, he clairned that he was fulfilling the ethnic pressures posed on him

from tile his community which is counter productive to bureatmatic rules and

regulations

Under this circumstance, the Engineer uses his officia position to

perpetrate this act because he is the supervisory officer attached L ) the project.

Again, the incentives needed for the enhancement of workers, of the Ministry

was directed to service the interest of this newly recruited stkf" which was a

ploy to waste resources of the Ministry and as well underdeveloped the resource I

base of an average workers of the department,

Furthermore, Sunday Ekenne, a personnel staff of ! the ministry . ,

maintained that some security officers were recruited into thP ministry in

October 2000 through non-merit procedure and personality relations. He went

further to State that the exercise was actualized without fokmal vacancy 1

advertised to the public as to guaranteed impartiality and making interested

candidate base on good educational qualification and merit hhve access to

employment. In other words, recruitment here was not don6 rather what

manifested was purely selectio~l base on sentiment and attachment to 4 !

communit y F~.essures. 4 .

In addition, your personality relationship with the pedonnel officer

which is an aberration to idealearlier bureaucratic norms. The officer went .

further to stressed that, promotion particularly on the ~unior bategory from

.grade level one ( I ) to grade six (6) that is within the purview ofj the personnel

department crf the ministry at Port Harcourt was done base 'on non-merit

stai~dard.

Basically, one's success is determine by the ability to braw,~ nose with

senior officers, be a selfish errand boys or girls and one's ability to exhibit a

high level of personality relationship with the personnel oficer. Sunday Ekenne

cited a case of promotion that involves him. He explained that ihe attended a

combined confirmation and promotion examination with other memt lers of staff

of the Ministry and passed. However, the examination is the prescribed 1

examination or test for promoting junior workers in the burearlcracy. It is

automatic as soon as you pass the exam in the civil service but his )wn success

mas not implemented till today, whereas his colleagues who passed the same '

' examination have gotten theirs implemented base on partialily of rule

application, etlmic affiliation with the personnel officer.

Consequently, he maintained that, series of protest and reminder letters

have been written and response was to no avail. Fundamentally, the act is a

negation of ideal bureaucratic principles, it further imperil and Finder develop

the resource base and life of the workers in the ministry,

Isaac Me~nbere stated another case of bureaucratic behaviour, which is a

marked departore fiom the Weber model in federal ministry ,of works and

Housing Port I-larcourt personnel department. This corrupt b&viour is weak

adherence to the bureaucratic values of e,conomy, efficiency and'probity which

have led to failure of public service delivery as well as dampened the

development of it workers. Interestingly, for proper functioning of the

bureauera@' in formulating and implementing development progran~s and

policies, public officers should submit to the rules and regulations~.

In view of the above, Membere, a driver attached to t 1 le mechanical

section of the ministry stressed that, due to indolence, inc$iciency, non

adherence to rule on the part of the personnel department has made him remain

with a temporary appointment letter since his inception into the hinistry on the

10"' July 1989. Under normal circumstance in the bureaucracy, temporal

appointment is silppose to last for only six months which is termed as the period

of pmbatioi: thereafter, appointment confirmed if found worthy or terminated

but in this regard, the oficer is retained without being confirmed ;;s well taking !

home salary. The implication here is that, one can be sacked, terhinated, retired . .

I

from the service anytime without benefit. Again, one can n6t also go for

promotion interview as to enhance his status in the systerqbecause confirmation

and gazzetting of appointment is a pre-requisite. I

This condition of economic stagnation has underdevelopbd the life of

Isaac Membe~-e and has encouraged corrupt practices by the offider as a means 1

of survival. Tilerefore, to justify the above assertion, here is a cop$ of the officer

In addition, no adherence to rules and regulations, the erodiiig of formal

norms nud ethos of economy, probity, morality and integrity by public officers

is visible in the bureaucracy and prominent in Federal ministry of works and

housing Port Harcourt. This development is counter prodrlctive to

organizational goal attainmentvRev. Mbiiloo Borlo an Executive officer (E.0)

Admin assert thus:

I 70

7he level of indolence, truancy and non-challant attitude of'

;mrkers arzd towurd work in Federal ministry of works and

Housing Port Harcourt is in comprehen~ibk with the tenet of

bureaucratic principles. t t

l-fe further went on to stress that, the experiment cut across all sections of the

Ministry, which the personnel department that are custodian of discipline could

not checkmate'practically, people come to work at most, twice or thrice in a

week but the government pay them eveiy working day in the month this

development is a cheat and it brings about waste of resources on the part of the

Federal Government and underdevelopment to the general public in the State

because services expected in the State could not, be accomplished.

C'onseq~~ently, when interviewed, Mrs. Tvio -0suo Moore Stated that

several forms of bureaucratic corruption were perpetrated by pkrsonne~ officers

posted to the Port Harcourt Aba Expressway (Tollgate.) This gate is a revenue-

ge~lerati~g base of the ministry. However, the corruption started by the Head of

p e r s o l ~ ~ d dupartment over posting of officers to the center. The basic rules of

posting stail'ers were violated and non-merit criteria adopted 9ith the view of

getting kickbacks. I I

I !

Mrs. Moore further confirmed that, workers on grade level 04 were I

posted to the position of supervisors whereas the post was designated for

officers on grade level 06 due to its attachment and responsibilities. This

development led to conflict, disrespect among workers and coinplete disloyalty

to the rules of revenue generation. There was high level of truancy among

members and as well made them device fraudulent means of stealing

government money into their personal pocket.

According to Baayone Saturday, a toll collector at: the tollgate, I

maintained that, with the adoption of non- merit procedure in operation, every

worker insteaJ oS working within the confined of bureaucratic ethics decided to

brown nose, play prebendal role as to please senior officers that protects their

position in the oflice. In this vein, genuine tickets were no longer sold, rather

the thumbs which were not meant for sale were directed for purposes

and the money that accrued h m it were converted intoyersonal pockets and

kickbacks sent to ~ e a d of personnel and other senior officers of the ministry

whose duties relates with the tollgate. All these were done at the detriment of

the revetirx base of the minist~y and as well under develop the development

potwtials of the State.

4.3 CASES OF BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION, IN SERVICE

DELIVERY IN FEDERAL, MINISTRY OF WORKS &

HOUSING PORTHARCOURT 1995 - 2000. i It is acknowledged that the bureaucracy including ~edera l ministry of

works and Housing Portharcourt performed the role of formulating,

iniplementirlg public policies and programs in the State. This is obvious because

government uses this unit in executing service to the public which if left with

the private sectors, citizens could not afford. Therefore, for these to be

actualized, public officer must submit to the rules and regulations that govern

the system In addition, the achievement of the goals of h e public service should

take precedence over the quest for personal self-interes~ed goals such as

rnnximizati~~t~ of non-payro!l income. If this is not the casl public funded

projects such as provision of Housing, water, Roads, Electricity etc for staff and

members of the public may not be achieved. This is obvious because public

ofllcers may divert h d s meant for the execution and maintenance not be

achieved beczuse public officers may divert finds meant for the execution and

maintenance of projects to satisfy self-interested goals,

Irot~ically, the above negative omen was precipitated profusely in Federal

Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt from 1995 to 2000. The corrupt I

behavior was orches trated through the use of official positign for personal

benetit and in breach o f public service rules and regulations thad was a negation

to the nonns of econonly, efficiency, probity, morality, ok public office.

Consequently, as custodian of Federal Government Lands and Housing in

Rivers Sta!;:, certain public officers, in the ministry in collaborktion with some

state oflicers through bribeiy and corruption perpetrated the sales of

gwer r-rnlent buildings illegally and was recently discovered and revoked, by a

colmittec on sales and allocation of Government properties that was set up by

the Rivers State Government. The below table show details.

TABLE 1 . CORRUPT SALES OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINCXAND

WERE DISCOVERED AND REVOKED. I

jn)G.H.A. PHASE 1 -.-

PL,OTIS7'REETI . . HOUSE NO. , .

30 Emeya Street

A-3 Plot N 3 3 D

And E GRA 1 PH -- - Plot 135 Obagi Street

Plot N18 Emeya Street

42 Emeyal Strcct

Plot A/15 GRA 1 PH

------ 6 GRA. Phase 1

--.- Plot A/15 GRA. 1 PH

ALLOTTEE I : GOVERNMENT

Certificate of occupancy

Banister Christ Wigwe Reqoked. All properties at

Chief 0. N. Nsirim

Multiple Allottees

Chief O.N. Nsirim

Captain Brambaifa

Group Captain George Rtd.

Dr. T.T. Otuka

Dr. C.A. Odu

- Datsc Rajida

Isaac Okemini , multiple

attottees. '7- I

Plot A119 GRA 1 PH Captain Banoni Briggs t---

dot 90 including the newly

levelopcd ones to be utilised

br public usc.

lllocatioi to Chief Nsirim

<evoked.

2ertificatT- of occupancy

Revoked.

"rtificate of OCCUpaMy

Revoked.

Cettificate of occupancy

Revoked L

Certificate of occupancy

----- -- Certificate of occupancy

Revoked.

Certiticatc of occupancy

Rcvo,'<ed, property to be utilize

fdr pt,blic use. 1

Certi icate of occupancj

qevc ~ked. L -.- dert~ ficate of mcupancj

Re\ wked.

14. 1 Amadi flats PH I Walter Makama 1 ~ekificatc of occnpaky I 24 Herbert Macauley Hon. Frank Owllor Revoked

Multiple attottees

-- 11 .

-- 1 %

13.

A- I 2 15 1 plot 238 Amadi ~ a y o u t on. Justice ~ a i s y Okoclla certificate of occupancy

(R)A~A,A 01 FLATS FORT IIARCOUHT. I

Ebimo Investments Ltd

Bright Ukaniediong Ukpe

Miss lbifuro Ranigo

Plot A133 GKA 1 PH

Plot 791GRA l YH

N4 Plot Al33D & E

GRA 1 PH

(2) Akure Street Revoked. - 16 I0 Amassoma St. Still retained as Government t

l"ypertY. - -

17 3A Herbert St. PH. Dr. Kudo Ercsia Eke Certificate of occupancy

~ e r t z ~ T 1 ,

Re+oked. 7

Ccttificate occupnnc!

Revoked.

18. 8 Yola St PH. Certificate of occupancy

~cboked I

CeWificate of 6CCUpa1lc}

~eboked.

I I . I Revoked.

'

i ~ - l ~ ~ a S t . o r s f a ~ ~ - . 7 ' .

Certificate of occupancy

1 I I Revoked. (C) GOLF COURSE LAYOUT -- -- 20. 5 Ab'ma St. PH Justice Opene ~ertificatc of occupancy

Revokcd. -- A

21. 6 Abana St. PH Chief 'Tom Orage Certificate of occupancy

Revoked.

22. 7A Abana St. PI4 Mr. Charles Beke Ccrtificatc of occupancy

Revoked.

?3, 17 Abana St. PH Mr. Egerton Wakama dert i ficate of occupancy

Revoked.

12 Abana St. PH Mr. Fidclis Agbeki Ccr!ificatc of occupancy

Rckokcd.

!8 Forces Avenue

I

.- i Akassa St. PH

25

.

2 ~ l e m e St. PH

E 9 9 8 Old =A-

(U) OLD C.R.A PORT IIARCOURT - I5 Abana St. PH

7B Harry Street

- SA Eleme St. PH

5B Eleme St. PH

Justice Fibmima , '

3A Elen~e St. PH

Cehificate of occupancy

Revoked.

-- 98 William Jumbo St.

plot 488 Old GRA PF'

18 William Junibo St.

-- 88 William Jumbo St.

25 William Jumbo St.

- 44A Forces Avenue

of occupancy

Revoked.

Miss Denni ~ibnasinral Certificate of occupancy

Revokcd. -

Mr. Sylvester Akotah of occupancy

-t Revokcd.

Mr. W. Douglas Certificate of occupancy

Mrs. H. Brown

Mr. Bben-Spiff

Fed. Min. of Works to

Retrieved from the Fed.

Ministry and re-allocated to

civil sewant.

Chief A.K. Horsfall

Mr. & Mrs Wakama

Cettificate of occupancy

Revoked. - Certificate of occupancy

Revokcd.

--- - Certificate of. mipancy

~evoked. .-- , --- Certificate of occupancy

I 1

Dr. Bestman Certificate of occupancy 1 , R $ J O ~ C ~ .

Mr. Desmond Akawo Cejrtificate of occupancy

Hcm. Justice S. Dentcm - 1 - T I Cdrtificatc

Rvoked. W e t ,

of 1 Group Captain Ben Kalio Certificate occupancy

Wow St. D-line PI4 Mr. Mac Barango of O C C U ~ ~ C ~ ~ 1 (V) ELEKAHIA HOUSING ESTATE.

I -- -- 44. 7 6A First Avenue I Mr. Igani I c e r t i f i~ t c of occupancy

#

1 - 1 1 vvokcd.

45. 96 Circular Road Mrs. C. Mowe Certificate of occupancy

1

Certificate of occupancy

Revoked.

krtificatc of occupancy

Revokcd. j

i ..-- qertificatc of occupancy

Revokcd.

certificate of occupancy I

kevoked. --

ccrtificatc of occupancy

kevokcd. .-------

-- 108 Abana StreLIt

23 ~banastreet

3 nauchi Street

4B Oluneme Street

plot 99611 Old GRA. .

9 lssac Boro Street

I

I

Revoked.

46. 7B Circular Road Mr. P E Elewode ' Certificate of occupancy

IGU STREET, D-LINE PORT HARCOURT

Chief E. Cheijina

Allottee not ascertainable,

alleged to belong to Col.

Shehu Musa.

Mrs. Awanteye

Mr. Welington 0. Douglas

Mr. E. Abbcy

-----

(G) ABA ROAD PORT HARCOURT , '

47. 1 %A Aba Road Mr. A.A. Poridel Ccrtificatc

Off Plot 2 1 I I I GRA 11 1 .

.

my be revoked,

property to be

occupancy if

any be revoked,

property to be

reverted to govt.

Certificate of

occupancy if

any be revoked,

property to be

reverted to kovt.

. Certificate of

occupancy if

any be revoked, I

property ti> be

reverted to 8ovt.

I

GOVT. DECISION

Govt. accept

rccommcndation.

-- Govt. accepts

rccomrnendation.

Govt .

SIN0

. 1.

-- 3,.

recommendation. I

TYPE OF

BUILDING OR

DEVELOPMENT

Not Developed

Not Developed

recommendation. I

RECOMMEN-

DATIOF

Ceitificate : of

occupancy if

any be revoked,

property to be

reverted to kovt.

Certificate of

occupancy if

-- - -- PLOT N O ~ A L L O T T E E

PH.4SE

. __-+

D812 GRA

-- A114 E

GRIL I

Joseph Ovlawc

Junnie Mabiba

Ucllo

Source: Cordusions of Government of Rivers State on the Report of the

Conunittee on sales and Allocation of Government properties.

23"' December, 1999. I

Furthermore, the corrupt attitude of this bureaucrats has underdeveloped

the Well being of firly-three household and surbodinates beside tde slogan of

Government which says Iiousing for all by the year 2000. This $as obvious

because, this goup of people who acquired this illegal land a ~ ~ d houses paid

their hard end money through either the. back door or legal means ;before they

were all allocated this properties, but meanwhile, with the action by the

government,the purported legal ownership of these properties, are now revoked

and families displaced. The effect of the above actioil was devastating to both

the individuals and the general pdAic.

According to Syvester Akotah, one of the displaced persoh on serial

nuniber 28, since the action of the government, his family as well a& others lost 1 .

their accomnlodation in a Highly populated city like Port Harcourt which has i

made him pack home. With these, his children and others forfeited their

fundamental lmman right to education, which is parimount: to human I

development. Consequently, the deprivation further made some of them way

world and subseqi~ently turned into armed robbers which resulting effect has

posed security risk in the state. I

In another development, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing is the

custodian of Federal Government quarters in the State. That is, they built,

maintained auii allocate quarters to every Federal Workers in the State,

excluding quarters built by each Ministry / Department. The above, further

implies that no Federal Worker irrespective of their Ministry is checked in or

out df' the quarters with& the consent of the quarter monitory unit of Federal

Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcouct. According to the section of civil

service rules and regulations that regulates the allocation of staff quarters,

specified in detail how staff should be checked in and out of Government

quarters.

The rules and regulations specified an amount which every staff that

leave,in Federal Govt. quarters should forfeit from his or her monthly income

(rent allowance), and the one to pay as water bill evdry month too.

Furthemore, this quarters are designated into one bedroom (Bungalow) for

junior staff, storey \ three bedroom bungalow for senior st~ff . As at 1988,

document available and information gathered from Barnabhs C, a q;arter

monitoring officer of the ministry shows that, they have about one hundred and

thirteen quarters located at Creek Road, Bonny Street, Niger Street, Bende

Street, Victoria Street, Aggrey Road, Lagos Street, Freetown Street, Accra

Street, William Ju~nbo Street Akpor Street, 57A Forces Avenue, Club Road, T.

I. k. Lane, Elekahia, 'I'akoradi Street, Ernest Ikoli, Chubb Road, Rumueme

Housing Estate, Nzimiro, Yola Street and Bishop Johnson Street all in Port I

Harcourt&vers State. I I

Fundamentally, this quarters were not for lease, rent, sublet or subjected l

out to anybody or any form other than the designated person officially assigned

to, but in t l~e Contrary, top management officers, senior hoking monitoring

officers and privilege junior staff of both the Federal ~ i n i s t j . of Works and

Housing atid other Federal Ministries who were allocated one has used their

official position to perpetrate corruption in several ways rangihg fiom renting,

sublet, hiring, or complete sales of their apartments. These areideviations from

I I

the prescribed riorms of the bureaucracy. The above acts has made

accommodation for Federal Workers in the State inadequate and dificult. Some

oflicers in particular, those transferred from another State and have gotten no

money to rent an expensive accommodation or pay Hotel bill i; Port I-Iarcourt

decided to sleep in their oflices at designated locations and ~edera l Secretariat

complex Port Harcourt. Others who couldn't find their abodk at the above

mentioned locations !vent to some squalor living areas such as '~undu , Nanka,

Zgeci;, Zenrle, Abba, Akokwa, Timber, Elechi Reach, Creek Road Water Sides,

Gambia Street etc all in Port I-Iarcourt Rivers State.

The below table show various stage and phases of bureau~ratic corruption

and utidcldevelopment that was done with Federal Government quarters in the

state.

'TABLE 11: SEVERAL CASES OF CORRUPT PRACTICES DONE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT QUARTERS 1 ESTATES BY BOTH STAFF OF FMW & H 'THE STATE. -- - . .. - - -- -

NAMES OF THINISTRY I

OCCUPAN'I'

Chukwu Nipost

Okn for Nipost

H BUILDING "7" Bungalow

AND OCCUPANTS IN

CORRUPT

PRAC'I'ICES THAT WAS

DONE WITH THIC

QUARTERS

rctired but still retains the

have been

Rd PH I axupant wlio refused given

MRB.Kobcrt Fed. Min. Of

MR. Oyewole

Trade ..-&I Finc-Country 1 Information I

Mr. avid

Asuete I . -- Mr. K. 0 . ~ z o h l Fed. Min. Of

1 lab. &

Mr. - - M.C. t---- Nitel

Onuosa

Mr. S.A. Rascy 4- Fed. in. Of

I Lab. &

Productivity -.

Mr. A. Okolonji Fed. Mh. Of

Transport &

Aviation

I

Bungalow ,156 Bonny Officer dismissed fiom

(j.S.Q) 1 Str. PH I service but still retaining

I 1: quarters.

(J.s.Q) St PH allocation letter -- Bungalow 61 Freetown The occupant has been

(J.s.Q) Str. PH transferrd but quarters givcn out to somebody

without official allocation

letter --

Storey Bld Block ' C The occupant has been

plot 13 'TTE retired but quarters given ta

Lane PH an illegal occnpant.

Storey Bld. Block C Flat The occupant refuse given

17 'TTE ' his namc but retains quarter I

LanePH illegally. ! -

Storey Bld. Block flat ; The occupant has && 18 TTE transferred and quartel

Lnae PH illegally rclocatee to anothe~

persoh.

Govt land rented oul I

PH by occupant

1 Bungalow 5 ' R E Land Illegal structure constructec

PM on open space and rented a1

by occupant.

Bungalow 57 f3 forces House and space illegallj

Avenue PH sold.

Storey bld. Rlk 13 1 Flat The occupant retired an(

I 1 1 Eiiikahia /,quarter rentcd out to al housing illegal occupant.

a a u l ~ n ? n a r

Revenue

Bungalow The occupant sublet the I rakorodi St.

Ph

38A Bishop

lohnson St.

PH

.- ----- dr. Okonwo Fed. Min. of

4.C (Fed.

Produce Insp.

Bungalow

bransferred but his younger 1 I I

biother retains quarters.

Iept, of Custom The occupant rented out part

of the room at the expenses

of thc Fcd. Govt.

BO Accra St Bungalow

l.SQ k Excise

Dr. Nwokolo :ed. Min. of

Zducation

Close 7

Block 9 Flat

2 Elekahia

Storey Bld The occupant retired but

retains quarters.

P - - - -. -- Mr. Christian

0nuk.a

'ed. Min. of

'nformation

Storey Bld Block io

Flat 4

Elekahia

Housing

state

Quarter rented out by

occupant . .

---. --- . - P.C. Opara

--- Fed. Min. of

Finance

Bungalow

(JSQ)

59 Creek Rd

PH

The ocupant transfirred

quarter illegally transferred

to a no11 federal staff.

Bungalow 169 Bonny

St. PH

- The occupant is transferred Mr B.1. Egbon

Kumor but illegally retains the

quarters. 7 --.-

SOURCE: List of Federal Govement qtiarters in Port Iiarcourt, Rivers

State, excluding quarters built by each ministry I

Department: AS at September, 1988.

The octcome of the above table, further shows that corruption in federal

ministry of works and housing has gone abysmal. Mr S. 0 hyadlike, one of the a

quarter monitoring committee members said, most of the lapses that created

room for corruption in federal government quartergin the state were deliberate.

This, he went on to say that the Chairman of the Committee and some other top

management officers of the ministry allow it to occur by not keeping up to date

record$ of the quarters and inventory of the properties therein as a strategy for

enriching themselves, they also collaborate with original occupants of the

quarters to rerrt or transfer the quarters illegally for financial gain.

Some of the original occupants of the quarters ,have another I

accommodation in there newly transferred stations thereby depriving

workers of this state the right to own an accornmodktion. S. 0. I

Anyandike further reiterated his position by saying that, similar I experience accurred at the Federal Ministry of Works and; Housing staff

quarters at Woji, Rumueme, Ahoada and Bori divisions of the Ministry.

'Their, workers deviate from official quarter specification b y renting out

some part of their rooms for financial benefit, others bdilt a plywood

house on government land and rent it out to people illtgally thereby

render the design of the estate off specification. I

4:4 CASES OF MISAPPROPRIATION, EMBEZZLEMENT,

CiRAFT OF PCJnLIC FUNDS BY OFFICIALS OF FEDERAL

MINISTRY OF WORKS AND HOIJS~NG AND

IJNDERDEVELOPMENT IN RIVERS STATE. I 'I'l~ese form of bureaucratic corruption is characterised obvior~sly in the

above system. It supports the view of Chinua Achebe which states that up to

60% of the national wealth of the country is regularly consumed by corruption.

1983:40. 'These observations are consistent with my survey in which 82%

public servmts who were interviewed in 2000 think that most civil servants

abuse their offices. However, these cases of abuse took variods perspectives,

but here, we shall see how public officers uses their official position in

mis?yyopriating, embezzling, grafting public fund at the det riment of the

masses in thc state and how these have ruiderdeveloped their existence.

For example, in 1994/1995, the federal government proposed about one

hundred and twenty one thousand housing units through out the federation for it

citizens under her National Housing programme with the bid to fulfil her

national policy of Housing for all by the year 2000. However, 10,000 Housing

units were proposed for Port Harcourt and Onne in Rivers State which 5,000

were to commenced under the fust phase. Daily Times Wednesday, Fed. 16,

1994:23.

The project was executed by federal ministry of work; and Housing

under the Honourable minister of works and Housing Alhtrji L.K. Jakaunde.

~ b o k all, the Port Harcourt, Onne programme was launched on the 27' May

1994 by the 1Mnister. Apart from the plan to provide access to shelter for" the

general public at affordable cost, the Housing programme in Port Harcourt is

I

pioneering hder a special arrangement, the extension of !such federal

Government Housing services to Institutions of Higher Learning as a device of

solving acute accommodation problems encountered by itlie . schools. !

Consequently, we have too broad categories of sites in Port I-larcourt but the

projects did not see the light of day due to high level of embezzlement,

misappropriation, graft etc by public office holders of the ministry that was

entrusted with the responsibility. Furthermore, the resulting effect of the above

led to non existence of Houses for the envisaged citizens, the: people were

further underdeveloped by not refunding them their money paid for the purchase

of forms and as well initial deposits for the purchasdofthe Housqs. 1

The various sites for the General public were located at: I i

i (i) Trans Amadi I

(ii) Rumuokwurushi ; I

While the Institutional sites were located at

(i) University of Port Harcowt.

(ii) , University of Science and Technology

(iii) College of Education

(iv) College of Advanced Studies (CAS). 1

I

i Under this development, the individuals made subscriytion, for the Trans 1 .

Amadi and Ilumuokwurushi site, Vice Chancellor made subscription for

University of Port Harcourt and the state military Administrator subscribed

jointly for the state iristitutions. I

Interesting to note, on collapse of ihe laudable piogramme of

.government, no quarters, no refimd were made to both the iddividuals and

institutions. 8ee below detailed analysis of money collected by ihdividuals and

institutions, and nothifig to show for iti

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF TOTAL AMOUNT REALISED; FROM THE ..

GENERAL SALES OF FORM AND DEPOSITS COLLECT& TO DATE i .

AND REMITTED TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. i (A) SALE OF FORMS:

1

1 ,

(R) RETURNS OF DEPOSITS,

The following returns were made to date:

1

(I)Low/medium income.

-- CATEGORY

- -- LowIMediurn

income

Mediu&Iigh

income

TOTALS ---

ISHERl A - Public - 155 @ N14,000.00 = N2,170,000.00 -

ISIERJ Civil Servant = 56 @ 3,500.00 = 234,500.00

1 S FEN R - Public = 321 @ 20,000.00 = 6,420,000.00

APPL.FEE

100.00

250.00

-

.- NOSOLD

11,314

397

,

--

, 'I'OTALS

1,13 1,400.00

99,250.00

N 1,230,650.00

ISHER1 .

SAT

SAT

SAT

- SAT

Civil Servant

A - public

B - Public

C - Public

Civil Servant

C - Public .

1

(with CTYD)

J A N ~ K A N ' - Public'

TOTAL

Upper rnediummigh income

Total Deposits Gorn General sales

to date for low 1 medium income and

Upper Medium / High income - - N43, 040,000.00 I + 7,186,666.00

N50,22&666.00

iii Institutional Depositors. I

KARU.

K A W A

I

A

B

SINO.

1

2

TOTAI,

11 No @ 200,000.00 1 1

2 No @, 293,000.00 1 =

- Public

- Public

13 Nos ;

HOUSE TYPE

ISHERI A

SAT C

=

=

=

' =

N2,200,000.00

N586,000.00

=

UNIPORT

50

50 '

N7,186,000.00

RIVERS

UST

60

-

l STATE I i COE I

30.

GOVT.

CAS

30

I

GRAND TOTAL AMOUNT COLLECTED TO DATE INCLUDING SALE OF FOKMS:

3uSk and Civil servants - 50,226,666.00 . .

Uniport - 8,700,000.00

1

RVSG - 17,213,342.00 *

I I

-

10

Sale of forms

TOTAL

KARU A

KUBWA E

DOLPHINEB

Grand total amount realized

- 20

6

30

- -

from sale of forms and deposits to date ,

l(i6 UNITS.

- 1

I

10;

TOTAL U N I T S

SOURCE: . The Project Manager report on the execution: of the 1994195

National Housing Programme Rivers State, dated

130 UNITS

22" March, 1995.

Consequently, out of the amount contributed by individuals, institutions

and goveniinent, public ofice holders misappropriate, embezzle, graft the fund

through several means, some did it though violations of contract procedures

such as payment for unexecuted contracts, splitting of contracts, division of

materials meant fbr the work, issuance of instructions to contractors for a

c h g v of sile when adequate arrangement for smooth operziiion hwe not been I

concluded. Hence the contractors observed thus: I I

"the 140 contractors previously working at Trans - Amadi initially

rejected the transfer letters to this site stating that they had no

fu17cl.r'to undertake any project since what was due 19 them had not

been paid. This dragged on for a while until out qf the approved

N9,242,750.00, N9,058,750.00 was released and most q j' it paid

out. A .few of them rejected the cheques paid them MJhile some who

collected theirs vowed not to continue at the new sife " (1 bid). and

Appendix "A". shows State Government contributionl

It is believed that, the above act perpetrated by public officers were

deliberate as to contradict procedures and partake in the sharing of public fi~nd.

See below table. ! I

TABLE Ills SUMMARY OF PAYMENT APPROVED OR

PORT WARCOURT, RIVERS STATE 1 .

I ---- SIN0 NAME OF CONrRACTOHS B U I L D I ~ Y PE

1 Salomy @Jig.( Ltd' 4. R/R 'I'witl Duplex 134,000.00

2 Babbah Const. Co. Ltd. 4 D/R 'I'win Iluplex --- .- -- ltlochim (Nig.) Ltd

4 Sobez & Sons (Nig.) Ltd. 3 WR Twin Lluplex - - 3 - S a r a d i s s 5 Builder 8r Co. Ltd.

----- I - 10 1 Mbason Inter Ltd 1 T 3 j m 6 6 - 1 I 1 O ' 11

8

i

344,000.00

3,000.00

376,000.00

376,000.00

4.000.00

l34,OOO.OO

264,000.00

84,000.00

264,000.00-

84,000.00

84,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

200,000.00

200,000.00

200,000.00 -----A

4,000.00

84,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

84,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

344,000.00

200,000.00

5,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

84,000.00

- 12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

2 1 - 22

23 -. -. 24

25

26

27

2 8

29 - 30 - 3 1

--- 32

-- 3 3 - 34

35

3 6

3 7

3 8

39

40

4 1 -

Bomadi Nig. Ltd

Sobisog Ventures Ltd

Allitone Co. Ltd.

Gina Queenway Nig. Ltd.

Gokon Nig. Ltd

Jesad Ventures Ltd. ----- Bocpit (Nig.) Ltd.

Const. & Allied Works

Marpet Super Ent. Nig. Ltd.

Leonikky Ltd

Sonny Clinic Ent. Ltd.

S. M. Chimezie & Sons Ltd.

Mbagwu & Sons Const. Co. Ltd.

Celleco Const. Co. Ltd.

Asimli Gen Ent.

Silvcr Gate Int. Co.

Azeez Ayinla & Sons Ltd. -

Connexe Const Ltd.

Midfield Nig. Ltd.

Anderson Nig. Ltd

Mafi & Co.

Jaykins Nig. Ltd.

Group Dev. Co. Ltd.

UBJ Asso. Wd Ltd.

Deen Const. Co. Ent. Ltd.

Kaiza Otaki Co. (Nig.) Ltd.

House Hold finishes Ltd.

Scoke Nig. Ltd.

C. C. I. 1.

"0" 1,ivinson Nig. Ltd.

I 11 11 I I t

3 RR Thin Duplex I

4 BIR in Duplex -

$1 19 1 II 11

i I* Il : I1 II

I I1 II II I1

I1 I1 I II II 1 .

11 I1 !I I!

11 II 11 II

, 4 B/R Twin Duplex

4 BIR Twin Duplex I1 II II II

I1 I1 II Il

I t 11 11 11

I1 I1 II II

I1 I1 II I1

- 18 I1 11 I1

- I1 II II II

-- . I) I) It 11

-Ap- I t II I1 11

11 t I I t I t

It I@ If II

- If I! It !I

I1 II I1 II

I) lt I) I1

- , I t 11 I) tl

I t * II 11

11 I( I! If

O I1 , ' I1

I .- I1 II II II

I

-t--

I

SOURCE:

I i

I

I 1

3 B/R Bungalow I 4 1,500.00

79 Nigerian Int. Const Co. Ltd. -.

80 Discuss Nig. Ltd. --- 8 1 Rediel ~ u i l x n ~ & Const Eng.

82 Dumack Nig. Ltd

- I

84 1 Ichewams Nig Ud i 4 B / R T W ~ ~ ~ u i - 1

I

250,000.00

11 I) S,000.00 , ---

It If It

4 BIR Twin Duplex. 5,000.00

4 l,5OO.OO --

250,000.00 - 250,000.00

123,000.00

250,000.00

5,000.00

322,000.00

----..,. 72 New Peresuo (Nig) Ltd. --- 13 Ganec Nig. Ltd.

74 Becon ~ t d - 75 Tos - Uti Nig Ltd. ---- 76 Hochay Co. Nig. Ltd. -- 77 Delta & Associates

7 8 Elector Nig. Ltd.

~ 8 ' - *odevol Nig. Ltd. I

II II I t I!

I

3 B/R Row Duplex !

3 B/R Row Duplex id-

II 11 II 11

I I1 11 I t 11

11 II II I1

.- I t II I 1 , II

8 5 --- 86

87 a

- - - 89 [ A. Austin Ent. . !I 11 ,, tTGj%%K1 -- I - YO I Jadeser Const. Ltd. 1 4 BIRTwin Duplex I 4,000.00

Kalaury Nig Ltd

Artise Ventures Ltd. --.

Gasiom Nig Ltd.

I I 9 1 1 Al - Hakern Const. Corn. Co. 3 R/R ~u&alow-1 1,500.00 1

I

92 I Tawor Nig. Ltd. i 4 ~ / R ~ w i n ; Duplex \ 4 ,~~) .00 )

It I# I! I I!

I

II I1 II , I 9

11 11 *I II

,- - I I I TOTAL --

1

4,000.00

4,000.00

4,000.00

The project manager report on the execution of the 1994195 I

National Housing Programme Rivers State, i dated 22", 1

March, 1995. i

Fromthe details stated above, therefore proved that public 6f"fice holders I

of the ministry who were in - charge of the project emb-&cd on high level of I

Bureaucratic con~ption. They were not also interested in ~ui lding of Houses

for average citizens of the country, out of ninety two contractors that the project I I

were awarded to, only thirty seven of them were paid above1 one hundred

thousand naira For the construction of a 4 Bedroom Twin duplex. and 3 I

Bedroom Rungalow, others under the same category were paid below that, even I

up to four thousand, one thousand five hundred naira (N1,500) only which was

not comrnensurate to what it takes one to start a Housing Project in'the country.

Above all, lrlost of the Highly paid contractors were owned by some

public oflice holders disguised under theil brothers, wives, fiends, neighbour's

names and were not prepare to do the work, which genuine contractors who

were willing to execute the projects were paid peanuts, hence they were angry I

and refused to accept the cheques, and even some that took the cheques 4

abandoned the project. i

I

According to Arch. N A N Okoroafor, the site Architech, maintained in

confidewx that company named Anthony & Kelvin constructid Nig. Limited,

Standard Deco (Nig) Limited, Utidek Investment Limited on serial number (59)

57, 56 respectively were owned by the then Federal controller of works and

Housing, Port Harcourt (Engr. E. Ararnolate,) but managed by a disguised

manager nailled Engr. A. N. Ayoola. Furthermore, company name Allitone Co.

Ltd, Gina Queensway (Nig) Ltd on serial No. 14, 15 both owned by the younger

brother to thc Head of public building department of the ministry, Arch. A.

Udeozor. Company name Bomadi Nig Ltd., Deen Construction Company Ent.

Ltd, serial No. 12, 36 respectively both owned by Mr. 0. Lajori, the in-law to

the controller Engr. E. Aramolate etc.

Interestingly, due to .the rclationsliip tlie contractors had with public

officers that controls the project, their papers and documents were processed for

payment without minding tlie stage of job done. The amount paid to them

ranges from N376,000.00 to N264,000.00 cach. Having taken the said amount

they abandoned the sites see appedix "B" for detail analysis of the various

stages of job done by tlie contractors. Also see below the picture of an

abandoned site at Rumul~wureshi under the National Mousing Progra~nine of

1994.

Source: Monday Photo Studio co~nplex ki6 Nanka street, Mile I

Diobu, Port Hascourt. 18/6/2001.

Consequently, corruption that hampers the actualization of the cut across

all areas of operations including logistics. Fundamentally, logistical provisions

are made in a project of such magnitude but in this case, money meant for

supervisory staff and other logistics were siphoned by public dfice holders in

charge of the project. Arch. PC. Udeozor, Project Manager stressed that:

"ideally there should be at least 6 project vehiclek ,for the 5 sites I I and our co-ordinating oflce. Most of the sites me scattered at the

ofctskirts of Port Harcourt, some as far as 30 kilo~etresfrom the

Federal Secretariat where we have our operatiorial base. I'ublic

transpVHion to this area are not readily available,' very expensive. I

I h b poses a lot qf dzjicclties on our supervisor$ stajr who most

ofren have to make their own transport arrangemints. I have had

to give monetary allowance to the stajfso they cokld get to sit on , *

various occasions. With this state of affairs, @6ient .cupervision I .

Y

cannot he guaranteed firtherrnore, to date, seven months after

the ciwrent project manager took over this programme in Rivers

State, no szngle kobo has been releused as imprest. This does not

augur well for the projects /programme. c?eport on (he Executio~

uf the 1994/95 National Housing Programme Rivers State dated

.March, 1995: 37)

With this state of affair the entire programme collapsed e id hard earned

money contributed by both the Government and individuals were squandered by

I

public oflicers at the detriment of the masses. Houses in the; state become

inadequate thereby creating untold hardship to the people. In addition, citizens I .

in the State faces accommodation problems therefore made some/ of them dwell

in squalor living abode, many lived under fly overs in the city' Port IIarcourt

which is counter development in our Society inspite of our contribution to

government. In another development, similar corrupt practices were

demonstrated by public officers on a prototype Housing scheme that was

located at Eleme under the Ministerial leadership of Major Gen A . Adisa.

This progtmune forrned part of phase 11 of the reactivated National

Housing Programme which the first phase started in Dec. 1995. However,

preliminaiy studies on this Eleme scheme started in March 1996 and actual

construction commenced in November 1996. Putting the two, (phase I &II) 1

value together, the current financial commitments stand at ' app;oximately

N 1.108 (One Billion, One Hundred and Eight Million Naira which is presently

termed a wasted Billions. This is true because the Housing pro$amme did. not

see the light of clay. The Estate has presently turn to animal farm as well as den

of thieves in the Eleme Horizon of' Rivers State due to abandonment inspite of

the above huge investment by the federal government. Arch. N A N .

OKOROAFOR 2002. I and Appendix C. Financial summary Sheet shows the

nature of work done on the prototype Housing Scheme sit(:. Furtnermore the

innocent, masses were also tricked into purchasing forms and payrlent of 50%

deposit in the bid to buy the, Houses on completion but tht: sbcwss were an

allusion due to wrong application of hnd by public officers in the ministry and !

individuals who made contributions and were not refbnded therebk

compoundilg their poverty in the society. According to Okoroafor, beside huge

financial commitment of the Federal Government, the overall progress on the

infrastructures (Road Drains, Water Supply and electricity ha6 been epileptic.

All the roads in the new extension stage I1 have been opened upj there has not

been any significant work since the third week of July 1997. Alf the building

works in stages I & II have also k e n deserted since July 1997 allegedly due to I

lack of payment. Consequently, the day to day running of this scvnie has been

wrought with several problems, the tnost serious of them all' according to

Okoroafor was; I

"'l'ransportation to the Elerne site is approximately 25 kilometres from

the c,SJice and the whole project team, eleven of them has no project

vehicle assigned ti, them. As a result7 the supervision of this! scheme from

Monday through Sunday, most dap , up to 6.30 p.m. is absolutely nerve

wrvcking when .fund have been made available for the execution of the

yrojecf (iAid)p,2.

The project administration fund was not readily available to site staff

which makes the day to day running of the project and constant liaison with

' Headquarters extremely difficult. However, the provisions were made in the bill

of quantities. Securities on the site were inadequate even when contractors stop

work due to non payment thereby throwing the site open tu vandals as a

complementary dose to their deliberate act of crumbling the projzct . hid.

See also below the picture of the abandoned site of the protjtype Housiilg

scheme at Eleme in River State in 1997. I !

SOIJKCE:

4.5

Mondy photo complex #6, Nanka street Mlle I Utobu

Port Harcourt , 1 8/6/200 I .

CASES OF OVER INVOICING, PRE-NE(;Orl'IA'l'EID kIC:KIMCKS FOR CONTRACT AWARDED FOR GOODS AND SERVICES AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN RIVT?I\S S'rA-f

Public officers in federal ministry of works and housing port IHarcou~t

uses their official position ill violating bureaucratic rules and pl.ocetlures io

awarding cotitracts with !he premonition of receiving kickbacks from tile

contractors. rhis development was obvious in a contract a w a r d by the

ministry for the replacement of guard hand rails along East West Road Located I

at Ahoada Bridge 1 & 11 , h i k e Bridge, (km 67+650) , Akara Bridge (kin 75 +

OO), Mhiame Bridge (1 &ll ), and Choba, all in Rivers State. hi fund for the

'project was a blocked sum from the various' (A.I.E.'S) ~uthoi-ity to incure #

expenditure sent to the Ministry from the Headquarters Abuja i I The below are the various (ALE) Numbers.

4

I

FPIllW &tV296/ RECI 2000

FMW &I{/ 447/Rec/2000

FMW &MI1 855lRecl2000

FMW &HI1 893/lZec/2000 .

FMW &I-1 I1 386/Rec/2000

Total N2,653,702.00

Ideally, this fund comes quarterly and is expected ' to be spent

immediately, and report from the spending officer returned to the Headquarters

for proper accountability but in this case, the procedures were violated with a

calculated attempt to perpetrate corruption. This act was done through

collaboration with some crop of public officers that constituted jthemselves as

tender board members. This group of people by constitutiodal design are

suppose to be experts with requisite knowledge to advice all vdte spenders in I

the ministry (bureaucracy) on how to spend government rnoiey within the I

arrnbit of financial regulations, but they went ahead to approve 4 memorandum

dated 29Ih December, 2000 submitted by Engr. U.C. Ekenna, hief Highway F 2,ngincer on the above stated bridges in Rivers State. See attached appendix "E"

Minutes of the tender Board Meeting of Federal Ministry df Works and I

Housing dated 29 ' November 2000- ! I

Going by il..: approval, the work was awarded to the follaringl companies at

the value sta:cd by below. I

TABLE IV:

SUMMARY OF LOCATION, CONTRACTOkS AHD TENDER SUM

APPROVED FOR THE COMPLETION OF BRIDGES IN RIVERS I

'STATE BY THE TENDER BOARD .OF FEDERAL MINISTRY OF

WORKS AND HOUSING, PORT HAKCOURT I !

. 8

SOIJRCE:

I Enterprises I I I - --------

(b) lhaikc Bridge mi Charly IKings Ent i ~294,000.~-~1 I -- I I

(c) Akara Bridge (km 75+000 1 Mukes Nig Ltd 1 N410,390.00 1 14 days 1 -- (d) Mbiama Bridge l&II i Berson sons 1 -1 1 5 day,~ 1

Ent Nig

TOTAL.

lender Board Minute of Federal ~ f n i d .of Works nrrd

Hin~sing dated 19'~ November 2000 !

From the arlelysis shown above, the sum of two MillionT Six Huhdred & Fifty-

three Thousand Seven I-lundred and Two Naira, money disbursed from the

Headquarters from the first to the fourth quarters of the year 2000 were all spent ,

within one month. According to B.E Eta, a tender board member hnd accountant

of the Ministry, two of the contractors that won the job wert relations to Egw

U. C . Ekent~a, the Chief Highway Engineer that controls the f h d . Based on the

abovc reasott, he hurried and granted approval for payment eveti tyht n the work

was done below specification. To complement the ills, lOYi kick back were

given to him as the controller of vote, another 15% kickback were shared

among all members of

the tender board for violating financial regulations that govenl contract award

in the country.

Also affixed is a picture of a substandard GuardIHand rail constructed on

Ahoada Bridge.

Source: Mondy photo studio complex #6 Nanka street Mile I Diobu Port Harcourt. l8/6/ZOO 1

Similarly, obsolete Materials werc used in the constructiol~ of guard

/Hand rail at another location (Choba bridge) on the East West road, whereas

the contract value for the Job were for new materials. I-Iowever, the remaining

money was shared between the contractors and officers of the Ministry.

Furthermore, the materials used often break, hence subjecting motorist and

pedestrian into high risk of death by fallen into the River. Independent Monitor

newspaper prove this case when fourteen persons lost their lives on the bridge.

July 26-29,2000 vol. 7, P712. r'

.h lh,' - q b, - , ,NU *.IJ

Also see below the picture o f a broken guard /Hand..mil due to poor co~istructioll

at Choba on the Port Harcourt East- West Road.

Mile I Diobu Port Harcourt. 2O/6/2OO 1

Bureaucratic Corruption is also accomplished too, in Federal Ministry of Works

and Housing Port Harcourt by awarding genuine projects and generously paid wura off, but the jobs . A not executed. The essence is that the lnouey meant for it ~ d e ~ e

shared by the contractors and principal officers of the Ministry and again, no

good control mechanisms were introduced or adhered to by officers at the

Headquarters Abuja. Particularly, when aodit6rs are sent fiom Abuja, on

1 discovery, instead of bringing the perpetrators to book they abet .by collecting I

their dole of the share. 1 I

Here below is the summary of unexecuted projects embaiked upon by

Federal ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt in the year 2000.

SUMMARY OF'UNXECUTED PROJECTS IN RIVER S A T E AND FUNDS MEANT FOR THEM, WERE SIX4RED BETWEEN THE CONTR4CTORS AND VOTE SPENDERS IN FEDERAL MINISTRY

- -- - -OF WORKS & HOUSING PORT H A Q U R T N H E YEAR, 2000. IPBLE Vr. - - - -

I"" I

i C I -

I I I ii 1 . I

I

NAMES OF

--

OWUTU BROS. LTD

SENTOM NIG

HALIMA NIG LTD

N ~ E S ~ F - V O T E SPENDERS.

FOFAKOYA .

DESCRIPTION OF JOBS.

Rehabilitation of Semrity Lights,

Servicing of NEPA Bulk meter,

Replacement of burnt contacts and

ensure firm contact at the panel room

at the Fed. See Complex

Rewind 1No. 10 H.P Sub-mersible

sewage Sump Pump motor including

servicing of the pump end for the

secretariat sewage tieatment plant

Constmaion of 1 no. GPS station

including 1No. main Beacon, 1 No.

Azimuth Mark and 4 description Mark

at airforcr base, Rumuomasi Port

Harcoun. in accordance with a concrete

Mixture specification rho of 1 :2:3 t g e

(cement Grave!, Sand and design

~rp .0 , JOB ORDER,

CONTRAa

A GREEMElW

NUMBERIDATES.

Job order No. 164361206

dated 3011 112000 ,

Job order No. CE 3. ' '

2000/dated 13/12/2902

lob order No. CWHIFS .

JB0/20M/006 Dated

6/7/2000

. .-

AMOUNT

OWUTU BROTHER

.- - -

T o m I & (SONS) LTD.

E.0 FYNEFACE MT.

VMISURE PRESS &

SUPPLY

?R~ISUR PRESS &

SUPPLY

ARC P A . ALABlLA

- - --

Arc. P A Alabila

Arc P.A Alabila

.Ach P.A Alabila

4 . P Alabila .

Specification actachzd.

Repair and replacernen-t of plumbing of

snit& fitting and window louver b!ade-

at the Fed. Secretariat complex Aba

Road. Port Harcourt .

Fabncatim and installation of lron

burgla+ proof to doors and Windows at

the Office.Residence of the Resident

stock verif er Fed..Ministry or Work &

Housing Port Harcourt

Repair and Installation of Samolry and

plumbing fittings at the Fed. Secretariat

Complex at conference hall and Board

Xoom toilets

Repair and replacement of door and

Amendment of roof leairage to House

fro. 8 Iso behind Fed. Secretariat

Complex

Fabncatlons and Installation of

leaves Iron gate slze 2400 x 1800mm

hight at Fed bi~nistn of'Aorks Br

Houslng Mantenance yard. Aba Rd Fort

Harcourt '

-- - Construction 32m2block wall fencc a!

N 1000 O O ~ ' Fed M~nistry of Work and

I

Job order lu'c. 1 18,000

Job order No. PHB /HI 009

DATED 17/8/00

Jobs order No. PHBM 0 i 1

DATED 17/8/200

JOB ORDER No.

PBWWO 12: DATED

17/4/2000

JOB order No.

CRrnV/PBH/l/ 200

DATED 17/8/20LW.

JOBS ORDER NO.

1 Housing Maintenance yard Aba road

Port HaTcourf

H~gk-Tech & CO ENGR. U.C EKE=-. Patchmgofp_ot holes with asphalt along

Ahoada -Mbiama East West Road

1 I between KN 55 + 400 and KM 56 +600

Area of Pot holes- 45 M' N2000M2

ABl BIOKAM ENT ENGR U.C €KANA Disiliting of block drain along-Ahoada

-0mhku Road from KM 0+300 to KM

OF800

NASO 8i SONS ENT. ENGR. U.C EKENNA 1 Patching of pot Holes with asphalt along

Ahoada -Mbiama East West Road

between KM 83 +I00 and KM 834 300

I / Area of Pot Holes - 2511-12 at N200/M2 . I I

NEGASON SERVICES I J3GR: U. C. EKDvNA / Replacement ofwindscreeq panel

(NW 1 I Beating and general body works with

I 1 spraying on Peugeot pick up vehicle

1 with registration No. F.H 162 A 20

A.C IHEANACHO & ENGR U.C EKENNA ( Disilting of blocked drains on Ahoada -

I i

I Between Km 54 + 100 and 55 +300

SUNNYNGA E3T. [ Patching of Pot Holes with Asphalt

I / along -Mbiama E.~d\vest Road bhv KM

I I

GLORIOUS 1 ENGR. U.C EKENWA I Disilting of blockrd drains along

RESOURCES 1 Ah& Omaku Road at N 125. OOlm

JOB Order No. 2000 AIE - . - - - -

/I 36.date.d !6/1 I / 2000

Job order no. 2000 /ACE/

Vol . 11142.dated R.?.?S.

1711 1/2000

JOB order no. CHE /RV/ 001

/ACE/DUvol 1 I38 DATED

l7/llL?OOO

JOB ordet No.. CHE/RV/ 00

/AEL/DLNOIJ 1 45

JOB ORDER

CHURV/OOIATE/DWOL. 1 /

45

JOB ORDER NO.

CI-lElRV/OO/AVENOL/1/35

JOB ORDER NO. 200

BFE SERVICES

DlLVDA ENTER

MESSRS BEHSON 0 &

SQNS'(NIG) LTD.

MESSRS

CHARLYKMGS

ENTERPRISES

MESSRS MUKES WIG1

LTD

ENGR. U.C. EKENNA

- -. - - - - . ENGR. U.C. EKENNA

ENGR. U.C. EKENNA

ENGR. U.C. EKENNA

ENGR: U.C. EKENNA

ENGR. U.C. EmTWA

Disiltins of blocked drains on Ahoada-

Omdu Road from km 0+8OO+km

1 tO50.

Hire a "gader for two (2) days to clear

overgrows shoulders along Ahoada-

Qmoku-Ebeocha Road at various

Replacement and Renovation of the

Steel/Hand rails and columns on

Mbiama Bridges l &I 1 (km 84+000 &

km 85+200 along East West Road.

Replacement and Renovation of the steel

guardlHand raib and columns on. 1

h i k e Bridge km 67+550 along East-

West Road. - -- - --

Replacement and eno ova con of the steel

GuardfHand rails and columns on

Ahoada Bridges 1 &l 1 (ch 59-100 & ch.

59- 1 00) along East W-est Road. .

Replacement and Renovation of the stcel

GuudlHand rails and columns on Akara

Bridge (km 75+#00) along East West

Road.

Purchase of flexible knives. Hand files,

Rakcs and brooms for Environmental

. . I

A D W ~ 1198~01.11 dated I

294,000.00

Job order No.

I

I

ADW4 1 I98N0l.ll dated 1 449,100.00

90,000.00

ADMf41I98NoLl 1 1 dated

ADMI4 1f98Nn1.11 dated 1 410,390.00

350,900.00

-1 sanitation at the fed. Secretariat 1 I

SOURCE: Selected copies of y. 2000 local purchase order (L.P.O),Job order, Authority to incurre E x p e n d i m A.I.E. of Federal of

Works & Housing, Port &court.

I I 1 !

, 25 M W I E &,SONS 1 ENGR. U.C. EKENNA

I I 1

complex. 1 Purchase of Q ~ e s & tubes on fcd. I L P 0 NO. DO029998 Oated

Ministry of works and Housmg I 1 11/12/2000. 1 . ' ' I I

- 5 1,600.00

I opeptional vehicles. 1 -

Finally revenue collection activities in the Ministry are a& frat~glit with

fraudulent practice. These ranges from the faking of general receipt booklets to

the falsification of figures collected 011 the duplicate copies pf the receipt

booklets. Again, even when the Federal Auditors and Inspectors :discover these

fakes and abr~ormalities, they merely pounce on the perpetrators for the purpose

of collecting their share of the loots. Thus, the embarrassing aspe'ct of the liaiid

pattern in the Ministry is that the Federal Government Auditors hnd Inspectors I

who are part and parcel of the control mechanisms are the ones 'that served as

consultants to the fraudsters.

I Here affixed is a falsified copy of receipt pap& of the ministry.

The following findings are deduced from our study; !

(a) hat bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of work4 and Housing, Port Harcourt is the cause of abandoned capital projects in k~ ers State.

b That bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Work and Housing Port Harcourt is caused by poverty arisiag from inadequat4 remuneration package. I .

That the will to satisfy selfish social desire of our cdmmunities by bureaucrats and public oflice holders is the cause of poor \administrative performance in Federal Ministry of Works and Holising PO^ Harcourt.

That Lureaucratic comption in Federal Milistry of ~ o r k k and Housing Port Harcourt is the cause of poor public service 1 delivery and ,

underdevelopment in River State.

IMPLICATION OF FINDINGS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

. It is obvious that bureaucratic corruption perpetrated by both

political office holders, bureaucrats, public servants bad created a

derogatory mark on. the good image of government, it also weaken its

credibility and reduces the effectiveness of development programmes and

.policies of the state. Again, the evil act went fiuther to damage the

econolrry of a nation.

Beside the identifiable factors, delineated ifi this study as being

responsible for perpetuating cormpiion and underdevelopment in Nigeria

certain variables such as colonial and political indices also impede the ability of

public office^ to adhere to formal requirements of public bureaucracy in . .

Nigeria. ~ Consequently, the colonial legacies are rooted in the natute of the State

and it bureaucratic apparatus, structures and principles that wcrd imposed on us

.by the British during the period of colonial rule. The introddFd bureaucratic

stn~ctures and principles that were imposed on u s by the 13ritis1h , . during the I

period of colonial rule. The introduced biueaucratic structure hnd principles

were inappropriate because they were imposed with a minimum of concession

to the values and behavior of the people. There was a sharp contradiction

between the value, norms and legal-rational rules of the imposeb bureaucratic

apparatus and the values, norms and the realities of Nigerian i Society. This I

produced a number of consequences. I I

First, before the advent of colonial rule, African, and Nigeria in particular I being a traditional society has their own form of governance,! but with the

imposition of its political institutions and bureaucratic aPPamtusj many viewed

it as something alien, abstract, and' used by the colonial authorities as an

instrutnent of domination. Many were not prepared to identify or bwe allegiance

to the government with the result that Nigkrians in general develobed an attitude

of irresponsibility toward anything "governmetltal". This lack of positive

attachment or identity with the State and its institutions, polic$es, goals and

ideas is reflected in the following statements often made b y Nigerians:

"government i s nobody'sjoh" job is a thank& Job;" and

government pr*nope.~iy is 'hnohody 's property .

Furthermore, the crop of post colonial leaders that took over governance

from our erstwhile masters instead of transforming our political institutions and

bureaucracies, they maintained the status -guo .This development has

contributed to widespread socio - economic poverty and the consequent

inability to satisfy the basic human needs necessary for improvement in the

socio-economic conditions of the people. The perceptions atld attitudes toward

government translate into a w g k sense of public services.

The result is that the generality of public officers often apQroach their

official duties and responsibilities with iitt1.e commitment to the goals of publid

service, and are more inclined toward what they can contribute to make

government insiitutions function properly. What we have, therefore are public

institutions with declining administrative capacity and public servants who are

unable to adhere to formal bureaucratic requirements

As inherent in the nature of the bureaucracy itself, the high degree of

discretion possible in the application of all the rules and procedures. These

discretionbry loopholes account for a major point of the pathway to corruption

in Nigeria. The second problem arising from the nature of our bureaucratic

arrangement is that, bottlenecks and red tapism are prevalent. These bottlenecks

and delay veritably provide the ground for corrupt practices. Scarcity also

constitute another essential features that abet corruption in developing countries.

This is to say that virtually everything here is in limited supply. Jobs are not

readily available, hence applicants have to bribe either in cash or services to

personnel officers, and sometimes pledge certain percentage of their wages for

few months to the. officials. Agqin, if you build a howe and you require

electricity, since NEPA meter is always in short supply, the tendency of getting

one is guaranteed through the giving of kola to the officials. I

If the government is allocating housing plots, there will be lev, ral more

applicants than the number of plots available. Therefore, shor t~~eb or scarcity I

tend to create ~nutual workable conditions for the bribe giver and taker.Apart

from these general causes of bureaucratic corruption, our study has come out

with a number of factors responsible for the practice and sustenance of

bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Works atld Housing, Port

Ilarcourt. ~owevbr, Our findings when realistically addressed will have a fhr

reaching implications toward improving bureaucratic efficiency and

effectiveness in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt.

Furthermore, the study established that bureaucratic corruption in Federal I

Ministry of Works Housing Port Harcourt is caused by poverty aribing from

inadequate remuneration package. After an impressive period of g ~ o ~ t h driven

by oil economy up to 1975, the country's growth stagnated and all ihdications I

point to a slipping back from a state of progressive improvement in social and

economic conditions to one of deteriorating social economic standards. This is

generally the resnlt of years of corruption, waste and mismanagement of

resources cotnpwnded by inept political

policies.

The social and economic statistics

conditions. The co~ser~ative estimate of the

leadership, inappropridte public

are indicative of tee present

country's per capital ihcome has

fallen drastically to a point where every Nigerian became 500% poor&r,between

1986 and 2000 as Nigeria moved from among one of the leading 50 i~ations of

the world economically to one of the 25 poorest nations. Tell magazines 1993 p,

13 .' Again, the deteriorating economic conditions have serious consequences on

bureaucratic behavior. It has become a broad view by scholars that the extreme

poverty, deteriorating social and economic conditions, and the absenke of good

relationship between the salary public officers and cost of living with societal

obligations induced public officers to engage in behavior that is contrary to

public service rules, regulations and norms .The link between such economic

I

I

conditions a s poor wages and salaries with corrupt behadior is expressed by 5 Collin kys:

I

1 . I

"The incentive to cornrpl whatever oflciul purposes public I

institutions agreed to have is especially grieat in conditions qf

extreme inequality and considerable absolute bverty. The benejits

of holding an office, any oflce .. . . . . . . . . . . . are helatively enormous;

by comparison, the penalties for attempting to obtain one by

bribery are fairly modest, in relation to the lolv standard of living,

of the would-be ofice holder, or relation to pressure of relatives

claims on existing standard of living. Generally, corruption which

likely to be inseperable from great. inequality / 96.5, I? 225.

Consequently, the linkage is particularly relevant to bureaucratic behavior

in Nigeria where adherence to the bureaucratic norms of probity and integrity in

public life are af'fected by the corn~pting pressures arising ftom:

(a) imbalance or wide gap ,between public sector incomes and money

required to meet basic necessities of human existence and

. (b) Social obligations and the extended family support system.

Therefore, when relate public personnel salaries and current costs of I

living, I found out that the salary of the highest paid civil servant, the permanent

secretary (now called Director-General under the 1988 civil services reforms)

cannot pay for the basic necessities of human existence without doing one or all

of the following: engaging in private business activitier. h , wing or after ofice

houri , misappropriating public funds, or demanding and &king bribes or

kickbacks for services rendered contrary to the civil services rules.

The income statistics is very revealingThe salary ~f a permanent

secretary it: the Federal Civil S e ~ c e s on grade levels (GI.,) 17 (8) under the

harmonized public Services salary structure (HAPSS) SALARY scale is about !

N44,443.00 per month whlch bear no relationship to what a perinanent secretary

needs to pay for food and Housing alone. Studies have shownithat the average

Nigeria Civil Servant spends about 80% of. his earning os food which is

reasonably insufficient to keep Body and Soul in the face of grdwing upsurge in I I I

the cost of living. Newswatch, 1993, p, 27. I

i

Here, the problem is compounded when one realizes th$ the :owest paid

worker in the oil industrial set-up in the same state takes home about N70,

000.00 per Month. Under this circumstance, a 3 bedroom flat !is costing N 1 50, I

000 per annum whicb exceeds, what the income of the highest paid Civil

9nlvnt earn in 6 months, as comparable to what transpired in few years back

when Public Servant was quite comfortable living on his 6EciAl income. Again,

the competition or gap between the Civil Servants and Oil Company workers in

the State is so high thereby Making the public Servants lived in squalor

apartments in the city and other living conditions becomes unbearable to an

average worker. On this ground, the temptation to defiaud tHe Ministry of its

resources tends to be on the high side. i

Furthermore, the public servants in the Ministry with pbor income could

not stand the pressure that comes fiom social obligations and the extended

family support system or what Price appropriately desckbed bs the imbalauce 8 .

4

. ' between the material obligations placed oi Civil Servant by their "significant I others" and the material resources available to them thr~ugh thki? salaries. 1975,

i

p149. I

'The Nigeria Civil Servant under the extended hmily sripport is required

to meet several obligations to the extended family. These extended family

obiigations include providing educational training, meeting hospital and costly

burial expenses of relatives. Burial expenses are a good example of the strong

pressures on civil servants. It is a combine practice in most southern Nigeria to

build a house before a dec eased relative is buried,. consequently it is not

uncommon to see public servant being asked to contribute an amount that is .

three or four times more than his or her monthly income towdds meeting burial

obligations.

Gould D.J. and T.B Mukendi provide accurate descriptions of the nature

or pressures arid obligations of public servants in Mican that is worth quoting

at length

"custom prohibits a relatively well ogperson such as a civil servant from

turning away a relatives regardless of his stature within the lineage . Expelling a relative would subject him to recrimination , . from the whole

I

vihge (andfamily) ... ... ... ... ... ..The host civil servant hust therefire, do

his hest to provide not only shelter, food and some honey to purchase

cigarettes, but also to help in jinding a we N paid job 01 pVing kickhacks

,/or School admission and subsequently charges for Ltadents, It is not

zmcpmmon to Jind a civil servaytts, who earns a monthly salary of $100,

supporting dozen unemployed relatives including ~isters, Brothers

Ilncles, and Aunts. In the context of high cost o i livb~g and low

government salaries, these Socio cultural pressures ban result in the 1

commission of acts of corruption in order to accopmodate various 1

extended, family needs. 1989: 438-439 I

I 'To f~~rther illuminate the pressures, the middle manager bnd the high level

public servants in Nigeria and in particular Federal Ministjl of Works and

Housing spends on the average one quarter of their daily working hours in the

ofice taken up by fiiends, relatives and kinsmen discussing family problems

that involves the expenditure of personnel money. The deinands of society 1

require that you meet this commitment, because" innocent! and uncorrupted

, public servants who do not give out are regarded as bad add useless in the '

society ; while those who display ill-gotten wealth are repried as heroes and I

good people in society. African Concord 1990: 29. I

TIlerefore, public officers oRen react to these pressures by desiring extra

legal ways such as fraud, accepting bribes and engaging in business activities to

raise non-payroll income to meet the numerous societal obligations at the

detriment of national development. So the submission here is that, the

' upliflment of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt's average

workers take home pay will reduce the urge to defiaud the organisation as to

meet up with the demands of day to day living.

he third findings of this study is that, the will to satisfy! selfish social

desire of our communities by bureaucrats and public ofice holdeis is the cause

of poor administrative performance in federal ministry of works and housing

Port I-Iarcourt. This finding has come to reconfirmed what K W. J Post a,nd

Michael Vickers express thus: the impartiality of public servants is affected by

the primordial aspects of Nigeria Society. Nigeria is a "~on~lo~nerate society;

one made up by the gt ouping together of peoples of different culture. 1933, p 6.

Again, the public bureaucracy. operate within a specific ' set of social

strust.rrres, cultur~l vaiues and attitudes which some impair or weaken the

impartiality of public officers as well as impede the application of bureaucratic I

n o h s of achievement, merit and universality rules in rehruitment and

advancement. 1 I

The diverse cultural groups are linked together by kinships lies of lineage, I .

blood and language. This development shifts the focus of idehtification and

loyalty of public officer away from the Nigeria state and in paflicular Rivers

State to primary groups such as one's community, ethnic +up, kinsman, I

neighbour. Furthermore, this primordial attachment to primary 'groups before

the State is incompatible with legal-rational norms of public ;service which

demand paramount loyalty to impersonal legal order and pbli/: orgnisational I

goals. This view support the expressions of varda Eker thus: 1 .

I

"Strong a ~ e ~ i a n c e to onc'skin weakens to the point of bbliteration aN

. other moral restrbints, such as the integrity of aflce, the devotion to i

I I

one's countiy, the good of the public and the dues to one's class

Under this condition, public officials are thrown inio conflicting , .

expectations, expectations that incline them to particularistic an d interpersonal

forms of behaviors rather than adherence tor universality and ~hpersonality.

Bureaucrats are ld6ked' upon by their communities arid ethn$ groups, .for

example as rcpresenting their interest in'the public servicehd as such use their

official position to extend favours to them by way of contract awards,

employment and'promotion for their Sons and daughters, to attraot the sitting of

. government projects such as primary schools, telephone services, electricity

supplies etc. to their communities, local government area or state of Origin. To

put the importance of this demand into its proper perspective, Robert Price

observed that: I

"not only will .the bureaucrat be expected tobehavd in the correct

particularistic fashion when he encounters a numbws of his

extended kinship group in the bureaucratic sitting, but in general

he will be expected to use his ofice in a manner thm will enhairce

the weult!g, status and influefice qf his group. 1975,pp.

When public officer are confronted with a choice between adherence to

legal rational rules and traditional standards of behaviors, the strong loyalty and

attachment to primordial units and social sanctions for non-compliance,

motivate icdividual publio servants to choose the latter. Hacing known by

bureaucrats that they represent the interest of their conimunity, local I

!

I

government or state of Origin etc in the public service, he or she &ill want to be

seen as responding to the needs oftheir people by extending favours such as

empio. ment, c011:ract awards, sitthg of government projkcts in their

communities irrespective of the credibility: Margaret Peil has bopported this

view thus: '

I

"elected oficials and career buremrcrats who give no speciol !

consideration to their constituents (communities) when they have

.jobs, contracts or other favours to dispense their d14tie.v which are , ,

seen hy many as betraying a trust. Similarly, the mdn who , r<fuses

to help his kinsmen under any circ~mstmces is oflen considered I

~eCfish rather then incorrupt. P, 332, I ! I

I

Thq result is that public servants have come to feel that lAyalty to one's

primary group is of far greater value than adherence to abstGact notions of

impartiality and universality. Consequently, bureaucrats succumb, to all kinds of , I

pressures and demands by circumventing the legal-rational rules and. regulation,

because "particularism involves the violation of such rules in favbbr of personal I

obligation. 'Therefore, for administrative efficiency and effectiveness to strive,

in Federal Ministry of Works and Hou'sing,. Port Harcourt, burea'ucrats should

avoid primordial attachment to a primary groups such as communities, ethnic

grwps, kinship etc and maintained legal-rational mles and regulations.

Another interesting factor gathered from my finding is that bureaucratic

corruption in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt is the cause

.of poor public service delivery and underdevelopment in] Rivers State. I

Furthermore. social development can best be achieved by incorrupt Government

and bureaucrats. Bureaucratic corruption is anti - development as it increases I

operational costs and reduces profits and befiefits. It also creates distrusts of

bureaucrats and other cormpt functionai-ies and hence co,nstitutes social obstacle

to service delivery. The introduction of this negative tendtncies into the

brireaucracies. implementation of policies and jxogratnmes are hhmpered. I

A good example is the lack of budget discipline in 'Nigeria public

administration which is rooted in the traditional values and attitudes toward

budgeting personal finance. Every year annual budget are been announced with

its policy instrument by Government OtEcials with fanfare but at the end of the

'year, nobody looks at the success of this, budget whether. it hlfils the aims and

objectives designed to achieve by budget irnplementators. In several cases,

public funds are spent regardless of budgetary provisions while in tnany public

sector organisations, especially public corporations and enterprisks, there are no

JI~JW+ - to guide ihe operations of the organisation thereby directing the focus

of service delivery to accumulation of private wealth at the detriment of human

development in Rivers State. Again, with the negative ctlltusal orientation,

public officers who acquire wealth through corrupt mems are highly revered by

society instead of condemning such officers. For instance, in Ni'gcria, "wealthy

people who are known to be corrupt are regularly coun',ed and honoured by

cornm~mities, religious groups, social clubs and other private organisations. I

Vanguard, 1993, p. 9, 1

With this great sense of attachment to material sucra& made public I

servants or bureaucrats to engage in patterns of behaviour that violate rules and

norms of the public service to achieve the goals of setvlce delivering in the

state. Therefore, thenegative consequences of this act correlate with

administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Their reversal by eliminating or at

least reducing bureaucratic corruption in Federal ~ i n i g t r ~ of work and Housing

Port Harcourt will impact positively on organisational efficiency and I

I

Finally, bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry i f Works and

Housing Port Harcourt is the cause of abandoned Capital projects in Rivers

State. Fundamentally. Capital such as roads, Hosing, elkctricity, water

supply etc can only be executed effectively through agents of ~dvernrnent such

as the bureaucracy but with the individualistic political cultu're adopted by

bureaucmts which is not supportive of bureaucratic adherence1 to rlorms and 1

formal requirements for the execution of projects. It is individdalistic because , I

bureaucratic operators conceive the bureaucratic system as a 4arket place, in

which individual and groups advance their self interests through their action. I

The goal is not to complete projects embarked upon but'to initiate and

award such projects to enable them scoop illegal mondy to sejvice prebendal

. role in the society. This role hampered administrative efliciency and

- effectiveness. It further support the behaviour that is best described by Richard. '

Joseph as prebendal. He maintained that9'

i

'patlem uf bureaucratic behaviour which re81 or! the justifui'ng

principle that such oflces should be completed for ~jnd then

I

i utilized for !he personal benefit of ofice holders as hell as oftheir

1 %

reference or support group. The oflcial public ~urpose of the

oflce. ' ,o~en become.$ a secondaty concern, howeir much that ! :

prrrphse might have been originally cited in. & creatron or during

the periodic competition top11 it 1987. P, 8. ! I 1 .

'This prebendal pattern of behaviour had contributed imtkeclsely to the. '

abandonment of capital projects meant for development in the state. It further

subvert adherence to bureaucratic rules needed for administrative efficiency and

effectiveness. Since these development weakens public policy makers from

formulating and implementing good policies needed for development. To avert

this ugly situation, and enhance administrative efficiency and effectiveness,

bureaucratic corruption should be eliminated or at most reduced to it bearest

minimum in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt.

CHAPTER FOUR REFERENCES I

P. Ciuy Peters, (1984), Politics of Bureaucracy, Longman, New York.

Fred Riggs, (1 964) "Administration in Developing countries, Houghton Mi fflin ort ton. I

Fred Riggs in Nelson Kasfir, (1969) Prismatic theory and African Administration, world Politics vol. XXI, No. 2 January. ,

Newwatch, (1990) Lagos February 19.

Nnainoku Sunday; A Highways staff of F M W & H, Port Harcourt.

Sunday Ekenne; A Clerk of F M W & H Port Harcourt.

Isaac Membere; A Clerk of Civil ~ n ~ i n e e r i n ~ Dept of F M W & 1-4 Port Harcourt.

I

Mbiiloo Horlo. Executive Officer Admin F M W & H. Port Harcourt.

i Ivio - Osuo Moore; Accounts Clerk, F M W & H Port Hardourt.

I 4 1 I

Rivers State Government (1999) Report of the ~ornmittek on Sales and hllocaiion af Govt, properties, 23 Dec. 1 Sylvester Akotah A. Driver in the Mechanical Dept of F k W & H Port Harcourt.

(1 2) Harnabas C. Member, quartet monitoring committee, F M W & F I Port

( 13) Daily Times (1 994), Wednesday February, 16. I

' I

(1 4) Arch, P.C. Udeozor. (1 995) Report on the Execution df the 1994195, National Housing Programme, Rivers State, dated 22"d, March.

(1 5) Arch N.A.N Okoroafor, (1995) Current R e ~ o i t on ~ a t i o n a l Mousing Dr3gramrne, Rivers State. - --

( I 6) Africa;~ Concord, (1 990) February. 1

(17) Mondy Photo Studio Complex, No. 6 Nanka Street ilk I, Diobu Port Harcourt, 20161200 1 1 . !

I 1

( 1 8) Arch W A N Okoroafor; (2000) Current situation report dn the National prototype Housing Scheme, Elemb Port Harcourt 5'h January.

(19) Tender Board minute of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 29"' Nov. 2000.

(20) Selected copies of year 2000 of local purchase, order (L.P.O), Job Order, A.1.E of Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Port Harcourt.

(2 1 ) S.O. hyadike; quarter monitoring officer, Federal Ministry of Works & Housing Port Harcourt.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5: 1 SUMMARY

The essence of this work is to examine bureaucratic corruption and

underdevelopment in Nigeria, a case study of Federal Ministry of Work and

Housing Port Harcourt. To this end, I have attempted to analyse the nature,

causes of bureaucratic corruption in the Ministry and how these evil omen

imperil the dcvelopment of the state as well as the performance of the Ministry.

However, the paper began 'with a brief analysis of the nature of Nigeria

bureaucracy that was structured on classical Weberian model blrt in practices

characterizes indiscipline, waste, embezzlement' non-enforcehent of rules,

~wrs;.znsiveness. These characteristics .represent significant departures from I

the prescribed standards of bureaucratic bchaviour.

Furthe~more, the work examine the views of other. scholars on

bureaucratic corruption and concluded that, it is these negative phenomenon that

has retrogressed the developmental pace of our countiy and in pat-ticular Federal

Ministry if Works and Housing Port .Harcourt.

Against this backdrop, we applied the systems analysis (approach) and

ecological approach to analysed the possible cause and why bureaucrats and

other public office holders involved in corrupt practices. The theories

presupposes the fact that in the study of a set o f intenelated variables as

distinguished from the environment of the set and of the way i; which this set

maintained itself under the impact of environmental disturbance. i Consequently, systems theory regards the environment as a system with

many sub-systems and each sub-system interacts (input -odtput ) for the

efficient and effective

approach according to

society stressed that,

' conditioned by certain

' cultural and physical

~ . , I 127 i I ,

o f the whole system. The ecological

Fred R i g s while analysing the theoryi of prismatic I

institutions are shaped and administra'tive behavior

crucial variables in the political, sixial, economic,

environment within which bureaucracy function.

Therefore, to better appreciate bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopn~ent in

Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port Harcourt in particular,

various conditions for effective performance of bureaucratic Organisations were

highlighted.

In addition, the paper reveals various cases and ways political office

hnldw 2nd burewcrats in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing Port

Harcourt pelpetrate fiaud, corruption e.t.c. The effect of such corrupt practices

on the development of the people and services delivery in the State was also

analysed. In this study, I have been able to trace the root cause of bureaucratic

corruption in our system to certain features of the political, economic, social and

cultural environment of Nigeria Public administration. These features include. .

(a) 'The traditional social structure, cultural values and attitudes of Nigerian

State that puts enormous pressures and demands on public officers, which

have made them, operate according to subjective community standards

and norms as oppose to formal

requirement.

(b) 'The practice of individualistic

bureaucratic norm as knd objectives

1

political culture and bureaucratic I

behaviour, which encourage prebendalism in government, / violates legal-

rational rules and norms. These were done in the Ministry through patron-

client relationship as to consolidate their power base and ahcurnulation of

ill-gotten wealth at the detriment of the state. , I

The fizquent changes in political regimes, poor remunebation and the

politicization of administration which contribute to general !feeling of lack

of secrlrity of tenure of public officers. Hence

maximise

All these

treasury.

non-payroll income fast before they are

are all at the expense of the economy,

introdbced them of

removdi from office.

eficiency and public

'The rising deteriorating economic conditions and societal obligations that

i~icrease pressures on public officers without radical change in economic .

policic~ has forced bureaucrats to violate rules and regulations for self

enrichment

Finally, the long term failure of political and bureaucratic leaders of

Nigeria to set up appropriate standards of probity; good policies that

addressed fimdamental problems of socio-economic development in the I

country, coupled with lack of interest and commitments in the pursuit of

public programmes enhance corruption and underdevelopment in the

' state. Though, the paper does not claim to be exhaustive in the analysis of I

bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopment as well as proferring

solutims on how to curb the inferno in Federal Ministry of Works and

Housing Port Harcourt but the paper went on to stress that Nigerian

development is linked with alarming rate of corruption. Through the

abandonment of some identifiable projects and programmes of

development of the state proves that the decay in economic and social I

dcvcloprnent in Nigeiia has a relationship with the level bf corruption in

Nigeria. However, it is hope that this presentation will provide some

insights into the problems of bureaucratic cdrruption and

underdevelopment in Nigeria and Federal Ministry of works and Housing

Port IHarcourt.

5.2. CONCLUSION

The ailalysis in this paper has shown that current underdevelopment in

Nigeria and Rivers state in particular cannot be divorce form the rising pace of

bureaucratic corruption. However the development is a product of a transitional

culture as well as, political, social and economic organisation of the society.

Consequently, the corrupt bureaucracy can not command the confidence or I

loyalty of its members or the respect of other Citizens. Its capa&ity ibr progress

'is severely limited. We understand that- we must reduce cohption in our

bureaucracy to its minimum level in. order to improve our mat&rial well being

and .he moral tcne of our lives as well as our standing among tie people of the

World. We must dedicate ourselves to doing so.

Hohever, it is identified that the major cause of this phen$rnenon are as a

result of change from the traditional system of administration to the western

modern which is characterized by modern bureaucracy destribed by Max '

~ e b e r . Furthermore, the principles of formal bureaucratic drganisation are 1 .

found to be too rigid to accommodate pressures generated by chains of family

relations as enbodied in the traditional institutions of Mica.

On this premise, Nigeria bureaucrats are thereforer caught in a state of

confusion. 'This is obvious because once bureaucrats try to live, like moral men

in the face of the prevailing corruption in the society, pressures hat emanate

from the society compel them to change in the opposite. Therefore in the face of

these temptations, most bureaucrats who resort to the ethics of bureaucracy in

the discharge oflhetv duties, alienate themselves from their co~~urc, society and

Kinsn~cn. Again, responding to their transitional institutions ' and community

dernmls make them fall short of bureaucratic ethics and; these therefore '

rendercd them ineffective at work. To avoid losing out completely in this game ' .

of antics, most bureaucrats adopted a mid-way approach jthat engendered I

b;neaocratic corruption in organisation. It is worthy to note that, the

phenomenon produce by change of administrative model and conflict arising

from primordial attachment to social grqups and attitudes is natured and

promoted by the social and economic organisation of the society. Therefore,

bureawratic corruption cannot be erase out of our system if our socio

economic systernsare not radicalized. -

However, no level of income can be regarded as high enough to

discourage corruption, which is a product of greed rather than need. But some

levels of income such as applicable to workers in Federal Ministry of Works

and housi~lg port Iiarcourt amount to a positive inertia to corruption. Because

they threaten even physical existence. In addition, the temptation to indulge in

corrupt practices is increased by lack of social welfare system, and a developed

credit Facility, which curb the effect of income short falls,

. Consequently, the rampant cases of bureaucratic corrr~ption in Nigeria

continue to jingle in the air because the process of the exercise of power in

decision making are not sufficiently subjected to acco ~ntability and

transparency. These processtherefore allows much arbitrariness of those who

make arid implement policy in both public private sectvrs to involve in

b corruption moreso they are not held accountable for their resp nsit ilities. 1

It is synonymous with Nigerian public ofice holders to evade

x~nu?l::ability. Again, accountability suffer more from the inability of the public

to insist on it. Therefore, monitoring procedures in Nigeria are nbtoriously weak

when and where they exist at all. People are far less likely to engage in corrupt

practices if they run risk of exposure, for this to happen, rulesl must be clear,

transaction and ptocedures documented, information on what oficials are

doing be made available and accessible. There should be no constraints on free

press ill' commt~nicating programmes of government to the public. Above all,

once an offier is detected and exposed, such one should be punish according to

the law. I I

Finally, the issue of bureaucratic corruption and underdevelopment in

Nigeria and Federal Ministry of Work and Housing Port Harc+-t i l l particular I

can not be solved in the midst of contradictions generated

cultural, political and economic environment without radical

ow bweaucracies.

1

ft'om our, socio-

tdansformation I of

In the light of this study and its findings, I wibh to make the

following recommendations as ways of reducing i d discouraging I

bureaucratic corruption in Federal Ministry of Works and Housing

Port Harcourt and to foster better development ih the c'ountry.

(i) The standard of living of Federal Ministry of Works ahd Housing Port

Harcourt staff be improved through bridging the gap between what

public officers earn as salary and what they required 'o satisfy basic

necessities of human existence. This will help in cushioning the

effects of high cost of living in the state that has bee? generated by I high salary paid by their counterpart in the oil industry. :

(ii) Reside the basic income of the staff, other incentives be made

available to them as to reduce the social pressures fromlthe society on

public officers which have made them exploit every Lpportunity to

maximize non- payroll income:

(iii) With the fear of social hstration after retirement, which made I

. workers shifi loyalty fiorn nation -state development to individual

development. I therefore, tecornrnend that, a social welfare scheme be

introduced into the organisation. Furthermore, a Housing scheme on

the owner-occupier basis be introduce with a generous repayment term

while serving the organisation.

, (iv) I recommended, learning, restructuring and training o( personnels of

the ministry with 'the desire of enforcing the njechakisms of .

accountability. This will help in enhancing administrative performance

. and decrease the benefits for violation of bureaucr'atic rules and I

regulations.

(iv) The Federal auditors and other related departments saddled with the

respor~sibility of monitoring and evaluating the budget performance of the

.miriistiy a!.e not living up to expectations. They have been concentrating I

only on the inspection aspect of their mandate. Therefore, the personnels I

of the monitoring departments should reshape their orieniations towards

better and improved services to the bureaucracy. I

I

- (vif Corrupt or frauddent officers of the ministry found wanton should be

(vii)

(viii)

(ix)

penished strictly according to the prescribe&les and regulations as to

serve as deterrents to others. .

Adequate education be granted to workers of the organizatio~~ as to

enable' them know or understand their role in the society as well as

possible gains they stand to benefit if they serve diligently. :

We further recommend that only capital project9 that has direct. bearing

on the people be embarked upon. Once corhmenced it should be I completed to avoid abandonment and non-continuity in programme

impleaentation. 1 I

Finally, we mommend that the federal government tlu-ough the I

communicating ministry (Federal' Ministry of ~nformhtion) make a

quartel ly publication of income and expenditure statementi of the various

Federal bureaucracies as to create probity and accoufitability. This

development should also be undertaken by the communicatinr: Ministry

in the State over all Federal bureaucracies located in the ~drious States.

I

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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I

AKE, CLAUDE (1 994), ."D~mocratization of ~ i sem~ow&ment in . Africa: Cass occasional monograph No 1. ~a l thousk press,

ADU A. 1, (1 969), "The Civil Service of Commonwealth Africa, George Allen and Unwin, London. I

AYlDA, ALLISON A. (1979), "The Federal Civil Service and Nation Building, 'quarterly Journal of Administration. April-July.

ADEBAYO, ADEDEJI ed.. (1968), "Nigerian Administration and its Political setting, Hutchinson Educational Pub. London.

Ltd.

. .,

AGEDAH, DISKSON. (1993), "Corruption and the instabiliwf the third Republic, perception communication, Lagos.

ADAMOLAKUN, LADIPO. (1 985), "Politics and Administratioh iq Nigeria, Spectrum Books Ltd, Ibadan.

I ADEMOi.AKUN, L. (1985),"Ninerian Civil S e r v b : "2" West kfrica,

February 4. i ABOYADE, OJETUNJI. ( I 980) "Nigerian oublic Entemrises as bn

organizational. Dilemma in Paul Collins, ~dministrdtion for Development in Nigeria, Africa Education press, L ~ ~ O S .

ADEl30, S. 0. (1 964), "Public Administration in Inde~endent Countries: in Burton A Baker Public Administration. A key to Development U.S Department of Agriculture, Washington Graduate School.

ARORA, RAMESH K. (1972), "Comparative Public Administration, Associated publishing House New Delhi.

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ANIKPO, MARK (1984), "The peasantry and the Dilemma of dnder development in Nigeria; in Naanee et' a1 Uniport PASSR , -- No. 1, October Port Harcourt. 1

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I 1

BEATTIE, J. 14. M. (1959),"Cheeks on the Abuse of political power in some African States, A preliminary Framework for ~ n a l ~ d i s ; Sociologus, Vol9, No.2.

I .

DALOGUN, M. J. (1983), "Public Administration in Nigeria. A i Developmental Approach, Macmillan publishers, London.

I3ENIS, I?iARREN AND SLATER, PHILIP E. (1 968), "The Temporam ~oc ie t i : Harper and Row, new York. -.

CRr,'j??THER. MCHAEL (1962), "The story of Nigeria: Faber and Faber, London.

DIJI>LEY, BILLY ( 1 982), "An Introduction to Nigerian Government and Politics, Macmillan press, London.

DONALD, KINGSLEY J. (1 963),"Bureaucracy and political Development With particular Reference to Nigeria in La, palombara, ed.. .Bureaucracy and political Deve lo~mes Princeton University Press, New Jersey. I

DIAMOND, LARRY. (1988), "Nigeria pluralism. statism and the struggle For Democracy in larry Diamond, Jucan Linz, Seymour, Lipset eds.. .,Democracy in Developinr! countries. Africa Boulder; Lynne Rienner pub.

DUIILEY, R. 'T. (1973), "Instabilitv and political ordg: Politics and crisis In Nigeria, University press, Ibadan.

EGONMWAN, AGHARESE J. (1991), "Public Policy Analysh S.M.0 Aka & Brothers press, Benin City.

GBOYEGA ALEX et'al: (1 989), "Public Administration, Nigeria since independence; the first 25 years Vol viii, Heinemann Educational Books Nig Ltd. Ibadan,

GANT, F. G. (1 979),"Development Administration concepts, Goals method, University of Wisconsin press, Madison. !

GUY PETERS, P. (1984), "Politics of Bureaucracy Longman, dew York,

GERTM, I i.H. AND WIUGHT MILLS, C. (1946), "From Max dreber, I

Esaay in s o c i o l o ~ oxford university press, New Ygrk.

KIRK GREENE, A. H. M. (1965) "The Higher public service in L,. Franklin Blitz ed.. . , B e Politics and Administration of Nigeria Government, Frederick; A Praeger New York 1965.

LUGA RD;F. 11. political Memoranda

MERTON, R. K. et' al (eds-) (1973); "Reader in Bureaucracy; The Free press, ibadan.

MURRAY, I>. J Eds..(1978), "Studies in Nigerian Administration, Hutchinson & Co Ltd, London, I

! MC MIILLAN, M. (1961) "A theory of Corruption, The sociological Review Vol., 9. I

! I

MORTON A. KAPLAN in ChariesWorth, James C. (1 953), "co tern ora 4-- political Analysis: The Free press, A division of Macmillan , pub, co. Inc, New York. I

01 ,OWO, DEI ,E (1 990),"Policy Developments and Administrative change in West Africa; in P Dwivede and Keith M. Henderson, eds.. .Public Administration in world oerspective, Iowa State University press, Ames. I

PARSON, TALCOT (I 96O),"Structure and Process in Modern societies, Glencoe I11 ...

I . PARSON, TALCOT "International Encyclopedia of Social ~cienke Vol 15,

(ed) by D. L. Sills. 1 .

PRICE, ROBERT M. (1 979, ''Society and Bureaucracy in ~ o n t d m ~ o r a r ~ Gh.ana; University of California press, 10s Angeles. -

PRESTI-I 11 S, ROBERT V.The social bases of ~ureaucratic ~r~adizat ion, Social forces Vo! 38, No. 2.

RIGGS, ITRED (1 961),"The Ecolog;v of public. Administration, Asia . Publishing House, London.

RIGGS, FRED (1 964),"Administration in Develooing countries, boughton Mifflin Borton.

RIGGS, FRED (1969),"ln Nelson Kasfir, Prismatic theory and African Administration; world politics Vol xxi, No. 2, Jartuary.

RODNEY, WALTER ( 1 W2), "How Europe underdevelo~ed Africa, Bogle . . L'Ouverture pub. 14 1 Coldershaw Road W 1 3, London.

I

' ST:I.ZNICK, PI-¶ILI P (1 943), "An Aq~roach to the theom of E3urdaucracy - An Alnerican !3ociological review Vol8, February. , ,

I

'1l IE 0P;;i~I UNI VEKSITY SET BOOK (1970) in S . . ' oc~s.~cI-J~.c_e_ foundation course team, Macmillah and Co, Ltd, London and --- Basitigstoke. r i t I

TAY I .OR. 8. R. ( I 99O),"Cited in Ongu Otite and W. Ogionwo; rlh introduction to sociolopical studies. Heinemdnn Edt.(ca:ional - Uosks Nig. Ltd, Ibadan.

I I 1

VDOl DEM, S. 1. (1 992),"Values and National Development: ~ f r k a n Heritage, Research and Pub. (Lagos). I !

Wlll ' fAKER, C. S. (1970), "The Politics of Tradition continui[v md cllangg in Northern Niaeri 1946-1 966, Princeton ~ n i b e r s i t ~ press, ---- New Jersey. I I I I

I

Wl<i(ii IT, S1lXPFiEN (1 99O), " i l e aovernm-of in M! Curtis et'al lntroduction to co~npatative Government. Harper and Row, New York. ; ;

I

! l i

UN PUBLISHED BOOKS 1 , I '

EM E7,1 1; 1995, ia Chinyere Nwosu; A Burea~ctatic comption in Nigeria case 'study of Port Harcoutt city local government Afea of Rivers State Seminar Paper, 2000. j , I

E L E K l 1, N. N. (20001, A lecture Monograph on theories die ~kvelc~ment , -:---

University of Nigeria Nsukkr: I I I I

ONAl I TAB, (2000); A lecture monograph on commitive p u b h Administration; University of Nigeria, 14st1,kka

PER~ODI~XVJS I

1 I , Sl R Rl CMMOND PALMER,' (1 934), "Journal of Royal ~fricah'kocietv,

I I Jantlaty 33. j

I I

NEWS WATCH, (1991), Lagos June 24. : I , :JEWS WATCH, ( 1 987), Lagos April 13. : I

I

NB WAWATCH,,(1991), Lagos Jah. ' I I

I ' I

NEWSWAI-CH,(~~~O),L~~OS,F~~, 19.. ' 'NEWSWATCH, (1986), '"The prime and crumbs by Ray Ekpu,

(Lagos ), August 25.

AFRl CAN CONCORD (1 !NO), Feb, 5.

DAILIES

t)All,Y TIMES, (1994) Wednesday, Feb 16.

NE'W NICiZRIAN, (1 988), October 5.

OFFlCIAL REPORTS

CODE OF CONDUCT BUREAU (1990), Public officers Handb+ok, Research and statistics Department, Abuja. I

I !

Rl VERS STATE GOVERNMENT (1 999), Report of Committeei on s a h and allocation of Government Properties, 23 Dec,

ARCJl N. A. N. OKOROAFOR: (1995), Current report on ~a t ioha l Housing Programme Rivers State. I

I ARC1 I. N. A. N. OKOROAFOR: (2000), Current situation repod National

prototype Housing Scheme, Eleme, Port Harcourt 5th, Jauuary. I

ARCH. P. C. UDEOZOR; (1995), Report on the execution of tHe l994/95. National housing Programme Rivers State 22"d Match.

I I

TENDER BOARD (2000) Minute of Federal ministry works and Housing, 29" Nov, I

OFFICIAL CIRCULARS . * I

SCFICIAL, RE';\TENUE RECEIPTS. Treasury book. No. GA

APPOINTMENT LETTER; offer of ~ e r n ~ o r a r ~ appointment letter.

SELECTED COPIES OF YEAR 2000, Local purchase order, (LPO), Job Order, Authority to incure E-orpen d iture AIE of Federal Ministry of works and Housing, Port Earco,urt. CIVIIJ SERVICE RULE (CSR) Handbook, 2000.

FINANCIAL REGULATIONS (2000), Revised Edition, 2000. I

I ORAL INTERVIEWEES I

l I I

NNAMOKU SUNDAY: A clerical officer in the Highways Debt of federal ministry of works and Housing P.H. I

SUNDAY EKENNE: A clerk in stock Vrrification section of F. M. W& 1-1 P.H

ISAAt' MFIMBERE: Clerical officer in Civil Engineering Dept, of F. M. W&H P.H. 4

I

MBIILOO BORLO: Executive officer Administration in F M W & H Port Harcourt. I .

IVIO-OSUO MOORE: Accounts Clerk in P. M. W. & EI, Port Hircourt.

SYLVESTER AKOI'AH: A driver in Mechanical section of I; .M W & H, Port Harcourt.

BARNABAS C: Member, quarter monitoring committee of F .M. W&M,P.I-I. I

. S. 0. ANYADIKE, Member, quarter monitoring committee, Federal ministry of I

I

works and Housing, Port Harcourt.

PHOTOGRAPHER I

MONDY-PHOTO STUDIO COMPLEX. #6, Nanka Street, Mile I 1 Diobu Port Harcourt.

'Ihe 1lon Mir~istet. bf Worlcs arid Ilousir~g F'cdrrral Atir~ist~y of Worlcs aild IIo~isirig 'I'ufawa Ualewa Square LAC 0.5.

1

I corivey or1 behalf of tllc Govcritrr~crlt a r ~ d people of Rfvct's.Statc, our,' 1 . . do el^ uppr.eciatiort tlnd gratit~tclc for. allowing us wider spectal arrangement, 1 6 0 liottsirtg Ut~ils or various tyl~es, specffica!ly for staff of our ter t iary i IrlStltutior~s. . I

11 Is ~ ~ t ' t f r ~ c t ~ t to i t~forw the llor~aut~dble Mirlistct' that l a t~d has b se r~ ti~udc uvaIluble n t cuch of tlic ittstitutiorts and 111avs.glven d[t'ec?tIvo fo r tlle itnttmliatc t-elcuse of / d l 7, 2;13,3.4.0.00 rept'csontlng 00 5Y, of< tho tr~ondatoty deposit fo r the

, var'bcs Iluusir~g U1111s to olable lhu Itr~rt~otllu,lc'o~~d slr~tultarloous cotnrrlanc~tnctit .: o/ work a t the tllt'ee itwtilutions. . l l le cheque /ori the urtlowtt shall Bc llaridcd

over to tlle'fedct (11 Cmtr,ollf9 o r 1Vot~lc.s und Iiousitig, Rivers State, or1 ?71ut.~day 16th JLIIIF, 1994. 771e bulu t ic~ of the retttatnitig deposit will bc paid lr~slalrr~cr~lull) but cort~pleted well beiore Septetrlber ending 1091. All o ther , cortditiotls uricl puyrttcrils as stipulated urtder the 1994/05 National Houslt~g

. I't'oprutr~rrrc wfll be f~ i l l y curripliecl with by the Itlveta S ta te Govenltnent.

CONTMCTOK

N/S Salomy N.ig L t d . , . . - . tI/.S Ullbbuh C o n s t , Co L t d x . .. I I / S I n o c h i n Nig Ltd $

t!/S Sobcz & S o n s N L ~ L t d

d / S C h s a o Engineering Cv. v., '4.

pl/S C o n s t r u c t i o n Co.

W S l lboson I n t e r . Ltd ,

r.t/S Romndi !Jig L t d

PI/S S o b i v c g V e n t u r e s I

?i /S K a B r i t a L t d

!.!IS A l l i t o f i e Corn. L t d I : ) , ! I S Cina ~ u e e n s w a y Nig L t d

/i*!/S Golcon Nig L t d I

i l!l/S t l u l t i p l a n C o n s t . Co L t d I , i ! /S T. J.D. Lcd I , t l / S Uoc-Dft Nig. L t d

'b!/S C o n s t . L A l l i e d Works. I ! ! I S llo'use Hold F l n i s h c s Ltcl

I

b!/S S a r k i Yuntma L t d

l!/S Jnlnej)eg I n t e r n o t i o n a l

...'f I S blarpet S u p p e r E n t e r p r l . s c s .' . ;I.!/S L C U L ~ ) ~ L t d . .

I , ! ! / S ,Sunny Cliiine

' t ! . /S S.t'.Cllimczfc

AMOUNT DUE

1.1

l3i4,OOO.OO . . . . . 136,000.00

lG7,5OO.UO ' 1 1

5,000.00 ; j

4,O. J.OO

f1,000.00 I i

4.000.00 1 i

:+p W W G ' E ~ C A CORE

t l /S J . h .O jo & Associate

M/ S

t 4 / S ATus AruolenL

MIS ~ c r s e 5 Nig Ltd

K / S Nupurr Development Co

M/ S

bl/S .

!US Dogra te & A s s o c i a t e

I S ~ i d o w 6 A e s o c l a t u

) l / ~ C o r t e c h Nig L t d

' P I / ~ Ojenadc Nig L td 1 ! M I S Ade to l a Adebulni ~onlm E n t . ! P ~ / s Loza rus Ven tu re s Lcd

. I \MIS Uohar Nig E n t e r p r i s e s I /Fl/S l 'cton Eng. Nig L t d

{MIS H a r k i n t o s h Nig L t d

J 1 4 / ~ . Moc-Pond t c d 1. kl/S Uti-Dek I n v e s t . L td

)?I/S S t a n d a r d ~ e c & n t i o n Nig

;i;S Cyjlco Cons t . Co. L t d I I . ! / S i Pl/S Anthony & K e l v i n Cons t .

Royal Spanner Eng. Wbrks

/,I/S ~ 8 f - ~ a k Hig E n t e r p r i s e s s

t U S b e d J o y Co. N i l : L td

*: U S J e r s e b Nig L t d

-f.1/S Brondecope Nig L t d I 'US ~ i n o l n S o l i d Rock

L

i ' I (

t / S A n l t e ~ Company .

! I S - J a n e E. & Company

. l /S U.zuazo I n t . Co.

[/s A f i f e n NLg L t d

I/S IloLstcn t p c n c r o :rig

F - DOVE N.IOUI.IT PC DUE

N/S KoLer I g b l r ~ c

N/S Dream 3 h u e s Ltd

I l - i / ~ Fen tan ir h s s o d i n t c

bi/S Fun Bod Nig L td

M / S Pnfnb Nig Led

r l /S O l ~ c o Nig L td

bl/S P r o j e c t 5000 Ltd

N/S Expres s B u i l d e r s L t d

N/S Ritman Nig L t d

N / S S t e v e Channelc Nig L td

t!/S blykes A s o o c i a t o o

N / S 1 0 4 b ~ w e Cons t .. co I-td

bi/S GencLorough E n g i n e e r i n g

/ N / S

' hi/ S I j k l / S Roniint Nig Ltd

I S NCW Pcresuo N L ~ 1.rd

k l / Y Ccuac Nig Ltd

LI /S Dicon L td ,

M/S Tos-Uti Nig ' ~ t d

~ F : / s i I ,oc!~ny co ~ i z itci

\N/S Dclt i l A s s o c i a t e c .

I r r / ~ E ~ C C ~ O ~ i g ~ t d

! k t / S

I / S Nig I n t . Cons t . Co

I

, II/S ! k d i c l B u i l d i n g & C o n s t . hp. I - > , !# /S ' 1

i!!/S Dumak Nig 1.1 I :I.i/S J o n o t a Nig Ltd 1 ;k!/S IchrlWW Tech. Co.

kl/S K o l c u r y Nig L t d

M/S A r i t s o . V e n t u r e s

~ / ~ ( + s ' c o n Nig L td

bl/S Godekol Nig L t d e

M/S A. A u s t e r E n t e r p r i s c o

?1/S Jadessep Cona t . L t d

TYPE

D - DPC -

F - DOVE AMOUNT PC DUE

N

4,000.00

- 4,000.00 4,000.00

4,000.00

344,000.00

4,000.00 ' 4,000.00

4,000.00

l,!iOO.OO --- 373,500.00

OVER ALL TOTN, AMOUNT DUE rn N9,242,750.00

,

SUMPIARY - TABLE

ACTLVITY

(i). R e p r e s e n t s Completed A c t i v i t i e o -

C l e a r i n g t o couunence

S i t e C l e a r i n g

Excnva t ion

Founda t ion B lock W n l l / E a r t h F i l l i n g

Hard Core

D. P: C .

Above DFC

5 (fi)'. R e p r e s e n t s n c t i v i t i c s i n P r o g r e s s . 1

- ..

J

-- 7

2 5

5 4

14

i 14 17

15 I .

, CONTMCTOR

Salolny N.ig Ltd . - . Lhbbnh C o n s t , Co Ltd x 1.nochin N i g Ltd )(

? o l c z & Sons Ltd

':urad.p U u i l i ' c r s 6 Co

2 h s a o E n g i n c c t i n g Co. i, '4. ! :or i s truct ion Co.

:>tiiddo I n t e r B u i l d e r s

Sauuui & Sakiu A s s o c i n ~ ~

HLason I n t e r . Ltdf

01naw l n t o r Led y

i J o n ~ ~ d i Nig Ltd

S o L i s c g Ventures

t c ~ ! J r i C o Ltd

' i 1 1 i c o q e Corn. L t d

;ins quccnsway Nig L1.d

'olion Nig Ltd

l l t i p l a n C o n s t . Co L t d

. J .D . Lcd

IC-Bit N i g . Ltd

n u t . d A l l i e d Works.

uric Hold F l n i s l l e s Ltcl

rlci Yamma. Ltd

p e t Supper E n t c r p r L s c s

F

MIOUNT DUE

kI

l3fr,OOO.OO . . % . . ,

134,000.00

167,500.00

5,000.00

4 , 0 \ J.OO

4,000.00

4,OOU.OO

STAGE l '

--I ~

------.- 36733.9X3.00 -

E Y I . Mfatcr- Supply B !<clid~~l;~lioll I 0 , ~ 0 . 0 0 0 . i ) 0 .. I ' I l W c

-. . - - - -, . - .- - - - lO.3OO.~lOO,(iO .................... --.--,- ...

I , Y I Illccrt~ificntion W o l h 2'2,0S0.730,(Nl COO !<\/A I ' -~.nnsfomic~ nrirl

- - -.- ..-.- - . - ......... - ........ 4 - I ~ c ~ I I ~ I ~ ~ Ih~lpIs~;,. 0 Unit:;

- - T--------. +.. ..-..... --------- 'M DN'I'S -- --- *lYYIqA I.; I I l \ v l l 1

! INCOhIE F ' R O W l i COMMITMIINTS ) (ASSIJM E 100'%1

STAGES 11 c! 1 St\ LES) , I

(ESTIMATED) ------ ... - . ...... .....-. 35 IJnits

I 1 i . . S ~iiillio~i wcli N 4 4 I .O(!O,OOO.OO N3 15.000.~~00.00 --,-.-.------.-

7 s Units I i.c 06 Units 5.5111 cacli or

-..--. -- .. I0 Unirs

-. - 1,75111 cnch : 21 Units

I:, ~~ccon~~nende t ! that weallow 2.5?G ol' the overall co ina l i t~ne~~ts to /cover landscaping al l t i 1)' . I I I ~ I I ~ I - contil~gency expenditure tl1i1I may arise.

I

2. Engr. N.T.N. Okoli

- 3. Mr. U.E. Eta

4. ?dr. E.O. hnadi

.. . Mrs. AN. Elun~czc

IN A'l"fEN1IANCE

1. Engr U.C. Ekenna

------ -- ITEM

FC WI-I Chairman

CME Member

' ACEO(A) Member. ' '

FISO (Stores) Member

IIEO(Admin) ' Secretary

i

Chief I-Iighway Engineer

'The rnceting startcd at about 10.30am with the Chairman i~residing

The Chairman requested the Chief Mecha~lical Engineer to lead the Board with an opening prayer, He invited the Chief I-iighwny Engblecr to Present the memorandum to thc board. Ilc rcqucsted to know wllethcr there wcre prcvious minutes to be deliberated upon but the ACEO(A) said tlicre was none. The Chief I-lighway Engincer,then presented the niclnoratidum as follows.

l'lie six bridges in question had mcst of the metal rails and columns knockcd off ovcr some years l ~ o w but due to lack of funds; only the ChobaEmohun bridge could bh rcplaced Inst ycar. With the State Gover1111'1cnt u n c l c r t ~ n g /mtchulg of sornc of our Federal Highways during the visit of th$ I-lead of statc to Rivers and the need to havc losting inlpnct wilt1 the liltlc allocations for Highway Maintenance. He then proposed the rcpair/replacement of these bridges along the c a s t - ~ c s t road within Rivers State from the various allocations this ycar. I-Ic cr~u~nerated the scope of work to be carried ollt.

ITEM

RECOMMENDATION The Board among other things pat into consitleration tllc followiving as tccommended by the Chief t.Iigllwtry Enginecr :

. . ,., <- ,, ... . .. . * * '

i. Urgency altnchd to *the early repairs/replaccmcnI of these steel rails nnd column

i i . The need for contrnctors whd can ensily mobili~e and complcte repairs immediately.

I t is tllerefore rccommendcd tlint the contracts for tlic rcplacemcnt ntid renovalion of GuardllIond n i l s on IIIS above listed bridges along Enst-West road bc awarded to: lhc contractors listed below Forthe various stated amchnts orid co~npletion periods. i

1

Contractor: Emmgo btr 01305 Aba Rood 1'1 / For: W 440,100.00 I ,

Duration: . 2 wccks I

e -.....bb-..., ,... .."- . . .--.. ", :- Il~uiltc bridge (k~n 67+650) ! -'+ -\ Cotilntctor: Cl~arlykings Cntr. of61 ~ ~ b u - n - n l k l i St. For: N 204,000.00 Durntion: 10 drip 4,

A h r a Bridge (lun.7$t.Q00) . :-. .. . . .. . % . 1 ? 4

Contractor: . Mukcs Nig. Ltd; o f 3 Ndashi St. D/l,i~)e PH For: N 410 ,390.05 fluration: 14days :/

. I

hlbinn~s Ilridgcs I & 2 1 % I .

Col~traclor: 1

~cr i s in 0 & Sons Nig. Ltd. of 77 Egedc St. Mile I1 Port Harcourt; .

For: N 350,300.00 Duration: -15 dnys

I

I 1

. . I

er h e consideration on thc recomnmendutioh for thc tcndcrs, h r lllc award of rcplmc~llcnt and :rs, for [he award o~rcplnccment and renovalion of lllc steel guard / lmd rails and colulnns; the Bonrd l~ercby approvcd thc awi~rtl t o thc followini contractors bnsed on their quotation and period of completion.

Fund is available from various A.1.E 's --FMW&W296/REC/2000, FM W&N/447/IiEC/2000,' I

FM W&W855/REC/2000, PMW&IJ/893/REC/2000, 1 PMW&H/1386/REC/2000 I

~ o i o l l i n ~ PI 2,653,702.00.

Thc C i k f Mechanical Engineer n~oved for adjournment and was supported by the Mcad ofstores. The

&i"v&chnical Engineer' '

Member

14eud of Stores Member

Princip;;.l ~xecutivc Oficcr (Ad~nin) Secretary

Head oi' Accounts Member

.* Federal Controller o m o r k s & Iiousing 1