Curbing Maladministration in Nigeria Public Service: the Role of Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct

Abstract

There are indications that not only will public administration be further removed from those it is intended to serve, but also that more administration is likely to mean correspondingly more maladministration. This paper is titled Curbing Maladministration in Nigeria Public Service: The Role of Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct. The objective of the paper was to examine the interplay of code of ethics and code of conduct in curbing maladministration in Nigeria Public Service. The paper argues that the more code of conducts is applied in practice, the more ethics codes curb maladministration in public service. The paper adopted content analysis of secondary sources of data and also analyzed primary data. The population of the study was 456 and Rogger Wimmer online sample size calculator was applied to derive a sample size of 209. Structured questionnaire was administered to the 209 respondents. The review of literature was anchored on the theory of deontological ethics. The paper observed that there is high disregard of codes of ethics and code of conduct hence no reduction of maladministration but their concurrent proper implementation will reduce maladministration in the public service in Nigeria. It is therefore the position of the paper that both codes will become more effective only if they are adopted and implemented in combination with other anti maladministration tools and made part of a learning process that requires training. The paper therefore recommended among others that it is high time the codes and other prescripts that encourage ethical behaviour and professionalism are legislated so that they are enforceable.