The Civil Service And The Economy

All modern economies consist of two major sectors which harness the society’s human and material resources to produce goods and services that satisfied our consumption. These sectors are the public sector and the private sector. The private sector is owned and managed by the organized body of private enterprises which altogether produce the private goods and services that the economy requires; while the public sector is managed by government agencies: that is, the collection of civil service departments and public corporations which also carry out different functions and produce the array of public goods and services that the economy requires.

The relative size of each sector depends on the economic system in operation. In a purely communist or socialist economic system, the public sector is larger in size than the private sector in that the government, through its agencies, the civil service departments, undertakes the production and distribution of nearly everything that the economy requires. For instance, before the economic reform introduced by the General Babangida regime in the late 1980s, the Cross River State government, through its agency, the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Industry, had owned all the major industries operating in the State from the garri processing factory at Awi to the Champion Breweries in Uyo; and from the meat processing factory at Obudu to the cement manufacturing factory in Calabar.

Under the capitalist economic system, the public sector is smaller in size than the private sector because the public sector produces only the public goods and services that facilitate productivity in the economy. In each of these cases, the public sector, represented by the civil service departments, is involved in the act of production.

The importance of the civil service, therefore, lies in the fact that irrespective of the economic system in operation, the public sector undertakes the production of those goods and services that facilitate productivity in the economy but which cannot be produced by the private sector for lack of profit. For instance the infrastructural facilities in the economy, namely roads, bridges, railways, electricity supply, security, monetary regulation and the legal system, which facilitate productivity in the economy, are the products of the public sector through its civil service departments.

Imagine how difficult it would have been for the economy to operate, if there were no roads, bridges and/ or railways to facilitate the movement of goods and persons from one location to another if there were no civil service department (Ministry of Works) to provide these amenities; imagine how difficult it would have been for the economy to operate if individual private companies were to generate their own electricity to drive the giant machines installed in the factories if there were no civil service department (Ministry of Mines and Power) to generate electricity; imagine how risky it would have been for individuals to engage in business if there were no civil service department (the Nigeria Police Force) to provide the security infrastructure that protect lives and property.

Imagine how chaotic our society would have been and how the lives of the citizenry would have been in jeopardy because quack doctors would have had a fi eld day, operating unmolested if there were no civil service department (Ministry of Health) to regulate medical practice in the polity. Also imagine how chaotic our society would have been which would have dispelled investors from our clime when communities would begin to rise against communities over territorial boundaries, if there were no civil service department (Ministry of Lands, Surveys and Town Planning) to determine inter-communal land boundaries. Imagine how our community would have been unsafe when epidemic would have decimated the human population of our community if there were no civil service department (Department of Public Health) to fi ght epidemics in our neighbourhood. Imagine how businesses would have been discouraged to operate in our economy if there were no civil service department (the Judiciary) to adjudicate on property rights.

From the above narratives, one can understand that the civil service is very relevant in the development of the economy. Any administration that is worth its salt cannot allow it die.

George Agbor
George Agbor is an economic analyst and commentator on public affairs.