ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to investigate “maintaining ethical standards in a fragile administrative system: the Nigerian public service in perspective”. Four objectives and research questions were raised to give direction to the study. The research objectives was to examine, if ethical behaviour among public servants promote effective administration in Nigeria Public Service; if leadership in the Public Sector maintain ethical standards in the conduct of government business; the challenges that may impede the implementation of ethical standards in public service in Nigeria; and the socio-political and economic implications of maintaining ethical standards among public servants in Nigeria public service. Relevant scholarly literatures were reviewed on the subject of ethics and Nigerian administrative system. The study made use of descriptive survey research design and the instrument for data collection was the researcher’s structured questionnaires. The target population was 250 employees of Benin City Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), from which a sample size of 154 respondents were selected using Yaro Yamani Formula. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation method of data analysis.

From the research analysis, the study revealed that ethical behaviour among public servants promotes effective administration in Nigeria Public Service to a great extent. This finding is in line with the assertion of Dubhashi (2012) also posit that ‘‘it is of utmost importance that public service should be efficient but is even more important that it should be ethical. When public servants violate the public trust, they violate the public's sense of representation, undermining the very institutions that undergird our democracy. Thus unethical behavior is antithetical to effective public service administration and the principles of democracy. The study also revealed that leadership in the Public Sector can maintain ethical standards in the conduct of government business to great extent when it reward good conduct of worthy public servant, punish severely unethical conduct of any public worker to serve as deterrent to others, implement all laid down code of conduct to the letters without fear or favour, set up a committee to enforce ethical conduct among public workers, carryout a seasonal in-service training and retraining for public servant to emphasise professional behaviour in carrying out public work. The study further revealed that tribal sentiment, political interference, corruption among senior officials ‘I don’t care’ attitude towards government business, lack of adequate legislation to punish unethical conduct are the challenges that may impede the implementation of ethical standards in public service in Nigeria. This finding is in agreement with Ehrich and Kimber (2005) who stated that Corruption, fraud, illegal conduct and other types of unethical activity have great impediment on the effective implementation of ethical standards in public organization. The study more so revealed that running of government business, quick execution of government project, professionalism among public servants, speedy completion of assigned duties and regaining of lost glory in the public sector are the socio-political and economic implications of maintaining ethical standards among public servants in Nigeria public service.