Re-Examining the Regulatory Frameworks and Institutional Arrangements for Strategic Management of Public Service in The Gambia

Abstract

This paper assessed the regulatory frameworks and institutional arrangements for strategic management of public service in The Gambia. The study reviewed and analysed policy documents related to the regulatory frameworks and institutional arrangements. Specifically, using qualitative (content) analysis of documentary data, the study addressed: (1) the 1997 Constitution, (2) the Statutes, (3) the Judicial Pronouncements (Case Laws), (4) Other (Secondary) Regulatory Instruments, (5) Institutional Arrangements, and (6) Analysis of strategic plans of five sampled public service organisations in the country. The findings showed that, although the regulatory frameworks are sufficiently contained in the 1997 Constitution, extant statutes and case laws, the institutional arrangements lacked adequate human capacity to commensurably transfer the regulations into the needed success for public service delivery. In addition, the study discovered that there was no specific policy on strategic plans formulation, implementation and evaluation for PSOs in The Gambia. The paper concluded that the judicial system of The Gambia has not presented any identifiable pronouncement whose ratio decidendi (“principle or rule constituting the basis of a court decision”) and obiter dictum (“opinion or a remark made by a judge which does not form a necessary part of the court's decision”) specifically bordered around the impact of strategic management on public service delivery.