PLANNING AND EMPLOYEES’ PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM STATE MINISTRY OF FINANCE, UYO.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Planning is an inescapable part of all rational human activity because of its importance to organization planning process which has been refined and structured to enhance business efficiency. But the Ministry lack proper planning techniques to enhance productivity which is what boost the researcher’s moral to embark on the research. As Human resources are cardinal elements of development in Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance and in other organizations. According to Ajagbe (2007), the overall development of any organization revolves on the level of planning utilization and that the research is carryout to examine the weaknesses in the ministry.
The ministry has experience a long years of poor planning management the cause the organization to fail in meeting its objectives. This has made planning and employees productivity imperative for any successful organization. Maintaining a competitive edge in any segment where multiple players exist is only possible with people and talent (Ansoff, 2004). It has got an important place in the arena of industrialization. Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance is the body responsible for sourcing, collection, custodying, accounting and utilization of public funds.
Planning and productivity are two important pillars for achieving effectiveness and efficiency in organization as in the Ministry of Finance. Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance Uyo being government financial department lack some planning process that will enhance productivity in the Akwa Ibom State. The techniques used by the ministry according to the research to enhance effective planning process lack professionalism and the researcher see it necessary to outline some proper ways and techniques that can be use to foster the planning for efficient productivity in public sector organization. According to Green and Holmberg (2010), planning is a basic function of management, therefore means that planning pervades all the functional area of management which includes personnel, production, research and development, marketing and finance.
Inadequacy of Planning has been cited as the reason why most public organization today are facing a chaotic situations as they did not at onset plan their workforce, neither did they have any systematic Human Resource (HR) management programme that put the organizations goals first and the decay in the public organizations is evident as the level of frustration is equally high (Duff, 2000). The researcher saw it to investigate the process of planning and employees productive with reference to Ministry of Finance. Some of the challenges that faced by public sector organization are the acute shortage of qualified resources. The problem of inadequate skilled manpower Management of fund, funds kept for the proper planning management of the organization is always converted to their private pocket by the top management.
As a result of lack of motivation and incentive to our expertise in Nigeria has made them gone aboard where they will be paid and live in a comfortable house with all kinds of fringe benefits. The rate of labour turnover is increasing because of lack of facilities in our higher institutions, irrelevance of the educational curriculum to the need of the economic.
Effective planning therefore implies that sufficient manpower, with the right mixture of talent, is to be available in appropriate locations, performing their jobs when needed. The planning provides direction, reduce uncertainty, and minimize waste and sets standards (Mill, 2004). Through planning organization goals and objective are determined; the resources available must be strategies to achieve the goals and objectives. To ensure adequate workforce in the organization, management must plan properly, proper planning in this respect involves accurate projection of the future, taking inventory of existing workforce, comparing the force with the existing one and take corrective measure. According to Harley (2000), proper planning enhances the productivity of an organization as:
Planning helps to resolve problem of shortage of staff in organization
It also helps in determining and planning whatever capital, material, equipment and personnel required in an organization in order to achieve organization objectives.
Planning help in defining the duties and responsibilities of the personnel employed and determining the manner in which their activities are to be interrelated.
Human resource use planning to assess external forces to help the ministry deal with environmental uncertainty by mobilizing scare or limited resources to neutralize potential threats.
Planning make control possible, which is, comparing actual outcome with performance standards and taking corrective action if variance exists.
Planning management development by helping managers to take proactive role in moving the organization toward a future desired state.
Planning function includes staffing, that is acquiring qualified and appropriate number of workers for an organization, to determining and acquiring other resources and proper allocation of these resources.
Co-ordination of activities of all members and parts of an organization is another major purpose of planning in order to boost production.
Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance Uyo is the state government ministry, charged with the responsibility to plan, devise and implement the Akwa Ibom State government policies on finance Planning and employees productivity aims at fulfilling the objectives of manpower requirement. It helps to mobilize the recruited resources for the productive activities. Proper planning is the process of assessing the organization’s human resource needs in light of organizational goals and making plans to ensure that competent and stable work force is employed. Failing to properly plan for human resources, the ministry is forced to become reactive, rather than proactive (Senge, 2000).
Planning should be future oriented, system oriented, and goal directed. It reduces uncertainty, develops human resource, improves labour relations, utilizes human resource and controls human resource. Forecasting human resource requirements, effective management of change, realizing organizational goals, promoting employees and effective utilization of human resource are the main objectives of human resource planning. Most of public organization in Nigeria sees planning as the most important management tool for performance and for organizations to perform well, resources must be well utilized and workers well taken care of (Oguniyi, 2002).
Employee’s productivity is a summary measure of the quantity and quality of work performance, with resources utilization taken into account. According to Omoankhanlen (2013), it can be measured at the individual, group, or organizations level, Employee’s
Productivity may be expressed as success into dimensions of organizations performance, effectiveness and efficiency. It requires selecting organizational objectives and departmental goals, determines and provides a rational approach to pre-selected objectives. The ministry through their efficient planning strategies therefore delivered an aggressive and impressive economic development agenda never applied in the history of Nigeria (Katou, 2007). Therefore, the researcher became interested to embark on the research on planning and Employees productivity in the Public Sector using the case study of Ministry of Finance, Uyo as his reference point.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There has been a sharp drop in effectiveness and efficiency in the Ministry of Finance in their discharge of constitutional responsibilities toward implementing financial policies of the state. This is as a result of nonchalant attitude of the management staff as well as employee over planning and employee’s, negative traits ranging from habitual lateness to work by all grade of personnel, truancy, loitering during official hours, poor keeping of records, lack of functionable working tools, lack of staff training, mis-management of public funds etc, all of which perhaps are consequences of unproductive workforce in the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance Uyo. Ekaidem (2007) and Echere (2008) also noted cases of absenteeism from duty post, delays in processing mails as well as favouritism. Moreover, these poor attitudes to work also lead to low productivity in the public sector as such, the researcher was set to solve the problem of unsystematic job performance in public sector organization.
The primary reason why organization is established is in order to achieve stated objectives or goals. To achieve these objectives, effective planning must be put in place. Since every organization depends on its employees productivity for its survival and accomplishment of its task, planning is crucial in all organizations be it private or public sectors especially in the ministries where their constitutional responsibilities appear elusive. Planning in an organization would specifically address the following problems: determining the appropriate manpower requirement in public sector organizations, determining individual background, experience and professional competence, management of fund, funds kept for the proper planning management of the organization is always converted to their private pockets by members of management. As a result of lack of motivation money of our expertise in Nigeria has gone to a board where they will be paid and live in a comfortable house with all kinds of fringe benefits. Planning would help in determining the appropriate manpower matrix that would be used in the Ministry of Finance, problems associate with selection, recruitment and placement of staff and their impact in enhancing efficiency in the Ministry. Some organizations that embarked on poor planning usually end up not achieving the efficient objectives as a result of inadequate and inaccurate data on personnel profile and on projected objectives.